| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.87 | 11.07 | 8.54 | 6.63 | 4.10 | 2.72 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 5.0/13 | 3.0/8 | 2.9/8 | 1.9/5 | 1.5/4 | 1.4/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 3.9/11 | 1.9/6 | 2.7/8 | 1.5/4 | 1.6/4 | 1.7/5 |
ABC dominated the night with the 42nd annual CMA Awards. ABC had the most viewers and the best age demographic performance in both the 18-49 and 18-34 demos. Update: see data below in the comments for past year’s CMA viewership, while like all other award shows, it’s down from its heyday, but the award for “most stabilized award show ratings” may go to the CMAs.
CBS was second, and while the 8pm-9pm comedy block has not caught fire yet it fared at least a bit better than last week. Criminal Minds actually performed better this week than last, so there was no CMA effect there, though CSI: NY was down a few viewers and a couple of tenths among 18-49 year olds.
Meanwhile Fox’s Bones picked up steam at 8pm, bettering last week’s numbers across the board, particularly among 18-34 year olds.
Bad news for NBC. It’s not having much fun wallowing in fourth place. And though I like the show Life and have seen every episode, the numbers stink! It didn’t even get a 2.0 among 18-49 year olds, and worse still is that Law & Order barely did (ok, I exaggerate, it got a 2.2 rating among 18-49 year olds). Knight Rider slightly bettered itself versus last week. Slightly. Life had nearly the identical amount of viewers but was down an important two-tenths among 18-49 year olds.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | ABC | 42nd Annual CMA Awards | 15.40 | 4.5/12 | 3.3/10 |
| FOX | Bones | 10.87 | 3.5/10 | 3.1/9 | |
| CBS | The New Adventures of Old Christine | 6.88 | 2.0/6 | 1.2/4 | |
| NBC | Knight Rider | 5.34 | 1.5/4 | 1.4/4 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.25 | 1.5/4 | 1.5/5 | |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model | 3.71 | 1.9/5 | 2.4/7 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Gary Unmarried | 6.71 | 2.1/5 | 1.3/4 |
| 9:00 | ABC | 42nd Annual CMA Awards | 16.69 | 5.4/13 | 4.2/11 |
| CBS | Criminal Minds | 14.80 | 3.8/10 | 2.5/7 | |
| FOX | House (R) | 6.22 | 2.4/6 | 2.2/6 | |
| NBC | Life | 5.83 | 1.8/5 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 4.95 | 1.9/5 | 2.1/6 | |
| CW | Stylista | 1.73 | 0.9/2 | 1.0/3 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | 42nd Annual CMA Awards | 15.53 | 5.2/13 | 4.3/12 |
| CBS | CSI: NY | 11.62 | 3.1/8 | 2.1/6 | |
| NBC | Law & Order | 7.91 | 2.2/6 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Don Francisco Presenta | 3.11 | 1.2/3 | 1.2/3 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
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.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
Bye bye, Knight Rider. Man, what is NBC down to at this point?
wow, do the CMA’s always do this well?
JT, To answer your question, yes. And they used to do a *lot* better. I decided not to do a CMA chart, but here is the viewership history for the show (excuse the formatting):
Year Viewers
2007 15,950,000
2006 15,962,000
2005 17,733,000
2004 18,456,000
2003 20,748,000
2002 17,610,000
2001 17,795,000
2000 16,633,000
1999 18,813,000
1998 18,367,000
1997 20,699,000
1996 22,237,000
1995 19,613,000
1994 23,197,000
1993 27,244,000
1992 31,241,000
1991 30,925,000
1990 27,200,000
1989 26,647,840
1988 25,400,780
1987 25,610,000
1986 27,921,920
1985 27,460,000
1984 18,380,000
1983 31,950,000
1982 35,490,000
1981 29,400,000
1980 29,740,000
1979 31,889,940
1978 36,010,000
1977 28,476,800
1976 34,389,360
1975 27,994,680
1974 33,222,400
1973 28,623,000
1972 29,880,900
1971 25,841,900
1970 N/A
1969 23,380,000
What happened in 1984?
Julia, I have no idea. It was about the same date (mid-Oct) and network (CBS) and time (9:30pm) as surrounding years, but the information I have ends there.
I can’t wait to see NBC’s midseason schedule and whether Ben Silverman will still be around to watch it unfold
Sundays: Stable with football.
