Ratings

Nielsen Report Finds Sci-Fi, Horror, and Streaming Services Leading the Slow Push For Diversity

Despite all of the small steps that institutions within Hollywood have taken to address the industry’s well-documented issues with diversity, representation, and inclusion, it’s no secret that only so much has substantially changed in the grand scheme of things—even if they are technically better than they used to be. Because qualitative systemic change is often…

Mulan Will Be Disney’s First PG-13 Live-Action Remake

She’s as swift as the coursing river, with all the force (and violence) of a great typhoon. Disney’s Mulan has become the first live-action remake to receive a PG-13 rating, making it the latest film in Disney’s rarest collection. The Hollywood Reporter says the Motion Picture Association of America has given Mulan a PG-13 rating…

The Weird Machine That Measured Radio Audiences in the ’30s and ’40s

In the early days of radio broadcasting, there was no easy way to tell how many people were listening to the soap operas and prestige crime dramas, and, subsequently, how many were actually hearing the radio ads for tooth powder and name brand coal for your furnace—information that advertisers desperately wanted. It wasn’t like counting…

There’s More to the Doom and Gloom Around Doctor Who‘s New Year’s Day Ratings 

Last night, Doctor Who returned for its sole outing in 2019 with “Resolution,” an all-in-all pretty cracking Dalek adventure. But you might instead have spent today reading about how it’s a disaster for the BBC, because overnight ratings are in, and they look pretty rough…but there’s more going on than certain headlines let on. “Resolution”…

Hollywood’s Movies Suck, and It Doesn’t Want You to Know

Hollywood is struggling through a particularly rough financial patch at the moment, and it’s throwing blame in every direction. Its favorite target over the last ten years has been technological disruption. Netflix, home theaters, and MoviePass have all been cited as box office grim reapers. The latest target, Rotten Tomatoes, is the dumbest excuse yet.…

The Walking Dead Season Premiere Bludgeoned Its Ratings Rivals to Death

Because baseball bats. Get it? LOOK ITS A VERY OBVIOUS JOKE ABOUT THAT THING THAT HAPPENED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IS MAKING. Yes, in perhaps unsurprising news, The Walking Dead’s seventh season premiere this past weekend has reported gangbuster ratings—a total of 17 million viewers tuned in. This is actually not a record for the series…

Supergirl‘s CW Debut Broke an Eight-Year-Old Ratings Record

Supergirl rocked the CW’s airwaves last night with its (excellent) sophomore season premiere, apparently delivering the CW’s most-watched episode of TV in the show’s 8pm slot since a 2008 episode of Gossip Girl with just over three million viewers. You could even say the result was… super. https://gizmodo.com/the-supergirl-season-two-premiere-is-why-superhero-show-1787640259 An impressive stat, but one that makes…

That ‘Yelp for Humans’ App Is Still Awful

Remember that app Peeple? You know, the “Yelp for People?” It launched this week under the guise of a more sugar-coated definition of rating your friend. But guess what: It still sucks. Founders Julia Cordray and Nicole McCullough announced the app in October last year, and it was immediately received with a flurry of ethical…

Now Superhero Movies Have to Defend Not Being Rated ‘R’

Deadpool has been a huge success, but honestly, the most fascinating thing about it is how it’s changed the conversation about superhero movie ratings. Case in point? Suicide Squad producer Charles Roven has had defend the fact that his movie is targeting a PG-13 rating. The quote comes fromEntertainment Weekly’s ongoing coverage of Batman v…

A third season of Agent Carter may have gotten a bit more unlikely, as the ratings for last night’s season finale matched an all time series low. Ratings for Peggy’s sophomore season haven’t been great, but just 2.37 million people tuned in to watch “Hollywood Ending”—a potential nail in the coffin for the show’s renewal.…

Batman v Superman Is Getting an R-Rated Director’s Cut

Does Superman bleed? He might. He might bleed a hell of a lot more in Batman v Superman’s home video release—which has surprisingly been rated R. News broke late last night of a rating from the MPAA for the Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition, labeled for home release, and as an unedited, different cut from…

Nielsen Is Going to Read What You Say About TV on Facebook

The ratings company Nielsen has been keeping tabs on what you say about TV while using Twitter for a while. Now, though, it plans to mine what you have to say on Facebook, too. Keeping track of Twitter was easy, of course, because most accounts are entirely public. Facebook is a lot more tricky though,…

Good News for superhero fans! Supergirl’s premiere last night was the most watched debut of the fall season so far. The pilot, which we loved, was watched by 12.9 million viewers last night, also making it the most-watched superhero show of the 21st century.

Video: The history of the PG-13 rating and why the MPAA sucks

The Dissolve put together this neat animation that briefly looks at the history of the PG-13 rating, a rating that was invented after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins was released. And in discussion of the rating, it reveals how backwards the MPAA can be when it comes to violence vs sex,…

An Animated History Of The PG-13 Movie

The PG-13 rating wasn’t introduced Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system until 1984, but why and how did it impact the ways that sex and violence are portrayed in mainstream American films? This video from Pitchfork takes a quick look at the history of PG-13 cinema. [via Neatorama]

What Doctor Who is telling us about the changing ways we watch TV

Earlier today, the BBC released new internal ratings figures for Doctor Who’s most recent season, and they show it’s becoming a growing trend that less and less people are watching live. But this isn’t just happening to Doctor Who, it’s happening for TV all over – especially when it comes to genre TV. To start…

The Thriving Industry That Helps Encourage Book Censorship

We have rating systems for movies, television shows, and video games—so why not rating systems for books? That’s the thought behind services that rate books with the aim of helping parents and protecting children. But these services are contributing to censorship in schools—and harming public education in the process. When many of us think of…

Outlander set a ratings record for Starz and, defying stereotype, the audience was 45% male. 720,000 watched the premiere on Saturday, reaching 2.3 million over the weekend. Add in 1.4 million from online and VOD airings and the total audience is 3.7 million. [TV Line]

Uber Passenger Ratings Should Be Public

Uber lets its drivers rate their passengers, and its passengers rate their drivers. These scores should be public. Some Uber users have been understandably curious about whether their chauffeurs consider them charming or churlish; over the weekend a workaround that let people see their Uber passenger ratings popped up. Uber quickly shut it down. Instead…

Don’t get too attached to Intelligence — its ratings are in freefall

Television shows often seem to experience huge ratings drop-offs after their first episodes. But even so, this is really something. Intelligence went from 16.6 million viewers in its first week to 6.1 million in its second. Some of this drop-off is due to CBS moving Intelligence from Tuesday night, right before Person of Interest, to…