Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Ugh

We are two episodes into Project Runway and I'm 1/3 of the way through the third episode.

And. I. Want. To. Kill. Suede.

And then I sorta want to kill Blayne.

But Suede first. The first time he talked about himself in the third person it was annoying. I think we're up to number 70?

And I'm started to get homicidal towards Stella. But because she's complain-y-annoying, not, like, annoying-annoying.

Tonight was the night of a hundred failed catchphrases.
- "If they don't like it, they can get the fuck outta here."
- "Holla atcha boy."
- "-licious."
- "Suede."

Jennifer's garment mades her model look old and fat/pregnant. Those sleeves are awful. I bet she's out. Unless Emily is out for being too blah. I think there's too much work in Keith's for him to go. Give him a slap on the wrist for not editing like you that gave Leanne last week.

Secret Grows and other final ratings stuff from Tuesday

Bah, never received Sunday finals so I have no idea about the details of Mad Men's return. Bah!

Anyway, ABC Family's Secret Life of the American Teenage continues to impress. And swell with what I'm sure is viewers, but it might just be a pregnancy pun.

This Tuesday's episode rated:
- 2.1/4 households
- 1.2/4 A18-49
- 2.5/8 W18-34
- 8.8/30 F12-17
- 3.576 million viewers

And for those who say Gossip Girl doesn't target teens and therefore comparisons are unnecessary... well, that's not true, because CW constantly touted its female teen numbers. Remember, today's F12-17 are tomorrow's W18-34. Also, it does matter that Gossip Girl had to contend with other finales in May... look at the ratings, not just the share numbers. Secret Life has double the teen girl share in this Tuesday's ratings as the Gossip Girl finale had, but over double the ratings points. There's something to be said for tougher competition... but it doesn't count for everything and it doesn't mask the fact that Secret Life is solidly kicking Gossip Girl's butt in this demo, and inching up towards it in the W18-34 category as well (only 0.1 rating points behind Gossip's finale... and, note the fact that its share was actually 1 higher).

In other news, Eureka premiered to:
- 1.8/3 households
- 1.0/3 A18-49
- 2.808 million viewers

I don't track the show enough to know if this is good or bad (or should I say better or worse than previous seasons).

Per a request on Big Brother's age breakdown... hope this helps, but I'm not sure how helpful it is since you really do need to see a mean age figure and compare that to CBS's mean age for viewers... which is something I don't have.
- 6.079 million viewers
- 0.8/3 T12-17 (only 0.2 above other CBS programs airing last night, which were repeats of NCIS and Without a Trace)
- 1.8/5 A18-34 (vs. 0.8 ratings for NCIS / 0.7 rating for WaT)
- 2.2/6 A18-49 (vs. 1.4 / 1.2)
- 2.6/7 A25-54 (vs. 1.9 / 1.6)

So, with the exception of teens, it looks like Big Brother has greater advantages in the younger demos compared to the other CBS shows... but then again, those are repeats.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Female American Teenagers

May 19, 2008: Gossip Girl finale. F12-17 rating/share: 4.2/15. W18-34: 2.6/8.
July 22, 2008: Secret Life of the American Teenager episode. F12-17 rating/share: 7.8/28. W18-34: 2.1/7.

Difference in viewers: 91K (advantage Secret Life).

Interesting, no?

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Dear Oscar

Dear Oscar,

Did you see the opening day box office of The Dark Knight?

Your ratings are floundering because you keep nominating movies for Best Picture that, at best, are surprise indie hits (last year's Juno was the biggest box office draw at a bit above $100 million... same story for the prior year's pool with The Departed). Your relevance is floundering.

Please nominate The Dark Knight (and, obviously, Heath Ledger). For your own sake. Not just to attract more viewers - which it would do - but because the movie is legitimately superb and thus worthy.

TY,

TY

PS - Also feel free to nominate Robert Downey, Jr. for his performance in Iron Man.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Dark Knight

Placeholder while I go to the ArcLight (sigh, not that one... the Sherman Oaks one... I'm doing the CineDome on Sunday). It'll probably be at least 4am when I get back... but reactions will follow. Mostly, though, I'm excited to see WTF the crowd is like. This is gonna be guano bananas.

The idea of this film beating Spider-Man 3 when SM3 grossed about 3x what Batman Begins did in their respective opening weekends... well, it's just all sorts of astounding. But there's a swell and it may be all hype and buzz... but, man, I feel like this one is going to shatter everything. And if it's as good as they say? Well... it's too soon to talk Titanic isn't it... afterall, multiples aren't what they used to be. But there isn't another truly big movie coming out until, what, Tropic Thunder? We could be talking complete and total pwn.

OKAY

So, first off... not the "best movie ever". A really, really, really good movie. It doesn't actually feel like a comic book movie... aside from the crazy guy with the weird costume choices and crazy makeup and the billionaire vigilante in the batsuit. It plays a lot closer, really, to a classic crime movie. As it should - the Batman comic books are littered with mob plot lines and organized crime characters.

Interestingly, though this is a Batman movie... the protagonist is Harvey Dent. At least in the classic film sense of the word protagonist. The biggest arc is his. He is the catalyst for change (though he says that Batman is).

And the movie is about choices.

But, really, it's a showcase for Heath Ledger who absolutely and completely disappears into the backstoryless Joker character. I mean, entirely.

Unlike other midnight screenings I've been to... there was a reverence at this movie. On the outset there's usually a lot of hooting and hollering and "whoo!" etc. There were one or two in my theater who did that.

And they were promptly hushed. A silence came over the crowd even as the Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures logos played.

