Olympics Opening Ceremonies Top the Ratings

Here is ratings data for the week of July 23rd. It’s pretty clear that the Olympics Opening Ceremony was the number one broadcast of the week and that 41 million people tuned in. NBC got off to a good start with very strong showings on both Saturday and Sunday Nights, the first two prime time airings of competition.

On Cable, The Closer, in its final weeks on the air, was the top-rated show. (It morphs into Major Crimes without Kyra Sedgwick in a few weeks.) TNT and USA continue to do well with their summer offerings. I’m surprised, however, that Necessary Roughness, one of my personal favorites is not even making it into the top 40.

Rank	Program	Net	Rating	Viewers
1	SUM OLYM OPEN CEREM(S)	NBC	21.0	41 million
2	SUM OLYM SUN PRIME 1(S)	NBC	19.8	36 million
3	SUM OLYM SAT PRIME 1(S)	NBC	15.8	29 million
4	AMERICA'S GOT TALENT-TUE	NBC	6.3	10 million
5	AMERICA'S GOT TALENT-WED	NBC	5.4	8.7 million
6	BIG BANG THEORY, THE	CBS	5.1	7.8 million
7	NCIS	CBS	4.8	7.2 million
8	TWO AND A HALF MEN - THU	CBS	4.2	6.6 million
9	NCIS: LOS ANGELES	CBS	4.1	6.1 million
10	60 MINUTES	CBS	4.0	5.9 million
10	CSI	CBS	4.0	6 million
12	BIG BROTHER 14-THU	CBS	3.8	6.1 million
12	HAWAII FIVE-0	CBS	3.8	5.6 million
12	PERSON OF INTEREST - TUE	CBS	3.8	5.6 million
12	WIPEOUT-THURS	ABC	3.8	6.8 million

Rank	Program	Net	Rating	Viewers
1	THE CLOSER	TNT	3.8	5.8 million
2	RIZZOLI & ISLES	TNT	3.6	5.5 million
3	WWE ENTERTAINMENT	USA	3.5	6.3 million
4	WWE ENTERTAINMENT	USA	3.4	6.3 million
5	NASCAR SPRINT CUP	ESPN	3.3	5 million
6	PERCEPTION	TNT	3.1	4.5 million
7	BURN NOTICE	USA	3.0	4.8 million
8	WWE ENTERTAINMENT	USA	3.0	5.4 million
9	ROYAL PAINS	USA	2.7	3.9 million
10	STORAGE WARS	AEN	2.7	4.6 million
11	SUITS	USA	2.6	3.8 million
12	TRUE BLOOD	HBOM	2.5	4.5 million
13	FAMILY GUY	ADSM	2.5	3.5 million
14	STORAGE WARS	AEN	2.5	4.3 million
15	COVERT AFFAIRS	USA	2.5	3.7 million

For Frustrated Olympics Viewers, Courtesy of Andy Borowitz

The Borowitz Report

Fake news and political satire.

July 31, 2012

A Message from NBC About Its Olympics Coverage

Posted by Andy Borowitz

LONDON (The Borowitz Report)—Today NBC Sports issued the following message to viewers of its prime-time coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games in London:

Dear NBC Viewers:

Last night, millions of you were thrilled to see the U.S.A.’s Missy Franklin win the gold medal in the hundred-metre backstroke race. That is, you would have been thrilled, except that just before the race we showed promos of Missy Franklin appearing on the Today show with the gold medal she won for the hundred-metre backstroke race.

If you’ve been watching NBC in prime time the past few nights, you’ve probably noticed how, night in, night out, we’ve been wrecking the Olympics for you. All we can say is, our bad. At NBC we’re just not used to broadcasting things that people want to watch.

But all that’s about to change.

Tonight, for those of you who like watching the Olympics without having every moment drained of its entertainment value, we are launching a new premium service called NBCFree: the Olympics without any contributions from NBC whatsoever.

For only $29.95 you can watch the Olympics with no spoilers, no maudlin “personal narratives,” and no promos for NBC’s new fall shows like that egregious one with the doctor and the monkey we show like every five minutes. And for $39.95, no Ryan Seacrest.

So contact your cable or satellite provider and order NBCFree today. And if you don’t? Well, all we can say is, we already know what other medals Missy has won, and we’re not afraid to tell you.

Sincerely,

NBC

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/07/a-message-from-nbc-about-its-olympics-coverage.html#ixzz22EMit08w

CBS Guest Stars for Fall Season

CBS has released a list of guest-star and musical appearances for some of its fall shows.  These include the mothers of some of the actors appearing on a hit show (NCIS: Los Angeles), a new partner for Jamie Reagan's (Will Estes) character on Blue Bloods and more.

