| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 24.211 | 12.306 | 8.316 | 6.632 | 3.874 | 1.754 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 9.0/23 | 2.5/6 | 3.2/8 | 2.3/6 | 1.6/4 | 0.7/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 7.6/21 | 1.5/4 | 2.6/7 | 1.9/5 | 1.8/5 | 0.7/2 |
After running only repeats at 8pm Tuesday since February 10, the CW put Reaper into the breach last night and it got blown away by American Idol. Reaper’s 2.359 million viewers and demo ratings of 0.9 (both 18-49 and 18-34) were even worse than 90210 did in its last new episode on Tuesday. Perhaps the CW should just go reruns only vs. Idol until it mercifully leaves the air. Of course the 2 hour Idol dominated the night, boosting Fox to a win across the board. For comparison here is a post from last November with some Fall 2007 results for Reaper.
8-10pm was all American Idol which averaged 24.211 million viewers and a 9.0 18-49 demo. But with only CBS repeat competition, Biggest Loser was the easy #2 in the demos, improving on its last outing vs. a two hour Idol. As if anyone cared, Homeland Security USA was up just a bit from its last airing vs. Idol.
Milking all it can from the Bachelor phenomenon, ABC’s Bachelor: After the Final Rose Part 2 rolled over the competition in the demos at 10pm as America could not look away from the trainwreck.
Although they included the Presidential Address, here are last Tuesday’s results for comparison.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (000) | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 22.683 | 8.3 | 22 | 7.0 | 21 |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) | 13.659 | 2.6 | 7 | 1.5 | 4 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 8.263 | 3.2 | 9 | 2.5 | 7 | |
| ABC | Homeland Security USA | 5.670 | 1.6 | 4 | 1.1 | 3 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Ángel | 4.272 | 1.6 | 4 | 1.9 | 6 | |
| CW | Reaper (premiere) | 2.359 | 0.9 | 2 | 0.9 | 2 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | American Idol | 25.739 | 9.8 | 24 | 8.3 | 22 |
| CBS | The Mentalist (repeat) | 12.764 | 2.7 | 7 | 1.7 | 4 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 9.661 | 3.9 | 9 | 3.2 | 8 | |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 4.275 | 1.8 | 4 | 2.1 | 5 | |
| ABC | Scrubs (repeat) | 3.392 | 1.2 | 3 | 1.0 | 3 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 1.150 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.6 | 2 | |
| 9:30 | ABC | Scrubs (repeat) | 3.357 | 1.3 | 3 | 1.2 | 3 |
| 10:00 | ABC | Bachelor: After the Final Rose part 2 | 10.850 | 4.1 | 11 | 3.5 | 10 |
| CBS | Without a Trace (repeat) | 10.497 | 2.3 | 6 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (repeat) | 7.024 | 2.4 | 6 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 3.075 | 1.3 | 3 | 1.4 | 4 |
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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.
2.3m isnt bad for reaper. considering most shows have seen a fall in viewership this season and 2.3m is much below last seasons numbers
Poor Reaper. Yet another show to be decimated because of a lack of brain cells amongst CW executives
Actully scratch that last comment. That is almost in line with last seasons ratings.
reapers season finale last year got 2.47 million viewers, it’s not lost much.
Oops just came across this. Apparently Reaper is in line for a season 3 already?
http://jerkdoublebitch.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/tyler-labines-funniest-work-yet/
Season 1 finale had 2.69 millions viewers and a 1.2 demo. It’s not to bad, considerin a LOT of shows had way bigger loss. I think it still do pretty good. Probably better than 90210 does habitualy
or a flat out lack of people who watch the CW…
and the shocker of the day: Idol beat CBS repeats. By the way… notice that a WaT repeat was -This- close to beating the bachelor… guess the train wreck got derailed.
djm – it was just a reunion episode, the actual finale was on monday.
djm, viewership matters not for $, the Bachelor trainwreck rolled over WAT in the demos.
Could someone please tell me what is TheCws highest rated program normally? I think its Smallville but im unsure
Ant, its Smallville for scripted shows and America’s Top Model overall.
America’s next top model i think
Thank Bill. Having looked at the numbers, Reaper is not too far off having those kind of numbers
Didnt Supernatural get renewed and it only managed 2.9m viewers average in a season?
djm, the train wreck nearly doubled the wat repeat in 18-49 and more than doubled in 18-34. i would say that is the more significant point.
