OPENINGS:  Franchises continued to be the lifeblood (so to speak) of Hollywood, and this week it was SCREAM VI (Paramount) breaking its saga’s previous record with $44.5M, almost 50% higher than the $30M for last year’s Scream reboot.  It was also above the $40M for 2000’s Scream 3, although that would change with an […]

> CW has announced the line-up for its 2011/12 regular season finales, as well as a late-season premiere: First to exit will be ONE TREE HILL, which winds up its 9 seasons on April 4 with a 2-hour special. On April 17, RINGER will be done for the season (and maybe longer).  Starting April 24, […]

  A season finale that actually ticked up from last year. 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 […]

  We’ll never know if this year’s Best Picture race is as close as we think it is, since the Academy has no intention of ever releasing its vote totals (something it did back at the very beginning of Oscar history).  Nevertheless, all signs are that this is the hardest race in years to call, […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  SHARK TANK was steady at 0.44, and 20/20 was up 0.05 to 0.38. CBS:  SWAT ticked up to 0.41, FIRE COUNTRY gained 0.03 to 0.44, and BLUE BLOODS was up 0.04 to 0.35. NBC:  LOPEZ VS LOPEZ rose 0.08 to 0.29, GRAND CREW climbed 0.05 to 0.23, and DATELINE was up […]

> Maybe ABC should have left “Bitches” in the title. ABC:  GCB (aka Good Christian Bitches, aka Good Christian Belles) had a very unimpressive debut, a 2.2 that was way below Pan Am‘s premiere in the fall.  (In fairness, the DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES lead-in to Pan Am was a lot higher than last night’s rating.)  GCB […]

  And the winners were… 12 Years A Slave, Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong’o… Hey, wait a minute.  Aren’t the Oscars tomorrow night? There was a time when the Independent Spirit Awards were genuinely, you know… independent.  Films like Leaving Las Vegas, The Apostle, Gods and Monsters, Election and Memento won Best […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  The TIME100 special got a big boost from the afternoon NBA Playoffs games that preceded it (at 1.58/2.98), and it jumped 0.22 from last year’s edition to 0.50.  AMERICAN IDOL gained 0.06 to 0.74, and THE COMPANY YOU KEEP was up 0.02 to 0.25. CBS:  After 60 MINUTES slipped 0.02 to […]