• “CSI: NY” – Fridays, 9:00 PM
  Music from GRAMMY Award winner Green Day will be featured in the fourth episode of the season in which Lindsay (Anna Belknap) is injured when a political candidate is shot.  Action sequences will be narrated by songs from Green Day's forthcoming albums ¡UNO!, ¡DOS! and ¡TRE!  @GreenDay
  
  Natalie Martinez will recur as an NYPD detective who works closely with Flack (Eddie Cahill), but it will become clear that there is considerably more to her than meets the eye, both personally and professionally.
  
• “NCIS: LOS ANGELES” -  Tuesdays, 9:00 PM
  The real-life mothers of NCIS: LOS ANGELES stars Chris O’Donnell, LL COOL J, Daniela Ruah and Eric Christian Olsen will appear in a fall episode alongside their children. The mothers are flying in from all over the country and world, (Daniela Ruah’s mother lives in Portugal), to appear in a scene that was hand-picked by Executive Producer Shane Brennan.

•  “VEGAS” – Tuesdays, 10:00 PM
  Sarah Jones (“Alcatraz”) joins as a series regular in the second episode of the freshman series.  Jones will play Mia Rizzo, the smart daughter of one of Chicago’s most powerful men, who works in a casino’s “count room,” running a scam designed to funnel cash back to Chicago.

•  “PERSON OF INTEREST” – Thursdays, 9:00 PM
  Ken Leung (“Lost”) will guest star as the POI in the second season premiere on Thursday, Sept. 27.
  
  Emmy Award winner Margo Martindale (“Justified”) will guest star in the second episode of season two (Thursday, Oct. 4) as a woman with ties to Finch’s hacker nemesis/kidnapper, Root (Amy Acker).
  
•  “MADE IN JERSEY” – Fridays, 9:00 PM
  Kristoffer Polaha (“Ringer”) and Megalyn Echikunwoke (“90210”) have joined the cast as series regulars.  Both will appear for the first time in the episode airing Friday, Oct. 5.
  
  Polaha plays Nolan Adams, a third year attorney at Stark & Rowan who was raised in private schools and the unsupervised Hampton “getaways” and is part of Manhattan’s royal literati. @KrisPolaha.
  
  Megalyn Echikunwoke plays Riley Prescott, a second year lawyer at Stark & Rowan and the daughter of the former U.S. Ambassador to Sweden.  Professionally, Riley’s worldly upbringing gives her an automatic buy-in to any case with international clients. @moreMEGALYN

•  “BLUE BLOODS” – Fridays, 10:00 PM
  Sebastian Sozzi (“My Generation”) will recur as Vinny Cruz, Jamie Reagan’s (Will Estes) new partner, a fast-talking, charismatic cop from one of the toughest precincts in the city.  His first episode will air Friday, Oct. 5.
  
  Michael Madsen (“Resevoir Dogs”) will guest star as John, a professional criminal just released from prison and determined to get his revenge on Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) who arrested him and ruined his life. His episode will air Friday, Oct. 5. @MadsenThePoet
  
• “THE MENTALIST” – Sundays, 10:00 PM
  Ivan Sergei (“Charmed”) will recur as Gabe Mancini, a tough, handsome FBI Agent. He will first appear in the season premiere on Sunday, Sept. 30.
  
  Polly Walker (“Rome”) will recur as Senior FBI Agent Alexa Schultz, a beautiful alpha female with a quick-witted personality.Also,
  
  Jim O'Heir (“Parks and Recreation”) will guest star in the season premiere on Sept. 30 as a hotel manager with information about a murder. @JimOHeir
  

Extras for Days of Our Lives Fans, with Olympics Preemptions

NBC.com is offering viewers of Days of Our Lives a chance to stay connected to the show and other fans during the Olympic preemption, which begins today.

The “10 DAYS of Summer Event” will allow fans to chat with their favorite Days cast member. Each day at 11 am (Pacific) for 30 minutes, a member of the cast will lead an online Q&A with fans related to their character’s story line and tied to their behind-the-scenes video segment that will launch the same day on NBC.com. The videos are related to the cliff-hanger episode with which the show signed off for the two weeks.

Below is the schedule for the 10 DAYS of Summer live chats

*Cast participation is subject to change

07/31/12 Ari Zucker

08/01/12 Shawn Christian

08/02/12 Kate Mansi

08/03/12 Eric Martsolf

08/06/12 Albert Alarr (Director)

08/07/12 Molly Burnett

08/08/12 Casey Deidrick

08/09/12 Camila Banus

08/10/12 James Scott

For more information visit http://www.nbc.com/days-of-our-lives/features/the-making-of-daysaster/

"All-Star" Season for Dancing with the Stars

ABC has announced that the fall season for Dancing with the Stars will be comprised of "all-stars" from previous shows.  Whether these folks are stars at all is questionable to me, but you be the judge.  Here's the list of announced contestants.

