Jamie Ding and Ben Affleck (with host Jimmy Kimmel on the right) after winning the top prize on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s July 29 episode.
Photo by Eric McCandless/Disney
The top primetime show last week was a rerun of 60 Minutes. And across all times of day on network and cable TV, it ranked fifth behind a few different evening newscasts.
That tells you pretty much all you need to know about the time of year we’re in: It’s the dog days. On non-streaming outlets, a bunch of habit shows are going to be at the top of the Nielsen charts, give or take a stray preseason NFL game, for the next four weeks or so. (Not that the shows that dominate the ratings during the regular TV season aren’t habits for tons of people, but I would put a decent sum on there being very, very few first-time viewers of 60 Minutes or ABC’s World News Tonight during the summer.)
So, yeah. A little bit more on the week’s top shows — including an explanation for this newsletter’s headline — in the commentary below the charts. Before that, a few news items:
• My Hollywood Reporter colleague Katie Kilkenny has an good, well-reported story about how Paramount+ is preparing for the post-Taylor Sheridan era by broadening the kinds of shows it’s ordering. The streamer is under the leadership of direct-to-consumer chief Cindy Holland (who was a key player in Netflix’s early years of making its own shows) and head of originals Jane Wiseman.
• HBO Max is making a Gilmore Girls documentary that will feature (at least) star Lauren Graham, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and EP Daniel Palladino. It’s the first “authorized” doc about the show, i.e. it’s being made by a division of Warner Bros., which produced the series.
• Peacock renewed The Five Star Weekend for a second season. I was convinced this was supposed to be a limited series, but going back through Peacock’s promo materials, that’s never mentioned. The current season pretty much ends where the book it’s based on does, but since it’s more a relationship-based drama than a puzzle-box show, it lends itself pretty well to continuing (it’s also done quite well for Peacock).
• The Voice is doing a celebrity season sometime next year. It’s The Unmasked Singer.
The top network and cable shows for last week are below, along with the top 10 sports telecasts of the week. Streaming ratings will come in a separate newsletter tomorrow evening.