‘It’s All About Screens.’ This is the Daily Diary of Screens. On Tuesday, December 1, 2015, NBC finished #1 broadcast network as ‘The Voice*’‘ was the top program. ITV #1 in the UK as ‘I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’ top program. Seven finished #1 in Australia as Network Nine’s ‘A Current Affair’ was the top non-news program and ‘Seven News’ was the nation’s top newscast. ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 2‘ #1 on weekend 27-29 November 2015 (Domestic) ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 2‘ #1 on weekend 27-29 November 2015 (International). There are 3.734 Billion Unique Mobile 68% Social Ad Clicks Are Now Mobile. Users as of this quarter, account for a 51% worldwide penetration. Direct uploads of user videos to Facebook now exceed YouTube. 88% of Twitter users are on mobile. The Google+1 button is hit 5 billion times per day. 80% of Internet users on Pinterest are female. LinkedIn has 347 million registered members. 600 million users on Whatsapp. WEDNESDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS (*SEE BELOW)
Today, traditional TV still accounts for the lion’s share of video viewing, but online and mobile are where the growth is. When managed together, TV/digital/mobile hold the potential to drive real impact for advertisers—enabling them to maximize the customers they reach and/or reinforce key messaging across screens. After all, ‘It’s all about screens’.
The Home Of #dailydiaryofscreens
For Tuesday, December 1, 2015 (Posted on December 2, 2015)
NBC #1 Tuesday as ‘The Voice’ was the top program.
NBC
The Peacock Network made it two in a row on Tuesday as CBS did not run its big guns but NBC ran our theirs. At 8P, ‘The Voice’ finished with an average 11.98 million viewers, making it the #1 program in the U.S. on Tuesday. At 9P, ‘Chicago Med’ finished with an average 9.77 million viewers. Then at 10P, ‘Chicago Fire’ finished with an average 8.47 million viewers.
CBS
The Tiffany Network made a scheduling mistake. Not that holiday fare is not good. It just should not be put up instead of the #1 drama in the world. At 8P, the tradition of the holidays, a rerun of ‘Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’ delivered 9.01 million viewers, millions of viewers less than what ‘NCIS’ delivers. At 9P, a rerun and out of positioned ‘Limitless’ finished with an average 4.92 million viewers. Then at 10P, a rerun of ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ also flipped out of its normal position had an average 5.79 million viewers. It was like willy coyote took a hammer to its own head and repeatedly beat himself while continuing to smile and believe he would be alright.
ABC
The Alphabet Network had its normal Tuesday lineup and got beaten badly. At 8P, ‘The Muppets’ finished with an average 3.78 million viewers. At 830P, ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ finished with an average 3.65 million viewers. Then at 9P, ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ finished with an average 3.82 million viewers to become the #1 program the network. Then at 10P, a rerun of ‘Shark Tank’ finished with 2.70 million viewers. Result? Disaster.
The CW
The Little Network That Couldn’t really, really tried. At 8P, ‘The Flash’ finished with 3.86 million viewers, finishing #3 in the time slot on Tuesday. This is a major accomplishment. Then at 9P, ‘iZombie’ finished with an average 1.58 million viewers.
FOX
The Animal Network of Broadcast ran its regular schedule. AT 8P, ‘Grandfathered’ was the top network program as it finished with an average 3.10 million viewers. At 830P, ‘The Grinder’ finished with an average 2.41 million viewers. At 9P, ‘Scream Queens’ finished with an average 2.40 million viewers.
For The Record
NBC finished #1 with an average million viewers. CBS finished #2 with an average million viewers. ABC finished #3 with an average million viewers. The CW finished #4 with an average 2.72 million viewers. FOX finished #5 with an average 2.58 million viewers. Univision finished with an average 1.70 million viewers. Telemundo finished with an average 1.30 million viewers.
Today In Communication History
On this date in 1988, ESPN aired its 10,000th Sports Center, making it the most televised cable program in history.
Cyber Monday Sales Set A New Record, Hitting $3 Billion For The First Time.
