A look at the past week's viewership ratings
By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --In a television competition between notorious criminals, O.J. Simpson topped Bernard Madoff.
The first part of FX’s star-studded miniseries on the former football star’s murder case and trial became the most-watched scripted series premiere in the network’s history, the Nielsen company said.
The “American Crime Story” opener, which stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson and John Travolta as attorney Robert Shapiro, was seen by 12 million people within three days of its premiere. More people watched it either on a time-delayed basis or in one of its two reruns than in its premiere time slot last Tuesday.
It beat “The Shield,” which was FX’s previous record-setter for an original series.
ABC’s two-part movie on Madoff, which starred Richard Dreyfuss as the swindler, had more viewers watching when it originally aired than the Simpson premiere, but far fewer who caught it later. With time-delayed viewing within three days added in, the first part of the Madoff movie had 8.3 million viewers with the second part getting 7.9 million, Nielsen said.
Perhaps because the crime hit home, viewers of the Madoff movie were richer than those for a typical TV show. Among people who make more than $100,000 a year, the movie’s viewership beat the average by 25 percent, and for those making more than $200,000, it was up 33 percent, Nielsen said.
Typically the year’s most-watched event, the Super Bowl had just under 111.9 million viewers for CBS. The audience was down from the last two games but it still represented the third most-watched event in U.S. television history.
Shortly after NBC signed a new deal with prolific producer Dick Wolf, he proved his worth. Four of Wolf’s dramas – “Chicago Fire,” Chicago Med,” Chicago P.D.” and “Law & Order: SVU” – landed among Nielsen’s top 20 shows for the week.
CBS averaged 25.2 million viewers in prime time during the week, primarily because of the Super Bowl. ABC averaged 6 million viewers, NBC had 4.5 million, Fox had 4.2 million, Univision had 1.74 million, the CW had 1.73 million, ION Television had 1.3 million and Telemundo had 1.25 million.
Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.19 million viewers in prime time. USA had 1.6 million, HGTV had 1.56 million and the Disney Channel and ESPN tied with 1.39 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.3 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 9.2 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.7 million viewers.
Below is a rundown of primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Feb. 1-7. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. Super Bowl: Carolina vs. Denver, CBS, 111.86 million.
2. “Super Bowl Post-Game” (Sunday, 10:22 p.m.), CBS, 101.93 million.
3. “Super Bowl Post-Game” (Sunday, 10:29 p.m.), CBS, 70.01 million.
4. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 15.29 million.
5. Republican Presidential Debate, ABC, 13.34 million.
6. “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials,” CBS, 11.45 million.
7. “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 9.18 million.
8. “Life in Pieces,” CBS, 9.09 million.
9. “American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 8.94 million.
10. “The X-Files,” Fox, 8.37 million.
11. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 8.18 million.
12. “Mom,” CBS, 7.96 million.
13. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.54 million.
14. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 7.5 million.
15. “NCIS” (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), CBS, 7.42 million.
16. “Law & Order: SVU,” NBC, 7.31 million.
17. “Scorpion,” CBS, 7.24 million.
18. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 7.22 million.
19. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 7.1 million.
20. TV Movie: “Madoff, Part 1,” ABC, 7.08 million.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More