| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 19.54 | 8.61 | 7.62 | 7.15 | 4.68 | 1.02 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 7.3/18 | 2.0/5 | 3.0/7 | 2.1/5 | 1.9/5 | 0.4/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 6.5/17 | 1.3/3 | 2.5/7 | 1.6/4 | 2.1/6 | 0.5/1 |
Of course the curse of posting about delays worked! Two minutes after I posted the delay message, I received the data.
Katie Couric: not on fire. The CBS News with Katie Couric was not a hit in prime time. While it did have more viewers from 8pm-8:30 than Knight Rider (6.45 million for Katie vs. 5.852 million for KITT), the car resoundingly thrashed Couric in the age demos. From 8p-8:30 Couric drew a 1.2/3 (rating share) among 18-49 year olds and an 0.8/2 share among 18-34 year olds. Knight Rider had a 1.8/5, and 1.4/4 in those demos for the half hour. CBS said this was a one-off, one time experiment, and I’m guessing they’ll definitely stand by that now.
The good news for LOST is that the people who watched the premiere stuck around. It averaged 11.067 million. FOX’s new Lie to Me averaged 12.113 million, but LOST had the better 18-49 demo – 4.8/11 for LOST vs. 4.4/10 for Lie to Me. Lie to Me has a little bit of Idol overrun which will be stripped out in the finals and lower its number some.
Life on Mars was back and the hoped for synergy with LOST, sadly didn’t happen. LOM dropped to 6.506 million and only had a 2.3/6 among 18-49 year olds, it’s lowest rating to date. 
I really enjoyed last night’s episode, but these numbers aren’t pretty.
Update: American Idol naturally won the night and it has to be a bit dispiriting for the competition, as American Idol is holding its ground. It had more viewers than it did the same night a year ago (26.97M vs. 25.6M) and its performance in the 18-49 year old demographic was the same as last year’s 10.1. 25% of all 18-49 year olds watching TV last night from 8pm-9pm were watching American Idol. Impressive.
Please note all of the numbers above are preliminary, not time-zone adjusted and will change in the final numbers…
Full night’s data:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 26.97 | 10.1/25 | 8.8/24 |
| CBS | CBS Evening News with Katie Couric | 6.45 | 1.2/3 | 0.8/2 | |
| NBC | Knight Rider | 6.13 | 1.9/5 | 1.5/4 | |
| ABC | LOST (R) | 5.28 | 1.8/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.84 | 1.9/5 | 2.1/6 | |
| CW | Privileged (R) | 1.07 | 0.4/1 | 0.4/1 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | The New Adventures of Old Christine (R) | 4.97 | 1.1/3 | 0.7/2 |
| 9:00 | FOX | Lie to Me | 12.11 | 4.4/10 | 4.1/11 |
| ABC | LOST | 11.07 | 4.8/11 | 4.5/12 | |
| CBS | Criminal Minds (R) | 10.63 | 2.5/6 | 1.5/4 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (R) | 6.44 | 1.9/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.18 | 2.2/5 | 2.4/6 | |
| CW | 90210 (R) | 0.98 | 0.4/1 | 0.5/1 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI: NY (R) | 9.49 | 2.4/6 | 1.5/4 |
| NBC | Law & Order | 8.89 | 2.6/7 | 2.0/6 | |
| ABC | Life on Mars | 6.51 | 2.3/6 | 1.6/5 | |
| UNI | Don Francisco Presenta | 4.03 | 1.5/4 | 1.6/5 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 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.
Disappointing about “Mars”. I wonder if not picking up the story where it left off in the basement hurt it?
Poor Lie to Me. It’s still doing decently, like Fringe, but I was hoping it would really break out. Maybe I’m not the only one who finds Monica Raymund to be nearly unwatchable. It’s only a matter of time before yet another actress drives me away from a show.
oh im so glad for LOST. I’ve been telling my friends that the only reason S4 premiere was so high because the causal viewers gave it one more shot… but by S4E4, it went back to 12 mil and 5.0 18-49 rating. Which is close to what it’s getting now. And of course the causal viewers are no longer even trying to get into the show, which is why there was no dropoff from the premier to the 2nd(3rd) episode.
You know, I really thought LOST would dip below 10 million viewers this week because they’re really using time travel every episode now, which usually does not lead to great ratings, but it surprisingly went up from its second hour last week.
That’s a shame with Life on Mars though, that demo isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great either. Maybe if it can stay there it can surivive, but that’s a big maybe, and I think it’ll be close.
I think the whole cast of LTM works mesh well together. Much better than TM.
That’s Knight Rider’s best viewership in 8 episodes. Before that it had a 2m droppoff after the Obama by week. With being up against Idol and Lost, that’s pretty good. Will have to see if it holds post Katie.
http://knightrideronline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=164791#p164791
Agreed, Monica Raymond is the weak link among the main four, but otherwise I thought yesterday’s epsiode was more likely to endear the show to random Idol viewers with a lazy remote finger.
