The King of CBS. Tom Selleck’s ‘Blue Bloods’ was #1 again on Friday.
Friday, 04.02.14 (Posted 04.03.14)
On Day #9 of the May Sweeps, CBS powered through another impressive victory on Friday, as it has done for nearly every Friday outside of Olympic coverage. Beginning at 8P, ‘Unforgettable’ finishing first in its time slot drew 7.58 million viewers, a 1.1 million lead over its closest competition. But the real power of Friday begins with ‘Hawaii Five-0’ at 9P. It drew 8.69 million viewers and this episode was exceptional. While a unique case involved the stealing of human body parts, in this case a liver for a transplant, turned into a unique who-done-it. But the second arc of the plot was intense as Catherine and Steve left for Afghanstan to assist the family that save Catherine’s life when she was a Naval officer serving in that country. This is a Must See ON Demand episode. At 10P, the cornerstone of the night, ‘Blue Bloods’ did not disappoint. A cop was shot. And it turned into one of the most problematic episode in awhile. It too was a Must See ON Demand episode. It drew 11.38 million viewers, more than 4.4 million ahead of its nearest competition. The Tiffany Network simply cannot be beat on Fridays. For that matter, it can’t be beat on Thursdays, Wednesdays, Sundays and some Saturdays and an occasional Tuesday. Monday is the only night that it is not a potential winner.
ABC began the evening at 8P with ‘Shark Tank: Swimming with Sharks’ and it came in third with 5.84 million viewers. At 9P however, ‘Shark Tank’ nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season, finishing with 8.08 million viewers, just 610,000 viewers behind the #1 program. But at 10P, ’20/20′ had a 6.98 million viewers level and doomed the Alphabet Network a second place finish. After all, Barbara Walters interviewed Donald Sterling’s girlfriend V. Staviano making clear Andy Warhol’s ’15 minutes of fame’ draws about 7 million gossip hounds.
NBC at 8P, ‘Dateline’ gave the Peacock Network its best showing on the night by finishing with 6.42 million viewers, good for second place in its time slot. But at 9P, ‘Grimm’ dropped to 5.2 million viewers and it was the beginning of the end for 30 Rock. At 10P, ‘Hannibal’ dropped to the bottom of the barrel with only 2.76 million viewers.
FOX believed ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ could carry the evening. But at it became clear, at 8P-10P, it couldn’t as it drew a low 2.49 million family and friends of the Animal Network of Braodcast.
The CW at 8P had ‘Who’s Line Is It Anyway’ and pulled in 1.19 million viewers. At 830P, it kept it above a million with 1.09 million viewers. But at 9P, ‘Hart of Dixie’ fell to 670,000 viewers, dooming The Little Network That Could to the basement.
Late Night
Rachael Taylor on CBS’ ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ on Friday which beat NBC’s ‘Seth Meyers’.
NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ drew 2.5/6; CBS’s ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ just behind with a 2.4/6; and ABC’s rerun of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ drew a 2.1/5. At 1235A, ABC’s ‘Nightline won the time period with a 1.4/4. CBS’ Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ in an excellent, diverse episode with first, journalist Christiane Amanpour, and then the hilarious actress Rachael Taylor (see it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZvQnsCLI8). It Seth Meyers with a 1.3/4. NBC’s ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ with a rerun drew 1.2/4. At 135A, NBC’s ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ had a 0.7/3.
For The Record
CBS won Friday with 9.214 million viewers. ABC finished second with 6.996 million viewers. NBC came in third with 4.791 million viewers. Univision was fourth on Friday with 2.679 million viewers. FOX was in fifth place with 2.488 million viewers. The CW finished with 880,000 viewers on average for their prime time schedule. Telemundo had a 0.7/1
Today In TV History
On this date in 1991, the final episode of ‘Dallas’ aired on CBS. JR and the gang kept the audience glued from 1978 through 1991. By the way, the only character to appear in every episode was…JR.
Cable TV News
14 days before Lifetime launches the global simulcast of Sean Hanish’s film, ‘Return To Zero’ starring Minnie Driver, Paul Adelstein, Alfred Molina, Kathy Baker, Connie Nielsen, Andrea Anders, Sarah Jones and Colette Freedman.
“This film means an enormous amount to me and it was made for nothing. And it disappeared because everyone was afraid to put out a very sad film. But Lifetime stepped up and they’re putting this movie out. It’s a really beautiful film.”
– Minnie Driver (on Ellen, Friday describing her feeling about starring in ‘Return To Zero’)
On Thursday in Los Angeles, in an article in the Hollywood Report by Arlene Washington, “Minnie Driver, Paul Adelstein and Alfred Molina touted their Lifetime original movie Return to Zero at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles. The film follows a married couple (Driver and Adelstein) as they deal with the aftermath of losing a child from stillbirth and journey through a second pregnancy. Writer-director-producer Sean Hanish based the film on what he recalls as the most painful experience he’s ever had when him and his wife had to cope with losing their child from stillbirth. “The film is about breaking the silence because nobody has ever done a film about this type of loss before,” Hanish told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’s a film that’s not just about the loss of a child, but also about any type of loss and how people grieve differently.”
Adelstein noted that preparing to portray Hanish in such a tragic situation was far different than his roles on Scandal and Private Practice. “Sean had obviously lived through this so he was a great source to talk to,” Adelstein told THR. “I learned a lot about stillbirth which I didn’t know and that was really eye opening. It’s just a tough thing that happens in the movie so facing that on those days was hard, but I think it’s supposed to be hard.” Although Driver felt her role was the hardest job she’s ever had, she said there were plenty of laughs on set to blow off steam. “We were hysterical most of the time,” said Driver. “I think its cause we were so “amped up” emotionally, you had to have a counterpoint balance to that. Paul and Alfred are some of the funniest people I’ve ever met so we cracked a lot of jokes that often ended in tears because it was all too much.”
