Winter Olympics Down From 2014
The beginning of the 2018 Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea, handily topped the broadcast ratings on Thursday night but was down from the beginning of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Airing live on the East Coast from 8 to 11 p.m. on NBC and NBC Sports, the Olympics coverage drew a combined 11.1 rating in metered market households. That is a drop off of just 6% from the 2014 Winter Olympics, which drew an 11.8. In fairness, however, the first coverage of the 2014 Olympics was carried on NBC only.
Fox has renewed music competition series The Four: Battle for Stardom. Season 2 is set to premiere this summer. The Four is Fox’s most-watched new unscripted series in four years in the 18-49 demo — where it is averaging a 1.4 rating according to Nielsen “most current” numbers, a mix for seven- and three-day data.
A+E Networks chief Nancy Dubuc has pulled herself out of contention for the top job at Amazon Studios. Sources said Amazon had been in negotiations with Dubuc but the executive became weary of the extended interviewing process and decided to withdraw from consideration.
Exclusives
The Disney streaming service is beginning to crystallize. The studio has been conducting meetings within the creative community to give a sense of its new OTT service that will launch in fall 2019. Perhaps not surprisingly at this point, there was no mention of how the assets of Fox will fit into the new service.
NBC is about to make television history when it starts broadcasting the Winter Olympics today — less than a week after airing Super Bowl LII. Never before has a U.S. broadcaster transitioned between these two huge events so quickly.
‘Big Brother: Celebrity Ed.’ Debut Tops Wed.
The series debut of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition was the No. 1 show of Wednesday night. Airing at 8 p.m. on CBS, it drew a 1.8 rating in adults 18-49 and 7.3 million viewers, making it the top-rated and most-watched show of the night pending updates. It led into a two-hour episode of The Amazing Race, which averaged a 1.1 and 5 million viewers.
Brand strategist Tom Hill today was appointed creative director for NBCU’s multicast network Cozi TV. A former vice president of TV Land and creative director for Nick at Nite, Hill […]
Entertainment Studios has named Joshua Ross executive director of Sports.TV. He is based in Los Angeles and reports to Janice Arouh, Entertainment Studios’ president of distribution and marketing. Ross will […]
Katie O’Connell Marsh, the first CEO of Gaumont International Television, is suing the company — now called Gaumont Television USA — claiming that it deprived her of “millions of dollars in bargained-for contingent compensation” from TV series she developed.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mickey Jones, a veteran character actor who played Rodney “Hot Rod” Dunham on “Justified” and construction worker Pete on the 1990s sitcom “Home Improvement,” has died. […]
Murdochs: Use Sports To Outfox Competitors
21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch: “Live sport has never been more important than it is today. This is why we are energized and excited about our recent deal with the NFL to make Fox Sports the official home of Thursday Night Football for the next five years. NFL programming is hands down the most powerful in all of media.”
ABC says it’s 98% sold out of commercial time in its Oscars telecast — “way ahead” of where it was at the equivalent time last year, says Rita Ferro, president of sales at Disney-ABC TV Group. The network said in 2017 that it had sold out of commercial time for the broadcast on Feb. 18, eight days before the show aired on Feb. 26. This year the Oscars will air on March 4 to steer clear of this month’s Winter Olympics.
NBC’s classic TV diginet Cozi TV has scheduled a special, 13-hour marathon tribute to the late actor John Mahoney this Saturday, Feb. 10, beginning at 9 a.m. ET (check local […]
This Is Us came nowhere near the massive heights it reached in its post-Super Bowl LII timeslot on Sunday, but the NBC drama still managed to handily top Tuesday night in the key demo. It posted a 2.7 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.1 million viewers. That’s a far cry from the 9.3 and 27 million viewers the show drew Sunday, but was still plenty good to make it the top-rated show of the night.
Comcast says it will make available 50 “virtual” channels for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea — a precursor to personalized television. Each virtual channel will air only content on specific Olympic sports and athletes. The channels will be accessed through the Xfinity television remote.
