43 Years And Counting. #1 Again on Sunday.
Sunday, 04.27.14 (Posted 04.28.14)
Day #4 of the May Sweeps 2014 put CBS into the lead…again. At 7P, ’60 Minutes’ joined the 10+ Million Program Club with a leading 10.33 million viewers. It finished 3.87 million viewers ahead of the competition in its time period. For 43 years this program has been the hallmark of CBS News. You can see the latest episode at http://bit.ly/1ke0VVR. At 8P, ‘The Amazing Race’ drew 8.53 million viewers, also the top program in its time slot. It finished 1.62 million ahead of its closest competition in this time period. At 9P, ‘The Good Wife’ had 9.25 million viewers, again leading the time slot for The Tiffany Network. It finished 1.09 million viewers ahead of its closest competition. At 10P, one of the few programs so far no renewed, ‘The Mentalist’ drew 8.67 million viewers, and again leading its time slot. Its closest competition finished 3.73 million viewers behind ‘The Mentalist’, the second best differential of the evening. If CBS doesn’t renew this program, ABC should snap it up and make it part of their stable of programming, perhaps even on Sunday night at 10P or at 9P on Monday to give ‘Castle’ a running mate with all-season power. ‘The Mentalist’, even though it is not a CBS owned program, but rather part of the old Moonves/Time Warner alignment which does not give CBS the great wealth in residuals downline in this new world of Digital/Mobile content, is still a powerful program. Sort of reminds one of ‘JAG’ way back when CBS brought that over from NBC. And, look at what that produced. Sometimes in life you have to make decisions that are good for your audience, and not your long term pocketbook.
ABC finished second but well behind #1 and well ahead of #3. In other words, it was a comfortable #2 and imagine what it would do if it acquired ‘The Mentalist’ to boost its ratings. However, yesterday, at 7P, ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ drew 6.46 million viewers. At 8P, ‘Once Upon A Time’ picked it up a bit and averaged 6.91 million viewers. At 9P, ‘Resurrection’ upped the ante again on Sunday and drew 7.46 million viewers for The Alphabet Network. But at 10P, ‘Revenge’ could only draw 4.95 million viewers, a drop of over 2.5 million from the previous program. Imagine if you will, putting ‘The Mentalist’ into this time slot and producing a number which would be an increase of nearly four million and bringing its affiliate network a huge lift into their 11P newscasts with an evening that was completely uphill?
As for the rest, it was lackluster. NBC had their usual horrible performing Sunday evening without football. Too bad for The Peacock Network that football isn’t available over the entire year. But then again they already have a sport network (NBCSN). At 7P, ‘American Dream Builders’ didn’t create many dreams as it averaged 3.12 million, so far behind the leaders it was not relevant. At 8P, ‘Dateline’ pulled it up to 6.09 million viewers, nearly doubling the audience, yet over 2.5 million behind the leaders. At 9P, ‘Believe’ pulled in a 4.92 million viewers. You get the picture. At 10P, ‘Crisis’ was with 3.97 million viewers, giving dream builders a run for its money. But the suits at Peacock don’t care. They can smell football in about three months.
FOX was animated as usual on Sunday. And because of its worn-out table of programming, it finished last. At 7P, ‘Bob’s Burger’ drew 2.44 million viewers; at 730P, ‘American Dad’ drew 2.54 million viewers; at 8P, ‘The Simpsons’ drew 3.38 million viewers; at 830P, ‘Family Guy’ drew 3.97 million viewers, all moving the ladder of viewership up the entire evening. At 9P, the special limited series, ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’ 3.64 million viewers. The Animal Network of Broadcasting needs to pick up at the beginning of its schedule and figure out what to do at 9P before the affiliate local news at 10P.
For The Record
CBS was #1 on Sunday with 9.20 million viewers and a 5.8 rating and a 10 share of the available audience. ABC finished #2 with 6.44 million and a 3.9/7. NBC was next with 4.53 million viewers and a 2.9/5. FOX drew 3.08 million viewers and a 1.9/3 on Sunday. Univision drew 2.205 million viewers and a 1.2/2. Telemundo finished with a 0.7/1.
