It was a good night to be Tom Brady , NBC and the NFL . In one of the better primetime NFL kickoff games we’ve seen in recent seasons, Brady and reigning Super Bowl champs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended any change of an early unbeaten streak for the Dallas Cowboys with a 31-29 victory at home. Absent a blowout and with top-tier teams on the field, you’d expect the game to do well in ratings and viewership – and it did, very well. The final numbers have the game scoring 24.4 million viewers on the Comcast-owned net, making it the most-watched small-screen event since the 91.6 million who tuned in back in February to watch the Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs on CBS in what was one of the least-watched Super Bowls ever. Apples to apples and season openers to season openers, last night’s game was up 26% in sets of eyeballs from the 2020-2021 kickoff, when the Chiefs and the Houston Texans squared off on September 10 last year . It should be noted that …
Jon Seda Joins Drama Pilot ‘La Brea’ In NBC Return
Former Chicago P.D. star Jon Seda is returning to NBC with a lead role opposite Natalie Zea and Michael Raymond-James in the high-concept drama pilot La Brea , from writer David Appelbaum, Keshet Studios and Universal Television. In La Brea, written by Appelbaum and directed by Thor Freudenthal, when a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens in Los Angeles, it tears a family in half, separating mother (Zea) and son from father (Michael Raymond-James) and daughter (Zyra Gorecki). When part of the family find themselves in an unexplainable primeval world alongside a disparate group of strangers, they must work to survive and uncover the mystery of where they are and if there is a way back home. Seda will play Dr. Benjamine Glass, a former Navy Seal who knows how to take charge. Appelbaum executive produces with Ken Woodruff, Keshet’s Avi Nir, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan. Universal TV is the studio. Last spring, Seda departed the Chicago franchise …
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‘America’s Got Talent’ Sets Season Finale Guest Performers As NBC Competition Remains Top Summer Series
America’s Got Talent’s 16 th season is set to end this week with one performer set to walk away with the $1M grand prize. The show’s top ten finalists will be joined by a swathe of celebrity guests on the show on Wednesday September 15 including Idina Menzel, Pentatonix, Bishop Briggs, George Lopez, Rico Rodriguez, Olympic Silver Medal gymnasts Jordan Chiles and MyKayla Skinner and AGT season nine winner and Las Vegas headliner Mat Franco, The winner will be named tomorrow night and along with the grand prize will join America’s Got Talent Las Vegas Live at Luxor Hotel and Casino this fall. The performers include aerialist Aidan Bryant, singers Brooke Simpson, Jimmie Herrod and Victory Brinker, magician Dustin Tavella, comedians Gina Brillon and Josh Blue, quick change artist Lea Kyle, Northwell Health Nurse Choir, and World Taekwondo Demonstration Team. It comes as the show, which was created by Simon Cowell and is produced by his Syco Entertainment and Fremantle, …
Michigan TV Meteorologist Fired At NBC Affiliate Over Covid-19 Vaxx Refusal
Michigan television station WLUC , an NBC affiliate, has fired its longtime meteorologist over his refusal to get a Covid-19 vaccination. Karl Bohnak , who spent 33 years at the station, revealed his dismissal in a Facebook post. “I am leaving TV6 because the station’s corporate owner, Gray Television, has mandated vaccination against COVID-19 for anyone entering a property owned by the company,” Bohnak wrote. “Since I chose not to take one of the shots, I was fired. Many of you have taken one of these injections, and that is absolutely your right. It is also my right to choose the medical options I feel are right for me,” he continued. “I have authority over my body.” Gray Television is a publicly traded company based in Atlanta, Georgia. …
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‘Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels Pays Tribute To Weekend Update’s Norm Macdonald As NBC Show Picks Up 86th Emmy Win
Saturday Night Live picked up its fifth straight win in the Emmy Variety Sketch Series category on Sunday. The long-running NBC comedy series beat HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show. It takes SNL ’s Emmy total to 86 wins. ( Update : some confusion as to the previous count of 81 as the Academy hadn’t previously included NBC’s Saturday Night, the show’s original title, in its win total). Macdonald anchored Weekend Update for three and a half seasons and was on the show for five seasons between 1993 and 1998. “Weekend Update has been part of SNL for 46 seasons and here I’d like to pay tribute to one of the best we ever had, Norm Macdonald,” said Michaels. Michaels also talked about how the show coped during the pandemic and the election. “We began our last season with six live election shows in a Covid bubble with everyone wearing masks and a small audience of exhausted first responders. No better way to do comedy. Jim Carrey was Biden, Maya Rudolp was …
Leslie Jones To Make NBC Olympics On-Air Debut Tonight
