A big week of premieres was headlined by the return of ‘American Idol’, but the ratings king is not quite the juggernaut it used to be. ‘Big Bang Theory’ managed to top the singing kids in the demo.
The flood of premieres for the new year continues with ‘The Firm,’ ‘Are You There Chelsea,’ ‘The Finder,’ ’30 Rock,’ ‘Rob,’ and ‘The Game.’ That’s both good and bad, as the numbers run the gamut from ‘sure to be canceled’ to ‘solid hit’.
Is the current television season halfway through, or does it still have halfway to go? That’s my attempt at applying the glass half full/half empty concept to a television season. But with most shows on hiatus, I figured this was a good time to look back at the half-season that was.
After a five year break, ‘Fear Factor’ returned at the top of the NBC heap. Over on cable, a shocking finale for HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’ meant good things for everyone. Well… everyone but that actor… that played that guy.
‘Two And A Half Men’ has slipped back ahead of ‘Modern Family’ on the big networks, while over on cable the ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ finale was bested by bikes, boxes, and babies.
As the various winter holidays rush toward us, the programming on the televisions begins to slow down. That opens the door for things like the Victoria’s Secret models beating everything else on the networks. On cable, ‘The Walking Dead’ went out with a bang, literally and figuratively.
New this week – ‘Big Love’, ‘The Game’, ‘Portlandia’, ‘MST3K’, ‘Sarah Jane’, ‘Simpsons’, ‘Tall Man’, ‘Captain Power’, ‘Designing Women’, ‘Alvin’, ‘Ben 10′, ‘Looney Tunes’, ‘Law & Order’, ‘Lucy’, ‘Going My Way’, ‘Skeleton Warriors’, ‘Elvira’, ‘Underbelly’, ‘Transformers’, ‘Spongebob’, and ‘Voltron’.