With overnight ratings merely just part of the picture nowadays, it's difficult to find out how many people are actually watching a TV show unless you combine on-demand, TV Everywhere and DVR usage, data which isn't always made available to the general public.
Recently, we've seen HBO release average total viewership of "Game of Thrones" at 18.4 million, more than "The Sopranos" at its peak. That number is far higher than those who watch it on HBO in its first viewing (which is more like 7 million.).
Now we have AMC's "The Walking Dead" numbers: a whopping 28 million viewers averaged out over season four, doubling its average live viewership, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
This does not pirated versions, of course, which is difficult to measure.
"The Walking Dead" is currently shooting season five in and around Atlanta.
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Atlanta's Tyler Perry has cast his latest OWN drama, which was originally called "Single's Mom Club" and is now "If Loving You Is Wrong."
Here's the press release pitch on the show:
The new series, premiering September 2014, follows the relationships of a group of husbands and wives that live and love on the same street. While the neighbors come from very different backgrounds, their lives are similar – raising children, dealing with exes, worrying about money and keeping romance in their relationships. But just below the surface --- secrets, lies and deception threaten to destroy what they have built.
And here are the cast members. None of household names but you may recognize a few:
Heather Hemmens ("Hellcats") plays Marcie, a real estate agent married to Randal, played by Eltony Williams ("24"). Together they are struggling with Marcie's inability to have children.
Zulay Henao ("The Single Moms Club") plays Esperanza, ex-wife of Edward, played by Joel Rush ("Days of Our Lives"). She and Edward are parents of an eight-year-old girl. Esperanza is terrified what her ex will do when he finds out about her new boyfriend, Julius, played by Octavio Pizano ("East Los High").
Edwina Findley ("Treme") plays Kelly, mother to a young son. Her boyfriend, and father to her son, has been away on a relief mission in Haiti for a year.
April Parker-Jones ("Jericho") plays Natalie, a single mother of three kids at home and one adult son in prison. She constantly struggles to pay the bills and her ex Lushion, played by Charles Malik Whitfield ("Law and Order"), is trying to love her while taking care of their son, Frank.
The show debuts in September.
Perry's "The Haves and the Have Nots" has become a huge hit for OWN, opening to 3 million viewers on May 27 in its return. Another Perry-created OWN show "Love Thy Neighbor" hasn't done nearly as well but returns June 25.
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"The Bachelorette" featuring Atlanta's Andi Dorfman has been preempted this Monday by an interview with potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which is why the show won't return until June 16.
And why does the ABC show have the suitors and the potentially suited go on adrenaline-inducing, scary adventures? Time did a piece on why Andi rappelled down a building this past Monday and had such a good time with her date:
"Doing very, very high-octane kinds of dates definitely can bond you together more than a mundane, run-of-the-mill one," says Dr. Diana Kirschner, psychologist and CEO of Lovein90Days.com, striking fear in all suitors who have to settle for a picnic. "What happens is that adrenaline is released that mimics the feelings of falling love."
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CNN's Don Lemon talks with the "Homeland" executive producer to talk about comparisons between his character Brody and Bowe Bergdahl.
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Emory grad and former "Man vs. Food" star Adam Richman has lost 70 pounds. Check out before and after photos. He quit "Man vs. Food" in 2010 partially because the entire concept of the show (eat as much of a particular food item within a particular time frame) was not exactly healthy. He has since done other shows for the Travel Channel, most recently "Adam Richman's Fandemonium."
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Former Marist student David Hasselhoff will front a NatGeo documentary about the fall of the Berlin Wall. You know -- because as Norm MacDonald used to say repeatedly on SNL, "Germans love David Hasselhoff!"
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Sorry, Judge Judy and "The View."
The Daytime Emmys aired last year on Atlanta-based HLN but that network is now focused on Millenials and social media so it passed.
In fact, no network picked the ceremony up at all so it's going to be live streamed June 22 at www.daytimeemmys.net.
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