Supermodel Cindy Crawford attended the premiere to show support for Hanish who has remained a longtime friend. Crawford was shooting a commercial project with Hanish during the same time he was expecting to be a father.
“Sean had just left my house when he got the news that Kylie lost the baby,” Crawford told THR. “I just couldn’t imagine it. It’s the unthinkable so I thought how are they surviving, how do you wake up in the morning, and I think the film does a great job of depicting that and doesn’t just gloss it over.”
‘Return to Zero’ will be the network’s first global premiere film airing on Lifetime channels in Canada, the U.K., Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. With such an international rollout, Hannish feels that the film delivers an appropriate universal message. “I’ve had people who watched the film say ‘I lost my father last year and this film helped because I could see so much of myself and what I went through with his loss,” said Hanish. “It’s a film about what happens when your expectations are shattered and when you lose something something so near and dear to you and really how you cope. It’s a very universal story in many ways.”
Return to Zero premieres May 17 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.
New update on The Millennium Report can be found at http://bit.ly/1ljkQXc.
Sign of the Times
Welcome
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Across The Pond
BBC One’s ‘HIGNFY’ took top honors in the UK on Friday.
BBC One during this time of the year seems to have Fridays sewed up. The evening’s entertainment began at 7P at ‘The One Show’ pulled in 3.45 million (19.6%). It was followed at 730P by 2.57 million (13.6%) for ‘A Question of Sport’. At 830P, ‘MasterChef’ pulled in 4.05 million (18.7%) viewers. At 9P,’Have I Got News For You’ once again topped Friday’s primetime ratings, attracting an average audience of 4.42 million (20.6%). Hosted by comedian Jack Dee, this week’s show was Friday’s highest-rated show outside of soaps. At 930P, a rerun of ‘Outnumbered’ was seen by 2.79 million (13.4%). Then at 1035P, ‘The Graham Norton Show’ pulled in 3.22 million viewers (23.5%) stayed up to watch Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. After, ‘Bad Education’ drew 930,000 viewers (9.9%).
ITV at 8P had ‘Weekend Escapes with Warwick Davis’ and it drew 2.65 million viewers (12.8%). At 9P, the drama series ‘Lewis’ was the channel’s highest-rated show outside of soaps, attracting 2.86 million viewers (13.5%). Not a good night for ITV.
BBC Two continued with ‘The Live World Snooker Championships’ as the indoor so-called sporting event, which aired from 7-9P was seen by 1.65 million (8.3%), a slight increase over the earlier telecasts during the week which averaged about 1.1 million viewers. The evening on BBC Two continued with ‘Natural World’ which drew 1.83 million viewers (8.7%) and ‘The Trip to Italy’, which attracted 880,000 (4.9%) viewers.
Channel 4 began with ABC’s ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ which could only draw 980,000 viewers (4.7%). But at 9P, ‘Gogglebox’ once again proved a ratings success as it pulled in 2.46 million (11.6%) viewers, a big increase from time slot to time slot. At 10P, ‘Alan Carr: Chatty Man’ drew 1.49m viewers (9%).
Channel 5 began the evening with ‘Ice Road Trucker’ and it drew 735,000 viewers (4.5%). But at 9P, CBS’ ‘NCIS’ increased the audience to 954,000 viewer (4.5%). It was followed at 10P by ‘NCIS: LA’ which drew 658,000 (3.9%) as the new Viacom owned network began its run.
BBC Three presented ‘Family Guy’ at 1145P and drew 634,000 viewers (8.1%).
Down Under
‘Jonathan Creek’ #1 drama in Australia on Friday but Seven Wins Again.
Seven continued a very strong week with another #1 performance with a 32.1% share of the available audience in Australia on Friday. The #1 program and the #1 newscast was ‘Seven News’ with 1,160 million viewers, beating its rival, ‘Nine News’ by just 15,000 viewers for the top spot. 316,000 caught it in Sydney; 297,000 watched in Melbourne; 251,000 were watching in Brisbane; 162,000 in Adelaide and 135,000 people caught it in Perth. #3 was ‘Seven News/Today Tonight’ as it drew 12,003,000 viewers. #6, ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ came in with 850,000 people watching.
Nine, which came in second with 31.7% share of the available audience, had the #2 program and #2 telecast with ‘Nine News’ with 1,045,000 viewers. In Sydney, 332,000 caught it; 348,000 watched in Melbourne; 207,000 were watching in Brisbane; 81,000 in Adelaide and 78,000 people caught it in Perth. As you can compare, the victory was lost in Adelaide and Perth. #4 was ‘Nine News 6:30’ which drew 981,000 viewers. #5 was ‘Friday Night NRL Live’ with 854,000 viewers. #7 was ‘A Current Affair’ which drew 839,000 viewers. Nine had the #10 program with ‘Friday Night NRL Live-Pre Match’ with 624,000 viewers.
ABC1 got into the game (15.7% share of the available audience for the evening) with ‘ABC News’ which brought in 731,000 viewers. It also had the #9 program, the #1 drama of the evening with ‘Jonathan Creek’ which pulled in 694,000 viewers.
For the record, Ten pulled in 15.4% share of the available audience as ‘Eyewitness News’ was their top program, finishing #14 with 570,000 viewers.
SBS had 5.0% share of the available audience.
As you can see, no matter where we live in the world today, people are…
Switching Channels!
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