NBC SETS ITS OWN OLYMPIC RECORDS

After a weekend of spectacular ratings success, it seemed clear that NBC’s decision to blanket its Olympics coverage over cable and Internet outlets has not resulted in cannibalizing its broadcast audience. On Saturday, ordinarily the least-watched day of the week for broadcast television, 28.7 million viewers tuned in, setting a record for an opening night […]

CBS LAUNCHES NEW MORNING SHOW

CBS, which has never been a major competitor in the early-morning hours dominated by NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America is trying again. On Monday it raised its old banner CBS This Morning over what appeared to be two distinct talk shows — one at 7:00 a.m. featuring veteran PBS interviewer Charlie Rose that […]

NCIS DRAWS 20 MILLION VIEWERS ENTERING NINTH YEAR

CBS’s NCIS wasn’t showing the slightest signs of faltering in its old age as Tuesday’s episode attracted 20 million viewers. Against it, the series debut of ABC’s cross-dressing comedy Work It didn’t stand a chance. (Awful reviews didn’t help either. Time magazine’s James Poniewozik called it “the kind of bad dumb show you will use […]

PBS PLANS TO AIR ADS THROUGHOUT SHOWS

A New York Times report earlier this week that PBS is planning to break up its “pods” of acknowledgements — essentially commercials — at the end of each broadcast, distributing them instead into its programs at roughly every 15-minute mark, is already beginning to generate controversy. PBS maintains that the move is not intended to […]

WARNERS REMAKING BUFFY WITHOUT INPUT FROM CREATOR

Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is aiming a satirical stake at the heart of Warner Bros. after learning that the studio plans to make a new movie version of his creation, without so much as a nod in his direction. “This is a sad, sad reflection on our times,” he wrote […]

SARAH PALIN’S ALASKA SURVIVES CRITICS’ GANTLET

In his review of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, an eight-part series produced by Survivor creator Mark Burnett that debuts on TLC Sunday, New York Daily News TV columnist David Hinckley writes that “the title came out backwards. It should have been Alaska’s Sarah Palin.” It is an opinion with which Palin probably wouldn’t disagree. In an […]

CONAN RULES LATE NIGHT IN TBS DEBUT

Conan O’Brien launched his “second annual first show” on TBS Monday night, drawing 4.2 million viewers, 3.3 million of them in the 18-49-year-old demographic. In a statement, Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, said, “Conan delivered an extraordinary audience and stands out as the youngest late-night talk show on television.” Monday night’s premiere received […]