Today In TV History
On this day in 1957, Mike Wallace, the famed ’60 Minutes’ reporter, was seen on TV for the first time. He was the host of ‘Mike Wallace Interviews’. In its four year run in prime time, the ‘Mike Wallace Interviews’ were with some of the most noted personalities in 20th Century America including Frank Lloyd Wright (for a look into this extraordinary interview, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeKzIZAKG3E), Eleanor Roosevelt, Rod Serling, Mortimer Adler, Pearl Buck, Bennett Cerf, Salvidore Dali, William O. Douglas, Erich Fromm, Oscar Hammerstein, Aldous Huxley, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Sanger, Adlai Stevenson, Peter Ustinov and Ayn Rand among others.
Cable News
19 Days Before First Movie Global Simulcast on Lifetime of Sean Hanish’s film, ‘Return To Zero’ on May 17th at 8P (E), 7P (C), 6P (M), 5P (P) & 3P (HA).
The Dividing Of America On Cable
The New Charter-Comcast Map.
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) today announced that the companies have reached an agreement (the “Agreement”) on a series of tax-efficient transactions, whereby the combined Comcast-Time Warner Cable entity, following completion of Comcast’s previously announced merger with Time Warner Cable, will divest systems resulting in a net reduction of approximately 3.9 million video customers. The divestiture follows through on Comcast’s willingness to reduce its post-merger managed subscriber total to less than 30 percent of total national MVPD subscribers, while maintaining the compelling strategic and financial rationale of its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable.
In other words, Charter will become the cable king of middle America, while Comcast tightens its hold on major markets, in this morning’s announced business deal. Comcast will pick up Charter systems in California, New England, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Oregon, Washington and Virginia. Meanwhile, Charter will acquire Time Warner Cable franchises in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Alabama — and manage others in Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Alabama, Eastern Tennessee, Kentucky and Wisconsin that it will partly own in a new Comcast spinoff company.
Joe Klein is Turning to Fox News Because CNN Has ‘Gone in the Toilet’
Jordan Charlton wrote in TV Newswer (04.28.14), “As Time Inc. prepares to spin off from Time Warner, TIME columnist Joe Klein says he can now speak candidly about soon-to-be former corporate sibling CNN. “It is such an embarrassment to our profession that CNN has gone in the toilet the way it has,” Klein told PBS’ Jeff Greenfield last night at New York City’s 92nd Street Y. Klein recounted coming home, turning on CNN at 6P to watch Wolf Blitzer, only to be disappointed with nonstop missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 coverage. “I miss being able to watch a straight newscast, and it turns out the only place you can go to get one at 6 o’clock at night is Fox,” Klein said, adding that the other option is to turn on MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, who he “still considers to be a major criminal.” For this part of the interview, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teoxjspg0p8#action=share. But what would one expect from the same guy who took NBC under.
Sunday Cable Ratings (04.27.14)
HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ ascended to yet another series high on Sunday, and it also gave another new HBO show a boost. ‘Thrones’ averaged a series-record 6.9 million total viewers at 9P. The show once again became the most-watched program on HBO since the series finale of ‘The Sopranos’ seven years ago, which averaged 11.9 million total viewers. ‘Tonight’, starring former ‘Daily Show’ correspondent John Oliver, who famously filled in for Jon Steward last summer on the Comedy Central show, to strong reviews, which aired at 11P drew 1.1 million total viewers. For an 11P show on a pay cable network, 1.1 million is a strong number.
Broadcast TV News
Craig Ferguson to end his run from CBS’ ‘Late Late Show’ in December.
Craig Ferguson has decided to leave the CBS ‘Late Late Show’ at the end of December. Ferguson broke the news to his studio audience at the 5P PT taping of Monday’s edition of ‘Late Late Show’. In a statement issued by the network he quipped: “CBS and I are not getting divorced, we are ‘consciously uncoupling,’ but we will still spend holidays together and share custody of the fake horse and robot skeleton, both of whom we love very much.”
