Update 8:50am PDT: House, even though it was down to 12.143 million viewers easily won the hour among 18-49 year olds with a 5.0/14 (second place NCIS had a 3.5) and destroyed the field among 18-34 year olds with a 4.7/15 (Biggest Loser was second in that demo for the hour with a 2.2/7). Fringe retained a good bit of House’s viewers with 9.651 million and had a 4.2/10 among 18-49 year olds (second for the hour only to DWTS w/4.5/11. Fringe also destroyed the field among 18-34 year olds with a 4.0/11 — The Mentalist had 15.549 million viewers, but a 3.5/9 among 18-49 year olds, and only a 1.9/5 among 18-34 year olds… Bill will have the full overnight rankings up shortly…P.S. 90210 dropped ever so slightly below 3 million viewers… The full overnight post (at least the full data table) is now up here.
First…Felicia Day was on House! Not only that, we got to see her with the top of her head sawed off and her brain exposed. How cool is that? For those who don’t know, Ms. Day was some kind of actress on some Web video shows, but to be honest I’d never heard of her until the Joss Whedon produced Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Though I liked Dr. Horrible, the thing that impressed me the most about her is her seeming love of geekdom and her participation on services like Twitter and FriendFeed. Though I haven’t really followed either of those services in weeks, seeing her level of participation on such services over the summer was pretty cool. It seems that she is building a real acting career by leveraging the Internet and if that lands you next to Dr. House, you’re doing something right. Congratulations, Felicia!
Ok, keeping in mind as ever that these early metered market numbers are very subject to change and that the data we’ll see in the fast affiliate reports later will (while still being preliminary) be more telling…
CBS looks to have won the first real Tuesday of the television season with NCIS (10.6/17, household rating/share) a strong debut by The Mentalist (10.2/15) and Without a Trace (7.7/12). Dancing with the Stars easily won the 9p-11p with an 11.8/18.
A two hour The Biggest Loser had a 4.7/7 between 8p-10p. One of Mr. Gorman’s favorites, Law & Order SVU finished third at 10pm with a 6.7/11, but will likely beat Without a Trace (if past history is an indicator) among 18-49 year olds.
House seems to have dropped a bit to a 7.8/13, but will likely still be very strong among 18-49 and 18-34 year olds. Fringe appears to have dropped even more — up against the premiere of The Mentalist with a 6.3/9, Despite what appears will be many fewer viewers it’s possible Fringe beats The Mentalist among 18-49 year olds. The question is, if it doesn’t, will Fox continue to refer to Fringe as a “smash hit?” Stay tuned…
And to show the CW some love, 90210 seems to be holding up with Gossip Girl style numbers (2.4/4) against the increased competition while Privileged is having more problems with a 1.7/2. Of course the CW is mostly interested in holding up in the women 18-34 demographic, and while we will see the aggregate 18-34 demo numbers, we won’t see the 18-34 female numbers until CW shares them with us…
The full overnight post with total viewers and age demo breakouts will be posted as soon as we’ve seen the data.
Fox rellly having trouble this fall
their comedies , new series perform poorly…(expected)
The worst thing is, their established series(fifth grader, house, prison break , TSCC) all declined. They are off by about 20% comparing to last fall.
The Mentalist really is a generic CBS procedural, but with a twist. What makes it work is Simon Baker. I’m happy for him after the “Smith” debacle.
Question about DWTS at 11.8/8: how can the share be so low compared to its competition?
Andrea , i think it should be 11.8/18
Andrea, user error (with the user being named Robert) it was an 18 share. I’ll fix it, thanks.
The “science” and plot of Fringe is taking a pounding on some of the sites I’ve been reading. I was kind of surprised. I haven’t actually watched the show yet, but Abrams did so well with Alias and Lost, I expected this thing to be a hit.
Nuts. Privileged is a wonderful series and deserves better ratings.
LOST is much easier to watch then FRINGE for some reason… I don’t know, I think it’s like Abrams is trying to make FRINGE TOO MUCH like LOST or something. Also the characters and story telling of LOST destroys FRINGE…so yeah.
FrankJ,
That’s what FOX gets for signing a series, pilot unseen. Just because it’s attached to Abrams, doesn’t mean it’s going to be good (and I think Abrams is a hack).
Any problem with Fringe is secondary to the horrible casting choice of Anna Torv.
Frank, I have enjoyed Fringe and will stick with it. I don’t mind all the fake science because it’s a fictional television. However, there are a lot of crackpots in the world who reallllly believe a lot of this stuff is true (not TV fiction) and I imagine that some of the science pounding is from reasonable people who are upset that this show will only fuel the crackpots.
Plot-wise its definitely not as compelling as Lost so far, but it’s more of a procedural than a serial (though there is a longer story arc) so I’ll give it a bit more time.
Ugh. Privileged keeps falling and I dont know why! Its a great series with a lot more substance than CW makes it out to be. The marketing for the show is horrible and will probably end up being its downfall. If CW didn’t spend all of their money on 90210, they could’ve had a real hit on their hands, like Gilmore Girls was.
