Much like The Wire and Mad Men, critics rave about Damages, though a relative few actually watch it. Damages second season premiered to an underwhelming 1.8 million and a .5 rating among 18-49 year olds. Meanwhile, also on Wednesday night, according to James Hibberd, Top Chef averaged 2.9 million and a 1.6 rating with the 18-49 crowd. Also, TNT’s Meet the Browns premiered back-to-back episodes that averaged 3.9 million viewers.
The one hundred and fifty-first season premiere of MTV’s The Real World (ok, it’s only the 21st season) averaged 2.3 million and a 1.3 rating among 18-49 year olds, up 18% from last April.
Damages was off 44% from its season one premiere and 58% from the premiere of Sons of Anarchy according to Hibberd.
The series finale of Stargate Atlantis airs tonight at 9pm on SciFi. I’ve seen the episode and thought it a fitting finale, but as I’m not a fan of spoilers myself, you won’t find any here.
Thank you for posting these cable ratings.
Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and Meet the Browns are really good hits. They are very good ratings performers week in and week out. Meet the Browns got a good sampling from its premiere so TBS may have something here. Tyler Perry’s sitcoms are doing better than most comedies are doing on networks outside of CBS.
Damages is too self-involved and its not like Sons of Anarchy where you can jump right into any episode. At this point Sons of Anarchy is a success and Damages is not and why it was renewed for a second season is beyond me. FX needs a procedural in its lineup to boost the ratings for some of their shows.
Damn, Real World doing better than The City. Take that Hills. This season of the Real World kind of sucks compared to last year’s, which basically helped bring the series back because of the great strong personalities that had in the house. This year looks likes it has its own identity so I’ll wait and see.
To this day, I will never understand why SCIFI and MGM cancelled Stargate Atlantis. I understand there was some concern about the lead cast earning too much money, thus making the per-episode cost a little high, but surely in this economy they could have negotiated salary concessions or cut a senior cast member.
Stargate Universe just sounds like it’s going to be a total flop… and why have a failure associated with the Stargate brand?
I agreed completely, Stargate Atlantis is THE BEST! Plenty of adventure, humor, excitement, great characters and on and on….can’t say enough great things about it. The whole cast is wonderful and hopefully they will find homes elsewhere….Friday Nights WILL NOT be the same without LTD COR SHEPHERD and his crew. Sad day in TV History.
I’m in that small number of fans who enjoy “Damages”.
It is definitely a thought provoking series & if you did not watch last season, it would indeed be hard to jump into it.
I hate to read it did so poorly & hope FX sticks with it.
Evah, I’m in the small number too. Though I watched it via On Demand last night. They also ran it repeatedly on Wednesday night. I’ll be interested to see how the subsequent airings did (hopefully I will see that on Tuesday). While I enjoy Damages I’m not sure I understand all the critical acclaim it receives, I think critics just want to slobber over Glen Close for some reason. Again, I like it but I like Stargate Atlantis and 24, not really darlings of the critics! I’ve read that FX has committed to a third season of Damages already. I’m not sure if that’s true, or how such commitments work and/or how continued numbers below 2 million would play in.
I love Damages. It’s one of the very few programs out there that’s not dummied down for the audience. But I’m also of an age where I’m only a handful of years away from being able join the AARP. Damages is never going to attract the younger demo because the cast (outside of the relatively unknown-in-the-US Rose Byrne) DO get their AARP magazine. Add the fact that lots of talk, talk, talk (that you really have to pay attention to or you get hopelessly lost) and not much action and I’m surprised it mustered even a 0.5.
I just finished season 1 of Damages. I don’t get FX so I have to rely on Hulu or wait for the DVD. I like it Damages a lot but not enough to pay for an episode on itunes. I did purchase one episode of Sons of Anarchy though. Addicted to Top Chef! Very happy to see last night’s episode on Hulu!
i bet stargate atlantis will get more than 1.8 million
I’ll really miss Stargate Atlantis, with the exception of a certain casting change and relationship this season, it has been a terrific experience.
Very sad to see it go.
I also enjoy Damages, and I’m 33.
Robert, although FX already committed to a third season, with these ratings, I would not be surprised to see them back out and cancel the show after this season — assuming they haven’t already started filming season three. A few years ago, Sci-Fi simultaneously committed to fourth and fifth seasons of the hugely entertaining Farscape, then backed out on the fifth season and canceled the show after the fourth. I hope there is a huge penalty clause in their agreement to air Damages if they back out. But who knows?
I’m sad that complex serialized programs aren’t generally getting good ratings. That means more episodic programs, even on cable. Snooze. I like long complex storylines.
I had trouble getting into Sons of Anarchy. Did it get more interesting after the third or fourth episode? I dropped off somewhere around there.
im 16 and watch Damages :O
it gets better ratings then that in the uk!! about 2m!!
I’m 45 years of age and a huge Damages fan. I think with the writer’s strike and the 15 month delay is probably what is hurting the show. People just don’t know it’s back.
Question about the Damages ratings: Any idea how it compares with the ratings from the S1 finale? Just curious what kind of drop off there is there vs. the comparisons to the pilot. Great show (21 fyi), one of many awesome premieres this month (BSG, Scrubs, 24, Lost, Burn Notice being the others). Thanks for all your hard work!
great point, Jason. The S1 finale did 1.7 million in 10/07 (the 7/07 premiere did 3.7 million).
