Preliminary numbers at Deadline suggest that more adults showed up at the multiplexes for the Saturday of this holiday weekend, boosting some of the less family-centric attractions.  THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Warners/MGM) appears to have unseated FROZEN (Disney) for the day and possibly the 3-day weekend, with Hobbit up slightly to $10.5M […]

  BROADCAST FINALS:  COLLEGE FOOTBALL was the prime attraction, with FOX’s BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP at 2.72 ahead of CBS’s afternoon SEC CHAMPIONSHIP at 2.57 and ABC’s BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP at 2.10.  On CW, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY was at 0.07, and WORLD’S FUNNIEST ANIMALS was at 0.05.  In late night, NBC’s SNL returned from […]

> Question for the class:  are the travails of AMERICAN IDOL and THE X FACTOR good or bad for NBC’s THE VOICE?  Discuss among yourselves for the next 4 days. FOX:  It’s becoming a familiar song:  Idol easily wins the night for FOX, dominates its hour… but at a substantially lower level than it has […]

  A soft night in general. 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 […]

  With a little over 24 hours before polls close for Oscar nomination voting (ballots must be submitted by 5PM tomorrow LA time), the big winners from today’s announcement of the Directors Guild nominees were Martin Scorsese and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET.  While it can never be considered a “surprise” for Scorsese to get […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  Reruns at 0.56/0.25/0.19. CBS:  Reruns at 0.39/0.29/0.25. NBC:  THE WHEEL was down 0.03 from last Tuesday to 0.30, followed by reruns at 0.24/0.22/0.18. FOX:  Reruns at 0.18/0.14. CW:  OCEAN EMERGENCY was at 0.04. TELEMUNDO:  EXATLON dropped 0.02 to 0.24, REINA DEL SUR lost 0.02 to 0.20, and AMOR Y TRAICION was […]

> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and 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 in the off-season) give plenty of notes, both helpful and otherwise, and […]

  It’s Showtime’s turn at TCA, so along with announcing some series pick-ups (Happyish with Philips Seymour Hoffman, and the probably self-explanatory The Affair), some premiere dates were unveiled. On Sunday, April 13, NURSE JACKIE and CALIFORNICATION make their returns (this will be the final season of the latter) in the 9PM hour, followed by […]