Cyber Monday
In an article by Toni Fitzgerald, MediaLifeMagazine.com 120115, Cyber Monday marked the biggest online shopping day in history, as it was up 16.2% over last year, according to the Custora E-Commerce Pulse, which tracks web shopping trends. The big sales were no surprise. Online shopping has become mainstream, and just about every retailer offers some sort of Cyber Monday incentive to draw shoppers in, from free shipping to deep discounts.
What was perhaps most interesting about Cyber Monday was the distinct shopping patterns that are starting to develop, which media people can use to their advantage when planning and buying for clients. Some things resonate with shoppers, while others do not. Here’s a look at what was hot and what wasn’t on Cyber Monday.
HOT
Mobile shopping
Twenty-seven percent of Cyber Monday sales came on smartphones or tablets, Custora reports, up from 23 percent last year. People are still most likely to buy using Apple devices, such as iPhones and iPads, which accounted for 75.6 percent of all sales.
Buyers say clients were more interested in mobile ads this year because of this shift.
Email advertising
Though texting and instant messaging have replaced email as the e-communication methods of choice, email is still preferred for advertising. It drove 22 percent of all transactions on Cyber Monday, more than any other form of marketing.
Search and paid search
Search, both paid and unpaid, also sparked a huge portion of orders: 20.7 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively, ranking behind only email.
NOT HOT
PayPal
On the biggest e-shopping day of the year, the biggest pay site stumbled: PayPal was hit by so much traffic, it resulted in periodic outages. You’d expect this, perhaps, 10 years ago, when technology was still catching up to demand, but not in 2015.
When and Why Social Program Engagement Matters
Per a Nielsen study, new stats on social media use while watching TV:
► Today’s TV audiences often use social media while watching live series programs.#c|sdigitalnote 🇺🇸💻📱
► Twitter activity during live airings is so closely related to on-screen moments and stories that it was found to be
indicative of the engagement of the general viewing audience.#c|sdigitalnote 🇺🇸💻📱
► Audiences see Tweets with higher frequency during live airings, suggesting that this could be a powerful time to promote
and cross-promote programs through social media.#c|sdigitalnote 🇺🇸💻📱
Broadcast Morning News Shows Weekly Average Ratings week of November 16, 2015
ABC: GMA 5.17 million total viewers; 1.5/12 and 1.76 million A25-54
NBC: Today 5.02 million total viewers; 1.7/14 and 2.00 million A25-54
CBS: This Morning 3.55 million total viewers; 0.9/7 and 1.04 million A25-54
Sunday Morning News Shows Ratings November 22, 2015
ABC: This Week 3.426 million total viewers
NBC: Meet the Press 3.400 million total viewers
CBS: Face the Nation 3.199 million total viewers
FOX: Fox News Sunday 1.940 million total viewers
CBS: Face the Nation-2 1.801 million total viewers
SHAREABLEE SOCIAL TV RATINGS: Top U.S. Shows Overall by Engagement for the week of November 23, 2015
Program, Date, Total Actions (000), Total Content, Actions per Post (000), Fans/Followers (000)
#1 The Ellen DeGeneres Show (Warner Bros./synd.) 8742, 79, 111, 93014
#2 The Walking Dead (AMC) 4741, 140, 34, 40297
#3 Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family) 3007, 181, 17, 21070
#4 The Tonight Show (NBC) 2736, 175, 16, 12355
#5 Dancing With the Stars (ABC) 1921, 187, 10, 7914
#6 Good Morning America (ABC) 1519, 620, 2, 8068
#7 TMZ (Warner Bros./synd.) 1437, 803, 2, 10064
#8 Today Show (NBC) 1229, 406, 3, 8927
#9 Doctor Who (BBC America) 931, 167, 6, 5549
#10 Empire (Fox) 920, 140, 7, 5612
Source: Shareablee Inc. The total actions metric includes the total volume of post-level likes, shares, favorites, retweets and comments. Total content includes all posts, tweets and media posted by each TV property across all platforms. Actions per post metric notes the average e number of actions garnered by each TV property. Total fans/followers includes Facebook and Twitter and Instagram followers.
