Suddenly those ABC sitcoms aren’t such sure things. ABC:  For the third consecutive week, LAST MAN STANDING and MALIBU COUNTRY fell, to 1.4 and 1.3 respectively.  That’s particularly worrisome for Malibu, which dropped a big 0.4.  Both shows are still probably fine as long as they hold at their current levels (they continued to hold […]

Thanks to Nielsen delays, Chicago Fire had to wait to get some unaccustomed good news. NBC:  CHICAGO FIRE benefits by not airing against a new CSI on CBS, because their audiences, while overlapping, prefer the latter when they can get it.  (Why, you might ask, schedule the NBC show against such clearly strength-sapping competition?  Well […]

This past sports weekend was all about the Wild Card playoffs: four games arranged by the NFL in ascending order of audience appeal.  Sure enough, as the weekend progressed, the ratings steadily increased with each passing game.  The first game between the Bengals and Texans Saturday at 4:30 (16.2 HH rating in the 56 large markets with […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were no changes from the preliminary Friday ratings.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  A&E’s LIVE PD led Friday cable, up 0.04 to 0.48, with LIVE PD: WANTED steady at 0.37, and the lead-in hour up a tick to 0.22.  […]

  FX’s new series THE AMERICANS got off to a fast start last night, with a 1.2 in the 18-49 demo for its initial airing at 10PM, and 3.2M total viewers.  (Those numbers get bumped up to 2.0 and 4.7M when late-night re-airings are added.)  The 10PM numbers were comparable to the launches of American […]

Another night with little for the networks to cheer about. ABC:  The first 90 minutes of the night provided some good news, as THE MIDDLE rebounded a bit from last week’s low to 2.2 (up 0.3), THE NEIGHBORS was up 0.2 to 1.9 and MODERN FAMILY rose a tick to 3.9.  But the tick went […]

With the NCIS shows in reruns, only one series even reached a 2 last night. FOX:  The season premiere of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES was at 2.2, down a very reasonable 0.2 from last year and the highest-rated show on a slow night. ABC:  CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP edged up to 1.6, but the finale of THE TASTE […]

  Simply a spectacular night for cable television. AMC:  The season finale for THE WALKING DEAD had an astounding 9.1 rating in 18-49s when its 9PM, 11PM, midnight and 1AM airings are combined, and the 9PM broadcast alone scored a giant 6.4, up a full point from the previous week.  Even the TALKING DEAD post-finale […]