> SMASHWatch has a note from THE BACHELOR. NBC:  SMASH was down 0.3 last night, to a still-decent 2.4 that was nevertheless only 0.1 above its season low thus far.  But it faced atypical competition from the post-Bachelor special on ABC, which is sort of an excuse (“sort of” because with CBS in repeats, the […]

  Even more than usual, it was football’s night. NBC:  Peyton Manning’s return to Indianapolis was relentlessly hyped all week, especially when the Colts owner appeared to criticize him publicly.  The result was a massive number for NFL SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, which we anticipate will be adjusted to 11.0 in final ratings tomorrow, up 2.6 […]

The ratings for most network programs came back down to Earth in the official nationals (with the NFL preseason games filtered out of the early ratings, as we explained this morning).  As expected, Big Brother was least impacted (only down one tenth from this morning because CBS was able air it at 10 pm in the California […]

    THE NEW NORMAL:  Tuesdays 9:30PM on NBC   WHAT IT’S SAYING:  A new kind of family sitcom:  gay couple, surrogate mother, her daughter–and her bitchy, bigoted (but, you know, funny) grandmother.  Grandma’s practically Sue Sylvester!  And what a coincidence, Sue’s creator Ryan Murphy is behind this too.

  AdWeek has published its annual survey of the actual prices advertisers agreed to pay in the Upfronts for 30-second spots in the network primetime line-ups, and as usual, it’s filled with fascinating information.  It helps, though, to keep the following in mind: A typical network hour contains about 20 30-second national ad spots.  The […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  We posted a detailed network update yesterday afternoon, but here’s a quick reminder.  (Note:  we know that some of you have requested posting of the more specific afternoon numbers as we did yesterday, but there are issues in trying to do that on a regular basis.  We’re looking into whether it’s something […]

      Where were Jack and Sawyer?  Embracing the idea of “go big or go home,” the 8th season finale of GREY’S ANATOMY opened like the pilot for Lost, in the aftermath of the horrible crash of a plane on which several of our main characters had flown.  Shonda Rhimes is not against shaking […]

  A pair of sitcoms got a taste of life without their lead-ins. 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 […]