Kirstie Alley
Pamela Anderson
Sabrina Bryan
Helio Castroneves
Joey Fatone
Shawn Johnson
Carson Kressley
Drew Lachey
Gilles Marini
Kyle Massey
Kelly Monaco
Apolo Anton Ohno
Bristol Palin
Melissa Rycroft
Emmitt Smith

This will be the first time prior contestants will return for second shot at the mirror ball trophy.

In case  you've been on another planet for the past few years, DWTS is hosted by Tom Bergeron ("America's Funniest Home Videos") and Brooke Burke-Charvet ("Dancing with the Stars" Season Seven Champion).  In the competition,  so-called celebrities perform choreographed dance routines  with their partners, professional dancers, and are judged by Ballroom judge Len Goodman, dancer/choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.

Viewers cast their votes for their favorite teams via phone.  Additionally, fans can now vote on Facebook www.facebook.com/dancingwiththestars. A custom Facebook app sponsored by AT&T will let fans vote, share who they voted for and why, as well as see who friends voted for.

Forbes List of Highest Paid TV Actresses 2012

Forbes has released its Forbes' 2012 list of Highest Paid TV Actresses.  The list covers May 2011 - May 2012.

1) Sofia Vergara, $19 million for ABC's Modern Family, but mostly for endrosement deals with Kmart, Pepsi, Burger King and others.  (Last year's ABC salary was reportedly just $100,000 per episode.)

2) Kim Kardashian, $18 million from E!'s Keeping Up with the Kardashians, its spin-offs and endorsement deals.

3) Eva Longoria, $15 million from Desperate Housewives, now ended.


4) Bethenny Frankel, $12 million from her Skinnygirl Cocktail line, a novel, "Skinnydipping" and the reality series, Bethenny Ever After.


5) Khloe Kardashian Odom, $11 million from Khloe & Lamar and a brief run as a radio show host in Dallas.

5) Tina Fey, $11 million, from 30 Rock on NBC, endorsements and more.

7) Mariska Hargitay, $10 million from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and other projects.

8)  Zooey Deschanel, $9 million from New Girl on Fox and endorsement deals with Pantene, Apple and Rimmell London.

9) Felicity Huffman, $9 million for Desperate Housewives, "Got Milk?" ads and being a spokesperson for Dole.

9)  Ellen Pompeo, $9 million from Grey's Anatomy and more.

Queen Elizabeth to Open the Olympics Tonight

NBC’s Olympic primetime host Bob Costas will host the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony from Olympic Stadium alongside co-hosts Matt Lauer, NBC’s ‘Today’ co-anchor, and NBC News Special Correspondent Meredith Vieira, tonight starting at 7:30.   But they won't be the most famous faces to participate.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II TO OFFICIALLY OPEN THE GAMES: The Games of the XXX Olympiad will begin with royal fanfare as London, the first city to host the Olympics three times, has Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Games. Other members of the Royal Family, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, are scheduled to attend.

NBC OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY FACTS

• Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney has announced that he will perform;
• First Lady Michelle Obama will lead the official U.S. delegation;
• British filmmaker Danny Boyle is the chief director of the Opening Ceremony. He is best known internationally for the film Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and earned Boyle the Oscar for Best Director, in 2008;
• A cast of more than 15,000 will take part in the spectacle.

Parade of Nations: The 2012 London Olympics will welcome more than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries, plus one group of athletes who will march under the Olympic flag as “Independent Olympic Athletes.” These are athletes whose countries don’t have National Olympic Committees (NOCs) – South Sudan, a new country with no NOC, and athletes from Netherlands Antilles, which no longer has its own NOC.

In the Parade of Nations, the teams will enter the Olympic Stadium in London in alphabetical order. According to Olympic tradition, Greece marches first and the host nation, Great Britain, enters last. Team USA will be number 195. NBC’s broadcast of the Opening Ceremony will include every country’s delegation during the Parade of Nations.

Costas and Lauer anchored the Opening Ceremony together at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Olympic primetime correspondent Ryan Seacrest and NBC News Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw will contribute interviews and reports.   This is Costas' 10th stint as Olympics primetime host and Lauer's 9th.

NBC’s opening tease of the London Olympics, which highlights the big stories of the Games and London as the host city, will air during the Opening Ceremony. The tease is voiced by British actors Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, and is produced by the NBC Olympics features unit.

While the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will not be streamed live, NBCOlympics.com will distribute some clips from the Opening Ceremony before the event airs in primetime. The clips will also be promoted across NBC Olympics’ social media partners, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. As previously announced, every Olympic sporting event will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com.

