| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 7.311 | 6.031 | 5.689 | 5.685 | 4.473 | 3.540 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.2/6 | 1.7/4 | 2.2/6 | 1.9/5 | 1.8/5 | 1.8/5 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 1.5/4 | 1.1/3 | 2.2/6 | 1.5/4 | 2.1/6 | 2.6/7 |
Fox and the CW had their fingers crossed on Monday and received very different results, but it was CBS repeats that ruled the night winning with an average of 7.311 million viewers and a leading 18-49 rating of 2.2. Fox managed a tie in the 18-49 demo, but that was their only good news for the night. The CW won the 18-34 demo for the night comfortably with a 2.6 rating. The CW PR department will have an easy day today.
That thud you heard last night was Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles viewership falling 13% from its premiere to 5.491 million and its 18-49 rating going down 17% to a 2.0, and its 18-34 rating heading down 10% to a 1.9.
On the other end of the see saw, Gossip Girl boosted its audience 18% to 3.726 million, its 18-49 rating by 25% to 2.0 and its 18-34 rating by 27% to 2.8 winning the night for that demo. Can hype become reality after all? (Update: here’s a lot more data from the CW on Gossip Girl’s best performance ever and more gender/demo data for Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill – these numbers are based on final ratings data, where GG actually improved a bit still among 18-34 year old women).
More bad news for Fox at 9 as Prison Break fell to 5.887 million viewers down 10% from last week. Its 18-49 rating was down 4% to 2.5, and its 18-34 rating fell 8% to 2.3.
The good news kept coming for the CW as One Tree Hill increased its audience 3% over last week to 3.355 million. Its 18-49 demo rating was up a tick to 1.8, and its 18-34 demo rating was up two ticks to an hour winning 2.5.
The behemoth that is Two and A Half Men is not to be underestimated. A repeat episode was the most viewed show of the night with 9.858 million viewers. Its 18-49 demo rating of 3.0 was also tops for the night. Once new episodes return, expect the competition at 9pm to suffer even further.
NBC’s America’s Toughest Jobs isn’t holding up well vs. even the limited competition at 9pm. Its audience was down 26% to 4.496 million and it was dead last in the two age demos for the hour. Even cheap shows have to produce something. Deal or No Deal did top the viewership heap at 8-9 with 8.764 million viewers, but with lackluster performance in both age demos I’m not nearly as impressed with it as was Marc Berman who called it a “winner“.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share | 18-34 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | NBC | Deal or No Deal | 8.764 | 2.0/5 | 1.5/7 |
| CBS | The Big Bang Theory (repeat) | 5.997 | 1.9/6 | 1.4/4 | |
| FOX | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | 5.491 | 2.0/5 | 1.9/6 | |
| UNI | Al Diablo con los Guapos | 5.225 | 2.0/5 | 2.5/7 | |
| ABC | Batman Begins (movie) (8-11p) | 4.897 | 1.5/4 | 1.1/3 | |
| CW | Gossip Girl | 3.726 | 2.0/5 | 2.8/8 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | How I Met Your Mother (repeat) | 5.418 | 1.9/5 | 1.4/4 |
| 9:00 | CBS | Two And A Half Men (repeat) | 9.858 | 3.0/7 | 1.9/5 |
| ABC | Batman Begins (movie) (8-11p) | 6.063 | 2.0/5 | 1.5/4 | |
| FOX | Prison Break | 5.887 | 2.5/6 | 2.4/6 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.055 | 2.1/5 | 2.3/6 | |
| NBC | America’s Toughest Jobs | 4.946 | 1.6/4 | 1.0/2 | |
| CW | One Tree Hill | 3.355 | 1.8/4 | 2.5/6 | |
| 9:30 | CBS | New Adventures of Old Christine (repeat) | 7.348 | 2.3/6 | 1.6/4 |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI Miami (repeat) | 7.624 | 2.1/5 | 1.4/4 |
| ABC | Batman Begins (movie) (8-11p) | 6.050 | 2.2/5 | 1.9/5 | |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 4.384 | 1.4/3 | 0.9/2 | |
| UNI | Cristina | 3.139 | 1.3/3 | 1.4/4 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Overnight Ratings: Local metered-market ratings service of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) in which household ratings and shares are provided to clients the morning following the day or evening of telecast. While routinely used for “next day” immediate analysis, these fast affiliate ratings are by process inaccurate for programs that air live across a network since they represent affiliate time period performance. For example, last night’s 10-11pm affiliate #’s would reflect 10pm on the East Coast but also 10pm on the West Coast which for a live event would not represent the same broadcast or portion of the broadcast.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
I hate to say it, but as I suspected, TSCC will do a 2nd season of 13 eps and then it’s done. The question is still out on PB–it depends on how Fringe fares in the official season. FOX can’t count on anything in midseason but stupid American Idol, with 24 and Dollhouse in trouble.
