
Danny (Donnie Wahlberg and Maria (Marisa Ramirez) search for answers in ‘Open Secrets’ on Friday’s #1 program on television, ‘Blue Bloods’.
Friday, 02.28.14
CBS dominated Friday night in prime time winning each of the six half hours. At 8P, ‘Undercover Boss’ finished with 7.66 million viewers. At 8P, in an exceptional episode which featured everyone in the cast except one, and two guests stars along with two dead people in the wall of a home, ‘Hawaii Five-0’ became the first 10+ million program of the night by pulling in 10.5 million viewers. At 10P, the champ of Friday’s, ‘Blue Bloods’ came in with a powerful program about centered around hope and drew 11.8 million viewers. It was a definitive ‘Blue Bloods’ and it is a Must See ON DEMAND episode. The dinner table scene is one of the best directed scenes of the year. And the ending will not leave a dry eye in the house. Written by executive producer Ian Biederman, this is an Emmy Award caliber winner. Superb evening of superb programming on The Tiffany Network.
ABC was brave but fell short on Friday. At 8P, ‘Last Man Standing’ brought in 6.59 million viewers while at 830P, ‘The Neighbors’ pulled in a disappointing 4.52, losing more than 2 million from the leaden program. At 9P, ‘Shark Tank’ drew 7.84 million viewers by actually gaining in the second half hour with a peak of 8.13 million. While it was some two million short of ‘Hawaii Five-0′, it did improve as a lead in for ’20/20’ at 10P. But it could only draw 7.33 million against the power of ‘Blue Bloods’. It was an Avis kind of a night for the Alphabet Network.
As for NBC, it finished the evening way behind the others. Leading off at 8P, ‘Dateline’ was the best hope for the Peacock Network to pull off a power position on Friday but it finally came up with 6.22 million viewers good for #3 in the time slot. At 9P, ‘Grimm’ drew 5.2 million viewers, finishing way behind CBS and ABC in the time slot. At 10P, with the debut of ‘Hannibal’, it could only pull in 3.35 million viewers and actually was of little improvement of the horrible ‘Dracula’. It was a bad night at 30 Rock.
FOX led off the evening with a very interesting episode of ‘Bones’ where Bones as a juror led to find the accused ‘not guilty’ but had to prove that he was guilty by solving the murder. It was a very good episode but sadly only 3.39 million viewers bothered to watch. At 9P, ‘Enlisted’ dropped off the face of the earth with 1.84 million viewers while at 930P, ‘Raising Hope’ did not as it fell even further down the rabbit hole with 1.79 million viewers.
The CW was DOA on the evening. At 8P, a rerun of ‘Who’s Line Is It Anyway?’ drew 1.34 million viewers while at 830P, another rerun of ‘Who’s Line Is It Anyway’ drew 1.43 million viewers. At 9P, a rerun of ‘Star-Crossed’ drew 551,000 viewers. This was not only horrible, but it would be less than nearly 60% of all cable programming on the air for the evening. If programmers at the The Little Network That Could cannot put up shows that draw above the Mendoza Line, it shouldn’t really be a broadcast network.
Late Night

Jimmy Fallon and Cameron Diaz performed a hilarious three-legged dance together on ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’ on Friday
At 1135P, ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ with guests Cameron Diaz, Ralph Fiennes and Mario Batali led the night with a 3.8 rating, 9 share in households. To see the hilarious dance sequence, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRhnA2WRzU0. CBS’s ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ with guests Ian McKellen & Patrick Stewart, Sophia Bush and comedian Michael Che pulled in a 2.7/6 and ABC’s with a rerun of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ finished with a 2.2/5. At 1235A, ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ equaled its highest rating since Monday’s premiere, averaging a 2.2 rating, 7 share in household results best since the 2.6/9 for the show’s Feb. 24 debut. ABC’s ‘Nightline’ finished with a 1.3/4 and CBS’s ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ did the same with 1.3/4. At 135A, ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ averaged a 1.2/4.
For The Record
CBS was #1 for the second straight night with 9.97 million viewers. ABC came in #2 with 6.90. NBC finished third with 4.92 million viewers and FOX on the evening had an average of 2.6 million viewers. The CW finished with 969,000 viewers.
Today In TV History
On this date in 1979, the NCAA granted ESPN the exclusive rights to telecast collegiate events. What was once the exclusive domain of the broadcast networks, the cable sports giant-to-be was on its way. Remember, there were only a few cable networks at that time including, CNN
Cable TV News
Major League baseball comes to FOX Sports 1 next week. Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday FOX Sports 1 televises its first-ever Major League Baseball games, one Spring Training game per day, two from the Cactus League and one from the Grapefruit League. The first is Monday, March 3 at 3P (ET) and has the Arizona Diamondbacks hosting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The second is Tuesday, March 4 at 3P (ET), with the Angels playing host to the D’backs. Victor Rojas and Mark Gubicza have the call for both games. On Wednesday, March 5 at 1P (ET), the World Champion Boston Red Sox visit the defending National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals in a Fall Classic rematch with Dan McLaughlin on play-by-play and analysis from Al Hrabosky. FOX Sports 1 is simulcasting games being produced by FOX Sports West and FOX Sports Midwest, two of FOX’s industry-leading 22 owned-and-operated regional sports networks.
