OMFG! After a season when Gossip Girl’s hype usually outshone its ratings Monday’s 2008-9 premiere is finally a chance to put up (good ratings) or shut up (with the overblown PR).
Last season Gossip Girl was bested in the ratings by several far less hyped shows including Secret Life of an American Teenager, and The Hills several times. To boost its sagging ratings, the CW tried stopping internet streaming, but when that didn’t seem to help, they turned it back on.
At times last season it seemed like the TV critics had been taken in so completely by the Gossip Girl hype machine that it made Robert a bit ill.
Through all the bad ratings news for the show last year we continued to hear from a worldwide cadre of GG fans about how they couldn’t live without their favorite show, but the numbers just didn’t add up. Its CW stablemate Reaper performed better in the 18-49 demo, yet was “on the bubble” until the last minute at renewal time. The poorer performing Gossip Girl seemed invulnerable to ratings logic.
Perhaps a new season will change all that. Either Gossip Girl ratings will finally live up to the hype or the hype machine will collapse under the reality of the ratings situation. The results might in part determine the fate Dawn Ostroff.
Now’s your chance to make a guess as to Gossip Girl’s viewership results for it’s premiere Monday night. Feel free to answer the poll, make a comment or both.
Here are some numbers (all Live+SD) that might be useful for your guess:
2007-8’s Season Premiere Viewership was (update) 3.504 million. The 2.49 million I incorrectly listed initially was for the 2nd week’s episode.
2007-8’s Final New Episode Viewership was 2.997 million.
2007-8’s Average Viewership (including in-slot repeats) through May 25, 2008 was 2.193 million.
My guess is 2.4 million viewers. Gossip Girl doesn’t have a full slate of competition, but September 1 might turn out to be a tough night for any show. Also, the CW has done so dreadfully this summer, I think they faced a difficult promotion run up to the season.
What Will Gossip Girl's Premiere Viewership Be?
- Greater than 3 million viewers (45%, 84 Votes)
- 2.5-3.0 million viewers (32%, 59 Votes)
- 2.0-2.5 million viewers (14%, 25 Votes)
- Less than 2 million viewers (9%, 17 Votes)
Total Voters: 185
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I’ll take the over 2.5, but I’m not willing to bet on it.
I am so excited for the premiere tonight! Chuck and Blair are THE reasons I watch this show. They are the hottest couple on television. I hope this show does better this season in the ratings, and I have confidence that it will. I know I spent some time this summer getting my friends to watch the reruns who had not been watching the show before. I am happy to say they are as addicted as I am.
I think tonight will either be the highest rated episode yet or a complete failure. On the plus side it is launching before the majority of the rest of the fall season, and the original 90210 didn’t take off until its second season and its early summer run. The downside is that Prison Break is also back tonight and The Secret Life of An American Teen is also on, and both of them will be competing for the same kind of audience. Im guessing the 2.5 – 3.0 million bracket, but wouldnt be surprised if it did more as it has had a lot of promotion. I guess a lot will depend on whether the ratings drop or increase from 8-8.30 to 8.30-9.
Rhuw, one reason I think tonight’s ratings may fall short is that it is at 8pm and not 9pm like last season. There are fewer people watching at 8pm this early in the season *and* Gossip Girl was at 9pm last season following America’s Next Top Model, which was CW’s #1 show.
I would guess high 2 millions for the premiere. If they end up breaking the 3 million mark, I’d be very surprised. Part of me wants it to do poorly so Dawn Ostroff can finally get fired and the network can finally focus on the few good shows that network has: Supernatural and Reaper.
Did last fall season begin a week after Gossip Girl did? Because the series premiere was seen by 3.65 million viewers last year before falling to the number you reported for the season premiere viewership in week 2.
Hi Bill, I think that was true for the pre WGA strike episodes, but the after-strike episodes of Gossip Girl’s first season all aired at 8pm on Mondays so its audience should at least know its slot (especially after the constant bombardments of risque posters and commercials). Whethere they watch though is another kettle of fish…
Julie, you are correct, I initially/incorrectly linked the second week’s data. The Live+SD viewership for the week of Sept 17-23 was in fact 3.504 million. I will correct the post above.
Rhuw, I agree that GG fans were previously conditioned to the 8pm slot. 8pm has a lot fewer people watching TV in general than 9pm while daylights savings time is in place, so regardless of show 9pm is the better slot during DST in terms of available viewers. Because of this, it isn’t really apples-to-apples to compare 8pm results with 9pm results, but it’s the only comparison that is available to us so we will do it anyway.
It is probably fair to compare to the season finale of Gossip Girl which drew 2.97 million viewers (preliminary overnight results)in the 8pm slot on May 19. But May 19 wasn’t a holiday. On the other hand today’s holiday is when CW is airing the premiere so like it or not 2.97 million becomes the benchmark. No doubt if it does less CW will say “Holiday!”, if it does about the same or higher, there will be much chest thumping…
I watch Gossip Girl but it definitely isn’t “the greatest show ever” and I hate how Dawn Ostroff runs the network. Smallville and Supernatural are keeping The CW alive but have the littlest promotion. Reaper was an excellent new show but it hasn’t even been given an air date yet. Everybody Hates Chris is a good show and probably one of the few family shows on TV, hopefully it does better on Fridays. One Tree Hill is a good show too and I find it funny how it gets better ratings than GG even with all the promos.
The CW does have some good shows but just has no idea how to attract viewers and it doesn’t help when the target audience is young female viewers. Also last I heard The CW only covers around 80% of the country compared to FOX, NBC, ABC and CBS which cover at least 95%. (Someone want to give an update on that?)
Ostroff NEEDS to be fired!
Too bad “Smallville” has sucked for years. Actually, the entire network has become a joke.
3.4 million, per The Live Feed:
http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/09/gossip-record-f.html
3.4 isn’t bad by CW standards but it’s horrific given all the promotion. Anyway i’m very sad to see OTH under GG. I know that 3.1 with no promotion is better than 3.4 with tons of promotion but i’m still upset
James Hibberd has access to data that we may or may not see, but that 3.4 million viewers is more than I thought the show would do (see above), but less than it’s overnight numbers for the premiere last year (3.65 million).
Berman has the 18-49 overnight rating at 1.7 for last year, which is the same as Hibberd has for last night, so there’s no increase there.
We don’t have access to last years 18-34 overnight rating, but we may see this year’s later today.
what time is gossip girl on and what channel ?