Author Archive
 

 

The Sked: The Sad Downward Slide of World Series Ratings

>Pity the poor Former National Pastime.  In the quarter century that Nielsen has used the PeopleMeter to measure demographic ratings, viewership of the World Series has dropped by more than half in the key advertising...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

STATUETTE STAKES: I’m First! No, I’M First!

> For many years, the National Board of Review has been the self-appointed first group on the calendar to announce awards for Best Picture and other categories.  The NBR is sort of like the Golden Globes without super-powe...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: Tuesday Ratings – Network Scorecard – 10/18/11

> 4.7.  That was last year’s World Series Game 1 rating in 18-49s, which appears to be the lowest Game 1 rating ever in the demo.  As FOX prepares to begin its St. Louis vs. Texas series tonight, that’s th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

The Sked: PROMO WATCH — Through Tuesday October 18

>On NBC, Grimm is now the network’s #1 promo priority, based on our sampling of programming over the past week.  Up All Night, which received almost a full minute of promo time in Parenthood last night, mov...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE STATUETTE STAKES: AFI Fest Announces Titles

> Los Angelenos will have a chance to get advance looks at some of this year’s Oscar candidates at the AFI Film Festival, which begins in just about 2 weeks.  Today the Festival announced the Gala and Special Screeni...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED: Monday Ratings – Network Scorecard – 10/17/11

> Comparisons to last Monday may be misleading, since due to baseball overrun that night, many shows aired either out of their normal timeslots or against atypical competition. FOX:  TERRA NOVA, for example, didn’t b...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED PILOT REPORT: ABC’S “Man Up” – PREMIERING TONIGHT

> Disclaimer:  Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall.  Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot.  So these critiques sh...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

The Sked: PROMO WATCH — Through Monday October 17

>On ABC, Man Up!, Revenge and Once Upon a Time are now the top three on-air promotion priorities over the past week.  Of course, Man Up! and Once Upon premiere this week, and ABC is clearly standing behind Revenge, which h...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

The Sked: Fast National Ratings Advisory

>The CW station in Miami, WSFL, will carry the Miami-New York Jets Monday Night Football game locally in primetime tonight.  So the fast nationals for Gossip Girl and Hart of Dixie will be inflated Tuesday morning.&nb...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED: “Walking Dead” Devours Ratings Records

> Frank Darabont who?  AMC returned THE WALKING DEAD to its schedule last night, and viewers were as ravenous for it as its monsters are for human flesh.  The show did an incredible 3.8 rating in 18-49s, outrating eve...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: Welcome To “Prime Suspect” Week On NBC

> PRIME SUSPECT had an awful 1.3 rating in 18-49s last week, despite NBC’s having given it a vote of confidence with an order for 6 additional scripts, which would allow for continuous production should the show receive a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED: Sunday Ratings – Network Scorecard – 10/16/11

> On a night when the most interesting rating is likely to be on cable (the return of Walking Dead on AMC), there wasn’t much good news for any broadcast network. ABC:  ONCE UPON A TIME is premiering 8PM next Sunday,...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

The Sked: PROMO WATCH — Update through Sunday October 16

>CBS promoted an incredible 18 different programs inside 60 Minutes Sunday night, with an average 15 seconds per promo.  With Andy Rooney out of the program, the network has more promo time in the hour until they reformat ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED REVIEW: The Return of The Walking (and Talking) Dead

> Since we last saw our rag-tag band of survivors, they’ve had to endure the loss of their leader, the man most responsible for mapping out their initial strategies and saving them along the way from all manner of deadly ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE STATUETTE STAKES: The Contenders (Part 3)

> Today we wind up SHOWBUZZDAILY‘s introduction of this year’s most promising Oscar contenders (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here, looking at those that could be called Also Eligible–they’re hoping just to...
by Mitch Salem