Fallon Has Strong Return to Late-Night TV March 3, 2009 4:06 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
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Jimmy Fallon’s return to late-night TV drew strong ratings last night. The Monday night debut of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon drew a 2.3/8 HH rating/share in metered-market households. That’s the highest rating for the franchise since January 2006.
In terms of previous performances, it was up 35% over the time slot’s previous season-to-date average (1.7 rating) and Fallon’s 55% retention from his Leno lead-in was slightly better than the 46% average lead-in for the season-to-date.
Also important, Fallon out-rated all his competition, including CBS’s Ferguson (1.7) and he beat Kimmel in the 12:30am head-to-head matchup (2.7 vs. 2.3 for Kimmel).
Source: TV Week
ABC Cancels Life on Mars March 2, 2009 11:15 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in ABC, Cancellations, News, Television.Tags: Life on Mars
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ABC has notified the producers of Life on Mars that they won’t be ordering any additional episodes beyond the 17 currently in the works for the season, effectively canceling the show, reports TV Week. While the news will certainly disappoint fans, the early decision by ABC (who could have waited until as late as May) means that the producers will be able to write and film a worthy ending to the series.
Production is actually expected to continue for at least a few more weeks and the season finale is expected to air no later than early April.
“We felt it was the right thing to do for the producers and the fans and creatively,” ABC Entertainment Group President Steve McPherson said.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Sunday, March 1, 2009 March 2, 2009 8:11 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.2 comments
Broadcast TV Ratings for Saturday, February 28, 2009 March 1, 2009 6:59 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Saturday
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WonderCon 2009: Mitch Hurwitz Provides Arrested Development Movie Update March 1, 2009 6:30 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Movies, News, Television.Tags: Arrested Development, Mitch Hurwitz, WonderCon 2009
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During the panel presentation for Mitch Hurwitz’s new Fox animated show Sit Down, Shut Up on, the Arrested Development creator was asked by the moderator if he could provide an update on the highly-anticipated movie adaption of the show. Here’s what Hurwitz said:
“Here’s what’s going on with the movie,” Hurwitz told the audience of his fans. “Everyone goes off and has careers and that kind of thing, so it’s been a little challenging to schedule everybody together, but everyone who has agreed to make this movie has agreed to make this movie, and we’re going to make the movie. I haven’t written it yet, so I’ll be accepting pitches. We’re determined to do this.”
“It was a great joy and privilege, all kidding aside, to do a show that took risks and with such a wonderful cast and wonderful writers,” he continued. “For us, it’s irresistible. Here’s an interesting thing about it. When we did the show, one of the things that really made it work is that we didn’t hold ourselves up to any standard. We got a lot of positive critical recommendations, but we even kind of ignored those and just did what was funny to us, and kind of remained the underdog in a great way. It was very clear early on that we weren’t going to be a big hit, so it really was a labor of love. Now suddenly, there is a bar to hit. I think the key to this is once we get as many pieces as we’re going to, which appears we have, we’ll just dive in and have fun and see if we can create the same thing. But we’re excited about it.”
Source: ComingSoon.net
Broadcast TV Ratings for Friday, February 27, 2009 February 28, 2009 5:49 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Friday
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Six Promo Clips from Rescue Me Season Five February 27, 2009 8:04 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in FX, Television, Video Clips.Tags: Rescue Me
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Here are six new promos for the upcoming fifth season premiere of FX’s Rescue Me, which is just a little over five weeks away (Tuesday, April 7th at 10:00pm).
Click through the jump to check out the other six. (more…)
Watchmen Character Profiles To Premiere on NBC Networks February 27, 2009 5:12 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Movies, NBC Universal, News, Television, Warner Brothers.Tags: NBC, Sci Fi, USA Network, Watchmen
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NBC Universal has announced that video profiles for six characters (Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach, Ozymandias, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre II and The Comedian) from Zack Snyder’s Watchmen will air during the programming of shows on NBC, USA and SCI FI, gearing up for the film’s theatrical release on March 6, 2009.
