Must-Win TV

Up until Thursday night they were the only five husband-and-wife teams to win a Nobel Prize.

Add Sheldon and Amy, at least in the Big Bang Universe, to that list with the pair winning the physics prize on the hour finale on CBS Thursday night, only the second married couple to win that particular prize after the Curies in 1903. OK, they didn't really win--Sheldon and Amy, that is.

The actual Physics prize for 2019 won't be announced until Oct. 8, no earlier than 11:45 a.m. local Sweden time, when they will be streamed live. By that time, Penny's mom will probably already know about the baby.

It was probably the most Nobel-centric night of prime time American TV ever. Young Sheldon followed the Big Bang with its own take on the awards, with Sheldon eagerly anticipating a broadcast of the announcement of the winners, likening the suggestion of just waiting to read about them to waiting to read about the winner of the Super Bowl.

The prize CBS is looking for is the nightly sweeps ratings crown, essentially a given.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.