| Scoreboard |  |
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| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.5/9 | 3.0/8 | 2.8/7 | 2.6/7 | 1.7/4 | 0.5/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.5/7 | 2.0/6 | 2.3/7 | 2.2/6 | 1.7/5 | 0.5/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 14.76 | 9.18 | 9.33 | 6.59 | 4.20 | 1.12 |
PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO SERVER ISSUES I HAVE THE COMMENTS TURNED OFF FOR NOW. WE’RE VERY SORRY ABOUT THE SITE OUTAGE. Perhaps its throwing caution to the wind, but I have turned them back on for the overnight post for now.
Also, we’re aware CHUCK didn’t air locally in the Cleveland market last night and was bumped for a special. We don’t think that will make very much difference for the national numbers at all, and in these preliminary numbers below, viewers who watched the special would’ve been counted in CHUCK’s numbers anyway.
ABC won the night both across the board taking victories in both age demographics and in total viewers. With a lineup of reruns, CBS still managed to come in second with adults 18-49
What about Chuck? Chuck’s adults 18-49 numbers were the same as last week, a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating, and in the prior week it averaged a 2.1/5. Up against CBS comedy repeats and Bones (instead of House) last night some were hopeful Chuck would pick up some steam, but there were many who were figuring the numbers wouldn’t change much (myself included). Great episode, though!
Heroes had a 3.0 rating with adults 18-49, last week had a 3.2 rating with adults 18-49, rebounding from the previous week’s series low when it had a 2.6.
At 10pm, CBS ran a repeat episode of The Mentalist. CBS is also moving NCIS and The Mentalist an hour later tonight and The Mentalist will again air at 10pm. It’s enough to give one the idea CBS is really interested in seeing how The Mentalist would do at 10pm. But there’s nothing to be made of the rerun’s results.
But the repeat on CBS was at least a little good news for Castle fans, it rose to a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating. Last week Castle pulled a 2.0 adults 18-49 rating (before dropping to 1.9 in the final numbers). Figure that due to a minute or two of Dancing With the Stars overrun it could go down a tenth again in the final numbers
The Monday night airing of Bones pulled a 2.5 rating with the 18-49s while 24 pulled a 3.2 rating.
After a two week run of repeats a new Gossip Girl ranked second with women 18-34 (2.7 rating) trailing only Dancing With the Stars and CW was second in that demo for the night.
Surviving Suburbia’s 2.6 wasn’t far from last week when it had 2.8 rating with adults 18-49.
I’ll update this post with data tables soon (before 9:45AM PT) but I wanted to get something up before then…
Previous Monday overnight reports are available for comparison.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millons) |
| 8:00 | ABC | Dancing with the Stars | 4.4/12 | 3.3/10 | 19.46 |
| CBS | The Big Bang Theory (Repeat) | 2.8/8 | 1.9/6 | 7.65 | |
| FOX | Bones | 2.5/7 | 2.1/6 | 8.38 | |
| NBC | Chuck | 2.3/6 | 1.9/6 | 6.05 | |
| CW | Gossip Girl | 1.2/3 | 1.7/5 | 2.36 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | How I Met Your Mother (Repeat) | 2.7/7 | 2.0/6 | 6.60 |
| 9:00 | ABC | Dancing with the Stars | 5.2/13 | 3.6/10 | 21.93 |
| CBS | Two and a Half Men (Repeat) | 3.9/10 | 2.6/7 | 11.41 | |
| FOX | 24 | 3.2/8 | 2.6/7 | 10.28 | |
| NBC | Heroes | 3.0/7 | 3.1/8 | 6.34 | |
| CW | One Tree Hill | 1.2/3 | 1.6/4 | 2.42 | |
| 9:30 | CBS | Rules of Engagement | 3.8/9 | 2.2/6 | 10.59 |
| ABC | Surviving Suburbia | 2.6/6 | 2.0/5 | 10.86 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Medium | 2.6/7 | 1.7/5 | 7.36 |
| CBS | The Mentalist (Repeat) | 2.5/7 | 1.7/5 | 9.43 | |
| ABC | Castle | 2.2/6 | 1.7/5 | 8.44 |
Shows are sorted by 18-49 rating in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company.
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.
I was hoping to see Chuck go up a point or two. Will numbers change with dvr viewing much?
Gahhh, last night was the most epic episode of Chuck ever! Yeah, at least the ratings didn’t go down, but still, I’m disappointed that they didn’t go up at all. :/
i wouldnt count on it…
nuts.
BTW rob, did you mean to have the whole thing bolded?
I was hoping Chuck would go up at least to a 2.4. Maybe DVR numbers can push it up a bit? What was the total viewership?
Ah, that sucks. I’m sure the Chuck haters will be out in force and gloating today. Can’t say the core fans didn’t try.
Yeah, I’m surprised Chuck didn’t go up at all – I’m not sure an episode can get much better than that. Although I guess a good episode could (theoretically) help the next week’s numbers?
More proof that ratings does not equal quality. Chuck is getting really good and deserves better ratings.
What a bummer and such a great episode.
So it’s the series finale next week?
cw demos and viewers are wrong at the top?
I just still can’t believe that 19 MILLION PEOPLE watch Dancing with the Stars. Unbelievable.
Lol Astral Weeks you’re jumping to conclusions. Chuck is in the same 50/50 boat as it was a week ago.
I really don’t see why people are dissapointed or surprised that Chuck didn’t go up. It’s the end of the season. New viewers aren’t going to tune in to see the last couple of episodes of a season, regardless of competition or promotion.
Robert, do you have the half hour data for Chuck and Castle? Also, Chuck creeping up a .1 from last week in the 18-34 demo even with less total viewers, now a 1.9, which beat Medium…any idea if the final numbers will move higher?
Nice to see Castle go up but still not enough to save it.
I agree with Jon L…
Fox really need the House tank on monday’s… Bones and 24 would never get them to victory. DWTS was a litlle bit stronger, without House to stole the demos.
Do anybody know why Fox aired like 3 bones episodes in 6 days? And why monday?
Quality doesnt necessarily mean good ratings? No kidding. What else is new? American Idol is #1. Nuff said.
Of course “quality” means different things to different people. To some CSI is a quality show while Chuck is crap. To others its the opposite, to still others both shows are quality shows and they watch both.
Bottom line is shows need to have enough viewers to justify their budgets and their existence. Quality shows tend to require larger budgets due to higher costs, which is why so many die and cheap reality shows persist.
I think the most notable thing last night is just how well Rules of Engagement held the repeat audience of 2.5 Men.
FrankJ, sorry, can’t help with that right now…
Can anyone tell me if the ratings have anything else in them besides Nielson families? I know at least 15 people who watch Chuck but don’t have a Cable box and have never been a Nielson family. This system seems a bit flawed. Also, notice Chuck went down in ratings once NBC put them on hiatus for 2 months in December and January. That gave other shows a window to hook viewers away. NBC is the worst network on TV!
Robert, you agree with Jon L. about this not affecting Chuck’s chances, but do you agree with him about why it didn’t increase? Because your post yesterday didn’t seem to imply that that would be a reason it wouldn’t increase.
We should just change this site to the “Chuck Fan Site”. That is all anyone cares about here is Chuck. What a waste of time and website.
I predicted that it would do a 2.3 or maybe a 2.4 . My post implied that some people were looking for bigger increases, but I wasn’t.
I bet the site outage was cause Chuck fans frantically refreshed the website waiting for the Monday ratings =P
Anyway, nice to see Castles ratings going up a bit…but I am afraid it might not be enough. Sad…since Castle and Southland have been my favourite new shows this season.
Does anyone else think that part of the problem with Chuck getting new viewers is that the show is so dependent on past information?
I mean the few second reset at the beginning of the show is helpful but the effectiveness of the material is partly dependent on having seen all the prior episodes.
My point being, it’s not a show that someone might decide to jump into on a repeat night, like an Office or 30 Rock whose weekly plot is usually consumable by itself.
I think the steady numbers show it’s loyal base but I wouldn’t expect a rise in numbers unless people put the time in to get to know the show through DVD watching of previous seasons. I turned 3 people on to the show before last night and they all said the same, they were confused but enjoyed all of the elements of the show. Humor, action, drama, etc.
I would think Season 3 could be really strong if NBC promoted the DVDs between now and then and people who are loyal to the show get friends, etc. to watch more than just a recent episode to really appreciate how good it is.
Chris, it’s all about statistics. Chuck has more than 15 viewers, so your 15 friends are probably accounted for. If you knew more than 6.05 mil viewers who watched Chuck, and only 6.05 mil of them were accounted for, you might have a case.
What the Frack! Just don’t read that article if you don’t like CHUCK! There’s plenty of news not about CHUCK so just go and read them and don’t come bother us on that one!
Last night episode of chuck was awsome.Im happy with the ratings.John l makes a good point.
I’m only implying that statistics are not always correct. It’s nearly impossible to predict what the entire country is watching by polling a few million people. I only use my friends as an example of how they may be missing a bunch of fans out there if the system isn’t more inclusive than Nielsens. It seems that a few thousand viewers could be the difference in Chuck getting renewed and not, which seems like enough viewers that there is a consistant margin of error.
Chris, the way statistics works is that the margin of error goes both ways. Nielsen could just as easily be calculating that MORE people are watching than actually are. Why is the assumption always that the data can only be wrong in one direction?
Chris, generally I believe that the statistical sampling works pretty well. I don’t think it’s perfect or even necessarily good in all instances. My guess is Monday night at 8pm it works fairly well for the broadcast networks. But it doesn’t matter. As long as the advertisers and networks use the Nielsen data to buy and sell advertising, the Nielsen data matters and is usually very predictive of show renewal decisions.
CHUCK came up to a 2.4 in the final numbers…
When it all said and done that episode last night is what TV is all about. That episode had everything. I wish more people watch the show.
What I do not understand is how does DVR come in to play? I DVR Chuck last night and watch it later that night, I know about a dozen or so poeple did the same thing I did last night.
Robert, do you think NBC will keep a couple of Bubble shows just in case Jay Leno bombs?
I think NBC should renew Chuck for 13 episodes to prove themselfs all over again. Next year start fresh and promote the show and for the love of God move the night to WED. at 8pm.
FrankJ, the half hour data for Chuck in the demo was 2.2/2.5. Castle, a 2.2, and a 2.1. I’d look for Castle to likely go down to a 2.1 in the finals do to DWTS overrun
That is true. I am really only saying that they should allow more people the opportunity to share what they watch than they do. If fans actually care enough to log on to a website and tell you what they watched, they are more likely to be solid viewers anyways. My love for Chuck makes me think it would go the other way with their show, but I’m more than willing to admit the flaws work both ways. On another point, many people are worried that Chuck didn’t perfrom better against reruns, but it seems viewership trends take time to change. NBC needs to give Chuck a regular slot where it can succeeed.
“Also, notice Chuck went down in ratings once NBC put them on hiatus for 2 months in December and January.”
Chris, so your saying you would have liked Chuck to air new episodes during the Christmas season? Most shows return lower in the spring.
I’ve never seen an episode of Chuck, but I have to admire the show’s fans. You guys just don’t give up. I’m impressed.
Sorry to say but that suggests the end of chuck to me it would surprise me if nbc renewed
Tim, anything for the 18-34 demo? Did it go up?
JT: Chuck is in a similar situation as Heroes. No matter how “epic” the episode, new viewers aren’t going to wander over. They don’t understand the storyline and it’s way too late to catch up now.
Besides, why would ratings go up for “epic” episodes? How would people know it’s going to be good before it airs? The numbers for Heroes are fairly consistent, showing that the small number of hard-core viewers they have are sticking around. At this point, neither show is likely to see a big spike.
Rob i think you made a mistake on the CW’s averages it should be 2.39 million viewers and a 1.2/3 18-49 demo as well as a 1.7/5 18-34 demo nut you have 1.19 million viewers and .5/1 18-49 and 18-34 demo do you know if it’s going to get fixed thanks
Chris, ultimately in order to add enough viewers to satisfy you, it would cost too much money. The advertisers won’t pay for that and neither will the broadcast networks, so I wouldn’t look for it to change much.
The online thing is nice in theory, but in practice, not nearly enough people are watching Chuck online to make a big difference.
RJ, most shows came back in early january which gave them 2-3 weeks advance on Chuck. I’m pretty sure House came back the second Monday of january but I’m not sure…
In my area the first half of Chuck was preempted by a weather report. I can’t be too annoyed because they were talking about tornado sighting, but Fox was able to show all of Bones, they just put the report at the bottom of the screen. Oh well, that’s what the internet if for.
Thanks Robert! Wow a 2.5? That may be the highest the show has been in a while at the half hour. Sad to see Castle go down at the half hour. That show is growing on me.
I’m so sad that this week episode didn’t ve any uptick in ratings, the only good news is lack of bad news, as it hold steady to what it was week ago.
And yesterday episode was so amazing…probably best of the already very good season…but it’s probably too late to pick up any new viewers this season, especially since last 5 episodes is pretty much one continous story (last stand alone episode was in february).
To get away from teh Chuck comments for a second…
Just wanted to let you know, Robert, that tonight’s Mentalist and NCIS are both repeats.
Great hold for Rules of Engagement out of the Two and Half Men repeat.
Good to see 24 hold on to the same levels it had last week, as well.
I have to agree with you Anthony, although for the record, Heroes was pretty epic last night.
@Robert
I tend to agree. I believe the sampling has only been wrong in very few cases so far. Firefly and Jericho would be some that come to mind because, contrary to most other cancelled shows, Firefly and Jericho seemed to have a massive fanbase if you look at how much support those shows got post-cancellation. On the other hand — if Chuck gets cancelled, I don’t really think fans of Chuck will organise something similiar, simply because there aren’t that many of them.
Samuel-
Obama press conferences bumped AI twice in the last few months, which in turn bumped Bones….which is why they were sitting on two extra episodes, which aired Wednesday of last week and yesterday.
Chuck needs to stay !! I think its one of the BEST shows on televison right now, the writing is different and the whole cast just click! What I like about Chuck is that it has drama, comedy, action-pack, great story telling/writing, and I find that every character on the show is important, they all have something to do w/each episode, its not like other shows where some characters are just written in a corner, they all have something to do w/the story for each episode…SAVE CHUCK!! Its bad enough that NBC has ignored the incredible show Life, which was also different, and Damien Lewis is just perfect as the eccentric detective Charle Crews– I will miss this show. It hasn’t been officially cancleled but we all know that its pretty much a goner– We need to save Chuck, best show on NBC right now!!!
No the final numbers were a 2.3 into a 2.5 for Chuck. That’s a 2.4. I have a friend who works in scheduling.
Robert, wouldn’t the Dancing overrun affect Suburbia and not Castle?
Why has this site been having so many problems this morning?
Patrick Murphy: “Ah, that sucks. I’m sure the Chuck haters will be out in force and gloating today. Can’t say the core fans didn’t try.”
The Chcuk Rant of The Day: Of course we are cheering over it’s low numbers! LOL Isn’t it sweet how so much focus is given to Chuck, then it’s given weak competition and fumbles!? I LUV those numbers: 2.3 (18-49)/6.05. LUV them! LOL How many excuses have been exhausted on Chuck? What will be THIS week’s excuse – too many repeats? Heroes (another show I strongly dislike) is kicking Chuck’s bottom. Chuck is definately in dangerous territory. NBC could easily cancel this show. Chuck should be thrown out like TRASH!
Last night was ANOTHER reason why NBC doesn’t deserve Medium (NBC’s most underrated series). From a quality and even ratings standpoint, Medium ALWAYS proves itself.
I could see The Mentalist at 10pm on Thursday, the most imporant day on TV.
