| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating: Adults 18-49 | 3.4/9 | 3.0/8 | 2.7/7 | 2.4/7 | 1.5/4 | 0.9/3 |
| Rating: Adults 18-34 | 2.3/7 | 2.3/7 | 1.9/6 | 2.5/7 | 1.7/5 | 1.3/4 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.926 | 8.284 | 10.932 | 5.984 | 3.840 | 1.838 |
The return of Heather Locklear gave a bump to Melrose Place’s ratings. It had only the slightest increase to a 0.8 rating for adults 18-49 (vs. a 0.7 last week), but did better among youth increasing to a 1.1 rating for adults 18-34 (vs. a 0.8 last week) and a 1.6 rating for women 18-34 (vs. a 1.2 last week) . That’s slightly better than I expected in the women’s 18-34 demos, but less in the other two categories. Those numbers, which are unlikely to be maintained, are not going to save the show. ABC’s V ratings continued to fall, to a 3.1 adults 18-49 rating, down 16% from last week.
The ratings for Melrose Place were it’s best since October 6 for women 18-34 and women 18-49 (1.1 rating). It was also up from last week’s series lows across the board. 90210 drew a 1.1 rating for adults 18-49, down 8% from last week.
As V continued to fall, Dancing With The Stars was down 9% vs. last Tuesday to a 3.2 rating. the forgotten was flat vs. last week with a 1.9 rating, losing again to The Jay Leno Show.
Except for it’s 8pm Merry Madagascar special, NBC was largely status quo, with Biggest Loser down 3% from last week with a 3.7 rating, and The Jay Leno Show up 5% to a 2.0 rating.
CBS’ entire lineup slipped to either season or series lows. NCIS was down 7% vs. last week to a 4.1 adults 18-49 rating, its lowest of the season. NCIS:LA was down 8% to a 3.4 rating, a series low. The Good Wife was down 7% to a 2.6 rating, also a series low.
Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance was up 4% from last week to a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating.
In Late-Night Local People Meters Tuesday night:
- Conan O’Brien (1.0/5 in 18-49 in local people meters) defeated CBS’s Late Show (0.8/4) in Nielsen’s 24 local markets with People Meters.
- At 12:35 a.m., Jimmy Fallon (0.6/4 in 18-49 in local people meters) topped CBS’s Late Late Show (0.5/3).
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCIS | 3.9 | 11 | 19.635 |
| ABC | V | 2.9 | 8 | 8.997 | |
| NBC | Merry Madagascar (special) | 2.9 | 8 | 8.960 | |
| FOX | So You Think You Can Dance | 2.5 | 7 | 6.446 | |
| CW | 90210 | 1.1 | 3 | 2.148 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | NCIS | 4.3 | 11 | 20.841 |
| NBC | The Biggest Loser | 3.6 | 10 | 9.641 | |
| ABC | V | 3.3 | 9 | 9.514 | |
| FOX | So You Think You Can Dance | 2.6 | 7 | 6.626 | |
| CW | 90210 | 1.1 | 3 | 2.123 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | The Biggest Loser | 3.7 | 10 | 9.529 |
| CBS | NCIS: Los Angeles | 3.4 | 9 | 15.213 | |
| ABC | Dancing With The Stars | 3.2 | 8 | 15.496 | |
| FOX | So You Think You Can Dance | 2.3 | 6 | 5.464 | |
| CW | Melrose Place | 0.8 | 2 | 1.574 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | The Biggest Loser | 3.7 | 10 | 9.432 |
| CBS | NCIS: Los Angeles | 3.3 | 9 | 14.408 | |
| ABC | Dancing With The Stars | 3.2 | 8 | 16.213 | |
| FOX | So You Think You Can Dance | 2.3 | 6 | 5.400 | |
| CW | Melrose Place | 0.8 | 2 | 1.508 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | The Good Wife | 2.6 | 7 | 12.771 |
| ABC | the forgotten | 2.1 | 6 | 8.568 | |
| NBC | The Jay Leno Show | 2.1 | 6 | 6.464 | |
| 10:30 | CBS | The Good Wife | 2.6 | 8 | 12.689 |
| NBC | The Jay Leno Show | 1.8 | 6 | 5.676 | |
| ABC | the forgotten | 1.7 | 5 | 6.804 |
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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
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.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
So glad V is tanking. Such a horrible show. Got through about 10 minutes of the pilot before I couldn’t take it anymore.
Travis Yanan reported different numbers for the 18-34 demos. That’s a huge bump that all exists within the 18-49 demo, but had almost zero effect on it. You sure you’re not looking at 90210’s numbers?
But doesn’t Locklear make the show more expensive? What is she getting, $20,000/episode or $30,000/episode? How does that factor into renew/cancel decisions?
Perhaps V will be the next “quiet success” for ABC?
If “V” dropped another 16%, that would bring it to around 9 million overall viewers. Not too bad- I mean, ABC has no trouble renewing shows that get 7.5m-8m for the whole season (or even less than that).
Looking at your average for CW, I would guess you are. If 90210 got 1.5 (which would be on par for it) and MP got 1.1, the average is 1.3.
Edit: And you corrected it.
Wow, nearly double in both demos for Melrose place, lets see if it keeps up next week. The CW must be delighted.
I don’t hate V, but it’s clearly not a very good show. I’m not very enthousistic to see it renewed for another season. I cannot wait to see other results.
Never mind…
My Review on Last night’s Show:
(ABC) V 8.5/10 <— My Points
(CBS) NCIS: Los Angeles 8.2/10
I did not the 10pm slot, because i went to sleep.
Samuel, no where near double. Bill got it wrong at first. Go look again.
I thought networks (especially ABC) renewed on 18-49 numbers, not overall viewers. So another 15%ish drop would bring V to the high 2s in the demo, which is still renewable (look at Castle) but if it doesn’t stop dropping it’ll fall into cancellation range eventually.
what i find strange is how melrose has an inability to pull in viewers despite it being a competant show that for the cw is actually really good
I’m not surprised at all V is sliding, because the original show it’s based on was not really all that successful. The miniseries that aired originally was a success (ratings-wise, anyway), but the series only ran for parts of 2 seasons on a network that was not doing well. Producers are remaking things that were cult successes at best the first time around. I think people are confusing what THEY liked with what the general public liked. One of my favorite shows as a teen was Flamingo Road, but that doesn’t mean I think it should be remade.
KHL, the problem is that renewal decisions are not made in November, and V is taking a very long hiatus after next week. If it comes back in March in the 3s, I’ll be shocked.
HMM,Melrose was really good last night
Well, I’d made it up to the beginning of the 2nd episode.
From Scott “Newsboy” Wolf choosing his career over the human race, to FBI mom asking her son to stay away from the Visitors, “Do it for me.” Naturally, any mother would hide the truth of danger from her only son, because.. uh.. she must hate the boy.
