NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics from Sochi was #1 again on Monday.
Monday 02.10.14
Monday’s ‘XXII Winter Olympics’ kept NBC on top with 22.4 million viewers and a 13.7 rating/21 share, which outdelivered the four competing networks combined. The peak half-hour was at 9P when it delivered a 14.9/22 featuring alpine skiing, short track, freestyle skiing and speed skating.
On ABC despite facing the ‘Winter Olympics’, from 8-10P, ‘The Bachelor’ put ABC on the map with 7.87 million viewers and a 5.5/8. At 10P, a rerun of last Thursday’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live: Matt Damon Returns’ finished with 3.24 million viewers and a 2.4/4, which was better than it did in its original airing at 1135P.
CBS from 8-10P ran reruns beginning at 8P with the soon to be retired “How I Met Your Mother” which pulled in 5.43 million viewers and a 3.7/6) while at 830P, ‘Mom’ drew 5.14 million viewers and a 3.5/6). At 9P, the always strong ‘Mike & Molly’ had 6.03 million viewers and a 4.0/6) while at 930P, ‘Mom’ drew 5.71 million viewers and a 3.8/5. But it was at 10P where the new drama ‘Intelligence’ showed its true strength. In an original episode, it finished with 7.12 million viewers and a 4.9/8 as it pushed up to #2 in the time slot. It is a huge improvement over ‘Hostages’ which was an embarrassment to The Tiffany Network. What was impressive, it grew its lead in audience from ‘Mom’ by 29%. The episode was fantastic as the hero battled against the clock with a deadly virus. With several twists, this is Must See TV which you can catch ON DEMAND. Don’t miss it.
Fox’s drama combination beginning at 8P with ‘Almost Human’ with a superb episode that really brought the syfy aspect into the everyday of their world drew 5.74 million viewers and a 4.1/6 and was one of the top episodes of the year and the tops for the night on the Animal Network of Broadcasting. In this outing, the two heroes faces really complicated issues which few have seen on the screen before. Tremendous story telling and was a Must See TV ON DEMAND moment. Meanwhile second year entry ‘The Following’ didn’t do as well by drawing 4.76 million viewers and a 3.6/ 5. It is slipping from last year performance and more important, it is dropping back from its week-to-week, this week down 15% from last week.
The CW remained out of the running at 8P with ‘Hart of Dixie’ drawing only 1.03 million viewers (1.0/1) and at 9P with ‘Beauty and the Beast’ which pulled 740,000 viewers and a 0.7/1).
For The Record
NBC finished on top again for the fifth straight night as it drew 22.4 million viewers and a 13.7 rating and a 21 share of the available audience. ABC was #2 with 6.29 million viewers and a 4.5/7. CBS finished #3 with 5.99 million and a 4.2/6. FOX drew 5.05 million viewers and a 3.9/6. Univision drew 3.22 million and a while The CW drew 900,000 viewers and a 0.8/1. Telemundo finished with a 0.7/1.
CW 0.8/ 1
After Steve Allen started it, Jack Paar took over ‘The Tonight Show’. He was followed by Johnny Carson who passed it off to Jay Leno who lost it to Conan O’Brian who was cancelled and Leno took over again before handing it off to Jimmy Fallon.
Today In TV History
In 1960 on this date, Jack Paar walked off ‘The Tonight Show’ after NBC censors edited out a segment taped the night before about a joke involving a water closet. The day before, Paar told a risqué joke. It was censored before broadcast. Rather than the joke, the network opted to include some news coverage and didn’t inform the star of the change in plans. While the joke does contain some double entendres, they are mild by today’s standards. The times were different and the network acted in what they thought was a reasonable manner. The joke was this: ‘An English lady is visiting Switzerland. She asks about the location of the ‘W.C.’ The Swiss, thinking she is referring to the ‘Wayside Chapel’, leaves her a note that said (in part) ‘the W.C. is situated nine miles from the room that you will occupy… It is capable of holding about 229 people and it is only open on Sunday and Thursday… It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C. and it was there that she met her husband… I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you, if you wish, where you will be seen by everyone’.
Paar told Hugh Downs, the announcer, before the show that he was quitting. In the middle of the show Paar walked off. He said, ‘I am leaving The Tonight Show. There must be a better way of, uh, making a living than this’, just before walking off the show. Downs initially thought Paar was kidding and waited for his return. It became obvious it wasn’t a joke and Downs was left to finish the show. Paar left the country to travel and his unusual departure became national news. His friend, Jonathan Winters, a stand-up comedian, encouraged Paar to return. He reappeared, back as host of the show, on March 7. He admitted his impetuousness and hoped to do better. ‘As I was saying before I was interrupted…’ he began the show with upon his return and then stated, ‘When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of making a living. Well, I’ve looked… and there isn’t.’
He was controversial before this. In 1959 he interviewed Fidel Castro and in December of that year asked Mickey Rooney to leave the show when he was obviously drunk. In 1961, he was in Germany as the Berlin Wall was going up. He had some public feuds with some other stars, notably Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell. Paar had a loyal fan base as well as regular guests such as Cliff Arquette [playing Charlie Weaver], Peggy Cass, and Dody Goodman. He also introduced the idea of a “guest host” and had Johnny Carson relieve him on occasion. As noted above, he returned on March 7 and stayed with the late night talk show for two more years until Johnny Carson took over.
TNT does what TNT does best. They cancel good shows.
