| Scoreboard |  |
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 |
 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 9.93 | 8.87 | 6.41 | 5.82 | 4.48 | 2.64 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.0/7 | 2.7/7 | 2.6/6 | 2.2/5 | 1.8/4 | 1.2/3 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.0/5 | 1.8/5 | 2.5/7 | 2.1/6 | 1.9/5 | 1.9/5 |
An impressive night for CBS. A night of reruns and CBS still won the night in total viewers and the 18-49 demo. NBC took the 18-34 year old demo. I’m not going to talk much about the “usual suspects” of Chuck, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Heroes, but feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
While on the one hand it is impressive to see that our friend Dr. Seuss is still on the loose, ABC didn’t milk as much mileage out of its Christmas block of Shrek the Halls and How The Grinch Stole Christmas (which I think still performed impressively considering its almost as old as I am) as it did last year. Shrek had a monster 18-49 demo number last year (7.2/20) which fed into stellar numbers for The Grinch (6.8/17). But ABC must feel like they woke up on Christmas morning like all the Whos down in Whoville who will cry BooHoo!
This year Shrek pulled a 3.3/9 and The Grinch a 3.8/9. So the 18-49 demo numbers were off by 54% and 44% respectively.
And I don’t wanna go all “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch” on you, but it gets worse for ABC! Samantha Who? can not “dance” alone. Back to back episodes of Samantha Who? delivered the lowest original show ratings (at least in the demo) ever. It got beat by a repeat of Worst Week! There’s just no way to stick deer antlers on that dog and make it look cute.
I’m not sure whether to be Grinchy with the CW or not. It definitely was competitive among 18-34 year olds last night. I think it may have waited to long to try the experiment with Privileged in the 9pm slot after Gossip Girl. But moreover, where Gossip Girl did get all the buzz, that’s not happening for Privileged and promoting it only via Gossip Girl doesn’t appear to be enough.
It looks like CW might have to promote Privileged the old fashioned way — spend money promoting it in venues besides the CW. Or, perhaps it just needs to be patient. Privileged beat Samantha Who? from 9-9:30p among 18-34 year olds (1.6 to 1.5) but Samatha Who? somehow eked out a narrow 1.5 to 1.4 advantage from 9:30p-10p.
That seems a bit odd since Privileged only dropped 5,000 total viewers from the first half hour to the second — though Samantha Who? did gain 11,000 total viewers in the second half hour. Bottom line, those 18-34 numbers can’t be OK with ABC, but the CW might be OK with them.
Privileged will air after Gossip Girl again next week. CW may have a problem though, at least based on one data point my hypothesis that One Tree Hill fans would find it no matter what and it could stand on its own appears flawed. Last week when OTH ran in the 8pm Monday Gossip Girl slot, its numbers were not good. Update: Privileged hits series highs in key demos.
Last week’s overnight report is available if you feel like comparing things.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | ABC | Shrek The Halls (R) | 11.17 | 3.3/9 | 2.3/7 |
| CBS | The Big Bang Theory (R) | 8.02 | 2.5/7 | 1.7/5 | |
| NBC | Chuck | 7.25 | 2.5/6 | 2.2/6 | |
| FOX | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | 5.83 | 2.2/6 | 1.8/5 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.86 | 1.9/5 | 2.1/6 | |
| CW | Gossip Girl | 3.08 | 1.5/4 | 2.2/6 | |
| 8:30 | ABC | How the Grinch Stole Christmas (R) | 11.71 | 3.8/9 | 2.6/7 |
| CBS | How I Met Your Mother (R) | 8.03 | 2.8/7 | 2.3/6 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | Two and a Half Men (R) | 13.66 | 4.1/10 | 2.2/6 |
| NBC | Heroes | 7.96 | 3.6/9 | 3.7/10 | |
| ABC | Samantha Who? | 6.78 | 2.2/5 | 1.5/4 | |
| FOX | Prison Break | 5.80 | 2.2/5 | 2.3/6 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.03 | 2.0/5 | 2.2/6 | |
| CW | Priviliged | 2.20 | 1.0/2 | 1.5/4 | |
| 9:30 | CBS | Worst Week (R) | 7.87 | 2.2/5 | 1.3/3 |
| ABC | Samantha Who? | 6.79 | 2.1/5 | 1.5/4 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI: Miami (R) | 11.01 | 3.1/8 | 2.0/6 |
| ABC | Boston Legal | 8.39 | 2.3/6 | 1.3/4 | |
| NBC | My Own Worst Enemy | 4.03 | 1.7/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Cristina | 3.54 | 1.4/4 | 1.3/4 |
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.
[[Wall-E]] WHOA! [/Wall-E]]
I haven’t seen those types of numbers for Terminator since… I can’t remember the last time it got over 5.5 million.
Good show for Chuck!! Too bad House and NBC are going to conspire to ruin any gains come February. NBC is making a collossal mistake not airing Chuck in Janaury.
And Heroes gets it lowest 18-49 rating in the fast nationals ever. (This ties with the final numbers from last week.) Guess DwtS didn’t affect it all that much after all.
without dancing with the stars and the repeats on cbs almost 10 millions viewers disapear last night from 8 to 10 pm.
T:SCC increased 1.2 million viewers from last week. Not to shabby. Next weeks episode seems to be really good; hopefully they can capitalize on the upswing, and keep trending upward.
Paul, they disappeared from *broadcast* television. My guess (since we don’t see data to back it up) is they were still watching television, just on cable networks.
And it has to be disheartening for the competition when CBS can beat your first run shows with reruns.
Hey there TVBTN team,
The Berman page notes that we should expect “Rules of Engagement” to return in place of “Worst Week” fairly soon. WW is not holding its lead-in numbers very well, repeats or otherwise. What’s your opinion? Last time I checked the Renew/Cancel index, WW may be safe? I’ve never seen either show, so I cannot comment on which is “better” IMO.