If your writing is so horrible that you have to make the characters appear pathetically weak and lame, just to make the plot work, you fail.
It’s a rehash, so can’t give kudos to the concept.
I do like the acting and visuals.
But the writing is just too awful to waste time getting invested into this show.
I expect a full season pickup, but ending on the bubble come the Fall 2010 scheduling.
v will return in march to high 1s or low 2s and be pulled within a week or 2 and burnt off on fridays or saturdays
i don’t get why people root for shows to be cancelled. that’s such a bad attitude to have. just watch your shows, enjoy them, and root for them to be successful.
It’s actually rather smart of CW to hold off a week on a new ep of Melrose. Next week will see big numbers for the DWTS finale. It should be interesting to see if MP can pull in some more viewers with a little less competition.
John
Heather Locklear earned 100K per episode back in the day for the old Melrose Place. The new one just fired two of its original cast members probably to be able to afford Locklear. I doubt she signed on for anything less than her old fee.
Week three of V worse than I thought (was thinking around 3.3ish).
Again, ABC has so little sitting around for Spring (and who knows what percentage they’re on the hook for anyway to WB) that they will probably complete the order – but if this airs vs. AI in spring, I don’t see it cracking 2.0s. I actually thought this episode was better than last week’s too, but I am a hard sci-fi nut – and that audience can’t support a show alone (see Fringe/Heroes this season).
Mildly surprised at the demos of those who watched Locklear – I thought it would skew far older. Let’s see if any of them bother coming back next episode though.
Tuesday numbers are the preliminary numbers, correct ? Not the finals, right ?
Scott Wolf hasn’t chosen humanity over the V’s yet- we’ll have to wait to see what his final decision is.
Was there an overrun from Dancing for the first half of the Forgotten? That looks like a pretty sharp drop.
Those numbers for Melrose can’t be what the CW was hoping for. That’s not a big enough boost. And even 90210’s numbers were down. None of the 3 ’soapy’ shows are doing as well as the veteran OTH, amazing.
And wow… Biggest Loser outscores NCIS: LA!
Jay Leno beat ABC? How horrible is that? I can’t believe that.
Wow! the Merry Madagascar special did pretty well–tying V in the 18-49 demo and almost as many viewers for the half hour it was on.
John,
Heather must be getting a lot more than 20k an episode… that’s about what a mid-level writer on the show earns. I’d say since they were desperate to get her to “save the show” she’s getting a minimum of 50k an episode but it could be a lot more since the name brand stars of many shows (not even hit shows) on the major networks can receive 100k or more an episode.
The Good Wife is looking even worse this week. I’m still conflicted about whether I want the show (which I gave up on weeks ago) to continue because I want Matt Czuchry to have a job, or if I should be happy it’s failing, so he can get a new job on a show I might actually enjoy.
The post has now been substantially updated with all the typical information ^.
Wow! Jay tied the forgotten at 10:00 and beat it at 10:30!
Is it true that NBC had a holiday special from 8-8:30, shortening their highest rated 2 hour block of programming outside of football to 90 minutes?? Aren’t specials during sweeps supposed to plug problem spots to try to bump ratings? Was there some logic behind this that I’m missing or is it just another dumb NBC move?
NCIS rules the roost as usual although the NCIS LA ratings are a concern but it will be interesting how it does without DWTS against it. Merry Madasgascar did alright but they really should have saved for Christmas, Melrose Place got a bump but the show is dead and I think if Life UneXpected does well then I can see Gossip Girl being moved to Tuesdays.
The Good Wife is pulling a solid audience with minimal decline in the second half hour, maybe its chances for a second season just got higher.
BTW, I tuned in for a few minutes of Melrose out of curiosity — It is totally unwatchable and amateurish.
Too bad about V but not unexpected though last night’s episode was really good IMO. But then even if it were doing well I’m sure the stupid hiatus would kill it anyway.
Good Wife should get a hyped-episode something out of the box.
I still enjoy it the way it is, I’m just starting to get worried for those demo results.
I thought Melrose was really good this week. Heather was wonderful and I will certainly be watching next week. The plot is getting better and the characters are being more developed. I hope the networks give this show a chance. Melrose is in a very tough time slot.
Julia, I had mistyped some of the MP numbers initially, they have been corrected. I think
I remember hearing that the delay on having Heather join the show was about money. I’msure she is getting close to 100K and episode.
I will never understand why someone would want a show to fail. If you don’t like it, don’t watch and let others enjoy. Simples
Hmm, a 0.8 for Melrose which is less than the 0.9-1.0 range I predicted. I guess I gave the show too much credit. Doesn’t the CW know people have already made up their minds about the show. You either like it or you don’t and unfortunately for the CW that don’t column is larger. Sigh, to think Reaper was passed up for this crap.
tlctaurus, I doubt any delay in Locklear joining the show was money related. Far more likely is simply the production scheduling. Once the CW decided action was needed, plenty of episodes were already too far along to put her in.
V is so much better than the horrible Flash Forward.
i don’t understand how watching 10 minutes of a show would cause someone to hate, and root for failure, root for people to lose jobs, root for fans of the show to be disappointed. what a selfish negative attitude
I’m a complete TV junkie, but Tuesday is a great night to turn off the TV and do something else. I watched the “V” premiere a couple of weeks ago and found it entirely unworthy of further viewing. I gave “the forgotten” an ample chance, but found it forgettable — it’s really just a weak variation of “Cold Case,” if you think about it. I like both Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth, but from the previews of “The Good Wife,” which showed her slapping her unfaithful husband in the face, I had to ask, “Do they want men to watch this show?” No thanks. “Dancing with the Stars,” which we’ve watched for years as a family, has become a self-parody, repeating itself ad nauseum and hoping no one will notice. And clearly, 20 million people love “NCIS,” but I’m not one of them… Good night to go out to eat, or go to the gym, or rent a movie, etc.
Wrt Heather Locklear’s salary, there’s no way it’s in the $20-30k range. They pay that to virtual newbies with little experience. I’d say $50k, minimum, but probably closer to $100k per episode. Is that worth an increase of .4 in 18-34 women? Who knows; it’s not like the CW behaves logically.
And as for V ratings vs. Castle ratings, production costs must affect these decisions, as well. Haven’t been watching V, but it seems like it uses far more special effects and a large ensemble (as opposed to Castle, which has no special effects and a small cast). V has to be more expensive to make. That it would then get ratings on par with Castle (hasn’t dropped that far yet, but it could) wouldn’t automatically make it renewable, given the disparity in costs of production.
Nothing against the show, but I hope it keeps declining. That makes how many failed remakes? I’d hope that networks learn a lesson from this. Creative, fresh ideas (a la Glee) grab an audience and keep them. Insipid re-treads don’t.
