With one night to go in the November ratings "sweeps," Channel 12 holds a clear lead over Channel 4 in the 10 p.m. news race.
Preliminary numbers from Nielsen Media Research give Channel 12 an average 10 p.m. audience of more than 73,000 southeast Wisconsin homes, a 15 percent share of available homes. Channel 4 had nearly 69,000 households, also a 15 percent share. Channel 58 was in third place with more than 50,000 households (a 10 percent share), and Channel 6 had almost 41,000 homes (an 8 percent share).
The 9 p.m. hour was interesting, with NBC's nightly "Jay Leno Show" averaging almost 49,000 homes, in third place for the hour, behind CBS' programming on Channel 58 (65,000 households) and ABC's programming on Channel 12 (nearly 62,000 households. Channel 6's 9 p.m. news was in fourth place, averaging 46,000 homes.
Channel 12 is dominant throughout the broadcast day as the four-week November ratings period comes to a conclusion. The ratings periods are important in setting advertising rates for local stations.
The return of Adam Lambert: After ABC's "Good Morning America" dumped Adam Lambert following his over-the-top Sunday performance on the network's "American Music Awards," CBS's "Early Show" picked him up for the last morning of the November sweeps.
Before singing this morning, Lambert said "I admit, I did get carried away" with the performance, which including simulated oral sex and kissing a male dancer.
"Those kind of came from more of an impromptu place," he said. "Those were not rehearsed." he said.
But he didn't buy the notion that he should have worried about children in the viewing audience, suggesting parents had responsibility for their own kids.
"I'm not a babysitter," he said. "I'm a performer."
On TV: In something of an upset, Donny Osmond and partner Kym Johnson won the ninth installment of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" Tuesday night. Mya was second and Kelly Osbourne came in third.
- Fox is depending on the loyalty of "Glee" viewers, with the show disappearing for months after its Dec. 9 episode. It won't return until April 13, following "Idol" at 8 p.m. Tuesday
- Speaking of Fox, it's picked up "Lie to Me" for a full year. And the final episode of "Dollhouse" will air Jan. 22.
- USA Network has ordered a new season of "Psych," and Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello reports "Burn Notice" will also return next year.
- "Wisconsin Foodie" host Kyle Cherek pops up on Travel Channel "Bizarre World" host Andrew Zimmern's Web site, picking Bacchus as his favorite restaurant, and raving about Lakefront Brewery. "Wisconsin Foodie" airs at 10:30 a.m. Sundays on Channel 58.
- Milwaukee-born political comedian Will Durst, a regular on PBS, has three area gigs this weekend. He's at Saukville's Railroad Station Friday, Paulo's Pizza on Saturday and Kiko's at Monreal's on Sunday. Details and contact information is available at his Web site. Former WMYX-FM (99.1) morning voice Jane Matenaer opens for him on Friday and Saturday.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