Clutz, my opinion is that for CBS, Worst Week is the weakest link on Mondays. Rules always planned a comeback in mid-season, but coming back earlier than normal wouldn’t be a good sign for WW. The question really is what CBS will do with its 8pm block on Wednesdays. It has been on an uptick — and might stick around as it is. Relatively speaking, my opinion is CBS likes Gary Unmarried better than Worst Week.
And it has to be disheartening for the competition when CBS can beat your first run shows with reruns. [2]
Julia, DWTS doesn’t have that appeal in the demos – TAAHM always wins the 18-49 in Mondays anyway.
My predictive accuracy is improving. Yesterday on the Sunday Night ratings post, I said:
“I’m going to be an extreme optimist and will say [TSCC will] get 6.5 million viewers and a 2.2 or higher in the 18-49 demo.”
I was slightly off on the total viewers, but nailed the 18-49 demo. Unfortunately, the damage to the series has already been done, and I don’t see how they’re going to be able to add a huge number of extra viewers at this point. But at least I know I won’t be the only person in the country watching the remaining 11 episodes of TSCC yet to air.
Worst Week has had additional scripts and episodes ordered, although not a full “back 9″. I’d be surprised if it was canned before the end of this season.
Chuck got over 7 million viewers for the first time this season but the demos are still disappointing.
Hopefully, Chuck will see greater increase with its massively advertised 3D episode in February.
If TSCC holds up and increases for the rest of the Season, there may be some hope for it. If not on FOX then maybe SCI-FI. But Im still thinking its being kept around mostly as an outlet for T4 movie promotional efforts. Key demo is NOT good and getting blown away by Shrek and Grinch reruns isnt good either.
HEROES – key demo all but insures another Season if it holds over 3.0. But I still expect budget and cast cuts by the end of this season. Expect major Sylar induced carnage to lower the production budget.
Sometimes shows pop then go right back down again. Next weeks ratings will be telling.
Hopefully, Chuck will see greater increase with its massively advertised 3D episode in February.
____________________________________
And after?
everyone point and laugh at samantha who? ABC is making a mistake in keeping that and getting rid of Boston Legal. BL has shown for 5 seasons now that it is one of the most consistent shows for ABC yet they cancel it and keep a show like SW who is completely dependent on its lead in
Bill, assuming CBS sticks with trying to build the Wednesday block (and it seems likely it will), I agree with you completely. But if CBS pulls the plug on that before the year is up, the renew/cancel index numbers for Worst Week relative to Gary Unmarried/Old Christine won’t mean much at all
With a horrible MNF game and CBS repeats, Chuck did so-so. It did scored higher than 7 million viewers for the 1st time this season but the demos are similar to last week.
you wrote that heroes was up with 11 percent
but there is wrote that heroes has 7,90 milions where is this
11 percent?
With a horrible MNF game and CBS repeats, Chuck did so-so. It did scored higher than 7 million viewers for the 1st time this season but the demos are similar to last week.
Hopefully, the heavily promoted 3D episode in February will increase the ratings…so we can see a season 3.
Jimmy, keeping Samantha Who may be a mistake and with numbers like the ones above, that doesn’t seem a likely outcome. But Boston Legal is another matter entirely. Given costs of that show (and apparently that David E. Kelley and ABC didn’t get along all that well at the end), the decision to renew or cancel BL had absolutely nothing to do with Samantha Who?
BIG yay for Terminator!
And also for Privileged, these numbers are higher than what the show usually gets.
This makes me happy. Let’s hope this isn’t a blip, but a start of something good. (like both shows getting another season – hey, I can dream!)
Fra, in the post covering the early metered market numbers (not this one), I wrote that Heroes was up 11% week over week…because it was. I did not include the usual disclaimer that the early metered market numbers are often meaningless.
Now how about instead of being an annoying twit, you go start your own blog?
Chuck was up even a little more at 10% jumping from a 4.0/6 to a 4.4/7. And Heroes was up 11% jumping from a 4.5/6 a week ago to a 5.0/8 last night. I wish Marc Berman would actually look at his own reports from the previous week. But this is probably the same fantastical sort of wishing that leads people to hope Lipstick Jungle will be renewed!
There is a mistake????????
sorry i’m not american so i read it in another way…
Samantha Who? got Worst Enemy style numbers in 18-34. It was obvious last season that this show was a coat-tail-rider, and this season, we are seeing the same thing. How long before ABC admits it to themselves?
As for Chuck, it was up a tick in 18-34, but even steven in 18-49. I would have thought this would be it’s week to gain some eyes. I think all the fans that are worried about lower levels when House returns may be correct. As for Heroes, NBC needs to stop throwing everything they have at this sinking ship. Cut your losses, already. They have spent too much effort trying to force shows to work after Heroes, that could have benefited their linup other places. Meanwhile, the ratings of Heroes itself have dwindled to a level that is someplace south of overly impressive. They need to accept that this show will ride out it’s fame, but probably will not produce any hits in its wake. Schedule accordingly, NBC. And please share some of the advertising wealth with some of your other less-hyped shows.
Good to see Chuck and TSCC both up in total viewers. I hope both can get a 3rd season.
SARAH – ahhh – almost 6 million…hmmm…CIRCUS WITH THE pretend STARS did do damage to everybody it seems – because everyone is up now that DANCING is on hiatus…
….still a ways to go I’m sure for SARAH’s future
Oh, one thing I forgot in all this happiness… Is a half-hour breakdown for Terminator available? I’m interested in it because of the nature of this episode.
Wow, Chuck really did use the Force. Those numbers are quite a jump. Closing in on Heroes for total viewers. I expect Chuck to get another bump next week with the Sarah-centric episode again.
And TSCC…all I can say is whew! Whatever the heck happened last week, I’m glad that dip is gone. Hopefully we can at least get the rest of this season out of FOX.
well, i’ll bet Samantha Who sinks in the Renew/Cancel index. It was obviously dependant on DWTS, which wasn’t that big in the demos anyway, and now they’re losing that.