But that’s probably too much to hope for.
I think that NBC may be experiementing by putting a show on at 8PM leading into “The Biggest Loser.” As noted the Merry Magagascar special did pretty well (equalling V in the key demo and getting almost as many viewers for the half hour it was opposite it)–though I’m a bit surprised they didn’t keep it until some time in December. I wouldn’t be suprised if they put “Community” or even “30 Rock” for a special episode just to see how they perform.
@Bill – I have a friend who works on the show and from what I hear, Locklear was pursued from the inception of MP 2.0 but they were unable to reach an agreement on the money. Regardless, it was a nice treat to see Amanda back on TV. Made me flash back to my college years!
CSM–I’m not sure it was such a bone headed move on NBC’s part to put Merry Magagascar on from 8-8:30. Last week during that half hour the Biggest Loser did 8.775 million viewers and a 3.1 18-49. The special last night did a 2.9 18-49 and 8.960 million viewers. Not bad by comparison and it shows that perhaps NBC could program a half-hour sitcom in that half hour as a lead in to “The Biggest Loser.”
I thought the Merry Madagascar scheduling was goofy as well (it’s not even Thanksgiving, for pete’s sake!)
But one hour dramas can’t be partially preempted on MWF, the special would get murdered on Thursdays, and BL is reaching the point in the season where it needs padding, so the slot is as good as any.
I imagine NBC will re-air it, partnered with other holiday specials, a number of times in December.
I thought last night’s episode of V was really good and hope it stays around, it was much better than week 2.
@ Julia, I don’t watch The Good Wife, but I agree on keeping Matt employed.
Sleeper, but wouldn’t you rather he be on a show you did watch?
at least v went up in the last half hour. 3.3 and 9.5 ain’t bad. remember what abc got last year?
1 episode to go. abc will bring back with a marathon of the 4 i’m assuming and really push it again. i hope it does well when it comes back…
V suffers from Heroes syndrome, it’s a good premise for a show but the dialogue is just terrible.
@ Julia, very true. Who knows maybe the CW has something cooked up for him.
As for the subject at hand, V is just background noise for me now. The pilot blew its wad, probably because ABC and producers were afraid the show would be too much myth/genre/niche, or whatever else that makes networks meddle with sci-fi.
Passive-aggressive hints at Dollhouse are truly on purpose.
JacJac says:
November 18, 2009 at 8:46 am
So glad V is tanking. Such a horrible show. Got through about 10 minutes of the pilot before I couldn’t take it anymore.
———————————————-
Your Glad a show is tanking. I enjoy the show. What show do you like then Maybee I should hope that it tanks on you then. Thanks Jerk
I think The Good Wife’s numbers are pretty solid. I enjoy the show, even though I did not expect to.
As for Melrose, I’m still hoping for a renewal but it seems extremely unlikely. It’s another “Privilegd” for me; a really enjoyable show that just can’t find the audience it needs.
Has The CW said how many episodes Heather is back for? The other old cast members that returned mid-season have only been in 1 or 2 episodes.
Having watched V the miniseries, and an episode of the reboot now, I find myself rooting for the show to stay on just because I like Sci-Fi, not because the show’s good or bad. Looking at what’s happening with Heroes, Fringe, Flash Forward and now V, I can’t help but feel that Sci-Fi is about to enter the wilderness on broadcast TV, perhaps never to return if the nets keeping losing viewers. Lost ends after this year. Only a few more shows are coming down the pipeline.
It’s a very odd dynamic, because if you look at the movie box office, Sci-Fi/Fantasy has never been bigger. Harry Potter and Transformers 2 between them grossed over 1.7 BILLION dollars this past year around the world, and over 700 million in the USA alone.
So why the dichotomy? Why are people unwilling to watch Sci-Fi on TV for free but willing to shell out $20 to see a movie in theaters with popcorn and a drink?
Definitely would like some thoughts on this…
“The ratings for Melrose Place were it’s best since October 6 for women 18-34 and women 18-49 (1.1 rating).”
“Except for it’s 8pm Merry Madagascar special”
should be its not it’s. simple rule to learn
“Why would you root for a show to fail?” – Just speaking for myself, sometimes I do sit and hope for a show’s failure not because of being mean spirited but rather because I am hoping for something of more substance to take its place. I could care less whether V is canceled or not. I don’t think its a good show either, but its not as bad as some others out there. I thought it was better than Flash Forward. I am however rooting for the failure of Melrose Place because its terrible! The producers should have just called the show something else. Its nothing like the original. I gave it a total of 6 episode viewings including last night’s return of Heather Locklear and I am still unimpressed. The series finale of MP left fans with a major cliffhanger on her part. She ended up faking her death to avoid prison and there was absolutely no mention of that at all last night. What I really hate about that show is that the show’s central character is apparently Ella aka Paris Hilton aka anyone from The Hills and I just cant stand that type of female. This type of obnoxious character is a trademark of every show on The CW. So unoriginal and so lame. The next thing that bothers me about the show is the awful background music. I’ve never seen a show misuse its music option as badly as this program. Every scene the music practically distracts or drowns the dialogue. It ticks me off that they pull in older MP viewers like myself by promoting that they are bringing back old characters only to see them on screen for maybe 3 or 4 minutes tops throughout the whole show. So yes, I don’t want to hurt the feelings of those that enjoy the show, but I do have an animosity to the network and producers that manipulate the die hard fans of the old MP to watch this trash knowing that they have no intention of giving the 40 year old something cast members a proper amount of screen time.
I have to correct myself I do root for one show to fail. American Idol why because it has killed other good shows on other networks. American Idol will be around for a long time to come I just wish other good shows wouldnt get cancelled becuase of it.
Honestly there are so many channells out there for progaming. You don’t like V fine. But wishing it to fail cuz you don’t like the show shows that your mean spirited to say the least.!!
I thought this V episode was the best yet. I like the show well enough but they sure better go out with a bang next week if they want to even hope keeping the viewers over the hiatus.
people hate heroes, hate dancing, hate v, hate 2 and 1/2 men, hate house, haye mother, hate scrubs, hate the office, hate housewives, hare grey’s, hate csi, hate jay, hate idol, hate reality, hate sitcoms, hate scifi, hate drama… blah blah blah… notice a theme there? today it’s more about hating shows than liking.
V is improving each episode. It sucks that so many have given up on it so quickly. I guess thats how todays society rolls. Instant satisfaction.
Mark, I have to say that I don’t see anything in the comments hoping V will fail. There are predictions that it will, but predicting is very different than wishing failure on something. Should we only be allowed to predict that shows will rise in the ratings in the comments? That’s ridiculous.
Boring NCIS and CBS with its amazing consistency which absolutely makes it the best investment for advertising in TV!!!!
