By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --“The Big Bang Theory” is starting to pick up ratings steam in the final stretch of its 12-year run.
The CBS sitcom was last week’s most-watched entertainment show as total viewership ticked up to a 2018-19 season high of more than 13 million, according to Nielsen figures Tuesday.
That’s a welcome sign for CBS, given the 30 percent drop in the sitcom’s season debut compared to the fall 2017 opener.
While audience interest is likely to grow as the show draws to its conclusion this spring, “The Big Bang Theory” also is benefiting from the wrap-up of competing Thursday night NFL broadcasts.
Football still dominated the week, as playoff games or related programming counted for half of the 10 most-watched shows, with top-rated network Fox the big beneficiary.
Less promising for Fox was the second-week performance of its new celebrity contest, “The Masked Singer.” After the Jan. 2 debut drew a healthy 9.4 million viewers and major social media buzz, last week’s audience dropped to 7.1 million facing a new episode of NBC’s “Chicago Fire” instead of a rerun.
It didn’t take long for another freshman contest, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent: The Champions,” to snag bragging rights: It debuted last week with nearly 10 million viewers, the most-watched debut of an alternative series since the 2016 debut of NBC’s “Little Big Shots” drew 14.9 million.
Fox won the week in primetime, averaging a hefty 11.35 million viewers. CBS had 6.5 million, NBC had 4.95 million, ABC had 3.84 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Networks had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW averaged 860,000.
ESPN topped the cable networks with a primetime average of 4.1 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.43 million, MSNBC had 2.1 million, Hallmark had 1.32 million and CNN and HGTV had 1.31 million each.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.4 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 9 million viewers on average and the “CBS Evening News” drew 6.7 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 7-13. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFC Playoff: Dallas at LA Rams, Fox, 33.4 million.
2. College Football Playoff National Championship: Alabama at Clemson, ESPN, 24.7 million.
3. NFC Kickoff: Dallas at LA Rams, Fox, 24.1 million.
4. NFC Playoff Post-game: Philadelphia at New Orleans, Fox, 22.8 million.
5. College Football Bowl Pre-game show, ESPN, 15.9 million.
6. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 13.5 million.
7. “NCIS,” CBS, 12.1 million.
8. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 12.06 million.
9. “America’s Got Talent: The Champions,” NBC, 9.97 million.
10. “Mom,” CBS, 9.4 million.
11. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 9.1 million.
12. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 8.6 million.
13. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 8.3 million.
14. “The Simpsons,” Fox, 8.2 million.
15. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.12 million.
16. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 8 million.
17. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 7.9 million.
18. “Hannity,” Fox News Channel, 7.14 million.
19. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 7.1 million.
20. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 6.9 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