NETWORK FINALS:  There were no changes from the preliminary Friday ratings.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN’s NBA doubleheader was at 0.89 (Lakers vs. Milwaukee)/0.55 (Portland vs. Toronto).  A&E’s LIVE PD slipped 0.02 to 0.60, with the lead-in clip show at 0.31.  […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  ABC’s NBA game gained 0.1 in final numbers, while NBC’s NHL game lost the same.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN’s COLLEGE BASKETBALL day was dominated by North Carolina vs. Duke at 1.08, and then included games at 0.37/0.35/0.32/0.26.  A&E’s […]

> BEING FLYNN:  Watch It At Home – Troubling Story That Doesn’t Go Deep Enough There’s a scene in Paul Weitz’s new film BEING FLYNN where Jonathan Flynn (Robert DeNiro), the alcoholic, narcissistic, pitiful, self-destructive father of Nick (Paul Dano), reads to his son from a publisher’s rejection letter.  Jonathan sees himself as one of […]

  The Writers Guild of America, it should quickly be noted, operates under very strict eligibility rules, only allowing awards to go to films produced under WGA or WGA-affiliated contracts.  That disqualified a number of very prominent Oscar contenders this year, including Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild, and left […]

  OPENINGS:  PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount), with its $18.2M weekend, made less at 2867 theatres than the first Paranormal made at 760, a little more than 4 years ago.  It was also well below the $29M weekend for the last Paranormal installment in 2012 (which had been the franchise low).  In other words, […]

> CALIFORNICATION lost a step this season, which is what often happens when a series of limited scope reaches Year 5.  Unlike other Showtime series like Weeds and Dexter, Californication has never had the appetite for seasonal re-invention.  It tends to merely introduce a few new supporting characters and run the same basic story again.  […]

>The chart below displays the minute by minute Nielsen ratings for the series debut of Smash Monday at 10 pm on NBC.  The news is awful for the first 20 minutes or so, but then the premiere episode stabilized in the ratings for the last 40 minutes. NBC started the show at 10:00, running seamlessly […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  ABC’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL game adjusted to 0.8, and NBC’s STANLEY CUP game adjusted to 0.7  In addition, CBS’s BULL rerun gained 0.1 in final numbers.          Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  TNT’s NBA PLAYOFFS game was dominant at 1.85.  ESPN’s COLLEGE […]