Vader, LTM will be moving to 8pm.
Every once in a while I am shocked to remember that we live in a world where 2.3 in the demo is NOT considered terrible.
And to whoever was saying yesterday that Idol is slowly dying, this rating is up in the overnights from the same evening last year in total viewers (24.14 vs 26.97) and the demo (9.7 vs 10.1).
I think what we’re seeing is the die hard LOST viewers staying with the show. It probably won’t go below 10m this season.
Time Travel on this show is DIFFERENT then how other shows tried to introduce. Everything that’s happened, HAPPENED in the past! They were always there in the past.
Was that a new CSI: NY? If it was, those have to be series lows for sure, and a baffling decision by CBS to air it all by itself last night.
I’m beginning to think House is the last big scripted hit for FOX. Those who watch American Idol only stay for that show then go back to watching MTV or some other cable network.
Vader, my bad. CSI: NY was a repeat.
Lie to Me, held up stronger than I thought.
LOM is toast. Those LOSTies who did give the show a chance won’t be back, since the ep they aired had practically none of the sci-fi elements that made it a good idea for a lead-out in the first place!
Good news for LOST, looks like only viewers who are with it until the end are watching now, so no steep dropoff from the premiere. Stinks for Mars fans, it really didn’t even hang on to 50% of the 18-49 audience?? I would have thought it would be able to keep at least 60% or so. ABC has never been able to find anything to stick after LOST and IMO they have had shows that are similarly themed so it isn’t like they haven’t tried. Now I just hope that LOST can withstand Idol when it moves to 9 next month, it has before so I don’t think it will impact it much but there will be some effect I’m sure.
How much Idol overrun was there for Lie to Me, according to the DVR guide it was scheduled to start right at 9? Be interesting to see how the show does at 8, if it can perform close to or better than Bones did, FOX should be satisfied I would think.
half hourly stats for Lie to Me (sorry for the formatting):
Lie to Me 9:00-9:30p: 12.914M, 4.7/11
Lie to Me 9:30-10:00p: 11.312 4.1/10
I expected L&O to reach 10 million without a new CSI:NY, but still it did good and I don’t see a reason why NBC won’t renew it for next season.
when bones aired before idol on wednesdays it scored numbers similar to what lie to me did last night so i doubt lie to me will score bones esque numbers at 8.
i think lie to me will probably hover around 9-10m in the 8pm hour
I don’t even think ANY Losties did stick around. The numbers are lower than what LOM got on Thursdays and the retention rate is horrible. Lost’s value as a lead in is zero and always has been.
If ABC was really expecting it to do anything for Life on Mars, they were obviously expecting too much from Lost. Between Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy there isn’t a single hit ABC could establish out of them and only Brothers & Sisters that fairs moderately well.
greys anatomy launched on the back of desperate housewives so theres one hit created by 1 of abcs big three
Well, idizzle, Grey’s was put on after Desperate Housewives, which was already a hit by the end of its first season. While Grey’s ended up being the bigger show, I’m not sure how it would have done without the initial boost. So you can’t say there isn’t a single hit out of any of them.
Edit: What Rick said.
I suspect what hurt Life on Mars was that ABC seems unable to sustain scripted dramas as well as CBS. CBS has the knack. ABC has the greater experience with “reality shows,” but perhaps they’ve mercifully run their course.
The other factor is that many people are loath to invest time in a show that looks like it will be cancelled. Why should I get hooked on a show, religiously watch it week after week, only for it to disappear?
OK, you are all right about Grey’s and I just remembered that Boston Legal started after DH as well, so one hit, two good enough shows. I take everything I said about Desperate Housewives back and amend my statement to proclaim only Lost and Grey’s worthless in that respect.
Unless there is a turn around, I can’t see Life on Mars surviving. It lost to a repeat even in the demo despite a solid lead-in.
Lie to me held up OK, but considering it’s major procedural competition was a repeat, I can’t see it growing much from these numbers.
CBS already knew that their news gets horrible ratings, even for newsworthy events. Just look at the coverage for all the political crap this fall. so what made them think that a random prime-time news spot saying how horrible the military is (based on the ads) was going to do well?
On the other hand, Knight Rider seems to be up slightly…lack of competition maybe? The numbers still aren’t anywhere close to great, but they aren’t at “why is this still on the air?” levels anymore.
Though I don’t watch Lie To Me…FOX can’t be too disappointed – it’s still the second most watched program of the entire evening.