Although I really like How I Met Your Mother, it doesn’t deserve to be on CBS. Isn’t it obvious CBS will cancel this show in a heartbeat when ratings decline? HIMYM is in trouble next season.
Question 1: Why doesn’t CBS just cancel HIMYM right now? They stopped caring about this show during its 3rd season.
Shows CBS Love (aka The OLD Darlings): The Big Bang Theory (they like em young, huh?), Two & A Half Men, all the CSIs, NCIS, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, Survivor, Ghost Whisperer, Flashpoint, Numb3rs, 60 Minutes & The Amazing Race (I can’t think of any other show on CBS which has received more RED CARPET TREATMENT than this stinking pile of you know what! Is it ALWAYS going to be on Sundays (the most watched day of TV) at 8pm!? The Amazing Race 25 here we come!). All those shows will DEFINATELY return for the 2009-2010 season.
Question 2 : Where can I interact with other Nielsen household participants?
TVByTheNumbers wouldn’t load earlier.
They should move Heroes to 8 so it doesn’t have to compete with 24. Chuck sucks.
Anyone think a Chuck movie could happen if it is canceled? Arrested Development had a similar case of a loyal fan base and great reviews and is now becoming a movie. Chuck’s format seems like it would make an easy move to becoming a feature film and would give us some resolution if need be.
Chuck seems to have stayed even for the past week, and that is good to see. We here in Cleveland didn’t even get a chance to watch it at all yesterday due to NASA taking over our NBC airwaves from 8 to 9. Add those numbers in and maybe it does a slight bit better. My wife and I are avid fans of Chuck, and we both hope that they bring it back for next season. If it doesn’t come back I am blaming Leno.
Certainly couldn’t blame you for turning off the comments, Robert. (actually, I’m surprised you turned them back on today)
Yeah, Chuck fans are understandably upset, but Robert’s also right that last night’s numbers probably don’t make as much of a difference in the grand scheme of things as we’re making them out to be. I think most of the fans (myself included) were looking for something that takes Chuck out of the status quo; something that would have made NBC take notice. Granted, Chuck didn’t lose ground, but then that just keeps everything in limbo. It had a small amount of momentum coming into last night, and a significant rise against CBS repeats might have given it more of a head of steam going into the finale next week. As it happens, it’s the TV equivalent of getting the bases loaded, then striking out.
Frank J what show got a 2.5 rating
@the128boy — doh!
OMG
HEROES SHOULD BE AT LEAST 8MILLION
I THINK ITS IMPROVED
ITS ON BRILLIANT FROM SO I RECOMMEND THAT YOU WATCH IT
a says:
April 21st, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Patrick Murphy: “Ah, that sucks. I’m sure the Chuck haters will be out in force and gloating today. Can’t say the core fans didn’t try.”
“The Chcuk Rant of The Day: Of course we are cheering over it’s low numbers! LOL Isn’t it sweet how so much focus is given to Chuck, then it’s given weak competition and fumbles!? I LUV those numbers: 2.3 (18-49)/6.05. LUV them! LOL How many excuses have been exhausted on Chuck? What will be THIS week’s excuse – too many repeats? Heroes (another show I strongly dislike) is kicking Chuck’s bottom. Chuck is definately in dangerous territory. NBC could easily cancel this show. Chuck should be thrown out like TRASH!”
I was right. Didn’t take long for the Chuck haters to start talking trash. Although I question the intelligence of anybody who considers a three-sentence posting to be a rant.
@Socal, indeed both eps of NCIS and the episode of The Mentalist are all repeats tonight. Thanks!
“I am really only saying that they should allow more people the opportunity to share what they watch than they do. If fans actually care enough to log on to a website and tell you what they watched, they are more likely to be solid viewers anyways.”
That wouldn’t give you a more accurate picture of a program’s audience. The math behind Neilson’s ratings are sound and they have a more than adequate sample size. It is possible that their selection method may be a bit biased and they may under represent certain demographics but, as much as I am loath to admit it as a fan of the show, I doubt Chuck viewers would be a part of such a group even if it did exist. There just is not a great argument to be made for Chuck’s renewal based upon the ratings.
Tim, JR1234,
Yes, I was referring to the 2.5 at the half hour. I realize the average is 2.4. I was just saying that I don’t think Chuck has been that high at the half hour in a while.
I think the only shows anyone should hate on are reality shows. While I don’t like many written shows, at least there is some creativity involved. Dancing, Idol, Biggest Loser, etc… are the National Enquirer of television. People who watch these shows are little more than voyers. I think those who root against written programing are hoping for a television world that is full of cheap reality television and not real television.
HEROES was amazing last night and the preview for next week was insane. Sylar is ten shades of crazy.
Disappointed the numbers weren’t higher but kinda expected after the slow-ish episode last week, I’m sure they’ll go up for the finale next week.
Melissa R., give it a try. Everyone I’ve introduced to the show has become a fan. Start at the beginning and watch the first 5 or 6 and see if you wasnt to continue. As to the ratings, the show’s genre–spy-fi bromantic dramedy–just may not appeal to most people on the face of it. Reading that genre just now does make it sound a little ridiculous, and it is, but it’s pure fun.
a, low ratings doesn’t mean a show is trash. I’d actually argue that there is more intellectual/entertainment value in almost every show that is not one of the reality shows that litter the top 5-10 in the Nielsen ratings.
Does anyone know what were the final numbers for HEROES?
I actually expected the drop this week, last week’s episode, although QUITE INFORMATIVE, was really slow and some viewers may have found that boring.
“Where can I interact with other Nielsen household participants? i’d like to know more about their TV viewing habits.”
Technically, Nielsen households participants should not have significantly different viewing habits than anyone that isn’t a Nielsen participant.
a, I think you can see what Nielsen household viewing habits are just by looking at the ratings.
But there is no publicly available database of Nielsen viewers, with good reason.
Good that DWTS continues to hold strong! Good entertainment for those of us who want light-hearted fare….;)
I’d like to know what’s up with Bones also? Is Fox ready to dump it or something and just trying to make whatever money they can from episodes they already ordered? I don’t mind so many new episodes in a row. In fact I’d love it more if networks air a whole season in 13/22/24 straight weeks.
I started to like the show and hate for it to get canned, especially if its for more reality tv shows.
Patrick Murphy: Let me respond.
a: I guess you’ll be busy saying it over and over again when it gets renewed in two weeks. See you at the renewal party.
In the meantime why don’t you go bother the people on the Dancing with the Stars boards, I’m sure you’re a loyal fan.
You can dislike a show and still be respectful of others liking it.
Huh, I was about to respond to a’s moronic comments by saying his precious Medium got beat by Chuck in the 18-34’s even though it had more overall viewers, but his comments seem to have been pulled. Weird.
Ben, FOX has already ordered several scripts for next season for Bones. They are not likely to cancel it.
hmm.. personally i think comments should be turned off on mondays to prevent all this needless bickering, because people are obviously not mature enough to keep it together…..
quality is all in the eye of the beholder.. how can you not get that?!
Castle looks like it has a shot, but they probably need to move it with CSI Miami and Medium in that slot as well.
Chuck seems to have settled ratings wise. It doesn’t move more than a tick or 2 with more/less competition. I like Chuck, although not a huge fan like many here. Creatively though, Chuck has utilized guest stars better than any show on TV.
I actually expected Chuck to pull bigger numbers because of the promos and what they advertised going on between Chuck and Sarah- I’m disappointed. I know you are sick of hearing it but- please save Chuck it’s my favorite TV show and I would be very upset if you canceled it!!!
JT says:
April 21st, 2009 at 1:51 pm
“Patrick Murphy: Let me respond.
a: I guess you’ll be busy saying it over and over again when it gets renewed in two weeks. See you at the renewal party.
In the meantime why don’t you go bother the people on the Dancing with the Stars boards, I’m sure you’re a loyal fan.
You can dislike a show and still be respectful of others liking it.”
Well said, JT. Unfortunately, as the famous saying goes, you can’t win a p***ing contest against a pr***.
WOW!!! LOOK HOW AWESOME CHUCK DID AGAINST RERUNS AND BONES! ALRIGHT!!! haha
On a serious note I think people are starting to get “Bones”ed out.
I don’t really understand people cheering for a show to get cancelled just because they find the fans annoying. Just so you know, every single show has its share of super annoying fans. While, I detest many, many shows the only scripted show I truly wished would get cancelled was Cane, and I felt bad about it, I didn’t want 100 or so people to lose their jobs, but I really wanted more Richard on Lost.
go gossip girl is the best show ever, go gossip girl
djm, sadly, I think you’re right. I deleted A’s comments, which were obvious trolls (plus “where can I talk to *other* Nielsen families as a new refrain, as if s/he was nielsen family was kind of funny).
I don’t like the bickering at all, and I don’t understand why people care about TV shows they don’t watch and/or get mad at people if people aren’t watching the same shows as them.
I think Robert said it best yesterday – it’s about NBC and WB making a deal. The fact that Chuck’s numbers are fairly static may help in some ways because everyone knows what they are dealing with. While a significant increase would help, huge ups and downs would be worse. NBC knows what it can make on the show based on these numbers and with NBC.com and Hulu viewing (which I understand is not significant, but has at least some dollars attached). The WB probably has a pretty decent idea of what it can make selling DVDs and with its overseas distribution. The producers know what the minimum budget will be. If NBC and the WB, along with the producers, can make money, it may be back. If not, it won’t. I suspect that NBC is as on the fence as all the 50/50 predictions because it probably is near on the budget. If it were not, it would have been cancelled by now. NBC’s problem is why the renew/cancel index works. When a show is above .92 or around that number, it means the show is outperforming a large number of the networks other shows. To give up on a that certainty is risky, especially if some money can be made. On the other hand, the index number is relative, and as bad as NBC is, it has to be depressing to be looking at Chuck’s numbers as “realatively” good. Again, probably why we’ve not heard one way or the other. This leads me, with nothing but a wild guess and months of reading this board to speculate that NBC hedges its bet by a short order (13 episodes) to get it through the Fall, or as a midseason replacement, while it searches for something else that will work. Again, this all depends on the money!
“Where can I interact with other Nielsen household participants? i’d like to know more about their TV viewing habits.”
Are you for real? I will go on the record with the pretty low risk guess that Nielsen will never make the contact information or any way of reaching large numbers of their participants public, because that would not at all be likely to get them target spammed by TV networks PR or anything.
Without being a Nielsen viewer myself I’d also guess that if you really were one you’d have been asured of that by Nielsen early on yourself.
Bones did quite well with such high competition
Hudson mentioned it earlier, I too would like to know the finals on Heroes(and honestly all the shows) from last night. Does anyone have a link?
No one answered my question, the site couldn’t load earlier. Why?
I watched Bones last night and it was very funny but I can’t wait for House to be back. 24 was also excellent, this season has definately shown that the show is back in good form. Monday is a great night for TV: House, BBT (usually DVR) and 24 are all must watch for me.
I’ve seen a few episodes of Chuck but it’s not for me (House and BBT are better shows imho), the show is good and is probably the best show on NBC but it’s not good enough to compete on Mondays. I don’t think it would be wise for NBC to renew it if they plan on leaving on Monday to be crushed by the more popular shows, last night it was destroyed by a repeat of BBT. I think for Chuck to survive, it has to be moved to a time slot with much weaker competition and much less expectation, maybe Friday.
My point being is why did the outage occur?
The Pattern, we had a site outage which, sadly seems to happen about once ever two weeks. normally it is resolved within 20 minutes but today there were problems getting back online and it took over two hours. if you ever scanned the new post list on the right hand column, you would’ve seen a post about it.
Seriously what does chuck have to do to get viewers. Last nights episode was brilliant. I was really depressed before this episode started due to chuck possibly finishing for ever =(…… aaaaand then this episode comes on and had me laughing the whole way through the bottom line is quantity does not mean quality
Read the top of this article Pattern, server outage.
I did see the post. But, I wondered why. Anyway, people can’t post comments on the story that Bill posted about the DVR ratings for 90210 and Dollhouse. That needs fixing.
the comments on the DVR post have been re-enabled.
FYI to Tommy, I deleted your comment only because I’d deleted the comment you were responding too, and I’d like to end that conversation.
The outage was obviously a conspiracy. I haven’t decided yet if it was a pro-Chuck conspiracy to keep the “haters” from commenting, or an anti-Chuck conspiracy to keep the fans from commenting. But it was definitely a conspiracy, ThePattern. Don’t you doubt it!
Thank you for fixing that!
It’s cool Robert…by the time I read his and submitted mine you had deleted his. I would have never posted if I had seen that ahead of time.
I’m at a music conferance all week – so i have to watch my shows on line all this week . . . stupid VCR messed up – still haven’t seen the latest 24 – ugh!
I just want to say the way CBS treats “Rules of Engagement” is shameful. And I don’t even really like the show. They shoved the putrid, unwatchable “Worst Week” down our throats for 5 months when it was instantly clear from both the ratings and the endless “Please cancel this” postings on cbs.com that everybody hated the damn thing. So a “quick” fix that should have come back in November at the absolute latest (if it should have even been held to midseason in the first place) doesn’t come back until March. At which point it proves that it’s the only non-Chuck Lorre sitcom CBS has that can actually keep the “Two and a Half Men” lead-in. Oh, there I go again. Another retentionista post. Now watch the indexistas tell me that “Worst Week” is a hit because it’s above a 1.0 on the index.
In other news, “Castle” and “Surviving Suburbia” will both be getting 13 episode renewals. Not that “Suburbia” deserves one.
I need to stop looking at the numbers on Tuesdays. They continually depress me. I seriously don’t get the love for DWTS. Over Chuck?? Come ON, people!!
Oh well. *I* know it was a great episode (as do the other Chuck fans out there), and I’ll enjoy the show as long as NBC airs it. I’ll be upset if they cancel it (could it go to CW if that happened? Heh. Imagine the CW picking up Chuck AND Terminator. I’d actually watch that network!), but I’ll get over it by being able to enjoy the Season 1 & 2 DVDs.
Riff, even the Index doesn’t see good things for Worst Week…
i watched castle last night after gossip girl, and i have to say, i really liked it! i have to tune in next week cause i really like it!
Travis just posted the finals at Mediaweek. Chuck went up to a 2.4 while Medium dropped to a 2.5. So they’re doing about the same. In other news, Heroes went up to a 3.1 and Castle dropped to a 2.1.
The finals are out and Chuck indeed gained 2.4 in demos and up a bit in viewers too, Castle dropped to 2.1, Heroes up to 3.1 and Medium down to 2.5.
So while viewers numbers are still a bit lower than avg, this episode actually was able to at least meet this season avarage in demos.
Once again, if Chuck is that great – and I have no idea since I’ve never watched it – why isn’t it having satisfactory ratings?
I can understand why at the end of a season the ratings aren’t likely to change much. But what about earlier and throughout the season?
Can anyone explain why Chuck either never pulled higher numbers (if it didn’t) or dropped from higher numbers (if it did)? (I don’t know the numbers Chuck ever pulled – presumably they were better than this at some point, right?)
Just stating that quality doesn’t equal ratings isn’t an explanation. Either there’s some social reason why the show never caught on, or the network simply handled it badly, or there’s some problem with the show itself.
So which is it? Is it as simple as “nobody can explain the premise in one line”, as someone suggested?
Surviving Suburbia dropped to a 2.4 in finals.
Samantha Who (currently crashing and burning on Thursdays) had a more successful run behind the significantly weaker DWTS in the fall.
This show is done. And Castle’s rebound is not enough.
If Leno works ok, will ABC be the new NBC?
Finals here: scroll to the post from “Travis Yannan”:
http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/577100502/p/7
Chuck 2.4, Heroes 3.1, Castle 2.1, TBBT rerun 2.9!
