CBS Wins November Sweeps Ratings; FOX Wins with 18-49-Year-Olds

CBS came in first among the broadcast network during the all-important November sweeps competition, beating ABC, FOX and NBC in that order.  

CBS won its 11th straight November contest and posted across-the-board ratings growth versus last year.  It's big new hit is Two Broke Girls.  CBS was also propelled by its returning shows, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother.  There's also Blue Bloods, which is slowly gaining steam.

In the important Adults 18-49 demographic, FOX won, trailed by CBS, ABC and NBC.  FOX's strength came from the new series, New Girl, Terra Nova and The X Factor.  Other strong programs are Glee and The Simpsons.

The losers are ABC and NBC.  Both lost viewers compared with last year and neither had any break-out hits in the "new show" category.

For ABC, Dancing with the Stars, Castle and Modern Family are not enough to carry the whole network.

Over at NBC, the situation is even worse.  There's no real stand-out.  While they still have The Biggest Loser, The Office and Parks and Recreation, none are doing that well.  The only new show that's worth anything is Whitney.

Sweeps was October 27-November 23.

Total Viewers:                        

	Nov. 2011	Nov. 2010
Network	Per2+	Per2+	% change
CBS	11.43m	11.13m	+3%
ABC	9.28m	9.68m	-4%
FOX	8.64m	7.79m	+11%
NBC	6.86m	7.19m	-5%

Adults 18-49:

	Nov. 2011	Nov. 2010	% change
Network	A18-49	A18-49
FOX	3.1/08	2.7/08	+15%
CBS	2.8/08	2.7/08	+4%
ABC	2.5/07	2.6/08	-4%
NBC	2.4/06	2.4/07	n.c.

The Chew Ratings: Week Eight

Ratings for The Chew on ABC have been increasing ever so slightly.  The show, the replacement for All My Children, continues to lag behind its predecessor and seems to have lost steam.  Here is the trend, beginning with its premiere week.  (We continue to report on these ratings because of the tremendous amount of interest we've received based on visits and comments.)

Week of 9/26	Week of 10/3	Week of 10/10	Week of 10/17	Week of 10/24	Week of 10/31	Week of 11/7	Week of 11/14
2.10 million viewers	1.78 million viewers	1.86 million viewers	1.94 million viewers	2.156 million viewers	2.158 million viewers	2.248 million viewers	2.384 million viewers

Christmas in Rockefeller Center LIne-Up

If you can't be there in person, the next best thing is TV for the annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City.  NBC's broadcast this year, on Wednesday at 8 p.m., will feature Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, Carole King, Neil Diamond, Big Time Rush, Tony Bennett, Cee Lo Green, Katharine McPhee, Javier Colon and the Radio City Rockettes.

The program will feature the debut of Bieber's music video with Mariah Carey for "All I Want for Christmas is You."

This is the 79th annual tree lighting.  The real centerpiece is a 74-feet-high Norway Spruce that is 46 feet in diameter and weighs 10 tons.

The tradition of the Rockefeller Christmas tree dates back to the Great Depression. First erected in 1933, the inaugural tree was decked with 700 lights and placed in front of the then eight-month-old RCA Building, now the GE Building. The Christmas tree gathering was enhanced in 1936 with the opening of the Rockefeller Plaza outdoor ice-skating pond. NBC-TV televised the tree lighting for the first time in 1951 on "The Kate Smith Show" and as part of the nationwide "Howdy Doody" television show from 1953-55.

All My Children and One Life to Live Will Not Continue Online

RIP AMC & OLTL

Here's an announcement, received just minutes ago, from Prospect Park, the company that had pledged to bring the soaps, All My Children and One Life to Live to the Web.  The company now says that will not be possible.  This will be a great disappointment to millions of fans who are already missing AMC  and those awaiting OLTL's end on ABC in January.  AMC left the airwaves in September.

Please see below a statement from Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz of Prospect Park:

After five months of negotiations with various guilds, hundreds of presentations to potential financial and technology partners, and a hope that we could pioneer a new network for the future, it is with great disappointment that we are suspending our aspirations to revive “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” via online distribution.  It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our ability to meet our deadlines to get OLTL on the air in a reasonable time period following its January 13, 2012 ABC finale impossible.

We believed the timing was right to launch an Online TV Network anchored by these two iconic soap operas, but we always knew it would be an uphill battle to create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn’t ultimately secure the backing and clear all the hurdles in time.  We believe we exhausted all reasonable options apparent to us, but despite enormous personal, as well as financial cost to ourselves, we failed to find a solution.

While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program’s inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision. In the end, the constraints of the current marketplace, including the evolution and impact of new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion.

In our opinion, new models like this can only work with the cooperation of many people striving to make them happen, and we would like to thank and praise the numerous people who tried to help and showed us incredible support.  We are extremely grateful to the fans and media who showed great support to us through this process, to ABC who did everything in their control to help, and we are especially grateful for the support and encouragement from many of the Soaps’ cast and crew themselves. 

We hope that our efforts are not lost, and that we somehow created a dialogue and movement on the feasibility of first run, network quality content online.

