Breaking Bad‘s arrival was the big ratings news on Sunday night, while the launch of Political Animals wasn’t. HBO:  TRUE BLOOD, as usual, took the night with a 2.7 that was a tick higher than last week, beating the season premiere of Big Brother on CBS and for that matter everything else on broadcast […]

  OPENINGS:  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (Marvel/Disney) won’t arrive on these shores until Thursday night, but it’s already in 37 international territories covering over half the world (although not yet China), and has deposited $101.2M in the Marvel account.  Next week’s US opening is expected to be in the $150M neighborhood.  To date, […]

  Several shows hadn’t aired since November 14. 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 2). Ratings analysis […]

> The past week came in up 10% versus last year’s comparable week.  Year-to-date box office is now down 12% versus last year.    The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between May 16 and May 22 grossed $202 million, up 10% versus the same week in 2010.  Year […]

> UPDATE:  Glen Mazzara, who’d been Frank Darabont’s #2 on the WALKING DEAD writing staff,  has indeed been appointed to take over showrunning duties.  (Darabont’s continued presence, if any, is still being discussed.)  Mazzara has a lot of experience as a writer/producer on shows like Hawthorne, Crash and The Shield, but not as a show […]

    THE WOMAN IN BLACK:  Watch It At Home – Fun, But Creaky As Its Doors   THE WOMAN IN BLACK is so aggressively old-fashioned it sometimes feels like the horror movie version of The Artist.  A haunted house story in the grand style, it may be in color and wide-screen, but its heart […]

  It’s burn-off season at CBS, where back-to-back episodes of the canceled ME, MYSELF & I and LIVING BIBLICALLY aired at identical 0.2 ratings that won’t change anyone’s minds about their exits.  The rest of the ratings news was all sports, with NBC’s NASCAR race at 0.8, and FOX’s regional baseball coverage at 0.4. DEMOGRAPHIC […]

  BROADCAST FINALS:  ABC’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL game was at 1.07, and FOX’s game was at 0.81.   Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Another fall Saturday, another day for COLLEGE FOOTBALL, with ESPN’s games at 0.98/0.53/0.44, Big 10’s at 0.23/0.15, ESPN2’s at 0.20/0.17/0.13, and Fox Sports 1’s at 0.19/0.15/0.14.  TUDN’s SELECCION MEXICANA […]