NBC has released a short preview clip on NBC.com giving us a taste of what’s the come (watch the clip embedded below):
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Here’s the schedule of what’s planned:
March 1: Clip montage featuring Dr. Manhattan airs exclusively during National Treasure on USA Network.
March 2: Clip montage featuring Rorschach airs exclusively during Heroes on NBC.
March 4: Clip montage featuring Ozymandias airs exclusively during Ghost Hunters International on SCI FI.
March 5: Clip montage featuring Nite Owl airs exclusively during Battlestar Galactica on SCI FI.
March 5: Clip montage featuring Silk Spectre II airs exclusively during Burn Notice on USA Network.
March 5: Clip montage featuring The Comedian airs exclusively during 30 Rock on NBC.
Following their network airings, the clips will be available for viewing on nbc.com/watchmen.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Thursday, February 26, 2009 February 27, 2009 4:12 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Thursday
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American Idol’s second elimination episode led Fox to a win last night, but it wasn’t as dominate a performance as one may have suspected and the episode drew a season-low 20.66 million viewers. That was a decline of 17% (among viewers) from last week’s first elimination episode, and 21% in adults 18-49 rating.
Following American Idol was an original episode of Hell’s Kitchen which managed to post better retention levels than the last time it aired out of an episode of American Idol.
In second place was CBS, whose best performance of the night was among households, where it just barely lost out to Fox (8.8 vs. an 8.7 rating). The network was paced by the night’s second-most watched show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which with Grey’s Anatomy in repeat, managed a slight increase in viewers (+5%). The show underperformed in A18-49 rating, however, tying with Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen with a 4.4 rating for the hour.
ABC aired an almost full night of repeats (Ugly Betty was new), but still managed a third place finish (ahead of NBC) among households and viewers.
Top Chef Season Five Finale Second-Highest-Rated Episode Ever February 27, 2009 2:36 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Bravo, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Cable TV Ratings, Top Chef
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UPDATE: I’ve added the Bravo press release, which I missed earlier, and updated the article to reflect a more complete ratings picture.
The original article follows below.
Wednesday’s Top Chef season five finale on Bravo drew a 2.5/4 HH rating/share, 3.74 million viewers and a 2.1/6 adults 18-49 rating/share, becoming the show’s second-highest-rated episode. The episode grew 11% over last year’s finale and was just one-tenth of a point behind season 2’s record high. The 2.1 A18-49 rating translates to 2.77 million viewers in the demo, making for an incredibly impressive 74% of its total audience.
Here’s a bit more from the Bravo press release:
This season, “Top Chef: New York” averaged 2.14 million adults 18-49 and 3.02 million total viewers. Versus season four, the show is up 18 percent in adults 18-49 (vs. 1.81 million) and 19 percent in total viewers (vs. 2.54 million). Season-to-date, the series ranks No.1 for all cable entertainment in its Wednesday 10 p.m. time period among adults 18-49 and total viewers, and with the finale, the series also marked its fifth consecutive week of gains in those demographics.
The full press release, which also includes data for The Real Housewives of Orange County, follows after the jump. (more…)
Tiger Woods Return to Golf Draws Record Audience for Golf Channel February 27, 2009 1:41 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Golf Channel, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Sports, Television.Tags: Cable TV Ratings, Golf, PGA, Tiger Woods
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Tiger Woods fans weren’t the only ones happy about the return of the golfer after a lengthy off-season due to injury/surgery. The golfer’s return to competition on Wednesday at the Accenture Match Play Championship generated a 1.8 rating for the Golf Channel. The network drew an average of 1.7 million viewers, the most for any round of a tournament it has televised.
Web traffic was high as well, with GolfChannel.com recording a record 3.3 million page views and PGATour.com nearly 24 million page views.
Source: NY Times
Groening Leaving Door Open for More Futurama Episodes February 26, 2009 7:21 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray, Comedy Central, DVD, Movies, News, Television.Tags: Futurama, Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder, Matt Groening
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While the fourth Futurama DVD/Blu-ray movie Into the Wild Green Yonder, which came out this past Tuesday, was suppose to be the final movie, creator Matt Groening tells CNN that he isn’t quite ready to say goodbye yet:
“We have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don’t know. Maybe,” Groening said. “I think one of the factors will be how well this DVD sells, because of these troubled times where everybody’s gnashing their teeth and biting their nails.”