To quote from the CW PR department – OMFG! GG has done the impossible! Not only was I not expecting big numbers to continue (I thought 3mil) it has GROWN – CW’s baby has grown (unlike the others). Ostroff must be downing a few celeb drinks at moment (wonder what will happen with 90210). Surprising drop for PB – is the death knell I suspect (especially when Heroes returns) – pity this season sounded like what they should have done for season 2 (bring the company down).
OK, I take back at least half of the bad things I’ve said about Gossip Girl’s ratings and the CW’s love for the show. Those numbers are impressive, for the CW at least. Still, I can see the numbers dropping a bit when the regular season starts.
Andrea, I think the only question is when/if Fox puts TSCC hiatus so it can save up some episodes to promote the Terminator 4 movie.
Nicely done, Raymond. Holly, I’m pretty sure this will be in the range of a 12 share among 18-34 year old women which isn’t shabby. We’ll see when the press release hits…
I don’t know; I’m still not overly worried about TSCC. If you look at the demo numbers, they are not bad when compared to the rest of the evening. Let’s face it; if we took DOND out of the equation for the moment, there’s no break out hit on at 8:00. I’ll be more concerned when Chuck and BBT are both new and they pull higher demo numbers. I’m still amazed how many people are singing TSCC’s death song already. The numbers aren’t great for TSCC, but the numbers aren’t great for the evening overall.
These numbers seem irrelevant at the moment. EIGHT markets apparently were excluded from the results.
Mike, you can call the death song based on these ratings. The only thing that’s going to happen in the next weeks is that it will have MORE competition because CBS will have new episodes of comedies and Chuck will air on NBC.
I never was optimistic that there’d be a season 3, but now the glass is all the way empty.
BeerVendor, I know that Berman was reporting those markets were excluded from his metered markets results, but I have no information that they were excluded from these fast affiliate overnight numbers.
BeerVendor, I believe they were excluded from the metered markets but not the fast affiliate data used above. Otherwise Gossip Girl may eclipse 4 million,
YAY!!!!!! XD Next target: 4 million! I’m looking forward to see what last week’s GG-bashing OTH fans (heck, any GG-bashing person for that matter) have to say about this.
*jumps & dances for joy*
Somehow I have a feeling Fox is going to be feeling a LOT better after tonight’s “House” season premiere.
Thought something funky might be going on – like with Sunday’s numbers (anyone have finals?) but I still think GG and OTH will hold up okay – after all they actually went up in the finals last week.
Robert or Bill, can you explain something to me, since people keep bringing up markets being excluded?
My understanding is that Nielsen just averages their findings as if those markets don’t exist when they can’t include them. It’s not like anyone who watched there is going to be additional viewers who weren’t counted, they would just change the average. So if 8 markets out of 210 aren’t counted, it would be extremely tough for them to make too much of a difference when they do get counted. Am I correct in how I understand this?
Is it just me, or is a 2.0 rather low for Deal or No Deal?
