> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover) give plenty of notes, helpful and otherwise, and critics begin to […]

  OPENINGS:  ANGEL HAS FALLEN (Millenium/Lionsgate) smartly picked a weekend to open that was far enough away from Hobbs & Shaw with its larger and overlapping audience, and near enough to the end of summer to keep the competition sparse  The result was a solid $21.3M opening, almost the equal of the last franchise installment […]

  Come February, Thursday nights are going to feature an old-fashioned broadcast network slugfest, as ABC’s announcement that Scandal is moving to 9PM will put it squarely in the path of NBC’s The Blacklist when that series moves at midseason–may the best crazy plot twist-laden melodrama win.  The Scandal move is part of ABC’s new […]

> 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 […]

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). ###

>The weekend studio estimates (based on Friday and Saturday actuals and projections for Sunday) are coming in slightly above the weekend numbers posted yesterday (based on Friday actuals only).  The box office volume for the top 12 films is now looking like $100 million for the weekend, down 31% from last year’s weekend and down […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  THE BACHELORETTE climbed 0.2 in final numbers, while MASTERCHEF and AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR gained 0.1.  (The NINJA WARRIOR clip show, however, lost 0.1.)   MONDAY CABLE:  It was ESPN’s turn for the NBA PLAYOFFS, and the network was tops by far with 2.8, while NBC Sports Network’s NHL PLAYOFFS were at 0.7.  […]

> Big Bang makes one. CBS:  THE BIG BANG THEORY roared back from last week’s decline, up half a ratings point for its best number since March, and zooming past American Idol as the highest-rated show of the night.  That pushed RULES OF ENGAGEMENT up a couple of ricks as well.  The rest of the […]