What does football mean to the broadcast networks?  For NBC and CBS, NFL coverage (along with other sports, mostly an occasional college football game) accounts for about 20-30% of the entire primetime rating for the network. For CBS, its 2.63 adult 18-49 rating for the season to date falls all the way down to a […]

  NBC is having an abysmal season, and here’s the thing:  it’s actually worse than it looks.  How is that even possible? you ask.  Right now, Mitch Metcalf’s estimate is that by the end of the season, NBC’s primetime average will be 2.07, putting it ahead of only ABC and its 1.86.  But he also […]

American Idol has gone seriously out of tune. FOX:  How to describe the depths of last night’s 2.7 rating for AMERICAN IDOL?  It was the lowest rated regular episode of the series ever, including its first season, when it ran as a summer series.  It was more than a full point below Tuesday’s results show […]

  Believe it or not, now that it’s far too late and the closing notice has all but been posted, SMASH aired its best episode of the season last night–not remotely what some of us hoped the show would be at the start, not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination or anything to […]

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). PREVIOUS SATURDAY NETWORK SCORECARDS (FAST NATIONALS) PREVIOUS SATURDAY CABLE & […]

  A mixed night for the networks. 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 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons follow […]

Projected weekly network ratings in prime time (based on four days of official nationals and three days of fast nationals).  No network will finish above a 2 rating for the week, even as the May sweep (with plenty of original episodes began).  The problem this past week was there were no live sports or special […]

  Last night was Battle of the Canceled Shows. CBS:  Even though UNDERCOVER BOSS was up a robust 0.4 to 1.6 as a lead-in, the last episode of VEGAS only managed to hold even at 0.9.  The season finale of BLUE BLOODS was down 0.2 to 1.1. FOX:  The season finale of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES, even […]