newsmakers

newsmakers

NFL draft overshadows Bauer’s return to TV

NEW YORK

The employment future of Johnny Manziel overshadowed Jack Bauer’s return to television.

ESPN’s coverage of the first round of the NFL draft last Thursday was watched by just under 10 million viewers, easily the most ever for the annual event, the Nielsen company said. That was largely due to the drama surrounding former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Manziel, who was expected to be a top draft pick but slipped nearly to the end of the first round before being taken by the Cleveland Browns.

Nielsen said Thursday’s draft coverage generated more than 7 million tweets; no other TV show during the week even reached two million.

Meanwhile, Nielsen said that 8.1 million people watched the debut of “24: Live Another Day,” the miniseries that brought “24” lead character Bauer back to Fox’s schedule. That made it Fox’s most-watched show of the week and compared to the series average of 9.3 million viewers in 2009-10, its last season on the air.

Although last week’s reemergence wasn’t enough to rank “24: Live Another Day” in Nielsen’s top 20 programs for the week, it was ranked No. 5 among the 18-to-49-year-old audience that Fox cares most about.

Nielsen’s top 10 programs for May 5-11:

1. “NCIS,” CBS, 15.88 million.

2. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 14.42 million.

3. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 14.11 million.

4. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 13.12 million.

5. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 11.78 million.

6. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 11 million.

7. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.72 million.

8. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 10.52 million.

9. “Person of Interest,” CBS, 10.5 million.

10. “The Blacklist,” NBC, 10.47 million.

Alec Baldwin arrested in NYC after bike flap

NEW YORK

Actor Alec Baldwin was arrested and issued two summonses after reportedly acting belligerently toward two officers who had stopped him for riding his bicycle the wrong way down a New York City street, police said Tuesday.

The “30 Rock” star was riding his bike the wrong way at 16th Street and Fifth Avenue near Union Square Park in Manhattan when he was stopped about 10:15 a.m. and asked to show identification, they said.

That’s when Baldwin, 56, refused to show his ID and acted belligerently, prompting the officers to handcuff him and take him and his bicycle to a nearby precinct, they said.

Baldwin was issued two summonses — for riding a bike the wrong way down a street and for disorderly conduct — and was then released, police said.

Associated Press