Author Archive
 

 

THE SKED: “Lucky 7” Isn’t, “The Blacklist” Gets Longer and More News

  A moment of silence for the first black bunting of the new season:  giving the lie to its title, the 0.7 rating that LUCKY 7 had in its second airing sealed its doom, making the lottery drama the season’s first fa...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

BEHIND THE FRIDAY BOX OFFICE – 10/4/13

  OPENINGS:  With a $17.5M Friday that should get it close to $50M for the weekend, GRAVITY (Warners) is the first of the year’s Oscar hopefuls to get both rapturous reviews (98% on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong audie...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED REVIEW: “Saturday Night Live” with Bruce Willis

  It’s relatively unusual for a movie star to host SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE without having something to plug, but this week Bruce Willis took the lead for his first turn since the days of the original Die Hard in 1989.  ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE – 10/5/13

  If preliminary numbers at Deadline hold, GRAVITY (Warners) will own the new record for all-time best October opening.  It had a superb $23.5M Saturday, up 35% from its $17.5M opening day, for what should be a $55M+ week...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED REVIEW: “Saturday Night Live” with Miley Cyrus

  Lorne Michaels has never been happy when primetime overruns push the start time of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, and he must like it even less in the DVR era, when many people on the East Coast will miss the last 27 minutes of to...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Hell On Wheels”

  Under new showrunner John Wirth, the third season of HELL ON WHEELS was on the whole uneven, and tonight’s season finale unfortunately wasn’t a very promising way for the bubble show to end its year. Wirth...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

BEHIND THE WEEKEND BOX OFFICE – 10/6/13

  OPENINGS:  We spent all summer hearing that it was impossible to sell audiences on big-budget non-franchise titles, as spectacles like White House Down, Pacific Rim, After Earth and The Lone Ranger went splat.  In one ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “The Walking Dead”

  THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC Devouring its showrunners much as zombie walkers do unwary or unlucky humans, THE WALKING DEAD returned tonight under the helm of its third leader, Scott M. Gimple, who’s been ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Witches Of East End”

  WITCHES OF EAST END:  Sunday 10PM on Lifetime – Potential DVR Alert The supernatural serial isn’t exactly a neglected genre on TV–this week alone brings the season debuts of American Horror Story and T...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Masters of Sex”

  MASTERS OF SEX:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Previously… on MASTERS OF SEX:  In 1956, brilliant but arrogant and socially awkward fertility expert William Masters (Michael Sheen) prepares to start his trailblazing re...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 10/6/13

  Note:  SHOWBUZZDAILY has adjusted the Sunday ratings below to estimate final nationals when west coast viewing of live events (NFL) is re-tallied, specifically for NBC and CBS (the latter had both a 44-minute overrun le...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Hello Ladies”

  HELLO LADIES:  Sunday 10:30PM on HBO Previously… on HELLO LADIES:  Stephen (Stephen Merchant) is a British web designer who lives in LA, where he has a very nice house and two friends:  woeful, newly-separated W...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S NIELSENWAR: 2 Weeks In

  So… how’s it going? We’ve completed 2 full weeks of the 2013-14 broadcast TV season, and while there are still a few arrivals on the way (notably ABC’s Once Upon A Time in Wonderland and the NBC F...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “We Are Men”

  WE ARE MEN:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS Previously… on WE ARE MEN:  Carter (Chris Smith), whose recent engagement stopped short of the altar, has joined a colony of men without women at a San Fernando Valley apartment ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Hart of Dixie”

  HART OF DIXIE:  Monday 8PM on CW It’s a strange thing to say about an airy, cornpone rom-com, but HART OF DIXIE is the most grounded show on the CW schedule.  None of the characters have supernatural powers; ther...
by Mitch Salem