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“The Conners” came back last night after an Election break.
The last time we saw Roseanne’s family without her they brought in 7.825 million viewers. That was two weeks ago. Last night they were off by 800,000 to 6,901,000. The viewers are leaving. Fast.
“The Conners” finished in third place, behind “NCIS” and “The Voice,” on CBS and NBC respectively in the 8 to 9 time slot. Worse even: the key demos are down. A lot. In particular, men aged 18-49 have really fallen off. Women in that age group are down, too.
More and more that eleventh episode, added at the last minute, may be a finale. Or a dream episode.
Meanwhile Roseanne Barr has stayed conspicuously silent for over a month on social media. She may be plotting a comeback, or even an appearance on that 11th episode. Who knows? Maybe the whole thing is a nightmare.
Losing 800K viewers is a nightmare, that’s for sure.
Donald and Melania are skipping the Kennedy Center Honors for the second year in a row.
It’s not a surprise. They are unwelcome although invited. He’d rather stay home and Tweet. She’s busy getting White House employees fired.
This year’s KC inductees don’t like Trump much. Cher spends part of every day Tweeting against him. I doubt Reba McEntire, Wayne Shorter, and Philip Glass have much use for him either.
Trump certainly doesn’t want to be faced with the cast of “Hamilton,” which openly mocked VP Mike Pence when he visited the show. They did it from the stage, and it made headlines. Anyway, Trump is pretty sure “Hamilton” is about Linda Hamilton, from his “Beauty and the Beast” TV show.
As for “Hamilton,” the Kennedy Center and CBS’s Jack Sussman changed the charter so they could have “Hamilton” on their air and maybe score ratings. It’s about 20 years too soon for Lin-Manuel Miranda to get a KC Honor. Dozens of older stars were spurned to movie LMM up a generation. But that’s life now– it’s a free-for-all. Rules, as Warren Beatty said, don’t apply. Tell that to Dick van Dyke, he’s only 92. He can wait another year. Or Jane Fonda. Or Denzel Washington. And so on.
Trump stays away because he doesn’t understand cultural celebrations. His Medal of Freedom winners are all dead. He has no appreciation for the arts. It’s one more thing that makes a first for his presidency.
On Thursday night we get a new Mariah Carey album called “Caution.” We’ve already heard four singles, the rest is nigh as they say.
But wait– for some reason, Mariah is already back on the charts, and not just with her Christmas album. On iTunes, Mariah’s 2001 album, “Glitter,” a notorious flop 17 years ago, is at number 8. And on amazon.com’s digital music chart, it’s number 127.
This is a pre-Christmas miracle for Mariah. “Glitter” was the soundtrack to a movie she starred in that was so bad I still remember laughing out loud several times during the screening. It was a bomb. Mariah was killed for her acting. She got the last laugh, though, when she appeared in Lee Daniels’ “Precious” as a social worker and won raves.
On the music side, the “Glitter” project was such a disaster that EMI Virgin let her go and paid out her $50 million contract. Mariah went to Def Jam consequently and had her monster hit “The Emancipation of Mimi.” She’s like a phoenix, always rising, with decolletage.
It was during this time that Mariah also had a bad time emotionally, blaming Tommy Mottola, her ex, and head of her label, for stealing music she was working on and giving it to Jennifer Lopez. This was later confirmed.
So why is “Glitter” back? Fans on Twitter say they’ve been buying it as they’ve jointly reviewed her old albums. Mariah Tweeted that she’s happy there’s finally #JusticeforGlitter.
It does help that the price is only $4.99. BuzzAngle says it recorded sales of 259 from Friday through Monday night.
Soon we’ll have the tally back from the voting members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
While we wait, here’s an update on the fan vote, which is public and still open on the RRHOF website.
Janet Jackson is lagging way behind the top 5. They are, in order: Def Leppard, Stevie Nicks, Todd Rundgren, The Zombies, and the Cure.
Janet is in 6th place. The rest of the top 10 is Devo, Roxy Music, Rage Against the Machine, and Radiohead. The MC5 is dead last– well, the Hall waited too long, and should just put them in. Radiohead– droning on and on– isn’t rock in any form. Janet– a star since she’s a kid– deserves to make this round. Def Leppard’s charms escape me.
