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.
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.
The flood of premieres for the new year continues with ‘The Firm,’ ‘Are You There Chelsea,’ ‘The Finder,’ ’30 Rock,’ ‘Rob,’ and ‘The Game.’ That’s both good and bad, as the numbers run the gamut from ‘sure to be canceled’ to ‘solid hit’.
The new calendar year is upon us, and the mid-season premieres are already starting. ABC kicked off ‘The Bachelor’, ‘Wife Swap’, and ‘Work It’, while NBC had a brand new season of ‘Biggest Loser’. Over on cable, have the judge/host shenanigans ruined ‘Project Runway’?
‘Two And A Half Men’ has slipped back ahead of ‘Modern Family’ on the big networks, while over on cable the ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ finale was bested by bikes, boxes, and babies.