TCA Winter 2011 Press Tour: NBC; The Game's Season Premiere Sets Series Highs on BET

Thursday, January 13, 2011

TCA Winter 2011 Press Tour: NBC; The Game's Season Premiere Sets Series Highs on BET

NBC is up today at the TCA Winter 2011 press tour. They are not having an executive session today due to the recent Comcast deal still pending. So we are really not getting any new info today. The day started off with an USA Network Character Breakfast. Then there were panels for Syfy series Being Human and Face Off. Then before NBC was up, Bravo's Platinum Hit, Mun2's I Love Jenni and Oxygen's The Glee Project were up. Panels later this afternoon will have NBC shows go up, as we see The Cape (Mondays at 9pm), Perfect Couples (premieres next Thursday at 8:30pm), America's Next Great Restaurant (premieres Wednesday, March 16), Harry's Law (premieres Monday at 10pm), and Community (Thursdays at 8pm). The day will conclude with a NBC Universal Evening Event party.
IF there is anything noteworthy from NBC's panels this afternoon, we will let you know, so stay with us!

BET's scripted night of programming broke ratings records as millions tuned in on Tuesday, January 11 to watch the hour long cable debut of sitcom The Game at 10:00 p.m. and the series premiere of Let's Stay Together at 11:00 p.m. The Game was the #1 ad-supported sitcom telecast in cable TV history, garnering 7.7 million total viewers and 4.87 coverage rating according to the Nielsen Company and was the #1 The Game telecast on broadcast and cable ever (beating its airings on The CW by miles). The premiere also ranks as the #2 telecast in BET history among viewers (behind BET Awards '09).
Let's Stay Together, a brand new scripted series on the network, ranked among the top 5 ad-supported sitcom premieres in cable TV history ever and was the #2 series telecast in BET history behind The Game, debuting to 4.4 million viewers among 2.7 million households with a 3.0 coverage rating on Tuesday, January 11 at 11:00 p.m.
Following BET Networks' successful syndicate acquisition in February 2009, the BET premiere of The Game picked up where things left off at the end of season three (over two years ago) with the show's main cast -- Coby Bell, Hosea Chanchez, Brittany Daniel, Pooch Hall, Tia Mowry and Wendy Raquel Robinson.
In addition to its incredible on-air performance, The Game had the highest amount of social media buzz of all other prime time television shows, according to Trendrr's Prime Time Television Activity Chart for Tuesday, January 11. At one point, commenting on The Game Facebook page averaged 893 likes per minute, and 750 comments per minute, after the question "What did you think about tonight's episode?" within the first 28 minutes after the post. The Game related topics dominated Twitter with 9 out of the top 10 trending topics 30 minutes into the program.
So why did The Game get such big ratings? The CW aired the series only in primetime once a week, while BET has been airing the series since February in all day parts with a lot of marathons, gaining new fans and airing it with similar style sitcoms. With the amount of networks available today, it is very hard to find an audience for a series airing just once a week. Comedies tend to repeat well and are perfect for marathon viewing. The previous high for The Game on The CW was 3 million viewers for the season two premiere, which was more than doubled in the BET premiere. Maybe more network sitcoms need to have their sitcoms air for marathons or daily afternoon airings to get a bigger audience in primetime. Original dramas on cable also are doing well with the marathon blocks and extra encores, such as ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars, which recently saw series highs for the return.
Both series will regularly air every Tuesday on BET at 10pm & 10:30pm, respectively.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Wednesday, February 19

The Goldbergs - "Dave Kim's Party" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
A big party is being thrown at Dave Kim’s house and Pops has a plan to make Adam cool for the big event. Meanwhile, Beverly’s cookbook has made her “famous,” leading her to become out of control and fame-hungry, but eventually she learns an important lesson.

Schooled - "Moving On" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Wilma steps in to help CB move on from Lainey with help from Coach Mellor, while Lainey learns she has unresolved issues from her past when mentoring a student.

Modern Family - "Spuds" (ABC, 9:00PM ET/PT)
Phil and Claire take Haley and Dylan to dinner to reassure them they are not bad parents. While out to dinner, they run into Mitch and Cam who are chaperoning Lily’s first date, as well as Jay and Gloria after attending Joe’s school play.

Single Parents - "Hip$ for Dolores" (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT)
After rent on the Winebrary goes up, the gang all chip in in their own ways to help solve Poppy’s new financial problem, each learning a valuable lesson in the process.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of February 17)

Wednesday, February 19

Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) - Watch Chris on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. He will also be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Lil Rel Howery (Rel/The Carmichael Show) - Lil Rel appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Laura Dern (F Is for Family/Enlightened) - Laura is a guest on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Tiffany Haddish (The Last O.G./The Carmichael Show) - Tiffany appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
James Marsden (30 Rock) - James stops by The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Lizzy Caplan (Party Down/The Class) - Lizzy is a guest on a repeat of Conan at 11pm on TBS.
Jane Levy (Suburgatory) - Jane visits The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Skylar Astin (Ground Floor) - Skylar appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
NeNe Leakes (The New Normal) - NeNe guest co-hosts The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Adam Pally (Indebted/Making History/The Mindy Project/Happy Endings) - Adam drops by The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Ken Jeong (Dr. Ken/Community) - Ken is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Jurnee Smollett-Bell (On Our Own) - Jurnee appears on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph (High Fidelity/People of Earth/Selfie) - Da'Vine talks about High Fidelity on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.
Suzanne Somers (Step by Step/She's the Sheriff/Three's Company) - Suzanne is a guest on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Lauren Ash (Superstore/Super Fun Night) - Lauren appears on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Kelly Ripa (Hope & Faith) - Kelly is a guest on People Now at 12pm.
Lark Voorhies (Saved by the Bell/In the House) - The actress who portrayed Lisa Turtle on the iconic teen sitcom Saved by the Bell opens up about her mental health challenges and her reaction to being left out of the reboot of the show on The Dr. Oz Show, so check your local listings.