I really hoped that 11% for Heroes would be right…silly me, I thought it would go up past 8 million again. Oh well.
On the other side you said Terminator was up 9%, when it’s obviously more than that. It won’t matter though, Terminator’s dead on air.
Everyone’s saying Chuck broke 7 million for the first time this season, but i thought it premiered around that mark. I guess I’m wrong and it’s been flailing all season long.
Terminator outperformed Prison Break…wow! I expected it to do its usual 5.10 million or so and 2.0 in the demo, but it shot up rather nicely. If Terminator could do that on Fridays, I think FOX would probably bring it back.
Heroes seems to be stabilizing, which is good for NBC.
I am not surprised CBS repeats won the night because they are shows you don’t have to catch every week and jump in at any time. If those shows were all serial repeats, they’d all be under 5 million easily.
Gusar, TSCC half hours
8pm 5.702, 2.1, 1.7
8:30pm 5.950, 2.2, 1.9
It went up!
Fra, I’m not sure I buy the “language barrier” but to be clear, the early metered market ratings you keep citing in the comments for this post (and mentioned *nowhere* in *this* post) come out *before* the numbers in this post. They are just early household ratings for the metered markets. The numbers often change, and even a bigger issue is that it is not really possible to derive viewers from household ratings due to the number of viewers per screen.
The numbers you keep citing (again, *not* the numbers used above) were comparing early metered market numbers for last night to last week.
Heroes actually was up in the household ratings even in the fast nationals and did actually wind up with a 5.0 household ratings, but in those same fast nationals last week it got a 4.8. I don’t typically deal with household ratings in the main overnight ratings posts because they do not equal # of viewers, but they do give you an idea of what percentage of homes (not people) watched.
funny how boston legal went up with it’s lead in dropping considerably and none of that stupid 2 minute run over either. i know why it’s headed out but it’s still too bad it didn’t get the whole season.
Jonthemon — no, I didn’t say TSCC was up 9% when it was obviously up more than that. I said the early metered market numbers were up 9% because they were up 9%.
Sweet! Those half-hour numbers for T:SCC are nice. Glad to see people are sticking around.
Frank J and all TSCC fans. Here’s what is reasonable to conclude based on all available data:
1. at this point, TSCC will get its full season run pretty much regardless of what happens (if it dropped below 3 million viewers, we’d need to revisit that).
2. unless there are some good gains in the demos from Monday when it moves to Friday (seems unlikely) it won’t be back next year.
there are very likely reasons why it is still on *this* year that won’t be in play next year. I’m not trying to burst the bubble, I just don’t believe in fanning flames of hope when there doesn’t seem like any reason to do that. Sweating TSCC’s ratings seems pointless to me when its future seems as clear as John Connor’s in the show… Just enjoy the show!
Samantha Who? does work really well with DWTS audience though better than other show ABC has tried (Miss Guided etc.) i think they should put SW on hiatus though till DWTS returns
Pretty happy to see that Terminator went up nicely, bit of a temporary relief. Even did a bit better than Prison Break too, which was also up. People like to slam both these shows but I love them. This pattern of un-reality killing scripted shows needs to stop. I can watch Dancing With The Stars but I can’t understand watching it in place of my regular scripted shows. What’s up with that? Just glad it’s over.
Julia, DWTS doesn’t have that appeal in the demos – TAAHM always wins the 18-49 in Mondays anyway.
Why do people always refer to me? I think you were directing this comment at Bill.
Heck YES!
I’m so happy.
Really enjoyed last night’s episode too. Always love the ones that focus on Cameron. And wow, that’s great to see that the show gained even more viewers in the second half hour!
Isn’t this rating the 2nd highest rated ep for this TSCC season so far? Or did the Dodge sponsored one get a bit more? Either way, while the numbers still aren’t anything special, it’s great to see that it’s moved up, and hopefully will continue to do so.
“Sweating TSCC’s ratings seems pointless to me when its future seems as clear as John Connor’s in the show… Just enjoy the show!”
Heh, nice comparison there Robert. And words to live by.
“Sweating TSCC’s ratings seems pointless to me when its future seems as clear as John Connor’s in the show”
Robert, John Connor survives Judgement Day. That may be a bad comparision. lol
i was comparing the “certainty” of the futures, not the results, but touche’…
Are you refering to T4 Robert?
I love how the CW spouts off about Privileged’s “series high” with 2.20 million viewers, yet they can’t muster up squat for Supernatural. The bias at that network is unreal. The show’s ratings suck any way you slice it!
Travis, yes. I’m not sure there would’ve been a second season of TSCC if there weren’t some deal cutting going on as a result of T4 (my guesses: Fox isn’t paying full freight of production cost, and Fox got some guarantees around how much $$ would be spent advertising T4 on Fox).
Yeah, that’s what I was referring to too. The certainty, not the results. At least how I took the comment comment was that John’s future (from his point of view at least) is totally up in the air, as is the future of TSCC.
…Well, I still really like the, “Enjoy the show!” part.
Angie, to CW’s credit it has done at least two (and perhaps more) press releases re: Supernatural, and that’s at least two more than I would’ve figured.
When is DWTS coming back already.
Rachel, it was just a bad comparison all the way around on my part. I believe it’s future for a season 3 is fairly certain.
Regardless, as I said, that “enjoy the show!” part is still good.
By the way, those apostrophe people are going to get you! Here, take this shield! I made it from the remains of that T-888 Cameron beat up last night. It should suffice.
Angie, think of it this way: CW doesn’t need to pump up Supernatural in various ways to make it look somewhat decent. Anyone can see just looking at the numbers that’s it’s doing well compared to the rest of CW.
At least Heroes is up: but down in the 18-49 demo from last week
I know this is supposed to be about ratings and not the content of the shows themselves, but dammit, My Own Worst Enemy is a fricking great show. It’s such a damn shame. Last night was it’s best episode yet, and somehow they manage to keep producing quality stand alone episodes even with that convoluted basic premise. Maybe I’m still overrating it due to my incredibly low original expecations, but Christian Slater and the fat guy are both doing some exceptional work each week. The show is almost (ALMOST) Whedonesque.
