In HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas created an odd but appealing mix of traditional sitcom humor and conceptual originality (their upcoming FOX show The Goodwin Games looks like another unusual angle on the genre), and with comedy, as with drama, the thing about conceptual storytelling is that at some […]

  An off-night for SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. 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 […]

  HOLIDAY BOX OFFICE NOTES:  We only have partial international numbers for the weekend box office, and those we have reflect the fact that in some European and Latin American markets (including the UK), theatres are entirely closed on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  In the US, the 4-day Christmas weekend means there are 3 […]

  The EMMY AWARDS may never have the sheer glamor of the Oscars, but as the amount of excellent TV keeps rising as new viewing platforms and content providers constantly emerge, it’s now a lot harder to get a nomination for an Emmy than an Oscar.  Lots of deserving candidates were named today, while others […]

    Grimm has its night. NBC:  The season finale of GRIMM was the night’s highest rated show, with a 1.6 that was up 0.4 from last week and marked its highest-rated episode in months.  (Imagine if the show were actually good!)  It didn’t lift the rest of the evening, though:  WHO DO YOU THINK […]

The “kids” didn’t show up for MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) on Saturday–it was wishful thinking to believe they would, considering the franchise’s decade-long absence–and the result, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, was a very mild Friday-to-Saturday bump under 10%.  That puts the picture on track for a 4-day holiday weekend of $67-70M, just […]

  OPENINGS:  The world, if not the galaxy, belonged to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) this weekend.  In the US, its $94M start (as is typical, Disney estimated an aggressively strong Sunday, down just 19% from Saturday, so that number may reduce a bit tomorrow) pulverized the previous August record-holder (The Bourne Ultimatum) to the tune […]

The rank order of the broadcast networks last night was exactly the same as last year: FOX (with the penultimate American Idol on a special night), ABC (with the finale of Dancing with the Stars), NBC (with more auditions for America’s Got Talent minus The Voice episode it had last year), and CBS (with all […]