> An off-night if you didn’t have Thrones in your title. HBO:  GAME OF THRONES, airing an episode that started with a gasp-inducing surprise death (one less potential king for Westeros), was the highest-rated show on cable TV Sunday night, even beating the NBA Playoffs on TNT (although Thrones was over when the Clippers launched […]

  STATE OF AFFAIRS wasn’t quite as dead last night as it was a week ago, but it’s still far from healthy. 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) […]

  The networks began their holiday. 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 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons follow the […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  In the kind of blanket adjustment that sometimes means a sports preemption, all of ABC’s shows except THE LAST DEFENSE lost 0.1 in final numbers.  In addition, AMERICA’S GOT TALENT gained 0.1.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  USA’s WWE SMACKDOWN led […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  MIXED-ISH lost 0.1 in final numbers.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  CNN’s DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES DEBATE led Tuesday cable at 1.50/2.01/8.6M, down 0.6 from the last debate on ABC, with Fox News’s HANNITY at 0.27/0.46/3.1M, and MSNBC’s RACHEL MADDOW SHOW at […]

NBC’s preseason continues to play out well. NBC:  GO ON has yet to face any real competition, but it held well with a 3.3 last night, and the episode was better structured than last week’s, with one central Matthew Perry story rather than multiple fragments.  THE NEW NORMAL, on the other hand, was preachy and […]

  BROADCAST FINALS:  ABC’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL game was dominant at 1.80, with FOX’s MLB BASEBALL game at 0.21.   Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  It was COLLEGE FOOTBALL at the top of cable as well, with ESPN’s games at 0.70/0.50/0.49, Fox Sports 1’s at 0.43/0.27/0.14, and ESPN2’s at 0.21/0.20.  NBC […]

  We’ve reached the broadcast networks’ Upfront Week… which used to be a lot more central to our television lives than it is now.  Ratings everywhere are down, and there’s no reason to think they’ve hit bottom, which has caused seismic changes in the ways networks make scheduling decisions.  Among other things, with revenues from […]