I’m just bummed. It’s the only show on television right now that I actually want to catch in real time, and it will be gone soon. Yet Knight Rider and so much other crap gets to stay. I feel like some psycho Jericho fan, but there you go.
I know, I know—ratings!!!! Yes, I understand that the numbers for MOWE suck eggs. They absolutely justify the cancellation. But I think NBC really screwed up (big surprise!!) with this one. It could have been at least a semi-hit if they had not managed it so poorly.
I really hope Heroes continues to drop like a stone just to punish them. C’mon, all you Heroes holdouts, give up the ghost and let it die ugly.
… Actually Robert, I forgot, we need to incinerate it. I suggest you just run from those people instead.
YESSSS!!! T:SCC WENT UP IN VIEWERS!!! AND DID BETTER THAN PRISON BREAK!!!! I AM SO HAPPY!
Julia, though true, I don’t think that’s what influences CW’s PR. CW is on record as trying to build a nice niche among 18-34 year old females. It is also on record that its plans this year were to figure it out for Monday through Wednesday. So far, outside of ANTM on Wednesday and Mondays with Gossip Girl and OTH, I’m not sure its accomplished this objective yet (90210, Privileged and Stylista are all likely in the “disappointment” column so far).
We can have reasonable arguments about whether trying to build a business around targeting 18-34 year old females is a good plan or whether they’re succeeding or not. But the PR is mostly targeted around anything that demonstrates success against its goal of building an 18-34 female niche.
Robert didn’t NBC average 6.39?
I think the problem is that SW? needs a comedy block, DWTS is the wrong show for this funny show. ABC sholdnt have canceled Miss Guided. heck, even a comedy block of Atj/SW? will de ~fine~. ABC needs really to get a comedy block for next fall, maybe tuesdays at 8 and wednesdays at 8.
Cool, ABC most certainly should have canceled Miss/Guided. Did you see the numbers it put up? Also, there’s no way ATJ does anywhere close to fine. It’s a mystery how it’s managed to survive this long. ABC has plenty of new comedies on deck and have yet to release a final spring schedule. There may be a comedy block in there yet.
So, ‘Samantha Who’ generated not much higher ratings than an average episode of ‘Dirty Sexy Money’ although its lead-in was much stronger than ‘Private Practice’ both in total viewers and the demo that matters.
I say that makes poor Sam a major stinkeeeeer!
By the way, have we noticed ‘Private Practice’ has been hitting series lows lately? I’m curious how Kate Walsh and the gang will do in December.
Fin, according to the report I saw, it average 6.412 million
the average for Miss/Guided was 2.0 in the demo, and SW? is only getting 2.2 with a 3.8 lead in.
AtJ is only coming back because of syndication. they should really try and do multi-camera comedies like CBS
Robert, with the numbers Chuck got last night, and assuming it can slowly build a bit for the next two episodes this year, think it’s in a strong enough position to withstand the Monday onslaught come February? CBS comedies are gaining viewers, House is moving to Monday’s, etc. It’s going to be tough I think, it’s demo numbers look low. And I don’t see Heroes helping Chuck, at all, with drawing people to NBC Monday nights in general.
LBColby, the difference betweeen SW? and DSM is that SW? will get big bucks on syndication and DSM will not, SW? is cheaper than DSM with that big cast and DSM is a hour long drama that will no repeat well unlike SW?, yes.. SW? is no the big hit but is the first decent half hour comedy in the last few years.
CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY IS SOOOOOOO SEXY
OMG I LOVE HIMMMMMMMMM
ONE TREE HILL FAN 4 LIFEEEE
Yes, Chris, we gathered that.
Hello
Why does this website comment on terminator every week. What about Prison Break? Terminator doesn’t even compare to prison break , but every week we have to hear about it. I know both shows aren’t doing that well ,but every week prison break has pulled better numbers. This is the only week terminator has like a 3 percent increase. They never comment on the better show(Prison Break). Instead we have to hear the crap about the stupid terminator show, that should be taken off the air
For Fox, there can’t be much holiday cheer for a 1st run SCC with these ratings.
Considering CBS beat SCC with re-runs and ABC beat it previous repeats of Christmas specials and it being up against a mediocre NFL game.
Would the ratings be better with no competition, like last season when it aired during the writers strike?
Of course, but no competetion is not a formula for success!
MusicMan, notice how the article DID NOT comment on Terminator? And if you had read the early ratings report, they did comment on Prison Break.
Just a side note that in Houston and surrounding areas that SW did not air until after MNF because of the local affiliate airing the game along with ESPN. I am almost sure that this was the case for Jacksonville also. Maybe it hurt the numbers a little eventhough the show was doing poorly before.
joe, “Of course, but no competetion is not a formula for success!”
It is for the Denver Broncos and the Arizona Cardinals!
Dabro, since the football game likely got much better numbers than SW? did in those two local markets, the numbers in the post above will go *down* for SW? after the local football viewing is pulled out in the final results.
FrankJ, how could Chuck be given more veiwers by Heroes: if Heroes airs after it?
Samantha Who? is painfully unfuny. I only watch because I like to look at Christina.
I dont know one person who watches Two and Half Men. I have seen it once and that’s all I needed. I guess not everyone feels the same way.
Ashame Samantha Who’s ratings are not better. This is one of the better comedies on the air.
Gossip Girl is such a guilty pleasure of mine. Love it.
I think you were beating a dead horse with all of those Grinch jokes. The first few were okay, but they just kept going on and on.
I normally don’t notice grammar mistakes, but thanks to your other article, it is on my mind, not that I care about grammar mistakes.
I was disappointed that Chuck didn’t do better. I really wanted to see that show succeed because it is such a cute show.
