AFTERNOON UPDATE:  Nothing moved by more than 0.1 from this morning, although there were a few shifts that accomplished points of pride.  Thanks to the last-minute lift, NASHVILLE avoided its low with 1.3, while an upward move for AMERICAN IDOL (2.7) and a downward one for SURVIVOR (2.4) widened their gap to 0.3.  However, […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  No major changes, as THE BACHELOR and the CBS 9-10PM shows each found an extra 0.1 (keep the latter two off their lows), while SUPERNATURAL shed the same amount. TUESDAY CABLE:  The season finale of BEING MARY JANE (BET) hit a new series high with 1.6 in its 2d hour (up 0.2 […]

  MIND GAMES:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… The creator of ABC’s midseason MIND GAMES, Kyle Killen, was the man behind Lone Star and Awake (as well as the movie The Beaver), so he doesn’t lack in fertile imagination.  What he hasn’t had, however, is any commercial success whatsoever, and […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  The only move from this morning was a 0.1 hike for THE BACHELOR to 2.5. MONDAY CABLE:  DALLAS (TNT) had a decent Season 3 return at 0.8 in 18-49s–below last season’s premiere and finale, but in line with the season average.  Total viewers, at 2.7M, were at a similar level.  WWE (USA) […]

  UPDATE:  As expected, the WINTER OLYMPICS CLOSING CEREMONY and GROWING UP FISHER adjusted to 3.2 and 2.0.  THE AMAZING RACE fell to an even lower all-time low premiere at 1.5, and 60 MINUTES was also down 0.1 to 1.3. SUNDAY CABLE:  As had been previously reported, THE WALKING DEAD (AMC) was its usual giant […]

  Two pieces of diametrically opposed counterprogramming did just fine against last night’s WINTER OLYMPICS Closing Ceremony. THE WALKING DEAD easily beat the Olympics in 18-49s for the 3rd week in a row with a 6.6 rating, down 0.2 from last week.  It also had 13.1M total viewers (down 200K from last week).  That doubled […]

  SQUIRREL!  NBC, and its media enablers, will do their best to focus discussion of the WINTER OLYMPICS ratings on total viewers, daytime and online numbers, and–SQUIRREL!–anything other than the evident fact that the Games didn’t justify a cost that probably exceeded $1 billion, between rights ($775M alone) and production costs over the 18 days of […]

Last night’s final night of coverage from Sochi on NBC was in three parts.  Sochi Gold from 7:00-8:30 pm (mostly an excellent documentary on the still fascinating Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding controversy in 1994) averaged a 2.6 adult 18-49 rating (peaking at a 3.1 rating in the 8:30 half hour).  The actual Closing Ceremony coverage from 8:30-10:30 averaged a […]