Shonda Rhimes and co. have done it again!

By way of the momentum generated by its ‘mole’ led plot, ABC‘s political thriller Scandal drew in a sweet 8.9 million viewers last night- marking the highest rated show in the US.

Beating ‘American Idol‘ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’, the Kerry Washington led series scored its best numbers to date, outperforming every other show to have aired in the market this week, serving as the show’s latest ratings win since its April 5th 2012 arrival.

Now on course to rank as TV‘s highest rated drama for the second time in three weeks, the series‘ winning streak comes weeks before ABC are set to announce the arrival of its third season–  helping to pick up the pieces from last night’s explosive revelation.

Source.

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Last night, Rihanna's hotly anticipated '777 Tour' documentary aired to the US via FOX.

Today, her audience learns of just how well the special performed in the market.

Details below…

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Sunday, April 7th saw the premiere of BET‘s latest reality show ‘The Sheards’.  Starring one of gospel‘s most prized families The Sheards (Karen Clark, Kierra, J. Drew, and J. Drew II), the fab four made their debut after the channel’s 13th annual ‘Celebration of Gospel’ showing in a big way!

Details below:

Via our buds at TheGospelGuru:

BET continues to dominate gospel programming with Sunday night’s telecasts of CELEBRATION OF GOSPEL and THE SHEARDS!  According to the Nielsen Company, the 10:00 p.m.* series premiere of THE SHEARDS was viewed by 1.2 million viewers and garnered a 1.0 coverage rating. When combined with THE SHEARDS 11:00 p.m.* encore, the episode attracted nearly 2 million total viewers. THE SHEARDS is now the #1 Sunday cable reality series telecast in its 10:00 p.m.* time-slot this year among adult women 18+ and a top 3 Sunday cable reality series debut for 2013 among total viewers. Hosted by Steve Harvey, CELEBRATION OF GOSPEL 2013 was seen by 1.8 million viewers and garnered a 1.5 coverage rating. CELEBRATION OF GOSPEL remains the #1 gospel telecast on TV for 13 consecutive years.

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Click here for our interview with the show’s star J. Drew Sheard II!

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As Season 4 of its main competitor ‘The Voice’ is posting some of its highest ratings ever, reality talent show pioneer ‘American Idol’ has conversely dipped to some of its lowest.

Indeed, with what was expected to be its saving grave in megadivas Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey, the twosome’s combined popularity was not enough to pull the sinking ship that is ‘Idol’.

Down a reported 14% from last week’s ratings (which was at the time its lowest Wednesday night ratings), the show has been on a steady decline since its season 12 debut.

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Despite the addition of Grammy-winner Jennifer Hudson and a host of promotion, it appears the second season of its forethought hit ‘Smash’ was no smash at all.  For, after much hype, last night’s debut came in with a 60% drop from the show’s 1st season premiere.

Via E! Online:

“Smash‘s season-two premiere seriously underperformed in the ratings last night, bringing in a series-low average of 4.5 million viewers and a 1.1 demo rating. Smash‘s season-one finale drew 6 million viewers, meaning last night’s premiere saw a 25 percent drop. And if you compare it to the series debut last year (11.4 million), the season two opener plummeted a whopping 60 percent.”

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What this spells for the show is uncertain.  But, given the costliness of the show, we’re sure NBC is going to pull out all of the stops to ensure their prized musical is a hit…somewhere…somehow.

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Looks like girls still run the world!

As expected, fans tuned into Superbowl XLVII in droves to see the televised return to stage of pop queen Beyonce.  For, reports have it the ‘Me, Myself, & I’ maestra drew in a jaw-dropping 104 million viewers for her 14-minute Halftime set.

Now, while news indicates that the reported 104 million is not the final tally (which will not be revealed until later this week), experts do assume once numbers are crunched that the figure will not be far from today’s listing.

The set gives the songstress another accolade to add to her already impressive count.  But, while besting the numbers of many of the historic stage’s previous showings, it is still Queen of Pop Madonna‘s 2012 showing that reigns supreme with its whopping 112 million viewers.  (source)

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Congratulations are in order for Bruno Mars and the folks over at ‘SNL‘.

Airing the singer‘s episode on the comedy outing last night, the show brought in record breaking ratings as a result- pulling in a sweet 5.rating according to the Hollywood Reporter.

This gives the show its highest rated episode since Lindsay Lohan graced their set in March, and gives some indication as to how Mars’ forthcoming ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’ LP should do upon its December 11th release.

Catch him in action here!

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Things are certainly on  up-and-up for ‘A Different Me’ maestra Keyshia Cole.

With her latest Lil’ Wayne-assisted single ‘Enough of No Love’ burning up R&B charts, the songstress has already readied its successor ‘Trust & Believe’.

And, after news her new BET reality show – ‘Family First’ – was a ratings winner as the “#1 new reality series debut telecast on cable in 2012 among total viewers and adults”, it’s safe to say Mrs. Cole-Gibson is #winning!

Cop a gander at the new single cover and tell us what you think:

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It’s the news Simon Cowell had been dreading.

Indeed, despite receiving universally positive reviews for the first episode of its second season,  hit show ‘X Factor USA’ lost  out to rival ‘The Voice‘ in last night’s rating war, spurred by the latter’s  spontaneous decision to air an episode on the former’s launch night.

With an audience of 10.7 million, the series beat out Cowell’s well loved series by a cool 3.2 million viewers last night, despite an intense promo campaign for the show which saw the mogul take to the ‘Ellen’ show with fellow judge/ Pop icon  Britney Spears.

On Mark Burnett‘s ‘Voice’, the ‘SYCO‘ mastermind claimed:

“These guys have really got it in for us. It’s nothing short of dirty tricks. The reason they’ve done this is they don’t want people to see X Factor because they’ve heard how good the series is.

They don’t want their audience to see Britney Spears. They don’t want their audience to see Demi Lovato”.

Peep a scene from last night’s outing above…

Source.

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Fans apparently could not wait to get their sights back on NBC’s top rated reality talent show ‘The Voice’ if ratings reports are anything to go by.

Despite a small dip from its season 2 premiere ratings, the hit show still managed to top other shows in its time slot an rake in an impressive 12 million viewers!

But, with news the show plans on extending its reign into 2013 for its first Spring-showing, a certain ‘What a Girl Wants’ singer has expressed to Billboard that she wants out:

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Despite boasting appearances from One Direction, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj, it seems last night’s VMAs  is one MTV won’t be too pleased about today.

This, because after pulling in an audience of 12.4 million last year, last night’s show welcomed a less than stellar 6.1 million, likely to have been affected by the momentum garnered by close competitor, President’s Obama‘s speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The Hollywood Reporter explains:

“About 6.1 million viewers tuned into Thursday night’s telecast of the VMAs, dropping more than half its audience from last year’s record 12.4 million haul. In the network’s target 12-34 demo, the VMAs drew a 5.3 rating.

Year to year, the VMAs were down more than 50 percent in total viewers.”

Highlights  from the event above…

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