Child Star Income

Todd Longwell says being a child TV star doesn't actually pay that well.

Nickelodeon Doing Well

Brooks Barnes looks at Nickelodeon's current success.

Political Spending & Targeting

Ashley Parker reports on the programs that each political party prefers to advertise on.

Prime-Time Ratings: Friday & Saturday

Friday night was topped by CBS, as usual, while Saturday night was a battle between baseball and college football, with baseball winning in early results.

Fox-Cablevision Deal

Figures Fox and Cablevision would finally make a deal when I was away from the blog. So Fox channels are back on, though Cablevision was still left grumbling about the deal. FCC head Genachowski wants a congressional review of the retrans rules.

Fox-Dish Deal

Couldn't let some good retrans news go by without posting: Fox and Dish Network have agreed on a retrans deal, which may put pressure on the Fox-Cablevision dispute.

Off to the Rally

I'm leaving to go totally sane at the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear, so posts will be minimal for the next 48 hours.

Prime-Time Ratings: Thursday

Thursday night's fast nationals: Baseball on Fox and CBS shared the night's top numbers, with CBS having the edge.

AMC Profile

Jace Lacob looks at why AMC has been so successful lately.

Networks Missing Opportunities

Digital media expert Zuobin He thinks the networks are missing out by not taking better advantage of online opportunities.

Threatening to Leave

19% of Cablevision subscribers say they'll drop the service if the Fox dispute isn't settled by next week, and the blame is split pretty evenly across the two companies.

Political Ads Favor TV

Meg James reports on how TV is still the preferred medium for political advertising.

Friday Fun

Univision's Product Placement

Univision is striving to be considered as one of the Big Networks; now just like those networks, it's taking advantage of product placement and brand integration.

Cable & Internet TV

Marguerite Reardon describes how cable isn't trying to beat internet TV, it's trying to join it.

Good TVeets

danharmon : Community is on at 8:30 tonight. Remember that, but don't tell 30Rock fans. #EyeballAmbush

tvoti : Holy shit, this Community has solved television.
danharmon : @tvoti Maybe I'm biased but I think you just solved reviewing!

iwatchTVshows : Sorry, every Halloween thing on television ever. @danharmon beat you.

Spectrum Value Questions

Deborah McAdams is questioning the FCC's math on the value of the spectrum reallocation.

Refunds and a Lawsuit

Cablevision subscribers may be getting a refund due to the Fox dispute, but some are filing a class-action lawsuit.

Super Sales

If you were planning to drop a few million on a Super Bowl ad slot, you can put your checkbook away; the event is sold out.

Fox News Complaint

The Democratic Governors Association has amended its complaint about Fox News and election fundraising.

Prime-Time Ratings: Wednesday

Wednesday night's fast nationals: World Series ratings were down from last year but not bad, giving Fox the night. But ABC's Modern Family and The Middle also still drew best-ever audiences. Broadcast finals.

In other ratings news, there's Tuesday's cable ratings.

Ratings tweets:
weinmanj A reason to follow ratings is to root for a show to be canceled not another. So I'm glad DEFENDERS' ratings are sinking - helps "Good Wife."
thefutoncritic This just in: #ModernFamily is the first program to top any Game 1 of the World Series among adults 18-49 since at least 1991.
brianstelter Just in: Obama's audience on "The Daily Show" last night: 2.84 million viewers. Comedy Central says Pres. Obama intw was third-biggest "Daily Show" ever, behind Sen. Obama in 2008 and Michelle Obama in 2008.

New Carter on Late Night Wars

Vanity Fair has an excerpt of Bill Carter's new book on the 2010 Tonight Show mess.

No Sheen Fallout

So far, Charlie Sheen's latest troubles have produced only shrugs at CBS.

Google TV Move

Google TV has been moved under the YouTube umbrella, which Dan Frommer reads as a bad sign. Ryan Lawler says this won't fix anything.

TV Set Life & Energy

Starting in May 2011, TV set manufacturers have to put EnergyGuide labels on sets to estimate their annual energy costs. Also, some consumers are frustrated at how quickly their LCD and plasma TVs are dying.

CBS Sports Money

CBS Sports says it won't produce any 3D programming without a sponsor and its guaranteed financial backing. In related news, Les Moonves says CBS is done with sports being a loss leader.