V = Bionic Woman & Knight Rider
When it comes to remakes I want to see how the new Hawaii Five-0 and Charlie’s Angels does since their popular global procedurals. Sci-Fi is so nichy that its been giving remakes a bad name this decade. I think one of the other will be successful, probably Hawaii b/c it’ll be on CBS with the rest of the procedural audience.
NCIS & NCIS: LA are doing well. Nice increase for Dance on FOX, once DWtS gets out the picture it should do better.
As for CW, the better show is clearly 90210 which I enjoyed on the old DVR last night. Huge cliffhanger too at the end. MP what a waste of promotion, its pretty clear that unless MP does a 90210 and shape up the writing then that show is history. MP is only living off its name recognition right now.
Folks I found a real gem last night for the first time this season and that’s The Forgotten people are sleeping on that show. The Forgotten is one of the better crime dramas that I’ve seen in a long time. I can’t believe last night was the first time I’ve seen it.
I personally always hope that serialized shows do better than procedurals (for example) but I never root for a show to fail and a lot of people come on this board and cheer over a show dropping in ratings. I think their is a difference and I think those that come on here and cheer for a shows failure are not trully interested in the industry or the natural health of quality TV.
Lots of V bashers on here saying that the sky is falling. Sure the ratings are falling but we have to see if it levels out. The problem is we won’t trully know until March how successful this show is. I again disagree with where ABC places this show. 8pm on a Tuesday? Look the ratings bumped up after 8:30! I think it’s on too soon and would work better with shows that were similar on the same night. It would make more sense to me to have flash forward at 8, V at 9 and Lost at 10 come this winter. We will see. I doubt ABC will get it right. I never agree with where ABC schedules most of it’s shows.
Just move V to the Cw where even a rating half of what it gets not would be a major success.
tom and the other “OMG, you want a show that insults you canceled?” people: If ABC cancels V, what do you think will happen?
1. ABC will replace it with repeats of Bionic Woman.
2. ABC will commission a new program as a replacement that will likely employ a similar number of people, and might be better than V?
I haven’t posted in this thread about it, but, yes, I would very much like that hatred-of-liberals-driven piece of crap to be replaced by something I might actually enjoy watching. And I’m glad to see the ratings continue to drop faster than Bionic Woman’s, which for all of its faults was better written (I’m not saying it was good), didn’t insult half of its audience, and was generally better all around.
@The_GodfatherSJP: Movies and TV are fundamentally different. Movies are about plot; television is about character. TV that has tried to be like movies (i.e. about plot), like Heroes, invariably declines. It’s one thing to entice (or fool) a bunch of teenage boys into the theater for an opening weekend. It’s quite another to convince audiences to tune into a show every week. And by the way, I don’t think it helps sci-fi’s cause to support crappy TV shows just because of the genre. It brings the whole genre down. Instead people should rally behind actual good sci-fi shows…or at least support networks taking the risk to produce them.
@tom: Oh, please. There are plenty of shows people constantly support in the comments, from Castle to Chuck to Supernatural.
Julia the very 1st post the poster says he is glad the ratings are falling. He wants it to fail. You must have missed that post.
julia see squigglesguashes comment he wants it to fail too.
Squigglesagaush whats your problem. I am conservative not that it matters and I enjoy the show. If you dont like it dont watch. Dont be glad a show fails.
Mark, I guess I did. So all this fuss in this thread, with at least five different people going on about how it’s not nice for people to root for a show to fail is due to one comment saying that V is tanking, and they are glad? Wow. I’m guessing it’s mostly a defense mechanism to deflect the fact that V is falling at dangerous rates.
I was thinking scale goes down for guest stars and she doesn’t have a recurring part, does she? She’s being credited as a guest star.
Oh and 40,000/episode was John Spencer money on the West Wing for a series regular. I meant “regular” in the last post and not “recurring”.
Castle is a very character driven which is why its been doing a solid job in the old ratings so far. Shows that focus on plots are hot instantly and then become old very quickly.
TV should only focus on character development as that is the number one secret to success on television. All the great television shows that have withstood the test of time had characters that you remember. Procedurals are able to wrap up a case at the end of the show and focus on the characters/cops at hand, that’s why these serials fail so much.
The Forgotten seems to get lost in the shuffle, that show is brilliant.
Aunt Becky making me laugh on 90210 is priceless.
I just wanted someone to swallow a gerbil or spit venom or something last night, not see Alan Tudyk in the Dollhouse chair getting his mind messed with.
In the table above I’m seeing an increase from a 2.9 at 8:00 PM to a 3.3 at 8:30 PM for V.
People are so negative these days. Its not just here. I enjoy a Hard rock and metal music and I go to that site daily and see all the news and post and there a just as many people ripping on this band and that band instead of just posting about the bands they like.
Society is so negative now. People can just support the things they like. The have to bitch and moan and root for failure of things they don’t enjoy.
Mark, its not that people are negative, they’ve always been negative its just that now people can do it behind a keyboard which is pathetic.
I know that a lot of people think serialized shows are better than procedurals. But I prefer precedurals, shame on me ^^ . Yeah the boring NCIS, as some say, will always have more appeal to me than Melrose Place or some other shows.
As for wishing a show demise, no, except what Danny said: when I find it so bad, sometimes, I wish for a better show to take its place. That doesn’t mean I wish it to disappear… but maybe go to a timeslot I don’t watch.
For V, for example, I have no real opinion. I don’t like it. Doesn’t mean I wish it to disappear.
But at some time, I suppose it’s unavoidable to wish for other shows to take place, just in the hope you’ll prefer this one to the one you don’t like.
I watch procedurals more than serialized shows b/c I know I’m not wasting my time when you know a serialized show is going to get cancelled. That’s why I get my serialized fix from daytime soaps.
FOX Holds Sweep Advantage
————————-
After 20 nights of the November Sweep, FOX still holds a significant lead in A18-49, while CBS reigns in P2+ viewers.
November Sweep
First 20 Nights (16 nights finals, 4 nights prelims)
Rank Network A18-49 P2+
—————————————————-
1. FOX 3.5 9,889,000
2. ABC 2.9 10,147,000
3. CBS 2.8 11,146,000
4. NBC 2.5 7,384,000
5. UNI 1.2 3,290,000
6. CW 1.1 2,364,000
Compared to last November, broadcasters are up +3% in Households and +3% in P2+, while down -2% in A18-49s.
Why are people looking at the Merry Madagascar ratings as good? NBC shot themselves in the foot, sacrificing the better numbers they get from The Biggest Loser. It’s so much cheaper just to stretch out all the footage from BL to a two hour show, and in fact they have the two hour version running on Fine Living channel this Friday…why sacrifice the ratings DURING SWEEPS for an expensive CGI special? Why not replace a low rated comedy on Thursday? Boneheaded move!
