By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --When CNN gave Chris Cuomo its 9 p.m. ET time slot last June, there was reason to fear it could be a television suicide mission.
After all, that hour is where the big dogs roam. Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow are the top two personalities in cable television. They still are, but Cuomo’s “Prime Time” quickly established itself as CNN’s most-watched program and, with 1.64 million viewers in January, is having its best month, the Nielsen company said.
“For certain, it was a challenge to begin with,” said Melanie Buck, the show’s executive producer. “I thought that going in there as the underdog gave us the chance to go in there without expectations that we would compete with them on a nightly basis. I think it took some of the pressure off.”
For CNN, viewership in the time slot is up 49 percent over last January, when the network aired the second of two Anderson Cooper hours, Nielsen said.
Cuomo’s show made news in January with a head-scratching interview by President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani. Buck said she and Cuomo sought to build a show around the host’s expertise in law and politics, and skill in interviewing.
Maddow led the 9 p.m. time slot, and all of cable news, with a January nightly average of 3.25 million viewers, Nielsen said. Hannity averaged 3.04 million.
It was a big week for news: Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN were the three most-watched cable networks, including all of entertainment. Fox News also reached the 17-year mark as the top-rated network in cable news.
Among the broadcasters, CBS won the week in primetime, averaging 5.7 million viewers. NBC had 4.9 million, ABC had 4.6 million, Fox had 3.2 million, ION Television had 1.44 million, Univision had 1.38 million, Telemundo had 1.2 million and the CW had 1.1 million.
Fox News Channel averaged 2.36 million viewers in primetime. MSNBC had 2.01 million, CNN had 1.34 million, TNT had 1.3 million and Hallmark had 1.29 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.7 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 9 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.8 million viewers.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 21-27. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 11.24 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent Champions,” NBC, 9.71 million.
3. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 9.42 million.
4. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 8.43 million.
5. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 8.33 million.
6. “This is Us,” NBC, 8.23 million.
7. “The Conners,” ABC, 7.74 million.
8. “Ellen’s Game of Games,” NBC, 7.47 million.
9. “FBI,” CBS, 7.4 million.
10. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 7.23 million.
11. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 7.15 million.
12. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 6.99 million.
13. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 6.75 million.
14. “Bull,” CBS, 6.71 million.
15. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 6.7 million.
16. “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (Sunday, 8 p.m.), ABC, 6.56 million.
17. “Fam,” CBS, 6.35 million.
18. “The Good Doctor,” ABC, 6.28 million.
19. “The Big Bang Theory” (Thursday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 6.16 million.
20. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 5.98 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.
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