Author Archive
 

 

THE SKED Review: “Saturday Night Live” with Melissa McCarthy

  The unquestionable highlight of tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was brief but heartfelt:  the tail-end of Weekend Update, as Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen (wordlessly, as wandering sight-impaired former NY...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Black Sails”

  BLACK SAILS:  Saturday 9PM on Starz Previously… on BLACK SAILS:  In 1715, Nassau and the waters around it weren’t yet controlled by any government, and existed instead as the domain of independent pirates a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

On Philip Seymour Hoffman

  Philip Seymour Hoffman, now ridiculously,  shockingly dead at 46, had two films at Sundance this year, and as will always happen, the way one thinks of those movies changes in the light of this awful event. Neither film...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

NIELSENWAR: The Value of a Super Bowl, and Midseason, Part I

  Everyone knows that the Super Bowl is by far the highest rated show of each season, but what does it mean for a network’s big picture?  Here were the season-to-date averages for the broadcast networks as of a week...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

UPDATED: THE SKED CABLE/NETWORK SCORECARD – 2/3/14

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER had one of the biggest non-sports adjustments in memory, regaining all of the half-point it had appeared to lose from last week in the morning numbers and returning to 3.8.  Good fo...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED: “House of Cards” Keeps Standing

  We don’t know how many people actually watch HOUSE OF CARDS, because Netflix keeps that information as close to its corporate vest as Francis Underwood keeps his doublecrossing strategies, but we know that Netflix ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “The Sleepwalker”

  For SHOWBUZZDAILY’s full set of Sundance capsule reviews, click here.   What kind of filmmaker does Mona Fastvold want to be?  It’s an existential question that comes up often at Sundance, where artisti...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

UPDATED: THE SKED CABLE/NETWORK SCORECARD – 2/4/14

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  No good news in the final numbers for FOX, as NEW GIRL and BROOKLYN NINE-NINE stayed as is.  All changes were of the 0.1 variety:  up for NCIS, AGENTS OF SHIELD and THE ORIGINALS, down for NCIS LA, THE ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SKEDBALL: Are You Ready For Some Thursday Night CBS Football?

  CBS has won the competition to carry 8 fall NFL games on Thursday nights.  Price wasn’t disclosed, but the network is believed to be paying in the neighborhood of $300M for the games, or about $37.5M per game.  (...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE FILM REVIEW: “Hellion”

  Of all the films in this year’s US Dramatic Competition at Sundance, Kat Candler’s HELLION was the one that most closely matched what’s become a festival template: Aggressively shaky handheld camerawork...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: “The Michael J. Fox Show” Is (All But Officially) Done

  NBC was desperate to get Michael J. Fox back on its air, so much so that it ordered 22 episodes of his series before a pilot had even been produced.  But viewers had much less interest in Fox’s return, especially ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 2/5/14

  The last pre-Olympics night for a while. FOX:  AMERICAN IDOL reached Hollywood and leveled out, up 0.1 from last week to 3.9. ABC:  THE MIDDLE dropped 0.1 to 2.2, and SUBURGATORY was down 0.1 to 1.7 from its last airin...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: Jay Leno Exits (Again)

  For a determinedly noncontroversial guy, there may not have been a television figure in the last twenty-five years more scrutinized than Jay Leno.  He stood at the media epicenter in the 1990s, when he warred with David...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “The Monuments Men”

  THE MONUMENTS MEN:  Watch It At Home – George Clooney’s Film Is No Classic Work of Art George Clooney’s THE MONUMENTS MEN is a startlingly complete failure.  It’s Clooney’s fifth film behi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

UPDATED: THE SKED CABLE/NETWORK & OLYMPICS RATINGS SCORECARD – 2/6/14

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  The WINTER OLYMPICS climbed 0.2 in final numbers, as did  THE BIG BANG THEORY.  AMERICAN IDOL and 2 1/2 MEN were both up 0.1, while THE MILLERS had the only drop, down 0.1. THURSDAY CABLE:  PAWN STARS ...
by Mitch Salem