Of special note, we would like to thank Frank Valentini (Executive Producer), Ron Carlivati (Head Writer of OLTL), Agnes Nixon, many of the cast of OLTL including Michael Easton, Ted King, Kelley Missal, Melissa Archer, and of course Erika Slezak all of whom signed on quickly and did all they could to help, as well as our own Christine Sacani.  Cameron Mathison and Lindsay Hartley also get our sincerest thanks for their support.  We feel terrible we couldn't come through for them and we were very much looking forward to working together.

With appreciation,

Rich Frank

Jeffrey Kwatinetz

Jerry Steinfeld and Kelly Ripa on First Day Without Regis

Jerry Seinfeld was a terrific substitute for Regis Philbin on Live! with Kelly, which debuted Monday.

Here's the video:

Jane Curtin Joins Unforgettable on CBS

Unforgettable's Poppy Montgomery

Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe Award nominee Jane Curtin (“Kate & Allie”) will join the cast of the CBS program Unforgettable as a series regular.

Curtin, whose credits include “Saturday Night Live,” “3rd Rock from the Sun” and “Crumbs,” will appear as Jane Webster, an acerbic and demanding inspector who was running the medical examiner’s office in Manhattan until being demoted to the Queens Police Department for being insubordinate.  

According to CBS, although she is a brilliant forensic pathologist with an encyclopedic knowledge of New York crime, she refuses to be pigeonholed as merely a crime fighter, and teaches a course in romantic poetry at New School.

Curtin’s character will debut in early 2012.

Unforgettable stars Poppy Montgomery, Dylan Walsh, Michael Gaston, Kevin Rankin and Daya Vaidya.  It’s on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.

Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky Splits from Roberto Martinez and a Bachelor/Bachelorette Scorecard

With the news that former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky from Season 6 (2010) of the ABC franchise is now broken up with her longtime fiance Roberto Martinez, we've updated our Bachelor/Bachelorette Scorecard with the latest news about which couples are still together.  

 

The short answer is two.  The long answer is below.

 

The Bachelor:

Season One - Alex Marshall and Amanda Marsh – Split.

Season Two - Aaron Buerge and Helene Eksterowicz – Split.

Season Three - Andrew Firestone chooses Jen Schefft  - Split.

Season Four - Bob Guiney and Estella Gardinier – Split.  (Guiney went on to marry All My Children actress Rebecca Budig and they have since split).

Season Five – Jesse Palmer and Jessica Bowlin – Split.

Season Six - Byron Velvick and Mary Delgado – Split.

Season Seven - Charlie O'Connell and Sarah Brice – Split.

Season Eight - Travis Stork and Sarah Stone – Split.

Season Nine - Prince Lorenzo Borghese and Jennifer Wilson – Split.

Season Ten - Andy Baldwin and Tessa Horst – Split.

Season Eleven – Brad Womack - No Choice.

Season Twelve – Matt Grant and Shayne Lamas – Split.

Season Thirteen - Jason Mesnick and Melissa Rycroft – Split.  (Jason ends up marrying the runner up, Molly.)

Season Fourteen - Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi – Split.

Season Fifteen - Brad Womack and Emily Maynard – Split.

The Bachelorette

Season One – Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter – Married with two children.

Season Two – Meredith Phillips and Ian McKee – Split.

Season Three – Jennifer Schefft – No choice.

Season Four – DeAnna Pappas and Jesse Csincsak – Split.

Season Five – Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski – Split.

Season Six – Ali Fedotowsky and Roberto Martinez – Split.  This news has been confirmed by her rep who says, "As they go through this difficult time, we ask that you respect the couple's privacy."  There has been no official reason for the break-up, though there have been hints since a wedding planned for last summer was postponed due to Ali's knee surgery and never rescheduled.

Season Seven – Ashley and J.P.  These two remain a couple, according to all reports.  They got together last Spring during the most recent season.

Elizabeth Shue to Join CSI

Academy Award nominee Elisabeth Shue, 48, will join the cast of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (the original Las Vegas version) as a regular beginning with the February 15th episode.

Shue will play a character who has recently been to an anger management course and there are rumors that she had a previous run-in with Ted Danson's D.B. Russell who reportedly fired her when she worked for him in Seattle.

“While it’s difficult to say goodbye to a beloved character like Catherine Willows, it’s exciting to start a journey with a new CSI, especially when that character is played by Elisabeth Shue,” said executive producer Carol Mendelsohn. “The new CSI also struggles with ‘brutal honesty issues’ and suffers no fools.”  (The Willows character, played by Marg Helgenberger, exits at the end of the season 11.)  

“Elisabeth’s character will share a past, in another crime lab, with Ted Danson’s character (D.B. Russell),” said executive producer Don McGill. “The first time things didn’t go so well between the two of them. Maybe the second time’s the charm, or not.”

Shue’s film credits include “Leaving Las Vegas,” which earned her an Academy Award nomination, “Adventures in Babysitting,” “Deconstructing Harry,” “Mysterious Skin,” “Hollow Man,” “The Karate Kid.” 

She also stars in the upcoming film from Relativity Media, “House at the End of the Street,” starring opposite Jennifer Lawrence and scheduled for April 2012, and is currently filming Fox 2000’s “Of Men And Mavericks,” with director Curtis Henson and starring opposite Gerard Butler.   

On television, Shue has appeared in “Call to Glory” and has had guest-starring roles on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Dream On.”

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation airs Wednesdays (10:00-11:00 PM ET/PT) on CBS.