The countdown to the premier of “Secrets and Lies” is just over a week away. As the date nears the publicity the show has received has increased. In many ways the show appears to be an experiment. The story is told almost entirely from the perspective of Ben Crawford, who is accused or murder. Some critics suggest that the character is in almost every seen. While shows in the passed have centered around one character (consider the likes of “Everybody Loves Raymond” and the “George Lopez” show), this murder mystery will be a new challenge. Murder mysteries often encompass multiple people and many details. I am interested to see how the show develops its plot and tries to fill in blanks before viewers become too confused to watch.
Category Archives: Spring 2015
Empire
Ever since Empire premiered, it has experienced one shockingly long string of good news. The first episode was viewed by 9.9 million people, and since then the numbers have only gone up. The seventh and most recent episode was seen by 11.96 million viewers and achieved a 4.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The show was renewed for a second season after only a couple episodes. The show’s success is even more surprising considering its content. Empire is a soap opera-style program featuring a predominantly black cast, not exactly standard fare for television. Some of the show’s success could be attributable to the reputation of lead actor Terrance Howard and creator Lee Daniels, the latter of whom recently directed the critically acclaimed and commercially successful film The Butler.
And much like The Butler, Empire, in addition to being a commercial success, is also a favorite among critics, having garnered positive reviews on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. All-in-all, the future looks bright for Empire. It will be interesting to see how long this upward trend in ratings and viewership can continue before it begins to taper off.
The seventh episode of Empire continued the television show’s upward trend in viewership and ratings, pulling down 13.02 million viewers and a 5.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which places it first in its time slot by a significant margin. At this rate, I would not be surprised if Fox renews Empire for a third season before the first one ends. With the massive success that the shows has been–with the caveat that only eight episodes have aired, and we only have viewership data for seven of them–it will be interesting to see if the unorthodox premise of the show inspires derivatives and copycats in the coming years.
Both of the last two weeks, Empire has increased its viewership. I can’t imagine the television world will see anything like this for a long time after. It’s frankly rather mind boggling.
But the real news is that the Empire season one finale aired last night. The numbers aren’t in yet, but I would be shocked if there is anything less than a significant increase in viewership. In addition to the upward trend that has been seen in all of the previous weeks, they seem to have stepped up their advertising a bit for this final two-part episode. The past few days have seen a dramatic increase in advertisement on Youtube and other platforms.
One other thing to note is that the Empire soundtrack featuring all the original hip hop songs from the show was just released on March 10 and debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 with 130,000 albums sold. This is the first time a television soundtrack has debuted at number one since Glee in 2010.
The numbers for the finale of Empire are in, and as most people probably expected, there was a significant increase in viewership. Even within the two-part finale, the second half received far more viewers that the first. The first half received a 6.1 rating with 15.82 million viewers, while the second half received a 6.9 rating with 17.62 million viewers. Needless to say, these figures crushed all other contenders in the time slot competition.
In other news, Fox Broadcasting is preemptively launching a lawsuit against the real-life Empire Distribution Inc., a California based record label, over trademark rights to the title “Empire.” The lawsuit was filed in anticipation of a lawsuit by Empire Distribution. Fox’s argument appears to primarily be based upon the fact that Empire Distribution is a small and insignificant operation, coupled with the fact that the name “Empire” has been used by numerous other films, television shows, and companies with no infringement problems. Considering the lethargic pace of the civil court system in the United States, it is unlikely that the case will be settled any time soon.
Previously, I mentioned the absurdly high ratings for the Empire two-part finale, but it is also important to note that the final episodes achieved excellence in other areas as well. In the social media world, the finale broke a Twitter record by being the “most-tweeted about telecast since Nielsen started measuring,” with 2.3 million tweets viewed 112 million times by roughly 5.9 million people. This immense flood of tweets was beneficial to the actors’ personal Twitter accounts. The twitter account of one of the stars of the show, Jussie Smollett, saw an increase in followers from 54,000 to 204,000 on the day of the finale alone. Of course, any increase in the popularity of the personal twitter accounts of the stars of the show will naturally feed back into the amount of social media buzz that the show can generate, as the actors have been active on social media, and particularly Twitter, often live-tweeting the episodes as they air.