Ant, viewers matter not, its all about the demos. For most networks its the adults 18-49, for the CW it still is about the 18-34. A 0.9 for adults 18-34 is not good.
Bad twisted into good, even when it’s bad. If Sam’s numbers above are correct for Reaper last year, out of the gate in its premiere Reaper is down 25% in the demo against last year’s season average. Being 25% down against last year’s averages with the season premiere seems particularly bad.
I suspect we’ll have to suffer through the outraged cries that Dawn deliberately threw Reaper under the American Idol bus. On a side note, I read a lot of bad/mediocre reviews for the premiere.
I know usually networks really want live numbers for advertising purposes, but I’d really be interested to know Reaper’s numbers after time-shifting is added in. Last year Reaper always ranked at the top, I wouldn’t be surprised if these numbers jump substantially too when the final final numbers come out. Especially now that it’s up against AI.
Thats actually pretty decent for Reaper.
Actually Robert, there were more positive reviews then negatives. I should know, I catalogued them.
It’s just that the really bad ones were REALLY bad.
if Idol is on 2-3 days a week, how could network avoid throwing shows under the bus…
djm, you are correct, particularly for the CW which doesn’t program in the Idol-safe 10pm hour.
Still, there is some argument to be made that Dawn is holding her prized 90210 away from the jaws of American Idol and feeding Reaper to it instead.
Robert, on the Reaper facebook page, all the fans are raving about it.
I guess critics juust like to criticize for nothing these days
ReaperDMV: “Yay, Reaper is back on! Yay! w00t!” does not constitute a review for me
But it was pretty bad. It lost almost 100,000 from 1st half hour to the second and was sixth among men 18-34 (it did better with women 18-34). So much for counter programming.
Sure, the total viewer numbers are right in line with their last airings, but those demo numbers are terrible. They’ll run out the episodes (those numbers are better than repeats), but that will be the end of the show.
And I would rather schedule Reaper against AI than Fringe too.
of course someone who cared enough about Reaper to become a fan on its Facebook page will rave about it. That means nothing, but neither do the reviews. but the numbers were worse than I imagined they would be and I didn’t have lofty hopes.
Heck, the major networks could all broadcast idol simultaneously five days a week…. no shows would get run over XD
Robert, Reaper hardley ever goes over 3m viewers though. Still there is DVR numbers etc to count on top of that.
I remain hopeful. Season three looks a dead cert now pretty much anyway
Smallville has been the CW most watched show this season so far in overall viewers.
Here are the averages (in total viewers) for the series on the CW after the week of Feb. 12-18.
1. Smallville (14 episodes) – 4.13 million viewers
2. America’s Next Top Model (12) – 4.04
3. Supernatural (14) – 3.30
4. Gossip Girl (17) – 3.05
5. One Tree Hill (16) – 3.04
6. 90210 (15) – 3.00
7. Privileged (16) – 1.86
8. Stylista (8) – 1.72
9. The Game (13) – 1.69
10. Everybody Hates Chris (15) – 1.68
11. 13: Fear Is Real (6) – 1.34
I am always amazed at the viewership that American Idol gets. I was even more amazed to discover that our CTO with a PHD in Physics was a huge fan.
In the office we’ve proclaimed him the fifth Judge (watch out Paula)due to his clever commentary on the contestants. He even tracks it in our online database. Who did he feel was as cute as a button with the personality of a button?
http://www.trackvia.com/blog/2009/03/04/american-idol-judges/
When you come to think of it, regardless of demos, the total viewers for Reaper is pretty damn good. Esepcially since EHC and TG seem to declining
Worse than you imagined they would be? The show rarely pulled in 3 million + viewers at any time last year, nevermind against American Idol.
In my post I meant after the week of Feb. 9-15
Is it me or does the AI commentary of the judges and Seacrest seem just a little too “laxed” – it just feels sloppy.
Personally – I think the other networks should go off the air for 30 minutes – they might get people to tune in just to see if they would do it and it would peak ratings. Just get a sponsor before and after the 30 minutes…it would be funny.
who cares about total viewers? I am only focused on the demos.
the biggest loser may be no bachelor, but i cant see nbc cutting it to just one hour. each hour, taken as its own show, performs much higher than nbc’s average show in viewers and both demos.