Digital Registry

Starting next year and backed by the major studios, TV shows and other entertainment assets will be assigned identification numbers, akin to book ISBNs, for tracking and reporting revenue.

Sweeps Time

Batten down the hatches; sweeps have arrived.

Charlie Brown Rapping...

...yes, in a promo. Of this, no more will be spoken.

Sterling's Gold

Boris Kachka has the story behind the real publication of Mad Men's fake book.

Obama on Daily Show

Eric Deggans has a summary of Barack Obama's appearance on The Daily Show. Alessandra Stanley also analyzes, as do James Poniewozik and Ken Tucker.

Ben Smith and Byron Tau consider what the Obama interview and the rally this weekend mean for Stewart's brand image. And even if Stewart insists it isn't, many are eyeing the rally as political.

Good TVeets

ITveee : THE FINAL SEASON OF FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS STARTS TONIGHT. Just looking at that sentence makes my heart ache. This is the time every year when I remember that I forgot to become best friends with someone who has DirecTV. Curses. #FNL #cleareyesfullhearts

EnergyTanks : Oh and if anyone spoils Friday Night Lights I will [insert most painful thing you imagine happening to you in your lifetime].

cadlymack : I want Coach Taylor to be my dad. And my mentor. And my religious advisor. http://bit.ly/akMx1j AMAZINGNESS via @mikeylikestv

Cablevision Reimbursement

Cablevision says it will reimburse Fox-affected subscribers who sign up for MLB.com's World Series package.

Caprica Canceled

Caprica has been canceled by Syfy; Alan Sepinwall tries to figure out where it went wrong.

Twitter & TV

Twitter's Robin Sloan talks to NewTeeVee about Twitter and TV viewing.

Time Slot Viewership

TV By the Numbers has a cool chart plotting out viewer demo percentages for each time slot last week.

New Offer

Cablevision made a new offer to Fox. Brian Stelter reported earlier today, "In a statement, Cablevision said it had told News Corporation, the owner of Fox, that “we agree to pay the rate Fox charges Time Warner Cable for carriage of WNYW-Fox 5 New York and WTXF-Fox 29 Philadelphia for a period of one year. This is higher than the rate we pay any other New York broadcast station.”" But Fox said no thanks, calling the Cablevision offer another publicity stunt.

Joe Flint also notes that bundling is a key issue in this dispute. And ivi TV is offering itself as an alternative.

Glee Review

Matt Zoller Seitz's review of last night's Rocky Horror Glee Show is inspired. Also, Kyle Buchanan highlights the show's problematic representations of body image.

Prime-Time Ratings: Tuesday

Tuesday night's fast nationals: Glee did well in the younger demos, but CBS won the night overall.

Ratings tweets:
weinmanj I feel like the 18-49 obsession online, while understandable (it's what advertisers care about) distorts perception of how popular shows are ... NCIS got 20 million viewers to 11 million for Glee - advertisers should care more about Glee but in our world the former is more popular.

Comcast's Numbers

Comcast's profits dropped last quarter due to subscriber losses, but the company chalks that up to the economy, not cord cutting; also revenues were up.

Rally Complaints

As an earlier post noted, some are criticizing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for their rally tactics, and even their merchandising, but Ryan Kearney believes the critics are misguided.

Also, now the estimate of rally attendees is 60,000.

Fixing NBC

Jace Lacob proposes six ways NBC could save itself from this disastrous fall season.

Marie Claire Controversy

Marie Claire writer Maura Kelly write a piece Monday about Mike & Molly, saying she doesn't want to watch fat people make out on TV. Yeah. That rightfully wasn't so well received, and Kelly subsequently apologized: "A lot of what I said was unnecessary; it wasn't productive, either." Mike & Molly's creator has now spoken out against the article.

Technology Changes

With TV technology changing and getting more complex, remotes, guides, set-top boxes, and interfaces have to keep up. Comcast's CEO insists the set-top box isn't going anywhere, even though the company is high on tablet potential. Video game consoles might also be a threat to cable.

Ads Shrinking

Advertisers apparently think we can't pay attention for 30 seconds straight anymore, so they're turning to even shorter spots.

Pitches Wrapping Up

Nellie Andreeva has a brief overview of this pitch season nearing its end.

Election Spending Issues

Corporate election ad spending this cycle has been both exorbitant and secretive, the latter against the Supreme Court's intention.

