OPENINGS:  THE LION KING (Disney) was expected to be the crown jewel in Disney’s recreations of its animated classics, and despite sharply mixed reviews, it delivered with a $185M opening weekend–and that studio estimate includes a fairly conservative number for Sunday, so it could go higher in finals.  If it stays at $185M, it […]

    BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS: ABC:  Reruns at 0.20-0.37. CBS:  BIG BROTHER dipped 0.02 to 0.99, followed by reruns at 0.23-0.32. NBC:  BROOKLYN NINE-NINE was at 0.40/0.33 compared to last week’s 0.40/0.28.  The season finale of MAKING IT grew by a tenth to 0.33.  A LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME rerun ended the night at 0.22. […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were no changes from the Saturday preliminary ratings.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  NBC Sports Net’s STANLEY CUP FINALS took Saturday cable at 1.11.  A&E’s LIVE PD returned from a Memorial Day weekend break at 0.67.  The Adult Swim […]

Ratings for the simultaneous double-headers on ESPN and ESPN2 Monday have been added to the chart below.  Some real clunkers, including the Spain vs Australia match at 11:30 am on ESPN2, now the lowest-rated match of 2014. World Cup to Date:  the best comparisons currently are the June 12-23 ESPN Average to Date for 2014 (all […]

    NETWORK UPDATE:  There were no adjustments from the preliminary Friday ratings. Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Discovery’s GOLD RUSH took Friday with a 0.11 hike from last week to 1.23.  ESPN’s NBA doubleheader was at 0.97 (Cleveland vs. New Orleans)/0.46 (Brooklyn vs. NY).  TIM & ERIC’S BEDTIME STORIES […]

  Even the brand names were down. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary 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 follow […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #2 of 2013 is on pace for $122 million, a touch lower than it appeared yesterday but still up slightly from the same weekend the last few years.  Zero Dark Thirty’s first wide weekend is now looking like $24 million, a few million dollars lower than yesterday’s forecast […]

>For the past several weeks, “season low” and “down sharply from last year” have been repeated phrases in our daily ratings posts, mostly for broadcast network programs but also for cable programs, as well.  What’s going on here?  After all, this season started in a very promising fashion with the combined audience for the four […]