Also, no matter what Reaper would’ve done, it still would’ve been “torched” by American Idol. I could’ve given you that headline a month ago…
oh yeah, comparing urban comedies on Friday to a show on Tuesdays. that makes a lot of sense.
As I wrote before in the comments, average viewership is meaningless for the financial future of the show. We present it to be complete, but only the demos matter at the cash register.
The point of putting REAPER under the bus was for new episodes of 90210 to return to previous numbers. They’re convinced the show is getting destroyed by AMERICAN IDOL and not from it just being a stupid show.
REAPER didn’t do well, but it didn’t do bad either. Sure it was well promoted, but it was well promoted during a whole lot of reruns, and PRIVILEGED. So I think it did “ok,” especially considering just how god awful that episode was. It was just bad.
The test will be how well 90210 does when it comes back and goes up against FRINGE.
Vader, your Reaper fanboi t-shirt is showing, had Reaper done better than the 90210’s that got stomped by Idol (and it most definitely did not), I would not have used that headline. My comparison was to the CW’s alternatives.
Had Reaper done a 1.6 in the demos I’d have gone for something like “Reaper Bests 90210 Efforts vs. Idol”
I’m sorry, sixth among M18-34 is bad.
100,000? That’s really not that much of a loss, especially considering the end of American Idol is really when people switch over to tune in.
And “Cancun” did a 1.2/3 and 2.69 million. So the premiere numbers for a show returning 10 months later really isn’t all that bad.
And Robert? You might want to check out this list reviews from the newspapers and magazines: http://community.livejournal.com/reaperdmv/17597.html
Although I’m sure you didn’t mean it, it’s kinda offensive that you assumed I was only talking about fans with no standing.
Nick, I agree with your first paragraph in that comment. It’s clear that this is a 90210 preservation measure.
But “didn’t do bad”, c’mon, it did a 1.0 for women 18-34, and a 0.7 for men 18-34. But I also agree that future results will matter more than the premiere, they always do.
Reaper’s numbers aren’t bad at all since the CW has been mostly dark since early February. That’s the first original scripted episode to air for weeks on this network. As soon as viewers come back to other shows like Smallville and Supernatural next week, they’ll realize Reaper is back too and give it a try. I don’t expect ratings to surge, but they’ll do better.
ReaperDMV, no offense, I am not interested in fan boy analysis. I’m a numbers guy. The numbers were not good.
To Nick C, is there much doubt in your mind that 90210 won’t fare better against Fringe than American Idol?
reaper did pretty good considering, the cw did minimal promotion and haven’t aired a repeat in months, way better than Privileged been doing…
Why do demos matter more than total viewers? In the end , if a lot of people are watching a show, does it really matter how old they are?
Yeah Bill, shoot me down for not knowing what you meant. I must be a fanboy for pointing out that American Idol stomps any show on the CW. Your Tuesday and Wednesday headlines for every week could read “American Idols stomps [insert CW show here]. Seriously, that’s the equivalent of saying “Super Bowl crushes C-Span!”
You can use the 90210 excuse as long as you want to, but anybody reading that headline should be thinking “…and that’s surprising?”
Sorry for not being able to read minds! I guess not being omniscient makes you a fanboy, even though I didn’t even watch Reaper last night.
1 “Pilot” 1.5/3 3.28
2 “Charged” 1.3/3 2.86
3 “All Mine” 1.3/3 2.65
4 “Magic” 1.5/3 3.27
5 “What About Blob” 1.2/3 2.61
6 “Leon” 1.1/3 2.60
7 “Love, Bullets and Blacktop” 1.0/2 2.42
8 “The Cop” 1.2/2 2.46
9 “Ashes to Ashes” 1.1/2 2.26
10 “Cash Out” 1.3/3 2.64
11 “Hungry for Fame” 1.2/3 2.81
12 “Unseen” 1.2/3 2.94
13 “Acid Queen” 1.2/2 2.76
14 “Rebellion” 1.1/3 2.60
15 “Coming to Grips” 1.1/3 2.51
16 “Greg Schmeg” 1.0/3 2.47
17 “The Leak” 0.9/2 1.99
18 “Cancun” 1.2/3 2.69
Here are last years ratings. That make this premiere the second lowest rating of the series. Still. I don’t think this is turning bad into good to say that this is not that bad.
Look at TSCC, House, Lost, Heroes and other shows this year compared to last year. I could say reaper in a % ratio is not doing that bad. Losing 300 000 viewers from last year finale is better than lost losing like, 3 millions.
