NETWORK FINALS:  THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL adjusted to 4.3, down half a point from last week’s game.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  NFL Network’s share of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL was down 0.07 from last week to 1.04.  MTV’s JERSEY SHORE dropped 0.14 to […]

Question #1 on this weekend’s boxoffice:  if The Dark Knight Rises is a blockbuster but everything else Warners releases this summer is a bomb, is the studio having a good summer?  Based on preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline, ROCK OF AGES joins Dark Shadows (and Chernobyl Diaries, too) as a Warner Bros summer flop.  Rock […]

> The close of the 2011/12 broadcast season is starting to approach, and networks are beginning to specify their plans for summer (which in TV terms begins in late May).  FOX, unlike some of the other networks, is not planning to air any new scripted programming in the post-season, so all their original shows will […]

NBC of course won last night handily with the first NFL game of the season.  Usually scheduled on the Thursday after Labor Day, the NFL moved the game to Wednesday out of deference to President Obama who gives his acceptance speech in Charlotte tomorrow night.  Last night’s game (Dallas upsetting the Super Bowl champion New […]

> The festival has its first crowd-pleaser in CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER, a light but heartfelt romantic comedy-drama in the Woody Allen vein. Written by Rashida Jones (who also stars as Celeste) and Will Mc McCormack (on hand as well as a supportive weed dealer), it takes a different slant on the usual rom-com by […]

  NOTE:  due to Election Day, the World Series and other preemptions, comparisons in the text are to prior Tuesdays. 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 […]

> HBO can afford to keep little-watched shows like In Treatment and Treme around, because they’re not selling advertising–they’re selling a brand.  People who will only watch True Blood and Entourage feel better about being subscribers when they know they’ve got access to excellence at other hours too.  TNT, though, needs eyeballs that sponsors will […]

>The 12th weekend of the year should be a whopper: about $176 million for the top 12 films.  How big is that for the fourth weekend in March?  Enormous, unprecedented: up 62% from last year’s comparable weekend and up 55% from the four-year average for this weekend.  Of course, this weekend is all about The […]