Author Archive
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Finale Review: “Hannibal”

  In real life, serial killers are not infrequently foiled by mistakes as mundane as unpaid traffic tickets, and while Hannibal Lecter may be eternal, the NBC television series version of Hannibal–despite an inexpens...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Defiance”

  The third season of DEFIANCE may have been its most assured and cohesive to date.  However, as the most expensive of Syfy’s low-rated trio of Friday scripted summer shows, its fate has been far from certain.  In ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Dark Matter”

  One of the reasons “locked room” mysteries appeal to producers is that they require limited production values, and for what amounted to half its initial season, DARK MATTER tried to make up for its inadequa...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “War Room” Attacks, “We Are Your Friends” Has None

  On one of the slowest weekends of the year, it took some holy help to raise the box office from the dead.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, WAR ROOM (Affirm/TriStar/Sony) is edging into Friday’s top s...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “The Carmichael Show”

  THE CARMICHAEL SHOW:  Wednesday 9PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… THE CARMICHAEL SHOW is the latest sitcom to be aired by NBC with a stealth run that suggests one of the network’s programming executi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Public Morals”

  PUBLIC MORALS:  Tuesday 10PM on TNT – Change the Channel Unless its pilot turns out to be misleading, PUBLIC MORALS looks to be fairly woeful stuff.  The show’s auteur–its star as well as the series c...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Murder In the First”

  In its second season, Stephen Bochco and Eric Lodal’s MURDER IN THE FIRST altered its format, only to find new ways to fail.  Season 1 had told a single convoluted story, a murder mystery loaded with so many red h...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 8.23.2015

  NOTE:  Preseason football will again lead to some adjustments in final numbers. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Ballers”

  The ratings for BALLERS have more than justified its renewal by HBO, but the pieces of the series have yet to fit together.  Most of the show’s creative team hails from Entourage, and Ballers embraces the same bim...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Fear the Walking Dead”

  FEAR THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC – In the Queue The opening episode of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD was audacious as only a sure thing can be.  The new series is, of course, a spin-off of the fantastically succ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 8/23/15

  OPENINGS:  With a $10M production budget (and tens of millions in marketing on top), the $10.6M weekend for SINISTER 2 (Blumhouse/Gramercy/Focus/Universal) will test Blumhouse’s ability to make money out of just a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Aquarius”

  How on earth is NBC going to bring back AQUARIUS next season?  In the history of broadcast television, it may well be the lowest-rated series ever renewed by a major network, with viewership so abysmal that the show cou...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Blunt Talk”

  BLUNT TALK:  Saturday 9PM on Starz – If Nothing Else Is On… For Jonathan Ames, the creator of Starz’s new comedy BLUNT TALK, the sweet spot is the intersection of addled (male) self-delusion and yearni...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Straight Outta Compton” and A Fight For the Bottom

  There were no pleasant surprises for anyone at the Friday box office, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  That even included STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (Legendary/Universal), which will easily win the weekend, bu...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Killjoys”

  KILLJOYS is, along with Dark Matter, one of the ultra-cheap scripted pieces that Syfy runs on Friday nights.  (Defiance, which airs with them, is a somewhat more ambitious enterprise.)  The grubby aesthetics of the tw...
by Mitch Salem