Richard Steven Hack,
The reason Chuck’s numbers are not better is because it does not have the same mainstream mass appeal as some of the other shows on monday nights. It is a well written, smart show and the reason it hasn’t caught on more is the same reason many great Indie bands don’t sell millions of copies of cd’s, because of the lack of mainstream appeal.
i thinku guys r underestimating abc renewning castle. it seems to me like abc is looking for a cop show, i think a 2.2 with over 8 and a half million viewers is good enough for a 13 episode second look. especailly considering abc’s other new shows have flopped
Damn you people and your numbers. I watched Castle, thought it was awesome (again) and immediately ran over to here to check how it did. Of course your server is freaking out, Nathan Fillion has a show that still has a (long) shot at making it.
I liked Drive, too, but of course no one cares what I would rather watch.
Hope you are right about Castle Tim, last nights episode was great. I’m still leaning towards cancel though.
is it bad Numbers for 24 ? anyone ?
The middle of the season was fairly mediocre and the 3d showcase episode just wasn’t very good. Had they shown the next episode that was supposed to be aired instead (about the best stand alone of the season) or had, at the very least, it not been co opted the next week for Obama’s speech the second half of the season may have turned out better ratings wise.
Richard Steven Hack says:
April 21st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Once again, if Chuck is that great – and I have no idea since I’ve never watched it – why isn’t it having satisfactory ratings?
I can understand why at the end of a season the ratings aren’t likely to change much. But what about earlier and throughout the season?
Can anyone explain why Chuck either never pulled higher numbers (if it didn’t) or dropped from higher numbers (if it did)? (I don’t know the numbers Chuck ever pulled – presumably they were better than this at some point, right?)
Just stating that quality doesn’t equal ratings isn’t an explanation. Either there’s some social reason why the show never caught on, or the network simply handled it badly, or there’s some problem with the show itself.
So which is it? Is it as simple as “nobody can explain the premise in one line”, as someone suggested?
It’s a combination of things. The worst thing to happen to it, IMHO, was the strike. There are several shows that started in 2007 that survived, but the major portion of them were brought back after the strike and had episode runs of 15-20 episodes. NBC burned off the remaining 2 episodes in January, 2008, and cut the season at 13 episodes. Those 2 January, 2008 episodes got ratings consistent with the ratings of this season. At this point, Chuck is the only show to start with that few episodes and survive to now.
Several other less-signifcant screw-ups also took place, such as the two-month hiatus from this season, the botched promotion for the 3-D episode (although I’ll be the first to admit that ep wasn’t that great).
Of course, if it wasn’t for 5 hours of Leno, this wouldn’t be an issue. If these numbers came up on CBS or Fox, the show would have been canceled long ago. But it’s on a network with no viable heavy-hitting shows. Chuck’s Renew/Cancel index remains above the average for NBC.
Ben- The reason Bones have so many new episodes in a row is because they’re running out of time to air the episodes and fans got angry when fox said they’d air the season finale next season so they’re trying to show as many episodes as possible to be on time to air the finale on the correct date.
Love Bones… hopefully its schedule gonna come back to normality after this marathon… I really have to say that more than 8 million from wednesday, tuesday to monday each day is quite good, and the network did this in response to fans e-mails and comments… so thats why.. last night was so fun.. as a fan I just can thank FOX for replace the episodes the fans lost last month.. a loyal 8.3 million in average no matter the day of broadcasting can be ask for any good solid show..
Bones was great last night those ratings for bones weren’t bad.
Im bummed about Chuck. At least it didn’t go down. Now we just have to be even more active in our Save Chuck campaign.
Chuck’s numbers aren’t remotely surprising. I’m sure there are a lot of disappointed Chuck fans out there but looking at everything Chuck has done this year there was absolutely no reason to realistically expect it to perform better than it did. My advice, take some comfort from the numbers not falling because that would have been really bad.
At this point Chuck is in exactly the same position its been all season. I still don’t think NBC should bring it back and whilst I’ll be disappointed if they do I won’t be particularly surprised. One thing that I do think is going to work against Chuck next year is this – are NBC really going to want this leading into Day One? They seem to have very high hopes for Day One so I’m not sure Chuck’s the show you put in front of it. Maybe Chuck returns midseason with Heroes next year?
Elsewhere I’m a little disappointed with Bones’ numbers but I don’t think I’m overly surprised by them.
I will however say that I think Fox might keep House on Monday next season. It’s beating Dancing With The Stars head-to-head and they aren’t really missing it on Wednesdays and I don’t think they will during the fall of next year either. I think it can be more valuable to them anchoring their Monday line-up, denting Dancing and the CBS comedies. Plus from the looks of things they’re going to try and grow Lie To Me as the Wednesday anchor.
As a Heroes fan I’ll point out that despite its numbers dropping slightly vs. last week I think it actually benefited from the lack of competition last night – it was second to Dancing with the Stars in the 18-34 last night. Sure its because everything else was low rather than a Heroes improvement but I’d guess Heroes and NBC will take a win wherever they can find it at this point.
And hey look Castle went up, likely because of the CBS repeat but again ABC needs a win where they can find it at this point.
Thanks alex you really know how to put salt in wounds of chuck fans.
NBC,
Please cancel Chuck asap. The attention this terrible show is getting on this site is completely disproportinate to how it’s really doing in the ratings, which indicates viewers, by and large, just ignore it.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart!
Trevor: The problem I have with “mainstream appeal” is that it’s sort of a “non-answer answer”. What IS “mainstream appeal”? To me it sounds like a codeword for what I call “social reasons” a show never catches on. In other words, it’s saying “we don’t know why.” Which is fine as an answer as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go very far. You can’t produce another show based on the idea that it has “mainstream appeal” – I suspect most network execs would roll their eyes at that.
Patrick: TSCC had the same strike problem and it aired only nine episodes. It got lucky in that it’s ninth episode was the perfect place to end the shortened season. It also had to contend with a two month hiatus this season. Fringe also had to contend with a hiatus of some duration. Of course, TSCC ratings dropped significantly and will be canceled because it’s ratings were even worse than Chuck and a lot of fans claim these reasons for its failure as well.
But I’m finding it hard to attribute Chuck’s or TSCC’s ratings entirely to that phenomena.
I know that if it weren’t for Leno, Chuck would likely be renewed. Still, if it’s that great a show with an excellent combination of humor, action, drama, romance, great casting, excellent plots, etc., why isn’t it doing a 3.0 or some other number than hanging on the bottom edge of renewal?
It’s like asking why do crappy reality shows do so well in ratings. People nowadays prefer more low brow TV. Kings and Chuck are two very good shows that just have not caught on, also Pushing daisies. Perhaps it’s the concept of the shows, they just don’t appeal to the masses.
Susan, seriously the attention its getting just shows why it shouldn’t be canceled!
Uh Susan, honey, NBC execs don’t come on here. And Chuck is far from a terrible show. You not liking it doesn’t make it terrible. I doubt you have seen more than 2 episodes of the show.
What is going on? Chuck is fantastic, Heroes is solid I don’t miss either one EVER. Watching live or having to DVR when work or something gets in the way…
But really chuck can’t be doing that bad. Its smart, funny, pure entertainment. But people continue to watch predictable, slow tired story lines that have run their course many times over. Don’t get me wrong I have been and will continue to watch Bones, Chuck, and Heroes every week that it is on. However I am finding that Bones is starting to slide the humor is still there but the constant changing of people in the lab is not jiving with me to make a stable cast and now that cam is having parenting problems the show is taking a turn from a forensic comedy to a family first drama fest. How long are they going to keep up Bones and Booth not touching each other? Yeah it is important that they don’t but it gets really boring after a while. Look Chuck and Sarah did almost did it last night, let passion spill on the show and let us know they are committed whatever it takes. Heroes is just fantastic perfect balance of creepy and funny with a lot of heart thrown in there.
Still I stick with Chuck as my favorite. And why not? It’s got it all, the Buy More for the people that enjoy stupidity in others and the mass appeal of “reality style writing”; action (explosions OH YEAH!!!!), hotness (Sarah WOW!!!) and we get to learn cool new fighting moves like “the Morgan”. Just watch it people it’s got it all. Keep it on TV.
Thanks for the link Robert
We’ll, atleast Heroes didn’t dip to low… Last night’s episode was
one of the best of the season!! And the preview for the finale looks incredible!! Hopefully they’ll rise next week thanks to all the recent hype on the topic of Sylaire.
And Chuck didn’t do that bad, atleast their numbers are higher then they were two weeks ago…
Richard you’re getting far too hung up on the idea that quality and ratings go hand-in-hand they don’t.
There’s no magic formula to creating a hit television show and luck plays a larger role in the process than anyone wants to admit. A show can have absolutely everything going for it and on paper be a huge hit waiting to happen but if it doesn’t get a lucky break then it won’t hit and won’t survive.
30 Rock is a perfect example of the lucky break. For two years critics and fans alike praised the show, it won endless awards had a former and highly regarded SNL star and a big name star in Alec Baldwin but it wasn’t until Sarah Palin came along that the show really caught fire properly.
Chuck may very well be everything its fans proclaim it to be (personally I don’t think it is) but if it doesn’t catch a lucky break then its screwed. And it certainly wouldn’t be the first highly regarded show to end up axed – it wouldn’t even be the first this season.
Trevor: I can reason out why people might like “crappy reality shows” if I need to from a human perspective (or more precisely MY perspective, which might or might not be “human” in the conventional sense).
The problem is that a blanket assertion that says in essence “that’s all there is” makes it hard to explain shows that are successful – and more successful than Chuck – which aren’t reality shows.
The question is: why isn’t Chuck as successful as Fringe or 24 or any other scripted one hour show that is doing better than it is? Or at least why isn’t Chuck more successful than it is, if it can’t match other shows?
Based on all the cheerleading, I’m almost motivated to watch a couple of episodes just so I can figure out what’s wrong with the show.
But I really hate comedies (yeah, I’m a mean spirited person and get off my lawn!) Well, not entirely, Leverage has a LOT of comedy in it and I love that show. But Leverage has a premise I can just barely believe which happens to fit my world view, and Chuck doesn’t.
OTOH, Adam Baldwin gets my respect from Firefly. Strahovski is undeniably hot, which appeals to my babe requirements for a show (Leverage has two, TSCC had two, Fringe has one, and Dollhouse has a zillion).
Still, the premise sucks and it’s a dramedy. And the lead character sounds like an idiot. Not to mention the idiots in the store. Three big strikes against it for me.
So is it possible that the same or other issues afflict the wider audience?
Richard Steven Hack says:
April 21st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Once again, if Chuck is that great – and I have no idea since I’ve never watched it – why isn’t it having satisfactory ratings?
Richard Steven Hack: Your little add in in the middle there, between the dashes, is the reason you need to shut your mouth and stop talking so much crap about the show.
Alex, I know all that. Nonetheless, nothing happens in a vacuum. There’s a reason for everything – including chaos.
We may not be able to always specify the reasons why a particular show is a hit or not, but you’d think somebody would be polling people to find out.
Otherwise we’re just saying the whole industry is a crap-shoot and you might as well throw anything on the air and see if it sticks. While it seems from the pilots listed the other day that’s how it IS being done, I suspect most people making the decisions are using some sort of criteria for whether a show is worth doing or not. And the viewers certainly are making some sort of decisions, whether conscious or unconscious, as to why they watch or don’t watch a show.
So if a bunch of people like a show for X reasons, and another, larger, bunch of people don’t watch the show for Y reasons, well, what I’m asking for here is the Y reasons.
Doesn’t sound like rocket science to me.
I had perfectly good reasons for criticizing TSCC this season. Precise, well focused, rational reasons. I don’t expect most people to do that, but they’ve got to have some emotional reactions they can verbalize as to why they aren’t watching Chuck – something more meaningful than “it sucks”, one would hope.
Zbo unless I’ve missed it (which is possible) Richard hasn’t been ‘talking crap’ about Chuck but is just asking Chuck fans why the show hasn’t connected with a bigger audience. And that’s not a completely unfair question to ask although as I said I think he’s getting too hung up on quality = ratings when that isn’t the case.
Zbo, I haven’t talked ANY crap about the show. I’m just curious as to why this show, which is obviously liked so much by so many people, doesn’t appeal to an evidently larger number of people.
I can understand why TSCC didn’t, since I watched that show from beginning to end and could see the problems.
Since I don’t watch Chuck, I’d like someone to inform me why some people don’t like it, with hopefully better reasons than “it sucks”.
Richard you know what us chuck fans dont care what you haft to say.Also Robert told some of you to not start anything on here yet you and a few others continue to stir the pot of some of us.If there is some people who need a lesson learned its some of you who continue to piss people off for no damn reason.Ecept to get attention.
Richard, I stopped watching because the show became too much about will-they-or-won’t-they between Chuck and Sarah. It bored me.
Richard, why isn’t it getting through to you ? Some very good shows throughout history have not had great ratings. Perhaps their concepts just don’t have that mass appeal. Also the lead character in Chuck is anything but an idiot, he’s goofy but very smart.
Richard you’re assuming that the people who don’t watch Chuck have a reason to not watch it and chances are the vast majority of them don’t. Its also worth remembering that even ‘big hits’ still aren’t watched by the majority of the television audience. More people are watching something other than American Idol on Tuesday and Wednesday nights than are watching it for example.
For the most part I suspect that the vast majority of people who aren’t watching Chuck aren’t watching it because they’ve never heard of it. And I think that would still be true if Chuck was hugely promoted by NBC. My guess would be that if you were to stop ten people in the street and ask them why they aren’t watching Chuck most of them would ask you what the hell Chuck is. The same would probably be true for Lie To Me, Bones, NCIS, The Mentalist and just about every show on television.
The more important question that Chuck fans and the Chuck producers have to ask is where have the people who were watching during season one gone and where have the people who watched the 3D special gone? The question people need to be asking is why have people stopped watching more so than why aren’t people watching. With a show like Heroes the answer for why people stopped watching is universally agreed upon – it got really rubbish, really quickly. With Chuck no one seems to have any idea at all.
just to clear the air a little i didnt start watching chuck until well into season two… loved it so much i went and got season one on dvd watched it and caught the rest later… so that garbage about not being able to catch up on what is going on is just stupid… got to use your head a little people.. and for the most part the ratings fight is stupid on here… the reason 30 rock does well is because it is stupid lame over done humor and apparently if it is not directly in your face no one can see it any more… so the subtle chuck is getting put on the back burner because people refuse to think or get involved they just want blind entertainment with no emotional attachment required… i spit in your direction.
travis, that was unnecessary, and uncalled for.
I’m a Chuckaholic too, but sometimes I wonder why people like you feel the need to lash out about the show. Richard was asking a question, not bashing the show.
Titanic is the highest grossing film ever, does that mean it’s the best film ever ? No.
Miley Cyrus and the Jonas brothers are huge hits worldwide, are they great singers ? No.
Twilight sells millions upon millions of books, is it a great book ? NO.
Yeah people hate to think about and get emotionally involved in television shows…
Of all the reasons why Chuck isn’t doing well that’s the one I object to the most because it makes absolutely no sense. Every show that’s on television (I repeat every one of them) is a hit because people get emotionally involved in it and think about it.
Take a look at the evolution of something like House. That’s gone from being a medical mystery show to a character study on House and the people in his lives and is a huge hit.
OK. OK, fine, I give up.
There is no reason whatsoever for Chuck to be where it is. Or any other show.
Fine, accepted, let’s move on.
To what? Well, the numbers, which we already have provided for us by the excellent services of Robert and Bill.
I guess this thread is over, then?
