Only 3 returning network shows see rise in live viewers

NEW YORK >> ABC’s sophomore drama “A Million Little Things,” reality show “Shark Tank” and the Fox first-responders drama “9-1-1” have something in common that they can take pride in.

Over the first three weeks of the television season, they are the only three of 49 prime-time shows returning to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox fall schedules that have a bigger audience on the night they originally air than they did last season, the Nielsen company said. Sports shows aren’t included.

A decade or so ago, such a statistic would prompt audible wailing from network executive suites. The nature of television has changed so much that it’s too early to tell if viewers are bored with the offerings or if those numbers reflect that more people are watching on their own time and making their own schedules.

Networks will have a better idea on how the shows are doing after a month, when delayed and digital viewing is figured in.

Evaristo calls Booker Prize win a landmark for black British women writers

LONDON >> Winning the Booker Prize is one big step for Bernardine Evaristo — and, she hopes, a giant leap for British women writers of color.

This week the London-based writer shared the prestigious prize for English-language fiction with Margaret Atwood after the five-person panel of judges decided they couldn’t choose between Atwood’s dystopian thriller “The Testaments” and Evaristo’s kaleidoscope of black women’s stories, “Girl, Woman, Other.”

Evaristo is the first woman of African heritage to win the Booker in its 50-year history, and only the fourth ever to be a finalist.

She said that “hopefully this will mark a new direction.”