*sigh*
Hopefully DVR numbers are large enough to make up for the absence of live viewing…
As a House and Fringe fan, I admit disappointment here. Still, for CBS, the Tuesday at 10 p.m. timeslot seems to show a significant drop-off from the 8:00 and 9:00 hours. Mr. Seidman, you are correct in the “past history is any indicator” comment not only for 18-19 demographics, but for overall CBS prospects in that timeslot. It’s the timeslot that “killed every show since Judging Amy (Roush)” for CBS. Time will tell – but I won’t be surprised if Without a Trace is on the chopping block this year.
Robert,
Yeah, the story telling is exactly like X-Files… myth episode one week, “monster of the week” the next.. but then there’s the “LOST” feel that it has.. and it’s not really working for me right now.
oh btw, I’m dying for more LOST. lol..
Clutz, WAT’s numbers are not spectacular, but not chopping block bad.
Cookson,
From what I’ve seen of Fringe, it’s trying to tell too much too soon. X-Files (which I watched from the beginning until the time Lucy Lawless appeared), took seasons to develop its mythology. Things really didn’t get going until the cliffhanger in Season 1.
Also, what’s up with the medical McGyverism in Fringe? (I say this all with obvious bias).
CBS shold have never moved WITHOUT A TRACE from Thursdays 10pm (it’s initial timeslot when it premiered in 2002). BUT THEY KEEP TRYING TO GET A HIT ON THAT TIMESLOT. But it’s not just that, the quality of the show has also declined since last season.
I din’t think it was possible to add more crime dramas to the CBS lineup, apparently it is.
Well… I think basically every show is getting less viewers now. People must have learned to sleep a little earlier or something.
Cookson,
Mediaweek says NCIS is up in viewers compared to its premiere last year.
I updated the post at the top with some numbers from the fast affliates, but NCIS had 17.718 million total viewers 3.5/10 among 18-49 year olds and 1.8/5 among 18-34 year olds.
Wow, that’s pretty big for The Mentalist, at least in total viwers. Will that be the biggest premiere for a new show this season, do you think?
Julia, you don’t think Knight Rider can beat that?
So Fringe and House both did well in the demos; that should keep FOX from tearing their hair out.
Very impressive debut for The Mentalist. I would expect those numbers to drop next week, but Simon Baker may finally have himself a full season show.
Ha, right. But even if this were some alternate universe where it could, it wouldn’t count. Knight Rider already had its premiere.
I’ve known Felicia Day from Buffy. She played one of the Potential Slayers named Vi.
Through Dr. Horrible, I’ve learned about her web series The Guild. It’s about a group of MMORPG (online role-playing game) addicts. I’ve only seen the first minute of The Guild so far, and already loved it. Will have to take the time to watch the rest sometime. She’s a true geek as you’ve noticed Robert, so it’s no surprising that she was able to portray geeks so accurately.
Sorry for this little commercial, but Felicia really is something special. A beautiful voice too, as witnessed in Dr. Horrible.
Ouch. Privileged had 1.86 million viewers and a 0.9/2 in the demo, according to Marc Berman. Very disappointing. Even with additional DVR viewers — if they arrive in large numbers — it looks like Privileged will be this season’s Life is Wild for The CW.
I cannot for the life of me understand why House is doing so poorly this season. Are millions of viewers so fed up with the lack of Cameron/Chase/Foreman that they just gave up on the series? As for Fringe, it obviously is only doing well because of House. If it cannot stand on its own, does it deserve a full season?
I agree with Andrea’s point that Fringe is trying to “do too much too fast.” We are allowed no serious time to get to know the characters, to identify with them, or to care about them. At the same time, we have investigations of “weird events” (all of which seem to involve gory things happening to people) which almost always lead to – drum roll, please – “The Pattern.” I leave the episodes feeling confused, and not the kind of confused that leaves me chomping at the bit for next week’s episode.
As an aside, I hope we find out how Fringe’s three episode “limited commercial interruption” events have affected Fox’s bottom line. It’s an interesting concept and I’d be curious to see if it gets more broadly adopted within Fox or with other networks.
P.S. Tonight is “Knight Rider.” Zap2it has an episode review up that totally slams the show. If the show is going to be cheesy, it better have the Hoff and a gratuitous use of blondes in bikinis, that’s all I’ve got to say.
Hello guys. Sorry to veer off topic here, but are numbers for last Sunday’s True Blood available? I can’t find them anywhere.
Outlander beyond the anecdotal data that we have that advertisers are willing to pay premiums on the remaining spots, I doubt we’ll see any data. The test will be whether more shows pick this up and whether Fox sticks with it next year. If those things happen we can probably assume no bad impact to revenues, but that will take a while for us to find out.
Anecdotally, most of the spots are 60 or 90 seconds, which are by no means “remote free” from my 30 second skip button. But the 70 second spot is problematic for my remote. I expect to see more of those…
Itsnotme — it was not among the top 40 show data and I didn’t see them elsewhere.
Robert, thanks for the quick reply.
NCIS’ season premiere was fantastic! Well worth being in suspense all summer long.
fox having trouble this fall may make them appreciate american idol a bit more. I think the top show Still doesnt get the credit it deserves!! (im still kind of annoyed about the 4th judge, I liked it Just the way it was!!)