One trend of the early season seems to be networks willing to accept ratings from their newcomers that would have ensured cancellation just a few seasons ago.  Last week NBC gave a full-season order to The New Normal, which instantly rolled out a tepid 1.7 rating, and today it’s FOX’s turn.  THE MINDY PROJECT […]

  The major studios are barely participating in late August distribution, and it was clear the box office would be dreadful this weekend even before calculating the effects of Hurricane Harvey and the expected massive pay-per-view gate for Saturday’s Mayweather vs. McGregor bout.  (Those events are likely to bring down weekend multiples even lower than […]

  Only one show on any network topped 1.6 as pre-February Sundays ran out their string. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over […]

Pretty much a train wreck on network TV last night.  CBS stumbled to a first place victory in the preliminary fast nationals with a 2.7 rating in prime time.  ABC plunged from a 3.3 last week to a 2.6 this week (mainly due to the collapse of Nashville in week two and an okay opening […]

The AUDIENCE MAP series continues with a look at the detailed demographics for FOX’s primetime schedule for this season to date.  As a reminder, the audience shares for 30 distinct gender-age groups are displayed for each program below.  Programs in the chart are grouped by night so you can see the audience flow from 8:00 […]

We are estimating Game 1 of the World Series last night (Detroit at San Francisco) will go up from a 3.2 in the fast nationals to around a 3.8 in the official nationals later today.  Although that will be enough to win the night, it will be the second-lowest Game 1 in history (only 2006’s […]

  OPENINGS:  This year’s Saturday night Valentine’s Day worked out well for everyone this weekend, but especially for FIFTY SHADES OF GREY (Universal/Focus).  The prospect of some kink refreshed the movie’s audience from Friday’s fan-girls to a horde of couples, and the result was that despite the huge $30.3M opening day, the box office went […]

This weekend is looking like it will be about 12% below the comparable weekend the last few years (about $106 million for the top 12 films).  Wreck-It-Ralph should play well to the family crowd, while Flight will be a moderate success at best, and Man with the Iron Fists is destined for an early exit […]