Robert — Don’t you think it’s also possible that a deal could be struck to produce additional episodes (whether the “back nine” or even like 4 episodes) of TSCC and air those to promote the movie? I agree the show isn’t doing all that well, but the DVD sold well and they could theoretically cut the budget on the back nine to save production costs…
I guess what I’m thinking is, right now, 24 and Dollhouse are both iffy for January (Dollhouse being far more iffy than 24). Fox has nothing in its pipeline that I’m aware of. So as long as TSCC is performing roughly as well as everything else in its timeslot, maybe you just air the 11 remaining episodes as scheduled and then air a certain number of new episodes before T4 comes out.
You know I am not thinking that cross-promo is really a serious thing here – remember this is a small platform (5mil viewers prolly less when more comp) and the movie is prolly going to be big regardless – this kind of expense is likely just out of the ballpark. Not to mention film and TV in the same company are not linked (people seem to believe that companies work like a well oiled machine – look at TimeWarner – how epic fail are they when dealing with their comic books and movie cross over).
Julia, your understanding is similar to mine. And CW just sent out the press release with no note about excluded markets (typically they bring it up if appropriate) GG did a 4.2/12 among women 18-34!
Outlander, I’m not really up on what’s in the pipeline, and it’s possible as you suggest that if nothing is, that aids TSCC. We need to see what the carnage looks like next Monday…
Holly, DOND hasn’t done great in the 18-49 for a while, but I know two weeks ago it had a 2.6, so a 2.0 is low…
Robert,
As has been noted, T4 is not a FOX movie–it’s a WB movie. FOX could care less, and can finally be rid of it once and for all.
It’s too bad that there aren’t more geeks like us. TSCC is truly great writing IMHO.
Julia, since ratings are simply percentages the exclusion of markets shouldn’t have a huge effect unless some excluded metro area was particularly gaga over an individual show. For the viewership numbers though, excluded markets would matter since uncounted viewers are uncounted viewers.
Holly, 2.0 is low, but DoND has never burned up the demos. Look at past weeks, it has always relatively underperformed.
I will now stop posting the exact same thing as Robert, but one minute later and go swap my broken DVR for a new one
Oh -okay maybe that’s why FOX is giving away trucks for 4 weeks during Sarah Connor…problem is; only the viewers that watch the show -know about the contest.
So it may keep the viewers they have but what are they doing to bring in more viewers…DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW THE SARAH CONNOR DVD OF SEASON ONE IS SELLING???
Gossip Girl is doing well. I know it was that hot “have sex with me” promo. I’m willing to boycott next week just because Chuck and Blair didn’t have sex!
But, anyway, I think it will hold up well when all the networks bring in their shows. The CW must be making some sort of profit with they way they treat Gossip Girl. I’m sure of it. It may be all the Vitamin Water Parties they have on the show. Haha.
Mike G,
TSCC is an expensive show that pulled less than 6 mil in a night dominated by reruns. Kevin Reilly (FOX head) said that the audience comes to a show if they like it, despite what else is on the air. If this is truly his view, and not b.s., then this show is a gonner. He even stated it was the DVR ratings that saved the show when it was pulling 10 mil last spring.
Exclusion of the markets SHOULD have a decent effect mainly because statistics based on a flawed sample data makes the results completely flawed. And keep in mind that the Nielsen system already has a flawed sample.
Andrea, and as has been noted, it seems likely that WB did give Fox some incentives with TSCC as a promotional tie-in to the movie. So it’s not at all clear to me that Fox couldn’t care less. While it’s purely speculative on my part, it seems perhaps one of the reasons Fox brought it back to begin with. If they let the 13 run and then kill it and that happens months before the movie, I will sit corrected. But if they put it on hiatus and start showing it again in May, you can probably infer they were paid to promote the movie.
I don’t think FOX is going to mess with what’s already in the can for Sarah & Company…the way the layout is with FOX and the upcoming Baselball playoffs – then Dollhouse & 24 ready to take the stage of Monday nights….hmmm or is Dollhouse filling in for the Fringe hiatus…??
