Author Archive
 

 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “The Assets”

  THE ASSETS:  Thursday 10PM on ABC – Change the Channel It’s easy enough to see why ABC would like to be in the spy-TV business.  Homeland, whatever its flaws, is a major hit, and The Americans, while not as...
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
 

 

 

OSCARLAND: Producers Guild Nominations

  The calendar has turned to 2014, and the critics, for the most part, have spoken.  Now Oscar season is moving into the Guild part of its schedule, and today the Producers Guild announced its Best Picture nominees.  The...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

New Year’s Box Office: Big Day At the Multiplex; “Wolf” Zooms

  Everything went up at the New Year’s Day box office (bringing to an end the holiday bounty), but to wildly varying degrees.  Business should fall today and rise tomorrow and Saturday, but not to a point equal to N...
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
 

 
 

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
 

 

 

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
 

 
 

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
 

 

 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 12/30/13

  At least there was a little variety in which reruns scored best last night. CBS:  It was MIKE & MOLLY on top with a 1.5 rerun, and 2 BROKE GIRLS behind it at 1.4, both ahead of the usual leader, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHE...
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 Series Finale Review: “Treme”

  TV is a little poorer for the loss of TREME, a series that never fully received the appreciation–from viewers or critics–that it deserved.  Even a bit watered down from its usual density in a last season of ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Getting On”

  HBO’s GETTING ON was generally close to unwatchable, and that’s meant as sort of a compliment.  Even in the world of pay-TV, where ratings aren’t always at the forefront of a network’s expectatio...
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
 

 
 

EARLY SATURDAY BOX OFFICE: “Hobbit” Back On Top, “American Hustle” Strong

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline suggest that more adults showed up at the multiplexes for the Saturday of this holiday weekend, boosting some of the less family-centric attractions.  THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG ...
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