Tag Archives: Television

Deception #7

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ABC’s Deception premiered on Sunday, March 11 at 10PM. According to TV By The Numbers, the premiere adjusted down a tenth to 1.2 in adults 18-49 in a share of 5. This was at its regular time slot of 10PM. Deception goes up against Timeless on NBC and Madam Secretary on CBS. It received the highest rating at 10PM among those shows. Deception accumulated 5.93 million viewers. The network average of total viewers for ABC is 8.21 million to give you some perspective.

The premiere itself was graded an A for Awesome by 36% of TVLine.com readers, and 35% for B, Very Good. The pilot itself was interesting and details of the protagonist Cameron Black’s failed career as a magician were revealed. The episode ends by establishing a stable antagonist character who framed Black’s twin brother that he worked alongside in performance tricks.

Deception #3

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by Anjani Iman

With the premiere of ABC’s new crime drama, “Deception”, less than a month away, its marketing team is pushing social media with more force. The target demo for the new series is A18-49, so its social media presence is important for its success.

Unsurprisingly, the show is most prevalent and popular on Facebook as it is the #1 leading social media site in the world. On FB, the page rakes in 22,429 likes and posts with a wider variety of multimedia ranging from articles to livestreams (by ABC Television Network, not “Deception”) to promo videos.

On Twitter, the series’ second most prioritized social media, the account is just shy of one thousand followers, a huge difference from Facebook. This social media account reposts a lot of the stars and producers’ Twitter content, as well as Boomerangs from Instagram. On the whole, the account is weaker than Facebook and less personal.

The weakest link for “Deception” is their instagram, which has even lagged on the logo rebrand that is prevalent on Twitter and Facebook. There are only 8 posts and just over 700 followers.

Social media does not seem to be a driving force for the “Deception” series, whether that is the folly of the social media/marketing team or simply not a priority for the producers and development team.

“Deception” will premiere on Sunday, March 11 at 10/9c on ABC.

Grammy Awards

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An Overview of The Show

The 60th Annual Grammy Awards was held on Sunday, January 28th 2018 at Madison Square Garden by the CBS network–the first time since 2003 that the Grammys were not held in Los Angeles. The Grammys aired at 7:30 EST, hosted by late night television host James Corden for the second year in a row.

Kendrick Lamar opened with a compelling performance with the American flag and men in fatigues and ski masks as backup dancers. U2 and comedian Dave Chapelle joined in, with Chapelle saying the most quoteable line of the night–“The only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America. Sorry for the interruption.”

Ke$ha supported the #MeToo movement clad in all white during a performance alongside Cyndi Lauper, Bebe Rexha, Andra Day, and others. Janelle Monae made a direct tribute in her speech to the Time’s Up movement.

Politics were highly addressed at the 60th annual awards. Hillary Clinton appeared in a video reading an excerpt from “Fire and Fury”. Camila Cabello made a timely tribute to Dreamers in the midst of Trump’s reform DACA.

 

The Winners

Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna accepted the first Grammy of the broadcast for “Loyalty” as best rap/sung performance.

Ed Sheeran won Best Solo Performance for his song “Shape of You”. Following speeches by Kesha and Janelle Monae, Sheeran was met with boo’s despite his generally agreeable demeanor and presence in the music industry.

Bruno Mars dominated the award show, accepting the Grammy Award for album of the year (24K Magic), song of the year (That’s What I like) and record of the year (24K Magic).

 

The Ratings

The Grammys have a key demographic of A18-49 and reached 19.81 million viewers with a 5.9 rating on January 28th, down a full 24% from 2017’s February viewership number. This was the lowest viewership a ceremony CBS has received since 2009. Even so, the 2018 Grammys were the most watched primetime entertainment show since the 2017 Oscars. (Deadline)

Metered market ratings were 12.7/21, worse than early returns suggested. It fell 20% from the early returns for the 59th annual Grammys, which had 26 million viewers and a 7.8 rating among the same demo A18-49.

The unique viewers on the livestream of the Grammys was up 40% over last year’s telecast, however. The Sunday had the second-highest sign-up day for CBS All Access. The big boost stemmed from the streaming service offering a live stream of the event on its service. This is especially helpful to the millennial and/or cord-cutting population who do not have cable and focus on SVODs. Unique viewers and subscriber sign-ups reached record numbers for the CBS service. This could also be due to the airdate for a highly anticipated episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” that is only streamed on All Access.

 

Social Media

Nielsen reported that the 60th Grammys was the most social TV event this year. If we look at the mobile app store, the CBS app rank in free apps was at #325, according to Sensor Tower. After the awards show, the app’s rank jumped up to #89 among free iPhone apps in the US, just 5 below the very popular dating app, Tinder. (Tech Crunch)

The Twittersphere reacted to much of the poltiical aspects to had negative reactions to the delay of the delay of the red carpet precursor to the awards ceremony, due to delays in programming.

