A historically bad night. FOX:  That sound was every FOX executive’s communal indigestion, as once-mighty AMERICAN IDOL hit its all-time low for a regularly-scheduled episode, a 3.0 that was just barely over X Factor‘s 2.8 season average, down 0.6 from last week and an epic 1.6 points from this time last year.  With that […]

  Every year, the pundits shake their heads dourly about the future of the broadcast networks, and every year, Les Moonves stands up and proclaims CBS the best of all possible networks in this best of all possible worlds.  And to an extent, he’s right.  Thanks to the Super Bowl, CBS will win this season […]

On a night of reruns, no one sought out the original programming either. FOX:  Remember when the knock on X-Factor was “well, it’s no AMERICAN IDOL“?  The distance is narrowing:  last night’s 3.6 for Idol matched the X-Factor season high, and wasn’t that far over X-Factor‘s 3.0 fall average.  It was also a scary 1.8 […]

The 11th weekend of 2013 looks like it will be off the pace of the last few years.  The top 12 films Friday-Sunday should total $96 million, down 7% from the four-year average for this weekend.  Two new movies will give it the old college try this weekend, and neither should excel. Opening at about […]

  NOTE:  updated to reflect NBC’s revised Tuesday listings for March 19 and 26. The curtain has started to come down for SMASH.  Although technically the show hasn’t been canceled yet, on April 6 it moves to the bleak outpost of Saturday nights to run out the string of its remaining episodes, and there’s no […]

With the NCIS shows in reruns, only one series even reached a 2 last night. FOX:  The season premiere of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES was at 2.2, down a very reasonable 0.2 from last year and the highest-rated show on a slow night. ABC:  CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP edged up to 1.6, but the finale of THE TASTE […]

  NBC is having an abysmal season, and here’s the thing:  it’s actually worse than it looks.  How is that even possible? you ask.  Right now, Mitch Metcalf’s estimate is that by the end of the season, NBC’s primetime average will be 2.07, putting it ahead of only ABC and its 1.86.  But he also […]

Nine weeks into 2013, the North American box office is down significantly from last year (-19%).  But it’s more interesting when we look back at the a longer period — in this case, the last six years.  Half of those years resemble this year, and the other half resemble “up” years like 2012.  Those up […]