In a blog post headlined, With ratings comeback, has CW finally turned the corner? LA Times Show Tracker blogger Scott Collins wonders if the CW has turned things around. Spurred by the CW having its best week since November (you can see the CW’s press release under the weekly data here), Mr. Collins does some thinking out loud:
But the qualified successes of “Gossip Girl” and “90210″ have given CW a foothold on a desirable marketing demographic and quieted, at least for now, talk that co-owners CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. might shutter the network. “I think the built-in assumption and the expectation is that the CW is here to stay,” Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros. Television Group, told the trade Television Week earlier this year.
In fairness, he did point out elsewhere that that the small gains within adults 18-34 haven’t offset the broader losses, and he talked about the Sunday night issues with MRC, but to call 90210 a “qualified success” seems a bit of a reach, even if it has already been renewed.
I like the CW, and the people we deal with there have been nothing but nice to us. Moreover, Dawn Ostroff’s approach to running the network whips many people up into a froth, and frankly, that just makes covering things more fun for us! And yeah, I’m just happy that CW is bringing back Supernatural, so I really honestly don’t care what it does with the rest of its schedule!
But despite all that, I’ll say what I haven’t seen covered elsewhere (which doesn’t mean it wasn’t, only that I haven’t seen it): CW’s best week in months last week can be attributed in large part to a dearth of new programming on cable, and particularly the shows that typically are the CW’s serious competition, like The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family which won’t be back with new episodes until June.
Dawn and crew should be sending flowers to ABC Family for that, because Secret Life routinely trounces Gossip Girl in head-to-head competition in the age and gender demos Gossip Girl covets. Gossip Girl gets the rest of its season off from that competition which clearly is helping its ratings.
well the cw has certainly set the bar low, hard to imagine them doing worse, they really have to have program year round, having 2+ months hiatuses kills any gains they get, fire Dawn!!!!
And the fact that Gossip Girl was in reruns for many weeks until Secret Life finished up was no coincidence.
In one of my classes we are now doing presentations on whatever TV show we decided to do for our papers. Tonight I had to grind my teeth to keep from just shouting out “YOU’RE WRONG!” over and over again when the person presenting Gossip Girl seemed to be buying the PR that it is a hit. She actually called the ratings successful. Like, first season specifically. I just wanted to throw something at her.
I’m wondering if this guy is drinking the same Kool Aid as my classmate.
The CW is a funeral waiting to happen.
Great story Julia!
A qualified success is at least better than calling it an unqualified success in terms of truth. Though I wonder what the average ratings would be minus the pilot. Hmm…perhaps at around Reaper’s level?
Well, GG is successful this season. Generally. Its bottoms are when both House and Teenager are on; that erosion cuts in half whenever only one is on. Which means that fans of both GG and at least one of the above often don’t choose GG, which isn’t good. But they do care enough to watch it, perhaps online/DVR. The show should end the season with a little above a 2.0 in 18-34, which while not amazing is pretty good. And the show is one of the biggest in terms of media coverage, which does have cachet. I was looking at People.com’s list of regularly covered celebs (Celebrity Central), and there are more GG stars than any other vehicle (6).
I would like to be in a class where someone else understands ratings.
j, blame what ever you want but the drop in GOSSIP GIRL started in November and neither show was up against it. The 18-34 number is ok, but it’s only the target demo of the show, and it still lives on the 18-49.
Verbatim my post on TWOP:
“This episode’s 18-34 rating: 1.8 (No Teenager) + 18-34 ratings for the other episodes since House, reverse order: 1.4, 1.6, 1.6, 1.3 = 1.5 avg.
Before House, reverse order: 1.9 (Teenager), 1.8 (Teenager), 2.3, 2.2, 2.2, 2.2, 2.4, 2.2, 2.1, finished 2nd in demo (#’s not up for some reason), 2.6, 2.5, 2.8, 2.2, 2.3 = 2.25 avg.
Down 33%.
So all the episodes without Teenager or House are over 2. The episodes with just one of those competitors are 1.8 or 1.9. The episodes with both competitors are 1.3-6.”
great data, J. Thanks.
I really like the new 90210, and have occasionally watched “Top Model”. The biggest problem I see for them with 90210 are the huge hiatuses they have. Sometimes they skip 4 to 7 weeks without a fresh episode! That has certainly hurt their numbers.
The fact that they debuted the show so early in the season (September 1) gained momentum for 90210, but it has caused huge gaps in the continuity of fresh episodes which are so important in a Soap Opera. The original “Beverly Hills, 90210″ was groundbreaking for beginning a season even EARLIER than September. Usually they would burn 6 episodes starting late July into August…but this was in addition to the 24 or so regular episodes they would air during the normal television season.
I suggest that if the new 90210 wants to get “back on track” with its viewers, it should follow this same formula and do a bonus 6 episodes starting the first week of August…and have the additional 24 episode season starting mid-September without having the HUGE gaps of time where there are repeats or pre-empted episodes. Please, CW…think about it. It would be a GREAT investment to have the extra 6 episodes this summer along with the early start.
If not, I don’t see 90210 gaining viewers to the level they had last Fall.
I think the problem with The CW is that it’s too narrowed focused on the young females demo and the dramas like 90210 and Gossip Girls are about rich teens with problems which isn’t pulling the viewers and potentially alienating its target audience.
The success of Smallville and Supernatural proves that Dawn’s approach isn’t working and I think that if The CW is to survive then they need to expand their remit to reach both Young Males and Females and perhaps have a teen drama about ordinary teens and families. The success of Secret Life proves that this sort of drama still pulls in viewers.
I agree witn Jon. THE CW needs to expand its focus to other demos other than teenaged white femails. Shows like Smallville and Supernatural are great but my favorite show on the netork right now is The Game.
This show is really keeping the black audience very happy and the show continues to gain popularity thanks to its run on BET. The friday night death slot that it is in is really holding it back. If the CW cancels this show they can say good bye to the black audience that they have. They made that mistake with Girlfriends.
Everybody Hates Chris could suffer the same fate as well. Say what you want. Gossip Girl is not exactly super enticing for a young black female to watch as it is for a young white female. The Game is a nice little melting pot that deserves at least 2 more seasons.
The only show I watch with any love and regularity on the CW is SUPERNATURAL. Once that’s gone, so am I.
And for nearly its entire run on that network, the CW has treated SUPERNATURAL like the black sheep of the family, giving it limited promotion and very little love, despite improving ratings–which we, the fans, have generated through word of mouth and online for this incredible, unique show.
Dawn Ostroff must have some incriminating information on someone high up. Why else would she still have a job? She has been resolute in her dislike for SUPERNATURAL (the #2 scripted show on her network) and is turning her entire network into clones of it’s so-so rated shows like Gossip Girl and 90210. Does she not answer to anyone or are they just a clueless as she is?