We’re continuing with our 18-49 ratings predictions for the fall 2014 TV season.  As before, these predictions cover September 22 (the official start of the new season ) through December 7, and our views on the new series are based on looks at the trailers released last week.  We’ve already surveyed the fall’s Big […]

  AMERICAN CRIME:  Sunday 9PM Midseason on ABC THE FACTS:  John Ridley, this year’s Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar winner for 12 Years A Slave, has written a serialized crime drama very specifically about race, in which a Latino teen is arrested for the murder of the son of Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman. WHAT IT’S […]

    BLACK-ISH:  Wednesday 9:30PM on ABC THE FACTS:  Anthony Anderson plays the head of an African-American family that lives a prosperous life in a mostly white neighborhood, and he tries to hold onto some part of his culture even though his assimilated kids, wife and father mostly couldn’t care less.  The series creator is […]

  The midseason part of the broadcast network schedule kicks off in a few hours, and we’ve spent the past few days taking a look at ABC, CBS and NBC.  Today it’s the turn of the most critical patient in the quartet. FOX Fall Primetime 18-49 Average (through December 28):  1.58, down 17.8% from Fall […]

  Once again, CW demonstrated that it operates under different economics than the other broadcast networks.  Much of its revenue comes from episodes streamed online via Netflix and Hulu, which makes sometimes puny on-air ratings acceptable.  Also, virtually everything it airs is produced by one of its in-house studios, Warner Bros Television or CBS Television […]

  According to Advertising Age, advertisers have begun to buy time on the broadcast networks for the 2014-15 TV season, which is the whole reason the hoopla of the “Upfronts” exists in the first place.  There are two basic components to each of these sales (although they can become quite intricate):  the rate that buyers […]

  Last week, the glamorous part of the network “Upfronts” took place, largely for viewer and media purposes:  hordes of new shows were announced, stars were trotted out, executives madly spun this past season’s numbers so that every decline looked like a triumph, gala parties were held.  This week, however, the real Upfronts kick into […]

  SCORPION:  Monday 9PM on CBS THE FACTS:  A group of nerdy genius goofballs works with the government to solve high-tech emergencies–based on a true story.  Elyes Gabel is Walter O’Brien, the leader of the nerd squad, Robert Patrick is their exasperated supervisor, and Katharine McPhee is the token normal girl, a waitress with a […]