It was eerie.

And, of course, Ledger got cheers when his name flashed on screen at the end.

This movie is going to be a massive, smash hit. And it's going to have more to do with Heath Ledger's death than anything else in or about the movie (after all, Batman Begins got great critical marks... but no one was talking about it breaking box office records... which makes me wonder what to expect for the box office of the inevitable third film... okay, that's not fair, Begins had to deal with a viewing audience that have Batman & Robin aftertaste still in its mouth 8 years later, and The Dark Knight was riding a brilliant marketing campaign well before Ledger's death... I digress). The tragedy of his death, the curiosity of seeing his final completed film... that is, ultimately, what's driving the massive audience to this movie. I'm not sure if it extends beyond my generation. Like most blockbuster midnight screenings, the crowd was young and very male-skewing. So I don't know if the feeling of loss (of a star, not just of a great actor) extends to even Gen X, let alone the Baby Boom. But the James Dean analogies are spot on. Heath is going to live on pretty much close to forever (as long as the film medium lasts), and his last film was his best performance.

SO

Apparently we're looking at $18.48 million from the midnight showings. Which doesn't include the 3am or 6am showings (yeah, I know).

Batman Begins "only" grossed $15.1 million on its opening day.

BTW

There's a nice cameo I forgot to mention in the opening minutes that helps frame the scale of this movie versus the first one... at least in terms of the villains. I'll let you see it for yourself, but I appreciated the literary device employed.

Brava

Well, it looks like Bravo's attempt to lay Project Runway off worked... ish. Here are the premiere numbers.
- 1.9/3 households
- 1.4/4 A18-49
- 2.915 million viewers

While not at, er, girlicious... fierce... whatever... While not as good as last season's premiere, given the fact that the cable network didn't promote the show to the extent to which it has in the past, these are good results.

Plus, it gave Shear Genius a boost, which is ultimately far more important to Bravo now that PR is headed for different pastures:

Shear Genius (versus last week)
- 1.5/3 households (vs. 0.9/2)
- 1.0/3 A18-49 (vs. 0.6/2)
- 2.164 million viewers (vs. 1.159)

ETA: It's come to my attention (read: TVGuide.com is reporting) that this is the best PR premiere rating, not lower than last season's. I swear I recall PR4 getting in the 3 millions for viewers... but upon research into the bowels of PIFeedback.com, it turns out that PR5 did do the following compared to PR4:
- equal households (1.9/3)
- slightly worse A18-49 (1.4/4 vs. 1.5/4)
- slightly better viewers (2.915 million vs. 2.890 million)

So... considering the relative lack of promotion, this is a complete victory for Bravo.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Clean and Clear

So I'm not sure what qualifies as a good rating on A&E... especially for original drama programming. And not (at all) to compare the show to Mad Men (AMC's first original drama) I believe it's premiere did outrate the AMC series.

Which is a crying shame because from what I've heard, The Cleaner sucked.
The Cleaner (10pm, 57 minutes)
- 1.8/3 households
- 1.0/3 A18-49
- 2.580 million viewers

The ratings I got for the MLB All-Star game definitely don't go through the entire game, but here's what I have...
MLB All-Star Game (8:42pm, 180 minutes... so, again, not through the end)
- 9.3/16 households
- 4.5/14 A18-49
- 14.540 million viewers

Meanwhile...

Emmy nominations are announced tomorrow!

Will there be justice? Sweet, juicy justice?

I doubt it on many counts.

But staying tuned, I am!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Cable finals for Monday, July 14th

Perhaps TNT will think twice about premiering its signature summer series towards the end of July next year... and not against the MLB Home Run Derby on ESPN! Not that The Closer or Saving Grace did poorly by any means... just not as well as they did last season.

And, yes, I'm aware the premieres were pushed because production starts were delayed because of the strike.

The Closer (TNT, 9pm, 60 minutes)
- 5.2/9 households
- 1.9/5 A18-49
- 7.809 million viewers

Saving Grace (TNT, 10pm, 61 minutes)
- 3.5/6 households
- 1.2/4 A18-49
- 5.156 million viewers

Home Run Derby (ESPN, 8:19pm, 161 minutes)
- 5.5/10 households
- 3.6/11 A18-49
- 9.116 million viewers

Weeds (Showtime, 10pm, 28 minutes)
- 0.6/1 households
- 0.6/2 A18-49
- 1.003 million viewers

Burn Notice premiere ratings

Burn Notice (USA, 10pm, 60 minutes)
- 3.4/6 households
- 1.8/6 A18-49
- 5.385 million viewers

I will post The Closer and Saving Grace ratings when I get them later today.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

WGA Strike To Blame for Hillary's Loss?

Random thought of the day, upon reading this article interviewing Dennis Haysbert, who conjectures that his stint as President David Palmer may have paved the way for Obama's candidacy (and let's all hope that there's no Day 1-esque attempt on Obama's life)...

Day 7 of 24 was to feature Cherry Jones as the President. It would've begun airing in January, a little after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries.

Of course, as we all know, it was pulled from the schedule as a result of the WGA Strike.

And, apparently, Jones' performance will be Emmy-worthy.

We've already had female Presidents on television (see short-lived Commander in Chief and, of course, BSG).

So, my thought... would having this portrayal of a female President on television during the primary season have helped Hillary? Sight unseen, we have no idea what kind of President Jones' character is going to be (while we know David Palmer was an upstanding citizen, moral center, etc).

Again, totally random.

I swear, I will be posting thoughts on The Ex List and Project Gary and more one of these days... but real life comes comes, and real life is teh crazy bizzeh.