Digital/Mobile News
Hispanic consumers are outpacing non-Hispanics in their adoption of mobile, social and online sources for local shopping, according to a recent study. Nearly a quarter (23.6%) of Hispanic consumers reported that they use tablets for local shopping, compared with 15.5% of non-Hispanics, according to BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor study. Nearly half (48.5%) of Hispanic consumers use mobile devices for local shopping, compared with 32% of non-Hispanics. Among mobile Hispanic consumers, 52.5% report using their tablets and 42.5% report using their smartphones daily for local shopping. When using social media for local shopping, Hispanic consumers index higher than non-Hispanics on all social media networks, except Facebook, with 61% of Hispanics and 67% of non-Hispanics reporting that they use Facebook for local shopping. Other social networks used for local shopping include: YouTube: 17.7% by Hispanics; 10.3% by non-Hispanics; Yahoo: 16.8% by Hispanics; 16.4% by non-Hispanics; Google+: 11.9% by Hispanics; 10.8% by non-Hispanics and Twitter: 11.1% by Hispanics; 6.7% by non-Hispanics.
Despite their heavy social media use, 83.2% of Hispanic consumers list family and friends as their most trustworthy source for local shopping information. For more information on this study, go to: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/220427/hispanic-consumers-embrace-social-media-mobile.html
2014 Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards can be viewed online at http://movies.yahoo.com/video/in
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
BEST DOCUMENTARY
20 Feet From Stardom, Director/Producer: Morgan Neville, Producers: Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers
BEST EDITING Nat Sanders, Short Term 12
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sean Bobbitt, 12 Years A Slave
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY Bob Nelson, Nebraska
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
BEST SCREENPLAY
John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
BEST MALE LEAD
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
BEST DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
BEST FEATURE
12 Years A Slave
Across The Pond
In the UK on Friday the big battle was a 9P. The BBC One had ‘Jonathan Creek’ return with a very strong 6.33 million, 29.2% share of the available audience which was over 4 million more than anything else on this time slot last night.
BBC One began the evening at 7P with 4.36 million (21.7%) for ‘The One Show’, followed by ‘A Question of Sport’ which drew 3.04 million (14.2%). At 830P, ‘Room 101’ increased the audience with 3.61 million viewers (15.9%). At 1030P, ‘The Graham Norton Show’ with guests Ant and Dec, Naomi Campbell and Aaron Paul, finished the evening with 3.77 million viewers (28.4%).
On ITV, at 8P had ‘Student Nurses: Bedpans and Bandages’ was that channel’s highest-rated show outside of soaps drawing 2.75 million (12.4%). AT 830P, after the evening’s second visit to Weatherfield, the latest episode of ‘Edge of Heaven’ was viewed by 1.75m (8.3%). At 9P, ‘8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown’ which finished second a 9P with 2.19 million (10.1%).
BBC Two presented at 7P, ‘Permission Impossible’ as 1.26 million viewers (6%) tuned in. At 8P, ‘Mastermind’ had the network high of 2.17 million viewers (9.8%). At 830P, ‘Coming Home’ dropped to 1.30 million (5.7%). At 9P, ‘The Pity of War’ dropped further as only 990,000 viewers (4.8%) tuned in.
Down Under
Seven back on top after a day behind. But it was an extremely slow Friday night as not a single program pulled in over a million viewers. In fact, Seven’s top program was #3 on Friday as ‘Seven News’ pulled in 950,000 viewers. #5 was ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ with 839,000 viewers. #6 was ‘Seven News/Today Tonight’ with 837,000 viewers. #8 was ‘The Proposal’ which finished with 754,000 viewers.
The #1 program on Friday and the #1 newscast was ‘Nine News’ which finished a sluggish Friday with only 989,000 viewers. #4 on Friday was ‘Nine News 6:30’ with 925,000 viewers. #7 program on Friday was ‘A Current Affair’ with 791,000.
ABC1 had the top drama on Friday with ‘The Doctor Blake Mysteries’ which finished #2 for the evening with 975,000 viewers. If you would like to see what ‘Blake’ is all about, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl9Jk1wfiGs. #9 was ‘ABC News’ which finished with 676,000 viewers. At #10 was a rerun of ‘QI’ which managed to pull in 631,000.
Needless to say, it really was not a television night in Australia on Friday.
But as you can see, no matter where people were watching television, they were…
Switching Channels!
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