Comments on: Wednesday Ratings: CBS News with Katie Couric…LOST!

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:37:24 +0000

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.

By: Figtoria

Figtoria — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:17:09 +0000

I love Life on Mars. I hope they don’t give up on it.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:29:53 +0000

Delayed due to Nielsen testing.

By: Raphaela

Raphaela — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:25:24 +0000

Where’s Thursday numbers?

By: idizzle

idizzle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:32:40 +0000

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.

By: hmm

hmm — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:11:15 +0000

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.

By: Pokerface

Pokerface — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:59:34 +0000

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.

By: Vader

Vader — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:58:50 +0000

And holy cow, did I ever botch the spelling of Ugly Betty…

By: Vader

Vader — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:53:22 +0000

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?

By: ABCFanatic2009

ABCFanatic2009 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:39:45 +0000

*are living

By: ABCFanatic2009

ABCFanatic2009 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:37:22 +0000

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!

By: Unknown

Unknown — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:22:26 +0000

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

By: ABCFanatic2009

ABCFanatic2009 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:05:41 +0000

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!!!!

By: clutz

clutz — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:54:42 +0000

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

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:17:06 +0000

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.

By: Gandalfxj9

Gandalfxj9 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:16:08 +0000

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…

By: Holly

Holly — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:35:19 +0000

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.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:28:25 +0000

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!

By: Nick C

Nick C — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:30:05 +0000

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).

By: richard less

richard less — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:27:48 +0000

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!

By: starmud

starmud — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:23:09 +0000

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

By: Andrea

Andrea — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:18:08 +0000

Julia, you may rest something, but I guess you call it a case.

By: jay

jay — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:11:06 +0000

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.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:09:49 +0000

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??!

By: cool

cool — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:53:54 +0000

Life on Mars drop to 2.1 in the demo in the finals. Lost climbed to 4.9, .1 behind the Season Premiere.