Alex: “The more important question that Chuck fans and the Chuck producers have to ask is where have the people who were watching during season one gone”
Dude, that’s the exact same frickin’ question I’m asking, which you just denied there is an answer for!
Good God!
Stop answering the questions I never asked and answer the one I asked: Why are people NOT watching Chuck?
I KNOW not everybody is going to watch it, that’s frickin’ obvious! I KNOW a lot of people have never heard of it, that, too, is frickin’ obvious! I’m not an idiot, Alex!
Why are the people who KNOW about Chuck, who maybe have seen an episode and walked away, who have REASONS NOT to watch Chuck, not watching Chuck?
Is that too hard a question to even consider?
People not watching Chuck doesn’t mean they have a reason to hate it. Plenty of people(including every person I know) has never even heard of it.
I gave you my answer, Richard.
Julia at least gave me a straight rational reason why she stopped. Thanks, Julia.
sorry for speaking out.
Heh, we crossed posts, Julia. Was it good for you?
I hate to be the messenger of this…
CHUCK is gone. I was told “90% sure.” So there is still a chance (likely BS saving it).
Richard, Chuck had strong #’s in its 1st season. (8-9 mil) But it got killed by the strike and was off the air from Jan-Sept. It then came back in the Fall leading into the also-freefalling Heroes. Since then, it has faced House, DWTS, Bachelor, Gossip Girl, BBT, HIMYM, etc. in its time slot. # of viewers and quality of the show are not synonymous. If it were, there would be no question that Chuck would be coming back.
I still say they should bring it back midseason for 13-18 episodes on a night without much competition just as a last chance effort to see if they can make it work. If not, at least let the writers wrap it up within those episodes…
Mike, I think Chuck has had the time to prove itself. When you start talking about bringing something back for a THIRD season, just to see if they can make it work then you know too much time has been spent on it, imo.
The key of a successful show is being able to stand up to some competition.
Nick C, link or it’s BS on your part.
So good, Rich.
That’s very surprising, Nick. I hope the server can stand up to the reaction to that.
Richard, i think you should just watch the show for yourself. And by the way I can’t think of anything wrong with the show.
Nick C, you LOVE being the messenger!
but I do believe that you hate the particular message.
I see thirteen days of annoying comments followed by a possibility of 180 days of “Will CW pick up Chuck” and “DirecTV!!!!”
I see beer in my future.
So Nick C,
Chuck is gone but you were saying it was being renewed just a fews days. What was the deciding factor don’t tell me last nights ratings. Give us proof.
But think of it this way, Robert, after those 180 days are up, Chuck fans will go the way of Moonlight fans! Instead of having to go through all this again next year!
O boy Nick C, if that’s true, the Internet might explode on May 5.
Someone pointed out on another site that it seemed odd that Chuck doesn’t get better demos since its clearly geared towards the twenty something audience. A proposal that came up was that 20-somethings tend to be extremely mobile, they’re not settled, and often are moving to pursue education or in business, therefore they would likely be underrepresented in the Nielsons. Is this a valid hypothesis?
Is there such a thing as a Nielson box in a college dorm room? How long do you have to occupy an apartment before they’ll give you one?
90% gone. Bad news for Chuck fans.
A better question is how often is Nick right with his predictions ? 20% ? 30% ?
Richard Steven Hack says:
April 21st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Why are the people who KNOW about Chuck, who maybe have seen an episode and walked away, who have REASONS NOT to watch Chuck, not watching Chuck?
Is that too hard a question to even consider?
Consider? No. Answer? Maybe.
I’ll be the first to admit the show is not every person’s cup of tea. I’ve tried to watch CSI several times, but procedural dramas aren’t really my thing. Doesn’t mean CSI is a bad show. Some people have said they don’t like the Buy More parts of it, some have said they thought the concept was stupid. Some don’t get all the references. It’s definitely a show you have to stay through a few episodes to really like. It’s an acquired taste.
Mike: Yeah, I can see how Chuck would be hurt by that sequence of events. TSCC had pretty much the same sequence of events, except that it started mid season and was able to run nine episodes, with the ninth being a good place to end the season. I think TSCC had problems beyond that, but certainly all that didn’t help.
The problem with blaming the behavior of a show in the fall based on problems it had in the previous winter and spring is that if the show continues to drop during the fall – as TSCC did – it’s not clear to me why that would be based on the previous season. You’d think the fall season would stand or fall on its own merits.
If Chuck started out in the fall with the same demo rank as it did in January, as someone said above, then fell off from that, why is that related to the previous season? If Chuck stayed pretty steady from its fall debut, but those numbers were just low due to the hiatus from spring to fall, then it makes more sense to me. Where did Chuck start in the fall compared to where it is now?
Nick C: Oh, boy, here we go! You just dropped a bombshell akin to your TSCC one! Better duck!
Richard asking why aren’t people watching Chuck is not the same as asking why people have stopped watching Chuck. Like I said I suspect the vast majority of people haven’t heard of Chuck, hence why they’re not watching it. And again like I said in regards to why people have stopped watching no one seems to be able to agree on that but personally I don’t really care.
Argus, a few years back Nielsen added the feature of any Nielsen family that has college kids living in dorms, that kid gets a box. I’m not sure if they continued that or not. Not sure how it worked out.
Argus, until last year or two, I don’t think there was any measurement at colleges, but I believe they started including that into the panel a while back.
I’m not sure Chuck really is geared towards 20somethings. On the surface it seems that way, but so many of the references are to the 1980s, if you’re not over 35 or an 80s-phile you would miss them.
i agree with some here until i see proof im taking what nick says with a grain of salt.
Actually I think Argus (and Robert) might have just stumbled upon an answer for why people aren’t watching AND why people have stopped watching.
At first glance Chuck is a show geared toward 20somethings so they tune in and don’t really get half of the references made so ditch the show. Meanwhile the audience that the show is aimed at 30somethings+ don’t think the show is really for them so don’t bother watching it.
Essentially Chuck is trying to have its cake and eat it to by appearing young without being young so it alienates both audiences that its aiming for.
Just a suggestion.
Wasn’t Nick C also the one to say that Scwartz and Ostroff had an agreement that the CW would pick up Chuck were NBC to drop it?
I’m not sure whether or not I want to believe him…
Chuck really does seem to be a GenX-er show that happens to have late 20something characters.
Jon L beat me to the punch but i guess we will find out who wins that bet since Nick C has said since day one if NBC doesn’t pick up CHUCK that the CW would. SO being right about one thing could end up lowering his percentage with being wrong about another.
Patrick: Yeah, I’m not interested in procedurals either, except for Leverage and Fringe which are different kinds of “procedural”.
I’d say the Buy More aspect is something I’d probably pass on as well. That’s part of why it’s a dramedy, which don’t usually interest me.
Although I can’t say I base my decisions solely on what KIND of show it is (procedural, serial, dramedy, whatever). I take premise and characters more into account, and then execution. If the premise fits my worldview, the characters are interesting and engaging, there’s an overall story arc of interest, then execution is critical – in other words, don’t screw up the stuff I just listed that attracted me to the show in the first place! TSCC violated that last badly.
What do you mean by “references” on Chuck? They do a lot of pop culture references or what?
They do tons and tons of movie refrences and 80’s refrences.
Agent Chuck,
It’s a numbers game. I was specifically told they just can’t seem to find the room for it. This makes sense. You have PARENTHOOD, LEGALLY MAD, and TRAUMA all new shows they plan on picking up for the Fall, plus DAY ONE which is supposed to air just during the Fall. Sundays are taken up by the NFL. Thursday Night isn’t an option. Half of Friday is already done. So that just leaves you with 7 hours to program. CHUCK just doesn’t fit.
Start trying to make it fit yourself, and you’ll understand. They all seem to love the show, so I’m sure that is where the 10% is coming from. They just don’t have the room.
Blame Jay.
Seriously what’s going on? I say Chuck I think NBC shouldn’t bring Chuck back and the Chuck fans want to burn me at the sake, Nick says NBC aren’t bringing the show back and everyone is amazingly calm about it. I feel like a victim! Where are the Chuck crazies?
>> What do you mean by “references” on Chuck? They do a lot of pop culture references or what?
That’s like saying the Pacific Ocean is a small body of water.
There’s seemingly a billion 80s movie and pop culture references built into each episode.
michael p- Booth and Bones will hook up by the end of this season. So don’t worry about that. They only changed two cast members since season one. That’s alot less than most shows finishing it’s 4th season. It’s talking about family problems because it’s showing the human sides of the characters. I don’t want to watch a show that is strictly forensic work. Since season one they’ve shown family problems and emotional side of the characters. Like booth and his kid and ect. And since your saying it’s getting boring why would u want them to just be about the forensic stuff? That’s boring.
OK, Robert and Alex just answered my question about references.
And also provided an intelligent possible reason why some people might not like the show.
See, was that so hard?
So is this Nick C supposed to be a network insider or something ?
Lol @ Nick C…. Drama-rama!
I hate Leno.
Ya he is Xavier.
Nick C, so does that mean Day One is supposed to be a 13 episode miniseries a la Harper’s Island?
” I was specifically told they just can’t seem to find the room for it”.
You were also specifically told that CW was absolutely going to pick up Chuck if NBC dropped it, how did that turn out ?
Robert, thanks. Yeah, it stings I actually dug CHUCK. If you ask me its failure is a direct result of poor management at NBC. I hope they go ahead and make a decision quickly and let Josh try and get it on the CW. The CW could be full by the time they make their decision known to Josh. Worst case scenario I suppose it’s a midseason replacement over there.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – five hours of Leno or not if NBC wants (or wanted) to bring Chuck back they’ll find a way to make it work. Leno is just a nice excuse to get rid of shows that aren’t performing as well as they’d like.
Xavier: Yes. Apparently nobody’s quite sure how “inside”, though.
Trevor, you can’t shop the show until it’s officially available to shop. I know Warner will try and keep it alive. If they don’t officially notify the producers in time, we’re talking midseason pickup for the CW.
“Robert, thanks. Yeah, it stings I actually dug CHUCK. If you ask me its failure is a direct result of poor management at NBC. I hope they go ahead and make a decision quickly and let Josh try and get it on the CW. The CW could be full by the time they make their decision known to Josh. Worst case scenario I suppose it’s a midseason replacement over there”.
Every known source, TV guide insiders, etc, has said that there never was any talk of CW being interested in picking up Chuck if NBC dropped it. Me thinks Nick is not as “inside” as he wants us to believe.
Welll what are they going to put into that time slot. Also when do the fans get to know.
So no matter what Chuck did it was not coming back. Nice way to string the audience along. Oh well such a shame. I guess I can remove NBC off my channel list.
If they really wanted to save Chuck they would try to move it to a different night. NBC is blowing smoke and they never had any intentions of renewing.
If you are correct thanks for the early warning. At least I can enjoy the finale for what it is.
Sucks that I will never get to see Chuck and Sarah ever again.
For those who don’t understand why reality shows continue to succeed over scripted shows and why people continue to tune in, I’m not completely sure what the stand-all official answer is and maybe there is none, but to me, reality shows are similar to watching sports. A sporting event, at least to me, is mostly enjoyed when watching it live.
Reality shows, like sports, have an element of success and failure that is (usually) resolved at the end of each episode with the success of someone (making it through to the next round, attaining “immunity”, etc.) and failure (getting kicked off the show) that people like to tune into. Many reality shows take a step further to make it more appealing it watch it when it airs, as opposed to watching it online at a person’s convenience, by having viewers vote on who stays and who goes e.g. DWTS and AI. One of the appeals of those is the voting, and pretty much every voter is forced to watch the show during its actual air time in order to see the performance and make their vote count. They cannot conveniently watch it online and send in their vote later, because the next day is the results show, which adds drama that draw people in to see who stays and who goes. If a person is a fan of a reality show such as DWTS, AI and a scripted show that is aired at same time, they’re likely to watch the reality show first and watch the scripted show online at their convenience because of this.
With their similarities to sports, people enjoy watching someone succeed in the physical and mental challenges on the show and even enjoy watching someone they dislike on the show to fail. The way the shows are edited, many times there’s usually a contestant that is labeled the bad guy, and each show he/she gets worse and worse and people can’t wait to see that person off the show, similar to watching a game of someone’s home team against their heated rival. And of course, they usually tout a person to root for, and people watch to see that person succeed. Like in sports, there’s usually a winner and a loser at the end of each episode (except for those where the results are the next day, which also gets people continuing to watch), and people watch for that to happen, and keep watching each episode to see who ultimately wins. The next season, with newer contestants, there’s fresh blood and the cycle repeats as people attach themselves to a new person to root for/against.
In a scripted show, if the writing is not good, people will criticize it and if something turns them off about the way the stories are written, the talent of the actors, etc., they’ll start to stray away. Reality shows don’t need as much writing, and it appears, at least to me, that whatever writing is involved, isn’t as important. If a contestant does something bad, messes up, etc., people will laugh or cringe at that guy “Whoa, he/she messed up! He/She’s screwed!” as a fault of that contestant, not a fault of the show, and will wait to see how that contestant’s screw up affects his/her chances of staying on the show, similar to a player in sports committing a penalty.
I don’t know exactly why The Biggest Loser is, all things considered at that network, one of the more successful shows on NBC, but because it’s a show about a people attaining for success and are involved in physical and mental challenges, viewers watch to see how they face those challenges, see who succeeds and who fails and see all the drama involved that leads up to that success or failure during the show. And, like all reality shows, one of the biggest reasons (if not THE biggest) that reality shows continue to stay on the air is because they’re cheap to produce.
I hope that sheds some light on some of the appeal of reality shows. If it doesn’t well, I at least expressed why I think it’s the case. To sum up, I think to put it in one line, to me, reality shows are similar to watching sports. I don’t watch DWTS or AI much (I only watch AI in the very beginning of the season with all the bonehead contestants to watch Simon trash them, as a lot of people probably do), but I think I understand why others would want to watch those shows live as opposed to online. Anyone who decides to pick this apart and “argue against” me, I won’t respond as I spend a lil bit of time writing this this mini essay and my mental energy is sapped heh.
Alex, that is foolish to say. You lose 5 hours of programming in a Fall schedule that is only 15 hours of programming. That’s 1/3rd of your time slots! With NBC so dead, they have to bring new shows on to try and save it. So that leaves little room for shows that are “average,” for the network.
Richard, in this particular case not very inside. The person I talked to about it is close to the inside and heard it from the top people. Compare that to when I told people that DSM and PD were canceled and I heard it from one of the top people at ABC myself directly. My friend knows I like the show (and I rarely like shows) so perhaps I’m having my leg pulled, but I seriously doubt it. The reasoning seems to make a lot of sense.
Why doesn’t NBC just announce what’s going on with Chuck ? If it’s 90% gone then let the people know.
Agent Chuck, fans will know for sure no later than May 5.
“What do you mean by “references” on Chuck? They do a lot of pop culture references or what?”
Well, let’s see. In last night’s episode alone, they referenced “The Warriors,” “The Godfather, Part II,” “Wayne’s World,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Spies Like Us,” and “Quantum Leap.” Actually, I think I missed a few.
Some of the more popular ones they’ve done include Spinal Tap, Shawshank Redemption, Mad Max, Ferris Bueller, Sixteen Candles, and a few hundred I can’t even remember right now. Most of them are 80’s and Gen-X references, like Robert says.
*Tries to see the silver lining*
Umm, I gues if it pulls anything close to it’s current ratings, it’ll live forever on the CW, right? Right?!?!
Just an opinion leno better just get set for some hate mail from fans of chuck.I wont be one of em but im sure once this surfaces well all hell is going to break loose and this server will crash again.
Trevor, got a link? I’d love to read that.
