TV’s ‘Ghosts,’ ‘Wonder Years’ are long-view ratings winners

At first glance, broadcast newcomers “Ghosts” and “The Wonder Years” have barely had a chance to prove themselves in the ratings.

The CBS comedy “Ghosts” has shown early promise, landing just outside the top 20 for the young season so far, while ABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years” sitcom is hovering at around No. 65, according to Nielsen figures. But the two have already been granted full-season runs.

Admiring reviews for both aside, the reason lies in the numbers — the ones that measure how a show performs in the long run.

The debut episode of “The Wonder Years” was watched by 3.2 million viewers on ABC when it aired Sept. 22. That figure grew to 6.4 million after a week of combined broadcast and digital viewership. “Ghosts,” based on a hit BBC comedy, drew just shy of 5.6 million viewers to its Oct. 7 broadcast debut, reaching 7.76 million after seven days that also included on-demand viewing.

‘Save your species’: U.N. uses dinosaur in fossil fuel message

The United Nations is summoning an unusual “witness” to testify to the dangers of burning fossil fuels that stoke global warming: a dinosaur. In a video released on social media ahead of this year’s U.N. climate change summit, a computergenerated dinosaur bursts into the U.N.’s famous General Assembly hall in New York to tell world diplomats that “going extinct is a bad thing.”

The light-hearted clip, voiced in the English version by actor Jack Black, carries a serious message that the U.N. Development Programme hopes to drive home.

“You’re headed for a climate disaster,” the dinosaur proclaims. “And yet every year, governments spend hundreds of billions of public funds on fossil fuel subsidies. Imagine if we had spent hundreds of billions per year subsidizing giant meteors.”