By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --MTV boosted the viewership of its annual Video Music Awards, this year hosted by Miley Cyrus, with a little help from its friends.
The Nielsen company said just over 5 million people watched the program on MTV on Sunday night, which would have represented a sharp drop from last year’s 8.3 million and the 10.1 million who watched in 2013.
Instead, MTV’s corporate parent Viacom aired the show simultaneously on 10 separate networks. It was seen on MTV and its offshoots, but also on Comedy Central, BET, CMT, TV Land and Logo. Add in that viewership and MTV said the awards were seen by 9.8 million people, with the show still being seen in reruns or on DVRs.
While that boosted the show’s numbers, critics of the strategy warn that if overused, it can muddy the focus of specific networks with programming that has little to do with their missions.
NBC said its “Carmichael Show” debuted last week to 4.8 million viewers, the largest audience for any summertime comedy in eight years.
CBS won the week with an average of 5.4 million viewers in prime time. NBC had 5 million, ABC had 3.4 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 2 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and the CW had 1.1 million.
Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 1.94 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 1.8 million, the Disney Channel had 1.77 million, USA had 1.65 million and TNT had 1.58 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.4 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was second with 7.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.5 million viewers.
Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Aug. 24-30. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.34 million.
2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.53 million.
3. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 8.46 million.
4. “NCIS,” CBS, 8.39 million.
5. “Fear the Walking Dead,” AMC, 8.18 million.
6. Exhibition Football: Arizona vs. Oakland, NBC, 7.51 million.
7. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.25 million.
8. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 6.73 million.
9. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 6.46 million.
10. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 6.37 million.
11. “Zoo,” CBS, 6.18 million.
12. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 5.83 million.
13. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 5.67 million.
14. “Mom,” CBS, 5.65 million.
15. “Bachelor in Paradise,” ABC, 5.58 million.
16. “Dateline NBC Mystery,” NBC, 5.54 million.
17. “NFL Post-Game Show,” Fox, 5.47 million.
18. “NFL Pre-Game Show,” NBC, 5.43 million.
19. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 5.31 million.
20. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 5.07 million.
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