Our regularly scheduled programming was interrupted this week by the ‘Academy Awards’, the surprise prime-time appearance of the ‘Daytona 500′, and a triple shot of ‘Idol’. That brought a few unexpected drops to the numbers. On cable, ‘The Walking Dead’ continues to rule.
The big news on the networks was ‘American Idol’ falling to third place in viewers and the demo. Over on cable, the premiere of ‘Eastbound & Down’ could do nothing to stop the freight train that is AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’.
The big news on the broadcast networks last week was the huge ratings for the ‘Grammy Awards’. The death of Whitney Houston brought viewer levels the show hadn’t seen since the ’80s. Over on cable, the amazing run of ‘The Walking Dead’ just keeps going. The latest premiere finished even higher than the last one.
Another record setting ‘Super Bowl’ was the big event last week. But for our purposes here, the more interesting results concern the premieres of ‘The Voice’, ‘Smash’, and ‘The River’. One of those is not like the others. I’ll bet you can guess which one.
‘Big Bang Theory’ continued its fabulous run, topping ‘Idol’ in the demo again, and hitting a series high for good measure. Over on cable, HBO debuted ‘Luck’, to lackluster results, and then promptly renewed it.
In case you forgot that football is huge, the NFC title game was there to remind you. The other big news on the networks was the sneak preview of ‘Touch’, and another win for ‘Big Bang Theory’ over ‘Idol’. On cable, ‘Pawn Stars’ continues to roll.
A big week of premieres was headlined by the return of ‘American Idol’, but the ratings king is not quite the juggernaut it used to be. ‘Big Bang Theory’ managed to top the singing kids in the demo.