Mondays: Heroes in free fall, rest of night is a disaster.
Tuesdays: Stable with The Biggest Loser and L&O:SVU.
Wednesdays: Complete disaster. What happened to L&O?
Thursdays: Half and half. The Office holding the fort for the rest of the comedies and ER (maybe NBC should rethink this being ER’s last season).
Fridays: Complete and utter disaster.
I don’t know how NBC can even fix this. Veterans L&O: SVU and ER are the only dramas working–The Office is really the only comdedy. The Biggest Loser is stable and Deal or No Deal is in free fall.
Well ABC’s lineup is only a little better. They have also been losing viewers this year. They are so nervous they can’t even rollout their Winter schedule on time. The press has been reporting the changes but ABC won’t confirm.
Lynne,
At least ABC can point to Desperate Houswives, Gray’s Anatomy and DWTS. What can NBC point to?
Once again LIFE did better than KNIGHT RIDER. I think fans gave KR a chance and it just didn’t deliver. What have we learned lately from NBC?
That reviving programs like BIONIC WOMAN & KNIGHT RIDER is a brilliant idea. Old fans tune in and the pilots are hugely watched. What else have we learned from NBC? It is one thing to revive an old program and it’s another to piss all over their graves. Both were supposed to be “improvements,” on much simpler programs. There is a saying about catching lightning in a bottle, but what I think this just really proves is that Network Executives are complete idiots. They have NO idea what works or why. They get lucky when a show is a hit.
Andrea, NBC has Sunday Night Football.
They don’t really have anything good in the wings either except for MERLIN, and who knows how they’ll treat that program.
i agree with Nick C reviving Knight rider and bionic woman were good ideas. i think bionic woman shouldve been given another 13 eps this yr. it wasnt as bad as knight rider is.
Sunday Night Football ends at the end of December. After that only the Super Bowl remains to keep NBC out of the ratings abyss.
Nick C:
Well, if KR is canceled, The Partridge Family (as a single cam) is already in the works.
There is a saying about catching lightning in a bottle, but what I think this just really proves is that Network Executives are complete idiots. They have NO idea what works or why. They get lucky when a show is a hit.
–But does anyone know what will be a hit and what won’t?
I don’t know if reviving Knight Rider as a series was brilliant, but when they revived it as a made for TV movie and it pulled good numbers…on a Saturday, it seemed a foregone conclusion that they’d give it a try. For a while this season it had some mojo with the male demos, and even last night it fared better with 18-34 and 18-49 men than the CBS comedy block, but for a while it was beating Bones in the male demos but last night Bones did 75%+ better in those demos.
“That reviving programs like BIONIC WOMAN & KNIGHT RIDER is a brilliant idea.”
I thought Nick C. was being sarcastic.
Bones is doing amazing and everything else is on average with previous numbers.
CSI NY is really weak
It seems NBC is going the route CBS did with their two Wednesday comedies: be patient and hope the numbers improve. And for once, it may pay off.
To be fair, last week was this new “Crime Night”s premiere. This week, the CMA’s had huge numbers, even the CBS dramas had noticable dips from their season averages.
If NBC is patient, they *may* be able to build an audience with this lineup. And it may also actually be fairly good counterprogramming once the Idol spaceship lands.
I wish they would revive the A Team… Except Mr. T is too old now, and nobody can replace Mr. T.
Andrea, I was not being sarcastic. Both KR and BW did extremely well in their first viewing. The numbers were strong enough to say “that was a great idea.” The problem was execution. People tuned in once for a reason. The Network was unable to capitalize on that reason.
BSG is doing well for Sci Fi. I think that show is another perfect example of a program being rebooted proving that if done right it could be exceptional. I don’t think BSG was done right either though. I think they did just enough right to keep it from flopping, but just enough wrong from keeping it from being a truly big hit.
ABC rebooted “The Night Stalker,” a while back. The idea of rebooting an old series for a modern audience is not a bad idea. It just has to be done right. At some point someone is going to do it right.
Outlander, The A Team is currently in production for a big screen release in 2009.
The last two weeks has had Old Christine up against stiff competition; last week with Dancing and this week with CMA’s. Hopefully, when the schedule goes back to regular programming, Old Christine will build back up to the previous 8 million it was getting.
I pity the fool who thinks Mr. T is too old to play Mr. T!