3rd lowest rating, not second, sorry
Reaper Madness.
Yay! Reaper is back on! Yay! w00t!
Sam, the .9 in the demo ties it for its lowest rating period. The other numbers do not matter.
Whatever way people try and spin it, Reaper did a decent number in terms of total viewers. Demos were always going to be down due to AI being on. But for total viewers, it held its own.
Bill, I’ll stick with “not bad,” because it was promoted during repeats for weeks and quite honestly the CW “Brand,” shows that did have REAPER promotions (2 an hour) get dismal numbers in repeats. It went up against AMERICAN IDOL and didn’t lose much from last season. So I think it was a “success,” in expectations. I was expecting .8 and it got a .9 matching last years season low, but higher in other demos than last years season low. In that regard I’d say “not bad,” and the idea to move it in front of the bus a “success.”
That is only if 90210 does much better against FRINGE. I happen to think it won’t do that much better, because I think 90210 is junk and believe the “blessed demo,” of the CW for the most part agree.
Robert, it’s hard to say. I could see it getting the exact same numbers to a 15% increase. Is that faring better? I could be wrong and it will jump 33% and make me look stupid. I just don’t think that will be the case. Maybe all those 18-34 demos were watching DWTS too. Maybe this move is work of genius.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
Nick, I don’t think it probably needs to improve much. But even the last new episode of 90210 that was run over by AI did a 1.7 with A18-34 (men and women combined) in the overnights. I can’t look at Reaper’s numbers as “good” or even “not so bad” when 90210 did almost 90% better against aggregate 18-34.
“ReaperDMV, no offense, I am not interested in fan boy analysis.”
If you’d looked at the list, you’d realize they weren’t.
ReaperDMV, you misunderstand me. You care about compiling such a list because you are a fan. And that’s cool. But reviews (good or bad, seemingly) don’t seem to have much impact on show ratings. I am looking at the overnight numbers, and my analysis is that if they don’t improve, this show will not be back. And that’s regardless of what anyone else says about its prospects for next year, regardless of the DVR numbers and regardless of iTunes downloads, etc. That’s my analysis, and though Bill might write it differently, that’s his analysis too.
Could things improve? Sure. We’ll see.
yikes with Reaper.
Wow the Reaper fanboys really came out today. I’ll admit i’m a big fan of the show, but the numbers clearly show that it was indeed torched and no matter what anyone says a .9 in the demo isn’t going to get them renewed for a third season, or possibly even let them finish their run this season. And in the case of a network like the CW total viewers mean nothing because they have so few to begin with. Its different when you look at a show like NCIS or The Mentalist which have large viewer numbers even with not as big demo numbers as some of the highest rated shows. Maybe if Reaper were to pull in 5 or 6 million viewers and still had a demo around 1 things would be different, but thats not going to happen and with it going up against Idol for the foreseeable future I only see the ratings dropping.
I don’t know how many Cox cable TV customers in all of KS were affected, but there are lot of annoyed ‘Reaper’ fans in SW KS who missed last nite’s show due to a Cox outage on the CW channel that was not fixed until today.
I’m not misunderstanding you Robert, I’m debunking your ONE earlier claim that all the reviews of the premiere were mediocre to bad. That’s not true. And I won’t remind you that despite your comment “But reviews (good or bad, seemingly) don’t seem to have much impact on show ratings” pretty much contradicts your other comment where you imply that reviews DO impact show ratings.
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/04/tuesday-ratings-reaper-torched-by-american-idol/13925/comment-page-1#comment-55363
And I look at numbers too. Spend quite a bit of time doing it as a hobby. Yes, I’m a fellow weirdo who thinks statistics is fun. And IMO numbers that pretty much are the same as last year, despite a 10 month hiatus, going up against AI, a bumped-up premiere date, and a new time really aren’t as bad as you’re trying to make it out. I say wait for the time-shifted numbers, then we’ll have a better idea of what’s going on. Right now we only really have less than half the true picture.
ReaperDMV, I’ll agree with you on one thing. The ratings for future broadcasts of Reaper this season matter much more than the premiere. But that’s the case for *every* show.
And yet, I disagree with you again. The Live+7 DVR numbers are interesting (to geeks like us), but to the best of our knowledge are entirely meaningless to the future success of the show.
my comment about the reviews I’d seen being mostly not good was a throw away comment — I don’t think the reviews have an impact on the ratings, though I’m not alone in my assessment of the reviews.