She’s been tweeting a “slay all day” storm since arriving at the Rio Olympics as a guest of NBC , and tonight Leslie Jones is going to be on air. The Saturday Night Live cast member and Ghostbusters star will be appearing on NBC’s Olympic Late Night show with Ryan Seacrest , starting at around 12:35 AM ET. By far one of the most energetic and unabashedly patriotic commentators that has emerged for the Rio games, Jones started out covering the Olympics from her couch and became an internet sensation because of it. Early this week, NBC Olympics EP Jim Bell invited the comedian to head on down to Rio and join the Peacock gang. Jones arrived in Rio on Thursday and immediately started posting online of her travels and the gymnastic competition. She later went on to cover swimming, with wins by Michael Phelps and Simone Manuel, as well as field hockey. Jones continued tweeting her Olympics coverage today. Check them out below. Watch on Deadline My …
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Leslie Jones Accepts NBC Invite To Rio Olympics After Tweet-Storm Goes Viral – Update
UPDATED, 2:43 PM: Leslie Jones confirmed on Twitter today that she is headed to Rio de Janeiro to work on NBC ’s coverage of the Summer Olympics . Jones will be joining the network as an Olympic correspondent in Rio later this week, NBC Sports told Deadline. “Starting this Friday, Jones will attend live Olympic events, including swimming, track and field, gymnastics and beach volleyball; meet athletes; and spread her passion for sports and the Olympics on-air and online,” NBC said in a statement. It’s a corporate move for the actress, who is a castmember on Saturday Night Live . RIO BOUND BABY USA! USA!! pic.twitter.com/Gkaxr2UOPl — Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) August 8, 2016 PREVIOUSLY, August 7: Plenty of plebs and celebs alike have been tweeting in support of the U.S. Olympic team now that the 2016 Rio Olympics have kicked off, but perhaps none more so than comedian Leslie Jones. The SNL castmember and Ghostbusters star has been tweeting a storm of …
RATINGS RAT RACE UPDATE: NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ Down, ‘Miss America’ & ‘American Dad’ Fall
2ND UPDATE : Miss America went up two tenths in the finals to a 1.7 in 18-49. UPDATE, 8:59 AM: The Chicago Bears may have beaten the San Francisco 49ers last night, but for Sunday Night Football (7.6/21) it was NBC that was tackled for a loss in preliminary numbers. Week 2 of the 2014 NFL season on SNF was down 15% from the 9.0/26 that September 7’s season premiere pulled among adults 18-49. About 23.69 million viewers watched last week’s SNF as opposed to the 19.43 million who watched last night. Fast nationals to fast nationals, last week’s SNF had an 8.0/22, up 5% from last night’s game. As always with live sports, expect a larger-than-usual adjustment later. As it is, NBC won the night with a 6.3/18 rating and 16.49 million viewers. ABC last night aired the Miss America competition (1.5/4). The live two-hour pageant ultimately saw Miss New York Kira Kazantsev crowned the winner — with a version of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” that was just as much a …
NBC’s NFL ‘Sunday Night Football’ Debut Down From 2013
With the Denver Broncos’ win over the Indianapolis Colts last night, Peyton Manning has now beaten all 32 teams in the NFL . However, despite the quarterback and the Broncos 31-24 win at home, the NBC ’s debut of Sunday Night Football this year did not trounce the weekend start of the season last year. Sunday’s primetime game drew a 15.1/25 result in metered-market ratings. That’s down 9% from the 16.6/27 that the SNF September 8, 2013 match-up between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants and that other NFL Manning, younger brother Eli. To continue the battle of the Manning siblings, last year’s game was down from the record breaking 18.0/29 of that the 2012 Sunday opener pulled in the time adjusted results when the Broncos took on the Pittsburgh Steelers – that was Peyton’s official debut as a Bronco. Not that the first Sunday of the 2014 season wasn’t jam packed with other non-Manning NFL games all day on Fox and CBS – and of course, tonight they’ll be Monday …
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RATINGS RAT RACE: NBC Wins Night As NFL ‘Sunday Night Football’ Slips From 2012
The Texan boys were truly back in town last night on the NFL on NBC . The network’s debut Sunday Night Football ( 9.1/23) of the regular season saw the Dallas Cowboys best the New York Giants 36-31. With Dallas forcing turnovers to clinch the victory over Eli Manning and NY at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and 23.25 million watching between 8:30 PM – 11 PM, the match-up dipped 7% from the fast nationals last season’s first Sunday regular game between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 9, 2012. It was also down from the final nationals rating of 11.0/28 that last year’s game garnered. That 2012 result is the all-time record for Sunday Night Football . Last September’s first Sunday regular season game pulled in 27.567 million viewers overall, the third best result SNF has ever had. The top SNF viewership is 30.281 million that the December 30, 2012 Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins received with the January 1, 2012 Cowboys-Giant battled …