Before the appearance of V, FlashForward was the new scifi darling of the season. In October, its adults 18-49 ratings seemed to have stabilized in the renewal-worthy 3.0/3.1 range, but its last two airings have fallen to a 2.7 (against the World Series) and a 2.6 rating (with no World Series).

If it doesn’t recover from that 2.6 rating, its future on next season’s schedule is in doubt. And if the ratings go lower than that, its got no future at all.

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Scoreboard
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	7.87	7.00	5.90	4.00	1.96
Total Viewers (million)	1.8/6	1.6/5	1.8/6	1.2/4	0.9/3

20/20 hit a season high with adults 18-49 and had its best 18-34 demo numbers in three years as an ABC News 20/20 featuring an exclusive interview with music superstar Rihanna by Diane Sawyer, revealing publicly for the first time what happened last February with singer and ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. 8.2 million watched and the show had a 2.7/9 rating/share with adults 18-49.  It had a 2.3/9 with adults 18-34, 20/20’s best since 12/1/06.

FOX reruns continued to outperform the original schedule of Brothers, Til Death and Dollhouse which averaged a .8 adults 18-49 rating in their last outing.  Last night FOX averaged a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating between 8pm-10pm so the House and Bones reruns are still doing about 50 percent better.

I’m still waiting for the full details, sorry, but I do know Smallville had 2.76 million viewers and a 1.2/4 rating/share with adults 18-49.   Here are some more details via our friends at the CW:

Smallville won the 8-9pm hour among adults 18-34 (1.3/4), men 18-34 (1.5/7) and men 18-49 (1.5/5-tie).

Smallville again climbed to a new season high in adults 18-34 (1.3/5), adults 18-49 (1.2/4), men 18-49 (1.5/5) and total viewers (2.76mil).  This also marks our best performance here in these demos in over a year (Sept. 08).

Smallville was up vs last week by 8% in adults 18-34, 7% in men 18-34, 9% in adults 18-49, 15% in men 18-49, and 14% in total viewers.

At 8pm, Ghost Whisperer and Law & Order tied with a 1.8/6 rating share with adults 18-49.  At 9pm  another Law & Order edged out Medium (1.9 vs. 1.8).  Probably a little fist-pumping going on at NBC, but so far, no press release.  At 10pm ABC (see above) easily led Numb3rs on CBS (1.8/6).

Full details:

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I know, I know.  You love John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop.  You just want to pinch his cheeks.  You wish that Astrid had a bigger role.  You liked that you got to learn more about Agent Broyles last night and you even got to see him crack a smile in last night’s opener.

You loved the special effect of the dead  “dust people” and the “shadow man”.

Generally, you think the Fringe has gotten better in season two.

You were worried when FOX moved the show to Thursday.  But we told you to relax, that FOX was just looking to improve its overall standing on Thursdays (and the fall in general, for that matter) and could tolerate big decreases over last year’s numbers. And all that was probably true at the time, but now is another time, with another truth.

Sure the ratings were a bit worrisome before last night.  Now they are quite worrisome.

There are some common misconceptions:

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Scoreboard
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.7/10	3.5/9	2.4/7	2.4/7	2.1/6	1.6/4
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	3.5/10	2.2/7	2.7/8	2.5/7	1.7/5	1.9/5
Total Viewers (million)	10.426	14.404	5.617	5.650	6.707	3.460

ABC edged CBS for the overall adults 18-49 ratings on Thursday night, but FlashForward continued to slip in the ratings. After a two week layoff, Fringe dropped sharply to a 1.7 rating.

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Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for game one of the World Series on FOX are approximate.  FOX ordered  time zone adjusted version of the Fast National Ratings though, so these won’t change as much as normal in the final national numbers.  See definitions below for more explanation on these  Fast Affiliate Ratings.

Scoreboard
Rating: Adults 18-49	7.4	2.7/7	2.1/6	1.8/5	1.4/4	1.2/3
Rating: Adults 18-34	6.5	2.0/6	1.8/5	1.5/4	1.5/4	1.4/4
Total Viewers (million)	22.34	10.15	6.01	6.44	3.33	2.69

Last night’s game six of the World Series where the Yankees went on to capture their 27th world championship was seen by an average of 22.3 million viewers and had a 7.4 rating with adults 18-49.  Without a game 7, FOX couldn’t push the average for the entire series over 20 million, but it got darn close.  The series averaged a 6.2 rating with adults 18-49 and 19.4 million viewers and was the highest-rated, most-viewed series in five years.   It was up by more than 40 percent from  last year’s record lows.