That 90210 did almost 90% better in adults 18-34 the last time it went against AI with a new episode makes the Reaper numbers look bad to me. Period.
anyone notice the nipple slips on eriko tamura as sock looked down her shirt early in the show?
lol…
Wow! lots of Reaper talk.. but at the end of the say the CW doesnt care about how much fans like a show, or even total viewers! All they care about is the DEMO!! and 0.9 isnt good… ye its better then what a repeat would get, and it would do better if it wasnt against IDOL, but we will never know! Bring on 90210!
For the record, Metacritic which tracks good AND bad reviews, states that REAPER gets a 56 score. So Robert’s statement was also an honest one. DMV can rant like a fanboy but it doesn’t change the fact that Meta Critic is impartial and says 56/100.
Robert, in REAPER’s defense, a .9 compared to a 1.2 (90210’s last new episode) isn’t that bad when considering the show was moved up and was promoted to the CW’s dead audience of repeat weeks. I figure the show will rebound when all the shows are new, but not by much. I see it getting 1.1 and 1.2s. In other words similar to 90210.
Kind of a misleading headline. Oh yeah, like it’s a BIG SHOCK that a show on The CW gets beaten by American Idol! First of all, the CW could have run the Academy Awards and still got beaten by American Idol.
Secondly, 2 and a half million viewers is not really that bad for The CW (last week, 90210 and the Reaper had almost the same number of viewers).
If you’re going to have a Big Shocking Headline for this article, it should really mention ABC’s absolutely abysmal ratings from 8:00-10:00.
That would have been a bigger story.
I meant to say, last week 90210 had the same # of viewers as the Reaper this week. Sorry, bad grammer.
The highest rated CW Show is Smallville.
I work for the CW.
Alan, I don’t mind the bad grammar, but while the last time a new episode of 90210 aired the overall numbers were about the same, 90210 did MUCH better in the demos. 1.2 vs. .9 in adults 18-49 and 1.7 vs. .9 in adults 18-34. The total viewer number doesn’t really wind up mattering much here, but the demo numbers do.
Alan, Reaper was put in that spot to save 90210 episodes from competing with Idol, and presumably to improve on its results vs. Idol. Average viewers are *meaningless*, Reaper got crushed in the adult demos which are all that matters. It did far worse than 90210 in its last new episode vs. Idol.
As for my headline writing, no one cares about Homeland Security USA and Scrubs reruns, and they did *exactly* as anyone with a brain would have expected them to do. Ditto Biggest Loser. Would you have written “Bachelor Beats Reruns At 10″?. Yawn. Premieres of shows are always news. There wasn’t anything else newsworthy last night.
Bill, I’m not sure it was meant to do better, but it was definitely meant to boost 90210. We’ll wait and see on that one.
I think REAPER will do better when the entire CW lineup is back.
I didn’t even know Reaper was back. Thankfully, my DVR did.
i honestly did not even know Reaper was back on i LOVE THAT SHOW i saw no commercials but thats the only show i watch on the CW……….. HULU HERE I COME
Actually, I forgot that Reaper was back too and since I am a Reaper fan, I guess maybe I get defensive when I see people critical of it!
Maybe I’ll PVR it next week
Alan, and anyone else, I am certainly not critical of the content of the show and not sure how that could have been implied, I’m just about the results.
Wow ABC must feel like idiots for picking up Scrubs. The ratings are horrible every week. I’d never watched the show but I did watch the first 2 episodes this season (mainly because Courteney Cox was on) and I just don’t understand its appeal. And don’t say it’s because I don’t like “smart” humor. I’m no 2 and a Half Men Fan. I love The Office, Arrested Development, 30 Rock but Scrubs was just plain not funny to me. Most of it was what I’d call corny humor, very obvious jokes
If they’re that disatisfied with Scrubs, why do they keep airing reruns of it all the time?
Matt, Scrubs was much, much better in it’s first few seasons, for a long time it was my favorite comedy on TV. Then something went very wrong, and it turned into a very unfunny show.
Actually I did watch some of Season 1 on some dvds a friend lent me a few years ago. They raved and raved about it. I think I watched a disc or 2 and while it was better than what I saw this season it was nothing that made me watch anymore unlike the Arrested Development DVDs where I would watch for hours at a time.
