Every Sunday now, the networks issue press releases to celebrate the giant gains made by shows during the full week following their initial airing, ratings known as “L7.”  Armed with numbers from a couple of weeks earlier, they crow–perhaps “scream” is a better verb–about this series adding millions of viewers, and that one increasing […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  WORLD SERIES GAME 2 ended up at an adjusted 3.6, just where we expected and slightly above last year’s Game 2.  There weren’t a lot of additional adjustments, but a couple of them were significant.  THE BIG BANG THEORY bounced back 0.3 to 5.2, but THE MILLERS actually went down 0.1 to […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  WORLD SERIES GAME 1 ended up adjusted to 4.2, a bit below where we anticipated but still 0.6 above last year’s Game 1.  Nothing else moved more than 0.1 from the morning numbers, but it’s noteworthy that THE TOMORROW PEOPLE edged up to 0.7, a more solid CW number, and since MODERN […]

The World Series begins tonight at historic Fenway Park, as the St Louis Cardinals take on the Boston Red Sox in a re-match of the 2004 Series.  Ratings for the World Series are very erratic.  Since 2003 (the last 10 Series), Game 1 has averaged a 5.1 adult 18-49 rating, with a high of 8.0 […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  Not a lot of change in the adjusted numbers.  THE GOLDBERGS AND CHICAGO FIRE both held onto their ratings, despite starting 1 minute after the hour, while AGENTS OF SHIELD gained 0.1 (but was still down 0.1 from last week).  Also gaining 0.1 were THE VOICE and SUPERNATURAL.  Both NCIS LA and […]

  AMC:  THE WALKING DEAD couldn’t hold at last week’s premiere mega-numbers, but it didn’t fall off much, with a still-gigantic 7.1 for the 9PM airing (down from 8.2 last week), plus 1.6 from re-airings.  TALKING DEAD was impressively even, holding at 2.6 even though its lead-in was less titanic.  The Walking Dead halo effect […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  As expected, adjusted numbers leveled much of the day’s playing field.  HART OF DIXIE and BEAUTY & THE BEAST reverted to last week’s 0.4/0.3 ratings, while at CBS, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER ended up down 0.1 from last week at 3.0, and 2 BROKE GIRLS dropped 0.1 to 2.5.  MOM was […]

  As a rule, broadcast network schedules are released to the media about two weeks in advance, so as the fall season moves toward the beginning of November sweeps on Halloween night (ooooh, scary!), any  network that wants its changes to have effect during sweeps–still very important to stations, especially the 10PM hour that leads […]