> When AMC was done confirming (but not explaining) Frank Darabont’s ex-showrunner status at The Walking Dead and swearing they’ll never, ever do anything like the season finale of The Killing again, they found time at the Television Critics Association gathering today to announce a premiere date for their new drama HELL ON WHEELS.  The […]

  Night 3 of the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION was up slightly from Tuesday’s preliminary numbers at 0.3/0.3/0.3, but a bit below last week’s parallel night for the Democrats (0.3/0.3/0.4).  The disparity was more pronounced in aggregate 2+ ratings for the 3 networks, where last night was at 4.9M (down 500K from Tuesday) and the Democratic […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #44 of 2014 looks like $76 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down a big 38% the norm for this weekend ($123 million), which admittedly does not usually have Halloween ruining it by falling on Friday. Opening at 2,766 theaters, Nightcrawler from Open Road Films grossed $3.2 million Friday and […]

  So much for that FLASH crossover bounce for SUPERGIRL. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary 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 […]

  This morning, preliminary ratings had NBC’s REVOLUTION tying its series-low 2.2 rating.  But that turned out to be the good news.  When final numbers were released this afternoon, Revolution fell an unusually heavy 0.2 to a new low 2.0.  That put it behind ABC’s CASTLE for the night–and this was a Monday with a […]

In a battle of reality competitions (and that’s not even including the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION), NBC came out on top. NBC:  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT had the highest number of the night with a 2.5, and an 8PM rerun scored a 1.4.  The Peacock continued to lead Convention coverage with a preliminary 1.3. CBS:  BIG BROTHER […]

>Steven Spielberg week on Broadway continues:  after War Horse, the director’s next film, we have CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, based on his 2002 comedy-drama (that film was written by Jeff Nathanson).   Spielberg’s movie may have been the sleekest entertainment of his career, a near-perfect piece of craft that boasted two great star performances from […]

  Year-end awards from critics groups have two purposes in the big-picture (which is to say the Oscar) context.  In the aggregate, if enough of the groups are in agreement to form a consensus, they can make an accolade seem like an established fact–sort of a “how could you dare to ignore this?” message.  (Although […]