The Reaper numbers are better than Privileged, which (timeslot swap aside) is what its really replacing, and what could be its competition for renewal.
If 90210 does better at 9pm than it had been doing at 8pm, then the CW’s Tuesday as a whole has improved. (The 90120 increase over Privileged being greater than the Reaper decrease from 90210, for a net gain.) Plus it saves 90210 from the AI bus and the CW really seems to want 90210 to do well.
@ matt….. cmon its the last season.
6 more eps and it’s done (or something like that)
Jon, you are completely correct as to the motivation and objectives for the CW scheduling changes. And while you’d think the objective would be to increase aggregate Tuesday ratings, I’m betting that Dawn would be happy with increasing the ratings of 90210, Reaper be damned.
As for outdoing Privileged, its not so clear cut. Reaper’s 18-49 0.9 was slightly above the 18-49 ratings for the last few new episodes of Privileged, but the 18-34 0.9 was lower than Privileged’s 18-34 rating.
Not a good start for Reaper although to be honest its probably better than I would have predicted all things considered. And I know the theory behind why its been done but it still makes no sense to me to premiere Reaper when everything else on the network is in repeats. If you want to kill the show throwing it under the Idol bus when Idol’s at an hour rather than two is just as effective.
On another note, how much longer can ABC milk this years Bachelor? I know the numbers have been astonishingly good but surely this is the last show they can pump out, right?
Robert and Bill, meow lads! However you are quite correct about the Reaper demo I did not notice it initially but its indeed a very bad harbinger.
I’ve never actually seen Reaper but a show with the devil capturing souls sounds like a bunch of crap. Anyway, I root for the CW; hope they do well next season. BTW 2.4 million isn’t really that bad for a small network…
The total viewers aren’t the problem because ultimately they’re meaningless, it’s the demos…
I may be wrong, but I was thinking Reaper aired on Thurdsay last year, not opposite of AI.
So, saying “it fell from last year” well, last year it wasn’t opposite of AI. Just a point of fact. It’s one thing to pull a 1.6 rating when you’re up against say, “The Amazing Race” (I believe it aired Sunday last year) vs. going against American Idol on a network that isn’t even available everywhere.
The numbers aren’t great, but what really did CW expect? Would a new episode of 90210 have faired better? Because the statistics certainly don’t bear that out; so what did they have to throw in that spot that would have gotten them a 2 share?
Reaper is a fairly cheap to produce show with a designed 13 episode (1/2 season) run. Compared to the relatively expensive and ratings flop in Priveleged, which last I checked did worse then Reaper on a night where it’s opposition was real counter-programming (action) then you get my point.
The #s were not good. But no way CW can look at this and say “damnit! Reaper should have really taken it to AI in the demos” Good luck with that gimmick.
Chris, a new episode of 90210 would have fared better than Reaper, the last new episode of 90210 vs. Idol *did* fare much better than Reaper in the demos (all that matter), 1.7 vs. 0.9 in 18-34, and 1.2 vs. 0.9 in 18-49. The statistics *do* bear that out.
Now putting Reaper early was primarily intended to push 90210 to 9pm, and get it out of the way of Idol, and improve its numbers. That is still quite possible.
I never compared Reaper to Idol, that would be silly. I compared Reaper to 90210, and the comparison is not flattering for Reaper.
REAPER was on Tuesday all last year, but an hour later I think.
why does ABC air Scurbs repeats? im sure new episodes of Pushing Daisies,DSM or Eli Stone would get better ratings…..
If we could just get Rush Limbaugh to say that he wants Reaper to fail, I think Reaper could ride the controversy to new highs.
Reaper was not quite on Tuesdays all year last year, CW ran it a few times on Thursday after Smallville. According to the CW the numbers were pretty much the same there as they were on Tuesdays after Beauty and the Geek.
And to the guy who says he works for the CW, Smallville is CW’s highest rated scripted show, but its highest rated show overall is ANTM.
rob, you don’t care about the total viewers? that’s all i care about
Robert, good point. I forgot about those episodes. Still it was Tuesday for its regularly scheduled airings.
So Bob and Bill, since Reaper gets the same numbers on Tuesday or Thursday, why does the CW not move it to Sunday, where they would be thrilled with 2 million viewers?
Bill W, I see CW staying with movies the remainder of the year between 8p-10p, they have done pretty well and cost practically nothing to air.
I think Reaper will be cancelled but its CW I’m not so sure!