I think Fox has a lot to worry about. Their Monday night lineup isn’t doing all that well, though I am a fan of Prison Break. I just have to hope that they complete the series instead of canceling it. I have watched too many Fox serials that ended mid story ark. I don’t want to go through that again.
Even Fox’s House appears to be getting long in the tooth. I don’t think it is any great surprise. They just keep making House more and more unlikable and for me their is a tipping point. Besides, I am more of an NCIS fan than House.
Fringe is a show that I like because of the shorter commercial breaks. That being said, the storyline is dragging on and on seemingly headed no where. I hate that. That show is not in the class of X-Files.
The only hit Fox appears to have right now is Bones, and frankly after last seasons stretch of terrible writing, I am more than amazed that Bones ratings have been getting better, not that it had that much competition on Wednesday Night, though I was a huge Pushing Daisies fan sad to say.
NBC has to be happy with CHUCK. It is showing growth. Since NBC is full of dying programs that has to be one of the only good signs. They absolutely need to rethink their January plans. They need to be running reruns of the best paneled CHUCK shows from season 1 and 2. They also need to rethink their SUPER BOWL angle.
I think HEROES may lose viewers again in the demo. The whole “Sylar is now unkillable,” thing is trash.
Moose, you’re a mean one…
I have been called worse things.
MusicMan, do you even WATCH TSCC??? And no, it should NOT be taken off the air. Don’t talk about stuff you know nothing about.
Chris, funny, I only watch SW? to look at not!terrible. (Or whatever the guy from Seventh Heaven’s name is.)
CW may be trying to tout PRIVILEGED but that show was only able to pull the same numbers that a new episode of ONE TREE HILL pulled last week. The difference is that last week OTH followed a repeat of OTH vs following an episode of GOSSIP GIRL. OTH does much better with a GG lead in.
Time for the big brass to do their thing and fire Dawn. Promote the guy who fought to keep REAPER (and its better ratings) and understands that their THURSDAY night lineup is their best night. I’ve heard that particular persons argument that if they promoted that show as much as GG, etc. they would break the 7M barrier of total viewers in a night (they’ve broken the 5M with the SMALLVILLE/SUPERNATURAL lineup).
Dawn’s crusade for 18-34 females has proven to be a disaster. If she really wanted to keep females around she should have worked out a deal for GILMORE GIRLS and paid for 2 seasons vs 1 season.
Nick C, any chance of NBC changing their plans regarding Chuck being off air for all of January? Or is it set in stone?
FrankJ, since that network is run about as well as Dunder Mifflin it is incredibly hard to say. The show needs to gather new viewers. When it’s not up against Monday Night Football, DWTS, or HOUSE. Keeping it on the air in January with the highest rated shows by their panels (people who have been chosen to review episodes of the show as they air) would just seem like the right move to nurture the show. When the new episodes return they need to go all out.
I’d seriously reconsider THE OFFICE as the SUPER BOWL follow up as well if growth continues next week.
I think CBS’ numbers this week are a giant indication of just how badly every other network is performing on Monday Night’s right now, what does it say about the original programs on NBC and Fox in particular that a line-up of CBS repeats still pretty much destroyed them in total viewers and demos? If NBC aren’t considering a huge shake-up of their Monday night line-up midseason then something’s going wrong, especially with Fox moving House to Monday Nights to lead-in to 24, NBC are going to be completely dead on Monday in the new year if they don’t change something.
On another note I’m not sure we can really class this as a good week for Chuck fans, yes it picked up about a million extra viewers but none of those were in the key demos, which remain the same. Amazingly I think Terminator fans have more reason to celebrate these numbers, a million more viewers and noticeable improvements in the demos = good news for them. I’m actually interested to see what happens when it moves to Friday night now.
Alex, what does NBC have that does better? L&O: SVU, ER, THE OFFICE, etc. There just isn’t a whole lot going on over at NBC to be proud of. The increase by CHUCK reminds me a lot of THE OFFICE. Except NBC was promoting the hell out of THE OFFICE and gave it a great time slot. NBC should likely be promoting the hell out of CHUCK and doing all they can, and they just may get another “hit,” like THE OFFICE which really isn’t a hit but has solid numbers for NBC.
The problem is NBC doesn’t have a good time slot to put CHUCK in. They have no lead ins. That just shows how bad it is at NBC.
Color me wrong. I thought for sure Zeroes, opps, HEROES numbers would rebound more this week. The bleeding has stopped but the patient is still weak. the holiday break is going to be a long one for Kring and company. (Or short depending on if you count the online fluffing I’m sure they’ll be doing with all the gossip and fan sites.)
Rachel, this is its second highest rated episode of the season scoring under the premiere and just above “The Mousetrap” and the Dodge sponsored “Goodbye to All That.”
Can we also please can the cancellation discussion? We haven’t even made it to the second half of the season and already its being brought up a second time after it was already supposedly cancelled months ago. It’s getting annoying and is being purely speculative. It’s not May, it’s December for pete’s sake.
NBC should have done a better job promoting Chuck last Summer. They could have rerun the strike shortened season on multiple nights, or perhaps they could have put it on the USA Network in between some of their first run original programming.
I think that (i know this numbers sight) but the quality of season three has recently improved so much: lets hope more people come in. But then again if a big boom episode can’t draw in more veiwers for Heroes then what can?
Even in the UK the latest Heroes episode was like 500,000 below the average, the previos was 200,000 below. Heroes needs to re-advertise itself. Move away from Monday: move Heroes and Chuck to Tuesday and Biggest Looser to Mondays (or what ever else will air).
NBC has literally nothing. I wouldn’t worry Chuck fans, because well the numbers aren’t great, they’re pretty much in line with every other show on NBC. Though I do maintain that Chuck would be better served on Thursday nights in the Earl/Horrible unwatchable show time slot. Chuck is like 60% a comedy show anyways.
