DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES GOES OUT A WINNER

The two-hour series finale of ABC’s Desperate Housewives Sunday night averaged 11.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen overnight ratings. And while that wound up as the highest-rated show of the night, the ratings for it paled in comparison with those for early episodes of the season that regular drew 20 million or more viewers and […]

60 MINUTES DOMINATES SUNDAY’S RATINGS

CBS’s 60 Minutes was again the most-watched show on television Sunday night, drawing 11.4 million viewers. Riding the news magazine’s numbers, a two-hour season finale of The Amazing Race was the second-highest-rated show of the night with an average of 9.4 million viewers. On the other hand ABC came out on top among viewers 18-49, […]

HUNG JURY IN DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES CASE; JUDGE DECLARES MISTRIAL

A judge today (Monday) declared a mistrial in former Desperate Housewives star Nicollete Sheridan’s wrongful termination suit against ABC and Touchstone TV after the jury deadlocked 8-4 in Sheridan’s favor. Each side said it was prepared to go to trial a second time and rejected any further talk of a settlement. In her lawsuit, the […]

NICOLLETTE SHERIDAN RISES FROM THE DEAD

In what is turning out to be a high-profile wrongful-termination case of the first order, former Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan claimed in court on Thursday that writer-creator Marc Cherry decided to kill off her character after she went to producers to complain about an altercation with Cherry. Sheridan, who is seeking $3 million in […]

DESPAIR OVER DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES RATINGS?

Ratings for ABC’s Desperate Housewives dropped to their lowest level in history Sunday night, falling below 10 million viewers for the first time. The onetime powerhouse captured just 8.83 million viewers, coming in third opposite CBS’s coverage of the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. A year ago, against the […]

TV’S BIGGEST MONEYMAKER: AMERICAN IDOL

Fox’s American Idol remained far and away TV’s biggest moneymaker in 2010. Although revenue was down 12 percent from 2009, the show still ended up with an average of $7.11 million for every half hour on the air, according to Forbes magazine, which cited figures from Kantar Media. CBS’s Two and a Half Men was […]

NBC SCORES AGAIN WITH SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

Thanks to its coverage of two Sunday Night Football telecasts — one of which was played on Tuesday — NBC shot to the front as the most-watched network among 18-49-year-old viewers last week. The Tuesday game, postponed from the previous Sunday because of blizzard conditions in the Philadelphia area, attracted 23.74 million viewers. The regular […]

NETFLIX AND DISNEY TEAM UP

Episodes from past seasons of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and the entire saga of Lost will be available on Netflix’s streaming service, thanks to a deal between the online video renter and the Walt Disney Co. that was announced Wednesday. While several other ABC shows will be be making their debut on the service, […]

RATINGS FOR COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS DROP

Although other awards telecasts and specials throughout this season have seen their ratings surge over last year, with some setting new records, such was not the case with Sunday night’s telecast of the Academy of Country Music Awards, in which Carrie Underwood was named Entertainer of the Year. The ACMAs averaged 13.1 million viewers, down […]