via CW Press release:
THE CW CONTINUES WINNING WAYS ON MONDAY,
AGAIN RANKING AS NIGHT’S #1 NETWORK WITH YOUNG WOMEN
FOR 11TH TIME THIS SEASON
For the 11th Week This Season, The CW is Monday’s #1 Network with Young Women
GOSSIP GIRL Again Wins the Hour with Target Women Demos
Special PRIVILEGED Telecast Earns Series High Ratings in Key Demos
December 2, 2008 (Burbank, CA) – With back-to-back originals of GOSSIP GIRL and a special PRIVILEGED telecast, The CW finished as Monday’s #1 network with women 18-34 (3.0/8) and females 12-34 (2.7/7) for the 11th time this season, according to preliminary live plus same day Nielsen ratings for Monday, Dec. 1, 2008.
GOSSIP GIRL returned last night to once again win its time period among women 18-34 (3.5/9) and females 12-34 (3.3/9). GOSSIP GIRL ranked second in the hour among adults 18-34 (2.2/6) and persons 12-34 (2.1/6), beating original episodes of NBC’s “Chuck” and Fox’s “Prison Break.”
Following GOSSIP GIRL, a special original episode of freshman series PRIVILEGED earned its best ratings ever among women 18-34 (2.4/6) and adults 18-34 (1.5/4). PRIVILEGED finished second in the hour among women 18-34 and females 12-34 (2.1/6), beating original episodes of ABC’s “Samantha Who?” and Fox’s “Terminator.”
This special Monday telecast of PRIVILEGED outperformed the show’s Tuesday average this season by 26% in women 18-34, 15% in adults 18-34, 14% in women 18-49 (1.6/4), 11% in adults 18-49 (1.0/2) and 10% in viewers (2.2mil).
Another original PRIVILEGED episode will follow an original GOSSIP GIRL next week.
Wow. How come they didn’t mention that it was their 2nd worst Monday in those demos too? The only night that did worse was last weeks OTH double header.
It looks like the GG/OTH combo is the best combo for the CW.
It is also more proof that Dawn needs to go. The shows she didn’t bring back did better than the shows she thought would do better. The GILMORE GIRLS mistake also looms over her head with the female audience thing. There just doesn’t appear to be a reason to keep her. Her Sunday Night plan was a disaster. Her plan to not keep WWE was a disaster. Seeing as how there is someone at CW who fought against all those stupid decisions with her… shouldn’t they have her job?
I agree that GG/OTH combo best…but it also seems that OTH needs GG to succeed but GG don’t need OTH as the ratings last week and this week seem to indicate…
GOOOOO GOSSIP GIRL!!!
Nick, do you know how much CW would’ve had to pay to keep Smackdown? (or what MNT paid?). In terms of 18-49 and total viewer averages impact, it’s easy to opine, but without the cost info, I can’t be sure it’s a huge loss (or any loss at all) for the CW.
If Moonves likes Dawn and buys into the whole 18-34 female plan, that probably would be enough to give her another season at least (Bill had Katie Couric off the air last spring, she’s still there…Moonves is a patient man!). At this point I will be more surprised if she goes than if she stays (though neither would surprise me greatly). I will be surprised if she goes well before the end of the season, and further surprised if they don’t keep tweaking the Mon-Wed schedule (so far it looks like GG/OTH is the best play for Mondays — but it definitely is looking to build Privileged and I’ve seen some doubt cast re: another season for OTH.
As for Chuck, I worry it may get some short shrift by NBC because it’s not an NBC Uni property (Warner Bros, I think). Sadly, it hasn’t done well enough among 18-34 year olds, let alone 18-34 year old females to get the CW’s attention, but that will no doubt be proposed in the (unlikely for now, I think) event NBC doesn’t bring it back next year.
Robert, ah but you forget that Moonves went over Dawn’s head for the Sunday Night change. That is never a good sign. Also SMACKDOWN! pays for itself (from what I know of the costs associated with it). Dawn’s thoughts about it were that it didn’t promote the CW image. She is trying to create a 18-34 female inclined network following the FOX plan. The problem is FOX countered with 18-34 male programing and the NFL as well. SMACKDOWN! was perfect in that regard (counter programing). SMALLVILLE and SUPERNATURAL seem to be perfect counter programming as well (as does REAPER). Making a network for the entire 18-34 demo is smart and can work as a base for expansion later.
Moonves should be fighting for the CW to buy THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL from the NFL NETWORK. During the NFL season move SMALLVILLE and SUPERNATURAL to Wednesday nights.
SMACKDOWN! is just a commercial for PPV events. All the WWE does is set up their PPV events with the show. That is where the WWE makes their money. So their agreements with MNT and the CW before it were profitable for all involved.
Robert, I think CHUCK is fine. NBC has tried quite a few weird promo ideas like releasing the show a week in advance on the net, etc. As long as the ratings continue to show increase, they should be ok for a pickup. NBC needs to start looking for better shows to air to help out their weak lineup. NBC is practically a joke to the viewing public now.
People keep knocking OTH’s performance last week, but keep in mind it was the big Dancing With The Stars Finale Week – they clearly would have hurt anything broadcast against it, not to mention it was also a Holiday week. No one seems to address those facts. Not to mention the 8:00 OTH episode last week was a repeat!
