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.
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’?
Is the current television season halfway through, or does it still have halfway to go? That’s my attempt at applying the glass half full/half empty concept to a television season. But with most shows on hiatus, I figured this was a good time to look back at the half-season that was.
