Author Archive
 

 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 12/25/13

  Reruns decked the halls on Christmas night. ABC:  THE MIDDLE and MODERN FAMILY led the way with1.3s, giving ABC the win. NBC:  Nothing in the network’s mix of rerun holiday specials and a repeat of Monday’s...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Community”

  COMMUNITY:  Thursday 8PM on NBC A few days ago, the NY Times had a fascinating article about Pei-Shen Qian, an artist who is almost but not quite a forger.  He doesn’t duplicate actual paintings of the masters; i...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED THURSDAY NETWORK/WEDNESDAY CABLE SCORECARD – 12/25-26/13

  Because of the holidays, all numbers other than morning network ratings are coming in a day late, so this post combines last night’s network with Wednesday’s cable results. WEDNESDAY CABLE TBS was the unquest...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Marked Ones” Stumbles To Start 2014

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount) is likely to win Friday but lose the weekend.  Its $8.5M start positions it not only to come in below the wide releases of all t...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: Status Mostly Quo

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline present a Friday box office in which few titles moved more than 10% from Thursday, typical for the Christmas-to-New Year’s period.  The top 2, once again, were FROZEN (Disney) and T...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 12/27/13

  RIP, Nikita. CW:  Nobody cared very much about NIKITA while it aired, and its series finale, virtually buried on a holiday week Friday (Univision topped all the English-language networks last night), got just as little ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

BEHIND THE FRIDAY BOX OFFICE – 12/27/13

  OPENINGS:  THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (Paramount/Red Granite) fell behind American Hustle on Friday, dropping 6% to $6.3M, but considering that it’s a polarizing, 3-hour, hard-R saga that people aren’t even sur...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

BEHIND THE WEEKEND BOX OFFICE – 12/29/13

  Truth be told, “weekend” box office doesn’t mean much in a week where Friday/Saturday/Sunday are no stronger than the weekdays that surround them, and virtually all the openings took place on Wednesday....
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Downton Abbey”

  DOWNTON ABBEY:  Sunday 9PM on PBS In its fourth season as the most successful regular series in PBS history, DOWNTON ABBEY operates as smoothly as a well-staffed ancestral estate.  Even though the larger subject of the...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 12/29/13

  NBC bid adieu for the season to its highest-rated show. NBC:  Despite speculation that the season’s finale of SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL would be a bust with Tony Romo out due to injury, the game turned out to be an ed...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: There Will Always Be An England (On US TV) – “Downton” Hits New High

  Millions of Americans desperately worried about the plight of widowed Lady Mary knew where to go for their fix of British aristocracy last night, as DOWNTON ABBEY reached yet another new historic high for PBS.  The Seas...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 12/31/13

  Happy New Year to all, as we dust off the last ratings of 2013: ABC:  NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN EVE, aka the Ryan Seacrest New Year’s Eve show, had no trouble disposing of NBC with a 3.7 that more than doubled the c...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

HOLIDAY BOX OFFICE: New Year’s Eve Still “Frozen”

  New Year’s Eve box office results were all over the place, with kids still home from school while adults chose some movies (but not others) as their picks to see out the year.  Also, not all studios have yet repor...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

2014: The 15 Most Promising Movies

  Audiences to Hollywood:  Happy New Year!  And… what have you done for us lately?  2013 turned out to be a terrific year for high-quality movies, with so many good films and performances that some will inevitably...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 1/1/14

  The first night of 2014 was the last of the network holiday blahs. CBS:  The Eye’s reruns scored better than anyone else’s, sparked by 1.3 for CRIMINAL MINDS. ABC:  CBS took the night, but MODERN FAMILY was...
by Mitch Salem