Everyone knew that FURIOUS 7 (MRC/Universal) was going to have an enormous weekend, but the franchise is toppling even the most optimistic forecasts.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, opening day (which includes $15.8M from Thursday night shows) could reach $68M, an amazing 75% increase over the first day of Fast & Furious 6, which […]

  The Friday before a holiday weekend is a time-honored day to release bad news, but one of today’s events was a good one:  the announcement that HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER will return for a 9th and presumably final season, at the end of which we will finally really and truly know who the mother is. […]

The networks oh-so-slowly began to climb out of their holiday cave. NBC:  What did PARENTHOOD ever do to justify its treatment by NBC?  The show has been subject to every kind of indignity throughout its run, and last night the network, in a rush to clear the decks of new episodes (to make way for […]

Here are the full week sports ratings for Monday December 7 through Sunday December 13, 2020.  Eligible programs include sporting events on broadcast and cable networks (minimum audience size 200K Persons 2+ live+same day).  Programs are grouped by sport and ranked within each sport by P2+ audience size. For comparison, here is the similar chart […]

> THOUGHTS ON ABC’S SCHEDULE (AND OUR PREDICTIONS) FALL COMEDIES FALL DRAMAS MIDSEASON COMEDIES MIDSEASON DRAMAS ABC ANALYSIS     CBS ANALYSIS     NBC ANALYSIS     FOX ANALYSIS     CW ANALYSIS

  In any given year, there are perhaps 15 movies that can even be seriously entertained in a Best Picture conversation, so with the combination of a potential 10 Oscar nominees under the new rules and the weeks of preliminary awards, Top 10 Lists, predictions and speculations that occupy the weeks preceding the announcement, the […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were no meaningful adjustments to the preliminary Saturday primetime ratings (i.e., changes that would alter the original rating by at least one-tenth of a point).          Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  The holiday weekend continued to be sports-heavy.  NFL Network’s […]

> Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides fell short of the magic number for early weekday box office (Monday-Tuesday combined), suggesting lower than average long-term playability. During its first Monday-Tuesday in release (May 23-24), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides grossed $14.2 million, or about 16% of the film’s opening weekend tally.  When […]