You’ve gotta feel sorry for NBC this season.
They’ve had some good news
-SNL big boost
-30 Rock’s good ratings
-The Office holding on
-Sunday Night Football
-ER looking good
-L&O still strong
-Biggest loser big as ever.
But mostly bad news
-Heroes in freefall
-Chuck down significantly
-Knight Rider far down from TV movie.
-Life doing worse than last season
-My Name is Earl falling
-Kath & Kim tanking
-My Own Worst Enemy failing
-Lipstick Jungle doing even worse than last season
-Crusoe tanking
-Deal or No Deal tanking on Fridays
Man. Poor NBC.
Good show, the CMAs. I didn’t get to see all of it, but I liked what I saw. Of course, it’s kind of a prerequisite that you have to like country music.
But it looks like there are quite a few of us who do.
Looking forward to SMALLVILLE & CSI tonight !!!!
Also Next Top Model beat Knight Rider in the demo, did they last week as well? NBC is just looking worse and worse every week.
I heard MOWE and Lipstick Jungle got cancelled from more than one source. The rest of NBC’s anemic line-up should follow suit.
I agree with Steve C– Bionic Woman should have been given an additional 13. The show had a fantastic premise weighed down (ultimately, fatally) by piss poor writing and a craptastic lead star. If even one of those were corrected, I think NBC would have seen BW pulling in decent ratings.
Nick, last week Knight Rider was beaten by both Top Model and Cuidado con el Angel. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/11/06/wednesday-night-ratings-post-election-blahs-or-just-broadcast-tv/7703
Right there with you on NBC Johnthemon…but even your good news is laced with bad when you dig a little deeper.
(-)SNL Big boost (Fey isn’t a regualar….the Palin hype will fade along with ratings)
(could go either way + or (-) 30 Rock’s good ratings(can the Fey hype stay here since its a full time job for her?)
(+)The Office is holding on (yes it is…all positives here!)
(+)SN Football (its no MNF but it pays the bills)
(-)ER looking good… but also…looking GONE.(funny how people wanted this show killed years ago and its still a decent performer in a planned final season giving writers time to finish how they want).
(-)Law & Order still looking good. Yes..compared to other shows on NBC…but terrible compared to its glory days.
(+) Biggest Loser strong as ever. There will always be something in the reality genre to patch holes for each network for limited lengths of time before the buzz dies. Biggest Loser or something like it will be important for NBC going forward.
To me NBC needs to do something absolutely shocking and groundbreaking to avoid becoming #4 behind FOX as an overall weekly network. We’re talking something that hasn’t been thought of as a television concept before this. Reality shows were a huge key to CBS’s dominance in the early 2000’s. Before being paired with Survivor Australia it was getting an average of 17 million viewers. After that it bumped up to 23 mil the for season 2 and kept growing for the next 4 or 5 years.
Im not sure what it would be that could pull this off and become an anchor to rebuild around.
Perhaps they could:
1. just air nothing but video streams of random people watching CBS.
2. NBC-3D!! Much maligned movie Jaws 3D becomes a holiday staple similar to airings of “Its a Wonderful Life” or “The Ten Commandments”
3. N-othing
B-ut
C-ookies
Every television in the country is filled and refilled with cookie dough on a weekly basis that the viewer can watch being baked and then drop them out of the bottom in a little tray and FREAKING EAT THEM!
4. Get rights from CBS for Baby Bob franchise…Get rights from ABC for Caveman franchise….get rights from UPN/CW for “Homeboys in Outerspace”
5. HIRE HYPNOTOAD!!
NBC needs only two things: ‘High profile dramas’ and ‘multicamera comedies’
Pushing Daisies canceled?
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/11/death_stalks_abcs_pushing_dais.php
I’m with you on the Nothing But Cookies idea, Gleebo. Combine that with Biggest Loser 4 nights a week (the viewing public will need inspiration to work off all the calories NBC has added to their diet), and I think we have a winner!
Hibberd and TV Week are just waiting around for the official word like the rest of us. But we’ve already done so many “Pushing Daisies Cancelled?” posts, I felt it better to just wait until it was actually cancelled before doing another one!
Gleebo: The National Biscuit Company says hi.
LAW & ORDER is not doing well at all. L&O:SVU on the other hand is doing well.
I think NBC could easily turn the network around. Just replace their head with a good one.
