Has there ever been a #1 network as screwed up as this year’s edition of NBC? Full Season To Date (through May 3) 18-49 Rating Average:  2.04 (#1), Down 13.7% From Last Season Season Grade:  D+ What Happened:  Sunday:  NBC is at the top of the broadcast networks for one and a half reasons.  […]

  MANHATTAN LOVE STORY:  Tuesday 8:30PM on ABC THE FACTS:  Boy (Jake McDorman) meets girl (Analeigh Tipton), but here’s the gimmick:  we hear all of the couple’s hidden thoughts throughout.  The series creator is Jeff Lowell, whose sitcom writing/producing career goes back to Cybill and Spin City. WHAT IT’S SAYING:  He’s cute, she’s cute, and […]

  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 […]

  We’re 3 days into the 18 of the WINTER OLYMPICS, and the games are already paying ratings dividends for NBC.  (However, it’s critical to note that the Olympics are like the NFL, only more so:  the rights and production costs are so massively expensive that high ratings don’t necessarily mean profits–and even slight underperformance […]

  Nothing so far today matches yesterday afternoon’s high-profile pick-ups by NBC and FOX, but there’s nevertheless some news as we approach next week’s Upfronts: FOX Amid speculation that the network will cut back on its comedy commitment next season, FOX cleared its shelves of bubble sitcoms, officially canceling DADS, ENLISTED and SURVIVING JACK.  Jack […]

  Come February, Thursday nights are going to feature an old-fashioned broadcast network slugfest, as ABC’s announcement that Scandal is moving to 9PM will put it squarely in the path of NBC’s The Blacklist when that series moves at midseason–may the best crazy plot twist-laden melodrama win.  The Scandal move is part of ABC’s new […]

  CBS doesn’t typically cultivate daring in its fall schedules, but this year it’s making one exception.  Here’s a quick look (new shows are in ALL CAPS, new timeslots are in italics): MONDAY Sept-Oct 8PM:  The Big Bang Theory 8:30PM:  LIFE IN PIECES Nov 8PM:  SUPERGIRL 9PM:  Scorpion 10PM:  NCIS: LA Running Supergirl against Gotham isn’t as […]

  Everyone knows that the Super Bowl is by far the highest rated show of each season, but what does it mean for a network’s big picture?  Here were the season-to-date averages for the broadcast networks as of a week ago: NBC:  2.47 FOX:  2.11 CBS:  2.07 ABC:  1.67 CW:   0.54 And here are the […]