By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --HBO’s “Leaving Neverland” is heading up the charts.
The unsparing documentary about Michael Jackson and his alleged sexual abuse is already the third most-watched documentary of the past decade at the prime cable network, which takes pride in its documentary schedule. It’s likely to surpass “Bright Lights,” the movie about Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher, which is currently in second place, the network said.
The first half of the four-hour program on Jackson has been seen by 3.67 million people, the Nielsen company said. The second half stands at 2.45 million. Those totals are expected to go up as people catch up with the program through delayed viewing.
HBO’s most-watched documentary over the past decade is “Going Clear,” about Scientology.
CBS won another week in primetime behind the soon-to-depart comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” and its prequel, “Young Sheldon.”
CBS averaged 5.8 million viewers in primetime. ABC had 5.3 million viewers, NBC had 4.7 million, Fox had 2.5 million, ION Television had 1.4 million, Univision had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 960,000.
Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.26 million in prime time. MSNBC had 1.92 million, HGTV had 1.33 million, ESPN had 1.26 million and USA had 1.24 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.3 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.3 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for March 4-10. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 13 million.
2. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 11.58 million.
3. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 10.97 million.
4. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.22 million.
5. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.6 million.
6. “Mom,” CBS, 8.3 million.
7. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 8.26 million.
8. “American Idol” (Wednesday), ABC, 7.828 million.
9. “This is Us,” NBC, 7.827 million.
10. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.49 million.
11. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 7.31 million.
12. “American Idol” (Sunday), ABC, 7.27 million.
13. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 7.266 million.
14. “Survivor,” CBS, 7.26 million.
15. “The Good Doctor,” ABC, 6.73 million.
16. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 6.63 million.
17. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 6.57 million.
18. “CBS News: Gayle King’s R. Kelly Interview,” CBS, 6.558 million.
19. “Bachelor: Women Tell All,” ABC, 6.11 million.
20. “New Amsterdam,” NBC, 5.83 million.
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More