ScreenScribe

Sunday’s network HD premiere of Crazy Heart would have broken TV3′s heart. The movie that won Jeff Bridges his first Oscar drew only 2.8% of TV3′s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, and 3.0%-4.0% of the other key demographics. TV2′s SD premiere of Mr Deeds won the slot, with 2-3 times as many viewers — although the [...]

Network Move Premiere: Crazy Heart (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) Jeff Bridges won his first Oscar in this slight but telling drama about a booze-battered country music icon who’s reduced to one-night stands in bowling alleys and opening for a rival (Colin Farrell) he once mentored … until he meets a solo mum-cum-aspiring journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who reignites his [...]

Sky Movies Premiere: Limitless (Sky Movies, 8.30, 5.1) Bradley Cooper has the hangover from hell in this boundlessly entertaining satirical thriller from Neil Burger, the writer/director of The Illusionist. He plays a struggling scribe who’s at his wits’ end with writer’s block when he takes an experimental drug that gives him a quadruple-digit IQ – but with lethal [...]

Touch is turning into a drama that’s proving untouchable for all the wrong reasons. Sunday’s episode, opposite the free-to-air HD premiere of Valentine’s Day, was the lowest-rating yet. It averaged only 2.6%-3.3% of the key demographics, faring worst with household shoppers and ‘best’ with 25-54 year-olds. Lead-out House, once a staple of TV3′s schedule, is [...]

 SoHo Highlight: You Don’t Know Jack (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) Al Pacino stars as Dr Jack Kevorkian in this biopic tracing the controversial career of the outspoken assisted suicide advocate and activist. Said the New York Times: “It is a credit to Mr Pacino that while he burrows deep into the role, he never lets Dr Kevorkian’s crackpot charm [...]

TV One was on an HD ratings roll at the weekend, with Call the Midwife, The Food Truck and Hyundai Country Calendar dominating their time slots. Sunday night newcomer Call the Midwife delivered sturdy ratings for the 9.30 hour, averaging 7.3% of TV One’s 25-54 audience compared to Monster-in-Law’s 6.9% and House’s 2.9%. It was [...]

Season Premiere: Call the Midwife (TV One, 9.30) Newly qualified midwife Jenny Lee begins her career at what she assumes is a small private hospital, but which turns out to be a nursing convent in the East End of London. Some British critics, like The Independent’s, were derisive of one of the BBC’s biggest hits in years: “The [...]