Groening adds that they feel like they’ve offered “an emotionally satisfying conclusion” to the saga but “we did leave the door open just a bit in case we get renewed.”
Into the Wild Green Yonder, on DVD and Blu-ray as of this past Tuesday, will also air on Comedy Central, who own the rights to the series, over four parts.
Fox Renews The Simpsons For Two More Seasons February 26, 2009 6:38 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Fox, News, Renewals, Television.Tags: The Simpsons
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Fox has ordered two additional seasons of The Simpsons, bringing the animated comedy through its 22nd season and making it the longest-running series in primetime television history. The 44-episode order will bring the episode count to 493.
The full press release follows after the jump. (more…)
CBS Orders Two More Editions of Survivor February 26, 2009 6:30 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in CBS, News, Television.Tags: Survivor
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CBS has ordered two more editions of its hit reality series Survivor to be broadcast during the 2009-2010 season. They will mark the 19th and 20th editions of what is broadcast television’s longest-running reality competition series. Jeff Probst will continue as a host.
“I am happy to be able produce two more editions of survivor for our loyal fans,” said Mark Burnett, Executive Producer of SURVIVOR. “Our show stands for high quality family entertainment and all of us on this team will continue to deliver on this promise.”
“We have a unique relationship with our audience,” said Jeff Probst, host of SURVIVOR. “They tell us what they like and we listen. It’s worked for 18 editions and we’re looking forward to delivering two more satisfying seasons!”
The full press release follows after the jump. (more…)
Jerry Seinfeld Returning to NBC For Reality Series February 26, 2009 6:10 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in NBC, News, Television.Tags: Jerry Seinfeld, The Marriage Ref
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NBC today announced a new comedy-reality series created by comedian and producer Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld has partnered with Ellen Rakieten, a 23-year veteran of The Oprah Winfrey Show for the project.
According to the press release, the new series, tentatively titled The Marriage Ref, will feature opinionated celebrities, comedians and sports stars who will candidly comment, judge and offer different strategies for real-life couples in the midst of a classic marital dispute.
The announcement was made by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, who promises that viewers “will love this highly relatable new comedy.”
Describing the new series, Seinfeld said, “This is not a therapy show, it’s a comedy show. After nine years of marriage I have discovered that the comedic potential of this subject is quite rich.”
The full press release follows after the jump. (more…)
Michael Rady First To Be Cast in Melrose Place February 26, 2009 3:40 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, Television, The CW.Tags: Melrose Place, Michael Rady
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Michael Rady (Swingtown) has become the first actor to board the new Melrose Place pilot for The CW. THR reports that the actor landed the job on Wednesday morning, a day after The CW officially greenlit the pilot for the update, which will be directed by David Guggenheim.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Wednesday, February 25, 2009 February 26, 2009 1:18 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Wednesday
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Fox’s two-hour edition of American Idol blew away the competition, with its average audience of 24.25 million viewers beating the combined audience of its next three competitors (CBS, ABC and NBC — 24.07M) and nearly all four of the remaining major networks (including The CW it barely lost out 24.81M vs. 24.25M).
Now that’s what you call a dominant performance.
Despite being very far back in second, CBS’s two original programs, Criminal Minds at 9:00pm and CSI: NY at 10:00pm, managed to either stay firm against the ‘Idol’ competition (in the case of Criminal Minds which dipped just 4% from last week’s total audience) or improve slightly against its aired competition (CSI: NY was up single digits and the most-watched program at 10:00pm).
ABC was hurt most on a week-to-week basis with the added competition at the 9:00pm hour by way of American Idol. Lost, which hit season high’s last week, dipped back down by double-digits (although its ratings may change some when the finals are released–UPDATE below). Life on Mars was flat from the week prior (but again, we won’t really know the show’s true performance until the final nationals are released).
