This has been a huge week for Fox’s comedy Grandfathered because Fox has requested six additional script orders for both Grandfathered and The Grinder. This shows the network, that the show is worthy of continuing production and showing episodes. On the contrary, Fox’s show The Minority Report’s episode order has been reduced from thirteen to ten, which shows Fox’s lack of faith in that show. Grandfathered has remained relatively consistent in the ratings and appears stable enough for Fox to grant the okay on the continuation of production.
Unfortunately directly correlating with this positive accolade for the show, Grandfathered lead John Stamos was charged for a DUI coming from an arrest that occurred earlier this year. Although, Stamos could face up to six months in jail, Fox keeps reassuring the press that this incident will not affect future production for the show.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rob Latour/Variety/REX Shutterstock (5120784fg) John Stamos 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Arrivals, Los Angeles, America – 20 Sep 2015
Even with reassuring remarks the question still remains, how this charge and possible sentencing will affect the rest of the season and future production of this new comedy.
World’s Funniest Fails continued it’s streak of .8 ratings throughout the last two weeks (5/6). That marks almost 5 straight weeks in a row that the show reached a .8. While the numbers don’t sound significant, WWF outperformed the previous show FOX had originally slotted in it’s place. The ratings are heavily impacted by the fact that the show is on at 8pm on Friday nights, aka the death slot. However, the continuous streak of .8 ratings (with slightly under 3 million viewers) suggests that World’s Funniest Fails may have found and maintained a loyal audience for their show. It could be that Terry Crews does indeed have a sufficient amount of followers, or it could be a spillover from people who loved watching him on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Regardless, I think FOX hit the nail on the head by selecting him as their host. He definitely knows how to host a game show and it was good to see him flourish in another role. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t like Terry Crews?
Well, after a less than triumphant return from its NCAA imposed hiatus, CBS has yet to announce whether The Odd Couple will make it on to the Fall 2015 schedule. Apart from losing three million viewers from before and after the hiatus, The Odd Couple has received overwhelmingly mixed reviews, leaning towards the negative side. In order to take a closer look at the reviews for The Odd Couple, I have consulted the online review aggregator, MetaCritic (http://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-odd-couple-2015).
According to MetaCritic, The Odd Couple has received 20 mixed reviews, 5 negative reviews and 1 positive review. Based upon the reviews of 26 professional print critics, MetaCritic has given The Odd Couple a score of 42. Here are some highlights from the critics:
Newsday’s Diane Werts best shared my sentiments, writing “Their [Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon’s] Odd Couple feels like the kind of time-filling time killer that’s chasing viewers to other options.”
Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jenson wrote, “There is a kind of bad show that might be the saddest kind of bad show. It’s the show that strands talented actors known for being funny on a sitcom that isn’t funny at all.” This confirms a number of the reviews which seem to feel that The Odd Couple has all of the elements of a successful series, but they all fail to come together in the end.
TV Guide’s Matt Roush, also felt that the show is an example of mediocrity, “There’s not a lot to love in this strained, often deafening update of the Neil Simon perennial.”
Therefore, coupled with the critics’ reaction and the low ratings, it looks like CBS should replace The Odd Couple with something that has more originality and substance, as well as the potential to become another 10 year-wonder like How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men.
As predicted, the ratings for One Big Happy have decreased from a 1.6 series premier rating to a 1.2 rating for the second episode, falling 25 percent. I did not see a lot of twitter buzz about the show, but I did see some interesting comments on different blogs. One author from afterellen.com said she actually liked the second episode of the show and stated, “I was shocked at how many commenters said they would give the show a couple more chances to knock their socks off, and if it failed, they’d just change the channel to one of 20 more shows with lesbian characters that air on Tuesday (deliberate exaggeration). It says a lot about how far we’ve come that we can afford to be picky.” Again, many viewers felt the show was trying to use the same type of humor as shows like Two and a Half Men. Some viewers said they wish OBH would write for the audience it wants rather than an audience created by other successful comedies. Promotion continued for the show this week as one of its stars, Elisha Cuthbert, appeared on The Tonight Show. One Big Happy competes with shows including iZombie, Weird Loners, The Dovekeepers, and Criminal Minds.
