>The fifth weekend of the year should generate about $84 million for the top 12 films — up 15% from last year’s comparable weekend but down a similar percentage from a “normal” weekend this time of year.  Three new films open this weekend to positive reviews, but none of the three should gross more than […]

  The newcomers started OK. 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 and comparisons follow […]

  Millions of Americans desperately worried about the plight of widowed Lady Mary knew where to go for their fix of British aristocracy last night, as DOWNTON ABBEY reached yet another new historic high for PBS.  The Season 4 premiere was watched by 10.2M viewers, up sharply from 7.9M for last year’s premiere (which was […]

  BROADCAST FINALS:  Aside from sports, Christmas Night was a festival of reruns. ABC:  The broadcaster aired 3 of the holiday’s 5 games at 1.49/1.07/0.52. NBC:  SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL was at 4.20, up 0.27 from last week’s game.   Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN aired all of the NBA quintuple-header […]

>NBC used its 9:30 half hour to keep hammering away at the debut of Smash, coming up at long last in mere minutes.  The network devoted 90 seconds — one 30-second spot and one 60-second spot — in a half hour which was peaking with a very strong 7.7 rating.  The full-minute spot focused on […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is now -18% below last year’s comparable span (1 point better than last week) and now -16% below the average for this point the past four years ($2.351 billion).  Over the same […]

  …and now it’s all real.  AMERICAN HUSTLE and GRAVITY lead the Academy Award nominations with 10 each, with 12 YEARS A SLAVE right behind at 9, and those three are probably the leading candidates for Best Picture as of this moment.  But there’s plenty more to talk about, so here are the marquee categories […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  THE ROOKIE rose a tenth to 0.60, THE ROOKIE: FEDS gained 0.05 to to 0.37, and WILL TRENT was up 0.05 to 0.35. CBS:  Reruns at 0.33/0.31/0.32. NBC:  A strong premiere for the rebooted NIGHT COURT at 0.98/0.94.  It was followed by the 2-hour series finale of NEW AMSTERDAM at 0.39/0.33, […]