By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --A cliffhanger ending to its sixth season fascinated more than 14 million viewers of “The Walking Dead,” although AMC’s blockbuster hit continued to show some signs of erosion.
During the final episode on Sunday, new villain Negan killed someone with a barbed wire bat he named Lucille. Viewers will have to wait until next season to find out who he killed, however.
It was down from the 15.8 million who watched the fifth season finale on the night it aired, and didn’t approach the 17.3 million who watched the first episode of the fifth season in October 2014 – the show’s high point.
It’s not unusual for hit shows to begin to fade after they have been on the air for a couple of years. A more complete barometer of the show’s performance will come in a few weeks, when the number of people who watched it via delayed viewing are counted in.
In its first year on cable’s TBS on Monday night, an estimated 17.8 million people watched Villanova’s last-second victory over North Carolina for the NCAA men’s basketball championship. That’s sharply down from the 28.3 million people who saw last year’s Duke-Wisconsin game on CBS, the Nielsen company said. It shows that broadcast TV still has an advantage over cable networks although, to be fair, last year’s game was the most-watched NCAA final since 1997.
The Academy of Country Music awards saw its viewership take a steep drop – from 16 million last year to 11.2 million Sunday night on CBS, Nielsen said.
CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 7.9 million viewers. NBC had 6 million viewers, ABC had 4.8 million, Fox had 4 million, Univision had 1.8 million, the CW had 1.5 million, ION Television had 1.24 million and Telemundo had 1.23 million.
Buoyed by Saturday’s NCAA basketball semifinals, TBS was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.55 million viewers in prime time. AMC had 1.96 million viewers, Fox News Channel had 1.82 million, HGTV had 1.66 million and USA had 1.53 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.6 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was second with 8.2 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7 million viewers.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for March 28-April 3. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 14.24 million.
2. “The Walking Dead,” AMC, 14.19 million.
3. “Empire,” Fox, 12.46 million.
4. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 11.95 million.
5. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 11.36 million.
6. “Little Big Shots,” NBC, 11.33 million.
7. “Academy of Country Music Awards,” CBS, 11.2 million.
8. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.1 million.
9. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 10.4 million.
10. “NCIS,” CBS, 10.38 million.
11. NCAA Final Four: North Carolina vs. Syracuse, TBS, 10.15 million.
12. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.53 million.
13. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 9.18 million.
14. “Survivor,” CBS, 9.16 million.
15. “American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 9.11 million.
16. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 8.9 million.
17. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 8.89 million.
18. “Scorpion,” CBS, 8.72 million.
19. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 8.7 million.
20. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 8.66 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