Through February 4 (20 weeks into this broadcast season), CBS leads with a 2.70 rating with adults 18-49, followed by NBC (2.40), FOX (2.19) and ABC (1.83).  But very soon, FOX will move past NBC in the season averages and is not likely to let go of second place. Looking at the rest of the […]

A bad night for most. CBS:  SURVIVOR returned from its hiatus with its lowest cycle premiere ever, a 2.4 that was down 0.7 from last Spring’s start.  The show ran 90 minutes, and CBS filled in the gap with a 1.6 BIG BANG THEORY rerun before CSI had a 2.1, just barely ahead of the […]

  It’s time to start hoping Netflix, or cable, or some other outlet with good taste and cash to burn will save HAPPY ENDINGS.  ABC, in a vote of no confidence, announced today that it’s yanking the sitcom from its Tuesday 9PM slot and after about 6 weeks off the air, will stick back-to-back episodes […]

The 7th weekend of 2013 looks like it will be down from prior years but not at the excessive rates we have seen the past few weekends.  We expect $121 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 6% to 15% below the normal pace for this weekend.   Opening in 3,552 theaters Thursday, A Good […]

Thanks to the State of the Union Address, there was virtually no original programming on the broadcast networks last night. ABC:  You’d think things were set up perfectly for THE TASTE to overperform, with nothing but reruns against it in the pre-speech 8PM slot, but it only managed to tie CBS for the hour, falling […]

The Following is losing its own. FOX:  After two strong weeks to start, THE FOLLOWING had its second consecutive ratings drop, this time falling a serious 0.5 to an only moderately positive 2.4, just good enough for 3rd place in its hour.  BONES was also down for the week, but less steeply, falling 0.2 to […]

  Last night’s midseason premiere of THE WALKING DEAD was disappointingly sluggish, uncompelling, and in its ending, downright silly.  None of that mattered at all to its hordes of fans, though.  The show returned with a gigantic 5.7 rating in 18-49s for its 9PM airing alone (against The Grammys, no less), outrating everything on network […]

  It’s always an advantage for shows to know they’re being renewed as quickly as possible.  With that security in hand, they can shore up their writing staffs before newly-ordered series begin making their picks, start preparation for next season’s production, and in the case of increasingly plot-heavy serialized dramas, begin planning out the story […]