CBS at 10pm

Robert Seidman has some ideas for what CBS could do with the challenging 10pm slot.

Broadcast Still Powerful

The heads of the five major broadcast networks insisted at a luncheon yesterday that broadcasting is still powerful and is here to stay.

Netflix's Tab Rising

Netflix is possibly spending  into the billions to pay for its streaming content.

The Bear Will Be There

Conan O'Brien plans to use some of his most famous running gags on his new TBS show -- "I won't be denied my Masturbating Bear!" -- whether NBC likes it or not.

Fox Falls

Fox is down 17% in 18-49 ratings compared to last year. Ronald Grover considers the implications.

Good TVeets

hollisg : #GLEE Rocky Horror episode was like watching it performed by the theater troupe at a bible camp.

danielletbd : Will gets grosser in each episode. Remember the teacher your parents always warned you not to stay after school w/? This is him. #GLEE #RHPS

weinmanj : So every Ryan Murphy episode of Glee is about the transgressive quality of something that's actually kind of lame?

FCC Rebukes Cablevision

Not many updates here today; my email's been down all day (*shudder*), so I've probably missed a lot of stories through there. But you couldn't miss a Fox-Cablevision update if you tried, and things are indeed getting dramatic: the FCC chairman told Cablevision to knock off the publicity stunts and get to the negotiating table. Oh, snap! Cablevision has even been encouraging subscribers to find illegal means to get Fox programs, and Fox is threatening to sue.

Prime-Time Ratings: Monday

Monday night's fast nationals: Dancing With the Stars was good MNF counter-programming, and Castle and ABC, which won the night, were beneficiaries. Broadcast finals.

In other ratings news, Vikings/Packers set a Sunday Night Football record.

Ratings tweets:
badgate After 5 weeks of the 2010-11 season CBS is tops in total viewers & Adults 18-49 ratings and a median age of 55.1. ... NLCS on Fox had 9.1 million viewers; ALCS on TBS had 8.2 million. Last year Fox had 10.3 million for ALCS & TBS had 6.1 million.
soundbyte53 #CBS now 5 for 5 in weekly ratings...viewers and demos

Garcia Interview

Josef Adalian interviews Raising Hope creator Greg Garcia about dealing with bad reviews (especially for his previous show Yes, Dear) and developing stories.

Couric Staying?

Howard Kurtz reports that Katie Couric may re-sign with CBS and stay until at least after the 2012 election, though likely at a reduced salary.

MLB Music Goes NFL

Fox has switched the theme music for Major League Baseball to its NFL music, due to its faster, upbeat pace.

Detroit 1-8-7 & Detroit

Detroit 1-8-7 has had a significant impact on the Detroit economy.

Fox-Cablevision

Sick of this one yet? No? Great! Here's more: Cablevision wants the FCC to force Fox to restore its channels, but some question the FCC's power here, while David Houle sees this as a death rattle for cable. Now it's getting even more interesting, even nasty.

Rally Uncertainty

Frankie Stone thinks Stewart and Colbert are erring by not releasing more info about the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear, which might draw 150,000 based on Porta-Potty estimates (really). Mary Elizabeth Williams too wonders what the secrecy is about.

TV Everywheres

Comcast has opened up its Xfinity online TV service to all of its subscribers, and last night's MNF was apparently available online to Time Warner Cable subscribers (article is WSJ paywalled). Ryan Lawler wonders if Comcast's move is a Trojan Horse.

Good TVeets

BryanSeabury : Shouldn't Dana Carvey have been a dad in about 5 failed multi-cams by now?

junethomas : The vulgarity of Mike & Molly is quite shocking. I expect every episode to end with “The Aristocrats!”

weinmanj : Better With You is the first new non-CBS multi-cam to get a full season order since Back To You. That's several varieties of sad.

ABC Pickups

ABC has ordered more of No Ordinary Family, Better With You, and Detroit 1-8-7. But The Whole Truth is cancelled.

Weather Channel Revamp

Weather Channel is going to undergo an overhaul.

Glee's Problems

Another entry in the "Here's what's wrong with Glee" genre of criticism.

Fox & Cablevision Make Their Cases

The retrans fighters defended their stances to the FCC today. paidContent has their full letters.