What’s interesting is that L&O finished behind a CSI:NY repeat. It usually takes the lead when CSI:NY isn’t new. So anecdotally at least, it seems that Life On Mars is taking for L&O viewers than CSI:NY viewers.
yes lost and greys are pretty much useless lead ins but greys is definately giving private practice a boost and if pp had been launched in that slot all along it would most likely be a hit right now.
considering greys is pulling in 14m ish a week and pp holds nearly 10m of that abc should be very happy with the retention and therefore pp is considered a modest hit
Katie’s haircut is even worse than her ratings- i thought she looked cute with her old hair-dew…I couldn’t stop looking at her hair after she cut it – I was tramatized…(spell check please).
trauatized
traumatized typo
strange options last night in CBS???!!
why abc don’t put a new show at 8 pm before LOST this season?
bad numbers to lie to me, repeating Fringe results!
NBC instead of move Jay leno to 10 pm, should try a telenovela in this time slot! of course a little different from the Uni telenovelas.
Maybe this genre dhould be luched in the major english networks like NBC. For example one “telenovela” could run from september until may. The Duration of a telenovela is only one season… Next season another story/telenovela replace the previous that have ended in may.
From wikipedia:
A telenovela is a limited-run television serial melodrama of the type made famous in Latin America. The word is a portmanteau of tele, short for television, and novela (”novel/soap opera”). Telenovelas are essentially soap operas in miniseries format. The telenovela combines ancient melodrama with the 19th century feuilleton and the Latin American “radionovela”. This formula has proven to be highly efficient, regularly attracting millions of viewers worldwide.
Each telenovela usually have a duration of 9 months and 150 episodes (5 nights a week).
then we will have another ugly betty on our hands
Damn you ABC for taking LOM off the air for 6 weeks? The show was getting really good and got decent ratings out of Grey’s.
Having the time off really killed any momentum the show had!
I’m going to keep watching, but now, like Dirty Sexy Money, i know it’s doomed and it’s gonna piss me off when they yank it off the air
Paul,
MyNetwork started out using telenovellas. And while they are popular in other parts of the world, they didn’t really catch on with Americans. They quickly burned through the telenovelas and changed their format to resemble a more mainstream network. I can’t see NBC going that route. Although stranger things have happened!
LOST’s strength is in its 18-49/18-34 demos; advertisers love those numbers and it does well in DVD sales. The overall viewers are about where I expected them to be. LOST is doing way better than HEROES. LOST has a planned ending in 2010 anyway.
Seems like the only ones watching Katie Cupcake are old geezers hopped up on Viagra.
Life on Mars? Couldnt get into that one. Soon to change is name to Death on Earth. To be quite frank, Im sick of 70s themed shows. The 70s were a nightmare best forgotten. Sort of like Swingtown.
I think Life on Mars is doomed, but it was still great to see Johnny Sack from the Sopranos. He’s been putting on the pounds….
NR: What about new versions of The Partridge Family, Hawaii 5-0 and Streets of San Francisco? If that doesn’t float your boat, some 80s themed shows are also getting pilots…
Can Lie To Me really be considered a disappointment? Sure its not doing American Idol numbers but nothing else does and its still holding its own against one of the most hyped shows on TV in Lost and its still early days. Of course it may be a different story as and when CBS and NBC come out of repeats.
LIE TO ME is doing well in the demo. Total numbers aren’t CBS like, but the demo is good enough to beat CBS in all but CSI. I think LIE TO ME held up ok, but could do better with better attention grabbing story lines. So far they haven’t SHOCKED anyone enough yet. If they can hold on to the audience they have in time for sweeps and have some great story lines and some shocking twists they could be able to make a hit out of it.
Right now to me both episodes have been above average quality but nothing that says “this is as good as it’s going to get,” like FRINGE does for me.
My DirecTV was on the fritz last night – ice storm! I am bummed that I missed “Lie to Me.” It’s numbers are not stellar but the demos are solid. If it can hold these numbers on nights when both CM and LOST are new…then Fox should consider it a success.
Nice to see LOST doing Well and Yes it is holding up better than Heroes did this Year
It’ll be interesting to see how the numbers pan out when CBS in particular comes out of repeats, will Lost or Lie To Me take the biggest hit? Convential wisedom says Lie To Me given the nature of the shows it’ll be competing against on CBS.
I like Lie To Me though and have enjoyed it so far – I’m not sure how long the gimmick can last before it becomes incredibly dull but if CSI can survive 3 different shows and God knows how many seasons between them with people still wanting more I guess Lie To Me could last for twenty years numbers wise.
Lie to Me held up very well. I was expecting it to drop off a bit. I think it has wide enough appeal that it could increase viewers over time. I’m just happy that I show that I actually like is putting out decent numbers.
Yeah… comparing HEROES to LOST is basically pointless now. LOST is in its 5th season while HEROES is in its 3rd, and LOST is still getting higher ratings. FRINGE might be the show to compare LOST to now… While they’re getting the same number of viewers basically, LOST is still 4 seasons ahead… so you can’t compare them really either.
