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    Hallmark rates high during the holidays; Nielsen week in review

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1801 Views
    General view of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)

    By David Bauder, Media Writer

    NEW YORK (AP) --

    It has the makings of a blue Christmas for Leah. She's turning 30 on Christmas Eve, the same day she'll be a bridesmaid at her brother's wedding.

    But wait — her childhood crush is back in town. Sounds like a movie premise guaranteed to tug at heartstrings, and no one knows how to do that this time of year like the Hallmark Channel.

    That movie with Emily Osment in the starring role, "A Very Merry Bridesmaid," and another premiere last weekend, "Sister Swap: Hometown Holidays," are part of an assembly line of holiday fare at Hallmark. Both reached nearly 3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said.

    Hallmark was the most-watched entertainment cable channel last week, as it often is as the holidays approach. The network scores particularly well among its target audience of women ages 25-to-54.

    Broadcast networks are rolling out their own holiday fare, with NBC's special surrounding the Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center the most popular last week.

    NBC reached 5.3 million people for its live production of "Annie!" Live television musicals are losing their pull ever since becoming a semi-regular feature when a production of "The Sound of Music" surprised people by drawing more than 18 million viewers in 2013. "Annie! Live" did beat ABC's interview with Alec Baldwin on the "Rust" movie set shooting, which was a direct competitor.

    Meanwhile, Fox rode football to a win in the weekly ratings, averaging 6.4 million viewers in primetime last week. NBC had 6.1 million, CBS had 5.3 million, ABC had 2.9 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 930,000 and Telemundo had 900,000.

    Fox News Channel led cable networks with an average of 2.42 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.05 million, Hallmark had 1.53 million, MSNBC had 1.16 million and Freeform had 1.02 million.

    ABC's "World News Tonight" led the evening news ratings race with an average of 8 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.4 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.2 million.

    For the week of Nov. 29-Dec. 5, the 20 most-watched programs in primetime, their network and viewerships.

    1. NFL Football: Denver at Kansas City, NBC, 17.51 million.
    2. NFL Football: Dallas at New Orleans, Fox, 16.7 million.
    3. "NFL Pregame," NBC, 12.12 million.
    4. College Football: Michigan vs. Iowa, Fox, 11.66 million.
    5. NFL Football: Seattle at Washington, ESPN, 10.9 million.
    6. "NFL Postgame," Fox, 10.46 million.
    7. "60 Minutes," CBS, 10.3 million.
    8. "College Football Pregame," Fox, 9.74 million.
    9. "NFL Pregame," Fox, 9.73 million.
    10. "Football Night in America, Part 3," NBC, 9.34 million.
    11. "NCIS," CBS, 7.34 million.
    12. "Yellowstone," Paramount, 7.28 million.
    13. "College Football Postgame," CBS, 7.23 million.
    14. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 6.76 million.
    15. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 6.59 million.
    16. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 6.48 million.
    17. "Christmas in Rockefeller Center," NBC, 6.18 million.
    18. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.81 million.
    19. "Survivor," CBS, 5.63 million.
    20. "Ghosts," CBS, 5.46 million.

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    Tags:HallmarkNFLNielsen



    William Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage join the voice cast for Starburn Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo”

    Friday, August 28, 2026
    Peter Dinklage (photo by Whitney Matewe)

    Actors Willem Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage have joined the voice cast of Starburns Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on acclaimed author George Saunders’ New York Times bestseller and 2017 Booker Prize-winner.  Saunders adapted the screenplay, with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson directing.  It was announced earlier that Tom Hanks stars as the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in the live action portion of the film.  CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are handling sales at the upcoming TIFF: The Market.

    The film employs a unique blend of stop-motion animation and live action to explore one of the most intimate moments of Lincoln’s life, centering on his relationship with his recently deceased eleven-year-old son.  Blending history and imagination, the story unfolds through an unforgettable ensemble of characters – living and dead, historical and invented – to explore themes of love, empathy, and the human capacity for connection in the face of unimaginable grief.

    Reverend Everly Thomas – the ghost of a minister who died believing he would go to heaven, but, to his dismay, found out otherwise – is voiced by Dafoe.  Bailey is voicing Roger Bevins, the ghost of a young gay man who took his own life over a failed love affair and instantly regretted it.  Dinklage is voicing Hans Vollman, a ghost obsessed with his dream of being reunited with his much-younger wife.

    Four-time Academy Award nominee Dafoe’s credits include animated films “Finding Nemo,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Boy and the Heron,” as well as “At Eternity’s Gate,” “The Florida Project,” “Shadow of the Vampire” and seminal Vietnam movie... Read More

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