The TV Zone

Final Nielsen read on last night's Globe's minicast is not good. In fact, it's almost unimaginably bad. The nationals are out, and the Billy Bush/Nancy O'Dell telecast averaged just 5.8 million viewers, or a little better than a third of what NBC did last year.

So from NBC's viewpoint (though not necessarily mine; see below) this strike-crippled telecast is an unmitigated disaster. No one expected much traction anyway and now ABC - which just laid off a bunch of producers who were working on spec (including stars like Larry Charles and Taye Diggs) - is looking towards a similar fate this February.

All eyes will now turn to the Oscars, and I simply can't see how the scenario will be much different. The Screen Actors Guild has yet to lay down a pronunciamento on the Oscars as it did with the Globes, but under current circumstances, how could it be any different? If actors don't show and writers picket, the most important awards program on the globe will be side-lined as well. (Per a recent Pew poll, most respondents still haven't noticed the impact of the strike - they will when THAT happens.)

Here's the NBC numbers wrap:

"From 7-9 p.m., DATELINE NBC averaged a 1.1/3 in 18-49 and 4.4 million
viewers overall. From its first half-hour to its fourth, DATELINE increased its
18-49 rating by 63% (to a 1.3/3 from a 0.8/2) and its overall viewership by 1.6
million persons or 42% (to 5.3 million from 3.7 million).

From 9-10 p.m., the 65TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT, hosted by Billy Bush and Nancy O'Dell, delivered a 1.7/4 in 18-49 and 5.8 million viewers
overall.

An earlier AP dispatch provided a little more perspective:

"NBC [was in] fourth in the hour, behind CBS’ miniseries
“Comanche Moon,” ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and the
Fox comedies “Family Guy” and “American Dad.” For the hour,
“Comanche Moon” had almost twice the audience as the NBC awards
announcement, Nielsen said Monday.
Last year, the Golden Globes ceremony on NBC had a 16.0 rating
and 23 audience share, Nielsen said. A ratings point represents
1,128,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 112.8
million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions
tuned to a given show."

(Photo courtesy of AFP).