NBCUniversal, presenting its 13^th Olympics, the most by any U.S. media company, will make an unprecedented 5,535 hours of the 2012 London Olympics coverage available across NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, NBCOlympics.com, two specialty channels, and the first-ever 3D platform, an unprecedented level that surpasses the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by nearly 2,000 hours.

Other tidbits from NBC:

Cameras: 92 total; NBC has 25 unilateral cameras (including a camera mounted on a blimp) and access to an additional 67 host broadcaster cameras.

Spotters:  More than 20 spotters will be used by NBC to help identify athletes during the Parade of Nations.

Good Morning America Beats Today - Again

ABC News' Good Morning America ranked No. 1 in both total viewers (4.598 million) and adults 25-54 (1.737 million) for week of July 16, 2012, according to Nielsen Media Research, representing the first time in nearly 17 years that GMA took the top spot in both measures - since w/o 9/11/95.  GMA tied NBC's Today (1.737 million) for the week in Adults 25-54.

 

Good Morning America won the week in total viewers (4.598 million), ranking No. 1 for the 4th consecutive week and for the 8th time in the last 15.  With a 4-week run at No. 1, GMA has delivered its longest total viewer streak at No. 1 in more than 17 years - matching another 4-week streak from w/o 4/24 through w/o 5/15/95.  GMA outran NBC's Today (4.245 million) by a wider margin than the previous week (+353,000 vs. +342,000 on w/o 7/9/12) to post its largest margin of victory in more than 17 years - since w/o 5/15/95.   

 

For the 2nd week in a row, GM outdrew Today in total viewers in all 5 head-to-head telecasts (Mon: +586,000, Tues: +432,000, Wed: +297,000, Thurs: +455,000 and Fri: +5,000).  In fact, GMA has  out-delivered Today for 11 consecutive days (7/6 - 7/20/12), posting GMA's longest stretch of consecutive single-day total viewer wins in more than 17 years - since a 19-day run from 4/26 - 5/22/95.  Further, in sweeping Today, GMA owned the top 5 most-watched telecast of the week for the first time in more than 17 years - since w/o 5/1/95.  

 

In addition, GMA ranked No. 1 in Adults 25-54 in 3 of 5 days during the week (Mon: +89,000, Tues: +60,000 and Wed: +1,000), marking the first time in nearly 17 years that "GMA" beat Today in 3 head-to-head telecast during the week in the key adult news demo - since w/o 11/27/95.  For the 2nd straight week, GMA held the week's top telecast in adults 25-54 (1.867 million on Tuesday, 7/17/12).  This represents the first time in more than 7 years that GMA staked claimed to the week's No. 1 telecast in both total viewers and adults 25-54 - since w/o 5/16/05. 

ABC Fall Premiere Dates

Below are ABC's Fall premiere dates for the 2012-13 season. All times listed are eastern.  While most shows premiere in September, as expected, a number are set for October, and one hit show, Last Man Standing with Tim Allen, doesn't return until early November.
      
Friday, September 14
8:00-9:00 p.m.    "Shark Tank"*
9:00-10:00 p.m.    "What Would You Do?"
10:00-11:00 p.m.    "20/20"
* Moves to Friday at 9 on November 2nd.

Monday, September 24
8:00-10:00 p.m.    "Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars"
10:00-11:00 p.m.    "Castle"

Tuesday, September 25
8:00-10:00 p.m.    "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show"
10:00-11:00 p.m.    "Private Practice"

Wednesday, September 26
8:00-9:00 p.m.    "The Middle" (special one-hour premiere)
9:00-9:30 p.m.    "Modern Family"
9:30-10:00 p.m.    "The Neighbors" (series premiere)*
* Moving to its regular time period at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 3
  
Thursday, September 27
8:00-9:00 p.m.    "Last Resort"
9:00-10:00 p.m.    "Grey's Anatomy"
10:00-11:00 p.m.    "Scandal"

Sunday, September 30
8:00-9:00 p.m.    "Once Upon a Time"
9:00-10:00 p.m.    "Revenge"
10:00-11:00 p.m.    "666 Park Avenue"

Wednesday, October 3
8:30-9:00 p.m.    "The Neighbors" (regular time period premiere)

Sunday, October 7
7:00-8:00 p.m.    "America's Funniest Home Videos"

Wednesday, October 10
10:00-11:00 p.m.    "Nashville"

Wednesday, October 17
9:30-10:00 p.m.    "Suburgatory"

Tuesday, October 23
9:00-9:30 p.m.     "Happy Endings"
9:30-10:00 p.m.    "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23"

Friday, November 2
8:00-8:30 p.m.    "Last Man Standing"
8:30-9:00 p.m.    "Malibu Country"
9:00-10:00 p.m.    "Shark Tank" (new time period premiere)