Also anyone else notice that CW’s ratings are so bad this year, that a show like REAPER would actually be one of their top shows this season? Better than Stylista and PRIVILEGED.
Not only that Nick, but the fact that the CW only programs 10 shows/week (as opposed to the 3 from MRC) means that Reaper’s only got to beat 5 shows to be “one of their top shows”
My sense is that CW is happy with Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill, disappointed in 90210, very disappointed in Privileged, satisfied but not ecstatic about ANTM, and definitely starting to think about pulling the plug on Stylista. The CW is trying the Privileged after Gossip Girl experiment and I like that they are, though I think they waited MUCH too long to pull the trigger on that experiment. Flip-flopping Privileged and OTH could potentially work out, I think OTH will be fine in either slot. They need something else after ANTM, and it’s not going to be Reaper.
The problem with Reaper is it looks like the only day they can air it is Thursdays, unless they get Sundays back, which does seem increasingly likely. Edit for Bill’s comment above: There’s no way the CW won’t be programming Sundays again soon, the question is whether they merely program it with repeats or air anything new there.
REAPER pulled better numbers on TUESDAY than their current TUESDAY show. I just don’t see how PRIVILEGED can do better after GOSSIP GIRL than after 90210? Isn’t that the same type of lead in? I think the CW would love the extra 750,000 viewers and a 1.2 average in the 18-49 compared to the 0.9 it’s pulling.
I know the CW had hoped REAPER would do better and be able to move to THURSDAY after SMALLVILLE ends its run.
Heck, right now the CW is wishing they hadn’t canceled VERONICA MARS, that show would be a top show today!
I miss Reaper. Was among the few suprisies I picked up last season.
It just gets worse and worse for NBC doesn’t it?
On an NBC note can they really afford to axe all of these failing shows? Just in terms of how expensive it will be to produce pilots and get a huge number of new shows off the ground at once could they actually afford to do it? How many scripted shows does NBC have in the toilet right now?
My Own Worst Enemy (cancelled)
Lipstick Jungle (cancelled)
Chuck
Knight Rider
Life
Crusoe
Law & Order
Kath & Kim
Plus you’ve got shows like My Name Is Earl and Heroes which are both struggling and no one knows if 30 Rock can sustain the ‘Sarah Palin effect‘. And you’ve got Deal or No Deal dying a slow painful death and ER is gone after this year as well.
NBC already have to fill three hours with brand new shows next year (MOWE, LJ and ER) how many more shows can they realistically afford to cancel this year? Surely some of these shows that are underperforming will have to stick around just because NBC can’t afford to launch 10+ new shows next year?
Nick, agree that GG and 90210 are similar, but GG is doing ~25% better among 18-34 year old females. Not sure that amounts to a big help for Privileged, but it’s worth trying. I agree Reaper would outperform Stylista or Privileged even in the current schedule, but I’m willing to bet lunch you will not see Reaper follow either 90210 or ANTM, at least while Dawn Ostroff is at the helm. What’s going to go on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (and of course, Mondays) are shows targeted at young women.
Gleeba,
Ha ha, very funny list. I like this one best:
1. just air nothing but video streams of random people watching CBS.
Oh, NBC did you really think axing pilots was a good idea? How else do you get an idea of a shows quality unless you produce an ep? Oh. Wait. You’re not very good at that are you: green lighting KR even after it got horrible feedback from its TV movie. (but good numbers: all those people who watched and disliked it were obviously lying and were going to keep coming back for more.)
You want to know what shows do well: procedurals(think house and CSI), you’ve got L&O and ER but ER is gone, and relatable sitcoms(2.5 men and the simspsons), of which you have the office, everything else is too insider(30Rock) or White trash or Bad(K&K). Stop taking chances and green light those types of shows. It’ll work
I liked that one, too Gleebo, and it has potential for spinoffs: The new hit on NBC everyone is talking about “Big Brother’s Brother”: our cameras air nothing but video streams of random people watching CBS’ ‘Big Brother’.
Dave,
Procedurals seem to work only on CBS. Life (a great show and better than any procedural on CBS) is flailing on NBC. Life on Mars is doing 3rd place numbers on ABC. Procedurals don’t seem to work on FOX, although they will try again with “Lie to Me”.
What NBC is lacking is a strong identity. What is “NBC”?
