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
Sunday, August 31
none scheduled
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of August 25)
Friday, August 29
- Nicole Byer (Grand Crew/Loosely Exactly Nicole) - Nicole guest hosts a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Timothy Olyphant (Stick/Santa Clarita Diet) - Watch Timothy on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Austin Butler (Ruby & the Rockits/Zoey 101/Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide) - Austin is a guest on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Jenna Ortega (Stuck in the Middle/Richie Rich) - Jenna appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Clifton Davis (Amen/That's My Mama) - Clifton makes a special appearance on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Sabrina Carpenter (Girl Meets World) - Co-host Gayle King sits down with Sabrina on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
- Danielle Pinnock (Ghosts/Young Sheldon) - Danielle talks about Ghosts on a repeat on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
- David Zayas (The Bear) - David talks about The Bear and Paramount+'s Dexter: Resurrection on CBS Mornings Plus in the 9am hour.
- Regina King (The Boondocks/Leap of Faith/227) - Regina talks about Caught Stealing on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
- Kel Mitchell (Game Shakers/Kenan & Kel) - NBC's Today catches up with Kel in the 9am hour. He will also be on New York Living on WPIX in New York at 10:15am.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season
05/13 - The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered)
06/06 - Shoresy - Season 2
06/17 - Looney Tunes - Collector's Vault - Volume 1 (Blu-ray)
07/22 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
08/26 - The Huckleberry Hound Show - The Complete Original Series (Blu-ray)
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