Xavier, because 90% isn’t 100% and unless held at gun point they’re not likely to announce it publicly before the season finale aired even if they are 100% sure.
Robert why not let us enjoy the finale as a finale. NBC doesn’t need to wait unti the upfronts. Chuck last episode is April 27, 2009.
Also are any of the new pilots better than the reboot. I think the reboot of Chuck with the Season focusing on Chuck and Sarah is a great idea. So NBC would rather go with unproven shows in a brutal time slot.
From Spoiler TV
David in Brentwood, Tenn.: I heard that the CW might pick up Chuck if NBC cancels it. Please say that’s true!
Sorry, false. Inside sources tell us the CW currently has no plans to rescue Chuck should NBC drop it. But don’t forget to vote for Chuck or your other favorites in our Save One Show campaign.
Xavier, sorry but that hurts ratings. When a show is on a popped bubble (and the bubble was only popped by the media) the ratings tend to fall. Networks aren’t going to burn their money. That’s just dumb.
I for one hope that 10% wins out. I think CHUCK on Wednesdays next Fall could end up being a surprise for NBC. They need to attack the comicon, etc. and build up hype. Ditch the “will they or won’t they,” aspect of the show.
Advertisers don’t love advertising on shows where cancellations have been announced.
Please, only an idiot would blame Chuck’s cancellation on Leno himself. He wasn’t the one who decided to program five hours of Leno a week.
Trevor, ah spoiler tv! Inside sources! Since I know it’s a conversation had by dawn and josh, if neither of them are quoted it means very little to me.
Julia good point its nbc that made the mistake of taking away 5 hours a week.
Nick C, you said 90% gone unless Ben saves it. How exactly could he save it if they have no room on the schedule? Would they bump something else or would he force them to fit it for short runs over the spring or summer?
Nick correct me if im wrong, but dosent YS have a contract with NBC? they most likey wouldnt let her do a show on a different network right?
so that means we have to wait for her contract to expire (4 yrs i think) or we have chuck on the CW without YS (which would be a total and complete washout…)
Julia, I blame Leno’s ego. Really. He had his time in the sun, and then decided he didn’t want to go quietly away. He flirted with Disney. So NBC gave him 5 hours of prime time. He deserves any heat he receives, and if his show flops (and I hope it does) I hope his career goes the way of Chevy Chase after his talk show flopped.
Well two great actors out of work. Man am I going to miss Yvonne TV will never be the same. My love for TV just went down by 90%.
It’s from that Ausiello(or whatever his name is)guy. He is a known inside source. Not saying I don’t believe you, just saying I’m getting conflicting reports.
I would love it if CW got Chuck, over there it would be a hit by their standards.
“Richard, in this particular case not very inside.”
And how ‘inside’ are your sources regarding a CW pickup? Not that I’m trying to be a pr***, but the hopeful in me would like to know.
Why send angry letters to Leno? Suits make the decisions not him.
FrankJ, I know they love the show. If BS wants to save it, he’ll find a way. If Josh wants to save it, he’ll find a way.
“Why send angry letters to Leno? Suits make the decisions not him”.
Did those suits put a gun to his head and force him to stay on ? Not likely.
Jon i think nick summed it up well why Leno should get some of the heat.His ego.I’m a gearhead and i enjoy leno as a car person but as a host not so much.The other 60 percent of the heat should go to the suits.
Nick C,
When was this decison made, you just told us it was coming back. Why the sudden change.
Could Chuck be saved for a midseason pick up when most of the pilots will fail. I know quite a few Chuck fans that will avoid that time slot like the plague.
I watched monday’s episode (online) adn really enjoyed. The last few chuck episodes that I’ve barely been watchable for me (not being a regular viewer) but I could easily watch this episode.
The last one that I had tuned in for was the one where the Dad shows up, and I tuned out of that half way through. The pace was painful for someone who doesn’t watch regularly. I didn’t get what was going on.
Really looking forward to the next one now. It was really interesting reading through this entry from a non-fan perspective. I’m a fan of T:TSCC and can’t read the Friday thread without wincing. Now I know what it’s like for someone not attached to a T:TSCC to read through all the back and forth! It’s entertaining!
JonL, I heard it from someone reliable. Is it going to happen? It’s not a contract, and it was to my knowledge discussed once. The show hasn’t been canceled and Josh hasn’t had to shop it yet. So don’t give up hope. If he wants his show on the air, I’m confident he’ll find a way.
Send angry letters to Leno because it’s all due to his ego. He is the one who decided he wanted to “retire.” It was his idea! He picked the date. Then when time passed he changed his mind, and NBC said “we have a deal with Conan.” So Jay pouted and flirted to have a rival show on ABC. Then NBC said “wait, how about we give you prime time, since everything else we try doesn’t work?”
It’s his ego, pure and simple. This wasn’t a situation where NBC just said “wait, I have a great idea,” and talked Jay out of retirement.
I know quite a few Chuck fans that will avoid that time slot like the plague.
Just like the Moonlight fans avoided that timeslot all year? Wasn’t Flashpoint doing better than Moonlight until Dollhouse came on?
Nick says- Chuck is gone ” I was told 90% sure”.
Ok, so the 10% chance would be if all the actors that are in the show that is replacing Chucks time slot where driving to work in a SUV and where in accident and unfortunately died. Ah that’s the ticket
I don’t buy any of this.
Look, either its for sure or its not. None of this “oh it’s gonna return, they havn’t announced it but it’s a shoo-in” one day, and the next “90/10 says cancel, but 10 percent will hopefully win! fingers crossed!”
Come on.
None of the “insiders” comment for sure because (A)they don’t want to commit, so that either way it pans out they don’t lose credibility, or (B) the decision hasn’t been made yet.
They are buzz hungry.
Nick C what about Yvonne ? She has a 6 year contract with NBC, I doubt they weill easily let her out of it so she can go to a different network.
Nick C, where are you getting your info?
Agent Chuck, I said they were leaning that way. My understanding is that they can’t find the time slot for it. Perhaps they’ll end up saying “but anything we put on Monday will get killed, at least CHUCK survives.” Look CHUCK is profitable, gets great product placement…
and something just hit me. NBC has a lot of great reasons to renew CHUCK. However if they let rumors start that they were leaning the other way… Warner may lower the license fees. Which means I may have been used…
That or it’s really 90% certain to not come back.
we can all hope for some kinda miracle.but hey look at terminator which needed one but didnt get it.
Brian: Nice analysis of why people would like reality shows. I can buy that completely. I suspect they shouldn’t be compared to fiction shows since it’s really a whole different phenomena.
Nick C: Thanks for the source clarification.
JustTunedIn: Yup. I joined this site mostly because of TSCC and Dollhouse. Now I’m hooked on ratings discussions! Sad, really! LOL!
Well there are 6 million veiwers that have stayed the course. That is not stellar but it is good for NBC. Also DWTS is the American Idol of Mondays.
now all we need is the other insider. “Jack”, where are you? Have any info for us to counter/ reaffirm what Nick C has reported?
“Alex, that is foolish to say. You lose 5 hours of programming in a Fall schedule that is only 15 hours of programming. That’s 1/3rd of your time slots! With NBC so dead, they have to bring new shows on to try and save it. So that leaves little room for shows that are “average,” for the network.”
Yes Nick you’re right to say its foolish to think that if NBC really wanted to keep Chuck on the air they’d find a way to make it work its not like you said almost the exact same think a few minutes later… oh wait…
“FrankJ, I know they love the show. If BS wants to save it, he’ll find a way.”
Ladies and gentleman welcome to the contradictory world of Nick talking about Chuck where nothing he says quite makes sense.
128boy, or it could be that I just want fans prepared for what looks likely (from what I was told). It’s not certain, if it was I’d have stated it in certainty like I have in the past for other shows. However with those other shows I stated much the same things before I said it was certain. Because I heard similar things before the axe fell.
I like CHUCK, and I’m going to continue to root for it. NBC would be foolish to cancel it. It sounded like they were about to make the right decision to move forward and ditch the “will they or won’t they,” and let the show revolve around other things.
My question is this, if your source is high up then why is he talking to you and not more well known people like the chick from E or the guy from TV guide ?
Alex, sorry but it’s foolish to say that Leno is just an excuse so NBC can get rid of shows that aren’t doing as well as they’d like. Heck, in your scenario every NBC show should be canceled. Because THE OFFICE isn’t getting the numbers NBC would like. It’s trending down, they’d like it to trend up. I’m sure every show on NBC isn’t getting the numbers NBC would like.
My statement, and yours that if they really want to they’ll save the show, is not foolish.
Yeah the ending of the will they won’t they is gone, a whole season of Chuck and Sarah as Mr and Mrs Smith sounds great.
Dammit I was really hoping that chucks ratings would go up causing a snow ball effect and hopefully lead to some kick ass season finale numbers (fingers crossed)
Trevor, because he doesn’t know I would post that on here. He’s talking to me because of a long working relationship not because I’m an insider on a forum! I don’t like being labeled that. I’m just a guy who sometimes hears things and repeats them and is very opinionated. I’m no more important than Alex or any of the people I may argue with at times on here. My opinion is no more important, and neither are my statements. He also likely has never seen this web site and if he has he likely doesn’t read the comments.
Nick C., “or it could be that I just want fans prepared for what looks likely (from what I was told).”
Fans can’t prepare when all you give them is a 90/10 statement followed by a “Let’s keep hoping!” line, Nick.
That’s the opposite of preparing fans.
“It’s not certain”
I agree.
That was the point of my last post.
Nick where would a chuck fan send some mail to mr leno and nbc just to show em how angry we really are?
Well Nick C, I don’t know if I want you to be right or wrong lol.
If you’re right, NBC will drop Chuck, and we may never see it again. BUT the CW could pick it up and add longevity to the series.
If you’re wrong, NBC will pick it up and we’ll definitely see Chuck again, but for how long?
As to the people asking about Yvonne – where did you hear that information?
Woah…. Crazy Chuck Freak’s post should be removed….
Yvonne. She has a 6 year contract with NBC.
Please let me clear this contract stuff up.I hope this is helpful
1. The contract is with Warner bros or the producing company or to make it plainer the company that owns the TV show. In this case its not NBC.
2. This type of contract with a term of 5 or 6 years is common for one hour shows made in the TV business
3. The contract is for the show the actor is working on and nothing else. In this case CHUCK
4. The most important thing to understand is these contract are from year to year at THE OPTION OF THE PRODUCING COMPANY. To make it clearer, a actor could have a 6 year contract(agreement)with a show and if the producer wants replace you, your gone with minimum financial compensation
yea crazy you went over the line with that one.hmm i have a image of nbc suits and leno running away from a mob of people chasin them with pitch forks.
Crazy Chuck Freak, not the kinda stuff you wanna post even if its a joke.
Paul 80: Thanks for the clarification.
I think somebody said Brian Austin Green had a six year contract with WB for TSCC. He’s going to the CW new show, “Body Politic”.
So Yvonne’s contract is irrelevant.
Nick C, thanks for the clarification. I really hope NBC or Josh can find a way to save it. Hopefully all the letters fans are sending to Silverman and the effort to reward sponsors will help that 10% to win out. I’d like to see the show continue on NBC, but I think most fans would take the show in whatever form it needed to condense to on CW just to keep it on the air.
Thanks for clearing that up paul 80.
Chuck yesterday was very good, but I agree that the problem is that the show requires a lot of background information to understand the show (especially these final episodes). I really doubt that their will be an increase in next weeks numbers for this reason. I just hope that NBC sees potential in this show, and sticks with it. Chuck is now competing for a limited amount of hour time slots on NBC.
chuck chuck bo buck
banana fanna fo F&@*…. Can we please talk about other shows~!
Well i tell ya one thing i really feel like i shouldnt watch a network shows anymore.Seems like everyone i like gets canned.But well nick c certianly gave us a good target to send our mad letters to.Its to big chin himself.Sorry jay i respect you as a car guy but doing this to nbc is below the belt for tv fans.
You can try Laura. LOL
” think somebody said Brian Austin Green had a six year contract with WB for TSCC. He’s going to the CW new show, “Body Politic”.
So Yvonne’s contract is irrelevant”.
Brian’s contract is with WB, CW is still WB connected. Yvonne’s contract is with NBC, CW is not NBC connected.
Laura, its Monday. Or as someone on here said recently “Chuckday”.
Trevor, read paul 80’s post.
^^^Today is Tuesday, oops
I still don’t understand why we should trust what Nick C is saying. I’ve only recently starting following this discussion so I’m not sure what kind of info he’s provided in the past, but vague, unsubstantiated statements like that are so easy to make up. What’s stopping me from coming on here and claiming I have a friend who works for NBC and they told me Chuck’s chances are 70/30 in favor of coming back? Anyone can do it.
Quinn, exactly. Its hearsay at *best*.
Someone could say there dating an actress on here and someone would belive it.But we need solid proof.
NOOO Chuck is gone
Sigh. I don’t know anything about what numbers are or aren’t likely to encourage a show renewal, but Castle has quickly become my favorite show. The production quality is great, the Castle/Beckett chemistry is fun, and the other characters are interesting as well. It may not be terribly deep at this point, but it’s fun, clever, and well-made. (Okay, I’m a Nathan Fillion fan).
I got ten new families to watch Chuck last night but of course none are Nielsen homes so it doesn’t matter and that is what is so sad….
NBC needs to cancel Earl, and Parks and Rec. Earl is way below Chuck and Parks took a dive and went below Chuck last week. Chuck viewership went up last week! Why don’t they try cleaning out they’re crapper before going after shows that are actually doing good. How in the world is How We Do It still on at it’s bottom of the barrel ratings and Chucks on the brink of cancellation?!? Are there 2 year olds running NBC, because none of this makes sense!
Snipes, Howie Do it is a)on Friday b)a reality show c)co-produced by Global, a Canadian channel
First of all, I want to say that I love Chuck and I think its a great and fun show, but I think people should accept the fact that there really is no room for Chuck next season.
Southland is currently do great for NBC, with viewers and critics, and unless that series takes a complete nose dive (and even with Private Practice returning, I dont see those audiences really overlapping), then Southland will be back next season.
Then there’s Medium and Law and Order; both of which are stable players. Medium does better than Chuck in both demos and viewers and always builds off its lead-in. L&O will always bring in an audience no matter what. SVU also continues to bring in decent ratings, though its down from what it use to do.
There’s also two hours of The Biggest Loser and The Celebrity Apprentice (probably at midseason) that have to be considered, along with the likely 2hr Thursday comedy block.
So while I would love to see Chuck return, where would it go? I would rather see it cancelled then die on a Friday night. And if NBC is seriously considering picking up Trauma, Legally Mad, Parenthood, and Day One… once again, where would Chuck go? Friday Night Lights is also returning to the network at some point along with that Jerry Springer series, The Marriage Ref. Then of course there’s the huge issue of Jay Leno taking up five nights a week
(Also, I’ve read the scripts for Legally Mad (typical David E. Kelley), Parenthood (which was very well done), and Day One (has potential), and I can easily see why NBC would want to pick up those shows)
Chuck’s a great show, but its ratings are awful. NBC is not going to keep its Mondays the same, especially since they’re constantly being trampled by CBS, FOX, and ABC. Chuck had two seasons to do well, but it hasnt. NBC probably could have aired the series Wednesdays at 8pm, or aired it after the Superbowl, or could have done other things to ensure its success, but it didnt. And with a struggling network, there’s no reason to keep low rated hits.
If anything, I blame NBC choosing Heroes over Chuck, which has become absolute drivel that even with Bryan Fuller, its still hard to watch sometimes.