It appears that liberals need to grow up if they are getting offended by V. That’s just ridiculous. And apparently it’s ok to have anti-conservative shows but not anti-liberal (which I’m not sold that’s what V is at all). Just goes to show adults never really grow up either.
@The_GodfatherSJP
I’m a lover of SCIFI but I don’t like bad SCIFI. I will watch good SCIFI but so much of the SCIFI now produced on broadcast stations is horrid in my opinion.
Heroes was great its first year but then became practically unwatchable. I’m not even bothering watching it this season. There is nothing that they could do to get me back as a viewer.
I tuned into the first couple episodes of Fringe and in my opinion it was badly cast (Anna Torv is horrible as the lead), horribly written and it’s an insult to compare it to The X-Files which was an outstanding show.
I loved Eleventh Hour. It was like The X-Files. Great casting, writing, and storyline. Sadly, it didn’t get the ratings it needed and was cancelled at the end of last season.
I’ve tuned into Flash Forward. Good casting, good writing, but conceptwise and storyline wise it’s not must see TV for me. I’m recording it and watching it later but not live.
I love Stargate Universe and am watching that Live as well as Sanctuary on the SCIFI channel. I liked the original Stargate SG-1 but not Stargate Atlantis much. The casting and writing is really good in my opinion for Stargate Atlantis.
I loved the redone Battlestar Galactica and plan on checking out Caprica when it airs in the Spring.
I tuned in hoping to like Dollhouse since I loved Buffy and Firefly but the concept is bad, the writing is bad, casting is good except even though I like Eliza Dushku she can’t carry a show and shouldn’t be a lead on it. And Josh Whedon did essentially nothing to address the problems with it during its hiatus and keeps putting out more of the same. I’ve recorded it but not watched all of the shows. Since I love Summer Glau I’ll make sure to watch those that she is in.
I loved Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles but its 2nd season wasn’t good and I didn’t like the ending. It’s doubtful that I would have continued watching it even if it had been renewed since they killed off the character of Cameron.
I tuned into the redone Bionic Woman but the lead in it was poorly cast. I actually liked most of the other actors on it in other things but the writing, storylines, and dialog weren’t very good so I wasn’t surprised that it was cancelled.
Lost I quit watching somewhere in its 2nd season. It started out good but went downhill fast.
I’m not impressed with the remade V but then again I wasn’t with the original. The original was campy though, didn’t have any real competition SCIFI-wise at the time, and original for its time. Since then though there have been a number of series about aliens coming to earth and a number of major feature films such as Independence Day. I loved The 4400 and Earth Final Conflict (except its last season). Both were better written and more interesting in my opinion than V is. Really what is there to V except a bunch of lizards coming to earth in disguise? I LOVED the series “Alien Nation”. It addressed a lot of issues in it. For a series there has to be a lot more to be able to sustain it than just lizards in disguise. The casting is reasonably good except for Elizabeth Mitchell was is very wooden and not good at all on it.
Just having a bunch of special effects won’t cut it for a series. There has to be more to it in my opinion to continue to keep viewers tuning in. 18 minutes of commercials per hour don’t help. It’s hard to build suspense up when the show is interrupted constantly for 4 minute commercial breaks. That’s where feature films really have a big advantage.
The main reason that V got such good numbers on its first episode was that there weren’t that many commercials. The show was actually around 49 minutes long rather than 42 or 43 minutes. Since V only had 4 episodes in the can, I’m surprised that they didn’t just make it a miniseries and show it in 2 2-hour installments, making it more of an event.
I don’t know why people like procedural shows, I mean some of them are really good, but don’t you get fed up with almost the same crap in the most of shows?, I mean give a try to other stuff not related to murdered hookers
V is not sliding,how come it did better half way thru?up or down through a showing doesn’t mean anything.
How can any one know if an episode is going to be good or bad b4 it airs?So the numbers are not accurate to the quality of a show at the time of airing,its based on what people thought of the prior episode before so the new eps numbers are a demographic of that.
Though V fell, it did have a better 2nd half hour than the first.
V isnt great but its ok. It definitely doesnt have the magic of the original miniseries – that was tense and action packed. This version is is just lumbering along, sort of the way THE 4400 did in its final 2 seasons. It has the same sort of feel as FLASH FORWARD, like Im watching CSI with aliens or something. If V keep its demo around 3.0 it could survive. But they need to kick up the action — alot.
ABC predicted good ratings for V. Even if the second and third episodes slid in viewership, it still had viewers and buzz. Now after episode four, go for a long hiatus. Listen to the critics of the four ep. initial run; retool already written storylines; get rid of those with the wrong “vision”. Come back in March or whenever, with great promotion and looking a bit different. Hype up the new storylines, and get EVEN better ratings with a spring return. I think this is a good thing that V is going on hiatus. It will actually help ABC in the longrun.
Time for the disclaimer again. I don’t know you. I don’t care about you. I have no interest in angering you for its own sake. I have no desire to blow smoke. It’s a parlor game for me. I don’t know the people employed by these shows. I have no power to affect change in their lives. I don’t think they’re entitled to jobs more than are auto workers or retail workers or restaurant owners.
I go out of my way to avoid talking about “quality.” First, because quality is subjective. I like what I like. You like what you like. No amount of talking will change minds so talking is pointless. Second, because quality is far less important than quantity. Sure, critical buzz and awards will help a show for awhile but the numbers must eventually be good for a show to survive.
V improved at the half hour. That’s good. It declined for the overall hour compared to last week. That’s not good. Given the amount of promotion and the reasonable time slot, ABC must have imagined V would do better. V is opposite two reality shows, another ‘80 remake and a procedural (the most-popular procedural, granted, but still a procedural). Last night, add the competition of an animated cartoon that tied V for second place in the demo.
Also consider V’s production delays and showrunner changes that were made because everything was going perfectly. Oh wait. Twenty million viewers of NCIS, the only show last night to garner a 4 demo, aren’t concerned about “haters” who think the show is yet another contrived spinoff of a contrived procedural. As long as their show remains atop the ratings, it’ll stay on the air.
I’m not worried about people mad that football delayed their favorite programs. The games were good and so were the numbers. I’m happy.
The reason for V’s drop in viewers is due to the power outage at Nielsen
I like V. I would watch anything with Elizabeth Mitchell in it. I’m so sorry it goes bad.
Jay beating a scripted show …a nightmare coming true LOL
If Anna, Eliza and Elizabeth are as bad as some are implying,
what corrective actions should they take to get more Nielsen families
to tune in and boost the ratings/save their shows?
Before V does come back, they really need to rerun the first 4 episodes the month before.
Bionic Woman did not suffer a fall as bad as V, for reasons that are entirely unsurprising.
