Our journey through the fall primetime schedule–and by “our,” I mean former head of NBC Scheduling Mitch Metcalf, former head of NBC Current Programming Ted Frank and myself–takes us to what may be the most competitive night of the new season:  Wednesdays.  (You can find our predictions here for Monday and Tuesday.)   Our […]

  Viewers continued to check out early on the season last night. ABC:  The season finale of DANCING WITH THE STARS was up a big 0.8 from last week to 2.6–but that was also down a big 0.7 from last season’s finale, for the lowest rated finish in the show’s history.  The night started with […]

  Our soothsaying group of former NBC head of Scheduling Mitch Metcalf, longtime head of NBC Current Programming Ted Frank and myself is continuing to set out instant, perhaps foolhardy predictions of what next fall’s primetime ratings will be.  Yesterday we covered Monday, and appropriately enough, it’s now time for a look at a Tuesday […]

Updated telecast rankings for the week ending Sunday.

  Viewers have started to exit the season before it’s even ended, as neither premieres nor finales excited anyone last night. NBC:  THE VOICE, as usual, won the night for NBC, but with its lowest-rated Monday episode ever, a 3.4 that was down 0.4 from last week.  In that context, REVOLUTION looked good by holding […]

Projected weekly network ratings in prime time (based on four days of official nationals and three days of fast nationals).  ABC wins the week, thanks mostly to the Billboard Music Awards, which is up 30% over the 2012 version, making up for declines on the rest of the schedule.  With the finale of American Idol, FOX is […]

The second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown was up versus last year (the pre-race coverage was up 24-49% versus last year, while the race coverage was up only 9% versus last year).  Certainly, millions of TV sets were immediately shut off when Orb (winner of the Kentucky Derby failed miserably in the Preakness).  The […]

  The Upfronts are over, which means the real Upfronts are about to begin–that is, the networks’ advance sale of advertising time (usually about 80% of the season’s total) for the Fall 2013 TV season.  Although last week’s Upfront presentations now serve a marketing and publicity purpose as well, their original–and still most important–goal is […]