NETWORK FINALS:  BIG BROTHER gained 0.1 in final numbers, and as expected, the BOB’S BURGERS rerun lost 0.3 after NFL adjustment.  Thinking of which, NBC’s NFL PRESEASON game adjusted to 1.8.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  HBO’s SHARP OBJECTS didn’t quite reach […]

  A moment of silence for the first black bunting of the new season:  giving the lie to its title, the 0.7 rating that LUCKY 7 had in its second airing sealed its doom, making the lottery drama the season’s first fatality.  For now, ABC will air reruns of its scorching hit Scandal in that […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #46 of 2014 looks like $128 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 33% the norm for this weekend ($191 million) but up slightly (+7%) from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,154 theaters, Dumb and Dumber To from Universal grossed $14.2 million Friday and is on track for a $36.0 […]

  Belying its title, DUMB AND DUMBER TO (Red Granite/Universal) picked a strategically smart weekend to debut, facing very little fresh competition (because of last weekend’s Big Hero 6/Interstellar double bill and next week’s The Hunger Games installment) and even less comedy.  The result was a strong $13.9M Friday (including $1.6M from Thursday night) according […]

> VEEP:  Sundays 10PM on HBO – Potential DVR Alert   Although of course it made all the sense in the world to precede tonight’s premiere of its new political comedy VEEP with the trailer for its upcoming political comedy-drama, Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, in some ways HBO might have considered thinking twice.  Both Sorkin […]

  If there were any die-hards out there still nursing some flicker of hope that SMASH could survive its move to the basement of network television on Saturday nights, the ratings for its debut (which featured a fairly painful appearance by Liza Minnelli) snuffed them out.  Not only did Smash fall to its all-time low […]

  This week, as the clock ticks toward the start of the summer movie season, we’re taking a studio-by-studio look at each company’s line-up and prospects.  Last time we covered Sony, and today we’ll examine Universal. LAST SUMMER:  Universal’s 2013 summer was anchored by two gigantic sequels:  Fast & Furious 6 ($239M US/$789M worldwide) and […]

Last night’s Winter Olympic coverage on NBC in primetime averaged a 4.9 adult 18-49 rating from 8:00-11:00 pm, but that rating increases to a 5.2 if the 8:00-8:30 half hour is excluded for being free of national commercials.  Either way, it’s a disaster for a night containing the finals of Ladies’ Figure Skating, THE marquee […]