MANHATTAN LOVE STORY:  Tuesday 8:30PM on ABC starting September 30 – Change the Channel PLAYERS:  Series creator Jeff Lowell, who’s been a writer/producer on sitcoms going back to Cybill two decades ago, but who’s creating a series himself for the first time.  Stars Jake McDorman and Analeigh Tipton.  Pilot director Michael Fresco.  Brillstein Entertainment […]

  WAR HORSE:  Watch It At Home –  Spielberg’s Beautiful Muzak   Earlier this year, audiences were presented with Super 8, J. J. Abrams’s pastiche of Steven Spielberg’s classic sci-fi adventures from the 1970s and 80s (Spielberg was a producer on the project).  Now with WAR HORSE, we have Spielberg’s own pastiche:  of John Ford, […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were no changes from the preliminary morning ratings.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Note that at this time, we have no Thursday cable ratings below the Top 150. TNT’s NBA doubleheader was at 0.62 (Houston vs. Oklahoma City)/0.38 (Boston […]

  Maybe airing the Emmys on a Monday wasn’t such a great idea. NBC:  THE EMMY AWARDS, airing on a weeknight for the first time in decades, fell 0.5 from last year in preliminary numbers to 3.8.  (It’s currently down 1.1 from last year’s final numbers, but this year’s show should go up as well […]

KILLER ELITE:  Watch It At Home – Neither Killer Nor Elite   The new KILLER ELITE takes little from Sam Peckinpah’s 1975 action movie apart from its title (Peckinpah used “The” in his) and the general notion of mercenaries and ex-spies double-crossing each other.  This isn’t a huge loss, as the 1975 version was part […]

  The arrival of NFL Football swamped everything else on the night. NBC:  The opening game of NFL FOOTBALL, currently a 9.0 preliminary adult 18-49 rating from 8:30-11 pm, should go up to around a 10.6 official rating when the west coast viewing is processed properly, which would pass last year’s opening game.  The game […]

  MISSION:  IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL:  Worth A Ticket – Routine But Spectacular   With MISSION:   IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, Brad Bird makes the very unusual transition from animation auteur to live-action director.   Of course, since his animated work includes The Incredibles, one of the snazziest and smartest action-adventures of recent years, the leap […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now +7% above last year and now +17% above the average for this point the past four years ($1.698 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have […]