Since The Odd Couple will be on hiatus for the next two weeks because of the NCAA Basketball Tournament airing on CBS, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the show’s social media presence. As now more than ever, social media presence is an integral part of a television show’s success, it appears that The Odd Couple is taking full advantage of all that twitter has to offer. For example, as a nice tie-in with CBS’s NCAA coverage, the stars of The Odd Couple have filled out NCAA brackets and the show’s twitter feed is encouraging viewers to see how their brackets measure up with those of the stars, Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon. Additionally, the stars have been live tweeting and the show has been posting photos of the different cast members tweeting for both the east and west coast feeds. They even suggested a drinking game, consisting of everyone taking a drink every time that Matthew Perry wears a blue shirt that matches his eyes! So far, they have 3,263 followers, which is a drop in the ocean, compared to ABC’s rival new spring 2015 sitcom, Fresh Off The Boat, which has 16,700 followers. Therefore, The Odd Couple has a way to go before being the number 1 new comedy on Twitter.
After a solid debut, Terry Crews and Fox’s new live-comedy show World’s Funniest Fails has tapered off a little bit in the death slot on Fridays from 8-9pm. The reason for the drop in ratings is because of multiple sporting events in the basketball world taking place on Friday night. The NBA has an “NBA Friday Night” event where the two games (8pm and 1030pm) attract all the male audiences which just happens to be World’s Funniest Fails exact demographic. The NBA All-Star game was also two weekends ago and that sucked all the male ratings out of Friday night too. However, with all that said I still believe the show will continue to put up solid ratings and the total viewers continues to hover around 2.75 million. The show is absolutely hysterical, Terry Crews has a very good background of hosting shows and lastly, who doesn’t want to see people make complete fools of themselves? Look for the show’s ratings to increase and check it out if you want to laugh for an hour straight on FOX @ 8pm on Fridays.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is one of the oldest American broadcasting networks. Originally created in the 1940’s from the NBC Blue rradio network, ABC is now owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group[1]. The group is composed of Disney’s global entertainment and news television properties, owned television stations group, as well as radio and publishing businesses. This includes ABC Television Network, ABC Owned Television Station Group, ABC Studios, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family, and SOAPnet, as well as Disney/abc Domestic Television and Disney Media Distribution[2].
The parent company, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified worldwide entertainment company with operations in media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment, Consumer Products, and Interactive Media.
James Rasulo – Senior Executive Vice President, CFO
Alan Braverman – Senior Executive Vice President, Secretary, General Counsel
Kevin Mayer – Executive Vice President
Key Disney Financials (in USD as of 09/29/2012):
Revenue:42, 278m
Net income:5,682m
Revenue per share: 23.57 [4]
Graph from Bloomberg.com (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/DIS:US/chart)
Walt Disney Co. News (Fall 2012)
October 30, 2012: Disney Buys Lucasfilm for $4 Billion in cash and stock and will debut a new Star Wars movie, Episode VII,in 2015. George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars franchise and CEO of Lucasfilm, owned 100% of the company[5]. Kathleen Kennedy, current co-chair of Lucasfilm, will become its president, reporting to Walt Disney Studios chair Alan Horn. Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new Star Wars features, with Lucas serving as creative consultant [6].
November 28, 2012: Walt Disney said that it would boost its annual dividend to shareholders by 25% to 75¢ a share. It was the latest company to do so on jitters over the looming “fiscal cliff.” The dividend announcement came a day after Disney raised $3 billion in a bond offering, part of which would likely go toward funding the bigger shareholder payout [7].
December 4, 2012: Disney signed an unprecedented movie deal with Netflix, allowing Netflix subscribers to stream films from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation, Marvel and Disneynature, starting in 2016. When the deal kicks in, Netflix will become the exclusive U.S. subscription television service for first-run, live-action and animated feature films from the Walt Disney Studios, receiving access to the movies after they’re made available for sale and rental. Netflix managers also cut a separate multi-year deal with Disney to bring some older catalog titles to Netflix streaming immediately[8].
ABC Network
ABC Television network provides broadcast programming to more than 220 affiliated stations across the country. the network encompasses ABC News, respoinsible for news programming on television and other digital platforms, ABC Entertainement Group, responsible for the network’s primetime and late-night fair, ABC Daytime,producers of the network’s daytime programming, and ABC Kids, responsible for children’s programming [9].
ABC Daytime
-September 10, 2012: Katie Couric’s new daytime talk show premiered to an estimated 1.535-million viewers from the top 56 U.S. markets. put Couric comfortably ahead of the freshman talk-show pack. “Katie” outdrew “Steve Harvey” by 87%, “Jeff Probst” by 150% and “Ricki Lake” by 250%[10]. For entire article.
-November 26, 2012: As sweeps month comes to a close, Good Morning America is poised to beat out Today to win November sweeps in total viewers and the key adults 25-54 demo, according to Nielsen. It would be GMA‘s first November sweep win in total viewers since 1995, and its first sweeps victory in the key demo in more than 18 years. [11]. For entire article.
