By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --"America's Got Talent" topped the ratings last week, but it faces the absence of Simon Cowell, seriously injured in an electric bicycle accident.
Cowell, the NBC talent contest's creator and linchpin of its judging panel, underwent surgery for a broken back last Saturday, just before the show kicked off its live episodes this week.
Kelly Clarkson, who came to fame as the first "American Idol" winner when Cowell judged the singing contest, was to step in as his temporary replacement.
Fox News Channel continued its summer ratings romp, with Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity's shows combining to hold nine of the top 20 primetime slots among all viewers.
Broadcast networks, mostly relying on scripted reruns with a sprinkling of reality and game shows, were in their usual seasonal slump.
In primetime last week, CBS topped broadcasters with an average of 3.7 million viewers. NBC had 2.7 million viewers, ABC had 2.3 million, Fox and Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 930,000.
Fox News Channel led among cable networks, averaging 3.09 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.97 million, CNN had 1.34 million, HGTV had 1.27 million and TLC had 1.22 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" led the evening newscasts, averaging 8.4 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.5 million, and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.3 million.
For the week of Aug. 3-9, the top 20 programs, their networks and viewerships:
"America's Got Talent," NBC, 6.16 million.
"NCIS," CBS, 4.91 million.
"America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 4.41 million.
"Celebrity Family Feud," ABC, 4.4 million.
"60 Minutes Presents," CBS, 4.14 million.
"Tucker Carlson Tonight" (Monday), Fox News, 4.08 million.
"FBI," CBS, 4.06 million.
"Tucker Carlson Tonight" (Friday), Fox News, 4.01 million.
"Hannity" (Wednesday), Fox News, 3.98 million.
"Hannity" (Tuesday), Fox News, 3.97 million.
"Tucker Carlson Tonight" (Tuesday), Fox News, 3.96 million.
"Young Sheldon," CBS, 3.95 million.
"Tucker Carlson Tonight" (Wednesday), Fox News, 3.89 million.
"Yellowstone," Paramount, 3.83 million.
"Hannity" (Thursday), Fox News, 3.81 million.
"World of Dance," NBC, 3.81 million.
"Hannity" (Monday), Fox News, 3.73 million.
"Great #AtHome Videos," CBS, 3.71 million.
"Blue Bloods," CBS, 3.71 million.
"Tucker Carlson Tonight" (Thursday), Fox News, 3.66 million.
"Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 3.66 million.
"The Rachel Maddow Show" (Thursday), MSNBC, 3.59 million.
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More