The Television Critics Association gatherings are taking place over the next few weeks, which means a steady flow of scheduling updates amidst the press conferences promoting upcoming shows.  Today was HBO’s day at the podium, and its major announcement was that the upcoming 5th season of BOARDWALK EMPIRE will be its final one, likely […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  CHICAGO PD held its 2.0 rating in final numbers, and remained stable through the hour, which is a good sign for the show.  REVOLUTION, though, sank 0.1 to 1.5, just barely over its series low, and the 10:30PM SUPER FUN NIGHT also lost 0.1 to 1.7.  The PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS gained 0.1 […]

Wednesday fast national ratings and relevant comparisons:

Weekend #2 of 2014 is looking like $100 million for the top 12 films, a pretty shabby total for a weekend that normal totals $125 million or more. Opening at around 2,700 theaters Friday (slightly below the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Lone Survivor from Universal should average about $8,200 per […]

  The polls close for Oscar nomination votes at 5PM today LA time, amid anecdotal reports of many last-minute ballots being cast in a season crowded with contenders.  There is much last-minute maneuvering going on, from the movie ads unusually swelling the LA Times’s Calendar section this midweek, to an insta-controversy about Meryl Streep’s speech […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  Nothing moved more than 0.1 from the morning numbers, with AGENTS OF SHIELD, NCIS and CHICAGO FIRE climbing that amount (the latter, still down for the week, moved into a tie with PERSON OF INTEREST at 10PM) while TROPHY WIFE sank to an even more woeful 1.1.  TUESDAY CABLE:  BET took the […]

  KILLER WOMEN:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – Worth A Look KILLER WOMEN can’t keep up the pace of its Kill Bill-inflected opening, but it’s a fun ride nonetheless.  The premise, adapted from an Argentine format (one of the producers is Sofia Vergara) by US series developer Hannah Shakespeare, is straightforwardly procedural:  Molly Parker (Tricia […]

  With a little over 24 hours before polls close for Oscar nomination voting (ballots must be submitted by 5PM tomorrow LA time), the big winners from today’s announcement of the Directors Guild nominees were Martin Scorsese and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET.  While it can never be considered a “surprise” for Scorsese to get […]