LOST is doing fantastic for a heavy serialized show.. in its fifth year.
I hope knight rider sticks around
Clutz, I was very surprised to check Hulu and find Lie to Me available this morning. FOX usually holds off for 8 days or something, but if you haven’t caught it yet, you can watch it there.
Alex, Lie to Me isn’t a disappointment, and I’m sure FOX is happy with these numbers, just like I’m sure they are happy with Fringe, but, personally, I was expecting Lie to Me to be a big hit, rather than a modest one. As Nick C points out, there is still time, but by then I may be bored of the show and not want it to be a hit.
People seem to be missing the point that AI and LIT are switching hours soon. Lost will be competing against AI, and LTM against the CBS comedies.
Nick C, I don’t think it matters whether LTM has big twists or not. Look at Fringe–you can turn the twists in that show into a pretzel and it isn’t helping any. Either you like this kind of show or you don’t. The Mentalist is a very standard procedural upgraded by Simon Baker’s performance alone.
Wow, if the numbers keep going up, Knight Rider might just make it to another season. And last night’s ep was pretty good, too. The reboot seems to be working!
That has to be the best LOST retained viewer after a season premier since the pilot! It looks like that just represents hardcore cans and the casual viewers are not tuning in any more.
Poor Life On Mars. Hopefully it can last the rest of the season and get a chance to wrap up. LOST will never work as a lead in. As soon as it’s over people turn it off and rush to their computer to talk about it online. Or call their friends and discuss. The last thing they need is another show where you don’t know what’s going on.
Andrea, I am not sure anyone is missing the point. It’s just that “soon” is in the eye of the beholder. Despite less competition for Lie to Me, that switch may wind up being worse for LTM than it is for LOST. We’ll see, when it finally happens which won’t be next week either.
Wow Lie to me held up well i thought, only like a million stopped watching, the first episode was good enough to keep 12mil. What happened to the 18-49 index? i thought it was on thursdays? Just wondering.
It’s interesting that CBS got similar 18-49 ratings for Couric in primetime as in its regular timeslot. But despite the failed experiment, kudos to CBS for realizing they had little, if anything, to lose and opting to try something unconventional as a result.
wednesday*
Lost viewers go to their computers at 10:02 to see what everyone is saying after the show. it’s more of an event than anything. I don’t think anything will be successful after Lost. ABC’s best hope is to put an established show after Lost. Also ABC needs to have a new promising show air after Desperate Housewives. I see that show as the only show on ABC that can help launch a new show at this time.
Katie Couric completely SUNK Old Christine last night. There was once a time where Old Christine got 8.25 mil viewers for a re-run without a lead-in. Bring in that disastrous news show as a lead in and it makes Old Christine’s numbers cut in half – GREAT WORK CBS!
Fin, ideally it would be Tuesday or Wednesday, but Bill is traveling this week so it will probably be tomorrow or perhaps very late tonight.
Like I said one “telenovela” in NBC don’t be the smae type that airs on Univision or in MyNetworkTV. This telenovelas are trash to me!
I’m not from US and I already saw some good telenovelas specially from Brazil. But you still can inovate in this format. A Lot! And put on the air a good show, airing daily during 7/8 months (October until May) with 150-200 episodes. If you think usually a sitcom or drama have more episodes, but broadcast in a longer time period, 8/10/12 years.
What i say is NBC could try one show that’s run out during one season, only one season, airing every week nights…
I think this was a best option than NBC made.
—//—
Lie to Me at 8 pm is doomed, because i think i go dwon the 8 millions mark!
Lost against AI is also doomed, and will average below 9 millions viewers with lucky the majority see this episodes in the next days.
Robert:
My point is the change is coming. You may know that, but I’m not sure others know.
Paul, telenovelas may be cheaper to produce than regular scripted dramas, but they are still more expensive than Leno. I have plenty of ideas about what NBC really should do with the 10 pm hour, but in the end it’s more about keeping Leno on NBC than salvaging a dead hour.
In my opinion ABC should lunch a new dramedy at 10 pm after desperate housewives… A remake from Packed to the Rafters hit series could be a option… Because don’t see any new show with a good story this days. Mid-season show from abc seems like crap to me!
i still think that Dancing with the stars on wedenesdays night could be the best move from abc… because Grey’s Anatomy could gain 2 to 4 millions viewers from this lead in, and Lost at 10 pm on wednesday could still average 11/12 millions viewers.
The competion from AI is only during a half hour and they have distinct targets…
Wednesday
8 pm Dancing with the Stars (all season with two hours)
10 pm Lost
Thursday
8 pm Dancing with the Stars
9 pm Grey’s Anatomy
10 pm Private Practice
Paul, Grey’s doesn’t need to gain viewers. It’s still one of the top 3 scripted shows in the demo. Why waste Dancing with the Stars on a show that doesn’t need it?