Viewers in millions (I’d break it out by share, but I can’t do tables in a comment, but it’s reasonable to suggest the demographics are similar)
Week BW V
1 13.91 14.3
2 11.07 10.7
3 10.10 9.5
Honestly, leaving politics aside for a moment (and I don’t think you can underestimate how big an impact that has), I think BW, for all of its faults, was better written and hung together better than V has done thus far. They have an uphill task rescuing it next year. If I were an ABC exec, I’d seriously question whether to be spending money on that that might better be spent on a medical procedural, a drama about an obscure Federal crime fighting agency, some kind of reality show involving a music-related contest of some kind, perhaps a cartoon by Seth MacFarlane, a miniseries about a person who has a supernatural gift of some nature, or an unfunny sitcom staring a has-been NFL footballer.
V: Less than Glee’s #’s now. ABC has 4 solid hours of scripted shows – 1 returning (and ending forever) in mid-season, 1 of comedies. Not even ABC’s best performer of the night. And Forgotten last place, vs. relatively solid NBC which won its 2nd hour.
NCIS2 down to about Glee levels. NCIS still at the 4-zone. Good Wife should be cancelled.
I am curious to see how next’s week’s episode of V does. I thought last week’s was not that great(and actually expected a higher drop) but last night was the best of the series so far.
Honestly, I think half the problem with Melrose Place is that its called Melrose Place. When I saw the show announced and advertised, it made me cringe. I decided to watch it seeing there is nothing else worth watching on Tuesday and I have to say it’s my 3rd favorite new show of the year behind Modern Family and The Vampire Diaries. I think it’s really well casted and the story lines are quite good. But I think most people reacted the way I did when I first saw it advertised, ‘great another bad remake’.
Heather didn’t give Melrose that big of a boost. Anything under 2 million is still considered a failure. They canceled Privileged and Reaper who were doing better than Melrose. Heck even Veronica Mars was doing better than Melrose…
Actually, the first two “V” mini-series were highly successful. ‘V: The Fial Battle” fared even better than the first, with parts 2 and 3 ranking No.s 2 and 1 in the week they aired in May 1984.
The weekly series only lasted one season, and finishd 57th out of 75 programs for the 1984-85 season (a 12.8 rating/19 share). It had premiered to so-so ratings (15.4), but progressively dropped (ending its original-episode run with a 12.3 rating, which was an improvement from the few weeks leading up to the finale).
I don’t think we can look at the new series’ premiere ratings to gauge its weekly performance- it did a lot better than most had predicted, so that’s partly why the drops may look disappointing. Theese last couple of weeks averaged 10.7 million and 9.3 million (roughly), and fared OK in the demo.
I love V and I am disappointed with the ratings fall. I loved the first episode but I felt it went way too fast. The second episode had good parts but was fragmented. Last night, however, was the best night of all. It was fantastic. These numbers also do not calculate how many people are going to watch V online and on Ipod. A lot of NCIS viewers do not watch the show online later in the week. I hope V has continued success.
Oh- found the ratings for “V: The Original,” as well.
Part I- 25.4 rating/40 share
Part II: 27.1/40
And this was for The Final Battle. its avergae was lower than the first mini, but Pat III did score higher than the original’s highest.
Part I: 20.7/32 (#5 for the week; aired on a Sunday)
Part II: 25.8/43 (No. 2 for the week)
Part III: 28.9/42 (No. 1 for the week)
I’m not going to chime in on the discussion of wanting shows to fail/negative attitude.
But, I do think ratings drop after initial high numbers because people nowadays have such short attention spans and want instant gratification right away. When shows like FlashForward have such great debut numbers and the storytelling starts to slow down, people will start to tune out and since we are in the age of the internet, people will surf the net instead while the TV is on.
I enjoyed MP last night. Heather’s appearances were small because it was a re-introduction to her character. But, I have to agree with an earlier comment, they made absolutely no reference to what happened with her and Peter and how the show left off and that was a little disappointing.
Leno on the brink?
The last five nights of Leno had the following ratings in A1849 (I’ve averaged where ratings were reported in :30 increments):
Weds 1.4
Thurs 1.55
Fri 1.2
Mon 1.4
Tues 1.95
average: 1.5
This averages to, yes, exactly the magical 1.5 that NBC touted was necessary for the show to be profitable. What’s interesting is how much the average depends on a strong Tuesday showing. Since Jay doesn’t do anything particularly different on Tuesdays, his increase in viewership that night must be thanks to a strong lead-in (from The Biggest Loser, NBC’s second strongest series after The Office) and relatively poor competition in the time slot.
Will this hold? We’ll have to wait and see.
#’s for the last episode of selected new shows:
Modern Family 3.5
Glee 3.4 (up)
NCIS2 3.4 (down)
Cleveland 3.3
V 3.1
Cougar Town 2.8
Flash Forward 2.6
Good Wife 2.6
Vampire Diaries 1.9 (3.1 in W18-34)
Hmm. I have a feeling Fox will be the happiest with its new shows by the end of May. And they still have Past Life & Human Target which I believe are to be aired with the best lead-in in TV, the show that will likely this season break the record for most seasons at #1 out of its current tie with Cosby & All in the Family (ABC has never had a single show be #1 for multiple seasons.)…Life Unexpected & Parenthood might do well by their struggling networks.
I researched NCIS and it said that the finale of season six got 16.5 million and now it is averging 20.5 million
Where on earth did they get 4 million viewers in the summer????????
ION or USA
So I shouldn’t bother watching last night’s V? I really hate getting into a show and then it gets cancelled.
At least The Forgotten didn’t go down…
JaySin420:
V is not going to get cancelled. Episode 4, which airs next week, is the fall finale. They already have plans to resume production on episode 5-13 in January.
Do I sometimes hope for a show to fail?
You bet I do! And it has nothing to do with just ‘being negative’.
It’s known as customer discrimination and it happens with all products & services people use, not just your favorite TV shows.
It isn’t because of some socio-political nonsense some Brainiacs toss around to blanket cover anyone with a differing view.
It isn’t because I hate people and want to see them unemployed.
It isn’t because of any joy derived from knowing that fans of the show are going to be disappointed.
It’s really super simple. The sooner a show that I don’t like gets canceled, the sooner a replacement can be aired, which could turn out to be a better program. It’s called Capitalism. If your company is putting out an inferior product, you need to go away so that something better has room to grow.
Holding on to low-rated programs are how networks can bankrupt themselves. And if that happens, ALL of those network’s shows are going to suffer or disappear entirely. I’d rather see a couple stinkers get dragged off than lose everything in one massive collapse.
a final evil laugh is missing here …. Dr Horrible can teach you :9
Lu …lower than that it starts to digg …
I hope The Good Wife improves in the finals.
It’s the best new drama of the season hands down.
