The 9th weekend of 2013 looks like a problem: $96 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 37% from the same weekend last year.  One movie should open decently, while all the holdovers are wilting.  The last six weeks are down 21% from the same period last year and down 20% from the average […]

  As it turned out, there wasn’t room for two shows about homicidal true believers on the network airwaves, and The Following is occupying that space.  CULT hasn’t yet been canceled by CW after its pair of miserably low-rated airings, but it faces the next-worst fate, sent away to the wilderness of Fridays at 9PM, […]

  February sweeps is still a few hours away from its conclusion, but the end of the 2012/13 television season is just around the corner, and the launch of TV’s summer season instantly follows.  Summer, which used to be a sleepy time in TV land, is now crammed with fresh cable and (still to a […]

CBS is going to win this season, but not on the strength of its new series. CBS:  The one area where CBS has been weak this season (although no weaker than anyone else) has been in launching new series, with only Elementary having any particular success.  That didn’t change last night with the “preview” of […]

What does football mean to the broadcast networks?  For NBC and CBS, NFL coverage (along with other sports, mostly an occasional college football game) accounts for about 20-30% of the entire primetime rating for the network. For CBS, its 2.63 adult 18-49 rating for the season to date falls all the way down to a […]

CBS takes a hit. CBS:  The only good news of the night was that HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER held steady at 3.4 (although the episode itself was another “running in place” half-hour, as the show continues to put off reaching its conclusion next season).  After that, RULES OF ENGAGEMENT fell 0.3 to 2.6, and […]

  There are 4 ways an Oscar night can be memorable: A Great Host:  Seth MacFarlane was bad–maybe not James Franco bad, but bad.  The ways he was bad, though, weren’t in any way unexpected.  Meta-gags and courting offensiveness are the things that have made him very, very rich.  When you hire Seth MacFarlane, you’re […]

The Daytona 500 on FOX Sunday crushed the competition, averaging a 10.0 household rating and 22 share from 1:30-4:45 in the 70% of the country with local Nielsen meters (in 56 of the largest TV markets).  Last year, the race aired on Monday in prime time due to weather problems on Sunday, earning only a […]