Author Archive
 

 

OSCARLAND: The Nominations and Instant Analysis

  …and now it’s all real.  AMERICAN HUSTLE and GRAVITY lead the Academy Award nominations with 10 each, with 12 YEARS A SLAVE right behind at 9, and those three are probably the leading candidates for Best Pic...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

UPDATED: THE SKED CABLE/NETWORK SCORECARD – 1/15/14

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  AMERICAN IDOL gained 0.1 in final numbers, but at 4.7, it was still nowhere near last year’s 6.0 premiere.  SVU, SUPER FUN NIGHT and THE TOMORROW PEOPLE all lost 1.0 from their already unimpressive...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: Showtime Premiere Dates

  It’s Showtime’s turn at TCA, so along with announcing some series pick-ups (Happyish with Philips Seymour Hoffman, and the probably self-explanatory The Affair), some premiere dates were unveiled. On Sunday, ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Film Review: “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”

  JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT:  Watch It At Home – Tom Clancy’s Hero Is Plugged Into A Routine Action Movie The fourth movie incarnation of Tom Clancy’s emblematic hero Jack Ryan (in 5 films) finds him muc...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Obvious Child”

  A surprisingly commercial concoction by Sundance standards, Gillian Robespierre’s OBVIOUS CHILD doesn’t feel very much unlike the pilot for a cable dramedy.  That’s not meant as any kind of dire crit...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 1/16/14

  American Idol‘s woes continued last night.  (So did everyone else’s.) FOX:  On a year-to-year basis, Thursday’s plunge for AMERICAN IDOL was even worse than Wednesday’s, down an awful 1.7 from last ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Ride Along” In the Driver’s Seat

  Although it also stars (and is produced by) Ice Cube, RIDE ALONG (Universal) goes down in the books as a big win for Kevin Hart, the focus of the movie’s marketing campaign.  Based on preliminary numbers at The Ho...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 1/17/14

  FOX:  Any hope that ENLISTED could find itself some helpful word-of-mouth faded as its 2d episode fell 0.1 from the premiere to 0.6.  It was again 0.1 below RAISING HOPE, itself down 0.1 to 0.7.  Neither could compla...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the Friday Box Office – 1/17/14

  OPENINGS:  Kevin Hart has been hanging around the edges of being a movie star for a few years now, and RIDE ALONG (Universal) makes it official.  With a $14.5M Friday start, it could challenge Cloverfield for the Marti...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Review: “Saturday Night Live” with Drake

  Tonight’s footnote to SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE history was that it featured the debut of new cast member Sasheer Zamata, who is, not incidentally, an African-American woman–“not incidentally” only beca...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the Weekend Box Office – 1/19/14

  OPENINGS:  After a 15% Saturday bump to $16.7M, RIDE ALONG (Universal) seems assured of beating Cloverfield‘s $46.1M record for the 4-day Martin Luther King Day weekend (Ride Along is reporting $41.2M for Fri-Sun,...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “The Following”

  THE FOLLOWING:  Monday 9PM on FOX (starting Jan 27) The blood-drenched, increasingly grandiose literary pretensions of THE FOLLOWING grew tiresome by the end of last season’s run.  It seemed like very good news t...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Looking”

  LOOKING:  Sunday 10:30PM on HBO – Worth A Look HBO’s LOOKING is distinctive for the obvious reason that it’s a dramedy about gay characters, of a completely different order than the network universe of...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 1/19/14

  Things went about as expected on the night of the NFC Championship Game. NBC:  We expect the NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME to adjust to 18.8 once west coast timezones are taken into account.  You can find more detail about the foo...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 1/20/14

  Anybody want to debate the importance of a lead-in from The Voice? NBC:  For the second consecutive week, THE BLACKLIST had a reduced, non-Voice lead-in (this week it was the season premiere of HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT, its...
by Mitch Salem