Post-Hit Timeslots

Jaime Weinman looks at the network challenge of figuring out what to slot in following a hit, such as after Modern Family.

ivi's Defense

The TV station streaming service ivi TV claims that it is a perfectly legal operation.

Walking Dead Stunt

If you see zombies walking around your city, it's just a marketing stunt for AMC's The Walking Dead. Or the end of the world. But probably the marketing thing. Lisa de Moraes reports on their appearance in DC.

Prime-Time Ratings: Sunday

Sunday night's fast nationals: The 18-49s apparently love Brett Favre; NBC, which won the night big, might want to stick him in a show at 10pm.

In other ratings news, the Week 3 +7 numbers are out, with Modern Family taking the top 18-49 spot. And the ACLS drew historic numbers for baseball on cable.

Ratings tweets:
Variety_StuartL Season finale of 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' draws 4.1 million viewers.

Watching in Canada

Rhiannon Bury finds an inconsistency between Canada's "signal substitution" of American network broadcast signals and the absence of a similar "streaming substitution" scheme online.

New In Media Res

In Media Res looks at branding this week:

• Monday, October 25, 2010 - Phillip Napoli (Fordham University) presents: Branding in an Evolving Audience Marketplace
• Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - Lindsay Hogan Garrison (University of Wisconsin-Madison) presents: (Re)Claiming Space in the Kids Cable Game: Discovery, Hasbro and The Hub
• Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - Barbara Selznick (University of Arizona) presents: Whose Stories Matter?: AMC's Post-Network Brand
• Thursday, October 28, 2010 - Erin Meyers (Northwestern University) presents: Twitter and the Branding of the Celebrity Self
• Friday, October 29, 2010 - Gladys Santiago (New York University) presents: When Advertising to Advertisers Invades the Public Sphere

Audience Erosion

Mike Hudack charts out audience erosion for network TV and says the nets will continue to see their audience share disappear.

PBS Retooled Online

PBS has launched its new website, with both local and national video offerings.

Ads as Entertainment

The Age also looks at the rise in ads as entertainment (think Old Spice).

Game Show Changes

Australian newspaper The Age reports on the shift in game shows from knowledge-based to sensationalistic.

More Limits Coming

The AP reports on how the networks are starting to curb free access to their programming online, with more limits likely on their way.

Demographic Viewing: Women

Part two of Cynopsis Media's demographic viewing series is up; it analyzes female viewers.

Local Fox News

Paul Bond assesses the changes at local Fox Stations Group news outlets three months after a corporate directive to try new strategies akin to the Fox News cable outlet.

The Thursday Problem

Sam Schechner assesses the networks' problem with falling ratings on crucial Thursday nights.

Fox, Cablevision, & Sports

Cablevision subscribers look likely to miss the World Series, and the NFL is pressuring Cablevision to agree to arbitration.

Watching Themselves

The New York Times covers ad exec reaction to Mad Men and Indian call center employee reaction to Outsourced.

PTC Challenges

The Parents Television Council is hitting hard times. Among other recent efforts, the $#*! My Dad Says boycott failed.

MTV Reinvention

Brian Stelter looks at MTV's attempts to diversify its programming beyond Jersey Shore.

Good TVeets

theonetruebix : I love overhearing people say "I don't watch TV" as if they've just been asked if they participate in human sacrifice and necrophilia.

charliecraig : This year's thing on TV: puking.

l_e_s : At any time, in any context, this is always relevant. RT @princesscowboy: remember: there is always money in the banana stand.

Univision Growing

Univision has its eye on Big Network status, even shooting for becoming the biggest. Bill Gorman weighs the odds.

CW Says We Like Online Ads

The CW has study results claiming that online audiences are perfectly content to watch ads. Robert Seidman adds some thoughts, as does Andrew Wallenstein.

Pros & Cons of Enhanced TV

Brian Steinberg finds the good and bad for marketers in enhanced TV.

Fox's Rough Fall

Nellie Andreeva chronicles a tough fall season for Fox.

Cable Trouble

Jon Orlin has a good overview of the internet TV threat to cable.

Retrans Infographic

Mediaweek has a great infographic chock full of retransmission fee info.

Gay-Friendly Street

Sesame Street has made subtle, maybe even unintentional, appeals to gay audiences of late. Willa Paskin chimes in. Some even think Bert came out on Twitter.

