It’s time to gather for the 2020 Academy Awards, which… may be the most boring in recent memory.  The favorites currently seem to be overwhelming, and with no host to carry us through the proceedings, if 1917, Sam Mendes, Joaquin Phoenix, Renee Zellweger, Brad Pitt and Laura Dern win, it’s going to be a […]

  Note:  All times PST 5:01PM:  Wasting no time, here’s Ricky Gervais with his first monologue since the very different world of 2016.  5:02PM:  Not exactly testing the limits with jokes about “Wild Hogs” and Joe Pesci whacking people. 5:05PM:  The crowd hasn’t had enough to drink yet to even pretend this monologue is funny. […]

  Movie audiences can’t get enough of watching things blow up, and tonight’s ACADEMY AWARDS has the potential to explode before our very eyes.  Everyone knows the litany of what’s gone awry along the way, from the host/no-host mess, to the Most Popular Film Oscar that never was, to the foiled attempt to hold the […]

6:30 We’ve arrived at that strangest phenomenon of awards season, the night when we collectively grant the 88 nonentities of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (none of them filmmakers, many of them not even critics, and some of them of dubious principle) meaningful sway over the Academy Awards.  That will be even more true this […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  THE LAST DEFENSE had a particularly ignominious exit, losing 0.1 in final numbers for a 0.3 finale.           Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Discovery’s SHARK WEEK originals for the night were LAWS OF JAWS and AIR JAWS: THE HUNTED both at […]

  The awards may be boring at tonight’s Oscars–Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman, Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney and Guillermo del Toro seem to be sure things–but the politics should be fascinating, as host Jimmy Kimmel and the show’s presenters and winners attempt to navigate a #TimesUp and still #OscarsSoWhite moment.  And no matter how predictable the […]

  NBC didn’t give GREAT NEWS much of a (seasonal?) send-off. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). Ratings […]

  It’s not hyperbole to say that the stakes are higher for tonight’s GOLDEN GLOBES than they’ve ever been before.  On the awards front, a full set of wide-open Oscar races means that most Globe winners will become instant Academy Awards favorites.  Meanwhile, on the broader level, the Globes will be Hollywood’s first major awards […]