Like presidential politics, the Oscar race doesn’t really stop anymore; one campaign gets underway before the last has even ended.  Argo had yet to collect its statuettes in February before we were already hearing about the awards chances for movies screened at Sundance the month before, especially when Oscar savant Harvey Weinstein bought the […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There was no real contest in the final numbers for the night’s broadcast COLLEGE FOOTBALL games, with ABC’s game at 3.9 and FOX’s at 0.5.  In addition, the rerun of AMERICA’S GOT TALENT lost 0.1.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS: […]

  Skiers and skaters couldn’t beat walkers. NBC:  See Mitch Metcalf’s Skedball report for Sunday’s WINTER OLYMPICS analysis.  The games scored 6.9 in preliminary primetime 18-49 numbers. AMC:  Although THE WALKING DEAD had fewer total viewers than the Olympics (15.8M to 25.4M), it walloped the athletes in 18-49s with a gigantic 8.2 in that demo.  […]

NEW FEATURE: Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings chart which includes final Total Viewers for each show.   THE VOICE and NCIS gained 0.1 in final numbers, and BEST TIME EVER went down the same.  CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  The 0.09 increase for the 2d night of Comedy Central’s THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH (to 0.53) is somewhat […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were significant adjustments (to the next tenth) for SHARK TANK and THE BLACKLIST.          Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN’s NBA doubleheader was at 0.44/0.35.  Discovery’s GOLD RUSH was at 0.41/0.27 compared to last week’s 0.53/0.36, and MYSTERY OF BLIND […]

    NOTE TO READERS:  For the remainder of this week (4/17-19), afternoon cable posts, which usually appear around 1:30PM PDT, will likely be posted about 5PM PDT.     NETWORK FINALS:  MAN WITH A PLAN and THE RESIDENT gained 0.1 in final numbers, but things got worse for the premiere of THE CODE, which lost […]

  The big box office news this weekend is happening far from these shores, as AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (Disney) opens in slightly over half the world in advance of its US launch next Thursday night.  It had already racked up $44.5M just from Wednesday/Thursday results in some of those territories.  Here, a soft pre-Avengers weekend allowed FURIOUS […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  The season finale of NCIS, AMERICAN IDOL and THE FLASH each went up 0.1 in final numbers.  IZOMBIE lost 0.1.  CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  As the NBA PLAYOFFS get deeper toward the championship, the ratings are rising, with both games on TNT last night at 2.34–putting them above everything on broadcast TV for the night.  The […]