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Sarah chats to Angel's Christian Kane about new Syfy show The Librarians, Joss Whedon, Jason Statham and more...

Libraries are a little bit magical, aren’t they? They’re one of the few places you’re still asked to be quiet and reverential; they’re packed full of all sorts of knowledge and stories; and they’re organised due to some kind of arcane system that the average person on the street won’t have a hope of navigating. Okay, so nowadays you can learn pretty much anything you want to know just by firing up Wikipedia, but there’s still something impressive about all those words being housed in one place. In both Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, libraries are places for arcane magic to take place.

In a series of TV movies from the early 2000s starring Noah Wyle, librarians are mystical guardians of all kinds of magic.

Remember last month when Disney Channel’s Teen Beach Movie attracted five times as many viewers as Syfy’s Sharknado! but, sadly, Damon Lindelof did not live-tweet the Tbm premiere so the press largely declined to live-hyperventilate as it was premiering? Well, Nielsen today reported the audience for Tbm has swelled by more than 5 million viewers, bringing its Live+7 audience to 13.530 million viewers. That makes it the No. 2 most watched movie in cable TV history, behind only – you know it’s coming – High School Musical 2. HSM2 has an apparently unstoppable Live+7 tally of 18.639 million viewers. To put this in perspective, the most watched non-Disney Channel cable movie ever, TNT’s 2001 Tom Selleck western Crossfire Trail, based on the 1954 Louis L’Amour novel, averaged 12.519 million viewers L+7. Related: Disney Junior’s ‘Sofia The First’ Hits Viewership High...

Kevin Costner leads 14 million horses to water, and then makes them drink.

There are a few different ways to perceive the success of the History Channel’s three part mini-series, Hatfields & McCoys, which now holds the record for most-viewed entertainment program in the history of ad-supported cable television. The finale episode brought in over 14 million viewers, supplanting the previous record-holder, Crossfire Trail, which aired on TNT in 2001.

Westerns, as a genre, have historically performed very well on American television, particularly when billed as “event” television. The all-time standard bearer continues to be Lonesome Dove, which was broadcast on CBS in 1989 to a staggering 26 million viewers. Both Lonesome Dove and Hatfields & McCoys sported top shelf (for TV) leading men, while also coming from highly popular source material, and both series benefitted from a full-court marketing press. TV spots, magazine ads, billboards, and in the case of Hatfields & McCoys, omnipresent banners on...

Kevin Costner's historical drama Hatfields & McCoys has shattered U.S. TV ratings records after drawing an audience of 13.9 million for its Monday evening premiere.

The Dances With Wolves star plays 'Devil' Anse Hatfield opposite Bill Paxton as Randall McCoy in the three-part series, about the two families' infamous post-American Civil War feud over a stolen pig, and viewers tuned in in droves to catch the two-hour debut, making it the most-watched non-sports programme in ad-supported cable history.

Another 3.8 million caught the encore presentation later on Memorial Day, taking the total audience to 17.7 million viewers.

The record was held by Tom Selleck's TV movie Crossfire Trail, which drew 12.5 million viewers when it aired in 2001.

The news is sure to put a smile on Costner's face - it started out as a passion project of his and he had hoped to direct the drama before stepping down due to other work commitments.

The History Channel miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys" scored huge ratings Monday night (May 28), drawing the channel's biggest audience ever and one of the biggest in the history of cable TV.

Part one of the three-night miniseries, which chronicles the infamous 19th century feud between two families, drew 13.9 million viewers. That was the biggest audience of the night on all of television by a wide margin -- the closest competitor, "America's Got Talent" on NBC, averaged just over 10 million people.

The History channel also says that excluding sports, "Hatfields & McCoys" is also the most-watched single broadcast on ad-supported cable ever, which isn't quite true: A 1993 edition of "Larry King Live" featuring Al Gore and Ross Perot debating Nafta drew more than 16 million viewers. (A History rep says its figures date back to the channel's founding in 1996.)

The previous record for non-sports/non-news program on cable, incidentally, belonged to TNT's 2001 movie "Crossfire Trail,...

Kevin Costner lives. Monday’s premiere of Hatfields & McCoys, in which he and Bill Paxton play opposite ends of the legendary feud over six hours, drew 13.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched telecast in basic cable history outside of sports. (Throw in those who watched the 11 p.m. encore and that number shoots up to 17 million.) Westerns are big business on cable — Robert Duvall’s Broken Trail brought 10 million viewers to AMC in 2006, and TNT’s Crossfire Trail was watched by 12.5 million in 2001 — but is proving to be an even bigger lifesaver for Costner, whose last decent big-screen performer was the Coast Guard drama The Guardian, co-starring Ashton Kutcher. The remaining second and third parts of History’s Hatfields & McCoys will air tonight and Wednesday at 9 p.m.

The first installment of History's "Hatfields & McCoys" had 13.9 million total viewers, setting a new record for non-sports, ad-supported cable programs. The first installment of the miniseries, starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton as the patriarchs of the infamously feuding families, beat the previous scripted ad-supported basic cable record set in 2001 by TNT's "Crossfire Trail," which had 12.5 million total viewers. A CNN election night telecast in 2008 drew 13.2 million total viewers. The first "Hatfields &McCoys" installment had 4.8 million viewers in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, and 17 million...

On New Year’s Day of 2003, a neatly handwritten note arrived on the fax machine: “I have a story idea I wanted to run past you. I am sure you are familiar with the subject matter and would welcome your thoughts and suggestions.” The intriguing note came from Eric O’Keefe, a Texas journalist I had met while directing the television western Crossfire Trail. “What do you know about the 2002 Melbourne Cup?,” it read.

Disney Channel's highly anticipated High School Musical 2 sang and danced its way to history Friday night when 17.24 million viewers tuned in, making the original movie's debut the most-watched basic cable telecast of all time.

Musical 2, a sequel to the successful 2006 telefilm, surpassed the previous record holder, ESPN's Monday Night Football game on Sept. 23, 2006, which averaged 16 million viewers.

It also shattered the previous basic cable record for an entertainment program, surpassing the 12.5 million viewers who saw the 2001 premiere of the TNT Western Crossfire Trail.

"For months we've been asking kids 'What time is it?' and it's exciting to finally get the answer ... it's time for record-breaking ratings," said Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC Television Group. "The entire team at Disney Channel, including Rich Ross, Gary Marsh and Michael Healy, deserve all the credit for helping to make television history."

Overall, Musical 2 was the most watched program on television since the season finale of Fox's hit drama House on May 29 logged 17.26 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Additionally, Musical 2 ranked as the most-watched TV telecast ever in kids 6-11 (6.1 million) as well as the most-watched entertainment telecast ever (and the second-highest-rated overall, behind only the 2004 Super Bowl) among tweens 9-14 (5.9 million).

The numbers, which include an eye-popping 9.4 million cable homes, would be even higher if the fact that many kids and parents nationwide gathered to watch at viewing parties was taken into account.