Medium with less competion got a 2.5 and Chuck got a 2.4. Medium and Southland don’t have to deal with Fox. You can expect all these 10 pm shows to take a nosedive if they are moved up because they have more competion.
What do you think will be a good heros lead for Monday that will do as good or better than Chuck.
Alan Sepinwall said it best Mondays at 8:00 is an 18 car pile up. Good luck to any show that replaces Chuck because most of Chuck fans will go to the other networks. LOL
Earl is close to syndication numbers, so there’s a gray area. It has been a favorite of mine since the start, but it has definitely jumped the shark with the tornado episode this season and has been mediocre at best since.
Heh, I just imagined Jay Leno on his new show, running out of material and just sitting there for like ten minutes while people watch and wonder what’s going on. And then he says “Heh, you could have been watching Chuck now…”.
KB, Chuck’s ratings are nearly exactly average among NBC’s scripted programming. Not great, or necessarily all that good, but I wouldn’t call them “awful.”
Budo: Probably would be a funnier joke than many of his.
KB, you would rather see it canceled than die on a friday night… canceled is dying, being shown at any day/time is much better than none at all…
do ratings on Hulu count??? I can NEVER watch Chuck at the scheduled time, but I watch it religiously on either Hulu or NBC.com each week… my husband and I love the show and would hate to see it go…
I am a hard core Chuck fan, love it, but it does suffer from recognition, I tell everyone I know how good it is, most though have never heard/seen it, why I ask, the girlfriend/wife watches dancing with the stars that night I don’t get the remote til ten and usually watch 24. I’ve heard this from almost 100% of my friends.
Now being in Canada we hardly matter to the ratings but seriously is NBC actually putting Jay Leno on in prime time 5 nights a week, he hasn’t been entertaining or funny since he took over for Johnny Carson, and that was a long time ago. I actually think Chuck would get allot more numbers if it was on in a later time slot, heroes should be dumped it lost its appeal, its like Lost, who cares anymore. Bones, House they are done too, sure they’ll get another season or so but there is no where to go with these shows except the same old thing same retooled story lines, yawn. Castle has been entertaining and only really watchable show on ABC, I still don’t have faith in ABC though since they canned Daybreak mid run,was a great show, but they can’t have a strong black man killing dirty white cops can they now. Fringe is getting very interesting and the news of Spock beaming in is even more encouraging.
These slew of newly announced shows don’t impress much, V for crying out loud, that show went downhill so fast on its first run I cannot understand why they are doing it again. Neilson ratings are accurate somewhat, their sampling maybe a bit dated, you should try and collate torrent downloading numbers for the shows, as a comparison, want a clear picture of a shows popularity look at those numbers, course downloading doesn’t help ad revenue does it, but then people are changing the way they access media entertainment and allot of quality is going to get hurt, doesn’t mean no one is watching just not following the typical network models and schedule anymore, in fact I don’t have cable anymore just a big fast internet line.
To Agent Chuck, not to be a smart@$$, but if Chuck fans stop watching NBC because the show gets cancelled, that wont be many viewers. And like I said, I enjoy Chuck. If anything, NBC will be changing its Monday line-up drastically (there’s no way Heroes is going to keep airing at 9pm); either Southland or SVU will land on that night, since The Biggest Loser will likely stay two hours. Then a new show will most likely air at the 8pm hour.
Also, NBC’s 10pm shows may drop when they move to 9pm, but the majority of them are still more stable than Chuck, even Southland, and its only had two episodes. And it would make much more sense to put decent performing 10pm shows at 9, and hope they retain some of their audience, instead of keeping Chuck, which is struggling.
I was a fan of Angel, The Inside, Firefly, and countless other shows that got cancelled before their time. And while I was pissed they got axe, I got over. But Chuck hasnt officially been cancelled yet, so I think there’s still hope. But I dont think anyone should be surprised if/when the show is cancelled.
No, Hulu doesn’t count
Chuck is a GREAT show. Last night’s episode basically tied up all of the loose ends. It really felt like a series finale in which you could walk away from the show and think up a happy ending for Chuck and Sarah. After next weeks episode, if there isn’t a promo stating Chuck is returning, NBC should at least inform the fans that the show isn’t coming back the following day. End the suspense already.
Julia said:”I stopped watching because the show became too much about will-they-or-won’t-they between Chuck and Sarah. It bored me.” A majority of the fans(including me) had the same problem with the relationship becoming angsty. Last night’s episode solved that. If there is a third season, Chuck and Sarah would have to hide their relationship from the gov’t(with an assist from Casey) since she would return to being the Intersect’s handler. Unless you had another reason why you stopped watching the show.
Careful the128boy, Quinn… Nick C will just say you’re jealous if you call it what it is. lol
Bruce, the whole Chuck/Sarah relationship turned me off. Having them together makes me want to watch it even less.
I was hoping this week was gonna be Chuck’s best ratings, but anyway, what a GREAT episode! NBC, please don’t cancel Chuck!!!!
What would have happened with CHUCK if they hadn’t lost the chick from DEATH RACE… she was supposed to be the 3rd part of the triangle of Chuck/Sarah/Girl at the Buy More.
Julia, that’s interesting. What about the two leads having a relationship bothered you? Chuck wasn’t believable as Sarah’s type? You think Casey would be better?
Richard, Sarah is the problem for me. The whole relationship was just far too cliche and completely predictable. I found it boring. I think the last episode I watched was when Sarah took truth serum and told Chuck that they would never have a relationship and later admitted to Casey that she was immune to truth serum otherwise the whole thing would’ve blown up in their faces. I rolled my eyes and deleted the show from my season pass.
Nick C, look man you were a couple weeks ago saying that Chuck is certain to be renewed and now your almost certain Chuck’s going to be cancelled. Lets face facts, if you are really a “insider” you arn’t on the loop that much but since you can’t prove to anyone you even work anywhere near NBC or its associates why should we take you seriously? For all we know you could just be some 14 year old with waaay to much time on his hands who likes to feel important. If your really ligit find a way to prove it with the people who run the site. If not, stop writing checks your a## cant cash!
Nick C, what do you make of TVGuide saying that NBC is in talks to pick up some of its bubble shows for “mini seasons”? They wrote this in their own ratings article after the “Life” finale.
Matt, while I can’t verify the validity of Nick’s statements, things change really fast in the TV biz. It’s completely reasonable to think that Chuck was almost certainly safe just a couple of weeks ago, but today it’s almost certainly canceled.
As far as Chuck is concerned, until the announcement on May 5th just assume its coming back, that’s what would happen in usual circumstances. If it turns out it doesn’t or it gets moved to another network then move on and deal with it then (hell make it into a book if it works). All this speculation and obsessing really isn’t healthy. Its a great story & I personally would love to see it continue but at the end of the day its a TV show, there are way more important things in the world.
That is true Julia, but if a recall Chuck was in fact in a worse position a few weeks ago, its actually improved in demographics and numbers slightly. Now don’t respond and drag me into a discussion into this cause I just made a blunt point about obsessing over this stuff and I don’t wana be a hypocrite!
@ Bruce W.
“since she would return to being the Intersect’s handler”
Yeah. Because the Intersect is still in his head and all.
I feel like Josh knew this was coming, because this all has a series finale feel to it. There were a few times last night when watching that I really felt like I was watching the second to last episode ever.
Matt, not to drag you into a discussion (you don’t need to reply to this!), but there are other things outside of ratings alone that could have changed. NBC may have been depending on getting a better deal from WB than they were able to negotiate. Southland’s moderate success could have given NBC hope that they might be able to not be a laughingstock someday soon. Pilots have finished in recent weeks and they could have some that have tested through the roof that they need to find space for.
While the ratings have ticked up a bit, the general consensus has been that at this point in the season change in either direction won’t make a huge difference in NBC’s decision. They know how Chuck performs, and it’s all the external factors that need to be considered now.
The relationship is a bit of a problem and I was a bit frustrated with the show myself for a while due to it. The biggest problem in the main character’s life should not be getting or not getting the girl. Thankfully, the threat of cancellation seemed to actually be a boon for the show creatively. Although the relationship has not gone away, it is no longer the seemingly only driving force in the show and only an adjunct to the more comprehensive coming of age/hero origin story that the show has become.
Jesse, It is a rap up but of the story but not the way you think. The creators always said that this was always an origins of a hero type thing for the first two seasons. Thats what the final is supposed to be about, lauching it into a new direction. If I had to take a guess (& its just a guess) I’d say that Chuck makes the choice to continue the path now, as opposed to having it forced on him. You know accepts his destiny and goes after the girl and all that cliche stuff. Plus they wrote the second half of the season early on when they were quite healthy so I wouldn’t have been on there minds to wrap up the story.
No one has the definitive answer yet but given the cliff hanger for next week it will be back, maybe a 13 run ark maybe a full season given the shift in the storyline. Jay Leno will certainly be canceled by Nov/Dec so that clears the way for sure, but seriously its the only entertaining show on NBC and it has a very dedicated fanbase. Julia I don’t mean to pick on your logic but a few weeks ago it was in real trouble that is when fans started voicing displeasure at the idea and sites like this started getting allot more traffic so as of today it has a very good chance at renewal, in fact I will bet good money on a 4th season as well.
BillyBob,
One idea i’ve seen suggested on a different forum is that Chuck’s Dad flashes on something in the season finale, thus explaining why he acts so weird. Then, if by some miracle there is a third season, there’s still an asset, there’s just 3 handlers. That actually makes a lot of sense, if you think about it.
I think you missed Matts point Julie which seemed to be that (could be wrong he can correct me)that its stupid some anonymous numbnut (Nick C) comes on this site posting “insider information” like he knows whats going on and people taking him seriously. No name, no name of the company he works for, no proof he isn’t some 53 year old living in his mothers basement. Harsh but you get the point
Mike I’m not sure I understand your logic. Sites that have nothing to do with NBC got a lot of traffic starting a couple of weeks ago so therefore it is safe now?
Like I said to Matt, I have no idea if anything Nick has ever said has any truth behind it. When he has said something that could be verified within a short amount of time, he has pretty much been right, but when it’s things that are further out, like what a show might require for renewal, his info seems to change, which, while I sometimes find amusing, doesn’t seem completely unrealistic. I’m just putting out reasons why Chuck may have been safe two weeks ago (according to Nick) but today is almost certainly dead. You and everyone else can choose to believe Nick or not, but writing him off as a fraud because of his changing info is not the greatest reasoning in the world. That’s all I’m saying.
Julia, that bit with the truth serum sounds exactly like something I would not like to see in my favorite show. It has the ring of something Josh Friedman would have done, like having Cameron in TSCC deliberately put a bomb in her head and give the trigger to John Connor, just because she’s “glitched”. That irritated me no end. Really crappy characterization.
But at least the Chuck bit wasn’t as bad as the big “love scene” in the TSCC finale which consisted of: “Cut open my stomach and reach under my breastplate”. “It’s cold. That’s good, right?” “We need to go.”
Talk about incredibly, nauseatingly bad writing! It was nothing less than a deliberate insult to all the fans who were big on John and Cameron getting together before the show ended. It had to be deliberate because not even idiots could write that bad while meaning it.
Just to add to that, when I saw that scene, I wanted to go “Christian Bale” on Friedman, Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller, the writers. You know what I mean.
Watched Castle’s episode. Loved it again. My favourite part: “That’s ok Castle, we can just cuddle” (and his expression). FANTASTIC.
I like that they are both snarky, and not just one being snarky and the other straight laced.
Also, I think it was here that I read the point about it going backwards in terms of having the male lead shoot better, and be better at solving the murders than the female. I think we have come along far enough not to have to have EVERY female lead be the stronger/smarter/sexier of the two characters. They’ve already had “Murder She Wrote” which was a female character in the title position solving the crimes using her novelization skills. Now it’s a guy’s turn. Becket is not incompetent but this show is about Castle helping in an investigation.
Nick C: If you are who you say you are, I appreciate that you share the tidbits of information that you do come across. Even if they are tentative pieces of information, I know when reading spoilers or things like that for my own shows I like to get my hands on any information. It doesn’t sound like you’re trying to salf agrandize the way the lanie grace character was doing. And you’re not coaching your information in a dramatic fashion to try and shock people, so for what’s it’s worth I believe you’re reporting on the information you’re coming across acurately.
Whether that information itself is acurate only time will tell. Heck, I don’t even know if a colleagues contract is going to be renewed! I hear one thing and then another. So I can understand information being iffy or changeable when it comes to renewing a show which is a big financial committment especially now when the financial times are so rocky.
Anyway, you’re posting anonymously. You’re not trying to get hits on a website. You don’t have to prove your id or the source of your information to anyone. If you’re being honest with us you’re doing us a favour. If you’re just yanking our chain at least you’re doing it in a non dramatic fashion.
Hmmm late night and too much coffee has muddled my words, I don’t take any comment by Nick C as having any merit other than a fan giving his 2 cents, much like the fact your obviously not a fan but your statement that it is almost certainly dead is equally baseless. The comment I made over sites traffic increase has nothing to do with NBC or the decision to cancel or renew but over the last few weeks the buzz has increased, traffic has increased to sites discussing this show and subsequently more press, which is always good, follow my logic now.
For the one network at the bottom they simply don’t have too much to work with, NBC could cancel every show they currently have and still keep Chuck cause if the numbers show one thing its consistency, and why screw with a sure thing, they can improve, promote and even maneuver a better timeslot, later would be better, bottom line is its a damn good watch and currently the only thing in its time slot worthy of my time and dedication. Hell before its break, Fringe was in trouble now with 2/3 new episodes its seems to be safe yet the numbers are low too, ratings aren’t the only deciding factor anymore.
What still baffles me is why anyone would want to watch that dancing with the stars, reminds me of the old celebrity olympics they used to produce in the 70s, utter garbage, but I have long known the general population has bad taste, hence Jerry Springer, so niche shows like chuck, fringe even TSCC will always score lower, what really matters is who is watching these shows, what is their demographic and what kind of advertising will the show attract and this is why I say Chuck will have a season 4.
Ok I’ve said my bit, long live good television fiction and next time you reach for the remote just say no to reality.
Mike, just to clarify, when I said that Chuck is almost certainly dead, I meant according to Nick. Until Nick said that, my money was on Chuck returning. Now I will not be making any bets about the show at all.
Ya Julie I just scanned the whole comments and picked up on that, sorry didn’t mean to pick on you, it was how it was worded that threw me, nuf said.
Castle has been mentioned a few times and I’ll add my bit, I like it, its because of Nathan Fillion, yes I was a fan of Firefly/Serenity, although I hated Doc Horrible, musicals tho are not my cup of tea, but Castle not a bad show at all just know its not going to produce numbers and ABC will kill it for something even more underachieving, its in their nature and history.
As for next year Californication, Breaking Bad, Dexter and Fringe are safe which makes me happy and as for Chuck, well atleast I still have hope.
Nick I don’t think its foolish to say that Leno acts as a nice excuse for NBC to get rid of shows they’re not happy with performance wise. Perhaps my wording was off but you know as well as I do that Leno gives NBC all the cover they want for axing Chuck – even you are drinking the Leno kool aid with the ‘blame Jay’ statements.
The official line for shows like Chuck that get axed will ultimately be ‘we wanted to bring it back but with Leno moving to primetime there was just no way to get it on the schedule’, which isn’t true. Like I said if they wanted Chuck they’d find a way to make it work with or without Leno at 10. Leno is just nice cover for them to axe struggling shows.
Richard Steven Hack says:
“I know all that. Nonetheless, nothing happens in a vacuum. There’s a reason for everything – including chaos.”
So you envision the universe as some sort of giant cuckoo clock with yourself as chief teleological arbiter?