Still looking for Sarah DVD sales status – I heard it’s good – but I guess that won’t matter now?!
BeerVendor, how is the sample flawed? Statistically, Nielsen’s sample is accurate.
Outlander,
FOX has a very full pipeline, actually. Kevin Reilly has been signing a lot of projects, which are in various stages of development. Off the top of my head, Virtuality (the new Ron Moore), Courtroom K, Inseparable (Shaun Cassidy produced, with Tricia Helfer), Lie to Me (with Tim Roth).
TSCC simply can’t survive on Fox with those ratings. It just doesn’t happen. Since starting to monitor TV ratings somewhat, I’m just struck and depressed by how shallow the average viewer seems to be.
Save few exceptions it’s just “amazing” what people are willing to watch in hordes and what they condemn. Such a shame.
Though I’m still hoping for a miracle for TSCC.
The Terminator movie comes out May 22nd, the same day as Night At the Museum 2. Guess which studio it’s from?
Andrea,
You are definitely off the Christmas card list for the Summer Glau fan club on this website! ;p
What bothers me about these ratings are that I’m seeing depressed ratings all around. I don’t have time to compare these ratings to what shows got this time last year, but it’d be an interesting comparison. Last season, the “Cancel or Renew” index said your show needed to hit 92% of your network’s average to get renewed. Here, a 2.0 in the 18-49 demo probably DID so for Fox. Looking at the list, I saw a ton of shows getting an average 5 million or more 18-49 viewers in the 2007-08 season. I don’t know how that number translates to an 18-49 rating share, but I would be shocked if more than one or two shows currently airing on any broadcast network are hitting that number.
It really looks like viewership is way down across the board. I’m not sure how the networks will respond to that.
Julia, Well, yes and no. Because they want to have a range of demographics (age, race, income, education, etc.) represented, they actively seek out the break down they want, which means the sample isn’t completely random. That said, I don’t think that makes a significant difference.
Not only is the sample not random. The sample size is not correct for a good statistical analysis and the sample in no shape or form is an adequate repsentation of viewers.
re: DVD sales for TSCC, it debuted at number 11 (based on revenue, not units) the week ending 8/24 and then dropped to #26 the next week having sold ~105,000 units in two weeks. It then dropped out of the top 30 the week ending 9/7. Here’s the data for the week ending 8/31:
http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/2008/20080831.php
But, Holly, the sample of each demo is randomly selected within that demo. And the demos are only represented as much as they are in the census.
viewership is decidedly not down for Gossip Girl!
Outlander, it does seem somewhat depressed but, ABC and CBS are still running repeats/movies. Next week will be a much better indicator as far as “this year vs. last year”
Although buzz does not always translate into ratings, TSCC strangely never received much buzz. I can’t think of any fan sites devoted to the show, no one of any message boards that I visit talks about the show, it’s very strange to me.
Prison Break is awful and just gets more awful unwatchable.I think the majority of the people are sick of the violent shows and are moving towards funnier stuff look at how well the funny sitcoms did and all of them were repeats.There has been such bad news lately constatntly on tv I think people just want to forget it all and laugh and comedies provide that.
Holly you know what! Fox had a horrible night and I can’t believe i’m typing this, but The CW had a great night. Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill, they’re not my type of shows, but they’re perfect together and the numbers reflect that! With CBS and ABC in repeats and Heroes yet to return, I figure The CW celebrations may be sort lived!
i believe TSCC is in better shape then people think, considering the strategy FOX is using. They only want things to hold up until january when 24, and american idol comes back. Y do you think a medioker prison break keeps getting renewed? because it gets the job done. FOX leans on House throughout the fall, and then in the winter, they always find a way to take it away with idol and 24. so as long as the TSCC ratings arent a disaster, This show may be around for what i call “A FOX Fall holdup” as in… its just holding its own until FOX’s hits come in january.
