After years of suffering through the unsatisfying BCS system, college football fans were treated to a vast improvement: the College Football Playoff system, starting on New Year’s Day 2015 to settle the 2014 NCAA season.  The playoffs started appropriately enough at the Rose Bowl, “The Granddaddy of Them All” and one of the most picturesque […]

  SCANDAL arrived as Week 2 shows continued to settle in. 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 […]

  AMC:  THE WALKING DEAD,  with another strong episode that continued to put last year’s dim drama into its rear-view mirror, recovered from its blip of slight decline the week before, up 0.7 to another gigantic 5.6.  With 1.6 added for the 10PM rebroadcast (itself higher rated than anything else on cable Sunday except the […]

>ESPN’s coverage of the BCS National Championship for college football Monday tops the cable ratings chart for the week of January 3-9.  This year’s 8.7 rating for the title game is down from a 10.1 last year — not surprising because LSU was shut out. MTV’s Jersey Shore season premiere was the top entertainment program […]

> BEING FLYNN:  Watch It At Home – Troubling Story That Doesn’t Go Deep Enough There’s a scene in Paul Weitz’s new film BEING FLYNN where Jonathan Flynn (Robert DeNiro), the alcoholic, narcissistic, pitiful, self-destructive father of Nick (Paul Dano), reads to his son from a publisher’s rejection letter.  Jonathan sees himself as one of […]

2013 remains solidly on the same pace as the other second-tier years recently.   Through 11 weeks, 2013 totals $1.692 billion for wide-release films in North America (those playing at more than 400 screens).  2008 was $1.664 billion at this point, while 2011 was $1.634 billion. The top-shelf years were already at or near $2 […]

  Small shifts. 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 the chart. ABC:  THE […]

> Showtime had a very solid premiere Sunday for its winter series.  The night was highlighted by a fine debut for HOUSE OF LIES, the Don Cheadle management consultant comedy, which had over 1.03 million viewers in its initial broadcast (this is total viewers, not 18-49, which we won’t have until tomorrow and which will […]