Our soothsaying group of former NBC head of Scheduling Mitch Metcalf, longtime head of NBC Current Programming Ted Frank and myself is continuing to set out instant, perhaps foolhardy predictions of what next fall’s primetime ratings will be.  Yesterday we covered Monday, and appropriately enough, it’s now time for a look at a Tuesday [...]

Updated telecast rankings for the week ending Sunday.

  Viewers have started to exit the season before it’s even ended, as neither premieres nor finales excited anyone last night. NBC:  THE VOICE, as usual, won the night for NBC, but with its lowest-rated Monday episode ever, a 3.4 that was down 0.4 from last week.  In that context, REVOLUTION looked good by holding [...]

Projected weekly network ratings in prime time (based on four days of official nationals and three days of fast nationals).  ABC wins the week, thanks mostly to the Billboard Music Awards, which is up 30% over the 2012 version, making up for declines on the rest of the schedule.  With the finale of American Idol, FOX is [...]

The second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown was up versus last year (the pre-race coverage was up 24-49% versus last year, while the race coverage was up only 9% versus last year).  Certainly, millions of TV sets were immediately shut off when Orb (winner of the Kentucky Derby failed miserably in the Preakness).  The [...]

  The Upfronts are over, which means the real Upfronts are about to begin–that is, the networks’ advance sale of advertising time (usually about 80% of the season’s total) for the Fall 2013 TV season.  Although last week’s Upfront presentations now serve a marketing and publicity purpose as well, their original–and still most important–goal is [...]

Live awards shows have been surging in the DVR age, and last night it happened again. ABC:  The BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS blew away the competition with a 3.6 (peaking at 3.9 in the 9-9:30PM half-hour), the show’s highest rating in 10 years and up a huge 1.2 from last year.  Before that, the season finale [...]

Looking at wide-release films in North America (those that play on at least 400 screens at some point), 2013 now totals just over $3.1 billion, down 13% from 2012 and down 5% from the prior four-year average 2009-2012.  Still a very mediocre year.  Each year-to-date period below is defined as the first Monday after New [...]