From what I’m hearing MNF also had one of its best nights ever. Once again it’s showing how much of an effect football has on tv ratings.
Anytime the Cowboys play, the ratings are good. And that game had a lot of offense and was a see-saw battle that was good pretty much until the end. While generally I would say a show like TSCC would be impacted more because it skews towards men, the game didn’t start until 8:30 on the east coast and both half hours performed just about the same. Though especially without anything new on ABC or CBS, the game surely had an impact on broadcast network viewing
I’m really happy about those 3.3 million OTH got. At least they didn’t have to use horrendous sex promos in order to get them
The game might have started at 8:30, but I’m pretty sure that there was a Pregame Show… and with TO’s return against Philly and all the crap that has been talked about McNabb, people tune in just for that.
Gossip girl perks oup?? huh?
Im sorry but less than 4 million viewers is Not good! gossip girl doesnt deserve to get that kind of positive headline considering it still ranked Last in its time slot.
I’M SO HAPPY AFTER SEEING THOSE NUMBER FROM GOSSIP GIRL. I KIND OF LIKE THE SHOW. At first, I thought it was another ridiculous teen drama, and didn`t even give it a chance. But I watched the repeats here in Argentina, and now I love it! Most of the cast really have that “special”, “it” thing that it’s so dificult for a show to achieve this days.
I’d love it if the show gets a 5 million viewers average this season, like the WB used to have. (but that’s unlikely to happen) I THINK THE SHOW GETS AROUND 5 MILLION VIEWERS , BECAUSE A LOT OF TEENS WQATCH THE EPISODES FROM “OTHER” SOURCES
Thanks Robert for the DVD Sarah sales..but as I was looking on the dvd chart…Sarah Season One is between 2 and 3 Million dollars in sales. Although One Tree Hill & Supernatural are around 5 million dollars on their latest seasons of DVD sales…so maybe CW has a back-end money making business for their in-expensive highschool drama shows…possibly keeping them on longer…
Sooo…at least we know the ending—SARAH GETS TERMINATED…
Are you expecting 10, 15 million viewers, huh? Because that’s never going to happen.
…Aargh…I guess enjoy Sarah while it lasts and look forward to 24…I guess Nielson is the new Terminator
FOX is DOA
Im the gossip girl hating person who loves One Tree Hill
but i also love Gossip girl (not as much!) and Prison break!!!
Congrats to gossip girl and OTH!! bad news for Prison Break!!
and by the way.. “I’m looking forward to see what last week’s GG-bashing OTH fans have to say about this” when GG gets over 4m like OTH has done in season 2&4 then we will see
also check this out:
http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/2008/20080831.php
One tree hill season 5 sold double then number of coppies then GG :p
Not to be nit-picky Josh, but OTH sold more in its first week than GG did in its second week, but the two week totals for both are very similar. And both did very well compared to say, TSCC :-/
I think it should also be noted that a good chunk of Texas and Louisiana is without power right now because of the hurricane. Also parts of Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois (or so it was reported) are without power because of the hurricane remnant storms. A lot of people in big markets were not watching TV last night. Could be depressing the overall ratings a little bit.
hey rob..
i noticed after.. oh well
i like both shows anyway!
I don’t watch GG or OTH. It’s just not my thing, but I’m glad they did well in the ratings. I’m even forcing myself through 90210 to do my small little part in trying to save the network long enough to get season 5 of Supernatural.
I don’t think FOX is going for House numbers with TTSCC. Around 7 million viewers would suffice it being renewed for a third season. Prison Break is nearing the end of days though.
the only way I think it could live with 7 million is if it has ~3.0 rating among 18-49 year olds. But since it hasn’t seen 7 million in its first two episodes against less competition than it will face next week, I’m not optimistic. I hope I am wrong.
Prison Breaks ratings are geting lower every week. I’m Affride there going to cancell it. But, It is #3 for it’s timeslot.
