‘NCIS’ Returns Up, Tops Tuesday Night
CBS’s NCIS returned from a six-week holiday break to 9.3 million total viewers and a 0.8 rating, up from its fall finale and leading Tuesday in both measures (with usual demo champ This Is Us in rerun mode until Feb. 2). A second episode of NCIS drew 8.5 mil and a 0.7.
Launching on the Fox Television Stations this fall, the return of the classic game show has also been sold to stations from other station groups, including Sinclair, Nexstar, Scripps, Meredith, Gray, McKinnon, Standard Media, Block and Sun Broadcasting.
On Tuesday, the national board of SAG-AFTRA announced that it will be holding a disciplinary hearing against the outgoing president of the United States, where he could face possible expulsion from the actors’ guild.
“No new episode of #ThisIsUs tonight – Covid-related production delays in LA have forced us to delay a few weeks,” series creator Dan Fogelman tweeted Tuesday. “But the next few are big ones, and we are close, so we hope you’ll hang in there with us. Sorry!”
Exclusives
Disney is asking a Los Angeles judge to dismiss a sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation complaint from California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing for being “hopelessly vague” about which Criminal Minds workers it’s suing on behalf of.
The CW’s All American opened Season 3 with 1.06 million total viewers and a 0.4 demo rating — besting its previous series highs of 880K and 0.3. On Fox, 9-1-1‘s Season 4 premiere drew 7M (Monday’s biggest audience) and a 1.2 rating, down a tick in the demo from its Season 3 average (1.4) and finale (1.3). ABC’s The Bachelor (4.8M/1.3) ticked up week-to-week, to edge out 9-1-1 for the Monday demo win.
Michael Teicher will be responsible for developing the company’s ad sales strategy for all the Scripps networks across all platforms, including general market, direct response, programmatic/digital, long-form and sponsorship advertising.
Instead of a countdown celebration to the Tokyo Olympics, the focus is on the virus and speculation around the Olympics being canceled. Should they take place during a spreading pandemic — vaccine or no vaccine? Organizers say they will with exact details yet to be revealed. It’s been this way since the Olympics were postponed almost 10 months ago. There are always more questions than answers.
Donald Trump is facing possible expulsion from SAG-AFTRA. The union’s national board of directors will meet Tuesday morning in a special session regarding disciplinary action against him, which could lead to his expulsion. The former star of The Apprentice — and soon-to-be former president — has been a member of the union and its forerunners, SAG and AFTRA, since 1989. Above, Macauley Culkin with Trump in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Fox’s broadcast of Sunday night’s NFL divisional playoff game between the Bucs and Saints averaged 29.3 million total viewers and an 8.1 demo rating. The CW’s new Batwoman drew 663,000 viewers and a 0.1 rating, down from both its Season 1 averages (995K/0.26) and its freshman finale (740K/0.2), marking its third smallest audience to date and matching its demo low (which was reached about a year ago).
In a year during which college athletic programs are seeing huge decreases in revenue, the cancellation or relocation of bowl games carried a huge economic impact as well.
Fox’s Call Me Kat this week drew 2.8 million total viewers and a 0.5 demo rating, down 15 and 28 percent from its Thursday time slot debut. ABC’s Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (7.6M/1.1) dipped from last week’s debut yet still dominated Thursday in both measures (with CBS again in rerun mode).
With the help of a de-aged and reanimated legendary Jedi, Disney Plus’ The Mandalorian finally triumphed over visual comfort food favorite, The Office. For the week of Dec. 14 — in which the season 2 finale of the Star Wars spinoff series delivered a healthy heap of fanservice in its surprise cameo and plot twist reveal — The Mandalorian blasted off to the top spot of Nielsen’s Top 10 programs list, edging out the mid-aughts workplace sitcom led by Steve Carell. This win marks the first time that a non-Netflix show landed at No. 1 on Nielsen’s streaming ranker.
Joanne Rogers, an an accomplished concert pianist who celebrated and protected the legacy of her husband, the beloved children’s TV host Mister Rogers, has died in Pittsburgh. She was 92. […]
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter Mark Richman, a character actor who appeared in hundreds of television episodes and had recurring roles on “Three’s Company” and “Beverly Hills 90210,” has died. […]
The CW CEO Mark Pedowitz talks about doing more straight-to-series orders, the future of the DC brand and finding hope in freshman fare like Walker, Superman & Lois and Kung Fu.
Scripps will continue to operate the Ion Television network on its 48 Ion stations’ primary channels but will cease operations of the Ion multicast networks Ion Plus, Qubo and Shop Ion, effective Feb. 28.
NBC’s Chicago Med returned from its eight-week break to 7.4 million total viewers and a 1.0 demo rating, right on par with its fall finale and leading Wednesday in both measures (tying Chicago Fire for the demo win). The third part of the franchise, Chicago P.D. (6.4M/0.9) ticked up in the demo.
