David Muir, the most watched man on TV last week.
Photo by Heidi Gutman/ABC
One of the notes in last week’s ratings newsletter is now the lead here: You can tell a slow week on the network and cable front by how many non-primetime shows are in front of the biggest nighttime program. For the second straight week, that number is four.
The top shows, regardless of time of day, for Aug. 17-23 were all network newscasts. The regular ABC and NBC weeknight shows finished first and second, and the two weekend editions of World News Tonight came in third and fourth. In other words, it was another typical late summer nothingburger of a week in primetime. So let’s get onto some news items before the weekly charts.
• I don’t much to add to the heaps of adoration and praise for Dolly Parton, who died at age 80 on Tuesday. She was a great artist and an even greater activist, doing everything from sending millions of small children books to giving no-strings-attached income for people who suffered losses from wildfires in eastern Tennessee in 2017 (and advancing research on universal basic income in the process). There have already been a few TV specials celebrating her life and work, and on Sunday ABC will air 9 to 5 as its Wonderful World of Disney movie.
• The world also lost Tim Curry Wednesday. He’ll rightfully be remembered for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue and the original Broadway production of Amadeus (with Ian McKellen and Jane Seymour!), but if you’ll allow me a bit of storytime (and apologies if you happen to follow me on Bluesky and read this earlier today), I want to talk about one of his less memorable roles:
In 2002, The WB picked up a remake of the 1960s sitcom Family Affair, with Curry playing Mr. French. It wasn’t very good, despite Curry and Gary Cole starring, and lasted less than a full season. Everyone who had seen the pilot before the show’s TV Critics Association session that summer knew it wasn’t great, and I suspect the veteran actors in the cast did too. But the network and the assembled press went through the ritual of the TCA press conference nonetheless.
It was dragging along until a reporter asked Curry how he enjoyed working with the young actors in the cast, except that the question came out not as “How do you like working with the kids?” but rather “How do you like kids?” Curry paused for a second, got a gleam in his eye and said (very drolly and British-ly), “With black bean sauce.” It got a big laugh that redeemed an otherwise dull-ass session, and obviously has stuck with me for 20-plus years.
• The Survivor season 51 cast includes an actor you might know (Devin Way, who’s been on Grey’s Anatomy, Tyler Perry’s Sistas and the 2022 Queer as Folk), a voice actor you may have heard (Ana Sani of Netflix’s recent Strawberry Shortcake animated show and several My Little Pony iterations) and a pro wrestler (Brady Booker, who had a WWE NXT run as Bodhi Hayward and under his own name a few years ago).
• Peacock renewed Love Island USA, duh.
• New Lisa McGee show! The creator of Derry Girls and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is writing and exec producing Jig, a mockumentary comedy set in “the high-stakes world of competitive Irish dancing,” per Netflix’s description of the show. I’m there.
The top network and cable shows for last week are below, followed by the top 10 sports telecasts. Streaming ratings will come in a separate newsletter tomorrow evening.