>American Idol is still way down from last year, but last night’s episode ticked from the past few weeks.  But The Voice also had a good week — so Idol remains behind the pace of the upstart singing show.  NBC shuffled Wednesday again, giving Rock Center yet another time period.  But the news magazine and […]

Lingerie beats larynxes. CBS:  The VICTORIA’S SECRET FASHION SHOW, while down almost a ratings point from last year’s installment, still scored as the highest-rated show of the night (doubling recent numbers for Vegas in the hour), its rating more than those of ABC and NBC combined.  Earlier in the evening, the 48-year old RUDOLPH THE […]

  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony) launched with 7PM screenings last night and earned $8.7M, which was considerably below expectations.  Although Amazing 2 topped the opening night for the first Amazing, that one started on a Tuesday (of July 4th week), so comparisons aren’t apples-to-apples.  The more applicable comparison may be that Amazing 2 started 15% […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL adjusted to 5.6, down 0.4 from last week’s game.  Elsewhere, THE SIMPSONS fell 0.5 after football adjustment, while BLESS THE HARTS, BOB’S BURGERS and 60 MINUTES lost 0.1.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  It’s a familiar story […]

  So:  what do we know now that we didn’t know a week ago? THE SWALLOWS AREN’T RETURNING TO CAPISTRANO.  Generally speaking, the TV season has a dynamic that repeats each year.  Every fall, viewers turn up in broad numbers for the launch of new series and return of old favorites, and as the season […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were significant adjustments (to the next tenth) for TO TELL THE TRUTH, NCIS, FBI: MOST WANTED and the rerun of THIS IS US.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  History’s CURSE OF OAK ISLAND gained 0.04 to 0.62, with the […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  NOTE–Because of the NFL preseason preemptions on Friday night, comparisons are to last Friday’s numbers rather than the Saturday morning preliminaries.  ABC:  the SHARK TANK rerun was steady at 0.9, and WHAT WOULD YOU DO and 20/20 were each down 0.1 to 0.9 and 0.8.  CBS:  all the reruns were down, ELEMENTARY and HAWAII […]

Last night’s Winter Olympic coverage on NBC in primetime averaged a 4.9 adult 18-49 rating from 8:00-11:00 pm, but that rating increases to a 5.2 if the 8:00-8:30 half hour is excluded for being free of national commercials.  Either way, it’s a disaster for a night containing the finals of Ladies’ Figure Skating, THE marquee […]