It’s time for the Rock Hall to put Billy Preston in as a sideman, if nothing else. He was the actual 5th Beatle and had his own hits. Enough is enough. They should also make peace with Chubby Checker.
Stevie, Todd, and the Zombies are all perfectly due, their time is now. Next year’s list of nominees had better include Carly Simon, among others.
The Broadway box office brings good news, bad news, and just plain news.
“The Cher Show” is a smash hit out of the box. In its first full week of previews, Cher brought in over $1 million. It played to 95% capacity audiences every night. Cher is golden, and ticket sales should just keep increasing. I hope Ms. Bono Allman has a nice piece of the action. “The Cher Show” is going to be like printing money.
Meanwhile, the Go-Go’s show “Head Over Heels” is still playing. Last week they improved their numbers ever so slightly to $233,000. (Wasn’t that what Bette Midler got in weekly perks?) Anyway, at 45% capacity “Head Over Heels” is playing to a room less than half full every night. What is the purpose of this exercise in futility?
Scott Rudin’s not having a good time with “The Waverly Gallery.” The show is playing at 86% and is now being featured at all the discount brokers. Hey folks– go see this play NOW. You don’t want to miss Elaine May. She’s going to be a Tony nominee next spring, I hope, along with Janet McTeer in the just-ended “Berhardt/Hamlet.”
And what about “King Kong”? Terrible reviews didn’t dissuade ticket buyers. Receipts doubled after the show opened. Forget the songs– go see Kong. He’s a giant entertainment. And Christiani Pitts is a hot newcomer!
Well, uh, no one watched the People’s Choice Awards on the E! Channel Sunday night.
Just 582,000 People tuned in to see that nonsense on E! itself. Across four channels, “People’s Choice” scored 1.1 million. (That included Bravo, Syfy, USA Network.) The red carpet show had just 576,000.
The last People’s Choice, on CBS in January 2017, had 6.66 million and was considered a failure.
The 582K number was lower than “Keeping Up with Kardashians” got last week in that slot– 1.1 million, or ever the 800K the K’s have averaged this season.
The only awards show that does worse is the Independent Spirit Awards, with 95,000 viewers.
People’s Choice has long been a joke among awards shows. The winners are pre-selected by publicists and agencies. I would almost go so far as to say they’re paid for under the guise of licensing or “promotional consideration.” How else in the world would “Fifty Degrees of Grey Pt. 3” win Best Dramatic Movie?
Mostly, celeb show up for the publicity. But this may be the end. The show is so devalued that it can only hurt real awards show– real as they are. E! should be persuaded to stop it now.
Someone has talked sense into Kanye West. He’s postponing his twice schedule “Yandhi” album. First it was going to drop in September, then on November 23rd. Wisely, Kanye has decided it isn’t ready yet. No kidding. His “Ye” album sold just 60,000 copies on download, with another 200,000 from streaming. That’s peanuts, and it was only back in June. His sneakers aren’t selling either. Kanye is finally taking a real look at his businesses. I’ll bet Kris Jenner has stepped in.
It felt so good being on the stage last night with my brother Cudi. After performing again, I realize the new album I’ve been working on isn’t ready yet. I’ll announce the release date once it’s done. Thank you for understanding.
A few months ago, Aretha Franklin was alive and blocking the release of “Amazing Grace,” a 1972 concert film companion to her best-selling album of the same name. Sydney Pollack shot it, and then put it away. “Amazing Grace” has been sitting in a vault for 46 years for a variety of reasons.
The reasons were not about money. Aretha had been offered a lot of money by Allan Elliot, who bought the film from Pollack in 2008. She just didn’t want it out there. She had her reasons. I have texts from her about it when she stopped Elliot from showing “Amazing Grace” at Telluride and Toronto in 2015.
Elliot, of course, went to Aretha’s funeral and presented his case to her family. Niece/executor Sabrina Owens let him screen it for 40 people, all of whom loved it. Look, Aretha is gone. She didn’t leave a will. She knew this would happen.
