OPENINGS:  TOY STORY 4 (Pixar/Disney) opened with $118M in the US, and that’s obviously a huge amount of money and in a different dimension from the flops that Hollywood has weathered over the past several weeks.  Nevertheless, it’s around 25% below general expectations, and considerably less than the June openings for The Incredibles 2 […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  As usual, AMERICAN IDOL went up 0.1 in final numbers.  Also slightly up:  MODERN FAMILY and SUBURGATORY.  But MIXOLOGY fell another 0.1, hurting its chances for survival.  The CSI rerun also slipped 0.1. WEDNESDAY CABLE:  Glass half full:  DUCK DYNASTY (A&E) was up 0.6 from last week to 2.5 for its season […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  Reruns at 0.30/0.30/0.23. CBS:  Reruns at 0.26/0.17/0.15/0.14. NBC:  US OPEN coverage at 1.06 was followed by a rerun at 0.34. FOX:  A USFL game at 0.14. CW:  Reruns at 0.02/0.05/0.05/0.02. TELEMUNDO:  Movies at 0.13/0.16. UNIVISION:  A CONCACAF match at 0.62.   Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  AMC’s […]

> Almost simultaneous with the announcement of NBC’s renewal of SMASH to a 2d season came news that the series creator and lead Executive Producer, Theresa Rebeck, will be stepping down from her showrunning responsibilities.  The spin is that Rebeck will be returning to her theatre career (her play Seminar is currently on Broadway), and […]

  OPENINGS:  DON’T BREATHE (Screen Gems/Sony) had an unusually strong Saturday for a horror movie, down just 1% from Friday (which, remember, these days includes Thursday night).  By way of comparison, Lights Out fell 22% on its 2d day of release.  That propelled Don’t Breathe to an exceptional $26.1M weekend, the biggest opening for a […]

  UPDATE:  ONCE UPON A TIME gained 0.2 in final numbers, increasing its lead over RESURRECTION even though the latter inched up 0.1 (still down 0.2 from the previous week).  Also up 0.1:  AMERICAN HOME BUILDERS and AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS. SUNDAY CABLE:  HBO gave GAME OF THRONES a 2-year renewal today (bringing it through […]

  OPENINGS:  THE MARVELS (Marvel/Disney) fulfilled the ghastliest projections assigned to it, setting a new low for the MCU with a $47M US opening, and it was similarly dismal overseas, with $63.3M from 51 territories.  The internet is already bursting with theories that include “No one liked Captain Marvel in the first place” and the […]

> And so we come to the age-old query:  after 6 months and 22 half-hours of television, has WHITNEY gotten any better? Well, it’s changed.  A revisit to the show on the occasion of its season finale, written by creator/star Whitney Cummings and directed by Betsy Thomas, presents a series that–whether because of network notes […]