By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Two months into the transition from Brian Williams to Lester Holt as anchor of NBC’s top-rated “Nightly News” broadcast, and executives at the network can breathe easier.
NBC has beaten David Muir and ABC’s “World News Tonight” in all eight of the weeks since Holt was appointed Williams’ successor, the Nielsen company said. Last week NBC averaged 8 million viewers to ABC’s 7.7 million, and 6.4 million for the “CBS Evening News.”
NBC and ABC ran neck-and-neck during the period when Holt was the substitute for Williams, and Muir’s newscast even won several weeks. Williams was suspended by NBC for lying about his role covering the Iraq War, and eventually dismissed as “Nightly News” anchor. He is expected to re-emerge next month as a breaking news anchor on MSNBC.
Andrew Tyndall, a news consultant who monitors the content of the evening newscasts, credits NBC for a strong advertising push for Holt after five months where the newscast was essentially in limbo.
“They put the promotional weight of NBC behind him,” Tyndall said. “I don’t see any difference in the journalism and I don’t see any difference in the programs.”
During the summer of Trump, all three evening newscasts are seeing bumps in viewership. During the past eight weeks, “Nightly News” is up 2 percent in viewers over the same period in 2014, “World News Tonight” is up 5 percent and the “CBS Evening News” is up 7 percent, Nielsen said.
The accountants at NBC News are particularly pleased with Holt’s performance among viewers aged 25 to 54, the ratings demographic used in advertising sales for news broadcasts. ABC actually led in that demo last summer, but this summer “Nightly News” is up 7 percent among that group and “World News Tonight” is even. Holt has beaten Muir seven of the past eight weeks, Nielsen said.
For entertainment programs in prime time last week, CBS led with an average of 5.3 million viewers. NBC had 4.7 million viewers, ABC had 3.3 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 2 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million and the CW and ION Television tied with 1.1 million.
Fox News Channel was the top-rated cable network last week, averaging 1.83 million viewers, as the network continued to be in the news following the first GOP presidential debate. Megyn Kelly’s prime-time show on Monday had just under 3 million viewers, her first broadcast after being criticized by Donald Trump for her questioning in the debate. That was well above her average of 2.1 million for the second quarter of the year.
The Disney Channel averaged 1.74 million viewers, TNT had 1.66 million, HGTV had 1.52 million and TBS had 1.49 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Aug. 10-16. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.43 million.
2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.55 million.
3. “NCIS,” CBS, 8.41 million.
4. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 8.38 million.
5. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 7.19 million.
6. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 6.89 million.
7. “Zoo,” CBS, 6.69 million.
8. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 6.64 million.
9. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 6.17 million.
10. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 6.08 million.
11. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 6.06 million.
12. “Scorpion,” CBS, 5.17 million.
13. “Bachelor in Paradise,” ABC, 5.09 million.
14. “Hollywood Game Night,” NBC, 5 million.
15. “2 Broke Girls,” CBS, 4.88 million.
16. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 4.86 million.
17. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 4.79 million.
18. “Master Chef,” Fox, 4.76 million.
19. “48 Hours,” CBS, 4.7 million.
20. “Dateline NBC Mystery,” NBC, 4.67 million.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More