prime time

19 Stories

NBC Considers Milestone Move: Trimming Prime Time

Network might stop national programming at 10pm

(Newser) - From the earliest days of television, one thing has remained consistent—the definition of prime time as running from 8 to 11pm on the major networks. Now, however, at least one of those networks—NBC—is considering shortening that by one hour and ending at 10, reports the Wall Street ...

Jan. 6 Hearings Ready to Go Prime Time

House panel will be gaveled into session at 8pm Eastern on Thursday

(Newser) - Mass shootings, a pandemic, sky-high prices at the gas pump, toxic political and cultural debates. Americans are processing all of the above. And now this: Beginning in prime time on Thursday, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is setting out to...

A First for MSNBC in the Nielsens
A First for
MSNBC in
the Nielsens
Jul 25, 2017 9:45 AM CDT

A First for MSNBC in the Nielsens

Largest prime-time weekday audience on cable, across all networks (not just news)

(Newser) - Since it first took to the air in 1996, MSNBC has been deep in the fray, vying for coveted ratings in the fiercely competitive cable-television arena. Twenty-one years later, it has finally nabbed a big one: the biggest weekday prime-time cable audience, not only against news networks, but all networks...

2 Tough Headlines for Fox News
2 Tough Headlines
for Fox News
May 23, 2017 10:30 AM CDT

2 Tough Headlines for Fox News

Bad news in the ratings department and the lawsuit department

(Newser) - Tuesday isn't shaping up to be a great news day for Fox News. Harassment lawsuits and sinking ratings are both making headlines:
  • Three new lawsuits filed Monday allege racial discrimination or sexual harassment at Fox News, deepening the network's legal woes, the AP reports. The cases increase to
...

Chinese Girls Commit Suicide to 'Time Travel'

Officials considering ban on time-travel TV plots

(Newser) - Two young Chinese girls committed suicide so they could "time travel" to imitate characters in TV fantasies, officials believe. The fifth-graders in East China's Fujian province drowned themselves in a pool, and left behind a suicide note indicating they were hoping to become time travelers after death, reports...

NBC's Next Challenge: Fixing Prime Time
NBC's Next Challenge: Fixing Prime Time
analysis
Jan 22, 2010 2:55 PM CST

NBC's Next Challenge: Fixing Prime Time

Network to produce 20 pilots next season

(Newser) - Now that NBC is nearly past the Jay Leno-Conan O'Brien fiasco, the network is refocusing on the job at hand: correcting a 5-year slide in ratings. The Leno gambit, which CEO Jeff Zucker described as an experiment in the "economics" of network television, represented the network's hope that Leno...

Leno Ratings Doomed...as Is the Future of Network TV

Ratings may stink, but bottom line will be strong for NBC

(Newser) - No one expects the Jay Leno Show to maintain the pumped-up ratings it got this week—not even NBC. But the low-key talk show might represent the future of network TV anyway, simply because it’s so darn cheap, writes Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age. With viewers breaking from broad...

New Leno Show Numbingly (or Pleasantly) Familiar

It's pretty much the Tonight Show in a new time slot

(Newser) - The Jay Leno Show won't disappoint Leno fans looking for more of the same, say critics, but the only thing new or ground-breaking about it is the 10pm time slot.
  • James Poniewozik, Time: Leno and NBC aren't "out to win over critics who liked Letterman better. Instead, they're giving
...

Networks Complain About Obama Hour
Networks Complain About Obama Hour
Aug 3, 2009 10:28 AM CDT

Networks Complain About Obama Hour

Broadcasters say 'overexposed' prez wastes valuable time

(Newser) - Networks are not happy about the primetime hour that President Obama's July 22 news conference took up, reports Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post. Rahm Emanuel called the top brass at all three networks to ensure they carried the event. The networks both resent the pressure and complain that they’...

Obama: 'We Will Do It This Year'

(Newser) - President Obama will take to the airwaves tonight in his fourth prime-time news conference with a familiar message: Health care reform is not only long overdue, it's a "central" part of the plan to keep the economy on track. In excerpts released in advance of tonight's 8pm EST address,...

'Weekend Update' Goes Primetime

(Newser) - Fans of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment won't have to wait for the weekend to get their update, as NBC plans to air up to 13 primetime, half-hour episodes on Thursday nights next season, the New York Times reports. Seth Meyers will reprise his usual hosting gig,...

Fox Nixes Obama's Airtime Request

Network decides Tim Roth trumps president in sweeps programming

(Newser) - Fox is passing on President Obama's news conference tomorrow night in favor of a new episode of Tim Roth’s drama Lie to Me, reports the Los Angeles Times. The president's requests for airtime—tomorrow makes four in under 100 days—have caused some griping among networks worried about their...

Middle-of-the-Road CNN Slips Into Last Place

Network is prime-time ratings loser

(Newser) - Based on cable news ratings, CNN's "no bias" strategy seems to be backfiring. The network, which sticks to the middle in its news coverage, has had an average of 271,000 primetime viewers in April, behind both conservative Fox News (668,000) and lefty MSNBC (300,000), the New ...

Obama Blanked Top Papers But Took Tough Questions
Obama Blanked Top Papers But Took Tough Questions
ANALYSIS
Mar 25, 2009 6:40 AM CDT

Obama Blanked Top Papers But Took Tough Questions

But president endured tougher questioning than last conference

(Newser) - President Obama bypassed reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other major papers last night, instead taking questions from Spanish-language TV station Univision and military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Yet the president faced tougher questions than at his first press conference, often in the form...

'Professor in Chief' Stern on Recovery
'Professor in Chief' Stern on Recovery
ANALYSIS
Mar 25, 2009 5:49 AM CDT

'Professor in Chief' Stern on Recovery

Hammers budget as key to turnaround in prime-time presser

(Newser) - Last night's prime-time news conference showed Barack Obama at his most serious; tempering his trademark oratorical skills, he became a "placid and unsmiling professor in chief," write Peter Baker and Adam Nagourney in the New York Times. After the frenzy of the previous week, the president went out...

Obama: Budget Is Key to Economic Recovery

(Newser) - President Obama took to the primetime airwaves last night to make the case that his economic recovery plan is showing "signs of progress," the Washington Post reports. "We will recover from this recession," he asserted, emphasizing repeatedly that his budget is "inseparable" from that recovery,...

Leno Doesn't Know When You Go to Bed
Leno Doesn't Know When
You Go to Bed
Dec 17, 2008 12:28 PM CST

Leno Doesn't Know When You Go to Bed

Sorry Jay, Americans aren't turning in earlier —quite the opposite

(Newser) - Despite what Jay Leno may think, Americans aren't going to bed earlier, the blog TV by the Numbers reports. Nielsen ratings confirm that more people watch TV at 10pm than later on, but that's nothing new. "What the data shows is a decreasing trend of viewership between 10 and...

Leno Looking Forward to Earlier Nights

NBC aims to snag viewers in prime-time experiment

(Newser) - Jay Leno isn't losing any sleep over his upcoming exit from the late-night world, he tells the New York Times. The announcement by the Tonight Show host that he's moving to the 10 pm spot at NBC stunned many who expected him to switch to ABC. Leno's excited about the...

Fickle Election Audience Threatens Network Shows

Election blamed for disrupting viewing, hurting programs like 'Lipstick Jungle'

(Newser) - Election coverage disrupted America's viewing habits, playing havoc with the ratings of some network shows that could soon be cut if they don't recover their audiences, reports the Los Angeles Times. ABC's Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies, NBC's Lipstick Jungle and the new critically acclaimed CBS comedy Worst Week,...

19 Stories