NETWORK FINALS:  As we noted last week, NFL exhibition season means plentiful local preemptions and thus adjustments.  The chief victim on Wednesday was ABC, which saw its STORY OF DIANA fall 0.3 to 0.7 in final numbers.  In addition, the sitcom reruns aired earlier that night were respectively down 0.2 (THE […]

      ‘     NETWORK FINALS:  The NCIS rerun lost 0.1 in final numbers.       Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN and TNT shared the day’s NBA PLAYOFFS games, and also split the Top 4 slots, with ESPN’s games at 1.38/1.08, and TNT’s at 1.13/0.88.  A&E’s […]

> According to Deadline, nothing much changed for the new boxoffice arrivals on Saturday.  THE HELP is still far in front for the weekend, with a beautiful $19-20M second weekend, and it’s followed by RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, with its own impressive $16-17M third round. (Apes now looks like it will pull […]

  Studio honesty is rare enough to be worth noting when it appears:  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) could easily have juiced its Sunday estimate to claim the #2 second weekend of all time today, but instead it was content with being #4, at $74.5M  just $1.1M behind Avatar and $700K behind The Dark […]

  Hollywood didn’t have a particularly strong presence in this year’s Super Bowl (won, for those living in a very well insulated cave, by Baltimore, which held off San Francisco 34-31), despite the fact that the abrupt 35-minute semi-blackout just after halftime felt like it could have been the first act of a Die Hard […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were no changes from the preliminary Monday ratings.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN’s coverage of the pre-All-Star Game HOME RUN DERBY dominated Monday cable, down a slight 0.02 from last year to 1.80 (plus 0.26 for the ESPN2 […]

> MAGIC CITY:  Premieres Friday April 6 at 10PM on Starz – Potential DVR Alert Starz’s new MAGIC CITY is another stroll down Mad Men lane:  glamorous people in impeccably detailed 1960s settings (technically very late 1950s), smoking, drinking to excess, having lots of illicit sex, and generally enjoying what they don’t know is their […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT fell 0.1 in final numbers, as did the rerun of NCIS: NEW ORLEANS. CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Discovery’s DEADLIEST CATCH ruled Tuesday cable, up 0.14 to 1.00, and with its lead-in DEADLIEST CATCH: THE BAIT at 0.49.  THE HAVES AND HAVE NOTS (OWN) rose 0.08 to 0.89.  On Spike, INK MASTER and […]