GOTHAM:  Monday 8PM on FOX THE FACTS:  The hero of this Batman prequel is the pre-Commissioner Detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), who with his partner (Donal Logue) will attempt to clean Gotham City of a mob boss (Jada Pinkett Smith) and other villains.  Along the way, he’ll interact with the young versions of not […]

  Here are our night-by-night ratings predictions for the Fall network television season:  Monday,  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,  Friday, and Sunday Now that we’ve gone through each night’s Fall ratings, let’s pull back and take a look at the big picture for each of the broadcast networks. ABC:  Standing still isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the […]

  AMERICAN CRIME:  Sunday 9PM Midseason on ABC THE FACTS:  John Ridley, this year’s Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar winner for 12 Years A Slave, has written a serialized crime drama very specifically about race, in which a Latino teen is arrested for the murder of the son of Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman. WHAT IT’S […]

  SELFIE:  Tuesday 8PM on ABC starting September 30 – If Nothing Else Is On… PLAYERS:  George Bernard Shaw.  (And Lerner & Loewe, whose My Fair Lady made Pygmalion into a fixture of pop culture.)  Series creator Emily Kapnek, of Suburgatory.  Stars John Cho and Karen Gillan.  Pilot director Julie Anne Robinson.  Warner Bros. Television. […]

  Once again, CW demonstrated that it operates under different economics than the other broadcast networks.  Much of its revenue comes from episodes streamed online via Netflix and Hulu, which makes sometimes puny on-air ratings acceptable.  Also, virtually everything it airs is produced by one of its in-house studios, Warner Bros Television or CBS Television […]

  SCORPION:  Monday 9PM on CBS THE FACTS:  A group of nerdy genius goofballs works with the government to solve high-tech emergencies–based on a true story.  Elyes Gabel is Walter O’Brien, the leader of the nerd squad, Robert Patrick is their exasperated supervisor, and Katharine McPhee is the token normal girl, a waitress with a […]

  We’re taking these last days before the broadcast networks’ midseason begins to scrutinize how those still-powerful dinosaurs fared during the fall.  Yesterday we looked at ABC, and today it’s the turn of what was called (although not recently) the Tiffany Network. CBS Fall Primetime 18-49 Average (through December 28):  1.93, down 3.6% from Fall […]

  UTOPIA:  Tuesday 8PM and Friday 9PM on FOX THE FACTS:  Based on a Dutch format and produced by unscripted specialist John de Mol, UTOPIA is a reality show that puts 15 people into an isolated area for an entire year and forces them to make up their own rules for their new “civilization.”  Viewers […]