 

Programming and Competitive

CBS had aired the 2018 Farmer’s Insurance Open on Sunday night. The golf tournament ran into the Grammys’ red carpet’s scheduled time, which yielded backlash on Twitter and social media. (Business Insider)

CBS assured users that the Grammys would still air at 7:30p.m., but many on Twitter in their key demographic were unable to view a much red carpet celebrity fashion. The Farmer’s Insurance Open already had a delayed airtime as the Michigan State and University of Maryland basketball game went into overtime. Although overtime in sports can be often unpredictable, we can only fault the program planning team at network for the adverse effects on the highly anticipated red carpet fashion show.

As for competitive, there was not much up against the 7:30pm CBS special. Premieres included Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo, Sister Wives on TLC, and Beachfront Bargain Hunt on HGTV. None of these shows even compare to the gravity of the Grammys.

 

Advertising and Sponsorship

Procter & Gamble aired an “oddball and bizarre” ad for the Old Spice deodorant and its target consumers, male A18-34. The ad agency Wieden + Kennedy produced the campaign that features a suave gentleman talking to women about “the man your man could smell like.”

The ad was broadcast entirely in French, with a woman crying of a loss of someone relating to Old Spice. The company’s marketing director sought to generate buzz for this huge media opportunity. According to a media buyer, CBS sought roughly $1 million for a 30-second spot during the Grammys. For that money, the ad really needs to make impressions. (Variety)

While the Grammys hit a huge viewership decline, its advertising revenue remains strong. CBS made $81.1 million in national TV revenue. Last year they earned $81.4 million,
Big advertisers include Target ($7.8 million), Lincoln Mercury ($5.8 million), Google Phones ($3.9 million), Uber ($3.9 million) and Warner Bros ($3.5 million).

Deception #1

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A new crime drama will premiere on ABC this March.

“Deception” stars Jack Cutmore-Scott as Cameron Black, a superstar magician whose career falls flat. Black turns to the FBI to solve crime using his skills of deception, influence and illusion. His FBI counterpart is Kay Daniels, played by Ilfenesh Hadera.

If the series sounds a bit like the 2013 blockbuster film “Now You See Me”, it may be because the film’s illusionist, David Kwong, will co-produce the ABC show.

A supporting character in the show is Jordan Kwon, played by Justin Chon who I am very excited to see on network television. Chon received recognition for his independent film, Gook (2017). I have also met him at a local ice cream shop in our hometown of Irvine, California, where we attended the same high school!

As for “Deception”, Chris Fedak (Chuck) will act as writer and executive producer, with other EP’s Greg Berlanti, Martin Gero and Sarah Schechter.

The new show’s Twitter account is young, created in May of 2017. It is not very active yet, with only 26 tweets–most being retweets of potential fans and current magicians, excited for the premiere.

“Deception” will premiere on Sunday, March 11 at 10/9c on ABC.

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders #12

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Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders numbers have been doing ok since its plummet due to American Idol’s last viewing. Now that American Idol is over, Criminal Minds: Border Borders went down from a 1.46/6 to a 1.3/4, which isn’t a huge downward dip. In fact, the show is still holding on and will probably be here to stay. For Criminal Minds: Beyond Border is still doing better than Chicago PD (0.8/0.3) and Nashville (which was the least favored show among 18-34 year olds with the same low rating of 0/8/3 last week). 18-34 ratings aside, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders hasn’t changed its time slot of 10pm on CBS and continues to be the top show to watch at 10pm on Wednesdays specifically.

The show’s continuous competition with shows like Survivor that come on at 8pm, has been around before the show premiered and still has higher 18-34 ratings and viewership than the show according to tvbythenumbers. Furthermore, social media (especially their twitter and Youtube channel) continue to be active with 6,511 followers on twitter where they post videos of episode previews and updates. They also on their twitter have been highlighting prime actors such as Daniel Henney’s interaction with fans, who seems to be getting a lot of critique from critics for being the quote “man candy” of the show. This review by Sharmila Nair from star2.com states how she believes Henney is the only reason why the show is popular:  http://www.star2.com/entertainment/tv/2016/04/20/tv-review-criminal-minds-beyond-borders

Overall, based on the shows decent ratings and constant 7.48 to 8 million viewers according to tvbythenumbers, I believe the show has a chance of doing pretty well.

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Post #9

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The ratings of last Wednesday’s episode on March 30th have made a drastic downturn. The culprit for the show’s decrease in ratings was due to Empire’s return to FOX, which was so successful in its first run that it even outdid the ratings of Survivor (Survivor had a 2.0/7 rating for 18-34 year olds compared to Empire’s 4.8/15 rating). Tvbythenumbers.com estimated that as a result of Empire’s return, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders and Survivor both went down a tenth, with Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders going down from a 1.5/5 rating from its second episode, to a 1.3/5 rating for 18-34 year olds on its most recent one. Empire also had a great amount of viewership compared to Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (Empire had a whopping 12.46 million viewers).

