The X Factor ended its season with no miraculous ratings recovery. FOX:  Although THE X FACTOR‘s season finale was up 0.5 from last week to 1.7, that number was down a horrific 1.4 from last year’s finale, barely more than half as strong.  With 3 weekly hours of primetime in the balance, FOX has […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  The news only got worse for FOX, as THE MINDY PROJECT slipped another 0.1 to reach a new low 1.1. TUESDAY CABLE:  In its 2d outing, BEING MARY JANE (BET) fell 0.3 to 1.2, still enough to top last night’s cable originals (although behind an Adult Swim rerun of FAMILY GUY).  PRETTY […]

  For a determinedly noncontroversial guy, there may not have been a television figure in the last twenty-five years more scrutinized than Jay Leno.  He stood at the media epicenter in the 1990s, when he warred with David Letterman for Johnny Carson’s crown, then again when he was both predecessor of and inheritor to Conan […]

Last night’s Winter Olympic coverage on NBC in primetime averaged a 4.9 adult 18-49 rating from 8:00-11:00 pm, but that rating increases to a 5.2 if the 8:00-8:30 half hour is excluded for being free of national commercials.  Either way, it’s a disaster for a night containing the finals of Ladies’ Figure Skating, THE marquee […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  There was no comfort for FOX in the final numbers, which left AMERICAN IDOL at 2.4, and even worse, left SURVIVOR at 2.5, giving the 14-year old reality show veteran its first win over IDOL.  SUBURGATORY, however, eased its own pain by rising 0.2 to 1.6, reversing most of the drop from […]

The Christmas and New Year’s holidays will cause delays for daily national ratings (live+same day cable and broadcast) for several days.  This is how the ratings should roll out the next two weeks. Thursday 12/24 nationals available Monday 12/28 afternoon Friday 12/25 nationals available Tuesday 12/29 morning Saturday 12/26 nationals available Wednesday 12/30 morning Sunday 12/27 […]

  In about a year, the reboot of the network late-night talk shows will be complete, now that David Letterman, cranky genius of the format, has announced that sometime in 2015 he’ll be retiring.  With Jimmy Kimmel’s move to 11:35PM and the recent ascensions of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, it will be the first […]

  UPDATE:  The season finale of LAST MAN STANDING found a 0.1 bump in adjusted Friday ratings (to a very decent 1.4), as did SHARK TANK, HAWAII 5-0 and BLUE BLOODS.  But the news was bad at NBC (which had been preempted in Portland for an NBA game), where DATELINE, GRIMM and HANNIBAL all sank […]