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THE SKED’s Fall TV Ratings Predictions – Thursday

  We’re continuing our survey of the fall primetime schedule (our merry band includes former head of NBC Scheduling Mitch Metcalf, former head of NBC Current Programming Ted Frank and myself) with Thursdays, when CBS...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’s Fall TV Ratings Predictions – Friday

  We’ve arrived at Friday in our tour of the fall primetime schedule, and former head of NBC Scheduling Mitch Metcalf, former head of NBC Current Programming Ted Frank and I have our predictions ready.  (Here are ou...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Law & Order: SVU”

  You can take a time-travel journey back to 20th-century network television with LAW & ORDER: SVU, the last remnant of Dick Wolf’s once-behemoth franchise.  Visiting the show for the first time since last fall ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S Fall TV Ratings Predictions – Sunday

  From a predicting point of view, Sunday is sort of an anti-climactic end to our week of fall TV ratings forecasts, since the winner is obvious and there are few changes from last fall.  (See our more interesting predict...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Chicago Fire”

  NBC is all-in on CHICAGO FIRE.  Not only has it given the show a plum spot for the fall on Tuesdays with The Voice as its lead-in, it’s ordered a police-oriented spin-off for midseason.  All this enthusiasm is a ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND BOXOFFICE: “The Hangover” Is Having One

  Last weekend, Star Trek Into Darkness was the first boxoffice underperformer of the summer season; this weekend, it appears that THE HANGOVER PART III (Warners) may be the first unmitigated disaster.  According to preli...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Rookie Blue”

  It’s no small thing to be a scripted success on the broadcast networks during the summer, and while it’s never been a breakout hit, the fact that the Canadian series ROOKIE BLUE has made it to a 4th season on...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S THURSDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 5/23/13

  Welcome to summer TV.  Collectively, the broadcast networks declined 22% from the same night last year. NBC:  The network can’t get rid of the awful SAVE ME fast enough, as NBC is double-pumping it on Thursdays t...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND BOXOFFICE: “Fast & Furious 6” Debuts With Speed

  FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) is off to a quick start with $6.5M from Thursday night shows, considerably above the $3.8M that Fast Five made (only in midnight shows) in its Thursday start 2 years ago.  That bodes ver...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S Fall TV Ratings Predictions: Full Week Network Summary

  All this week, we’ve been giving you our predicted fall network ratings for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.  Let’s wind up our week of forecasts with an overview of how the fall is l...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

MEMORIAL DAY FRIDAY BOXOFFICE: “Fast & Furious 6” Runs Over “The Hangover 3”

  It wasn’t even a contest, let alone a drag race. FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) had a sensational $36M Thursday night/Friday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  That’s better than the $34.4M op...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

BEHIND THE FRIDAY BOXOFFICE – 5/24/13

  OPENINGS:  The $38.2M opening day for FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) was the 28th biggest opening day of all time–not bad for a franchise that was floundering without either of its original stars 3 movies ago. ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY MOVIE REVIEW: “Fast & Furious 6”

  It’s almost unheard-of for a franchise to need 5 installments to hit its stride, but that was the case with 2011’s Fast Five.  After kicking around with its first, moderately successful quartet in various lo...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED REVIEW: “Behind the Candelabra”

  We’re gradually discovering that Steven Soderbergh’s definition of “retirement” from filmmaking is a fairly narrow one.  It was recently announced that he plans to direct a new series for Cinemax...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

BEHIND THE WEEKEND BOXOFFICE – 5/26/13

  OPENINGS:  Saturday showed an 18% drop for FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal), but really the number was better than it looked, because “Friday” included $6.5M from Thursday night.  With that factored out, th...
by Mitch Salem