Andrea, I don’t know about anyone else, but I still think of NBC as the place to go for comedy, even if there are only two shows I watch on the network. The 90s are hard to shrug off, I guess.
Julia, I still think of NBC as the place for comedy as well. 30 Rock is the only comedy I watch, anywhere
Not even Weeds? I’m disappointed.
Ah, I watch Entourage too, but I don’t think of HBO as the “place for comedy”. I am one of the Seinfeld generation.
Bill doesn’t do Showtime. At this point, there are more programs I watch on Showtime than HBO. Dexter, Californication and Weeds (when its in season) vs. Entourage. But Entourage has been great this season.
Well, it looks like CBS Mondays have stolen NBC’s Must See TV. I wonder if NBC passed on hits like 2 1/2 Men or the other core CBS comedies?
NBC just might have been dealt bad luck in trying to find the next “Friends”. It tried over and over and failed.
What’re you talking about Andrea? FOX’s two (maybe even three if you count Fringe) biggest shows on the air right now are procedurals! They’re having better luck now with procedurals than they are with serials.
I gave up on Entourage after season 3 part 1. I hear it got better, but it doesn’t take much to lose me. But I will be watching Curb Your Enthusiasm when it returns.
As for Showtime, Weeds and Dexter for me, though I’m behind on Dexter. Lost me in the beginning of the season, and I haven’t gotten up the enthusiasm to watch anymore.
I’m with Vader. House beat every procedural on CBS among 18-49 year olds; including CSI the last time there was a more or less normal week’s schedule (week ending 11/2). If my back of the envelope scratching is correct, Bones would trail CSI, CSI: Miami and The Mentalist, but beat every other CBS procedural in the 18-49 demo.
Julia, Dexter isn’t nearly as good as season’s 1 & 2. It lacks the “tension” and pace those seasons had, but it’s better than I thought it would be.
I don’t blame you for bailing on Entourage — the last couple of seasons paled compared to the first two, but I recommend giving season four a look.
And while I wait with somewhat baited breath to hear the fates of Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money, that should’ve said I recommend giving season five a look.
I was wondering.
WOW, Garry Un-Married did bad this week with presure from CMA! Yipee, Good News for Worst Week!!
“NBC needs only two things: ‘High profile dramas’ and ‘multicamera comedies’”
May not always work. The Office and 30 Rock are single camera non-laugh track comedys that are doing well now.
Don’t you mean give season five a look? Last couple of seasons were Season 3 Part One, and then last summer’s duo of Season 3 Part Two/Season 4. I think they lost the plot after the first part of the third season but they definitely have made a creative resurgence in the new season. It’s worth sitting through the semi-tolerable S4 episodes to help enjoy S5. Other great comedies like Sunny, Curb & South Park have pretty much tail-spinned and seem to get worse with each passing episode.
I think NBC should become a 24hour channel. With limmited airtime for local news.
This network/affiliate system needs to end.
That would be something “shocking and groundbreaking” That way the channel will be NBC all day, every day (In some cities the local station has a totally different name, and they don´t use the network’s name or logo) .
By doing this, they can air national promos at ALL TIMES. And theres’s more space for repeats.
I think all the BROADCAST NETWORKS should do this, in order to become more like cable channels, they might even get some younger viewers.
Is this possible?
UNIVISION would be an example of a 24hours network (it`s not 24 hours, but it airs national programming most of the time) Most UNI stations only have news as local programming.
I sure am glad NBC gave the enormous successes, Knight Rider and Life, a back nine order against that oh so difficult competition! Suck on that 1.9, you morons.
Vader, actually it was a 1.5.
I think Vader meant the average for the night.
Not really relevant, but does anyone know if this has any validity?
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-foxreportedlyendingprisonbreak,0,245579.story
Noah, Hollywood reporter had the same story. Who knows if it’s real or not.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i85a08b80d9eabe09d144c69c15574339
Anyone interested in funding the money to greenlight my N-othing B-ut C-ookies idea?
We all knew NBC was gonna miss Friends, Will & Grace, and Seinfeld but good lord the loss of those shows has pretty much killed an entire network in less than a decade.
Right now NBC would probably welcome a show that does what Scrubs did….was able to pull of low but steady ratings no matter what night or time you slapped it on. It was always a little less than mediocre in the ratings but at least they could depend on similar numbers no matter where they put it.