Top 15 Programs LIVE +7 Ratings for Week #28 (April 7-13, 2014)
RK Program Net Live LIVE+7 Increase %
1 The Big Bang Theory CBS 16288 21645 5357 33%
2 Scandal ABC 9227 13465 4238 46%
3 Elementary CBS 7902 11956 4054 51%
4 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 8177 12136 3959 48%
5 Blue Bloods CBS 11051 14794 3743 34%
6 NCIS CBS 17392 21072 3680 21%
7 Marvel Agents ABC 5373 8833 3460 64%
8 Resurrection ABC 7461 10901 3440 46%
9 Hawaii Five CBS 9168 12542 3374 37%
10 Criminal Minds CBS 9848 13171 3323 34%
11 CSI CBS 9113 12423 3310 36%
12 Chicago Fire NBC 6958 10153 3195 46%
13 Revenge ABC 5265 8342 3077 58%
14 NCIS: LA CBS 14560 17477 2917 20%
15 The Mentalist CBS 9021 11821 2800 31%
New update on The Millennium Report can be found at http://bit.ly/1ljkQXc.
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Across The Pond
ITV’s ‘Vera’ returned on Sunday and finished #2.
BBC One had the power on Sunday evening. Once again at 7P, ‘Countryfile’ was the most watched show with 6.7 million viewers and a 32.6% share of the available audience. It was followed at 8P by ‘Antiques Roadshow’ with 5.3 million viewers (22.8%). At 9P, ‘The Crimson Field’ continued with 4.9 million viewers (20.7%). After the news, at 1035P, Match of the Day 2 brought in 2.8 million viewers (24.5%).
ITV at 645P presented ‘Catchphrase’ and it pulled in 3.5 million viewers (18.5%). At 730P, it was followed by ‘Off Their Rockers’ with 3.5 million viewers (16.4%). At 8P had the return of ‘Vera’ for its fourth season and brought in record numbers on Sunday evening. The late middle-aged detective, starring Brenda Blethyn, drew an impressive 5.8 million viewers and a 23.6% share of the available audience. The people must love her as ‘Vera’ outdrew what it did in the first episode a year ago when it opened with 4.5 million viewers. That bodes well for this lovable detective in the future.
Channel 4 at 8P had ‘For the Love of Cars brought in 1.2m (5.0%). And at 9P, Channel 4 had its debut of the FX imported Coen Brothers ‘Fargo’ as it drew 2.0 million viewers (6.3%).
BBC Two at 8P presented ‘Natural World’ and it interested 1.1 million viewers (4.9%). At 9P, the Oscar-winning film ‘The Artist’ brought in 994,000 viewers (4.6%) on Sunday.
Channel 5 at 8P had the broadcast of ‘Rush Hour 2’ and it pulled in 1.1 million viewers (5.0%). At 10P, ‘The Other Guys’ brought in 973,000 viewers (5.1%).
EUROPEAN MOBILE/DIGITAL
Smartphone User Penetration In Western Europe by Country 2012-2017
Down Under
Seven’s ‘My Kitchen Rules’ Dominates Sunday Programming In Australia.
Seven (36.1% share of the available audience) finished #1 on Sunday in Australia. And it began with ‘My Kitchen Rules’ which drew a huge 1,912,000 viewers with over a half million in each of the two major cities, 500,000 in Sydney; 511,000 in Melbourne, 383,000 in Brisbane, 222,000 in Adelaide and 296,000 in Perth. The #2 program was also the #1 newscast as ‘Seven News Sunday’ drew 1,246,000 million viewers. The #3 program was also on Seven as ‘Sunday Night’ drew 1,246,000 viewers. The #9 program was ‘Downton Abbey’ which drew 917,000 viewers.
Nine (with 30.1% share of the available audience) had #4 with ‘Nine News Sunday’ which drew 1,199,000 million viewers. #5 was ’60 Minutes’ which was also a million + draw with 1,155,000 viewers. #7 was ‘TV Week Logie Awards Arrivals’ which drew 974,000 viewers. Then, the #8 program was the ’56th Annual TV Week Logie Awards’ which drew 962,000 viewers. Apparently, more want to see what the celebrities wear than who won.
Ten (with 14.9% share of the available audience) had the #6 program, ‘Modern Family: Australia’ which drew 1,049,000 viewers, one of the top on this network this season.
ABC1 (with 14.6% share of the available audience, finishing fourth had only one program in the Top Ten which was #10, ‘ABC News Sunday’ which drew 765,000 viewers.
SBS finished last with 4.5% share of the available audience with no shows in the Top Twenty on Sunday.
As you can see, no matter where we live in the world today, people are…
Switching Channels!
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