Another step toward the end of original programming on Fridays. CBS:  MADE IN JERSEY is the worst flop of the season’s first week, a disaster at 1.1 any way the numbers are cut.  The show could only tie a repeat of the low-rated Last Resort pilot, and started out even with Fringe, TV’s poster child […]

ABC’s Friday makes its season debut. ABC:  SHARK TANK, PRIMETIME and 20/20 all arrived for the new season with great consistency:  1.7/1.7/1.8.  That was enough to win every hour (and the night), although none too impressively considering that they were facing reruns in almost every direction. FOX:  What turned out to be a burned-off “bonus” […]

A night, sadly, for news shows. NBC:  We don’t know at this time what the ratings have been for the 24-hour cable news networks that have been covering the Aurora shootings non-stop since Thursday night.  Friday evening, the broadcast networks joined the coverage, and NBC devoted 2 primetime hours of DATELINE to the story, with about […]

  Step up, one and all, for the death-defying showdown of… 2 newsmagazines? ABC:  On another deadly summer Friday, 20/20 beat Dateline with a 1.3 as the only original programming aired by any broadcast network for the night.  A SHARK TANK rerun also won the 8PM hour. NBC:  DATELINE was right behind 20/20, but the […]

If the networks don’t care, why should the viewers? ABC:  ABC can take deep pride in being the only network last night to earn a rating over a 1, reaching all the way to a whopping 1.2 off a 20/20 with that score. NBC:  The only other network with anything original for the night scraped to […]