Not New Media, New Audience

Om Malik says where traditional media is going wrong, such as with the networks blocking content from Google TV, is in not trying to adapt to new audiences and consumption patterns.

The Mean Writer

Brooks Barkes profiles Ian Brennan, the writer who pens most of Sue Sylvester's best mean lines for Glee.

Good TVeets

weinmanj : ...the moment the Yankees were eliminated I was _delighted_ to think of crying network executives.

DamianLovesTV : poor FOX. now they're gonna have a series that will get even lower ratings than Lone Star #worldseries

KenLevine : SF vs. Tex. World Series ratings for Fox could be so bad people will think they're showing a RUNNING WILDE marathon.

Still Nothing

So, like, there's this Fox-Cablevision thing, and, like, it's totally, like, gone nowhere so far.

Cable News & Candidates

Brian Stelter reports on the role cable news is playing in the upcoming elections: "Even more than they did than in 2008, Fox News Channel and its left-leaning counterpart MSNBC are playing outsize roles in the midterm elections this year. Attacking the news media is time-honored in politics, but the recent fund-raising efforts show how some candidates and groups have been directing their attack ads this year not at other candidates, but at cable television."

Prime-Time Ratings: Friday

Friday night's fast nationals: A CBS sweep. Fox in the basement.

Good TVeets

HitFixDaniel : Simultaneously watching ALCS & Defenders. The Rangers making a World Series & Belushi starring in a show I like? Equally odd.

chitownburke : Apparently the Ms. Texas beauty pageant doesn't have a talent portion. #godblessamutebutton

EricStangel : Lance Berkman looks like an actor playing a baseball player in the background of an antiperspirant ad #Yankees #Rangers

Sorry, Google

Mark Cuban says the networks are doing the right thing by blocking Google TV from their content. Counterpoint: Boxee's CEO says blocking Google TV makes no sense. Robert Seidman also chimes in on the issue.

KCET Backstory

Scott Collins digs into the story behind KCET dumping PBS.

Future for TV

Andrew Baron says the future of TV is HTML.

FCC Wants an Explanation

The FCC has told Fox and Cablevision it wants a defense of their negotiations by Monday.

Guthrie to THR

Now Marisa Guthrie is headed to the Hollywood Reporter, leaving B&C.

Creator Demands

Emily Nussbaum wonders if viewers demand too much from TV's showrunners.

South Park Lifts, Apologizes

Matt Stone and Trey Parker have apologized for lifting lines from a College Humor video for a South Park Inception parody.

CW Pickups

More Hellcats, Nikita, and One Tree Hill on the way.

Praise for Conrad

Slate's Torie Bosch says Lauren Conrad is MTV"s best creation since the music video.

Show Info Pages

TV By the Numbers has added cable shows to its show-specific ratings and news pages, a helpful research resource.

Shales Leaving Post

Washington Post TV Critic Tom Shales says he's leaving the newspaper.

Prime-Time Ratings: Thursday

Thursday night's fast nationals: Baseball improved, but still couldn't beat out CBS, which won the night, while most everything else fell. Broadcast finals. Thursday's cable ratings.

In other ratings news, ratings within the 2-11 demo are up.

Ratings tweets:
BigTVfan So the show most affected by Baseball last night GREYS - 4.6- down to a 3.9, biggest plunge, yeah that makes sense
BrianStelter Just in: 6.1 million viewers for "Jersey Shore" season 2 finale, MTV says. Season 1 closed with 4.8 million viewers. (More from Stelter on this)
JBFlint More people watched Jersey Shore than watched NBC last night. Maybe it's time for a Situation cameo on 30 Rock. (Flint has also written more than 140 characters on NBC's ratings problems today)

TV Family & Friends

Neal Gabler comments on how contemporary TV's ensemble casts act as surrogate friends and family for viewers; David Brooks thinks they also reflect some of our actual group relationships. Eleanor Barkhorn considers the issue in terms of the workplace sitcom.

Changing Viewership Podcast

Three AV Club writers discuss how technology is changing how we watch TV.

Networks Assessment

Peter Lauria gives the networks a failing grade for the first month of the season.

More on Williams

Everybody under the sun is writing about the Juan Williams flap; I'll just highlight a few essays from usual suspects around here: Brian Stelter and James Poniewozik.

Mad Men Writing

Ken Levine briefly addresses the Mad Men writing process.