>The FOX pilot LOCKE & KEY is a very effective hour of creepiness, but it’s not that hard to understand why the network didn’t put the project on its schedule.  The show screams “cult hit” at best, and the pilot feels more like a shortened feature film than the viable prototype for a continuing weekly […]

      NETWORK FINALS:  ABC’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL game adjusted to 1.0 in final numbers, and FOX’s game adjusted to 0.4.           Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart       CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  A typical fall cable Saturday, dominated by sports and late-night animation. ESPN had 3 games in the Top […]

  Ratings for the Top 25 original cable telecasts Saturday (plus a few other lower-rated but noteworthy programs): SATURDAY CABLE was dominated by college football, which will be the case for most of the fall.  Note that Lifetime’s backdoor pilot DELIVERANCE CREEK had a 0.27 rating in 18-49s, with 926K total viewers.  That was down […]

It’s getting to be time for the season’s first cancellation. CBS:  MADE IN JERSEY plummeted to 0.8, below even (gulp!) Fringe, and can’t be long for this world.  It probably didn’t have much effect on the long-running CSI NY and BLUE BLOODS that surround it, but they’re slumping too, with twin 1.2s that are far […]

Two new shows premiered last night, both at 10 pm: Nashville (2.8 Adult 18-49 rating on ABC) and Chicago Fire (1.9 on NBC).  More on the individual shows below in the network sections, but looking at the networks’ overall nightly performance, ABC had a very good night (thanks to two original Modern Family episodes to set the table for a decent Nashville premiere). […]

Not quite as exciting as a live freeway police pursuit but still very compelling and much more relevant, the coverage of the reaction to the capture of the remaining Boston Marathon Bombing suspect brought viewers to the normally tough to program Friday evening.  Collectively, the broadcast networks earned a 7.1 rating with adults 18-49 in […]

  FRIDAY STARZ:  Things got even worse for MAGIC CITY, with under 350K total viewers and an 18-49 number that had to be rounded up to reach 0.1.  It’s hard to imagine Starz ordering a third season, unless there are non-financial reasons. SYFY:  CONTINUUM was down 30% in total viewers to 1M, and down 0.1 […]

  The booze had been drunk, the party rooms cleaned up, everyone had gone home from last week’s network Upfront presentations–but CBS wasn’t quite done.  After what must have been marathon negotiations with Sony Television (which had an arduous few weeks that also included tough talks with NBC over its pick-ups), CBS has ordered the […]