> Don’t get too excited about that increase in SMASH‘s 18-49 rating last night, because it just vanished.  In the final Nielsen numbers, Smash came back down to the same 2.3 number it had last week.  (Castle was also lowered a tenth of a point.)   The lower number is nothing to panic about.  The final […]

  Another night of finales that were fairly steady for this season, but down significantly from 2018. 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 […]

> MISSING:  Premieres Thursday 8PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… If you’ve seen any of the commercials for ABC’s new MISSING, you know that it’s basically Ashley Judd playing Liam Neeson’s role in Taken, and on the basis of the pilot, really that’s all you need to know.  The show is pure […]

> Maybe everyone went to see The Hunger Games last night. FOX:  With lower than usual competition on all the other networks, TOUCH debuted with its first regular episode to a 3.3 that wasn’t as good as it looked.  This was probably the last time the show won’t face new episodes from any of The […]

> This marks the conclusion of SHOWBUZZDAILY‘s pre-Upfronts survey of the broadcast networks, as they reach the conclusion of the current season and decision-making time for the next.  Previously this week, Mitch Metcalf, veteran programming executive Ted Frank and I reviewed the challenges and potential strategies for FOX, ABC, and NBC, which leaves us with […]

> When you’re NBC, even a 1.8 rating can look good. NBC:  PARKS & RECREATION returned to the schedule last night in the 9:30PM slot, with a 1.8 that was far better than the 1.2-1.5 that Up All Night had been getting there.  Parks held 80% of its lead-in from THE OFFICE (which tied last […]

  NOTE:  Due to the slew of preemptions for July 4th, almost all comparisons are to 2 weeks ago. 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 […]

NBC led the broadcast networks last night with a 1.6 Adult 18-49 rating from 7-11 pm in the preliminary fast nationals, although ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals and HBO’s Game of Thrones are certain to pull ahead when the cable ratings are available tomorrow morning.  NBC started relatively slowly with Dateline at […]