In addition, the finale two episodes were well received by critics. An article in Entertainment Weekly said that it “felt like the best episode of Trapped in the Closet in years,” while The New York Times called the entire first season, finale included, “pretty perfect.”
That being said, critical laudation in general appears to have become more mild as the show as progressed through the first season. While I have had trouble finding the exact numbers, if my memory serves me correctly, after the first few episodes Empire had a Rotten Tomatoes score in the mid-eighties, and a meteoritic score in the mid-seventies. Now, with the first season completed, these numbers stand at 79% and 69, respectively—still high enough to give this commercially popular drama a solid reputation of genuine artistry.
I mentioned earlier that Empire has been renewed for a season season—in fact, that it was renewed for a season season after only three or four episodes, a rare feat in and of itself. There is no new change to report here—a second season is still in the works. I only bring this up because a rumor was spreading around the internet recently claiming that the second season of Empire had been canceled. However, this was quickly traced to a fake news website (sort of a non-humorous version of The Onion) that in the past has also created fake buzz when it claimed Krispy Kreme was giving away free donuts and Martin Lawrence had died. Of course, it should come as no surprise that a second season of Empire is still in the works; with the constantly upward trending numbers it sported throughout the entire run of its first season, it is difficult to imagine any reason the network would forgo the immense opportunities afforded by a second season.
Allegiance Week Two
NBC “Allegiance” Flops During Week Two
The executives at NBC were in for a disappointing Thursday night. “Allegiance” premiered its second episode this week to extremely lacking results. The show received a .7 rating and 2 share for 18-49 with 3.65 million total viewers. It was the lowest performing in its 10 o’clock Thursday night time-slot behind CBS’s elementary with 7.9 million viewers and ABC’s how to get away with murder with 8.44 million total viewers. NBC’s strategy to place it directly after “The Blacklist” does not appear to be working, and this week “The Blacklist” brought in the lowest ratings it has seen since it was on Monday nights with a 2.4 rating/7 share. Although the numbers were a little lower than usual, it is still bringing in more viewers than the usual NBC Thursday night comedy lineup. Most sources and critics online are expecting “Allegiance” to be cancelled pretty rapidly and I would not be surprised if they were right.
The other critique of the show is that it is too similar to FX’s “The Americans”. After a second episode, the feedback generally is that they are different enough, but “Allegiance” falls short considering the success of “The Americans” has not been overwhelming– this week it received a .3 rating 18-49 with just under one million viewers. Saturating the marketplace with another cold war era spy shows when the demand is not high was not a good programming decision.
Facebook followers: 15,810
Twitter followers: 3,414
The Slap Premieres
The Slap premiered last Thursday to less than stellar ratings. It earned a 1.1 rating, with a 4 share in the 18-49 group. Its total viewership was 5.1 million overall. It had a decent amount of competition, which is important to consider. It went up against ratings powerhouse The Big Bang Theory, which got higher numbers despite being a repeat. On Fox and ABC, it was up against American Idol and Grey’s Anatomy respectively, two shows with a loyal and established audience. On the bright side, The Slap was NBC’s second best regular programming timeslot result this season. Time will tell if it get gain an audience in the coming weeks.
As far as reviews for the show, it currently holds a 5.4/10 on IMDb. The reviews themselves are mixed, but most find the characters to be terrible people which could prove to be problematic. They also praise NBC for taking a risk and making a show one would expect to see on Showtime or HBO, not broadcast.
Weird Loners Blog Post 2
According to the Hollywood Reporter, FOX aims to broaden its comedy shows this upcoming television season. Weird Loners will be one of the six pilots FOX will set into motion. This comedy will be shot in a ‘single-camera’ format. This pilot — featuring four relationship-phobic characters — may be the hit FOX needs to stay relevant in constantly changing world of viewer ambiguity.
