AdWeek has published its annual survey of the actual prices advertisers agreed to pay in the Upfronts for 30-second spots in the network primetime line-ups, and as usual, it’s filled with fascinating information.  It helps, though, to keep the following in mind: A typical network hour contains about 20 30-second national ad spots.  The […]

>March Madness, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, kicks off this week on CBS and a trio of cable networks (TNT, TBS and TruTV) with University of Kentucky, Michigan State, Syracuse and University of North Carolina the #1 seeds in the four regions.  The ratings impact in prime time is minimal the first week but builds […]

  Here are our night-by-night ratings predictions for the Fall network television season:  Monday,  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,  Friday, and Sunday Now that we’ve gone through each night’s Fall ratings, let’s pull back and take a look at the big picture for each of the broadcast networks. ABC:  Standing still isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the […]

Monday night features the premiere of NBC’s temporary schedule until The Voice returns.  The Biggest Loser settles into its new night (after a preview tonight featuring the return of trainer Jillian Michaels) from 8-10 pm, followed by the premiere of new drama Deception.  ABC premieres The Bachelor directly against Biggest Loser and follows that up with a new episode of Castle.  FOX’s schedule includes […]

> A few notes: these projections are for original episodes (no repeats) aired in the 4th quarter of 2011.  Series premieres will likely be .3-.4 higher, thanks to network marketing pushes, and then tend to go down over time.  We’ll be updating the numbers after we see full pilots and also as we get a […]

> If you liked the ratings projections post for Fridays, you’ll love this post for SATURDAYS.   Six hours of repeats on the broadcast networks, a withering reality franchise in Cops, and one original scripted show.  ABC has the only game in town, the primetime college football game of the week.  Click “read more” to see the […]

  Our journey through the fall primetime schedule–and by “our,” I mean former head of NBC Scheduling Mitch Metcalf, former head of NBC Current Programming Ted Frank and myself–takes us to what may be the most competitive night of the new season:  Wednesdays.  (You can find our predictions here for Monday and Tuesday.)   Our […]

>When all the Sked PLAYERS gather in New York, the pilots have been screened for the network’s own executives, but the only “real people” who’ve seen them are those participating in Research testing.  The results of those tests become the only “objective” data regarding the appeal of a given show, so they’re a critical part […]