LOST at 8pm is a repeat. LOST repeats, like any serial drama, rarely do well in any time slot.
ABC probably does this knowing any other show they put up against AI wont do well (they have no equivalent to NCIS to put there, NCIS is one of the only shows that gets nearly 20 million viewers going up against Idol, though its audience does skew older).
Happy for LOST, I was expecting about 9.5 million. Sorry for Life On Mars. I was never sure if it would make a good cross over. I do like the show but it might be hard to bite into if the viewers aren’t in to it already. I thought LOST fans might give it a try but then again why should they? It’s not like it was paired with LOST in the past. I don’t know many people who just start watching shows they have never seen. Sometimes I think networks just assume that we all just sit in front of the TV and mindlessly watch whatever they line up.
If Fox wants “Lie to Me” to have a chance, they should leave their lineup as it is. I don’t see what they have to benefit in moving Idol to 9pm. They will only get lower ratings in the 8pm hour and Idol will have the same amount of viewers in either timeslot. On the other hand, if they left Bones where it was, they could rely on another show to anchor Wednesdays @ 8. Therefore, I agree that Lie to Me is doomed at 8pm.
I am so sad that “Life on Mars” did so poorly. As usual, my favorite new show is gonna get the axe.
I really don’t know why ABC has had so much trouble launching new shows recently. Perhaps “Castle” will break that curse when it premieres next month. In seeing the promo for it during Lost, it looks like it might have potential to attract that DWTS audience. Then again, who knows. ABC viewers seem to be the most fickle.
LOST is the best serialized show on TV right now
last night’s Episode was fantastic did answer many Questions about Richard and John locke
JT, I wouldn’t say that ABC viewers are the most fickle. ABC is the most fickle in its dealing with its own shows. It has a habit of moving/pre-empting/returning/then moving again it’s show. You can’t blame the viewers when they tire of ABC’s antics.
Andrea, there are well written twists and then there is FRINGE. FRINGE isn’t well written (heck JJ Abrams writes many eps that is is proof right there) or well organized. They have no idea what the pattern is even going to be. So the twists are just there to twist things.
LIE TO ME on the other hand has a chance for some of the TRUTHS to be shockers if told well. You shock an audience right and you’ll get hype. With hype comes ratings. I think LIE TO ME is in a much better situation than FRINGE right now. It has more potential and the lead isn’t a mannequin.
American Idol ruins Wednesday nights.
No? I think Grey’s Anatomy needs a good lead-in to the end of the season, because next season the decrease in the rating could be worst and then?
abc don’t have any new hit show in the past 4 years!
they need to protect the only two show (GA and DH) that have good ratings.
with this options the rest of the line-uo will be:
Monday
8 pm The Bachelor (season extra)
10 pm Castle / the Unusuals
Tuesday
8 pm Samantha Who?
8:30 pm In The Motherhood
9 pm Ugly Betty
10 pm Cupid
* Better of ted between DWTS and Lost (?)
(because i don’t want boring anyone i stop here this comments.)
Nick C: lol at the last statement.
I’m just curious about how LTM will fair on its own. 8pm is a lower HUT but LTM would be competing against the likes of Knight Rider, Christine and Gary, so I don’t think it would necessarily be a terrible move. At least we can find out if it is a show that can stand on its own and become a “tentpole” as FOX thinks it will be, or if it needs a crutch for high numbers.
ABC has a new problem that many networks go through sometime or another. Before 2004, they were struggling so badly in the ratings. Then a wave of new shows (Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy, and Lost) but them back into the competition and they’ve sort of revolved their entire network schedule around these three shows for the last 5 seasons. All three shows are still solid performers, as they can still pull in 11-15 million viewers weekly, but it’s obvious that they can’t depend on these shows for much longer. Since then the only new show that’s been able to breakout was ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ no other scripted comedy has really given them the huge ratings that the core three have.
If ABC doesn’t find one or two new breakout shows in the next couple of years, they are going to be in big trouble. They will head into the footsteps of NBC who still haven’t been able to recover after losing ‘Friends’ and ‘Will & Grace’. The mistake that NBC did was that they couldn’t find a new hit show while those shows were still on the air…so now their viewership has completely flocked over to other networks. If ABC was smart, they would start trying to focus more on new shows until they find those one or two shows that’s going to keep them alive.
I really hope LIFE ON MARS can rebuild it’s viewership. I think ABC hurt it by shelving it for several weeks. I liked that they have only showed new episodes, but a several week hiatus hurts all around.