NIELSEN TWITTER TV TOP TEN for the week of November 23, 2015
Program, Date, Unique Audience (000), Tweets (000)
#1 The Walking Dead (AMC) 11/29, 3666, 488
#2 2015 Soul Train Awards (BET) 11/29, 2908, 471
#3 Dancing With the Stars (ABC) 11/24, 1786, 130
#4 Empire (FOX) 11/25, 1619, 216
#5 The Voice (NBC) 11/24, 1601, 614
#6 Dancing With the Stars (ABC) 11/23, 1493, 120
#7 WWE Monday Night RAW (USA) 11/23, 1363, 127
#8 Keeping Up With the Kardashians (E!) 11/29, 1213, 39
#9 Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood (VH1) 11/23, 1128, 114
#10 The Voice (NBC) 11/23, 1004, 76
Source: Nielsen. Nielsen Social captures relevant Tweets from three hours before through three hours after broadcast, local time. Unique Audience measures the audience of relevant Tweets ascribed to a program from when the Tweets are sent until the end of the broadcast day at 5am. The data includes new/live primetime and late fringe programming only and excludes sports events. For multicast events, networks are listed alphabetically and metrics reflect the highest Unique Audience across all airing networks.
The ListenFirst Television Interest (TVI) Rating (TM) is a standardized measurement of the most buzzed-about TV programs on linear TV and streaming services. A complement to ListenFirst’s other syndicated data products (such as the ListenFirst Digital Audience Rating – TV), the metrics included in the rating are the purest form of showing interest digitally, since they’re organic actions that are largely unaffected by paid media. Programs that surface on the TVI leaderboards are the most hashtagged on Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr, as well as most searched for on Wikipedia (used as a proxy for organic search volume).
All Series (11/23/15 – 11/29/15)
Series/TVI:
#1 Marvel’s Jessica Jones (Netflix)/4.89
#2 The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Prime)/2.82
#3 The Walking Dead (AMC)/2.67
#4 Supernatural (CW)/1.74
#5 Game of Thrones (HBO)/1.48
#6 Quantico (ABC)/1.31
#7 Supergirl (CBS)/1.28
#8 Arrow (CW)/1.26
#9 The Flash (CW)/1.22
#10 Doctor Who (BBC)/0.97
Source:ListenFirst. The TVI Rating aggregates metrics that measure organically generated activity by fans of the TV show. The metric includes total volume of official hashtag mentions onFacebook,Google+, andTumblr, along withWikipediapage views (as a proxy for organic search volume) for a show as a percentage of the total volume of the same activities for all shows.
*FOX Being Sued By ‘Bones’
One of the biggest programs on FOX over the years has been ‘Bones’. But bad blood between all parties seems to destine the show for a very bad ending. Reminiscent of James Garner suing Universal over his portion of profits of ‘The Rockford Files’,
the executive producer, the two main stars and the woman who wrote the novels that made the series possible, are all suing FOX. xecutive producer Barry Josephson has filed suit against 20th Century Fox Corporation, Fox Broadcasting Company, and Fox Entertainment Group, over accounting practices and alleged cancellation threats. Now, the long running TV series’ co-stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel have followed suit, by filing suit. According to a Deadline report, Boreanaz, Deschanel, and executive producer Kathleen Reichs (the forensic anthropologist who wrote the Temperance Brennan novels upon which the TV show is based) “are going after the broadcaster too for ‘tens of millions’ they claim they are owed.”
Deadline cites the legal complaint:
“The documents that 20th TV did provide confirmed Plaintiffs’ suspicions and showed that they were being cheated out of more than $100 million in gross revenues and being overcharged many additional millions of dollars in alleged expenses,” the jury-trial complaint adds of the plaintiffs fight to get a look at true accounting of Bones after not getting anything in profits for several seasons.