Although, I didn’t follow this website over the summer, maybe NBC should consider pulling over some of their cable shows, such as Monk, Psych and Burn Notice? Maybe, if for no other reason, than to try to get exposure for the shows when they come back on USA, then if they don’t pull the ratings on NBC, it’s no loss, since you’ve already aired that episode on cable.
I think procedurals are the way to go. CSI, Law & Order, etc type shows. I am a huge fan of the CSI franchise, probably my favorite on TV. The best reason? The majority of storylines end at the end of the show. Sure, there is some bleed over and character-driven storylines to the next episode, but for the most part, each episode wraps up after 60 minutes (or 44 if you DVR). It’s great, because if you miss a week, you haven’t missed an entire hour of storyline (such as Heroes, Desperate Housewives, Lost, etc.) and you know what to expect.
But I agree with the other posts. NBC has to try to carve out their niche, and capitalize. I don’t even think NBC anymore when I think comedy. I think CBS Mondays. When I think soap-style dramas, I think ABC. When I think procedurals, I think CBS. When I think reality shows, I think CBS.
On another front, do you think NBC’s lack of quality sports programming has anything to do with it? Think about it for a second. Yes, they have Sunday Night Football. ABC has college football on a Saturday, which they can run ads for shows if they wish. They also broadcast NBA on weekends. Fox and CBS have NFL and they promote shows heavily during that. But, truly, on the weekend, what sports does NBC have? Action Sports Tour. Notre Dame football. Some PGA Tour golf. NHL in the winter months. A lot of your 18-49 demo, especially men, would be watching sports on the weekends.
Jim, past attempts at airing Monk & Pysch (and Law & Order: CI) on NBC were not really successful. There was a whole lot of that last year during the writer’s strike. I’d like to see them try with Burn Notice, though whether it would wind up doing any better than Life is hard to say, but I think it has more mass appeal.
Your point about NBC being weak in weekend sports is true, but it’s hard to know if it has any real impact. Theoretically Sunday Night Football makes up for that in terms of promoting other shows. What they lose is what CBS and Fox do a lot of: promoting the *Sunday* night shows (they promote other shows too, but they are big on promoting what’s on Sunday nights).
NBC didn’t promote MONK or PSYCH though. It was kind of like “Ok, we’ll air it on Sunday Nights and not tell anyone.” MONK is imho past its prime. Of the main three USA shows only BURN NOTICE to me would have the ability to do well.
If it was on CBS it would be getting 10M+ viewers, etc. It’s the perfect CBS show. It’s a procedural starring old people.
Burn Notice is a procedural starring old people? I’ll give you Sharon Gless and I suppose that by itself gets it to 10 million on CBS!
In the case of “Law & Order” (original series), it needs to be remembered that NBC moved up the premiere for this season by two months of 10 days notice (the premiere was originally slated for January), and many people were caught completely off guard by that (especially since the premiere was the night following the Presidential election). Many TV listings in fact did not even have “Law & Order” listed for Wednesday at 10:00 PM ET/PT the past couple of weeks, so unless people were watching NBC or one of its sister channels, they may not even be aware that “L & O” (original) is back yet. The fact “L & O” also was directly opposite the third hour of the CMA awards did not help matters either, nor did it being opposite the finish of Portland-Miami and the start of Houston-Phoenix, the NBA doubleheader on ESPN). Also, the episodes of “L & O” have aired in Canada the night before airing in the US, so those who have access to CTV in Canada likely saw “L & O” on Tuesday night before it aired on NBC.
I suspect “L & O” will be safe because that always does well in repeats, and I suspect people also may not realize it is back yet.
Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) is 40. “Old people” (in the TV world) indeed.
Bill, yes Jeffrey is 40 but Sharon is 65, Bruce is 50, and Gabby is 38.
In Hollywood, that’s practically an “ancient,” cast. It fits perfect for CBS. It’s in Miami too. It just says CBS all over it.
It is also well written & fun. Which I think would help too.
I don`t understand why people keep saying that CBS is for old people. SURVIVOR, GHOST WHISPERER, TWO AND A HALF MEN, HOW I MET…, BIG BANG THEORY, AMAZING RACE are not for old people. And there are a lot of young actors on their crime dramas.
I love CBS, they has the best shows, best lineup, graphics and pomos.
And they have the coolest logo
Any chance LIFE will be bought by another channel like JAG and continue a run?