via Showtime release:

MEDIA ALERT

NURSE JACKIE RETURNS EARLY TO SHOWTIME MARCH 22

PAIRED WITH EMMY®-WINNING UNITED STATES OF TARA

TWILIGHT TO PREMIERE JANUARY 23; FINAL SEASON OF THE TUDORS

AND OTHER SERIES PREMIERE DATES ANNOUNCED

SHOWTIME has announced the air dates for some its highly-anticipated programming for first and second quarter 2010.  Highlighting the new schedule will be a Monday comedy block pairing of the second season of SHOWTIME’s acclaimed Nurse Jackie starring Emmy® award-winner Edie Falco leading into the second season of United States of Tara showcasing Toni Collette in her Emmy® award-winning title role. Nurse Jackie will premiere on Monday, March 22 at 10:00 PM ET/PT followed by United States of Tara at 10:30 PM ET/PT.

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The Washington Post reports that so far this season NFL TV ratings are up:

TV ratings for NFL games this season are up 15 percent from last season and are at a 20-year high for this point in a season; average television viewership is 17.2 million per game, according to the league.

[...]

Ratings for NFL games this season are up 20 percent on NBC, 19 percent on Fox, 4 percent on CBS and 18 percent on ESPN, according to the league.

But following a trend we see too often in the TV media (maybe in other media that I don’t read too); they try an make a cause and effect connection to the recession, with no supporting data.

“I think there’s only one answer and that is the NFL and television are actually getting the so-called ‘benefit’ of the recession,” said Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports who now runs a television consulting firm, Pilson Communications. “I think people are making conscious decisions that their entertainment dollars are best spent watching NFL games free on their television sets on Sunday afternoon and Sunday night and Monday night.”

But there is no data to back that up. The Post even presents alternative, and to me more compelling reasons:

“These numbers would not be where they are if big-market teams were not doing what they’re doing, if there were not compelling story lines, if the broadcast elements weren’t what they are,” Carter said by telephone. “People aren’t just sitting down and watching anything and everything on TV. The NFL is doing something right to keep these viewers engaged.”

I don’t think the NFL is uniquely “doing something right” this season more than they ever do (unless you subscribe to Michael Wilbon’s theory that shackling defenses has made them impotent), but they’ve got some compelling stories this season like Favre to Minnesota and multiple unbeaten teams late into the season. But saying, “Interesting matchups and another Favre comeback drive NFL ratings” wasn’t the story WaPo wanted to write!

After both being in repeats the previous week, Conan’s Tonight Show topped Letterman’s Late Show in the adults 18-49 demo for the week ending October 30. Their four week averages continue neck and neck.

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Will this be the last season for Numb3rs?    With the order cut to 16 episodes and what sounds like fairly expensive production costs for a show in its sixth season, the end does seem near or at least nearer…

via THR:

Are “Numbers’” days numbered?

CBS has opted to cut back the order for the veteran crime procedural from 22 to 16 episodes.

Friday nights have taken a big ratings hit this fall, and “Numbers,” now in its sixth season, has been no exception. Last week, the drama starring Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz averaged a 1.7 rating/6 share among adults 18-49 and 7.9 million viewers overall.

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Final Update: fun while it lasted, but no longer free on Amazon or iTunes.  It should be available for free on both Hulu and ABC.com on Saturday.

Looks like it’s an “All V, All The Time” day, but I know some folks missed it and there were comments about how to watch it.  Though last night’s premiere of  V is not yet available on Hulu or ABC.com (where only the first 9.5 minutes are so are avaialble) and looks like it won’t be until Saturday, the premiere is already streaming on Amazon.com, and for free.

Just click the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TNS012/ref=dv_twitter_freeV

Via Amazon Video On Demand Twitter Feed.

Update (from comments – thanks Jason): it is indeed free on iTunes too.

Update 2: Posted around 3:20p PT on November 4:

AmazonVideo Sorry!! We have to take down our free V offer. Want it? Better grab it quick. bit.ly/1UYhDz #fb

Our Renew / Cancel Index predicts potential renewal or cancellation for scripted broadcast primetime shows for the 2010-11 season (results through November 1, 2009):

• Likely To Be Canceled By May, 2010
• Some Danger Of Being Canceled By May, 2010
• Likely to Be Renewed For The 2010-11 Season

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With Melrose Place the only show CW certain to be canceled, just like last season with  Privileged I’m certain that there are entertainment bloggers out there that will raise the (false) hopes of fans (and their pageviews) with ridiculous “There’s Hope For Melrose Place!” stories.

I’m not sure if those stories are driven by the CW’s PR prowess or just attempts to draw pageviews, but who do you think will be first?

My guess rhymes with “Saucy-Fellow”.

Smallville fans wary of the motives of CW Chief Dawn Ostroff should be sleeping easily. With the relatively good ratings its getting on Friday (relatively better for its network than any other Friday scripted show on any network), she’s not going to be able to cancel it. Of course, if the producers or stars don’t want to continue that’s another story.

*I have frozen The Beautiful Life’s Index at its value the week of cancellation.

Note: A few CW scripted shows were in repeats last week, which depresses their Indexes vs. those that were not. In the short run, it causes some tricky comparisons, in the long run it pretty much evens out.

This is a breakdown of CW scripted shows and their renewal and cancellation prospects. Here are links to the other networks:

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After Monday night football, USA Network took the next five spots at the top, led by Monday Night Raw, White Collar, NCIS and Monk.  Overall USA took ten of the top 25 spots, followed by Nickelodeon with six and Disney with four.

Sadly, I’ve made the decision to no longer field requests.  We always post whatever data we see via press release or other trade publications already.  You can  subscribe to our RSS feed and  you can also follow @TravisYanan on Twitter.  During the week he usually posts some (not all) cable results for each weekday, usually late in the afternoon on the east coast (and Friday night data isn’t posted until Monday) and he posts the links to that info on his Twitter account to the info on Marc Berman’s PI Forums.  You can also follow me on Twitter, sometimes I spit some ratings info out, like this morning for Mad Men and That’s So Raven.

Top 25  cable shows for the week ending November 1, 2009:

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please note, they are NOT (at least not yet) picking up ANY NEW EPISODES of Southland, these are just the 13 that have already been made — the seven from last year that already aired, plus the six episodes of season two that were made, but never aired on NBC.

Via press release:

Release Date: 11/2/2009
TNT Picks Up Acclaimed Drama SOUTHLAND

TNT has picked up the critically acclaimed series SOUTHLAND, closing a deal with Warner Bros. Television that will bring the drama from Emmy^®-winning producer John Wells (ER, The West Wing) to the network in January.  TNT has obtained exclusive rights to air all six episodes that have been shot for the second season, as well as the seven episodes from the series’ first season.  SOUTHLAND will air on TNT Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning with the first episode of the series on Jan. 12.

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