“When 20th TV finally did engage with Plaintiffs in the fifth and sixth seasons of the Series, it did so under the threat of cancelling the Series unless Plaintiffs accepted its non-negotiable license fee figure, and then concealed material information about the true value of that figure,” Monday’s filing asserts, again in specifics very similar to what Josephson stated in his own complaint last week — all of which might see these cases share the same judge or jury if the courts think that they are related enough.
Deadline has archived the filing, here (https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/bones_complaint-conformed-wm.pdf). If you give it a look, notice (on page three) that over the course of the series, FOX has scheduled Bones in “seven different times periods spanning five different nights.” Even for a TV series in its eleventh season, that number of moves seems staggering.
As previously reported, while the new showrunner wants a 12th season of Bones, Boreanaz is looking forward to leaving the show after season 11 concludes production. When FOX will air the second half of season 11 is still up in the air.
James Garner concluded when he sued the studios, ‘About everything I ever have done, in the way of lawsuits against studios, I’ve won them all,’ he said, ‘because I was right every time. (Studios) would rather steal than do it right. And they might even make more money if they did it right. But it’s just not in their nature.’ (Los Angeles Times, ‘A Surviving Maverick : James Garner Has Won Lawsuits, Overcome Health Problems to Remain One of TV’s Top Stars’ December 02, 1990 DANIEL CERONE Times Staff Writer)
National Geo Wild Brings Extraordinary Television
During ‘Big Cat Week’, National Geo Wild is bringing ‘Safari Live’ to the world several times during the day. If you have never been on a safari in Africa, this is the program for you. You can join in the Twitter discussions @wildsafari
It’s getting cluttered out there. 5,740,000,000 Google searches are made each day. #c|sdigitalnote 🇺🇸💻📱
It’s getting more cluttered out there. 782,651,327 tweets were made today. #c|sdigitalnote 🇺🇸💻📱
Cinema News
Top Ten Box Office 27-29 November 2015 Weekend (Domestic Only)
#1 ‘HungerGames:Mockingjay2’$51.60 in 4,175 theaters
#2 ‘The Good Dinosaur’ $39.19 in 3,749 theaters
#3 ‘Creed’ $30.12 in 3,404 theaters
#4 ‘Spectre’ $12.80 in 2,940 theaters (Critique:https://www.facebook.com/cinemacritique/)
#5 ‘The Peanuts Movie’ $ 9.70 in 3,089 theaters
#6 ‘The Night Before’ $ 8.20 in 2,960 theaters
#7 ‘Secret in their Eyes’ $ 4.50 in 2,392 theaters
#8 ‘Spotlight’ $ 4.50 in 897 theaters
#9 ‘Brooklyn’ $ 3.83 in 845 theaters
#10 ‘The Martian’ $ 3.30 in 1,420 theaters
International Box Office
#1 ‘The Hunger Games’ $63.00 million in 93 territories
#2 ‘The Martian’ $ 51.35 million in 19 territories
#3 ‘Spectre’ $ 30.40 million in 94 territories (Critique:https://www.facebook.com/cinemacritique/)
#4 ‘The Good Dinosaur’ $ 28.70 million in 40 territories
#5 ‘Our Times’ $ 13.00 million in 8 territories
#6 ‘Victor Frankenstein’ $ 10.00 million in 34 territories
#7 ‘Inside Men’ $ 9.70 million in 1 territory
#8 ‘Bridge of Spies’ $ 7.00 million in 45 territories (Critique:https://www.facebook.com/cinemacritique/)
#9 ‘The Vanished Murderer’$ 6.00 million in 1 territory
#10 ‘Spanish Affair 2’ $ 5.70 million in 1 territory
Coming Soon
Coming December
Coming For Christmas from Quentin Tarantino
‘Joy’ They’re back. Jennifer Lawrence & Bradley Cooper
‘Legend’ Tom Hardy, Emily Browning
‘The Revenant’ Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy
Welcome to new viewers in all 50 States of the U.S., all of the Provinces in Canada, all of the States in Mexico, the UK, Iceland, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Gibraltar, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia the former Yugoslave Republic, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, State of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius, Zambia, United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Egypt, Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvadore, Belize, Curaçao, Aruba, St. Lucia, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Martinique, U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas and Puerto Rico (144). We are thankful to all of you with more than 35,000 views.
