Share This past week Time Warner Cable came close to dropping the Fox Network from its system due to a dispute concerning retransmission fees. In case you aren’t aware, cable companies like Time Warner and Comcast pay networks for transmitting their channels on their systems. For broadcast networks that opt out of must-carry regulation these payments are called [...]

Share Most of the new broadcast television shows have premiered during the past three weeks and I thought it was time to draw a comparison among the top performers. The number one show in terms of overall viewers was NCIS, with a total audience of 18.9 million. Unsurprisingly, NCIS‘s lead-out and spin-off, NCIS: Los Angeles, also [...]

Share Back in May I published a post, Fall 2009 TV Lineup, which showed the new Fall lineups for ABC, CBS, Fox and the CW. During the past week the post has risen in popularity since the new Fall season is just around the corner. It actually begins this Saturday with the season start for Saturday [...]

Share This week all the major broadcast networks held their upfront presentations, announcing their upcoming fall schedules and subsequently the new shows they would be presenting. I put together some handy-dandy color-coded charts to navigate the new landscape. It looks like ABC and NBC are going to presenting the most new material, while Fox has [...]

Share American Idol closed out its eighth season last night with an impressive total audience of 28.84 million for the two hour finale. On average the show had an audience of 24.33 million this season. dtsv.dtse_post_741_permalink = ‘http://betweenthescreens.com/2009/05/idol-following/’; dtsv.dtse_post_741_title = ‘Idol Following’;

Share Last week was the season finale for Fringe, the new J.J. Abrams show. The series had a strong first season, finishing even stronger than it started. The final episode had a total audience of 13.5 million viewers, a record high for the series and 45% higher than the season finale for Lost, perhaps an [...]

Share One of this year’s most promising shows, Fringe is widely considered to be returning next season due to its decent ratings. Some viewers have often said the show has benefited largely from its current lead-in, American Idol, which often surpasses 20 million viewers. In order to properly judge the ‘Idol Effect,’ I compiled all [...]

Share Last week it was announced by much fanfare at Fox News and MSNBC that CNN had finished in third place behind the other news networks for the month of March. How is possible that the founder and brand leader for broadcast news had diminished so much in the market? I believe that this is [...]

Share In late January I did an analysis of Slumdog Millionaire, of its unique distribution and resulting ticket sales. Given the movie’s eight Oscar wins, I wanted to do an update on its box office performance. Most important has been Fox’s steady buildup in the movie’s distribution, which has taken place in four major points. [...]

Share I recently went to see Slumdog Millionaire; it’s a wonderful movie about an Indian teen named Jalim, who has grown up in the slums of Mumbai, and who we quickly find out is a contestant on India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He’s managed to do well on the show but [...]