Note: Finals put Lost at a 5.9/9 HH rating/share, 10.05M viewers and a 4.4/11 A18-49 rating/share. That’s better than the fast affiliates, but not by too much. The finals for Life on Mars were a 3.2/5 HH rating/share, 4.88M viewers and a 1.7/5 A18-49 rating/share. That was much worse than the fast affiliates.
Over on NBC, the network made the correct call in airing an hour of what normally would have been the second hour of Tuesday night’s Biggest Loser at 8:00pm. While the show was below average, it proved to be a solid secondary option against American Idol and improved upon last week’s time slot performance (an original episode of Knight Rider) by 64% among viewers and a whopping 120% in the demo, yet another indication at the poor performance of Knight Rider.
Biggest Loser led into an original episode of struggling Life. The show failed to reach 5 million viewers, but, surprisingly, showed some week-to-week growth among A18-49 (+13%). It’s performance in the demo was still weak (a 1.7 rating), but it’s certainly worth noting that the show is up 31% in the demo over the last three weeks.
Rounding out the evening, The CW aired low-performing repeats of Privileged and 90210, with neither show managing to top 1 million viewers. Yes, that’s pathetic.
Full ratings and breakdown’s, including week-to-week comparisons, etc., follow after the jump.
President Obama Draws 52.37 Million Viewers February 25, 2009 7:41 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Cable TV Ratings, President Barack Obama
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President Obama’s address to congress last night drew a total audience of 52.37 million viewers on 10 networks (broadcast and cable). While well below President Clinton’s first address to congress in 1993 (66.9 million), it’s a good deal above both President Bush’s first (39.79M) and last (37.52M) address’s.
It’s also 6% above the audience tune-in for the President’s first press conference last week (49.46M).
Broadcast TV Ratings for Tuesday, February 24, 2009 February 25, 2009 7:18 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Tuesday
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President Obama’s address to congress — which aired from 9:00 pm to a little past 10:00 pm ET — was far and away the most watched program on the night. The address drew a 21.4 HH rating, 33.62 million viewers and a 9.9 A18-49 rating on the four major broadcast nets ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. When Univision is added into the mix, the total viewership rises to 37.11 million viewers and a 11.3 A18-49 rating for the 9-10pm time period.
The remaining minutes of the address, post-address analysis and the Republican response drew an average 19.5 HH rating, 31.31M viewers and a 9.1 A18-49 rating from 10:00-10:30pm on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.
In terms of original programming, both CBS and NBC led the way at 8:00pm, with CBS’s NCIS drawing the most viewers and NBC’s Biggest Loser the most viewers in the A18-49 demo.
Click through the jump to see the rest of the night’s results. (more…)
Lifetime Gives Early Fourth Season Renewal to Army Wives February 25, 2009 5:30 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Lifetime, News, Renewals, Television.Tags: Army Wives
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Lifetime has ordered a fourth season of their highly successful original series, Army Wives. 18 episodes will air for season four, which will premiere on the network in 2010.
The show has been the network’s most successful series to date, with the second season finale drawing the network’s highest ratings ever in the A18-34 demo and is cable’s most-watched drama among women A18-49. The renewal comes ahead of the show’s third season premiere this June.
“This early pick-up – even prior to the Season 3 premiere – is a true testament to our commitment and support of this great show,” said JoAnn Alfano, Executive Vice President, Lifetime Networks, who announced the pickup.
Source: Broadcasting & Cable
The CW Announces Early Pickups Of Six Series February 25, 2009 3:58 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, Renewals, Television, The CW.Tags: 90210, America's Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Smallville, Supernatural
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The CW today announced that they’ve given early pickups to six of its series, five dramas and reality hit America’s Next Top Model, all of which will return in the fall 2009.
The five other shows are Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, 90210, Smallville and Supernatural.
“As we continue to build The CW Network as a destination for young women, these six shows have clearly contributed to strengthening our schedule and our brand identity,” said Dawn Ostroff, President, Entertainment, The CW. “By securing these signature hits for next season, we’re furthering our commitment to deliver high-quality, original programming to our viewers, advertisers and affiliates.”