An Ad You Might Like
Baird Television Picture from 1926 by John L. Baird. Many historians credit Baird with being the first to produce a live, moving, greyscale television image from reflected light.
Across The Pond
ITV #1 in the UK Tuesday as ‘I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!’ was #1 again with over 7 million viewers.
ITV
The Independent One did it again as it was #1 in the UK Tuesday. At 830P, ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ just finished with an average 7.05 million viewers (30.1%) to finished #1 again as Chris Eubank said bye-bye.
BBC One
The Big One again couldn’t handle the competition. At 8P, ‘Holby City’ brought in 4.0 million viewers and an 18% share At 9P, the drama ‘Capital’ could only finish with an average 3.34 million viewers (14.3%).
BBC Two
The Little Two almost beat The Big One. At 8P, ‘MasterChef: The Professionals’ finished with an average 3.06 million viewers (13.8%). It was followed at 9P by ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’ which dropped to 1.92 million viewers (8.2%). At 10P, ‘Mock the Week’ dropped further with 1.34 million viewers (7.8%).
Channel 4
The Big Four at 8P had ‘Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas’ and it drew an average 1.61 million viewers (7.2%). At 9P, ‘Murder Detectives’ dropped to an average 949,000 viewers (4.1%). At 10P, ‘Catastrophe’ dropped with an average 596,000 viewers and a 4% share.
Channel 5
The Viacom Five presented at 9P, the very last ‘Eamonn & Ruth: How the Other Half Lives’ with the grand finale seeing Ruth Langsford indulging in an £8,000 facial, had 797,000 faithful viewers and a 3% share. Bye-Bye Ruth.
Down Under
Seven
The Second Commercial Network in Australia finished #1 again on Tuesday with a 27.2% share of the available audience. The #1 newscast in the nation was ‘Seven News’ with an average 1,000,000 viewers, the only program to draw in excess of 999,000 viewers on Tuesday.
Nine
Network Nine finished #2 with a 24.8% share. The top non-news program in Australia on Tuesday was ‘A Current Affair’, the second straight day it was the top non-news program.
Ten
The nation’s Third Commercial Network finished #3 with a 21.8% share of the available audience.
ABC
The Alphabet Network in Australia finished #4 with 18.2% share.
SBS
The Special Broadcast Service in Australia finished #5 with a 7.9% share of the available audience.
Top Ten Non-News Programs In Australia Tuesday
#1 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 834,000 viewers #1 in Melbourne
#2 HOME AND AWAY Seven 820,000 viewers #1 in Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth
#3 7.30 ABC 737,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#4 THE BIG BANG THEORY (R) Nine 645,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#5 CATALYST ABC 644,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#6 TBL FAMILIES TUES TEN 628,000 viewers #1 in Sydney
#7 HIGHWAY PATROL (R) Seven 619,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#8 THE CHASE AUSTRALIA Seven 605,000 viewers Sydney top market
#9 THE PROJECT 7PM TEN 578,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#10 NCIS (R) TEN 566,000 viewers Sydney top market
Top Newscast In Australia Tuesday
#1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,000,000 viewers #1 in Adelaide & Perth
#2 SEVEN News/TodayTonight Seven 984,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#3 NINE NEWS 6:30 Nine 949,000 viewers #1 in Sydney & Melbourne
#4 NINE NEWS Nine 913,000 viewers #1 in Brisbane
#5 ABC NEWS ABC 809,000 viewers Melbourne top market
*WEDNESDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS
*WEDNESDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS
Seven
The Second Commercial Network in Australia finished #1 for the third straight night with a 28.1% share of the available audience. And ‘Seven News/Today Tonight’ was the nation’s top newscast with an average 1.060 million viewers. And its top non-news program was ‘Home & Away’.