I think Network Television should start airing shows in Fall Seasons and Spring Seasons with no repeats and no time off. Go from September to December and then January to May. If yo have to, Double up with back to back episodes. This format seems to work well for 24 and now LOST, I think it could be something great for television.
If I had to bet, I’d bet against Castle. DWTS viewers are perfectly able to switch to CSI Miami, if they want to see a generic crime procedural with bad actors and Castle really doesn’t look like it has one interesting idea to grab their attention.
Sam: i agree with everything you said. all ABC has going for them (once LOST, DH and GA are done) is DWTS. they’ll be back to square one, unless they start finding some new blockbuster hits.
Glad Lie To Me did good in ratings again.
Life On Mars was okay but I don’t understand why it seems they’re airing the episodes out of order.
Yeah, I wouldn’t bet on Castle, though I will be checking it out. I like Nathan Fillion despite his Whedon connection.
Nick C: Why are you attacking Fringe on a day it’s not even airing? Do you have nothing else to do with your spare time, than bash a show and get on people’s nerves? Unless you’re in Pinkner’s (the showrunner) or anyone of the three creators heads, I don’t think you have the foggiest whether they have and end game planned or not. I guess JJ Abrams ran over your dog or something…
Vader, JJ is actually someone I know. The show is comparable to LIE TO ME since both are benefiting from AMERICAN IDOL. That is why it’s discussed when LIE TO ME ratings are out. JJ writes entertaining stuff, but it is rarely “well written,” in the classical sense. He has his following but FRINGE is not doing great and so far there has been no “wow,” moment or anything from the show. Unlike X-FILES which it is compared to, which had a few early on in its run. The show also lacks the chemistry of the two leads from the X-FILES. The actress on FRINGE is boring and adequate at best. Joshua Jackson does the most with his part, and the guy playing his dad is good as well. So far that relationship is more interesting than the one between the two leads.
From a money making standpoint FRINGE is a hit. It isn’t in danger of going anywhere. If they figure out where they are going with the show it could turn around, but yes I know the Producers and no, they don’t have the pattern figured out. They’ve also admitted this in an ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY article.
Whether the lead female is boring is purely subjective. Personally what makes the show for me character-wise is John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop. That his character is more interesting to me than Anna Torv’s is probably not a great sign for the show and I agree the relationship between the Bishops is more interesting than between Peter and Olivia, and I agree that the show is good, but not WOW. The most wow scene of the entire run was the opening episode where the animated butterflies attacked. And *that* probably made people change the channel. But, all that is also very subjective.
And you didn’t answer the question of whether JJ ran over your dog and whether Dawn Ostroff was in the car with him at the time, dissing Jericho, which you will no doubt have slated for a revival on FOX Fridays after TSCC is cancelled, but, I digress…
Robert, there you go getting all passive aggressive again.
Andrea, I’m aggressive-aggressive. You and Nick have axes to grind, often, that have absolutely nothing to do with the ratings themselves. If you, Nick, or anyone else has a problem with being called out on it — tough.
Nowt wrong with having an axe to grind as long as you’re honest about it.
Suki, I agree, but while I find the axes pretty obvious to spot, they are never (or very close to never) disclosed when the grinding occurs!
“Andrea, I’m aggressive-aggressive. You and Nick have axes to grind, often, that have absolutely nothing to do with the ratings themselves. If you, Nick, or anyone else has a problem with being called out on it — tough.
”
And projecting as well…Keep on with your fantasies. They make for nice reading.
uh huh, and you keep on with your fantasy that your don’t emote your ire at Fox cancelling New Amsterdam…without actually saying it. Whatever you say….
Robert, there you go again!
I feel left out. I need to find a reason to be pissed off at a network. Hmmm….
LOL, denial too? Now I’m projecting via memory.
Noooo! Don’t do it, Holly!
^Bummer, I had just about decided to start making irrational comments about ABC for canceling my beloved According to Jim (I think I saw an episode once…)?
When is ABC going to realize that LOST is a horrible lead in. It leaves viewers way too full. The first thing you want to do after LOST is shut off the tv and meditate for a while, or hit the message boards, or rewind it.
Life on Mars is also competing against “Lost,” which has a huge percentage of viewers watching the same night on DVR. Just speaking for myself, I recorded both “Lost” and “Life on Mars.” I will get to “Life on Mars” in a few days, but LOST is absolute must-see-same-night viewing. “Lost” is so rewarding to those 11-14 million of us that never gave up. We are reaping the rewards of a story beginning to race to its conclusion just 15 months from now.
Holly, I actually think might renew ATJ yet again. Sounds like the perfect reason for one to find an axe, IMHO.
I wish they’d all go back to the regular old fall season/holiday hiatus/spring season format. At this point, if I know in advance that a new show is going to have an eight month hiatus, I’m not watching it. I’ll wait until the series finale and buy the DVDs.