You can read the full press release in full after the jump. (more…)
LL Cool J Cast as Lead in NCIS Spin-Off February 25, 2009 3:51 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Casting, CBS, News, Television.Tags: LL Cool J, NCIS, NCIS Spin-off
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Variety is reporting that rapper/actor LL Cool J has been set to star in CBS’s planned NCIS spin-off. He’ll play a tough but charming former Navy SEAL who works undercover for the NCIS unit in L.A. and is an expert on the Middle East. The spin-off will air as one half of a two-part episode of the CBS drama NCIS later this season. NCIS showrunner Shane Brennan created the still-untitled spin-off and will executive produce for CBS Paramount.
Lindsay Price Joins ABC’s Eastwick February 25, 2009 3:33 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in ABC, Casting, News, Television.Tags: Eastwick, Lindsay Price
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Lindsay Price (of NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, which actually yet be officially canceled) has joined the cast of ABC’s Eastwick, the network’s drama pilot based on the 1987 feature-film The Witches of Eastwick. Price will play Joanna, one of the three young witches in the series. Joanna is described as a hardworking, shy reporter for the local newspaper. She joins Jaime Ray Newman, who was recently cast as a fellow witch.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Lou Diamond Philips, Three Others, Added to Cast of SGU: Stargate Universe February 25, 2009 3:25 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Casting, News, Press Releases, Sci Fi, Television.Tags: Alaina Huffman, Elyse Levesque, Lou Diamond Philips, Ming-Na, SGU: Stargate Universe
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The cast for SCI FI’s new Stargate original series is expanding. SCI FI has announced that Lou Diamond Philips, Ming-Na, Elyse Levesque and Alaina Huffman have been added to the cast of the new series, SGU: Stargate Universe.
SGU follows a band of soldiers, scientists and civilians, who must fend for themselves as they are forced through a Stargate when their hidden base comes under attack. The desperate survivors emerge aboard an ancient ship, which is locked on an unknown course and unable to return to Earth. Faced with meeting the most basic needs of food, water and air, the group must unlock the secrets of the ship’s Stargate to survive. The danger, adventure and hope they find on board the Destiny will reveal the heroes and villains among them.
Lou Diamond Phillips (Che, La Bamba) is Colonel Telford, a proud lifelong military man, who puts his faith in the chain of command. Stubbornly confident, he’s highly regarded by his superiors. He is the chosen leader of the ill-fated expedition.
Ming-Na (ER, Vanished) is Camile Wray, a human resources executive with the international oversight committee that governs the Stargate program. Now the highest ranking member of that division left stranded on the ship, she carries herself with a misguided sense of superiority over the other military and civilian survivors.
Elyse Levesque (Smallville, Men in Trees) stars as Chloe Armstrong, the daughter and aid of a U.S. Senator. Politically savvy, but with a wild side, she is considering following in her father’s footsteps, until she finds herself trapped on the ship. As tensions rise, her character will be tested and her place among the group revealed.
Alaina Huffman (Smallville, Painkiller Jane) portrays MSGT. Tamara Johansen. Unable to afford medical school, the Air Force was the best option for the strong-willed field medic. Faced with the mounting pressure and a lack of in-depth experience, she will be forced to rise to the extraordinary occasion of needing to treat the seriously wounded.
SGU: Stargate Universe launches this October with a two-part opening episode directed by Andy Mikita. The full press release announcing the new additions, can be read in full after the jump. (more…)
Michael Cera Finally On Board for Arrested Development Movie February 25, 2009 3:04 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Casting, Fox, Fox Searchlight, Movies, News, Television.Tags: Arrested Development, Michael Cera
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Awesome. After months of indicating he wasn’t interested in doing a feature-length version of the hilarious, if not successful, Fox comedy Arrested Development, E! Online’s Kristin reports that Michael Cera has apparently buckled to pressure and agreed to board the project. Kristin further reports that the movie may go into production as early as the end of the year. Series creator Mitchell Hurwitz is writing and directing the script. Fox Searchlight is the studio.
A later update has a reaction from one of the series’ star, Portia de Rossi, who when asked why there was such a hold up with Cera’s casting replied: “I don’t know, I honestly don’t. I spoke to Jason Bateman and Will Arnett; I think it was just a matter of timing. I don’t know.”
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