> Once-glorious Thursdays continue to become just another broadcast network night. NBC:  Before the season started, all the attention on THE OFFICE was focused on how the show would replace Steve Carell.  But it’s turning out that the bigger problem this season is the weirdly dark tone the series has taken–last night’s episode had a […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  ELEMENTARY lost 0.1 in final numbers.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Thursday means a cable win for TLC’s DR PIMPLE POPPER, steady at 0.52, with UNTOLD STORIES OF THE ER down 0.04 to 0.22.  On MTV, JERSEY SHORE was at […]

> November sweeps began with a baseball bat in its hand, and for one network, that bat was the one wielded by Robert DeNiro in The Untouchables. NBC:  A disaster, although its full extent won’t be known until the World Series is over next week.  COMMUNITY and PARKS AND RECREATION tied all-time lows (and for […]

> The night before Thanksgiving has an odd balance:  viewership is down, but advertiser interest is up (anyone who watched primetime last night was buried under retailer promos for Black Friday sales)–hence, original programming on a night that often sees season-low ratings. ABC:  The Alphabet was both the main recipient and victim of the odd […]

> The broadcast networks continue their holiday vacation, with virtually no new programming on the air. CBS:  The KENNEDY CENTER HONORS are a prestige show that no one watches, and more so this year:  a dismal 1.1 that was down considerably even from last year’s 1.5–and that’s with a 2.1 NCIS rerun lead-in that was […]

> Some things are eternal, and Michael Jackson appears to be one of them. FOX:  GLEE‘s Michael Jackson episode propelled the show to a 3.6, its best rating in months.  The strong lead-in didn’t help the network’s sit-coms much, though:  NEW GIRL was only up 0.1 for the night, and RAISING HOPE fell to match […]

> Don’t get too excited about that increase in SMASH‘s 18-49 rating last night, because it just vanished.  In the final Nielsen numbers, Smash came back down to the same 2.3 number it had last week.  (Castle was also lowered a tenth of a point.)   The lower number is nothing to panic about.  The final […]

> This morning we anticipated that the season finale of THE WALKING DEAD on AMC would outrate anything on network television last night, but that didn’t do justice to Dead‘s accomplishment.  In the finale’s initial airing (it was repeated later in the evening), it broke Dead‘s own record as the highest-rated cable television drama ever, […]