THE TV COLUMN

Sports, reality shows still at top of ratings heap

Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips helped lead American Idol to the top of the nonsports most-watched list.
Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips helped lead American Idol to the top of the nonsports most-watched list.

— In these days of fragmented audiences, 10 million viewers is considered a huge smash hit for a series.

Long gone are the days with only three networks and 80 percent of the country watching the same show on a given night.

Most years, it takes a major sporting event to draw monster ratings, and that’s what happened again in 2012.

The bean counters at Nielsen Media have tallied the numbers and, as expected, the Super Bowl was once again this year’s winner.

In fact, Super Bowl XLVI set a new record by netting 111.3 million viewers to edge out viewership for last year’s Super Bowl (111 million viewers).

The top eight spots of single-telecast events went to the Super Bowl or other NFL games. The Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony was No. 9 (40.7 million), and the Grammy Awards came in No. 10 (39.9 million).

And if you wonder why so many reality shows continue to dominate the airwaves, it’s because they are still lucrative. American Idol, Dancing With the Stars and The Voice all made the 2012 Top 10 list of regularly scheduled programs.

Only two scripted programs made the Top 10 - the venerable NCIS and newcomer Vegas.

Here’s 2012’s Top 10 list of regularly scheduled programs (with millions of viewers in parentheses).

  1. NBC Sunday Night Football (21.2).

  2. American Idol Wednesday, Fox (18.0).

  3. American Idol Thursday, (16.5).

  4. NBC Sunday Night NFL Pre-kick (15.7).

  5. Dancing With the Stars, ABC (15.5).

  6. Dancing With the Stars results, (13.9).

  7. NCIS, CBS (13.6).

  8. The Voice, NBC (13.3).

  9. NFL regular season, ESPN (13.2).

  10. Vegas, CBS (11.7).

GOLDEN GLOBE RECAP

But you don’t care if your favorite show didn’t make the Top 10, do you? All you know is that it’s the best thing that’s ever been on the tube and you’d never miss an episode.

That’s why it’s nice to have the Golden Globe Awards nominations to ponder. Although lacking the cachet of the Emmys, the Golden Globes tend to spread the wealth and have more fun doing it.

The 70th Golden Globe Awards will air at 7 p.m. Jan. 13 on NBC with co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Here are the nominees for the Big6 awards for TV shows and actors.

Best drama: Breaking Bad (AMC); Boardwalk Empire (HBO); Downton Abbey (PBS); Homeland (Showtime); The Newsroom (HBO).

Best actress (drama): Connie Britton, Nashville; Glenn Close, Damages; Claire Danes, Homeland; Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey; Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife.

Best actor (drama): Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire; Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad; Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom; Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Damian Lewis, Homeland.

Best comedy or musical: The Big Bang Theory (CBS); Episodes (Showtime); Girls (HBO); Modern Family (ABC); Smash (NBC).

(Yes, Smash is really a drama, but it has music.)

Best actress (comedy): Zooey Deshanel, New Girl; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep; Lena Dunham, Girls; Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation.

Best actor (comedy): Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Don Cheadle, House of Lies; Louis C.K., Louie; Matt LeBlanc, Episodes; Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory.

TV TIDBITS

Family fun: I loved Enchanted when it came out in 2007. It’ll make great New Year’s Eve fare.

It airs at 8 p.m. Monday on NBC and is rated PG for some scary stuff and adult innuendo.

Enchanted stars Amy Adams as Princess Giselle, a fairy tale confection sent to our world by the evil queen (Susan Sarandon). Patrick Dempsey plays the handsome lawyer.

Manly men: Mark your calendars. Animal Planet’s Pit Boss (Shorty Rossi) returns at 8 p.m. Friday, and Gator Boys (Paul Bedard, Jimmy Riffle) follows at 8 p.m. Sunday.

She was a he: In case you missed the series finale of The CW’s Gossip Girl, the titular secret blogger was finally identified. The Gossip Girl narrator was voiced by Kristen Bell, but in the series “she” turned out to be a dude - Dan Humphrey, played by Penn Badgley.

Now if we can only find out who the “mother” is on How I Met Your Mother, that show can rest in peace.

Clinton movie: HBO has announced that renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Good Fellas) is making a documentary on Bill Clinton with Clinton’s cooperation.

No air date has been set.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail: [email protected]

Style, Pages 44 on 12/30/2012

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