012315 ATLANTA: Hawks Thabo Sefolosha takes it to the basket for two points past Thunder defenders Reggie Jackson (from left), Anthony Morrow and Kendrick Perkins on the way to setting a franchise record beating the Thunder 103-93 for the team’s 15th consecutive victory during a basketball game on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, in Atlanta. Curtis Compton / ccompton@ajc.com
By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed January 27, 2015
With the Atlanta Hawks on a hot streak, the team is becoming a TV viewership magnet.
The Friday home win over Oklahoma City, which broke the Hawks’ record for longest consecutive win streak, tied for the highest rated regular season Hawks airing ever on Fox Sports.
The 4.5 household rating in the Atlanta on SportSouth matched a Celtics game on January 29, 2010. SportSouth is the exclusive regional television home of the team. That’s equal to at least 150,000 viewers.
Through 42 games, the Hawks television ratings in Atlanta are up 54 percent (1.7 vs. 1.1) on SportSouth year over year. The team is currently on record 16 game winning streak and has won 30 of its last 32 games.
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Kendra G was on the Ryan Cameron morning show on V-103 for a few months in 2013. She just got a new job in Chicago. CREDIT: V-103
Remember Kendra G? If you listened to Ryan Cameron’s first morning show incarnation, which also featured Chris “Crash” Clark and Mo Ivory, you might remember her. She lasted only a few months. Her time at V-103 coincided with the station’s ratings falling sharply, forcing Cameron to start over and bring back Wanda Smith from the Frank & Wanda days to help stabilize the ship.
Kendra G is joining a new morning show on Chicago’s hip-hop station WGCI. She worked before in Chicago earlier in her career.
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Would VH1 go back in time and not green light “Hindsight” given its pitiful performance to date? CREDIT: VH1
If you are watching VH1’s “Hindsight,” you are, well, kind of alone. (Make that, I am kind of alone. I actually like this show and it’s still on my DVR.)
The light Ally McBeal-esque drama, shot in Atlanta but set in New York, drew a mere 367,000 viewers in its opening round, dropped to 226,000 week two, then rebounded to 298,000 last week. Even then, those alarmingly low numbers make chances of a renewal very slight indeed.
In comparison, “Single Ladies,” an Atlanta-based soap VH1 inexplicably cancelled last year (and was picked up by Centric), regularly drew 1.6 to 1.8 million overnight viewers.
Given that VH1 lately has been more known for its ratchet reality programming (“Basketball Wives,” “Love and Hip Hop,” “Mob Wives”), this scripted drama now seems oddly out of place.
Perhaps with proper hindsight (ahem), the show (set in 1995) might have done done better on Bravo, Oxygen or WE-TV.
The network’s other scripted drama “Hit the Floor” has been a huge hit for VH1, averaging more than 2 million viewers per episode and is set to return this summer for a third season. It has more of that attitude and vigor VH1 is now known for. I get a sense “Hindsight” is too sweet and retro to fit with VH1’s sassy 2015 branding.