Nine
Network Nine finished #2 for the third straight night with a 27.2% share on Wednesday, just 0.9% behind Seven. And again, for the third straight night, ‘A Current Affair’ was the #1 non-news program in Australia with an averaGE 803,000 VIEWERS.
Ten
The Third Commercial Network in Australia finished #3 with a 17.9% share of the available audience. ‘The Project 7PM’ was the network’s top program with an average 563,000 viewers.
ABC
The Alphabet Network in Australia finished #4 with a 16.9% share, just 1% behind Ten. ‘7.30’ was the network’s top program with an average 650,00- viewers.
SBS
The Special Broadcast Service in Australia finished #5 on Wednesday with a 10.0% share of the available audience.
Top Ten Non-News Programs In Australia Wednesday
#1 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 803,000 viewers #1 in Sydney & Melbourne
#2 HOME AND AWAY Seven 754,000 viewers #1 in Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth
#3 RBT (R) Nine 716,000 viewers Melbourne Top market
#4 READY FOR TAKEOFF Nine 689,000 viewers Sydney Top market
#5 7.30 ABC 650,000 viewers Melbourne Top market
#6 KITCHEN CABINET ABC 627,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#7 THE CHASE AUSTRALIA Seven 620,000 viewers Sydney top market
#8 THE PROJECT 7PM TEN 563,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#9 FAMILY FEUD TEN 535,000 viewers Sydney top market
#10 MODERN FAMILY EP 2 (R) TEN 525,000 viewers Melbourne top market
Top Newscasts In Australia Wednesday
#1 SEVEN News/TodayTonight Seven 1,060,000 viewers #1 in Melbourne
#2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,040,000 viewers #1 in Adelaide & Perth
#3 NINE NEWS 6:30 Nine 941,000 viewers #1 in Sydney
#4 NINE NEWS Nine 926,000 viewers #1 in Brisbane
#5 ABC NEWS ABC 731,000 viewers Melbourne top market
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Today’s featured ‘Music To Read overtheshouldermedia By’ down at the bottom of the page
The Best-Selling Single of All Time
For most of us, the music and lyrics of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” are inseparable from Bing Crosby’s famous version of the tune, which perfectly captures a sense of longing for an old-fashioned Christmas “…just like the ones I used to know”. It’s a seemingly magical place where everyone, regardless of the actual location of their birth, or particular childhood experience, fondly remembers a scene “where treetops glisten, and children listen, to hear sleigh bells in the snow.” The mental imagery produced by the Berlin’s music and Crosby’s soothing baritone voice is simply that strong.
Crosby’s original recording of the song was made in May 1942, and was released in July as part of a collection of songs featured in the film Holiday Inn. Perhaps because it was released during the middle of Summer, the single didn’t begin to generate much interest until October, when it finally climbed to the top of the charts. In the midst of the Christmas season of 1942, the song took on a special significance for millions of American soldiers longing for the comforts of home while stationed overseas during World War II, as well as for the families of those men, wishing for their safe return.
Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas” in 1940, possibly intending it to be used as part of a musical revue in a Broadway production featuring his original compositions. The little known opening verse of the song, not used in Crosby’s rendition, has caused some confusion about Berlin’s actual whereabouts while writing the lyric; “The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm tree sway, there’s never been such a day, in Beverly Hills, LA.” Even though the composer had spent time working in Hollywood and writing music for various productions in the late 1930s, recent research suggests that he almost certainly wrote the tune during the holiday break at his home in New York City, where he spent the Winter of 1939-40.
In any case, the undeniable popularity of the song owes much to the convergence of the talents of one of American’s most popular composers, the most beloved singer of the day, and to the circumstances of millions of American G.I.’s and their families during the war. In the more than 70 years since its initial release, no other Christmas song has captured the imagination of the public in quite the same way, and it will almost certainly continue to be a part of our collective holiday dreams, real or imagined, 70 years from now.
