ABC needs to dig its way out of 4th place next season, and no one can say they’re not putting in the effort.  Every night of the week in the fall will have be changed except Mondays, and the network is introducing a whopping 8 new series, which will definitely put a strain on […]

> Don’t get too excited about that increase in SMASH‘s 18-49 rating last night, because it just vanished.  In the final Nielsen numbers, Smash came back down to the same 2.3 number it had last week.  (Castle was also lowered a tenth of a point.)   The lower number is nothing to panic about.  The final […]

  The day’s top 25 cable originals are listed below (actually reaching #134 on the night’s overall cable list, if reruns were included), with some context and analysis under that.  But first: NETWORK UPDATE:  The football adjustments didn’t affect NBC’s numbers, but all of ABC’s shows lost 0.1 in the final count.    Football trumped sharks […]

> RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is off to a great start internationally as well, with $23M for the weekend in just 25 territories (only 4 of which–Australia, Spain, Russia and Taiwan–are major boxoffice centers).  The biggest individual winner of the weekend may be Peter Chernin, the former Fox exec who kicks off […]

>The fourth Pirates of the Caribbean opens just below forecast, although not quite at the higher end of expectations that Disney was rooting for.  Bridesmaids has a very good second weekend Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides should open with $92 million this weekend and is on a pace to finish with $260 million […]

A good night for those seeking true love and serial killings. FOX:  A big sigh of relief was breathed at FOX as THE FOLLOWING bounced back to 2.8, up 0.4 from last week (and the episode ended with a cliffhanger that should keep the show going into next week).  The result looked particularly good because […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  CANDY CRUSH, the US AMATEUR GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP, the 8:30PM rerun of FAMILY GUY, the 9PM rerun of THE SIMPSONS, and the rerun of AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOMEVIDEOS dropped 0.1 in final numbers.           Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  The season premiere […]

  THE CONNERS took a hit. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons […]