Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2678

TV Sports/Business Notes
Playoff System Could Send BCS TV Rights Into Stratosphere
By Marisa Guthrie, The Hollywood Reporter - Jun. 21, 2012

With the commissioners of the Bowl Championship Series unanimously approving a long-gestating playoff system for college football, television rights for the BCS are poised to get much more expensive.

The four-team seeded playoff system -- which still needs approval from the 12-member BCS presidential oversight committee that meets next week in Washington -- would take effect after the 2014 season, when the current BCS contract expires. Disney currently pays $155 million annually for the major bowl games and the BCS National Championship Game, which air on ESPN. And analysts have predicted that number could more than double to $400 million a year or $3.2 billion over the life of an expected eight-year deal. ESPN has an exclusive negotiating window beginning in early fall.

Under the proposed plan, the semifinals would be played at existing bowl games and the championship would take place at a neutral site selected through a bidding process, like the Super Bowl, serving to further event-ize the championship game.

There are sure to be multiple parties interested in the package with more companies making a concerted effort to challenge ESPN’s dominance as the major destination for live sports. NBC and CBS are working to grow their sports cable networks, while News Corp.-owned Fox reportedly is hatching plans to also launch a national cable sports network.

“Even if they kept the same BCS system everybody was complaining about, you would expect [TV rights] to easily double,” says Richard Brand, media rights attorney at Washington-based Arent Fox.

Major college sports have become increasingly popular in the past several years as sports in general has emerged as one of the only remaining big-tent live viewing experiences in a time-shifted media landscape.

More than 24 million viewers watched this year’s BCS National Championship Game -- in which Alabama shut out LSU. It was the second-highest rating in cable television history, behind only the 2011 game, which attracted 27.3 million viewers. Meanwhile, 17.5 million viewers watched this year’s Rose Bowl, and 13.6 million watched the Fiesta Bowl.

Last year, the Pacific-12 Conference negotiated a $3 billion, 12-year deal with ESPN and Fox for its football and basketball games, more than quadrupling what the networks had been paying. In May, ESPN extended its deal with the Atlantic Coast Conference through 2027 for $3.6 billion.

All of which bodes well for a major increase of the BCS.

“People think, 'How can they ever sell enough commercials to support this?' ” adds Brand. “But when you’re talking about putting these games on your network, it has a major tangential effect. These networks need programming. You’ve got to think the money [for the BCS] is going to be spectacularly high.”
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bcs-playoff-system-college-football-340778

TV Reviews
Sorkin's New Show: Pomp and Prattle
By Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal - Jun. 22, 2012

'Be the moral center of this show, be the integrity," an impassioned executive producer begs news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels). This comes late in the second episode of "The Newsroom," by which point it's clear that Will is determined to be exactly that. Clear, too, that the preening virtue that weighs on this Aaron Sorkin series like a great damp cloud—the right-mindedness oozing from every line—isn't going away. It's the heart of this enterprise about a cable-news show led by anchor Will; his crusading executive producer and inspiration, MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer); and their like-minded boss, news-division head Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston). They've declared war on news devoted to sensationalism, on corrupt networks and journalists driven by ratings lust and in league with politicians.

Will explains all in a solemn televised apology for having been part of an establishment that failed the public. He is now, he informs the audience, joining the very small number of journalists still around who have some integrity—people who "don't stand a chance." In the ratings, he means. "I'm going with the guys who are getting creamed."

Mr. Daniels's Will manages—however hampered by toxic quantities of integrity—to maintain an appealing down-home presence. He even manages at least once to look dubious at comparisons between his new role as a fearless broadcast journalist and that of Edward R. Murrow. When his news director points out what news anchors with opinions have achieved—Murrow brought Sen. Joseph McCarthy down; Walter Cronkite brought the Vietnam War to an end—Will grumbles that he's not those guys.

The show is big on the evocation of great names in journalism, on lessons of the past and the political present—mostly via dialogue bearing small resemblance to any exchange likely to be carried on by human beings, whether in a newsroom or outside one. Lest anyone forget the heroic tradition of journalism to which Will is sworn, there's always the ghost of Murrow, whose name and achievement the script evokes with remarkable regularity.

It is hard, of course, to imagine Murrow embarking on a crusade against every party, every elected official, every network whose politics he detested, which is what Will ends up doing by the third episode. Not to mention Will's adventurous interpersonal life, which finds him getting into headline-making trouble with one beautiful mental case after another while he nurses a still-unhealed heart broken years earlier by the love of his life. She happens to be his new executive producer, MacKenzie—a newswoman who has, we're told, endured years of battlefield hell embedded with troops, seen more wars and more people die, etc., etc. Portrayed by Ms. Mortimer—a dubious piece of casting—MacKenzie turns out to be wispy, adoring, cloying in her devotion to the highest principles of broadcast journalism and, much like all the sanctimonious twaddle here, well nigh unbearable.

The script doesn't help. When the anchor, initially hesitant to join her crusade, finally delivers a tough shot during a broadcast, she gets to whisper ardently to herself—"Welcome back, Will." We get to cringe.

There's something in the theme of journalists and news reporting that can bring out the worst in writers—though not, to be sure, one like James L. Brooks, who wrote the magnificent "Broadcast News" (1987). That something has to do with the view, which has come to be an article of faith over the past 75 years or so, that journalism is a sacred calling deserving of reverence. "The Newsroom" gives every spine-chilling sign of immersion in that faith. Which may explain some of Mr. Sorkin's apparent difficulty conceiving reasonably human characters in this saga of broadcast journalists. The journalists here don't even have conversations—their talk runs to snippy verbal ping pong in which two people hurl lines of semicoherent dialogue at each other at lightning speed. One down-to-earth-looking specimen stands out from the rest—he's Jim Harper, an endearing performance by John Gallagher Jr. He's in love with someone psychologically more in tune with the atmosphere here—the young, politically committed and chronically hysterical associate producer Margaret Jordan (Alison Pill).

Still, it's clear that Mr. Sorkin's main interest in "The Newsroom" runs to concerns other than characters and storytelling. There's anchor Will—who is, we're assured, a Republican—going on camera in episode three to blast away at certain social and political forces that constitute grave dangers to the nation. (In Will's world, no danger ever emanates from the political left—it just doesn't happen.) His targets include, not surprisingly, Gov. Jan Brewer's immigration bill, Sarah Palin, the new Republican majority in Congress, Fox News—and, not least, the Tea Party. That last a subject on which Will goes to town with ferocious firepower all the more deadly for its employment of actual quotations. There's Rand Paul attempting to explain certain of his complicated social views. There's Sharron Angle, briefly a heroine of the Tea Party, complaining that the press had failed to ask the questions she wanted to answer.

An episode like this one, drawing on the deep bitterness of our current political wars, brings "The Newsroom" to life. But it's a kind destined to be intermittent. The show's deeper problems—thin drama, a thick hide of smugness—would take far more than that to overcome.

THE NEWSROOM
Begins Sunday, June 24, at 10 p.m. on HBO

* * * *

"Inside Men," the newest chapter in BBC America's distinguished "Dramaville" series, concerns three security-depot employees who decide to risk all on a multimillion-pound heist—the cash that's deposited at their depot daily. What they risk is clear in each case, through economical but searing vignettes of their family lives and other ties that bind. These men deeply rooted in their normal lives are about to confront horrific moral choices. John (Steven Mackintosh) carries a particular moral burden—he's the trusted manager of the depot, an insecure man with a wife and child, and one all too aware of his own diffidence. Marcus (Warren Brown) has all the confidence in the world but insufficient money, and the same is true of Chris (Ashley Walters), a security guard at the plant.

This four-part miniseries (part one had its debut on Wednesday and is available on demand) unfolds in flashback—a suspense story enriched by its psychological dimension and three quietly compelling performances.

INSIDE MEN
Episode 2, Wednesday, June 27, at 10 p.m. on BBC America

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303734204577466472501968152.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_6

As if any network other than ESPN has a prayer of getting these games...

TV Review
‘The Great Escape,’ not much of either
TNT series bogs down from too many contenders and rules
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine - Jun. 21, 2012

The season-opening episode of a reality competition show like "The Amazing Race" and "Survivor" is usually the least interesting one. It takes time to sort out the players and choose which ones we're going to root for and against.

Many reality-competition shows forget this lesson and present a new group of competitors in every episode. Usually by the time we've picked a favorite, the episode is over.

That's the biggest problem with TNT's new series "The Great Escape," in which three teams of two people try to break out of various difficult locations. Other problems include overly complex rules, with one particularly Sisyphean element, and challenges that don't exploit the potentially interesting visuals in the locale. Viewers will have the impression they're watching a series of rejected challenges from "The Amazing Race."

Premiering this Sunday, June 24, at 10 p.m., "The Great Escape" is produced by people from "The Amazing Race," but it lacks that show's sure hand with exposition and editing. On "Race," when we meet the teams, we hear why they've decided to pair up for the challenge of a lifetime. It's hard for the teams on "Escape" to wax eloquent over a show that will be taped in the course of one night.

The three teams are Brittanny and Dave, who are hoping to use the prize money, $100,000, to plan and pay for their wedding; a brother and sister pair named Miles and Megan, who say they're a good team because he's analytical and she's impulsive; and two excitable young men named Jeff and Lexx.

Blindfolded, they're taken by boat to the decommissioned federal prison Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, where the host, the evidently unexcitable Rich Eisen, tells them the rules. They will have to pass four stages, at each of which they will find something that will help them escape the prison. After passing a stage, they receive a part of a circular key thingy that they'll need at the finish line.

At the first stage, the teams need to find a key to unlock their cell and a map that will lead them to the next stage. At any point between stages, if a guard shines a light on them, they have to go into a detainment cell, where they have to search for another key to get out.

Since the teams get caught often, too much of the show is used up with footage of them ransacking their cells looking for keys. Dramatically, the show spins its wheels.

At another stage, they have to figure out a riddle that's really an arithmetic word problem, the answer being the combination to a locked case. Jeff and Lexx lose time after they forget to carry the one.

Lexx, a bandanna-wearing dude with intense eyes, is the most memorable contestant in an unmemorable field. Having guessed that a key is hidden in an old guitar, he tries to shatter the instrument by banging it on his head before choosing a different hard surface.

Just as the challenges on "Survivor" usually don't involve survival skills, these challenges aren't the sort of things that would face an inmate trying to break out of Alcatraz. If every cell had a key hidden in it, the prison wouldn't have become known as escape-proof.

It might have been cool to see the teams try to scale a wall, file through the bars of a cell or swim some distance from the island, but those options don't seem to have occurred to the producers.

The editing fails to build suspense or rhythm. The constant déjà vu shots of key searches don't help. We often lose track of individual teams for too long.

When a team passes a challenge or frees itself from a cell, an old-fashioned sci-fi computer voice makes an announcement, e.g., "The red team has escaped the detainment zone." Viewers may start to wonder if the contestants are trying to escape from Alcatraz or from the starship Enterprise.

Once it becomes clear that one team has an insurmountable lead, the suspense, such as it is, is over. There's no second or third place prize, and no one — or everyone — is eliminated.

As each team comes in, we see a brief highlight reel of their journey. Since we don't care about the teams, these reels aren't brief enough. The winning team struggles to come up with the right terms to overstate how much the experience means to them.

Viewers can have a better time watching reruns of "Survivor" or "The Amazing Race" or, for that matter, renting the 1963 movie "The Great Escape," which at least lives up to its title.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/the-great-escape-not-much-of-either/

Critic's/Nielsen Notes
The 2011–12 TV Season: What We Watched and What We Skipped
By Josef Adalian, New York Magazine's 'Vulture' Blog - Jun. 22, 2012

Nielsen's official TV season ended almost a month ago, but because we live in the DVR Era, final numbers for the 2011–12 campaign came out just a few days ago. Some fundamentals about the season remain unchanged from what we knew at the end of May: CBS is still the most-watched network, nobody watched Bent, and far too many people tuned in for Rob! But now that all the data is in, Vulture has been able to dive deeply into the ratings and uncover a slew of fun factoids about What We Watched during the season now ended. Read on to discover why zombies are even more powerful than you thought, how Shonda Rhimes owns the hearts (and vajayjays) of American women, and which show ended up being the least-watched program on all of network TV.

(Some housekeeping notes: When we refer to the impact DVRs have on a show's rating, we’re talking about Nielsen 2011–12 season-to-date ratings for first-run broadcasts only. When breaking down how shows do in various demo groups, we're referring to numbers for combined live and DVR viewing up to seven days after first broadcast; and, unless otherwise noted, we count both first-run and repeat telecasts.)

Why Modern Family Is Really TV's No. 1 Show With Young Adults ...

DVRs definitely make a difference in overall standings, as do repeats. In terms of entertainment programs, American Idol is tops among viewers 18 to 49 when you count only viewing that takes place the day it airs, followed closely by The Voice. Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, and Two and a Half Men are all grouped together in third place. These standings are based on ratings for both originals and repeats, because Nielsen rules say encores count in the official standings, if they air in a show's regular timeslot. But this gives reality shows like Idol and Voice an advantage, since they rarely air reruns and most comedies (and many dramas) on network TV air a lot of repeats. So what happens when you take out the repeats and also include people who watch via DVR? Boom! Suddenly, Modern Family jumps dramatically to become the No. 1 entertainment show on TV. Plus, Big Bang leapfrogs over the singing shows to No. 2, while Idol and Two and a Half Men have to settle for third.

... Unless You Don't Count DVRs

No DVRs at all? Suddenly, the No. 1 show among viewers under 50 is The Voice, which edges out Idol by 0.1 of a rating point (but only because NBC kind of cheated and counted the post–Super Bowl debut of Voice in its average). The No. 1 comedy? Sans DVRs, it's now Two and a Half Men, followed by Big Bang Theory. Modern Family settles for third. In a world without DVRs, Criminal Minds and NCIS: LA get higher ratings than Grey's Anatomy.

The Ten Shows We'd Rather Watch Later

Ten shows are so DVR-friendly, they actually get higher ratings via DVR playback than they do live. Fringe rules this category: Its live-only adults 18 to 49 rating is a tiny 0.8, but it delivers a 1.1 rating just via time-shifting, a whopping 138 percent gain. (We're counting any DVR viewing at all, including folks who watch the same night a show airs). Friday time slot rival Grimm follows a similar pattern, averaging a 1.1 rating live and a 1.5 with DVR audiences. Eight other network shows that draw more viewers outside of their time slots: Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Modern Family, The Office, Up All Night, House, Glee, and New Girl.

Men Are From Mars, Women Love Reality Shows

Credit (or blame) young women for the continued abundance of reality shows on network TV. Nine of Nielsen's top twenty shows among adult women under 35 are unscripted: The performance and results shows for The Voice and Idol, as well as the performance of The X Factor, are all in the top ten, while the results show for X, as well as The Bachelorette, America's Got Talent, and The Bachelor, land in the top twenty. By contrast, dudes in the same age category only consider the performance episodes of The Voice, Idol, and X worthy of their twenty most-watched shows.

A Tale of Two Networks

The gap in audience between CBS and NBC is pretty stunning. The Eye's least-watched scripted entertainment series last season was A Gifted Man, which drew an average of 8.63 million viewers each week in L7 and ranked No. 59. It got the ax. And yet, Gifted Man regularly brought in almost as many weekly fans as watch NBC's most-watched weekly scripted series, Smash (9.3 million viewers, No. 47) and Harry's Law (9 million, No. 52). (Smash will be back, but Harry's won't because it skews too old for NBC's taste). Overall, nearly twenty scripted shows on NBC, including Law & Order: SVU and The Office, had smaller total audiences than Gifted.

Maybe It's Time for Zombie Xtina?

Among viewers under 35, the top-rated non-sports entertainment show on TV last season wasn't on a broadcast network. AMC's The Walking Dead averaged a stunning 6.6 rating in this demo, ranking No. 1. (NBC's The Voice was the No. 2 show, and tops on broadcast.) In the broader, more coveted category of adults under 50, the zombies still impressed: Dead averaged a 5.1 and would rank No. 8 among all shows if Nielsen published a combined broadcast-cable list. (One other caveat: As noted earlier, repeats bring down the average for many network shows. Dead's average only includes originals. If you only look at original runs of network shows, ABC's Modern Family suddenly averages a 6.7 in adults under 35 — and reclaims the top spot in the demo. Damn those Nielsen rules!)

Revenge: Not As Sweet As It Seems

Vulture loves Revenge. Everyone in the media loves Revenge. But check this: Even with DVR data figured in, the cray-cray Graysons manage just a 3.0 rating with adults under 50. That's slightly smaller than the average ratings for Terra Nova, Desperate Housewives, and House, all of which have been canceled. Part of the problem: The show aired at 10 p.m., where network dramas have struggled to compete against competition from cable and DVRs. Still, even among 10 p.m. dramas, Revenge isn't as hot as its buzz: CSI, Hawaii Five-0, The Mentalist, and Smash all outperform it in the demo; it's tied with Private Practice. The good news is ABC has wisely decided to shift Revenge to Sundays at 9 p.m., right behind the red-hot Once Upon a Time.

Don't Call Her Adorkable

Zooey Deschanel is the Bill Cosby of the Girls generation: Season one of New Girl is the No. 1 scripted show on broadcast TV among women under 35 — bigger than Modern Family, Glee, or the nerds on The Big Bang Theory. (The only network show bigger than Zooey is NBC's unscripted competition series The Voice. But its average was boosted by its post–Super Bowl debut).

The Show Everyone Watches, But Nobody Talks About

It is impossible to underestimate the power of CBS's NCIS. NBC has been able to declare its Sunday Night Football franchise as TV's most-watched program because, according to Nielsen rules, repeat telecasts of a show count against its average. Since there are no repeats in football (no, the NFL Network doesn't count), but CBS makes sure to rerun NCIS whenever it can, the latter show's overall average comes out below football (and American Idol). If you count only first-run episodes, however, NCIS is seen by 22.4 million patriotic Americans each week, nearly 1.5 million more than NBC's Sunday pigskin. Among the ad-coveted demo of adults under 50, however: Football averages a whopping 8.0 rating, far ahead of NCIS's 4.9.

Rupert Murdoch's Teen Fetish

Rupert Murdoch owns the minds of American teenagers. Fox has six of the top ten shows among viewers ages 12 to 17. In order, they're Glee, American Idol (performance shows), Family Guy, Idol (results), The Cleveland Show, Napoleon Dynamite, and The X Factor (results and performance). The network is particularly mighty with teen boys: The top ten scripted shows on network TV all air on Fox. (The highest-rated non-Fox show in the teen male demo? ABC's Modern Family.)

The Shonda Gap

Talk about a gender gap: Among men 18-34, Fox's The Cleveland Show, perhaps because of its proximity to Sunday afternoon football, is a big hit: It ranks No. 18 with young guys. But among women of the same age, Cleveland might as well be in Moscow, ranking a dismal 87th place, well behind canceled shows such as The Finder, The River, and The Playboy Club. On the flip side, NBC's Smash is a big hit with women under 35, ranking No. 14 (and tied with the results show for The X Factor). Among men of this certain age? Smash falls all the way to No. 62, even lower rated than Whitney and Desperate Housewives. Still, that's nothing compared to the Shonda Gap: Ms. Rhimes's Private Practice is one of TV's twenty biggest entertainment shows in prime time with women under 35. With guys 18 to 34, the docs ended their season tied for 105th place, below even Are You There, Chelsea?

The Kids Love Their Sitcoms

Reality TV may seem played out, but the genre still provides most broadcast nets with their most-watched entertainment shows. For ABC, it's The Bachelor; for NBC, The Voice; for Fox, American Idol. CBS's MVP is NCIS. Younger viewers may be tiring of unscripted fare, however (or are simply getting their fix on cable). Among adults under 35, the No. 1 show on three of the Big Four nets is a comedy: Modern Family (ABC), New Girl (Fox), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), The Voice (NBC).

But Dramas? Not So Much

Younger viewers gave up watching dramas on the big broadcast networks last season. Only six hour-long dramas made Nielsen's top 25 with viewers under 35: Grey's Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, House, Desperate Housewives, Smash, and Alcatraz. (Glee is considered a comedy by Fox and the TV Academy.) Three of those six shows are now dead, while Grey's is headed toward the exits (specifically, its ninth season).

ABC: No Penises Allowed

ABC says it targets younger women (those under 50), and it seems to be reaching said target. The network boasted seven of the top twenty shows in this demo group. On the flip side, the following should scare Shawn Ryan, whose testosterone-pumped drama Last Resort debuts on ABC this fall. Among male viewers under 50, the Alphabet network pretty much doesn't exist: It has just two entertainment shows, Modern Family (No. 3) and Once Upon a Time (No. 35), that crack Nielsen's top 40 list.

Nobody's Watching

It's a modest hit in Canada, but the CW's broadcasts of The LA Complex will be remembered for something else: During the 2011–12 season, nothing else on the five broadcast networks had a lower viewer count. The five episodes the network broadcast in-season averaged just 609,000 viewers (and yes, that includes DVR playback). Leave out the tiny CW and NBC's Saturday night infomercial for Ford, something called Escape Routes, captures the bottom slot, with a mere 1.1 million weekly viewers. As for established shows, it saddens us to report that TV's lowest-rated returning series was Gossip Girl, which, even with DVR usage included, drew an average of just 1.6 million viewers.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/201112-tv-season-by-the-numbers.html

Better yet. Watch a real TV show (and I don't mean that reality crap). Hell, even go out and watch a movie.

I'm hoping for the day another broadcast network takes over carrying MLB games when Fox's contract runs out.

For starters, this network might consider reporting news instead of making it up through slicing, dicing and editing. There are plenty of alternative ways of obtaining news and information besides the alphabet networks.

Gives him a chance to gargle some razors to call them the "Raaiiideersss" and "The. Oakland. Alameda. County. Coliseum."

CBS ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT OF “DANCING ON THE STARS,” AN EXCITING AND COMPLETELY ORIGINAL REALITY PROGRAM THAT OWES ITS CONCEPT AND EXECUTION TO NOBODY AT ALL
CBS PRESS RELEASE

Los Angeles, June 20, 2012 – Subsequent to recent developments in the creative and legal community, CBS Television today felt it was appropriate to reveal the upcoming launch of an exciting, groundbreaking and completely original new reality program for the CBS Television Network.

The dazzling new show, DANCING ON THE STARS, will be broadcast live from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and will feature moderately famous and sort of well-known people you almost recognize competing for big prizes by dancing on the graves of some of Hollywood’s most iconic and well-beloved stars of stage and screen.

The cemetery, the first in Hollywood, was founded in 1899 and now houses the remains of Andrew “Fatty” Arbuckle, producer Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paul Muni, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, George Harrison of the Beatles and Dee Dee Ramone of the Ramones, among many other great stars of stage, screen and the music business. The company noted that permission to broadcast from the location is pending, and that if efforts in that regard are unsuccessful, approaches will be made to Westwood Village Memorial Park, where equally scintillating luminaries are interred.

“This very creative enterprise will bring a new sense of energy and fun that’s totally unlike anything anywhere else, honest,” said a CBS spokesperson, who also revealed that the Company has been working with a secret team for several months on the creation of the series, which was completely developed by the people at CBS independent of any other programming on the air. “Given the current creative and legal environment in the reality programming business, we’re sure nobody will have any problem with this title or our upcoming half-hour comedy for primetime, POSTMODERN FAMILY.”

“After all,” the spokesperson added, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=32146

CBS really does sound like a bunch of petulant babies. They lost in court -- live with it.

Yeah ! OR you turn on the closed captions with a real low volume

Intellectual rights and corporate profits are one thing, but this was FAR more serious. This affected JULIE !!!

Now the "Stars" buried in that cementery will have a reason to roll on their graves.. geeeesh!

And because there aren't enough dancing shows out there we need more..

This seems a rather perfect show for CBS given that the large majority their audience is practically in their own graves anyway. It would be a great way to pick out that special plot you've had your eye on without even getting out of your Barcalounger.

I dont get the "cbs is old" jokes....this past 2011-12 season the 18-49 standings were:

1 FOX 3.2
2 CBS 2.9
3 NBC 2.5
4 ABC 2.4
5 Univision 1.5
6 CW 0.8

What am i missing.

Yet, they throw money around like it's water. But then why should they care? ESPN knows that sports fanantics will pay nearly any price to get their fix.

Yes they will. And they'll drag everyone else along, kicking and screaming, as our rates continue to rise - dramatically - in order to provide ESPN the money they "need" to buy the TV rights to the entire world of sport. The whole business is so out of control at this point it's likely only some kind of governmental regulation could bring it back to sanity - and save the average cable subscriber from being held hostage to ESPN's insatiable appetite to completely rule the world of televised sports. And make us pay for it, whether we want to or not.

CBS constantly stomps all over everyone else in total viewers by really big margins. But, as you can see from your numbers, such a huge percentage of those numbers are 50+ that they fall to second place in the 18-49 demo.

Jesse Stone was just canceled even though it handily beat all the competition in total viewers, because it's demo was almost entirely 50+.

I also found it hilariously ironic that CBS would joke about copying DWTS, since that's the only show that has a bigger percentage of 50+ viewers than all the CSI shows.

And I agree with Whitearrow that CBS looks like a bunch of petulant babies. I suspect that the court case was a very easy win for ABC. All they had to do was go into the courtroom and say, "We didn't copy Big Brother. We copied The Real World, just like CBS did when they created Big Brother." Phhhht!

Let's not forget the cable/sat guys, they are the ones that came up with this structure we are all in now.

The ironic part is, Glass House hasn't been doing well. The situation will likely take care of itself anyway. CBS didn't need to draw attention to it with the suit.

I would have mentioned that too if I'd known that they'd actually aired any episodes.

But I've been avoiding ABC due to all the basketball nonsense, so I guess I either missed it or it has been preempted due to basketball.

Maybe they Should throw stones.

When you find out let me know, will you?

Journeyman, Wonderfalls, Wonderland and of course, Firefly. I haven't seen Freaks and Geeks yet but that seems to be popular as well.

THURSDAY fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media Insight's Blog

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
NBA finals wrap up on a high note
Averages a 2.4 in 18-49s, down 4 percent from last week
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Jun. 22, 2012

The series wrapped up a lot quicker than ABC had hoped, but the NBA finals delivered strong ratings for the network while they lasted.

Last night the Miami Heat won the title with a 121-106 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, lifting ABC to an easy win on the night.

The game averaged a 12.6 household rating, according to Nielsen metered-market numbers, equaling last year's game five between the Heat and the Dallas Mavericks.

It was the highest-rated game during the series.

That boosted the five-game series to an 11.8 average overnight rating. Final numbers out later today will put that in historical perspective, but obviously this series will be at a bit of a disadvantage when compared to longer ones because it only went five games.

Viewership tends to skyrocket during games six and seven of a series, when there's a closer matchup.

Opposite ABC's pregame and finals coverage, the other networks had generally limp ratings, though Fox's "Take Me Out" did rise 9 percent over last week, to a still-low 1.2 among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m.

ABC finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 5.3 average overnight rating and a 16 share. CBS was second at 1.5/5, Fox and Univision tied for third at 1.3/4, NBC was fifth at 0.7/2, Telemundo sixth at 0.4/1 and CW seventh at 0.3/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won't be available for several weeks. Forty-four percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

Also, ratings for ABC's NBA Finals coverage are approximate as fast nationals measure timeslot and not actual program data.

At 8 p.m. ABC was first with a 3.0 for "Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night" (2.4) and "NBA Countdown" (3.5), followed by CBS with a 2.1 for repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" and "2 Broke Girls." Fox was third with a 1.2 for "Out," Univision fourth with a 1.1 for "Un Refugio para el Amor," NBC fifth with a 0.8 for "Justin Bieber: All Around the World," Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for "Una Maid en Manhattan" and CW seventh with a 0.3 for "Breaking Pointe."

ABC extended its lead at 9 p.m. with a 6.1 for basketball, while Fox jumped to second with a 1.5 for "The Choice." CBS was third with a 1.4 for a repeat of "Person of Interest," Univision fourth with a 1.3 for "Abismo de Pasion," NBC fifth with a 0.5 for "Saving Hope," Telemundo sixth with a 0.4 for "Corazon Valiente" and CW seventh with a 0.2 for a repeat of "The Vampire Diaries."

At 10 p.m. ABC led again with a 6.7 for basketball, with Univision second with a 1.6 for "La Que No Podia Amar." CBS was third with a 1.1 for a repeat of "The Mentalist," NBC fourth with a 0.8 for "Rock Center with Brian Williams" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

ABC was also first for the night among households with a 7.8 average overnight rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 4.5/8, Fox third at 2.3/4, NBC fourth at 2.2/4, Univision fifth at 1.9/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.7/1 and CW seventh at 0.5/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/nba-finals-wrap-up-on-a-high-note/

TV Notes
Lifetime Picks Up Marc Cherry’s ‘Devious Maids’ To Series For 2013 Launch
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jun. 22, 2012

Marc Cherry‘s pilot Devious Maids is going to series at Lifetime. The cable network has handed a 13-episode order to the ABC Studios-produced project, originally developed for ABC where it received a pilot order this past season but missed the cut to series. Devious Maids is slated to launch on Lifetime in 2013. “This show and Marc Cherry’s unique story telling voice perfectly articulate Lifetime’s strategy of attracting top-tier creatives with their most original and exciting projects,” Lifetime’s president Nancy Dubuc and EVP Rob Sharenow said in a joint statement.

Based on the hit Mexican telenovela Ellas son la Alegría del Hogar, Devious Maids follows the lives of five maids with ambition and dreams of their own while they work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills. It stars Ana Ortiz, Judy Reyes, Dania Ramirez, Roselyn Sanchez as well as Susan Lucci, Edy Ganem, Grant Show, Brianna Brown, Rebecca Wisocky, Tom Irwin, Mariana Klaveno, Brett Cullen and Drew Van Acker. I hear the pilot will undergo some tweaking and reshoots in its move to Lifetime. One of the regular roles, played in the pilot by Angelique Cabral, will likely be eliminated. Production on the series will be based in Atlanta, which provides tax intensives vs. Los Angeles where the pilot was shot.

Related: Lifetime Eyes Marc Cherry’s ABC Dramedy Pilot ‘Devious Maids’

Lifetime began exploring the possibility of a Devious Maids pickup right after ABC passed on the pilot in May. The cable network and producer ABC Studios, which have a longstanding relationship via Lifetime’s flagship drama Army Wives, which is produced by ABC Studios, spent the last month trying to make the series, developed and budgeted for broadcast, viable economically on cable. I hear that included asking some actors to take pay cuts and reworking their deals to cable residuals terms and moving production to Georgia, among other things. “Devious Maids is a perfect series for ABC Studios to continue its successful collaboration with the incredibly talented team at Lifetime,” said Barry Jossen, ABC Studios’ EVP of Creative and Production.

Devious Maids will be executive produced by Cherry, who wrote the adaptation, his producing partner Sabrina Wind, Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, Paul McGuigan (Scandal), Larry Shuman (Kissing Miranda), David Lonner, John Mass, Paul Presburger and Michael Garcia. At Lifetime, Devious Maids will join Army Wives and fellow scripted series The Client List and Drop Dead Diva. The pickup restores Cherry’s presence on Lifetime, which was the off-network home of his recently departed Desperate Housewives. It also provides a happy-ish ending for actress Mariana Klaveno who was recently cast as Lily Munster in the NBC pilot Mockingbird Lane but couldn’t do it because Devious Maids, where she plays a supporting role, wouldn’t release her.

It has been an active broadcast-cable transfer season. In addition to Devious Maids, ABC Studios also found a new home for its ABC comedy series Cougar Town at TBS. And USA Network is exploring picking up Fox’s comedy pilot Rebounding.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/lifetime-picks-up-marc-cherrys-devious-maids-to-series-for-2013-launch/

TV Notes
Jennifer Hudson Joins 'Smash' for Multi-Episode Arc
By Tim Kenneally, TheWrap.com - Jun. 22, 2012

Jennifer Hudson, prepare to get "Smash"-ed.

Singer-actress Hudson has signed on for a multiple-episode arc on the NBC musical drama "Smash" when it returns for its second season.

Hudson will play the role of Veronica Moore, a Tony Award-winning Broadway star who affects the lives of Karen (played by Katharine McPhee) and Ivy (played by Megan Hilty).

NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, who made the announcement, said Hudson's character "will represent someone who reached their Broadway dream but also paid a price for it."

In addition to her stint on the upcoming second season of "Smash," Hudson also has two films, "Lullaby" and "The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete," going into production this summer.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/jennifer-hudson-joins-smash-multi-episode-arc-45316