Fin, if you thought last nights episode was good… you have problems. Last nights episode was POINTLESS. During an eclipse they lose their powers. Big deal. There was nothing that happened outside of the Hiro storyline that could have had any impact. Sylar switching back to a killer? It made no logical sense at all. Nothing about it made sense. Of course nothing about him becoming a non-killer made sense really either. He is the worst written character on the show and all his actions are unexplainable.
HEROES has not improved in quality at all. It continues to make the same mistakes. It also makes the mistake of making things pointless. What was the point of HRG chasing down and killing Sylar? There was none. It was pointless. As soon as the eclipse ended he was back. That made all the “suspense,” created before nothing more than a giant circle jerk.
Sorry HEROES continues to drop in quality and it appears in the demo.
Ah, thanks for the confirmation on the numbers Vader.
And actually, I agree with canning the TSCC renew/cancel talk for now. I mean, I don’t think we can even judge it properly right now since it’s moving to Fridays in February, and that’s where the numbers will matter and determine whether it sees another season. Sure these numbers can play a part in the Friday numbers, but we won’t know for sure until it gets there.
Sylar switching back to a killer? It made no logical sense at all. Nothing about it made sense. Of course nothing about him becoming a non-killer made sense really either.
lol…so true. I believe the consensus in the office break room this morning was “WTF?”
FrankJ, yeah that whole scenario may have matched the Hiro has the brain of a 10 year old! moment in the Bowling Alley.
Consider this: In what amounted to minutes (because eclipses don’t last that long) Sylar: made love to Elle, lots of pillow talk, ran away with her after she got shot, lovingly bandaged her up, tricked her into the freight elevator to sacrifice himself so she could get away. He died for her.
Then he rises from the dead and decides to cut open her head. He already had her power so the hunger couldn’t have been the answer. It just made no sense at all. Well it does when you consider this:
HEROES WRITING DEPARTMENT
Kring: The fans just aren’t accepting him as having a good side. We need to make him evil again. We had higher ratings when he was evil. Did you hear the bastards threatened to take my golf cart away? How will I move around the lot? We must make Sylar evil again.
Loeb: We can’t. Right now there just isn’t a catalyst for that. We’d have to rewrite…
Kring: Loeb, you’re fired!
Alexander: Wait a minute Tim! Jeph is right. We don’t have a reason for a switch right now. We’d have to rewrite a couple episodes and they’re about to shoot THE ECLIPSE PART 2.
Kring: Perfect! Have Sylar kill Elle when he gets his powers back! She’s too expensive to keep around anyway.
Alexander: Wait a second, why would he do that? He loves her! She is going to be the mother of his child!
Kring: Jesse you’re fired too! Everyone else this is the plan, we have Sylar kill Elle and return to being evil! The fans will love it! NBC will love that I’ve dropped the costs by writing off Bell! This is perfect!
OTHER WRITERS: Sure thing boss! (Kring leaves room) Damn. I sure hope after he sinks this ship we can get another job.
Moose since you brought up others grammar mistakes, in your sentence “their is a tipping point” their should be there!
Nick, yeah it’s ludicrous. Kristin Bell should “borrow” Kring’s golf cart and mosey on over to Chuck. Didn’t a few of her Veronica Mars writers migrate over there? I’m sure they’d love to write for her again. Maybe a guest cast role as a female agent sent to learn from Chuck–she’ll be a beta test subject for the next new human Intersect. I can see her and Yvonne getting into it over Chuck. I smell ratings gold.
If NBC were smart, they’d do what they did for THE OFFICE and 30 ROCK for CHUCK now. OFFICE is now arguably the biggest cult comedy on TV and 30 ROCK is gaining on them. Come on, NBC, you still have a brain in knowing how to market shows like CHUCK.
I like shows that have interesting and strong lead female characters, like Bionic Woman, Miss Congeniality, Samantha Who, Lipstick Jungle, TSCC, and the old Chuck before the character named Chuck turned into a woman-hating, closeted gay dickweed.
Unfortunately, since Hollywood is apparently run by woman-hating, closeted gay dickweeds, these types of shows either get ruined by the mysterious conversion of charming, woman-loving characters into woman-hating, closeted gay dickweeds (i.e., Chuck on Chuck or Joe on Lipstick Jungle) or they get panned on gay male dominated fan sites and eventually canceled for resisting the pressure to do so.
Anyway, if there is one thing I’ve learned in my recent foray into all-things TV, Nielsen ratings are obviously easily manipulated to be biased against women viewers and shows featuring strong female characters. Not my problem, but I find it funny that people keep saying Hollywood is driven by advertising and money. Obviously, when it comes to misogynism, factors other than advertising and money come into play as it is clear many men in positions of power (like 99% of TV and advertising executives) would rather take a hit financially than support a strong female lead character in a TV series.
Julia, I only mentioned you ’cause what you said about DWTS. Of course the major questions are to Bill and Robert.
And TSCC or Chuck fans, don’t get so confident – when CBS and DWTS are back, early next year…
Gabriel, you quoted Bill and then mentioned me.
Its not all bad for ABC. Shrek had no production costs this year, and by the looks of it might have some legs as a cherished holiday classic.
“And TSCC or Chuck fans, don’t get so confident – when CBS and DWTS are back, early next year…”
TSCC will be on Fridays by then, so I don’t think it’ll have to worry about DWTS at least.
Lets be honest ms young, strong female leads are kind of boring and are hardly rating magnets. Look at the most popular shows, they tend to feature male douchebags. House is a huge dick. Charlie sheen is a bit of an ass. Steve Carrell is often a clueless jackass. Simon Cowell is a jerk. Jack Bauer gets off on toture. Peter from family guy is also a dick.
If you want to see a show with a female lead take off the writers might want to make that lead, rather than strong, a horrible person. Writers just don’t have the heart to make female leads bad people because they don’t want to be seen as misogynists.
Heroes had 7.96 million, not 7.90.
well said, dave. as a guy, i love strong female leads, but your thoughts are exactly what i was thinking.