-December 06, 2012: ABC was Daytime’s number 1 network for the 12th consecutive week in Women 18-34 (0.6 rating / 214,000 – tied), and was #1 for the 8th straight week in Women 18-49 (0.9 rating / 569,000 – tied) [12]. For entire press release.
Primetime Programming
ABC Entertainment Group develops and produces compelling programming for broadcast on ABC in addition to other television and digital platforms. The group includes ABC Entertainment, which is responsible for all network primetime and late-night entertainment programming. ABC Studios is responsible for the development and production of primetime and late-night entertainment content for ABC, among other platforms. Disney-ABC Domestic Television is responsible for the content distribution within the United States and Canada [13].
New Programs Fall 2012
New ABC Series Premiering in Fall 2012:
-666 Park Avenue
-Last Resort
-Malibu Country
-Nashville
-The Neighbors
For in-depth information about any of ABC’s Fall premiere shows go here.
Fall Ratings
October 09, 2012: After two weeks of the 2012-2013 broadcast television season (through Sunday, October 7 2012), NBC is in first place among adults 18-49, with a 2.8 rating average. Runners-up FOX and CBS tied for second, each earning a 2.4 rating average. ABC came in fourth with a 2.1 rating average and Univision was fifth with a 1.4 18-49 rating. The CW finished last with a 0.3 adults 18-49 rating average [14].
November 13, 2012: After seven weeks of the 2012-2013 broadcast television season (through Sunday, November 11, 2012), NBC is in first place among adults 18-49, with a 3.2 rating average, up 23% from last season. CBS was second, with a 2.8 rating average, down 18% from a year ago. ABC was third with a 2.6, down 7% from a year ago. FOX was fourth with a 2.5, down 29% from last season. The CW finished last with a 0.7 adults 18-49 rating average [15].
November 27, 2012: ABC Draws its 2nd-Largest Audience Since Season Premiere Week and Claims 4 of the Top 15 Most-Watched TV Shows Overall [16]. For specifics on the individual ratings go here.
December 04, 2012: After eight weeks of the 2012-2013 broadcast television season (through Sunday, November 25, 2012), NBC is in first place among adults 18-49, with a 3.2 rating average, up 23% from last season. CBS was second, with a 2.8 rating average, down 18% from the prior season. ABC was third with a 2.6, down 7% from the previous season FOX was fourth with a 2.4, down 31% from last season. The CW finished last with a 0.8 adults 18-49 rating average, down 20% from the previous season. Among total viewers, CBS is ahead for the season averaging 11.718 million viewers. ABC is second with 9.168m, followed by NBC with 8.913 m, FOX with 6.853m, and CW with 1.888 million [17].
December 04, 2012: During the week of November 26, 2012, ABC qualified as the 2nd-most-watched network to CBS, outdrawing an NFL-fueled NBC (8.03 million vs. 7.97 million). And excluding sports, ABC beat out NBC for the week by 10% in Adults 18-49 (2.2/6 vs. 2.0/6). Season-to-Date C3 Ratings (9/24-11/11/12): ABC is the No. 1 network this season in the sales currency of C3 non-sports Adult 18-49 ratings (Commercial Ratings + 3 Days of Playback), out-delivering CBS by 5%, Fox by 10% and NBC by 10%: ABC = 2.3 rating, CBS = 2.2 rating, Fox = 2.1 rating and NBC = 2.1 rating [18].
Coming up
So far in the season, 3 shows have been cancelled, two of which are new series. Private Practice, 666 Park Avenue and The Last Resort will not be seeing anymore seasons. To check the cancellation/renewal index for ABC shows, go here. For information on midseason premieres go here.
Owned and Operated Stations
The ABC Owned Television Stations Group includes WABC-TV New York, KABC-TV Los Angeles, WLS-TV Chicago, WPVI-TV Philadelphia, KGO-TV San Francisco, KTRK-TV Houston, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham and KFSN-TV Fresno. The eight owned stations reach 23.3% of all U.S. television households. All are strong performers in their local markets, with most ranking #1 sign-on to sign-off in key A.C. Nielsen ratings for adults 18-49 and 25-54 [20 ].
O & O News:
September 4, 2012: Owned and operated station, WABC-TV, home to the popular syndicated series “Live! with Regis and Kelly, ” welcomed new co-host Michael Strahan, to thew show, now titled “Live! with Kelly and Michael.” For more on the story click here.
