newsmakers

newsmakers

Football leads NBC to ratings win

NEW YORK

Football proved a dependable draw during a quiet week in television over the Christmas holiday.

With a NFL playoff spot on the line in the last game of the season, NBC’s coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night was easily the most-watched program of the week, reaching more than 27 million viewers, the Nielsen company said.

The most-popular nonfootball-related program was a rerun of CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory,” seen by just under 11 million people.

Though it wasn’t a smash success, ABC’s special on families competing to show who had the wildest Christmas-light decorations on their homes did better than any other holiday-oriented fare, and was particularly popular among younger viewers.

The annual Kennedy Center Honors program on CBS, seen by 7.1 million people, was down more than a million viewers from last year’s telecast, but it was competing against NBC’s football game.

NBC averaged 6.7 million viewers for the week in prime time. CBS had 6.2 million, ABC had 4.2 million, Fox had 3.6 million, Univision had 2.4 million, Telemundo had 1.17 million, ION Television had 1.16 million and the CW had 870,000.

Football-clogged ESPN was the most-popular cable network, averaging 4.5 million viewers. TBS had 2.6 million, USA had 2.5 million, The Disney Channel had 2.1 million and The Family Channel had 1.9 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.7 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.5 million viewers.

For the week of Dec. 23-29, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: Philadelphia at Dallas, NBC, 27.36 million; “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 19.21 million; “The OT,” Fox, 15.32 million; “Football Night in America,” NBC, 14.58 million; “NFL Today Post-Game,” CBS, 13.39 million; NFL Football: Atlanta at San Francisco, ESPN, 13.22 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 10.98 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.47 million; “Kennedy Center Honors,” CBS, 7.18 million; “The Millers,” CBS, 7.143 million.

Angela Lansbury honored by queen

LONDON

Honor, She Got.

Hollywood star Angela Lansbury, best known as the clue-collecting supersleuth in the television series “Murder, She Wrote,” has been made a Dame of the British Empire.

The 88-year-old actress was one of more than 1,000 people who were recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honors List. For the first time since the Order of the British Empire was founded in 1917, most of them were women.

Actress Penelope Keith, known to Brits as the snobbish Margot Leadbetter in the 1970s sitcom “The Good Life,” also was made a dame.

Dr. Marcus Setchell, the queen’s gynecologist, who oversaw the safe delivery of her great-grandson Prince George, was made a knight.

MSNBC host apologizes for jokes about Romney baby

NEW YORK

An MSNBC host is apologizing to Mitt Romney’s family after she and guests on her show joked about a Christmas picture that showed the 2012 Republican presidential candidate’s adopted, African-American grandson.

Melissa Harris-Perry said Tuesday her intention was to celebrate diversity, but the segment took an unexpected and offensive turn. The photo shows infant Kieran Romney with his grandparents and their 21 other grandchildren, all of them white.

One guest on her Sunday show, actress Pia Glenn, sang “one of these things just isn’t the same.”

Comedian Dean Obeidallah, said it “sums up the diversity of the Republican party.”

Harris-Perry said she’d like to see Kieran marry Kanye West’s daughter so West and Romney would be in-laws.

Associated Press