Thursday, January 13, 2011
TCA Winter 2011 Press Tour: NBC; The Game's Season Premiere Sets Series Highs on BET
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 / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Tuesday, July 14
Lot Patrol - "The Naked Intruder" (BET, 10:00PM ET/PT)
Chaos reaches new heights at Imani Studios when the security team faces their strangest threat yet: a mysterious, fast-moving intruder, who may or may not be completely naked.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of July 13)
Tuesday, July 14
- Ike Barinholtz (The Studio/The Afterparty/Bless the Harts/The Mindy Project/Eastbound & Down) - Ike guest hosts Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Joel McHale (Animal Control/The Great Indoors/Community) - Joel talks about The 1% Club on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Anthony Michael Hall (The Goldbergs/Awkward/Claude's Crib) - Anthony is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Molly Shannon (The Hawk/I Love That for You/The Other Two/Divorce/Kath & Kim/Craking Up) - Molly stops by Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Jake Johnson (Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed/Minx/New Girl) - Jake appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Jimmy Tatro (The Hawk/Home Economics/The Guest Book) - Jimmy talks about The Hawk on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am and on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
- Jennifer Garner (Party Down/Camping) - Jennifer talks about The Five-Star Weekend on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and in the 10am hour. She also chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) - Hannah talks about Ride or Die on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Alan Ritchson (Blue Mountain State) - Alan talks about War Machine on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
- Himesh Patel (The Franchise) - Himesh talks about The Odyssey on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- John Leguizamo (The Brothers Garcia) - John talks about The Odyssey on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/Cafe Americain/Sydney/One Day at a Time) - Drew is covering the headlines with pals Ross Mathews and Valerie on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Halle Berry (Living Dolls) - Drew, Halle and Kristina Zias are celebrating aging helping a viewer over 50 achieve a glow up look on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
11/04/25 - Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - Rick and Morty - Season 8 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fifteenth Season (DVD)
11/11/25 - Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/02/25 - Tom and Jerry - The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
12/16/25 - Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/16/25 - Wally Gator - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
01/20/26 - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (Blu-ray)
01/27/26 - The New Fred and Barney Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/11/26 - Tom and Jerry - The Complete CinemaScope Collection (Blu-ray)
03/24/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
04/11/26 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
04/21/26 - Famous Studios Champion Collection (Blu-ray) (DVD)
05/19/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD)
05/19/26 - Looney Tunes Cartoons - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
07/14/26 - The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)
07/28/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)
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