Andrea, I’m not sure you know what projecting is, or at least you can’t spot it if you do.
Holly: I feel left out as well. Maybe we can sign up together! Also, put me on the list to dig up old threads from a year ago. Robert, can you teach me the shortcut?
Julia: Would I be wrong if I gave you as Example A?
Andrea, unfortunately the site search doesn’t work well (or at all) for searching on comments. and that’s something we do need to figure out. for now, the best bet is to do google searches on particular searches and throw tvbythenumbers.com into your search query — not really a short-cut, just the shortest one I know.
Robert,
Thanks. Google doesn’t seem to pick up this site very well (in the news it doesn’t by not for regular searches).
I rest my case.
Google actually picks up this site extremely well — it just depends on what you’re searching for. chuck 3d glasses superbowl works better than gossip girl ratings but it’s also more specific.
In our admin tools it’s very easy for us to search the comments, but the site search doesn’t pick it up, and in order to find your comments via google you’d need to search on something like fox new amsterdam andrea tvbythenumbers.com
CBS is way better off with Gary Unmarried and this just goes to show it, if CBS wants to keep up with AI Lost and Lie too me, they better cut the expirements and get serious!
Try sticking site:tvbythenumbers.com into your search. That will ONLY search this site.
Life on Mars drop to 2.1 in the demo in the finals. Lost climbed to 4.9, .1 behind the Season Premiere.
Someone can tell why CBS don’t air a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother after two and a Half Men?
In the past years I see a lot of sitcoms in this spot and all failled…
But the only two sitcoms that CBS can trust don’t have a chance??!
Long day, so I apologize for not reading too many other posts. I noticed the 18-49 dropoff from eight to nine last night was 45% or so. Question: Doesn’t this make that hour less valuable to advertisors? If not, then the demo stuff is adman jive. As for ABC, their real trouble is and has always been that they have never owned lucrative local stations. NBC by that standard will never truly be third except in quality. They used to say in the fifties, owning local stations is a license to print money. When the old Dumont net went belly up, ABC got the leftovers, sort of like an expansion baseball team. ABC is in more trouble than most people realize.
Julia, you may rest something, but I guess you call it a case.
abc has had many chances with a handful of shows, from this season and the past few seasons, they’ve handled many of them very poorly, which makes me question abcs current ability to farm a new hit show unless they get lucky
Two Iders:
1. How is Knight Rider still on? Didn’t Ford just lose billions this past quarter…their weekly hour advertisement was a waste of money.
2. Lie to Me is a horrible title for the show. The concept is good, but that title…yikes!
Robert, what axe do I have to grind? I’ve never once had a problem with a canceled show being canceled from straight up not having viewers. I have issues with idiot Network execs like BS and DO because they can’t run a network well. Both have destroyed what was there before them. My opinion on JERICHO being good, is that. It was good. It wasn’t right for CBS, but I understand that decision. They greenlit a GOOD show, and they knew it was good. They also knew it didn’t fit their normal viewing audience so it was a risk. I know JJ doesn’t write well according to what you learn in school about script writing. I point out his “don’ts,” that he does all the time. It doesn’t stop his work from entertaining me, but it COULD be a lot better. Still his bad is better than a lot of people’s good, so I keep watching.
I still think you took my statements about JERICHO and Sunday wrong. I said what was going on, not what I believe would happen. Kind of like TSCC and DOLLHOUSE I state what is going on, not what I believe will happen (I doubt both will have trouble getting 4.5M viewers and by result be canned).
Yay, Lie to Me won it’s time slot in total viewers! Awesome, I love this show. I’m glad that it beat LOST in total viewers as well.
Do you think FOX is happy with the ratings for Lie to Me? I think so. I mean, the show beat LOST!
I think it’s still a little early to say whether FOX is happy with LTM. It beat Lost in total viewers, but lost in the demo. When Criminal Minds comes back, CM will definitely beat LTM in total viewers and will probably take away some of its demo viewers. It could be a dead-heat between those two for second in the demo.
Of course, when LTM moves to 8, everything changes. It will have a lot less competition, but it will also loose it’s 27 million viewer lead-in.
You know it’s intereesting that every American Idol episode this season has seen an increase over Tuesday. I smell a new trend in the series…
You know it’s intereesting that every American Idol episode this season has seen an increase over Tuesday. I smell a new trend in the series…
Well, 2/3 is nearly every episode.
Holly – you are dead-on with LTM. It’s a little early to tell how it will fare.
Robert – dragging us off the Wednesday ratings topic again, I agree with your critique of Fringe. John Noble is brilliant – he’s got Walter Bishop pulling off this insane-yet-adorable vibe not quite like anything I’ve ever seen before. Joshua Jackson has really stepped up too. Sad that Ms. Torv is the “weak link.”