So “Amazing Grace” finally screened Monday night at the SVA Theater. Al Sharpton showed up. Chris Rock came with his girlfriend. (“He won’t do the red carpet,” she cracked, “he’s not wearing his make up.”) Owens came with her husband, and with first cousin Vaughn Franklin and his wife. Otherwise, except for me, Aretha’s publicists, and Sharpton, no one in the theater ever knew Aretha. If you did, no meant no.
Still, her performances in this concert film are just glowing. She opens her mouth and angels fly around. Pollack made a record of her extraordinary gifts. They deserve to be seen. So, too, does Reverend James Cleveland, her childhood friend, who appears with her along with the Southern California Community Choir. Can you imagine– those people have had to wait 40 years to see themselves on screen!
In the audience was Aretha’s drummer, famed Bernard Purdie, who played on so many classic Atlantic Records sessions. At that show, Aretha was 30, Bernard was 33. It was a lifetime ago. That same year, Aretha had major hits with “Don’t Play that Song for Me” and “Until You Come Back to Me” on the pop charts. That’s how versatile she was. No one noticed that “Climhing Higher Mountains” is basically “Don’t Play That Song” with different lyrics.
“Amazing Grace” is a must have CD for anyone who doesn’t have it. Soon the DVD will be, too, Elliot doesn’t have a distributor yet and thinks he’s going to force this movie into the Oscar race on November 13th. He should wait for next year. It’s waaaay too late for that. I hope he takes that unsolicited advice seriously. “Amazing Grace” has waited 46 years, it can wait one more.
The right distributor will have an art house hit with “Amazing Grace.” And even though Aretha herself spoke to a judge to get her restraining order in 2015, it’s time to let her fans have this experience. She was the greatest singer of our lifetime, and her legacy will never end.
Stan Lee is dead. The man who made Marvel comics and the films that followed a part of the international culture was 95.
Stan died after a year from hell following the death of his wife Joan. Friends, associates and family– all greedy– conspired to drive him crazy and ultimately caused his death.
Last March during Oscar week I got an earful about how badly Stan was being treated by his daughter and others who just wanted his money. With Joan gone, Stan was confused and lonely. Everyone preyed on him.
What happened next were lawsuits, accusations, restraining orders that included sales of his blood as souvenirs, Stan losing good friends, and so on.
Now all of those people have had their way. Stan is dead. You can say 95 is “a good life” but what was done to him once his wife died is merciless. Now he’s at peace.
Spider Man, X Men, the Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Avengers, Iron Man, et al– we owe all of it to Stan. In each movie he made an infamous appearance– his “Hitchcock” moment as it were– and audiences always applauded when they caught him sneaking by. I’d guess that he’s in the last “Avengers” movie coming soon. And that better be the end of it. Stan Lee was exploited enough in life.
Alec Baldwin isn’t the only A-lister who won’t be at tonight’s Friars Club Roast of Billy Crystal.
Jimmy Fallon is also out of the mix. Fallon was in LA last night to win a People’s Choice Award. He flew back immediately and tapes the “Tonight” show this afternoon. After that, he goes home to his wife and kids.
Fallon and Baldwin will each miss the honoring of Crystal. They’ll all miss meeting Ronnie “Shoes” aka Ronnie “Copa” Nistico, who’s been with the Friars for less than a year.
Nistico, as I wrote on Friday, has quite a colorful history. He has two convictions for weapons charges, and for assault that was eventually settled. He’s part of the “new” Friars membership which has fewer showbiz people and many more who no one’s ever heard of– except maybe the police.
The Friars Club is still part of an open investigation from the US Attorney’s Office. They also settled a sexual harassment lawsuit last year for seven figures with a former receptionist thanks to named defendant Bruce Charet. Guests tonight will be looking to see if Charet shows up at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, ushering around the likes of Robert DeNiro, Brett Ratner, or Tony Bennett.
On Thursday night we get a new Mariah Carey album called “Caution.” We’ve already heard four singles, the rest is nigh as they say.
Soon we’ll have the tally back from the voting members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
