> America gives a warm “Welcome Back” to ABC’s Wednesday line-up. ABC:  With new episodes airing for the first time in a month, the network’s shows (admittedly airing against lots of repeats and low-level specials on the other networks) took every half-hour of the night.  Everything was up from its last new episode in early […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  Game 3 of the NBA FINALS was at 3.43, down 0.22 from 2022’s Game 3. CBS:  Reruns at 0.38/0.29/0.16. NBC:  Reruns at 0.26/0.19/0.20/0.17. FOX:  MASTERCHEF ticked down to 0.39, and FOOD STARS was down a tick to 0.28. CW:  NANCY DREW rose 0.04 to 0.09, and RIVERDALE was down 0.02 to […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  CBS’s NCAA TOURNAMENT telecast adjusted to 1.3/1.3/3.0 (the latter hour being the Duke game), compared to 1.4/1.1/2.4 on last year’s parallel night.  Elsewhere, DYNASTY dropped 0.1 in final numbers.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Friday cable was dominated once again […]

> It’s been a long, long time, but finally the prayers of MAD MEN fans are being answered:  at the Television Critics Association gathering today, AMC confirmed that the series will return at 9PM on Sunday March 25, with a 2-hour episode written by Genius Emeritus Matthew Weiner. The following Sunday, April 1, AMC brings […]

> For one night, at least, all NBC’s dreams came true. NBC:  THE VOICE blew away its competition, especially in the 9-10PM hour.  Its 6.6 rating over 2 hours was naturally way down from Sunday night, where it had the most-watched telecast of all time as its lead-in, but for NBC it was manna from […]

> FOX made a couple of fairly last-minute changes to its midseason plans today.  The new TOUCH, created by Tim Kring and starring Kiefer Sutherland, won’t move to Sutherland’s old 24 Monday 9PM timeslot after all; instead, starting March 22, Touch will air Thursdays at 9PM, keeping the AMERICAN IDOL lead-in it had for the […]

> 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 […]

> SMASH, the ambitious musical drama that was intended from the start to be NBC’s new signature series (even if for some of us, it’s become a bit smudged) has officially been renewed for a 2d season. This was pretty much an inevitability.  Not only is a huge amount of the network’s struggle for renewed […]