The Odd Couple: The Story Behind the Theme
With less than one week to go until the premiere of the revamped version of The Odd Couple, there is one big question that is on everyone’s mind: Are they keeping the original theme song? Fortunately, or unfortunately, there is a two part answer. While the new CBS revamp (premiering Thursday, February 19th at 8:30 on CBS/WTVH), will retain the classic and oh-so-catchy Neal Hefti theme music, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that it will have a (new) New Orleans blues-jazz arrangement. In his February 12, 2015 article, Dave Walker writes in The Times Picayune that trombonist Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews’ updated version of the Hefti theme is “a slinky trombone driven take on the Hefti tune.”
The new sixty second version is available online and after listening to it, while it does maintain the Hefti theme, it loses the big band sound that the original version had. However, it does have a more modern sound, which may appeal to younger viewers, but I am still partial to the original version of the iconic theme. Therefore, I guess we will just have to wait until next Thursday to see if the new version of The Odd Couple and its new theme are accepted by the 2015 TV audience and critics.
Have a listen to the new arrangement of the theme:
https://soundcloud.com/nola-sound/trombone-shorty-theme-from-the-odd-couple
Secrets and Lies (First Post)
“Secrets and Lies” does not hit the airwaves for another few weeks and little has been written or said about the new show. I expect that to change as we inch closer to the March 1, premier set by ABC. However, of the very limited publicity the show has received, it is worth noting that much of the write-ups focus on how the show differs from possible competition. While critics note that the plot of the murder mystery is not original, they are eager to see how the show is told from a single perspective. Perhaps the most interesting information that has come been revealed is that viewers will know the identity of the killed by the conclusion of the first season. Without seeing ratings it is far too difficult to predict a second seasons for the new show, but if it is renewed, writers will need to develop a whole new mystery.
Weird Loners – Blog Post 1
FOX’s Weird Loners is set to premiere on Tuesday March 31st 9:30/8:30c.
While it is difficult to anticipate the success of the show, its popular cast members may prove promising for its initial ratings.
In theory, featuring actors such as Katie Aselton – featured on The League – may account for a larger fan base starting from its premiere. Aselton will guest star as “April” during mid-season. April – a spontaneous, bisexual woman caught in a love triangle between Stosh (Zachary Knighton) and Caryn (Becki Newton) – will make for a compelling addition to the show’s sixth episode. Hopefully Weird Loners can reap the rewards of strategic casting and long-term planning.
For more information, please visit Variety
One Big Happy
One Big Happy will premier on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 9:30 pm on NBC. Unfortunately, there has been little to no promotion of the show other than on NBC’s website. I felt it was particularly striking to learn that Ellen DeGeneres is an executive producer on the show. Perhaps the public would be more persuaded to watch if they knew this information or if Ellen promoted it on her top rated talk show. Currently, About a Boy, with a .9 rating and a share of 2, occupies the time slot that One Big Happy will be taking over in March. This is a smart move by NBC, replacing a decently rated comedy with a highly anticipated one, in hopes that OBH, once aired, will either maintain the .9 rating or even improve on it. In the spring, the show will also be competing against top network programs including Secrets & Lies on ABC, The Good Wife on CBS, and The Last Man on Earth on FOX. Although these are all dramas, it’ll be interesting to see how their viewership compares to OBH. The show’s writer, Liz Feldman of Two Broke Girls, and star of the show, Nick Zano, who also starred in Two Broke Girls, will take their fans and bring them to OBH. Hopefully there will be more promotion for the future show in the upcoming weeks.
One Big Happy Preview: http://www.nbc.com/one-big-happy?cid=SEM%7COBH%7Cmdssn2015%7Cggl%7Cna%7Cna&hcoref=SEM&WT.srch=ggl&sky=one%20big%20happy&k_clickid=7a8df81d-83bd-1ba9-7a0f-0000040bf086
iZombie Week 1
iZombie is an upcoming TV series that will air on the CW beginning on March 17, 2015, based on the DC comic series. The show focuses on ‘Liv’ who must eat brains in order to survive her half human/half zombie life. Through this, she helps solve crimes with her job at the coroner’s office.The show also features the name of Rob Thomas as executive producer, known as the leading frontman to the band Matchbox 20.
Recently, DC re-released the original first copy of iZombie for $1 to commemorate the upcoming series.
Source: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/02/11/dc-comics-to-issue-a-1-izombie-comic-again/