By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Fox will find out soon whether "The Masked Singer" benefits from the best time slot in television.
A new episode of the game, usually Fox's most popular primetime program or close to it, airs on Wednesday. A special edition of the show, with Lil' Wayne as the mystery guest, had its biggest audience ever Sunday when 23.7 million people watched it, the Nielsen company said.
That's because it aired after the Super Bowl, traditionally television's best-watched event by far, and a certain number of viewers don't turn off the TV after the game is over. If there's one thing that unites all primetime television producers, it's the fervent wish to be plugged into a network lineup on Super Sunday.
Networks have used the time slots for high-profile launches of new series or, more commonly, to introduce an already popular show to an audience that might not otherwise know about it.
The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers — not to mention an explosive halftime show featuring Jennifer Lopez and Shakira — was seen by an average of 99.9 million people. That was a slight increase over the 2019 game, ending a four-year run of declining viewership for the NFL's marquee event.
The game lifted Fox to an average of 13.3 million viewers in primetime last week. CBS was second with 4 million viewers, NBC had 2.7 million, ABC had 2.6 million, ION Television had 1 million, Univision had 990,000, Telemundo had 720,000 and the CW had 500,000.
Fox News Channel led all of the cable networks with an average of 2.84 million viewers in primetime, and had 38 of the 40 most-watched programs on cable TV last week. ESPN was second with an average of 2.66 million viewers, MSNBC had 1.79 million, Hallmark had 1.47 million and TLC had 1.22 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" led the evening newscasts with an average of 9.1 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" was second with 7.9 million and the "CBS Evening News" 5.9 million viewers.
For the week of Jan. 27-Feb. 2, the top 20 shows, the networks and their viewerships:
1. Super Bowl: Kansas City vs. San Francisco, Fox, 99.9 million.
2. "Super Bowl Post-Game" (10:11 to 10:21 p.m. Eastern), Fox, 83.51 million.
3. "Super Bowl Post-Game" (10:22 to 10:39 p.m.), Fox, 57.04 million.
4. "The Masked Singer," Fox, 23.7 million.
5. "NCIS," CBS, 12.13 million.
6. "FBI," CBS, 9.27 million.
7. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 8.65 million.
8. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 7.56 million.
9. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 7.53 million.
10. "America's Got Talent Champions," 7.35 million.
11. "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials," CBS, 7.1 million.
12. "Magnum P.I.," CBS, 7.05 million.
13. "This Is Us," NBC, 6.44 million.
14. "Station 19," ABC, 6.12 million.
15. "FBI: Most Wanted," CBS, 6.11 million.
16. "Mom," CBS, 6.09 million.
17. "The Bachelor," ABC, 6.01 million.
18. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 5.89 million.
19. "Unicorn," CBS, 5.77 million.
20. "The Good Doctor," ABC, 5.7 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.
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