Nick, and for all I know FNS *still* costs more than a million per week to license.
After your “praise of Jericho ratings” (where was the love for the Crocodile Hunter ratings!?!)I take any comment you make re: the CW with a big grain of salt.
I do love the NFL on CW idea — that would surely spell the end of Dawn. You can use the NFL to build a general audience, and even a young general audience –but not a young female audience.
Robert, so you’re saying JERICHO didn’t do better than anything else the CW put in that time slot this season? In regards to ONLY the CW, the ratings were good for a show that didn’t have one commercial aired for it compared to a show that would get promotional slots through out the week (which was part of their Sunday Night deal, so Sunday sucked and they lost good promo spots). Under those circumstances the ratings were “good,” for CW and only under those circumstances.
In case I didn’t mention it, the Crocodile Hunter Movie did well for the CW too. Cheap, better ratings than the shows it replaced, and again no promo spots used.
The NFL on the CW would be about the only thing that could save the CW from the depths of ratings hell it is in. The Dawn Age has only seen massive viewership loss. Her plan isn’t working. MELROSE PLACE? Really? That’s the answer?
No. The NFL would be though.
Nick praised the Jericho ratings? I need to go read that thread more carefully.
Julia, I praised them in regards to CW’s Sunday Night ratings only. For a 7/6 central time slot the numbers were good for a 2006 TV show that was canceled and received no promotional support at all. Under those unique circumstances I think JERICHO did well. We’re also talking about a network where getting only 1 million more viewers would be a “success,” for the network in comparison to say STYLISTA.
Sorry Nick, but no, you’re also on record saying you would bring (if you were the CW) Jericho back in stripped down form and get in the range of viewers that Supernatural gets. I’m sure sure I didn’t misread that.
I completely agree that those repeats on Sunday *significantly*outperformed the MRC lineup — and for the night also did slightly better (at least in terms of total viewers) than the CW’s year ago Sunday lineup of a mix of repeats and new shows (CW Now, Life is Wild).
Robert, I am on the record saying that. I think JERICHO has a strong enough base to support that move. Moonves seems to want to find the show a home. CBS shopped it around to SCI FI, Comcast, etc. Moonves approached Dawn about moving the show to the CW last March. Dawn declined. I feel that Moonves deciding to air repeats on Sundays on the CW is surely a test. Sadly, I don’t think JERICHO fans know just how much of a test it is. If they knew I think they’d show up with the numbers to support my opinion.
The 6.2 Million viewers the show averaged on CBS after being canceled could easily relate to about 3M to 4M for the CW. That would make it a “hit,” for the CW. The show just didn’t fit with Dawn’s plan.
Nick, I think you are wrong about Jericho having any sort of chance on CW, not because I don’t believe you about Moonves wanting it to find a home, but because I don’t think there’s any way it could have gotten much more than it did this week, even if every Jericho site out there promoted the hell out of it. Probably every one of the diehard fans WAS watching. There just aren’t that many, even if the internet makes it seem like there are.
Robert, consider that season 1 of JERICHO had 9.5 Million average viewers, and season 2 had 6.2 Million average viewers. A move to the CW would hurt but it’s likely it would do well on the CW.
That opinion has little to do with the numbers of the unadvertised repeat.
Moonves seems to want to find the show a home.
You’re fanning the flames. We disagree on this topic. Of course CBS shopped the show, there were no buyers (including by the way, CBS). Is there a base of support to justify three million viewers? Sure. Maybe Moonlight too.
Grain of salt…now a boulder.
Julia, CW aired ZERO promo spots for the pilot rerun. Comparing how new episodes would do compared to a rerun going up against the end of football games, etc. just isn’t really comparable. I doubt a resurrected JERICHO would get that bad time slot, etc.
I believe the show would likely get 2.5M to 4M viewers on the CW. Anywhere from 40% to 60% of the viewers it had on CBS. It just didn’t fit Dawn’s strategic plans.
Robert, Leslie has always thought that the CW could end up being home for shows that didn’t “fit,” with CBS. I’m not making it up that Leslie tried to get Dawn to air the show. Dawn stood her ground.
I’m in no way saying it’s “likely,” to happen. I’m just stating it would have likely worked. Definitely more likely to work than STYLISTA or PRIVILEGED.
I don’t have Dawn’s job. So it’s all pointless anyway. I wouldn’t be given the chance to make moves like that. Taking strong bubble shows and giving them a new home from the parent network, hunting down an NFL deal, promoting the top shows more, and canceling the mistakes faster. It’s not going to happen. However I still think it would have worked.
MOONLIGHT would have likely been another strong candidate for the switch. It’s actually not a bad business plan. CBS offers the show more exposure. Switch it to the CW could offer the CW more exposure to viewers it wouldn’t normally attract (with its current lineup).
Nick, please understand that from my perspective any talk of rekindling those dead shows that have now been out of production for 8+ months isn’t rational. You’re welcome to rationalize, my bias though is it’s irrational.
Beyond “CBS shopped the shows” for me, everything else is purely in the realm of speculation.
Robert, all I know is that it’s chances are less than 0.0001% of a chance. I’m not stating I think it likely or probable. If however the JERICHO fans found a way to get the rerun numbers up to 3 million you’d have a situation. I think the show is dead, but I think it SHOULD have been moved to the CW. From a business stand point it made sense.