By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Football season has begun, and it has already had an impact on the competition among television networks.
ABC narrowly won the primetime ratings race last week on the strength of its coverage of college football games involving Florida State and Alabama, and West Virginia and Virginia Tech. The network took the week’s crown from NBC, which usually wins in the summer on the strength of “America’s Got Talent.”
The Nielsen company said Wednesday that “Talent” was the most-watched show of the week, but the Florida St.-Alabama opener was close behind, and earned ABC its largest Saturday-night audience in 19 months.
For the week, ABC averaged 4.61 million viewers in primetime. NBC had 4.59 million, CBS had 3.9 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision and Telemundo were tied at 1.41 million, ION Television had 1.3 million and the CW had 850,000.
Fox News Channel was the most popular cable network, averaging 2.13 million viewers in primetime. ESPN had 1.78 million, MSNBC had 1.75 million, USA had 1.59 million and HGTV had 1.36 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” (8.516 million) and ABC’s “World News Tonight” (8.514 million) were virtually tied in the evening news ratings race. The “CBS Evening News” had 6.2 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Aug. 28-Sept. 3. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 13.13 million.
2. College Football: Florida St. vs Alabama, ABC, 12.34 million.
3. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 11.09 million.
4. “College Football Pre-Game,” ABC, 7.4 million.
5. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.05 million.
6. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 6.13 million.
7. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 6.11 million.
8. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.85 million.
9. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 5.65 million.
10. College Football: Ohio St. vs Indiana, ESPN, 5.14 million.
11. “Bull,” CBS, 5.1 million.
12. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.097 million.
13. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 5.08 million.
14. “Bachelor in Paradise,” ABC, 5.05 million.
15. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 4.89 million.
16. College Football: West Virginia vs Virginia Tech, ABC, 4.65 million.
17. “Marlon,” NBC, 4.56 million.
18. “Hollywood Game Night,” NBC, 4.41 million.
19. “Hawaii Five-O,” CBS, 4.39 million.
20. “Dateline Classic,” NBC, 4.25 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