I’m another one of those GG lovers…that took all the GG bashing is now doing the HAPPY DANCE!!
Im just hoping CW stays afloat so I can continue to watch Gossip GIrl. (Oh..and I also love GG way more than OTH
…but happy for both since it means CW doing okay…
It looks like Gossip Girl & One Tree Hill have better chance of saving CW than 90210, only time will tell but i think CW will last until at least 2010. Hopefully Smallville and Supernatural return strong.
Hype and PR ARE our collective reality. Sex in the City made 150 million on sheer hype and a strong fanbase. Men and women seem headed for separate but unequal fantasy islands, as a writer for TIME said years ago. The mens’ island is unfortunately, erotically speaking, hard core porn. The soft core male tribe lives on sports. ( In fact, we probably have a whole archipeligo.) These shows, no matter the ” sincere ” critical acclaim, are soaps on steroids, and while I find them gratingly moralistic and sentimental in spite of their spicey reps, they sure beat manhating,far left feminism. Being a boy toy is degrading and unreal, but it is a step up from being liquidated or impugned as a monster.
I think if CW fails, it’s bosses will shut it down and create another channel and it would be called… wait for it… The BS (Bull-shit)
All these shows suck I can’t wait till dancing with the stars and all the cbs shows next week everything new starts.
they need to move TSCC to Wed night
prison break’s quality is worsening and
TSCC’s is improving
If I am the executive of Fox,
I will keep TSCC and move it to another night and announce this is the last season of PB/
TSCC is done. Without a miracle recovery, its 13 episodes and its over.
Last nights episode reminded me of a poorly made episode of AIRWOLF – Season 4 – the both had cheesy episodes involving a nuclear power plant. And thats saying alot. RTN is currently airing Season 4 of AIRWOLF – which was stunning in its awfulness – they killed off the old cast, used only recycled helicopter footage and it was made in Canada. Another comparison would be the final season of the A-TEAM also recently aired on RTN – the season 5 was so bad that when they did a reunion a couple of years ago – nothing about it was ever mentioned and none of the extra actors for that season were invited. The Season 5 theme song was so horrifying there arent words to describe it. Ok, TSCC isnt as bad as those 2 shows swan songs —— yet. Hopefully it will at least get better and go out with some class when the axe falls.
If overall viewership is down for the evening, then that is one thing. If Mon night football started at 8:30, then why would someone watch half a show and then change channels. That’s inconsistent with my viewing habits, but I realize everyone is different. It also seems to me that there is an underlying assumption that Chuck is going to do well next week. We’ll see; I have my doubts. I would love to see the time shifted data for TSCC. If those numbers are good, it might suggest to Fox that it needs to find a new time slot for it. And, the comparison of TSCC’s last episode with long since deceased 80’s shows is puzzling to me. I guess we didn’t watch the same show.
Mike while I really am enjoying catching up on season one of Chuck and think it’s a great show, I have no assumption about how it will perform. I do assume however that TSCC and Chuck and Big Bang Theory, too target similar audiences…I predict Monday Night Football will have more viewers than any of those shows.
Most people were prob watching the pre-game, they never watched TSCC in the first place. I think what we’re seeing is Terminator prob has about two million “casual” viewers who would rather watch football or something else live, and about six million hardcore viewers. Have no idea if a lot of people DVR’d it, but I’m hoping. Can FOX live with this? My gut tells me no, even though it deserves more of a shot than Prison Break and they have the same numbers, but it also tells me that if they got the show away from football it would do a heck of a lot better.
The problem is I don’t see FOX doing much for it’s Monday night shows. Fringe benefited immensely from the carry over from House. There’s no way an extra five million tuned in from word of mouth, it was just new viewers who kept watching after House. Terminator would have done well with a good drama in front of it to help generate new viewers.
