SHEEN’S ANGER MANAGEMENT NABS CABLE RATINGS RECORD

Charlie Sheen made a spectacular TV comeback last Thursday when he new FX sitcom, Anger Management set a record as the most-watched scripted comedy in cable-TV history, according to Nielsen Research. The series’ debut episode attracted 5.47 million viewers — 2.65 million in the key 18-49 age group. The second episode, which aired immediately following […]

DESPITE COSTLY HACKING SCANDAL, NEWS CORP PROFITS SOAR

Forget about the fact that News Corp may have to pay $200-400 million to settle all of the invasion-of-privacy cases that have been filed against it in the wake of the recent telephone hacking. The company on Wednesday reported second-quarter earnings of $1.06 billion, up 65 percent above last year’s $642 million. Revenue rose to […]

NOTHING HORRIBLE ABOUT AMERICAN HORROR STORY’S RATINGS

American Horror Story debuted strongly on the Fox-owned FX channel on Wednesday, attracting 3.2 million viewers to its first showing at 10:00 p.m. and another 2 million viewers to its second at midnight. In a statement, John Landgraf, president and general manager of the channel, said that Twitter and Facebook users had helped make the […]

WILFRED FETCHES RECORD RATINGS FOR FX

FX scored its highest ratings ever for a comedy show debut Thursday with Wilfred, starring Elijah Wood and Jason Gann as his “dog.” FX said that the half-hour episode drew 2.55 million viewers in its initial screening and that the “multi-telecast” drew 3.8 million. The show was also FX’s highest-rated premiere among the key 18-49-year-old […]

TV REVIEWS: WILFRED

It’s not often that a scripted comedy show debuting in the summer on a cable network receives much notice from TV critics, let alone rave reviews, but such is the case with FX’s new comedy series Wilfred, which premieres tonight (Thursday). The show, which stars Elijah Wood as a depressed lawyer and Jason Gann as […]

PROFITS AT FOX PLUNGE 50 PERCENT

Without Avatar, operating profits for 20th Century Fox fell 50 percent to $248 million against $497 million during parent News Corp’s third quarter last year, the company said in an SEC filing on Wednesday. The steep drop contributed to a 24-percent plunge in overall News Corp revenue to $639 million from $839 million, even though […]

YANKED CHANNELS RESTORED TO TWC’S IPAD APPS

Two weeks after Time Warner Cable yanked its Fox, Viacom and Discovery iPad apps that allow its subscribers to receive real-time programming from them at home, the Fox and Discovery apps were again up and running on Friday, leaving Viacom as the only cable programmer still balking at TWC’s iPad service. The return of such […]

TIME WARNER CABLE DROPS CHANNELS FROM IPAD APP

Time Warner Cable has apparently concluded that it’s not worth the time and legal expense to fight the cable networks who do not want their content streamed into the homes of subscribers who own Apple’s iPad tablet device — unless they’re paid for it. The cable company said Thursday that it was dropping such popular […]

NO BUYERS FOR THE KENNEDYS

DirecTV has become the latest TV outlet to reject the four-hour miniseries The Kennedys that was originally set to air on the History Channel. That channel reportedly turned it down because of charges that it presented baseless speculation about the personal lives of President John F. Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy family. It […]

NO TAKERS FOR REJECTED JFK MINISERIES

Showtime, which jumped in to pick up a controversial miniseries about Ronald Reagan after it was dumped by corporate sibling CBS in 2004, said Wednesday that it will not do the same with a miniseries about John F. Kennedy that was rejected by the History Channel last weekend. The Kennedys has also reportedly been rejected […]

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