The viewers didn’t really do anything with Locklear, i just hope with a few more episode with her maybe the viewers will go up.
V stinks…its right up there with Bones for the worst TV show, network tv is dying a painful death.
It’s too bad that V dropped again, but it wasn’t that large of a drop. Hopefully it’s a sign that it’s levelling out.
I think it might be doing better if the pilot had been handled better. Even I, who wanted to like it, was underwhelmed by the pilot– my first impression after watching it was “this show’s going to suck”, and I only tuned in the next week out of boredom. But the two following episodes were really good. I was really pleasantly surprised.
i love V!
<3
I think V has been pretty great so far, and have no idea why the ratings keep slipping. However, I do know it has nothing to do with politics, as that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
As far as the Negative Nancys around here, I think it just depends on the show. For some reason the shows that are on the verge of cancellation seem to get more support (Castle, Fringe, Chuck, etc), while the mega-successful shows get endlessly lambasted. Kinda strange.
I wish the producers of Smallville would bring back Laura Vandervoort. She is currently on V & she did express her desire to return but she said she did not receive any calls. She loves SV and most if not ALL SV fans loved her. So I will be watching V if only to see HER!
V would be just as doomed if the whole season aired uninterrupted. More and more people keep giving up on it. It’s not just mediocre genre show–it’s a mediocre genre REMAKE. That tried to convince us Universal Healthcare is an alien conspiracy to eat us.
I expected V to drop, viewers tuned in to see what it was like compared to the original. As long as it levels off in the low 3s it will be fine. And I don’t buy an notion that the ratings are going down because of politically rhetoric in the show. That’s just the far right tea baggers trying to make mountains out of mole hills.
Now i know why the put V on hiatus and decided to rework the show. It’s getting bad already and it’s episode 3. I’ll still watch.
There are different types of procedurals.
There are CSI, NCIS where there is development, but it’s extremely slow.
1-2 episodes a season where something happens.
X-files was procedural type show, it was one of the best shows ever. It only had about 6 episodes a season where there was development.
About Melrose Place, they originally wanted Heather Locklear to be the one that got murdered. She turned it down.
I watched V this afternoon and couldn’t resist the urge to fast forward through most of it. This series is flat and now that the overarching concept has played out (i.e. the visitor arrival) I just don’t see where this could go and possibly be entertaining.
I have a feeling this will come back in March, greeted by an audience in the mid 5 million range, at best. Unless the midseason finale is epic, the return will be DOA.
My reviews for last nights shows:
90210–7.5/10
Melrose Place–9/10
V–8/10
The Forgotten–6/10
I hope Melrose Place gets a second season, everyone should really give it another chance. Its turning out to be a great show.
I’m sad to see V continue to fall, I think it is still a good show and hope it gets a second season renew.
I’m totally enjoying V, Elizabeth Mitchel has great chemistry with the priest. I’m digging that!
Hmmm – my guess is that Robert and Bill are finding some interesting results with FOX and NBC’s Renew/Cancel Index…
…or else they went intersect to the full, and got five, five dollar, five dollar footlong – thus delaying the Index entries…
…better excuse than Nielsen had Sunday night
Thanks Don, I’ll check it out tonight.
Thats what NBC gets for airing Christmas specials in the middle of November!!!
I think we all knew V was gonna slip. It’s the shiney new toy, but a 3.1 isn’t bad especially for ABC. The real test is gonna be coming back from the hiatus. While I’m a big fan of the original mini series, not so much the TV show that came after it, this one seems to slipping in quality from week to week. This episode was pretty awful.
I’m hoping the big production shutdown they had a few weeks ago sorted out the problems. The show could be really good, but if the quality stays where it’s at, it’ll probably get the back nine, then not get renewed.
Hmmm – didn’t “we come in piece – er, peace” get done before – and better, too?
Let’s see – Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror I (ganked from the Twilight Zone), The Producers…
…that’s more than enough, unless you want to listen to Slim Whitman, and see what effect he had on Martians
V will get a “full” order this season. But what about next season?
For all those people who get upset when someone wishes a particular show to be axed and then say how it’s “mean spririted”….get over it.
Sometimes we just hate some shows and they annoy us, we want them gone! I personally love V. It’s not high art or nothing, but I like it. Some don’t, they want it gone. Fine…What do I care? I happen to wish the same fate on FRINGE. I wish it was off the air like yesterday.
Does anyone care?…Doubt it…Moving on.
Speaking of FRINGE, Carol said…
“I tuned into the first couple episodes of Fringe and in my opinion it was badly cast (Anna Torv is horrible as the lead), horribly written and it’s an insult to compare it to The X-Files which was an outstanding show.”
I’m really happy someone finally said something about Fringe being compared to The X-Files. I find that annoying and a joke. You just cannot compare them because one is great, fantastic, outstanding and a legendary TV program and the other is FRINGE….
Just sick of the “Fringe is like The X Files” talk…
Have a great night! Kiss Kiss
I was too busy getting hyped for the best show on TV, Sons of Anarchy to watch V. But I DVR’d V, and watched today! V was awesome! I would be sad if they canceled it.
V would get some good ratings if the Visitors would show us having a couple of humans up for dinner.
I think the V reboot is good. Not spectacular, but good. About the best treatment that network television can reasonably be expected to give to science fiction. If it were more cerebral and thought-provoking, people would ditch it for the Vixen/Hunk of the Week on American Idol or Dancing With the Stars. If it were more action-oriented, then science fiction fans would desert it. In a way, the producers can’t win.
Having said all that, the hiatus will probably kill the series. Why on Earth they do that to shows is beyond me. Talk about being set up to fail…
V did go up in the second half hour.
Forgotten’s ratings make me wonder why ABC ordered more eps. And V taking a 4 month hiatus wont help the falling numbers. Everything else looks solid tho.
V is not impressing me. The acting, the writing, none of it. Vandervoort is hot, but so understated you don’t notice; get her out of that bloody uniform. Morena Baccarin needs a different hairstyle and less robotic acting. Elizabeth Mitchell is the best thing on the show but nothing outstanding. They should kill her kid and get her motivated.
Since Alan Tudyk has been resurrected after being supposedly killed in episode one, he’s the one chance they have to get someone with some energy on the show. He was dynamite in the two episodes of Dollhouse he was on. Concentrate on the conflict between him and Elizabeth Mitchell and the show might have something.
The plot elements aren’t too bad – the notion of a bunch of “Visitor traitors” running around isn’t bad. If they push that to the limit, it might work. But in the end, the fundamental problem is exactly as someone stated above: it’s a remake of “lizards invade Earth”. Now if they manage to pull in all the nice conspiracy theories about REAL lizard aliens running around, they might pull it off. Otherwise I don’t see the show surviving more than one season.