“Alex, what does NBC have that does better? L&O: SVU, ER, THE OFFICE, etc. There just isn’t a whole lot going on over at NBC to be proud of. The increase by CHUCK reminds me a lot of THE OFFICE. Except NBC was promoting the hell out of THE OFFICE and gave it a great time slot. NBC should likely be promoting the hell out of CHUCK and doing all they can, and they just may get another “hit,” like THE OFFICE which really isn’t a hit but has solid numbers for NBC.”
Maybe, for midseason at least they should just give up on Monday Night? Discounting some kind of miraculous turn of events leaving Chuck and Heroes on Monday nights is just going to kill two shows that NBC probably can’t afford to lose right now so switch them into stronger and/or less competitive slots elsewhere in the week and move shows that are already on their last legs into the Monday night slot, ultimately turn Monday into a second Friday until you can launch a brand new slate of shows there next year. And its always possible that they might do better on Mondays.
Switch Chuck to Thursdays as a lead-in for The Office and move Earl and Kath and Kim to 8PM on Monday Nights as counter programming to CBS’ comedy line-up. Or alternatively switch Chuck and Knight Rider around, I’d imagine given the choice NBC would prefer to keep Chuck around rather than Knight Rider next year. Where exactly you’d put Heroes is another question completely, although I guess the only real options are Tuesday or Wednesday.
Really nice to see T:SCC rebound a bit after last weeks issues. I think if the show can atleast maintain it’s base fans and potentially grow a bit, possibly into the 6 – 6.5 million range by the end of the year then it may get a 3rd season. That of course also depends on its Froday night performance in the back half. Personally I think Friday may be a good night for the show actually. Its a traditional Sci-Fi viewing night theres not a uge amount of competition, so who knows. Gawd I don’t know if I could stand another cancellation. First Firely which still hurts and potentially T:SCC? I swear if it does go down Summer Glau should never take another job on the Fox Network again.
Alex, with MNF and DWTS gone, Monday is the safest place for NBC’s shows. Sure, HOUSE is moving to Monday Night. I’d rather be a producer of a show up against HOUSE than a producer up against AMERICAN IDOL.
Yah-hoo for Terminator! Despite the terrible timeslot AND utter lack of promotion from Fox AND all the cancellation talk, TSCC still holds strong! Give us a third season!
good to see tscc jumped back into the 5’s, even though the season is a “gaurantee”
if it had kept going down we would have to worry.
only 1 more show on mondays
Actually John (love the name) there will be two more eps of TSCC before the break. Dec 8 and Dec 15.
I guess Fox decided against the 2 hour PB thing that was gonna air on the 15th.
Assuming that’s what you were referring to…
Heroes was great last night. Very exciting. Hope it continues to do better in the ratings.
Do ratings factor in people watching shows on-line or via Netflix like Heroes and The Office?
Not these ratings, Newbie. And when they are factored in, they don’t add very much, since it’s a comparatively very small number of people watching that way.
could movin CHUCK and HEROES to wednesdays havin KR at 10 and move Life and L&O to monday work or would that just fail coz ive got no idea
Normally I’m not into watching people get their brains blown out or experiencing any other kind of bloody death, but that CSI Miami show was pretty good. I also thought Samantha Who was really funny. Usually, that show is just okay. Last night Samantha Who was hilarious, especially that second episode. I wonder if that show got new writers. It’s the first episode I can remember this season that had me laughing almost non-stop. Two and a Half Men is still the best sitcom by a mile even with its sexual jokes getting old.
2.5 men best sitcom……2.5 men best sitcom ur kidding that show is junk repeatative, annoying, on 10 times a week in australia (during ratings period) junk. Best sitcom……hmmmmmm let me see AHHH 30 ROCK!!!!!!!!! K&K is bloody magnificent compared to 2.5 men.
I don’t understand all the hatred toward Samantha Who? It’s a good show. It’s funny and cute. A totally great fit for ABC. Christina Applegate is absolutely hilarious, she really is delivering the best work of her career, and definitely deserved the Emmy nomination this year, and I predict next year as well. Monday’s back-to-back episodes are the best of the season yet, too bad no one’s watching.
As for CBS repeat, well, no surprise, people who watch CBS usually never change their channel even when it’s repeat. I know this for a fact because that’s how my grandpa operate, although he doesn’t watch HIMYM though, it’s too hip for him.
Why does this web site always mention TSCC? The show is rubbish and should be taken off air. Prison Break is the best thing on tv, it’s a pity Americans don’t understand it and choose to watch stupid reality tv.
Ms. H Nicole Young,
I wouldn’t choose the same language as you to make the point, but you are onto something about strong female leads getting lost in the TV shuffle. I don’t know if writers are catering to the LCD of society, if Nielsen homes tend to be of the more 1950’s “men rule the roost” mindset, or some combination thereof.
One of the reasons I like “Fringe” so much is that two good female FBI agents share the load with the male leads. The show still has work to do in this department, IMHO – Anna Torv has some room to grow as an actor, and they are starting to write more complexity in her character. The character of Astrid deserves a bit more screen time too. She did stand up to Dr. Bishop last night though, with humor, which is a good sign. The worst thing that could happen, is if the female agents are written off as “relationship” fodder, catering to the male fantasies. I stopped wathcing “Gray’s Anatomy” for that reason – the female leads were reduced to lovesick puppies, and medical careers were lost in the shuffle.
Speaking of “relationship” fodder, I think that House is destroying a strong female supporting character in Dr. Cuddy. The only reason she’s so mean to House’s a-hole ways is that she’s got a crush on him? And that she’s so depressed she couldn’t conceive or adopt a child? Come on! A gifted doctor and hospital administrator can’t be written as female without catering to the “all women want is to mate with the bad boys and have babies” mentality. Grrr…
To the TVBTN board team – rant over. I’ll go back on topic next time I visit
When fox realizes that Prison break should run with 24 like the good old days Prison break ratings would be alot better. Tscc has brought the show down! Prison break needs to be put back to 8PM.
