Because of Nielsen’s holiday schedule, we may not have Thursday cable 18-49 numbers for several days.  However, based on household ratings, ESPN got exactly the punch from the new COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS that it had hoped for with its multi-billion dollar license deal.  Preliminary numbers give yesterday’s ROSE BOWL a 15.5 household rating, up […]

  Republicans ♥ NBC? NBC:  Somewhat ironically, considering the Right’s loathing of MSNBC, preliminary numbers have the Peacock as the GOP network of choice for last night’s coverage of the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, with a 1.3, more than the CBS and ABC numbers combined.  The rating may be somewhat attributable to the 2.4 earned in […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  THE PARENT TEST was at 0.32/0.27 compared to last week’s 0.32/0.29.  THE CHASE gained 0.02 to 0.24. CBS:  YOUNG SHELDON dropped 0.07 to 0.61, and GHOSTS was down 0.05 to 0.58.  After a rerun SO HELP ME TODD at 0.20, CSI: VEGAS fell 0.15 to 0.21. NBC:  Back from a week […]

  The fans came back for Finn. FOX:  Last night’s special GLEE episode, commemorating the character played by the late Cory Monteith, almost doubled the show’s rating from last week, up 1.2 to 2.8.  It was Glee‘s highest rating in more than a year, and a number the series may never see again–especially since the […]

  Not much viewer interest last night, even for the inauguration-themed special programming. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of […]

  And after 9 hours of delay, we have… ratings!  Which look pretty much as expected, despite the new Nielsen methodology.  Of course, with a night of reruns and faded specials on almost every network, it’s not clear if we’d recognize a change even if one was there.  Next week will be much more telling. DEMOGRAPHIC […]

Note: The NBC numbers below (NFL Wildcard Game coverage in the Eastern/Central time zones and mostly local programs in the primetime hours in the West) will go up around 15% to 20% in the official nationals on Tuesday morning. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key […]

    Anyone watching network television last night needs to get an HBO subscription and find AMC on their channel guides, because there were stunning episodes of Mad Men and Game of Thrones on hand, even by those series’ remarkable standards (as well as the best-so-far half-hours of Girls and Veep).  But yes, test patterns […]