As for Fringe vs X-Files, Fringe COULD have been as good as X-Files. But it isn’t at this point. Again, Abrams needs to pick up the pace. Perhaps the Observer oriented episode this Thursday will help.
This site is focusing too much on V
While CBS’s The Good Wife is in severe danger I don’t think CBS is satisfy to keep a tuesday show with a 2.6 18-49 demo.
I like v.
I always appreciate good writing, and that’s where I feel V disappoints. The premise offers so much opportunity for creative television narrative, and then falls back on a pastiche of storyline cliches. Watching the sexy yet independent female FBI agent singlehandedly foil an assassination attempt was literally ridiculous. (As for the setting up of the resistance- well, if this mob were the earth’s last hope, we’d be in a lot of trouble…) The only aspect I really appreciated was the idea Anna and the aliens were all blissed out in some way. I like the drug metaphor, and also the idea that their stress-free demeanours have a darker side, since the Western world is currently so obsessed with de-stressing every aspect of everyday life… so am going to keep watching for a while, at least.
“V” is going on hiatus till March? I smell “Jericho” happening all over again and we all know that worked. Bummer, I really dig “V”, I just watched Morena Baccarin on “The View” and she was hot!
V will die so bad….it isn’t funny.
I just think the only show that can cut NCIS’s viewers is American Idol.
I think it would be wise for NBC to move AGT to the fall on Tuesday’s to cut NCIS’s viewership.
Ok, I never really post on internet blog comment threads because I have, you know, a life, but after scrolling a bit I feel compelled to express myself.
V is good. Sorry. I’m someone who actually has taste instead of pretending to have it, and V is delivering pretty much everything I expect/want to see by a series’ third episode as an intelligent, educated, and perceptive viewer. And let’s remember it’s only 3 episodes in and it’s really picked up the pace in terms of plot developments. That’s a GOOD sign, not a sign to jump ship. It’s already delivered on more set ups than Lost did in it’s entire first season (nothing against Lost, it’s my favorite network show, but as another commenter above mentioned, a lot of people bailed after 2 seasons or less because of lack of patience and have thus missed a lot of the really good stuff, including Elizabeth Mitchell’s performance as Juliet).
Why are people so opposed to actually watching a STORY unfold over time? Personally I ENJOY having questions at the end of an episode of any given show and feeling anticipation and excitment for the next episode because I want to know what will happen next. That’s part of television’s appeal. All of the most acclaimed shows in recent memory have been serialized dramas, not CSI spin offs. Of course those shows will ALWAYS get higher ratings than a serial but that doesn’t mean the serial is “tanking” or “no one is watching”. Of course the self-contained nature of a procedural appeals to more people, because intellectually lazy, unthoughtful people are the majority.
I’ve also seen people commenting that V is anti-liberal…um, I’m the most liberal person I know and I don’t see that. If anything it’s a commentary on America’s position of power in regard to developing nations (you know, like IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN). The show is about how power can be an insidious and corrupting force and it appears in all kinds of forms, not just through outright aggression and violence. The show is meant to make one think about the power dynamics of our current world and about the perceptions people have of those in power and why they give them that power.
Consider the subplot of the woman whose husband’s fighter jet crashed when the V’s arrived, killing him…Gee, I wonder how people in other countries feel when their family members are blown up by wayward missiles during another country’s invasion of them for the purpose of “liberation” and enfranchisement in a greater collective of world powers …That actually doesn’t sound anti-liberal to me.
Also, the concept of deeply entrenched sleeper cells of V’s who have been here for decades sow seeds of conflict and turmoil is actually pretty brilliant and fascinating, and I honestly can’t think of a better explanation for the current state of the world today. Maybe V just hits too close to home for a lot of people and so they lash out and say it sucks, I dunno, but from an educated, objective perspective, it really doesn’t.
Oh I forget to mention that Morena Baccarin looks fine as HELL with that Mia Farrow hair and she makes for a great cold, calculating bitch…the rapid series of blinks, the way she posed for the photo op with her passport…her performance is a pleasure to watch
For scifi to appeal to women 18-35, or 18-49, the women have to take over the superhero role. With a few exceptions, the fantasies of superheroes adolescent men or young men have always been male. Duh. To grab after a few stray female fans and risk turning off the fan base is stupid. ( I only saw a few minutes of the show and got bored by the plodding pace, so I’m going by the intense fan reaction above.) Honestly, since I saw the original V in reruns on Syfy, it really wasn’t all that great either. Buck Rogers ( starrring Gil Gerard ) or maybe Battlestar Galactica ( Lorne Greene.) with a somewhat bigger budget. The original V was just too – 80’s. ( And by that I mean too obviously constraineed by budget considerations.
Why a Christmas special in November? I see 3 reasons:
1.) To Stretch out BL for at least another week…after all, a BL special is on next Wed. to cultivate that audience. They will probably use the footage elsewhere to stretch the show’s season.
2.) The company that owns Madagascar wanted to use the time slot to advertise the related DVDs for Christmas sales, or NBC is affiliated in some way with the profits from Madagascar and wanted prime viewing to promote it.Also consider that NBC may be considering launching a Sat. morning Madagascar cartoonand wanted evidence that it would fly.
3.)To get a younger veiwing audience for BL, as so many children and teens in the US struggle with weight issues. A lot of those young people, (or their mothers who are trying to shed the baby weight)may begin tuning in that otherwise would not. It would help that 12-17 and 18-34 demographic…Besides, not much appropriate for the younger generation between trashy sit-coms and grotesque CSI-type shows.BL is all about persoal strength and making good choices…perfect for children and teens (notice Danny’s 9yr. old said she wanted to start her own journey) This will get them to switch to network from the land of cable kids channels.
“Since I saw the original V in reruns on Syfy, it really wasn’t all that great either.”
Depends on what you actually saw, because the original “V” was one of the finest mini-series of the ’80s. Period. Not just of the sci-fi genre either, but any type of mini-series. The show was hugely acclaimed by critics and drew massive ratings. It was well-written, intelligent, provocative, and completely entertaining, managing to work as both an escapist entertainment as well as a commentary on politics and a Nazi parallel. I rewatched it last summer and it holds up every bit as well today as it did then — in fact I think this new show is doing a decent job rechanneling some of what made the original series work (it’s just doing it in a much more frenetic, and less satisfying, pace).
V-THE FINAL BATTLE followed the next year and had a lot of problems, and the weekly series was just cheesy ’80s action fare like “The A-Team” or any other show — by then V had lost its qualities and if you saw that, then yeah, I could see how you would be unimpressed.
But anyone who doesn’t remember, or never saw, Kenneth Johnson’s first V mini-series would be wise to check it out on DVD. It’s really terrific and holds up brilliantly.
Fringe 1.9 5 5.746
these are tscc numbers, this show should be moved to fridays too
see how it does there with dollhouse