If a large number of women had wanted to watch LJ, it wouldn’t matter whether men support it.
ah the best sitcom ever was frasier not 30 rock or 2.5 men. both of these the worst sitcoms ever.
Prison Break’s problem is NOT following TSCC, its Prison Break itself. Season 1 of PB was excellent. Season 2 – not so much. Season 3 – recycled Season 1 with a sout of the border flavor, but at least there was a prison to break out of. Season 4 – only watched the first episode then stopped that it was so bad.
Good to see Prison Break and TSCC up from last week since DWTS is over. I’m surprised Heroes went down though, I thought this episode was better than last week. Hiro and the Haitian were awesome!
TSCC should hopefully do better again next week, the preview looks pretty good.
Ok, let’s talk female leads. Some of my favorite shows have centered around female leads (Veronica Mars, Dead Like Me, 30 Rock to name a few), but in shows where the female lead is not the center of the story (Chuck, Fringe) and is more just the love interest for the male lead, they tend to be what turns me off. This seems to be a combination of crappy writing for those actresses, which gives them a horrible personality (pretty much just there to pine after the male), and in the case of Fringe, really bad acting.
So give me shows centered around a strong female, and I’ll be happy. But don’t try to pawn shows like Fringe off on me as a strong female lead.
Robert on Marcs report it says that Heroes had a 3.6/9 in the 18-49 demo
Fin, Marc’s report is correct (at least for the overnight) the half hourly breakout was 3.5/8 and 3.7/9. For whatever reason the report we use often has “rounding” issues and is off by .1 in its hourly totals (which I typically use rather than doing the math manually). The 3.7/10 for the 18-34 was correct (it was 3.7/10 both half hours).
Considering Fringe follows Olivia around way more than any of its characters, I can say that she is the female lead without the writers having to pawn her off as it. Just because you don’t like the actress has nothing to do with whether she’s the lead or not…
Also, I watched Terminator last night and will need to watch it again as I was pretty confused. Of course, watching it at one in the morning and having to fight to keep my eyes open at the end of it didn’t help me, but I did like the creativity of the episode.
I’m in the camp of why people like TSCC. I thought season one was ok but now it’s just repetitive and going downhill. How many times can you be chased by a terminator come up with some creative way to burn them? Shakes head
This one’s in repsonse to Vader and Julia:
I agree with Vader – Olivia Dunham is the female lead of Fringe. She’s not a pawned-off version thereof. I agree with Julia on some point soo. For instance, when a female “lead” equates to “love interest” in the story arc, the story becomes a bore. It ruined GA and it’s ruining House to write the lead (and key supporting) female characters this way.
I would say that Anna Torv has finally started to flesh out the Olivia Dunham character quite well. Sure, some “love interest” aspects remain from the premiere episode, but Dunham’s emotional attachment to John Scott has served as a springboard to more interesting paranomal themes. Olivia’s not spending much time sitting around pining for her lost love – she’s literally using John’s memories to help solve cases. Not memories OF John, but actual scenes that played in his head. Dunham and Peter Bishop have got a really good rapport going now…so long as the writers can keep the relationship platonic, Fringe will continue to improve IMHO. Writers are walking to very fine lines here though: Create chemistry between Bishop and Dunham without resorting to sex; and keep “The Pattern” theme running without getting too serialized, too confusing or just too weird for weird’s sake. (LOST fell victim to confusing weirdness, IMHO, and I quit watching halfway through last season).
Just something I found sort of hilarious:
From ABCmedianet for week Nov 24th:
“Samantha Who?” Beats CBS’ “Worst Week” in Total Viewers and Adults 18-34 and Wins its Half-hour in Women 18-49 and Women 25-54 for the 6th Time in 7 Telecasts ”
Samantha Who? won 7 weeks straight and then the first week without DWTS, SW is beaten by a repeat of WW.
Ouch.
Just wondering where is the report for Tuesday night? Usually it is up by now? Thanks…
I can’t be the only one that thinks Chuck/TSCC & Heros/Prison Break are canceling each other out because these shows cater to the same types of viewers and are on at the same time.
TSCC could see at least a small bump in the ratings when moved away from Mondays & Chuck.
I know this site measures the show’s ratings instead of quality (in a lot of cases…HUGE DIFFERENCE) but I wanted to say something about prison break and Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles. Notice I’m not using capital letter for prison break. It’s because it doesn’t deserve it. Got to be the crappiest show on tv right now, oh my God!
Terminator on the other hand is one of the most innovative shows I’ve seen in a long while. I hope it will live on because it’s that good. Easily the same category as Firefly, Carnivale, Freaks and Geeks, Dexter and Twin Peaks.
About Chuck, I’ve seen so many shows like that, nothing new. I actually began watching Terminator because of Mr Seidman’s recommendation. Since he stepped over to Chuck I thought it would be great too. Watched the entire first season and I wish I could have those hours back. Ah well, to each his or her own.
Almost forgot. I still wanted to thank Seidman for the positive comments during Terminator’s first season. Without that I wouldn’t have given it a first look since a show about the movie franchise would suck. Man, was I wrong! So thank you.
“Fin, if you thought last nights episode was good… you have problems.”
Nick C you may not like Heroes and you certainly are entitled to your opinion (and it IS an opinion), but it is uncalled for to tell a poster that if they liked the episode they “have problems”.
I too liked Monday’s episode. But then I am not watching it so hell bent picking it apart and I actually get what is going on with the storyline! Sylar did not open Elle’s skull to gete her power…the moment was purely symbolic as a means to show the viewer that Sylar would never change.
While I would agree Heroes has it’s problems, the fact that there are those of us who are able to watch for the enjoyment it brings does not mean we have problems. We only see it from a different prospective than you do.
I realize you are going to come at me with a zillion reasons why you think Heroes sucks and I have no problem with that. Again…opinions vary. But to outwardly demean Fin in that manner was just insulting.
Both Sara Conner Cronicles and Prison Break did better. But CBS COmedies where down!