Robert, what do you think the chances are of FOX moving TSCC? Or do you think they’ll just let it sink or swim where it’s at? Also, what does FOX have that actually COULD compete with MNF? Would they really want to risk one of their top shows by moving it to Monday night, or chance a new show in that spot? Or do you think they might be content to let TSCC and PB float along and be place holders that’ll try to keep them in second place (18-49yr) for the night? I’m trying to figure if they’ll at least let TSCC have it’s 13 ep run before deciding what to do.
FrankJ, Where would you move TSCC in the Fall if you assume the slot after House is taken?
There aren’t anymore blockbuster Fox scripted shows to follow and their existing Fall schedule (weak or strong, your mileage may vary) is pretty consistently programmed.
Mon-Wed scripted shows, Thu-Sat all unscripted, Sun football postgame + cartoons
I have no idea of the current odds for moving TSCC. We haven’t even seen the first full Monday of real competition yet.
I’m sure Fringe benefited from the House lead-in, though it drew an additional 5.5+ million in the encore Sunday night, and against an NFL game (although an NFL game that averaged a few million less viewers than Monday night), but it’s still the case that the Sunday *repeat* airing of Fringe got more viewers than Monday night’s new airing of TSCC.
I will be surprised if TSCC doesn’t get to air/produce all 13 episodes. I would not be all that surprised if it’s bumped and jerked around and penciled in here and there with long pauses and schedule changes. Sort of like Men in Trees on ABC last year
“I do assume however that TSCC and Chuck and Big Bang Theory, too target similar audiences…I predict Monday Night Football will have more viewers than any of those shows.”
Those are my thoughts exactly. What’s up with all of the geek shows going head to head? It is probably safe to say that Fox would let TSCC run its course in the time slot unless it comes up with something that targets a vastly different audience.
Regarding Fringe: since it is drawing such high numbers, do you think that Fox would consider flipping it with TSCC as an experiment? Or, do you think they won’t want to risk it? Is it too soon to say that Fringe can sail on its own?
Robert, I read that the repeat of Fringe also had with it trailers for The Day The Earth Stood Still, the 24 movie, and the first few minutes of Tuesday’s new Fringe episode. I would also imagine it received more advertising love from FOX than anything they showed for the Terminator premiere. It wasn’t just a repeat. But yes, you are right that 5.5 million for an encore is pretty dang good!
Bill, I’d like to see Terminator paired with Fringe or even Bones. I really don’t think PB viewers watch Terminator, or vice versa. Neither of those shows helps the other.
That said, I was wondering what you guys think of the news that both PB and Terminator are doing crazy download numbers on bittorrent right now. Fans catching up on missed shows because they watched football? Or has this always been happening and it’s the first I’m hearing of it?
Frank, I think that’s a reasonable strategy. Load up your strong shows and “circle the wagons” so to speak, and then put your weak shows together and leave them for dead.
Networks typically seem to do the opposite, pairing strong with weak (or new) and hoping that sampling of the weaker makes it stronger. I’m not sure they do this with any real quantitative back up other than “that’s always the way its been done”.
On the other hand Robert and I both believe that the CW has abandoned the shows it has programmed on Fridays this season (Everybody Hates Chris, The Game), and put them there to wither together, so perhaps that strategy will catch on
I think the big BitTorrent numbers for those two shows are relatively recent. I was certainly following those numbers earlier this year to the extent I’m following them now and I don’t recall big numbers for them alerting me.
I think the question then is, does FOX follow the BitTorrent numbers? And if so, what does that mean to them?
I mean they obviously keep track of their online episode viewing for their own site, and I hear that FOX is pretty tapped in to the buzz online for their shows. Have to wonder if this will track on their radar that something is amiss in programming land, considering tons of people are downloading their shows in spite of people having trouble tuning in live.
it is likely that at least someone in the legal department follows the bittorrent list. It’s also likely that it means something to the PR people. But I doubt that the people in charge of making programming decisions pay any attention to it whatsoever. Advertising interest gets their attention, and I’m sure DVD sales are sometimes on the radar. Illegal downloads? No chance.