>With eight nights of ratings in for the May Sweep (official ratings for April 26-May 2 and fast national ratings for May 3), here’s an early look at the final major ratings sweep period of the broadcast season, when ratings are measured locally in each of the 214 television markets across the country.  The numbers […]

  Here’s a scary factoid for the studios.  In 2013, 5 movies opened in May/June that reached over $200M in the US alone, and none of those movies had a total lower than $228.8M.  This year, as we head to mid-June, it doesn’t look like any of the summer openings will get that high.  (The […]

    The Peacock is clearly trying to get the jump on next week’s Upfronts with some early series orders.  The advantage of early announcements, even apart from the possibility that NBC will launch some of its new shows in August post-Olympics, is that it enables the production studios to make quick offers to writers […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  No changes from this morning, as MOTIVE and SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE retained their increases from last week. WEDNESDAY CABLE:  DUCK DYNASTY (A&E) was the highest-rated cable show of the night, but it was down a further 0.3 to 1.5 after last week’s tumble from the previous season’s premiere.  It […]

      Even with finales on hand, nothing stirred viewers. FOX:  THE FINDER aired what turned out to be its series finale and FRINGE had its season finale, with a respective 1.1 and 1.0, up very slightly for both.   CBS:  A night of underperforming season finales.  UNDERCOVER BOSS took a big hit, down […]

  On Friday, the big alien robots blew things up. OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount) got the Friday it was hoping for, the biggest day of 2014 at $41.6M, and one that gives the blockbuster a strong (although not certain) chance to hit the magic $100M mark on Sunday.  In addition, Transformers 4 earned $52M […]

  It’s appropriate for GOSSIP GIRL, of all shows, that news about it be conveyed via online buzz.  That buzz says that the series’ upcoming 6th season will be shortened and final–and really, it’s time.  Past time, in fact.  The show has reached that point where its characters are simply being moved around like chess […]

  A bad night for WWE SMACKDOWN. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day 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 analysis follows […]