Nick C – you can complain all you want about Fringe’s poorly-written scripts, in the classical sense. Plenty of people complain about Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, e.e. cummings, yadda yadda yadda…their works would be considered poor by schoolbook standards. Yet each of them is considered a true artist. Sticking to the form one learns in school may result in technically perfect – but dreadfully boring – writing. And if your intention is series reviews, not ratings analysis, why not direct your comments to TV Guide or similar entertainment-based sites
?
Julia – thanks a million for the Hulu tipoff! My DirecTV is out yet again tonight – no Burn Notice, Booooo DirecTV! – so off I go to watch Hulu
Gahhh I hate the ratings of Life on Mars.
I wish and wish Ugly Betty and Life on Mars will get a new season those shows are way better than BROTHERS&SISTERS/PRIVATEPRACTICE!.
I think Lost will get 8 million this season, but I love LOST 4EVER
I hate FOX seriously! How can Fringe and Lie to Me get more than 10 million its just bizarre especially they’re a lead-in of American Idol which is the most overrated show ever!!!!
Good for Lost. Not only this season has been incredible, Its holding very well. Looks like Life on Mars is the 4th show ABC is gonna cancel. I still say Pushing Daisies should have been kept and get the Lost Lead in. I have a feeling lost fans may like PD
Oops! you’re wrong unknown
ABC cancelled
1st- Opportunity Knocks
2nd- Boston Legal (the only one which all the episodes aired)
3rd- Eli Stone
4th- Pushing Daisies
5th- Dirty Sexy Money
6th- According to Jim
Life on Mars and Ugly Betty is living on a balance! I hope they save them!
*are living
I think it would be foolish to cancel Ugly Better so close to the magic syndication number, and the fact that it’s not like it’s doing terrible, which all those shows did. Was Boston Legal really cancelled though?
And holy cow, did I ever botch the spelling of Ugly Betty…
Paul, a telenovela is nothing more than a Soap Opera and they already have those during daytime (GH, DOOL, Y&R, GL, etc.)
Just like the soaps, the telenovelas have overacting, over-the-top dramatic stories, etc. It’s been a while, though, since the last I saw a “love story” develop in Prime Time.
The only difference is that Latin American telenovelas have a strict period of time, between 3-6 months. If it’s a hit, maybe up to a year. But american soaps are endless and have lasted about 40 years.
The telenovelas are hits in third-world countries where people are mostly working-class with nothing to do but watch TV at night (I grew up in Panama so I know), and a lot of people specially children grow up with that telenovela culture in their heads (trying to marry a rich person, that there’s evil people, etc)
The american version of Ugly Betty is everything but a telenovela even though the original UB was a colombian telenovela that ran for about a year and at the end of it Betty married her boss (and was all beautiful)
When a Telenovela is a total success (like in the case of RBD in Mexico or Patito Feo in Argentina) they are given series-status and start going into seasons, pretty much like the US.
Back to the ratings, it was expected that Life on Mars would crash, given that 6 week break and the change in time slot. It didn’t even give the show time to create a following.
American Idol… nope, it’s going nowhere.
ABCFanatic, UB is definitely getting a 4th season, I have the feeling that the show will not “return” in June as they say. They will send off the 3rd season in late march and then won’t return until the fall. Airing shelved episodes during the summer would be the kiss of death.
i only enjoy Idol when Paula is upbeat and active (like she was in jacksonville and louisville). In the 2 latest episodes, SF and NYC, shes been looking miserable and shes been very quiet. as a result- the whole freakin show becomes less enjoyable. that show really goes Up and Down with her!! the new judge… forget about it. none of the fans like her. and the buzz on the internet goes up 1000 % after paula has had a good episode… and down with just as much when shes been quiet. she really is very important for american idol.
Boston Legal was cancelled in the sense that ABC did not want it to have a fifth season at all, but let DEK talk them into it in return for the US rights to Life on Mars (which ABC did not like in the FOX/Kelly-version – oh, the lolz, looking at the ratings now). It was not a creative decision to end it, DEK would have kept it going and indeed very much did not feel like the S4 finale was a good series finale, hence the fighting for it. Bottom line: totally schmidt-canned.
Where’s Thursday numbers?
Delayed due to Nielsen testing.
I love Life on Mars. I hope they don’t give up on it.
old christine usually pulls in the a similar amount of viewers for new and repeat episodes, which is usually between 6 to 8 million. but stupid Katie Couric knocked down the numbers. old chrisitne should move back to mondays where it belong. the only reason they put it their is for gary unmarried and now both shows are a disaster. and i cant believe a repeat of Privileged actually beat a repeat of 90210. usually Privileged, reruns and new epsiodes fall behind 90210. both all the shows have crappy numbers anyway but, 90210 and old christine are the only one i truly care about.