According to tvbythenumbers.com, Empires viewership was in fact had the largest number of viewers out of all of the shows that tuned in on March 30th. The original Criminal Minds was the second most viewed with 9.17 million viewers. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders had 7.07 million viewers, which is not awful but still not as great of a number as Empire’s. Empire’s large number in viewership could be because of the show’s timing. Empire comes on at 9pm and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders comes on at 10pm. And, even though it’s a good sign that the show has not moved its time slot, and also continues to have a decent amount of viewers, the show’s decrease in ratings could mean that Empire takes over as the most watched show on Wednesdays.

Second Chance Post #9

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Second Chance continued to pull similar ratings for FOX this past week. Since February 26th, the show has been pulling a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and has garnered anywhere from 1.17 to 2.15 million viewers with this same rating. It’s not terrible for FOX, but there was a reason, after all, that the show was moved to Friday’s after only two weeks.

This past Friday, March 25th, Second Chance reached the end of its original episode order. FOX only ordered eleven episodes of the show (cut back from the original order, as I’ve blogged about before) and that programming ended with this past week. There’s no official word either way from FOX on whether or not the show will continue, but a Bustle article from just a few days ago makes a strong case for its renewal. That article also links to this Entertainment Weekly piece from back in January noting that FOX did spend quite a bit of money on reshoots for the show which the author argues they probably would not have done if they didn’t believe in it. Based on what I’ve seen online, the show has a dedicated fanbase, but it’s still unclear whether or not keeping the show around will make sense for FOX from a business standpoint.

Second Chance Post #6

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This week, Second Chance saw the lowest total audience numbers of the season pulling in only 1.78 million viewers. Compare that with 4.71 million viewers for its premiere, and it’s easy to see that Second Chance probably won’t get one. This week, it was up against Dateline, Shark Tank, and Hawaii Five-0, all perennially successful shows which each pulled in a rating greater than 1 in the 18-49 demographic. It’s definitely interesting to note that Second Chance lost over a million viewers from its lead in, Sleepy Hollow, which pulled in 2.96 million viewers and held a 0.8 rating in the demo.

FOX still hasn’t released any information about whether or not the show will continue past this season. With it doing so poorly in its Friday timeslot, it would certainly seem unlikely that it will be renewed. Perhaps this was merely a “down” week for the show, but continuing to drop in ratings nearly every week since its premiere is never a good omen.

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Post #5

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Word Count: 197

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders is starting to garner interest from pop culture writers, as reviews based on predications of what the new pilot of Criminal Minds will bring show up. For example, culture writer Anthony D’Alessandro of Deadline.com had some of his own opinions as well as concerns about the show. D’Alessandro wrote his review in a sort of feature story format, with an interview from executive producer Erica Messer. This review is imperative to viewership of the show, especially since D’Alessandro used to be a feature writer for Variety magazine. Thus, he’s pretty well-respected and well-known, so his voice could affect viewership when it premiere’s on Wednesday, March 16.

Criminal Minds already dished out promotional videos on the Super Bowl and through social media (their youtube channel now has 253 subscribers, with videos usually reaching about 1,000-10,00 views roughly). Therefore, reviews from culture writers such as D’Alessandro are already expressing their concerns and predictions, which can either hurt or help viewership depending on how audiences respond. So far the reviews are promising, with only mild concerns over how other countries will be portrayed to the American public (stereotyping continues to be the main concern).

D’Alessandro’s review: http://deadline.com/2016/01/criminal-minds-beyond-borders-cbs-spin-off-erica-messer-mark-gordon-1201681435

Second Chance Post #4

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Screen Shot 2016-02-16 at 9.22.11 PM

Second Chance continues to be a disappointment this week for FOX television. The show pulled in a 0.5 rating in the demo and had a total viewership of 2.15 million. It slipped one percentage point again this week, down 0.1 from last week and also lost about 0.1 million viewers.

Back in October, FOX cut its episode order down to 11 episodes, showing little faith in the show. This has continued with minimal promotion and the lack of a pronounced social media presence for the program.

Robert Kazinsky, the show’s lead, hasn’t even mentioned the show via his Twitter page since January 21st; nearly a month. He’s been actively promoting other bigger projects he’s working on instead. Dilshad Vadsaria, another cast member on the show, has been much more active. She constantly retweets the official show account and actively promotes it. She has around 30,000 followers which is certainly a wider potential reach than the Second Chance official Twitter account which has only a meager 3,898.