KB – you mentioned that you had read the Parenthood pilot script and thought it was well done. Any info you can tell us about it? I’m particularly interested in Maura Tierney’s character, Sarah, but would love any info on the show at all. Thank you!!
I have read the Nick C comments and I know my credibility is in question but I have not heard any of this. The last prelim I saw had CHUCK on and LAW & ORDER out. Nick might have more up to date info.
Tara, Maura Tierney (who I loved in ER and NewsRadio) is perfect for her role in the show. She plays Sarah, a single mother raising two kids (her husband left her a while back). In the show, Peter Krause plays Maura Tierney’s brother, and he’s married to a character played by Monica Potter. Together, they have two kids, but one of them has a “condition” that is discovered in the pilot, and so on. Its written by Jason Katims who writes Friday Night Lights… Parenthood isnt cheesy at all and not as soapy as Brothers & Sisters (though I still like that show) and I hope it does extremely well on NBC. I heard the show is even close to staffing (and not from this site), so that its basically a go for next season.
I also just finished reading the pilot script for Trauma. Its amazing. It was really action packed and fast paced and that show deals with EMTs, paramedics, doctors, etc, and all that goes into saving someone life; its sorta of like Third Watch (without the cops) mixed in with a little bit of ER. And I also heard that show is a lock on NBC next season too.
I’ll say this, if Chuck goes, I’ll be saddened, but I will admit that I’m probably not as invested in it as some of the others here, but NBC does have some pretty quality dramas in development (Parenthood, Legally Mad, Day One, Trauma), so in a case in which Chuck is cancelled, its not like it would be replaced with crappy dramas.
KB – thank you SO much for that! It makes me really excited to hear that the pilot is well done and not cheesy. I would watch Maura in anything, but I really wanted this to be a quality show for her and it sounds like it is. Also great to hear that some preliminary staffing is happening! Thanks again!
For the record last year when DSM and PD were in the days leading up to cancellation and I reported that the head people had made their decision and it was a matter of time before telling the producers, I sent Robert screen shots of captured information from a website not for the public. They know how I get my info, etc. I don’t expect them to say “he’s legit,” because even knowing what they know it doesn’t validate some of the things I post on here. They have no proof I really heard anything do they?
When it comes to stuff that can be verified or I claim will be verified quickly that has always been the case.
In fairness Nick I think you’d probably recognise that correctly predicting the cancellation of Pushing Daises and Dirty Sexy Money or saying that its only a matter of time before its official isn’t exactly reputation building.
Alex, you’re calling it an excuse. I say that is absurd. The truth is that they’re getting rid of shows or shortening their seasons because of Jay. That is true. It isn’t an excuse. They didn’t sign Jay so they could get rid of those shows. They signed Jay to keep him from going to ABC where they were sure he’d continue to win the Late Night war. They also did it because they thought it would be more profitable than their current system. They did not do it so they would have an excuse of why they were forced to cancel CHUCK.
Would CHUCK certainly be renewed if Jay wasn’t taking up 5 hours next season? YES. So, it’s not an excuse it’s a reason.
If they really want to bring it back in spite of not having the space, they’ll find a way. The Mini-Season thing has been brought up by them on more than one occasion for multiple shows. I know LAW & ORDER is getting a short final season (likely 10 episodes or there about) for instance.
If CHUCK comes back it won’t be a full order, and it will likely not be in the Fall, and the delay between new episodes will likely erode the fan base even more. At least I suppose the writers will be able to write an end to the series.
The message is, it has gone from leaning to renewal, to leaning the other way. The person my friend talked to said 90/10. Maybe Angela or someone is thinking 60/40. Who knows? It wasn’t direct info for me, so I’m not sure about it all. I do believe the reasoning behind the change in philosophy. If you bring 4 new hour longs on the air and you only have 10 hours of programming….
I really see absolutely nothing different between what Nick is saying and what Alex is saying other than the use of the, apparently offensive, word “excuse.”
Alex, that depends. I said they were officially canceled the day they were officially canceled, and I said the media would be reporting it that day. Then in a matter of hours the reports started filing in. The great guys who run this site even put up a story first about their cancellation based on my information.
That is much different than predicting a show is going to be canceled. It is much different than saying “I’m hearing 90/10,” or “I’m hearing 50/50.” It is saying “It’s officially canceled,” and is thus not a rumor but something that can be verified (since it’s official). Not all shows are so lucky, some get canceled in decision but not in an official capacity. So fans are left waiting until the schedule is announced, and it’s not on it. Then they don’t know if it could pop up as a midseason show. It just never is brought up again, and thus it was silently canceled.
Nick C needs to say shows are canceled more often, the ensuing comment avalanche has been a good read.
Nick C, do you think they are seriously considering the mini-season idea? That the 90/10 against was for a full season? Perhaps a mini-season would have more support? Or will the potential drain on viewership then push the show into unprofitability?
That said, it think the majority of the fanbase would jump at a mini-season idea. I’ve seen it discussed all over the place.
Julia, exactly. It’s not an “excuse,” it’s a reason. Saying it is an excuse means that NBC actually is using the Leno hours as a way of saying they’re not to blame for the decisions they’re making. That is absurd and foolish of a statement because they’re the ones who put Leno on. Perhaps he doesn’t know what “excuse,” means.
Nick, I didn’t read it the way you seem to be reading it. The way I read it is NBC is going with Leno. That was decided months ago. Now when it comes time for renewals, a show that would have been safe without Leno, but would require more work to keep (but would be completely doable if they wanted to), NBC can blame Leno. That’s an excuse. I don’t see the negative connotations that you are picking up with excuse. It just seems like a silly argument for both of you to be having, since you are saying the exact same thing. But I don’t want to be dragged into it now, so I’ll leave it at that.
FrankJ, I actually do. It works for USA, it works for HBO. However it’s expected in those arenas. It’s a harder sell for broadcast to at least me. Seasonal shows work for cable. I think that in broadcast what will happen is that when the seasonal show ends the viewer is left without their show. So it’s quite possible (or probable if you’re under my way of thinking) that the viewer will find another show on in the same time slot to watch that isn’t a seasonal show. So their viewing habit is altered towards that other show. When the seasonal show comes back they may or may not return to it, because they’ve started watching the other show.
It works for cable so obviously it can work. I’m just not convinced what works for cable can work for broadcast. Then again I could be looking at it entirely wrong.
NBC can’t blame Leno. They put Leno on the air.
But you said that Leno forced them into it! Which one is it.
“NBC can’t blame Leno. They put Leno on the air.”
But you know they will and that’s my point.
I’m not saying they put Leno at 10 so they could cancel Chuck or anything else, I’m saying that now he’s there they’ve got all the cover they need to cancel Chuck or anything else because they can hold Leno up as their magical excuse and do exactly what you did – blame Jay.
I’ve been saying it for a while now but if NBC wants to keep Chuck (or any other show) they’ll find a way to make it work regardless of Leno.
Julia, see Alex’s response. He’s making it out like NBC wants to cancel shows and blame it on Jay. That’s absurd. They put Jay on the air because they’re stupid not so they’d have something to hide behind because they secretly want to cancel their average shows.
Also, Leno’s ego is the reason behind the deal. NBC still made the deal. It’s still incredibly dumb to me. It’s a huge sign of giving up.
Yes Nick that’s exactly what I said if you skip over where I clearly say ‘I’m not saying they put Leno at 10 so they could cancel Chuck or anything else’
Perhaps you should take the advice you gave Julia and actually read the posts?
Alex, I did. Perhaps you need some English lessons? You contradict yourself with:
“I’m not saying they put Leno at 10 so they could cancel Chuck or anything else, I’m saying that now he’s there they’ve got all the cover they need to cancel Chuck,”
First your use of “or anything else,” means you aren’t saying anything at all (if you had said it like this, you’d mean or any other shows). That is contradiction number 1. The second is “they’ve got all the cover they need,” and the question is why do they need cover? You just said you’re not implying they moved Leno to 10 so they could cancel their average shows. Why would they hide behind something?
So answer straight up:
Are they canceling CHUCK because it does bad, or because they have fewer time slots now?
It’s because of less time slots. That is a reason and not an excuse. If they mention they didn’t have the slot for CHUCK because of LENO then they’re just admitting the truth and not coming up with an excuse for why they didn’t renew CHUCK. They’re stating the reason.
Children please!!…………just use the word scapegoat.
Julia says: “Sarah is the problem for me. The whole relationship was just far too cliché and completely predictable. I found it boring. I think the last episode I watched was when Sarah took truth serum and told Chuck that they would never have a relationship and later admitted to Casey that she was immune to truth serum otherwise the whole thing would’ve blown up in their faces. I rolled my eyes and deleted the show from my season pass.” This episode (Chuck vs. The Truth) was my favorite of season one. It got me hooked onto the show. Usually, people roll their eyes when I explain to them about Chuck having an Intersect in his head. For you it was the truth serum. The majority of TV relationships are cliché and predictable. At least you gave the show a try.
Richard Steven Hack says:” Talk about incredibly, nauseatingly bad writing! It was nothing less than a deliberate insult to all the fans who were big on John and Cameron getting together before the show ended.” I stopped watching TSCC at the beginning of this season (last episode I saw was Cameron’s origin). John Conner “hooks up” with Cameron the terminator? Talk about a jump the shark moment. When TSCC came out, I thought it could probably last for two seasons and it did. John Conner can only do so much running before it gets boring. At least with the new movie coming out, you finally get to see John Conner being the great leader the movies and show have talked about.
If you people had been around reading this site since at least November, you would have the chance to see Nick C face the nutty fringe of the Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money fans do exactly what you Chuck fans are doing now. He was right them, and he probably is right now. 90% right, that is.
Nick said: It’s a numbers game. I was specifically told they just can’t seem to find the room for it. This makes sense. You have PARENTHOOD, LEGALLY MAD, and TRAUMA all new shows they plan on picking up for the Fall, plus DAY ONE which is supposed to air just during the Fall. Sundays are taken up by the NFL. Thursday Night isn’t an option. Half of Friday is already done. So that just leaves you with 7 hours to program. CHUCK just doesn’t fit.
Start trying to make it fit yourself, and you’ll understand. They all seem to love the show, so I’m sure that is where the 10% is coming from. They just don’t have the room.
Nick,
I don’t agree with your reasoning. While Chuck may have gone from leaning toward renewal to leaning towards cancellation, I imagine it has to do with WB and NBC not being able to work out a deal and not because they can’t find room for it.
I don’t know where you heard about what they are planning to pick up but from what I understand only three pilots have officially been given the green light, Day One and Legally Mad and the new Debra Messing show. Now I am not saying that you are wrong, but there hasn’t been official word that they are going to pick the other two up. Also, while yes you are correct that from the looks of things Chuck is a hard fit just about anywhere at first glance, but I think that you are maybe making assumptions here. First, you are assuming that Leno as well as the four pilots you listed are going to succeed and be given full season pick-ups. Lets assume that at least one of these shows fails (I am not saying that I hope it fails or want it to fail, but realistically speaking at least one of these is not going make it). The logical conclusion is to replace it with L&O. But what do you replace it with if more than one fails? What happens if Leno isn’t successful? What do you put on after Football? I mean NBC’s logic used to be that they would show reruns of the L&O franchise, but if NBC ever wants to succeed they can’t keep doing that. I would hate to see Chuck go but like I said if it is leaning towards cancellation, it likely more has to do with money than with not fitting. NBC would be absolutely stupid to put all their eggs in one basket and assume that all the shows are going to succeed.
“Are they canceling CHUCK because it does bad, or because they have fewer time slots now?”
They’re cancelling it because it does badly anything else is just an excuse.
I’ll kick back in with my seemingly constant loop on this – if NBC wants Chuck back next year they’ll find a way to make it work regardless of five hours of Leno but Chuck fans don’t like to accept that possibility because it means you can’t make Jay Leno the scapegoat for your favourite shows failings and like it or not pulling a mid 2 at best is a failing. And that mid 2 at best is the real reason Chuck’s facing the axe, if its ratings weren’t in the toilet then it would be back for a third season.
Like I’ve said before Leno wasn’t moved to 10 so NBC could cancel poor performers but now he’s there they’re going to use him to do it. He’s their magic deflector shield when it comes to the subject of why Chuck or anything else that was on the bubble was cancelled. If over the next couple of months we don’t here some kind of ‘we/they wanted to bring [insert show here] back but Leno made it impossible’ explanation for NBC bubble shows being cancelled I will be absolutely astonished. And regardless of whether anyone officially says it that’s exactly what is going to be reported because that’s what is already being reported.
But lets continue to over look the fact that Chuck’s poor performances got it cancelled and just pass the buck to Jay ‘scapegoat’ Leno because hey if Chuck were pulling 3.2’s instead of 2.2’s I’m sure NBC would axe it anyway, I mean they’re doing it because there’s no space on the schedule not because of its poor performance.
Leno is the perfect excuse for NBC, Chuck fans and the Chuck production team for dropping the axe because lets face it, it looks better for NBC to be able to say – no that wasn’t cancelled because of its ratings we were actually quite happy with those, it was cancelled because with Leno moving to 10 we simply couldn’t fit it on the schedule.
Darn it. I was hoping for epic ratings for Chuck… I am so hopeful for a 3rd season… why not try changing the NIGHT Chuck is on??
Alex you wonder why some of us go after you its some of your comments toward some shows.
Travis I don’t wonder even a little bit why certain people (read Chuck fans) take exception to some of the things I’ve posted.
If you want to take someone pointing out Chuck’s bad numbers as some kind of personal insult or attack then go for it and if you want to take someone believing NBC would cancel Chuck because of said numbers as another personal insult or attack then more power to you. It makes no sense to me but whatever makes you happy.
But make no mistake about it your taking offence to my view on Chuck’s numbers.
Alex, they take exception because you dislike the show and twist reality to fit your view of the show. Sorry, but that’s the facts. You answered my question and showed you’re blind. I don’t see how a show that is doing slightly better than the network average is “bad.” CHUCK doesn’t have bad numbers for NBC. If it was a FOX or CBS show it would be canned. For NBC, CW, or even ABC the numbers would be good enough for renewal. I’m pretty sure the .92 on the index on this site is likely to drop to .89. In that case CHUCK’s numbers are good enough for every network but FOX (and right now it’s good enough for FOX, except the numbers are only going to get better for FOX until it likely passes CBS)and CBS.
On the whole NBC is doing bad. It has an average of 2.3 in 18-49 demo per show on the network. CHUCK pulling a 2.4 is better. See how easy that is?
I’m pretty sure NBC changed their tune for leverage to get a lower price from Warner for CHUCK. There are too many reasons CHUCK should be renewed for them to really be considering canceling it. I may have been told 90/10 but I’m personally thinking it’s 50/50 with Warner having the ability to bring it back in their hands.
Question for Nick C.
In CHUCKS 2nd season that concludes next Monday, it was common knowledge that it had a 22 episode pick up. But in factor NBC never signed the licensing agreement for the back 9 for many months after filming started.
Why not call your source up and proved us with the correct answer? I will help you out by giving 4 answer to choose from.
A. July
B. August
C. September
D. October
One other comment, I would like to help you out with. If CHUCK is canceled, Josh Schwartz will know on April 27 9:05 Pm Pacific Standard Time and anybody that works for the company will know Tuesday morning April 28, not on May 5th
paul 80, sorry but I’m not going to call someone and ask them that question. I could ask many people who would know the answer to that question. The problem is why ask that question? What does it have to do with me and my relationships with them? We talk the future of shows around this time because it’s their jobs.
You know when I said DIRTY SEXY MONEY was over and it was a matter of time before it was official (As in producers told) one of their janitors or PAs or something got on here and bet me $10,000. I still haven’t been paid (and neither has Robert). They said I was full of it too and wanted me to call the production offices.
