CABLE MINISERIES CLAIMS WEEK’S TOP RATINGS

No program on broadcast television last week produced bigger ratings than Hatfields and McCoys, on cable’s History Channel. The three episodes of the miniseries took the three top places on Nielsen’s cable-ratings chart, with the third episode capturing 14.29 million viewers. By comparison, broadcast TV, which officially went into the summer rerun season last week, […]

HATFIELDS & MCCOYS A RATINGS CHAMP

A six-hour miniseries airing on the History Channel this week may wind up leveling the playing field used by cable and broadcast networks. The series, Hatfields & McCoys, set Nielsen records, winding up on Wednesday with 14.3 million viewers and is likely also to wind up with the top ratings of the week. (Monday’s episode […]

HISTORY CHANNEL MAKES HISTORY

The History Channel’s Hatfields & McCoys miniseries, starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, managed to make history in its own right this week by setting records for the biggest audience for any non-sports program on cable ever. Monday night’s launch captured 13.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen Research, with an additional 3.2 million watching the […]

REPEATS OF POPULAR COMEDIES PUT TBS ATOP RATINGS CHART

Analysts are scratching their heads over the emergence of TBS as the top-rated cable channel among the all-important 18-49 age group despite the fact that not one of its shows is listed among the top 50 on cable TV and that not one is a first-run original. Today’s (Thursday) New York Times summarized the channel’s […]

SUMMER IS GREAT FOR CABLE, BAD FOR BROADCAST

Cable TV networks are ending the summer with a number of big successes — surprisingly with scripted TV shows, while no broadcast show introduced during the summer months has made it, USA Today indicated today (Thursday). (On Wednesday, Fox’s newest entrant, Buried Treasure, became the latest broadcast reality show to be buried in the ratings.) […]

THE KENNEDYS: ASK NOT

The so-called Kennedy Curse may have hit ReelzChannel, the company that picked up The Kennedys miniseries after the History Channel dropped it and after it was rejected by other cable channels as well. On Tuesday it said that the show’s two-hour premiere (the first two episodes), which aired on Sunday night, attracted 1.9 million — […]

THE KENNEDYS IS A HIT

Reaffirming the argument that there is no more effective publicity than controversy, the debut of The Kennedys miniseries on ReelzChannel on Sunday produced the biggest audience in the channel’s existence. The miniseries, which was reportedly rejected by the History Channel after it received complaints from members of the Kennedy family and close associates and found […]

TV REVIEWS: THE KENNEDYS

So what was all the fuss over The Kennedys all about? That’s what the critics of the eight-part miniseries debuting Sunday on ReelzChannel appear to be asking. Certainly, they say, the series has its faults — many of them, according to most — but nothing really to get all that riled up about. Why the […]

REELZCHANNEL REFUSES TO RUN ONLINE DATING AD DURING THE KENNEDYS

An online dating service whose slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair” attempted to purchase ads on the premiere episode of The Kennedys next week but was turned away by the channel carrying it, the New York Post reported today (Thursday). In an interview with the newspaper’s “Page Six” column, ReelzChannel CEO Stan Hubbard […]

BBC TO AIR THE KENNEDYS MINISERIES

While it was dropped by the History Channel and found no takers on any other major U.S. cable outlet until it was rescued last month by the relatively little-known ReelzChannel, the controversial miniseries The Kennedys has been picked up by the BBC. The London Independent reported today (Thursday) that the eight-part series will air in […]

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