Movie Box Review

This isn't the way Flex Time was supposed to work.

NBC:  As part of its multi-billion dollar deal with the NFL, NBC is supposed to have the right, during the last few weeks of the regular football season, to change the designated Sunday night game and choose one that's more valuable, usually in terms of playoff implications.  But we're in the Flex Time part of the season, and for reasons that haven't been fully explained, NBC wasn't permitted to air what was clearly the marquee game of the day, New England vs. Denver, and its Battle of Good and Evil showdown between Tom Brady and Tim Tebow.  Instead, it was left with Baltimore vs. San Diego, a perfectly decent game that had a playoff storyline... but not at all the same.  The result was a Sunday football rating that will be one of the season's lowest.  Sucks to be NBC, Part 462...

CBS:  As the network to win the Brady vs. Tebow sweepstakes, CBS got a massive 7PM overrun, which pushed 60 Minutes up (no, those huge numbers weren't deeply committed Meryl Streep fans).  Even with that push, as the night wore on, it appears (subject to final ratings adjustment) that the SURVIVOR finale and reunion were down from last year.

FOX:  ALLEN GREGORY finished its ignominious run by barely holding on to two-thirds of a SIMPSONS repeat number.

ABC:  The network's best hour was a moderate 1.5 for AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS.  ONCE UPON A TIME continued not to repeat well with a 1.2, and then America had little interest in another run of SANTA CLAUSE 3, which did a Grinchy 1.3.

We'll have an updated chart with specific ratings and trends up later today, but meanwhile here's a rundown on how last night's shows fared.  Note that both NBC and CBS will have football-related changes once the night's final, time-zone adjusted ratings are released, and that the CBS schedule slipped by a bit more than half an hour in most of the country due to its football overrun.

ABC:  The night's big headline was that PAN AM is now seriously in trouble.  It had a 1.9 rating last night, which continues a troubling trend for the show (3.1, 2.5, 1.9), and it's running 35% below Brothers & Sisters last season (which, remember, was cancelled for those numbers).  Any further decline and the show's flight could have an unexpected--and final--landing.  Its lead-in DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES was no great shakes either, with a 2.7 rating that continued its own decline (3.2, 2.9, 2.7).  It's now an awful 40% below last season's average, although still the highest scripted performer of the night.  Earlier in the evening, EXTREME MAKEOVER:  HOME EDITION had a 2.0 on one of its final Sunday appearances, and AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS was down slightly to a 1.4.  

CBS:  As noted, a football overrun will likely shift some of these numbers.  As of now, THE GOOD WIFE appears to be steady or up slightly from last week with a 2.2, but CSI MIAMI looks to be disturbingly down to a 2.0 (from 2.3 in the past 2 weeks), which would be off an ugly 45% from last year's average.  In earlier shows, THE AMAZING RACE appears to be down a bit to a 2.7 (from 3.0 in the past 2 weeks), which is about 10% off last year's pace, and SIXTY MINUTES, as of now, appears to be slightly up to 3.6 from last week's 3.5 (but was the show most directly affected by the football overrun).

NBC:  Its NFL FOOTBALL number will also be affected by time-zone modification.  As of now, it's at a 7.9, which would be up from last week's game but down from the previous 3 weeks (10.0, 10.7, 8.3, 7.3).

FOX:  The baseball playoff game was waylaid by rain, forcing a last minute substitution of CLEVELAND SHOW and X-FACTOR reruns.  Consequently, it wasn't a factor with a 1.0 average.

An interesting story in today's Los Angeles Times online looks at the business of making comedies these days.  The article points out that while DVD revenue has collapsed for the comedy genre (all genres are down but comedies seem hit especially hard), digital distribution of comedies (video on demand and via devices such as iPads) is growing fast.  Generally speaking, digital distribution of films represents a major area of revenue growth for Hollywood studios.  Some estimates put digital at 10-15% of domestic box office in the near future, about the same as cable-TV licensing earns for the studio.  And the best part: there is virtually no cost associated with this new form of distribution (lots of 1s and 0s flying through cyberspace) as compared to DVD distribution (production and packing of physical discs, rising shipping costs, easier piracy, etc.).