I’m pretty sure Josh will learn this week what is happening and won’t have to wait until Monday.
Nick C. says
They said I was full of it too and wanted to call the production offices. HUH.I don’t remember that answer as being one of your 4 options. Besides CHUCKS productions offices have been closed since March 24. Maybe you could call Josh at home he really is a very approachable guy.
Nick, I really get the feeling that your a well education guy, probable went to film school and everything .
Someday if you stay focused you will get out of that PA loop your stuck in.
Alex,
Although I agree with some of your arguments regarding Chuck’s numbers, you’re really sounding like a broken record. We get it! Chuck’s numbers are sub-par and maybe even bad.
It seems like your on a mission to invalidate any positive spin on Chuck’s numbers. None of the Chuck fans will listen to you. They heard you the first time and they heard you the hundreds of time after that. Seriously, when someone says something remotely positive about Chuck’s ratings, you’re there to squash it. Just stop peeing on their parade.
Julia said:
“Bruce, the whole Chuck/Sarah relationship turned me off. Having them together makes me want to watch it even less.”
So you don’t like the “will-they-or-won’t-they” but you would like them being together even less? So what would you like to have happen? Chuck/Sarah saying they like each other but nothing could ever happen between them and then it never being mentioned again? That would be kind of ridiculous. You seem very hard to please.
Julia said:
“Richard, Sarah is the problem for me. The whole relationship was just far too cliche and completely predictable.”
That’s a pretty ridiculous reason since most of the relationships on tv are very cliche and predictable. If that is the case I’d be very surprised if you watched even a few tv shows.
Julia said:
“Richard, I stopped watching because the show became too much about will-they-or-won’t-they between Chuck and Sarah.”
You do realize that one of the top rules of television is that lead characters can never get together and stay together for long because that isn’t what most people want to see. If they are together every week
and are all lovey dovey it would be very boring.
I think the thing thats ruining Chuck’s rating would actually be because of how many people download chuck via Torrents, just check out the number of seeders! I love the show too much to betray it by downloading it off the internet though, watch it on axn every week
Nick you and the rest of the Chuck fans can continue to spin the scapegoat Leno argument all you like but the truth is that Leno is an excuse and over looks the very simple fact that Chuck is in trouble because of its poor performance. As I asked previously if Chuck had spent this season scoring low 3’s instead of low 2’s would it now be facing the axe? The answer to that question is no because Leno or no Leno, NBC would find a way to make Chuck work next year with those numbers. Chuck is facing the axe because its numbers aren’t good enough for NBC to be compelled to make it work next year and you can sit around blaming Leno all you want the fact is Chuck’s poor performance has put it in this situation.
Hey everyone look who always has to have the last words when considering chuck.Its Alex.
Alex:
The reason people are blaming Leno is because of the money that NBC is throwing at him to stay for his Tonight Show “spinoff” on prime time. Chuck is a “bubble” show that puts up decent numbers in a highly competitive timeslot. If the show was on another network, it would’ve already been canceled. Lucky for Chuck fans like me,it’s on a struggling network called NBC. If you remove the money NBC has set aside for Leno, it could go to Chuck for a short order of episodes. I’d say by Monday night or Tuesday morning the latest, Chuck fans will know the fate of the show.
I’m not a show basher, people have different tastes. I don’t know why some people are bothered by a show’s passionate fanbase.
As per my promise to everyone and noone I’m taking the thirty seconds needed to compare eight, nine and ten and the half hours for 18-49 viewing. Besides the usual almost 50% decline from nine to ten, I saw Dancing with the stars gained at the expense almost certainly of shows on the other nets and that at its peak it significantly beat DH’s peak of 4.9 at nine-thirty.
jay, remember that as you add up all those numbers for ABC, CBS, NBC, CW and Fox that the audience for broadcast networks is less than 50% of the total TV audience, the majority of prime-time viewing is on cable.
Bruce I understand why people are making Leno the scapegoat for Chuck and its not without merit but my point is that the bottom line is Chuck’s facing the axe because of its numbers.
Nick C, Julia, Alex:
Has anyone considered the fact that JS said in an interview that he and CF have already pitched Season 3 stories to NBC? If it was a guaranteed goner, then why would they even ask them to pitch story lines? The network likes the show, yet has dropped the ball on promoting it. I think they find themselves in a strange position having picked up Leno just to prevent someone else from doing it. I agree with others who think his show will flop by December and I think it would be smart for Chuck to get the same shot in 13 episodes. Kill it in December if it continues to plateau. I think the blow back from canceling it at this point would affect other shows.
Reality is, nobody really knows, and especially people who get information from a third party (NickC I think you said a “contact of a friend”). I disagree that the numbers are borderline bad, L&O has worse numbers and many have predicted it will get a 20th season just because it’s at 19. If numbers really matter it should be gone which would leave room cor Chuck, Medium, etc.
JT I don’t find it remotely unusual that the producers were asked to and have pitched ideas for another season part of the decision making process when it comes to shows on the bubble, particularly for a show like Chuck is where its heading and where it can head but in no way, shape or form does that pitching (which happened a while ago now) mean its a lock for another season or still under consideration for a new season. I suspect that as it stands NBC has one way or another made their decision on Chuck and only a major numbers change for the finale will change that.
Its also worth remembering that a radical rethink of the show in the finale doesn’t mean much for the future prospects – look at Terminator. From all accounts its finale changed the dynamic and potential future of the direction of the show but still only the hardcore crazies think its coming back next year. Meanwhile a few years ago Rob Thomas pitched a complete rethink of Veronica Mars for a fourth season and it went nowhere. Pitching ideas is a sign that NBC were at least entertaining the idea of bringing Chuck back, its not a sign that they’re still thinking about it. They may very well have hated the season three pitch and decided to axe it because of that.
I was going to mention Veronica Mars. CW even had him shoot a new pilot for the new direction he had pitched for them. They still didn’t renew the series.
Alex, as I have written many times, at this point in the season for any show that premiered in the fall, I think the only new data that is likely to influence their fate is the relative attractiveness of competing pilots and possibly the attractiveness of the deals that producers might offer.
Alex, he mentioned it in a recent interview and made reference to the fact that the meetings had taken place within a few days of the interview. I’ll have to dig but I don’t think it’s been that long. I would almost guarantee they wanted to know more about Season 3 because they knew what they were going to do at the end of 2. I don’t think a radical change, which I really don’t think is going to happen, would be something the studio didn’t know about already.
JT any ‘game changing’ elements that the producers may or may not be introducing in the finale NBC will be aware how long and detailed that awareness was is another issue. Like I said that NBC listened to pitches for season three simply means that they were at least entertaining the idea of a third season and wanted to know where the producers intended to take it in a third season unfortunately for Chuck fans it doesn’t mean anything more than that. I don’t think the ‘game changing’ finale had anything to do with NBC asking for story pitches, they would have done it regardless of that.
I’ll also point out that the danger of writing a game changing episode is that by its very nature it completely changes the show so you risk alienating the network who brought show x by turning it into show y. On that note I’m struggling off the top of my head to name a show that’s done a bi game changing concept and lived much longer. I’d imagine there’s some out there I just can’t think of any right now, I’m sure a Chuck fan will bombard me with them at some point.
Bill to a degree I agree with what you’re saying but like I said I think NBC have made their decision and I think the only way that decision changes now is if the numbers for the finale are dramatically different from what people expect and NBC opts to take another look at the show because of them. I suspect we’re at the point where Warner’s have gone as low as they’ll go and that NBC knows how their pilots are shaping up unless something happens on Monday for everyone to re-evaluate their positions. For the record I’m not saying that NBC have decided to axe the show I’m just saying I think they’ve made their decision one way or the other at this point.
All of these questions about “why” Chuck’s ratings aren’t better are very strange, as is the detailed analysis. This is really simple. It has a terrible timeslot against DWTS, House, and the CBS comedies. What’s the mystery here? That’s the answer.
Wow. I’ve only recently started coming to this site, but that’s gotta be the largest number of comments I’ve seen for an article yet.
Jon L, that fact is evidence in favor of NBC renewing “Chuck.” It has similar numbers to their other bubble shows, but not nearly the fan devotion.
Much MORE fan devotion, I should say.
Paul80,
“Besides CHUCKS productions offices have been closed since March 24.”
Yes, but what does that have to do with someone involved in a limited manner to DIRTY SEXY MONEY asking me to call their production offices to prove they’re legit and call me a liar? I don’t see how that relates. I ended up very much right then, and I’m sure I’m more in the loop than 98% of all people tied to these shows.
” Maybe you could call Josh at home he really is a very approachable guy.”
Email is easier.
“Nick, I really get the feeling that your a well education guy,”
I get the idea you’re not. That would be “well educated guy,” and not “well education guy.”
“Someday if you stay focused you will get out of that PA loop your stuck in.”
That would also be “you’re,” and not “your.” I’m also sure you’re just like the DIRTY SEXY MONEY idiot that was on here in November. You’re in a low end job on set, but highly uneducated. Like them you have no real ability to express the English language in any kind of educated manner. Plus, it’s a common reply from little people to say someone is “just a PA,” or to belittle PAs. PAs work their ass off, and I wouldn’t have received some damn nice coffee without them when I visited sets.
Alex, answer this question:
Would CHUCK be on the bubble if Leno wasn’t taking 5 slots?
The answer is no. So the numbers aren’t bad. If the numbers were bad, poor, or even sub par the show wouldn’t even be a bubble show this season. No bad, poor, or sub par show is lucky enough to be on the bubble for NBC this season. With the new loss of time slots they’re already canceled. Just ask Brooke Shields.
geeze-lay off nick C guys….
“Would CHUCK be on the bubble if Leno wasn’t taking 5 slots?”
Yes.
Again, Chuck isn’t in trouble because of Leno its in trouble because of its performance this season.
You can try and argue that without Leno Chuck sails through to a third season and that the likes of Lipstick Jungle or Life become bubble shows for NBC but that’s borderline ridiculous. With or without Leno Lipstick Jungle and shows like it are gone just like with or without Leno Chuck, Medium and Law & Order are on the borderline of renewal.
I don’t think fans of Chuck would be anywhere near as worried as they are now for Chuck without Leno because NBC don’t have to work anywhere near as hard to find a way to make it work. Ultimately the only difference Leno is truly making to Chuck’s future is that now if NBC want to bring it back they have to work harder to find a way to make it work. With or without Leno Chuck’s right on the network average and people are questioning whether NBC should bring it back or not.
Again, Leno is an excuse for Chuck and nothing else.
Alex says: “Again, Chuck isn’t in trouble because of Leno its in trouble because of its performance this season.”
Well then, why hasn’t NBC already canceled Chuck then? The ratings for Chuck have stayed pretty consistent the second half of this season. They weren’t getting any better or worse. What were they waiting for?
If they do cancel Chuck, good luck to whatever show they put there.
Bruce for the same reason they didn’t cancel the worse performing Life or the just about equally performing Medium or the bleeding Heroes – there are only so many Law & Order franchise repeats you can run in a week.
Alex, you just proved you aren’t being reasonable about this at all. Please, please, please explain to me how a show that is 1.04 in the renew/cancel index here would be a bubble show when shows above .92 are considered safe.
The FACT is it wouldn’t be a bubble show at all. You refuse to admit it because you live in the past where anything under a 2.5 should be canceled. That is the same world I used to live in, but reality is that those numbers are continuing to drop. We can’t think “anything less than 2.5 is bad,” when we’re also no longer seeing regular shows well above the 5.0 mark. We’re not seeing the successes of the past either. It’s a different world and you obviously refuse to accept it.
Chuck keeps getting better and better. Hope it’s renewed.
Nick- The only sets that PAs get coffee for visitors, are on commercials.
So you most be a Ad Agency assistant.
“Please, please, please explain to me how a show that is 1.04 in the renew/cancel index here would be a bubble show when shows above .92 are considered safe.”
What show do you think is safe that falls into the above .92 but below 1.04? The only one that I can see is Law & Order (although that isn’t above .92) but I did include that in the shows along with Chuck and Medium that would be on the bubble regardless of Leno and the only reason Law & Order is viewed as ’safe’ is because next year is season 20, which isn’t something any other show on any schedule has going for it. That’s about as unique a situation as you’re going to get for renew/cancel debates.
As it stands though I don’t think anything under a 2.5 should be cancelled, I think anything under a 2.5 needs to be looked at as in danger because unless its Law & Order and heading into season 20 or a cheap 30 minute sitcom it probably is in danger. I’m not oblivous to falling ratings across the board Nick I just don’t think we’re quite in the position where something below a 2.5 is automatically greenlit for another season.
As I think I said (and if I didn’t I meant to) without Leno the general tone regarding Chuck’s future would be much more positive but I still think people would be questioning whether or not it gets a third season because its numbers put it on the bubble not Leno.
Oh and Paul I can tell you that PA’s get coffee on more than just commercial sets. At least they do over here and I can’t imagine there’s that much difference.
Paul 80, I was just on a movie set this week. I had all manners of drinks and food brought to me by the Director’s PA. The idea that PAs don’t ask important people that show up on set (to make sure things are running smoothly) if they want anything, and then run off to get it is absurd. It kind of proves you have no idea what you’re talking about. When Angela visits the set of CHUCK, you’re telling me nobody asks her if she’d like something? If that is the case the show is more likely to be canceled than I originally thought. Rude people leave an impression that stains sets and the projects tied to those sets.
Alex, there is no way without LENO and knowing what is in the pipeline at NBC that anyone would think CHUCK was in danger. No way at all. That 1.04 is well above a .92 and incredibly safe. The guys who run this site would have it GREEN not orange. They would also be incredibly confident about their prediction.
It’s numbers. Numbers don’t lie. 1.04 is “safe,” under normal circumstances. Right now it isn’t only because of LENO. The fact that you seem to refuse to accept that is extremely questionable to nearly everyone who reads these comments. It’s why they think you’re anti-CHUCK because you certainly appear to be. Reason dictates the show would be safe without LENO, thus the numbers aren’t “bad,” or “awful,” which are both words you’ve used.
If you were being reasonable we’d see you making comments like “PRIVATE PRACTICE is doing bad and if ABC were smart they’d cancel it,” or “CSI:NY is doing bad and if CBS were smart they’d cancel it,” or “AMERICAN DAD and BONES are doing bad and if FOX was smart they’d cancel them.” Which to my knowledge you’ve never once stated nor likely even believe. All those shows are incredibly close or in the exact same spot on their network indexes. You don’t seriously believe there was ever any doubt about those shows? In fact PRIVATE PRACTICE, AMERICAN DAD, and BONES have all already seen announcements of their renewal or a pickup of episodes for next season.
Nick the problem you’re missing out on here is that all the shows you mentioned pull better numbers than Chuck and have been all season. My argument is that Chuck is at a 1.04 in the renew/cancel index so its facing cancellation my argument is that Chuck has barely passed the 2.5 mark this season and therefore regardless of Leno people are going to be asking questions about its future because as I said I sill don’t think we’re at a point where a show that drops down to a 2.1 consistently is automatically renewed regardless of the network average. I just do not think we’re there yet.
Like I also said I think the general tone around Chuck is much more positive without Leno in the equation but I still think the shows numbers put it in danger and not Leno.
And for the record Chuck is in green on the index.
I have to say, I wasn’t born until 1985, but I’ve pretty much seen all the movies from the 80s that Chuck references. And if I haven’t, I’ll look them up and they become relevant to me. So people in their 20s can actually enjoy it.
Doesn’t Friday Night Lights pull in lower ratings than Chuck? And they’ve been renewed already.
@Tia, The only reason Friday Night Lights was renewed is the huge check Direct TV is writing for it.