TV News
TNT has passed on a second season of Frank Darabont drama ‘Mob City’ which aired for three weeks (and six hours) in December and chronicled the real-life accounts of the L.A.P.D. and gangsters in 1940s Los Angeles. Jon Bernthal, Milo Ventimiglia, Neal McDonough and Edward Burns starred. It averaged 1.68 million viewers and was the third TNT new drama in a row that has been canceled, joining medical-themed and brilliant ‘Monday Mornings’ and the very enjoyable detective-themed ‘King & Maxwell’. If this network wants to build a reputation in dramas rather than in roundball, it has to give these superb programs more time to find their audience. TNT is NOT a major broadcast network. It is a CABLE network. It needs to remind itself of this and keep the terrific talent it assembled for these three programs on their network. Each of these programs had better writing talent and better acting talent than is on many broadcast network schedules. The suits at TNT needs to understand what they had in the palm of their hand.
A&E knows who they are. When initial ratings were less than expected, they stepped up and did what good networks do to embrace the talent at hand. They picked up 18 additional episodes of recently introduced docuseries ‘Wahlburgers’ which will bring the season one order to 27. Debuting on January 22nd, ‘Wahlburgers’ follows Mark and Donnie Wahlburg as they head back to their hometown in Boston to join up with their other sibling, Paul, who runs the family restaurant business.
For the 4th time, Hugh Jackman will be the host of the Tony Awards on CBS.
Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning actor Hugh Jackman returns to host ‘THE 68TH ANNUAL TONY® AWARDS’, live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Sunday, June 8, 8-1100P, on the CBS
Ratings Notes
Syndicated Ratings
(Week of February 2, 2014)…..HH
Rank….Program……………….Rating..Viewers (000)
1…….Judge Judy…………………..8.2……11439
2…….Wheel of Fortune………….7.9……12596
3…….Jeopardy……………………..7.2…….11410
4…….Big Bang Theory…………..6.9…….11122
5…….Family Feud…………………6.3…….9338
6…….Modern Family…………….5.1……..7879
7…….Two and A Half Men…….4.1……..6081
8…….Entertainment Tonight…4.1……..6125
9…….Dr. Phil Show……………….3.9…….5358
10……Live Kelly & Michael…….3.4…….4611
11……Ellen Degeneres Show…..3.3…….4598
12……Inside Edition………………3.2…….4740
13……Family Guy…………………..3.0……4754
14……Law & Order:SVU…………2.6……3467
15……Dr. OZ Show…………………2.4……3306
Welcome new visitors from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, The UK, France, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Australia.
ITV’s ‘DCI Banks’ was #1 in The UK on Monday.
Across The Pond
The Winter Olympics, despite a British woman winning a medal on snow, is out of position in the UK. The time shift along with a disinterest in the winter games simply can’t compete with the habit of the telly on a cold winter’s night. And for that reason, ITV at 9P had the top program of the evening in ‘DCI Banks’ as it remained #1 on Monday with 5.69 million viewers (23.4%) as it continued with the second instalment of chilling storyline ‘Wednesday’s Child’. An hour earlier, ‘Great Welsh Adventure’ brought in 3.49 million (14.4%).
BBC Two at 7P brought the ‘Winter Olympics’ highlights which pulled in 2.60 million (11.6%) for those who had not already learned about the results via digital and/or mobile. At 8P, ‘University Challenge’ had 3.26 million (13.5%).
On BBC One, at 830P, ‘Panorama’ drew 2.99 million (12.4%). At 9P, Jeremy Paxman’s ‘Britain’s Great War’ pulled in 3.22 million (13.2%). They simply could not compete with ITV’s strong lineup.
Channel 5 at 8P brought ‘Police Interceptors’ and drew 1.01 million viewers (4.2%) while at 9P, Jim Davidson’s special ‘At Least I’m Not Boring’ increased the audience to 1.14 million (4.7%).
Channel 4 at 9P brought its stunning series, ‘Benefits Street’ which concluded its run with 4.02 million (16.5%). At 10P, Chris Stark’s ‘Celeb Hunter’ could only muster 662,000 viewers (4.2%). It looks as if C4 had a one trick pony as at 9P, it beat every program except ‘DCI Banks’.
Seven’s ‘My Kitchen Rules’ Smashed The Competition On Monday.
Down Under
Other people around the world can talk about the Winter Olympics, but in Australia, it doesn’t mean a thing. With everything happening in the middle of the night and social media via digital and mobile spreading the word when they want it, Sochi doesn’t even finish in the top 20 programs on Monday.
Seven dominated once again as their biggest program, ‘My Kitchen Rules’ ruled Monday. It drew 1.948 million metro viewers with 482,000 watching in Sydney; in Melbourne, 574,000 viewers; in Brisbane, 381,000 advocates, in Adelaide, 222,000 kitchen fanatics and in Perth, a whopping 289,000 viewers. Nationally it drew 2.8 million viewers, its best of the year. It finished 740,000 viewers ahead of its nearest competition. #3 program on Monday was ‘Seven News’ which pulled in 1.197 million. #4 was ‘Seven News/Today Tonight’ which drew 1.114 million folks. #6 for the evening was ‘Revenge’ which drew 1.069 million while #8 top program was ‘Home and Away’ with 997,000 viewers.
Nine’s ‘Nine News’ finished #2 on Monday with 1.206 million viewers. The #5 program on Monday was ‘Nine News 6:30’ which had 1.071 million viewers. #7 program was ‘The Block: Fans v Faves’ which drew 1.068 million. #9 program of Monday was on Network Nine as ‘A Current Affair’ drew 990,000 viewers.
ABC1 had the #10 program on Monday as ‘ABC News’ drew 865,000 viewers.
For the Record in Australia
Seven won on Monday with a 27.7% share against Nine’s 17.6%, Ten’s 11.0% and ABC1’s 12.8%. In 25-54, Seven had a 27.9% share against Nine’s 19.2%.
As you can see, no matter where people were watching television, they were…
Switching Channels!
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