Fringe moves on to another universe. FOX:  After years of lousy ratings, it would have been unrealistic to expect FRINGE to suddenly grow an audience at the last minute, and it didn’t:  the two-hour finale had a 1.0, which was up 0.2 from last week, but barely managed to beat one other network in one […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  THE MASKED SINGER gained 0.1 in final numbers.  Following up on a note from our morning post, during the course of its 2 hours THE GRINCH MUSICAL dropped in the 18-49 demo from 0.79 in the 1st 15 minutes to 0.50 in the last.         Broadcast […]

  As the last notes of the not-remotely-accidentally-chosen “Fight the Power” fade from the closing credits of the 88th ACADEMY AWARDS telecast, 10 quick thoughts on the show and awards. 1.  Sometimes smart is all but indistinguishable from lucky, and that was the case for the Academy this year, which had chosen Chris Rock to […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  Reruns at 0.35/0.21/0.14. CBS:  Reruns at 0.22/0.21/0.24. NBC:  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT fell a tenth to 0.63, and DANCING WITH MYSELF was down 0.06 to 0.33. FOX:  The MLB ALL-STAR GAME was at 1.55, down 0.29 from last year’s game. CW:  After a rerun SUPERMAN & LOIS at 0.05, TOM SWIFT was […]

The fourth Thursday of the season offered a big opportunity for ABC, CBS and NBC, as FOX had to pre-empt The X Factor for a postseason MLB game that no one cares about.  A lot of displaced X Factor viewers decided not to sample the other network fare and scattered to cable.  No broadcast network could claim  an […]

      NETWORK FINALS:  There were no changes from this morning’s preliminary ratings.       Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  On the night of the Alabama special Senate election, it was CNN’s turn to shine, with the 10PM hour of ANDERSON COOPER 360 at 0.96/1.25/3.5M, over MSNBC’s LAST […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL adjusted to 4.3, down 0.3 from last week’s game.  In addition, 60 MINUTES rose 0.2 in final numbers, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC, GARTH & TRISHA LIVE and A HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS gained 0.1, while the 7:30PM rerun of BOB’S BURGERS lost the same.   […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  Both THE BLACKLIST and SCANDAL gained 0.1 in final Thursday numbers, as did GREY’S ANATOMY and both episodes (the original and the rerun) of THE BIG BANG THEORY.  (There was no change for ALLEGIANCE.)  The only loser was THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, which lost 0.1 to return to last week’s 0.7 rating. Ratings […]