I’m also a big fan of Damages and whilst the numbers are somewhat disappointing I suspect that FX may very well keep it around for a third season simply for the critical acclaim and awards. It can’t hurt subscriptions to have shows being universally praised by critics and winning awards, especially when there’s a general feeling that the big prestige cable networks aren’t as good as they once were.
this season of the real world looks to be one of the better ones in my opinion, it at least focuses on more in depth topics, hollywood did improve the franchise in its content, but it still spent so much time focusing the show on trashy topics (whos sleeping with who, whos getting trashed) >____>
I like that mtv says their going to focus on making more in depth content again (as they had in the late 90’s), instead of a ton of mindless/cheap entertainment about sex/skin and partying/spoiled kids wasting money, if that really materializes though, we’ll have to see
would also be nice to see how the real housewives of OC is doing? considering how well Atlanta did
I agree with Alex. FX will probably keep Damages around as a prestige show. A loss leader or halo car (like GM’s Corvette). They don’t make money but they give their respective companies “cred”. Publicity from the critics will get more people to consider getting FX. So in the long run that means more $’s for FX.
I was excited about season 1 of Damages but started forgetting to watch mid-season. For me, Sons of Anarchy was the most exciting tv last season (not because of violence and action, of which there is some, but for the character intricacies and the fabulous ensemble of great actors) and I’m thrilled that it will return.
I wanted to watch Damages, but when the series debuted on FX I was working on a big project, unfortunately it was one of those shows that slipped through the cracks. Finally during the holiday sesson I had two weeks off; I rented the first disc on Netflix, then was off to Best Buy to purchase the season 1 DVD. I watched the entire series in a week and enjoyed it so much it pushed my catching up on Lost on hold. I’m hoping DVD sales are another stream of revenue that makes this series (Damages) financially viable. I love Ted Tanson as this middlge aged man who now finds himself all alone and hated.
For the people asking why Stargate Atlantis was cancelled, the rumor that I heard was money, of course. I believe that the final episode of Stargate Atlantis was the 100th episode, thus making it syndication gold (although the show is already in syndication). Additionally, when the original Stargate was cancelled, the producers made a direct-to-video movie that sold quite well (that’s why they released a second one). From what I understand about the situation, the direct-to-video movie cost less than a full season but the DVD sales made more money than airing a new season. So the plan is to make a Stargate movie maybe once a year to keep the franchise alive and tied into the new Stargate series. If this is true, I don’t know, but it sounds like there’s enough truth in it to be true.
Well, my fellow Damages fans, it may not be so bad… If numbers across multiple airings are good (as in on par with season one, which got about 5 million/week), the third season should still be strong:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117993418.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&query=True+Blood+grow+audience
(it has commentary from a Big Guy over at FX)
Great show! Watch it!
Damages is good, but it isn’t even in the same league as The Wire or Mad Men.
As per Stargate Atlantis, they made it clear it was not ratings. The show this season after Live+7 is getting 2.1 Million viewers according to NBCU media village. The finale was epic and amazing. It was how the show should of gone out, just wish it was longer like a 90min episode. But the show is going to be doing movies now that will air on SCI FI and then go to DVD with a nice budget. So this is not goodbye, this is see you later Atlantis.
Damages is not for those who like to be spoon-fed their tv/film. Yes, sometimes mindless tv is great and is just what you want, but how many Will Farrell movies can you watch? Sometimes, you want to see something with substance that actually makes you have to think. Damages, much like The Wire, takes TV to a whole new level. Kudos to FX, Sony, and the KZK team for not pandering to the lowest common denominator.
I’m 24 and a rabid Damages fan. I like what Craig313 said about applauding those who make tv that doesn’t pander to the lowest common denominator. There simply isn’t enough tv out there for the thinking person. It’s all mindless “reality” based drivel. Thank God for FX!
I’m 17 and Damages has to be one of the best written shows I have ever seen. Each week I am constantly hooked on the twists and turns and that’s before the amazing acting. All of then, Glenn, Rose, Tate etc do a magnificent job and surely bring give the writing justice. It’s a shame the ratings aren’t great, but as people have already said, it’s because it’s one of the final shows left which isn’t dumb down for the rest of the public. The other thing about Damages is that watching Season One would be a good idea before Season Two and it’s not the type of show one can dip in and out of, each week we learn something new which contributes to the overall story. I hope FX keep their promise of a third season, because for us fans, it would be a great shame to lost this!
I am VERY surprised to read that Damages does not have a large viewing audience. Aside from CBC’s news and current affairs programmes, DAMAGES is the only fictional show worthwhile watching. Sure it takes effort on behalf of the viewer to follow the plot with all its twists and turns and unexpected events. To conclude, I think it is masterpiece in any number of ways including, but not limited to: the story line, acting (of all characters), production, direction, camera work and so on. I eagerly look forward to it each week.
I just do not understand why Damages doesn’t have a larger viewing audience, if, in fact, that is true??. It has to have the best cast of actors of any fictional series of late. Glen Close alone makes it worth watching . There is no question it does require some thought to keep up with the plot but that’s good exercise for the brain I sincerely hope the series isn’t canceled, I would miss it. Maybe whoever takes these polls is just not polling the right people.
Do they take into consideration that a large number of Damages viewers do not watch on it on the first-run original airing, but do so by DVR. If you account for that, their numbers jump up significantly. Damages is amazing. I love it. I watched it from day one. I know a lot of people getting into it this season and catching up by watching first season.