Outside of the game, ABC’s Modern Family had the best 18-49 ratings for the night with a 3.4/9 (rating/share) that was down a bit from last week’s 3.7 preliminary 18-49 rating. Cougar Town hit a series low with a 2.7/7 with adults 18-49.   Eastwick tied a series low with a 1.6/4 rating.

CBS set some season and series lows too.  Criminal Mind’s 3.2/8 was a low for the season, while CSI: NY’s 2.7/7 was its lowest-rated original telecast ever.

CW’s Top Model reached season highs in women 18-34 (2.9/8) , adults 18-34 (1.9/6), women 18-49 (2.6/7), adults 18-49 (1.7/5) and total viewers (3.96mil).  Top Model tied NBC’s Mercy and ABC’s comedies at 8pm in adults 18-49.

In Late-Night Local People Meters Wednesday night:

• On a night impacted by overrun coverage of the deciding game of the World Series, Conan O’Brien (0.7/3 in 18-49 in local people meters) trailed CBS’s LATE SHOW (0.8/3) in Nielsen’s 24 local markets with People Meters.

• At 12:35 a.m., Jimmy Fallon (0.5/3 in 18-49 in local people meters) tied CBS’s LATE LATE SHOW (0.5/3).

Full Details:

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Scoreboard
Rating: Adults 18-49	3.4/9	3.3/9	3.0/8	2.4/6	1.3/4	0.9/2
Rating: Adults 18-34	2.5/7	2.6/8	2.3/7	2.5/7	1.4/4	1.3/4
Total Viewers (million)	15.551	12.016	7.978	6.076	3.549	1.776

ABC’s V premiered with a preliminary 5.0 rating for adults 18-49 and averaged 13.9 million viewers, exceeding most expectations of commenters on our site.

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Our Renew / Cancel Index predicts potential renewal or cancellation for scripted broadcast primetime shows for the 2010-11 season (results through November 1, 2009):

• Likely To Be Canceled By May, 2010
• Some Danger Of Being Canceled By May, 2010
• Likely to Be Renewed For The 2010-11 Season

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There has been a surprising amount of ‘net chatter in the past week about a rumor claiming NBC told the writers of Heroes to prepare for the end of the show. I have no way of judging the truthfulness of that, and there may be some other (unknown to me) factor that could take the show off the air. However, looking at the ratings, while the show is way down from its earlier years, considering that its on NBC, Heroes is far from being dead. It’s average, and networks don’t typically cancel their average shows, particularly ones that air at 8pm.

I am a stubborn man, but I’d like to think not infinitely so. If the 3 CBS scripted shows can survive on Friday’s with their ratings, there’s a chance that Law & Order can too. This has nothing to do with the check from Dick Wolf that arrived yesterday.

The ratings carnage at NBC is so complete that unless a miracle happens this spring with their new shows (and their development slate) the network very well may have to have to hold its nose and keep some of its well below average performers. If that happens, 30 minute sitcoms like Community and Parks & Recreation are the likely candidates, not a drama like Mercy.

Trauma didn’t receive an order for its “back 9″ episodes, so it’ll last at most 13 episodes and then be canceled. It may be pulled from the schedule sooner than that.

Although SNL: Weekend Update is a scripted show, since it was limited run, I’m not including it.

This is a breakdown of NBC scripted shows and their renewal and cancellation prospects. Here are links to the other networks:

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Our Renew / Cancel Index predicts potential renewal or cancellation for scripted broadcast primetime shows for the 2010-11 season (results through November 1, 2009):

• Likely To Be Canceled By May, 2010
• Some Danger Of Being Canceled By May, 2010
• Likely to Be Renewed For The 2010-11 Season

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While a certain favorite commenter of ours may find it hard to believe, I had never heard of Joss Whedon before we started this site two years ago. He’s shown he’s got a sense of humor about himself, his shows and the entertainment business in general. That seems a healthy thing to have when your show (Dollhouse) is going to be canceled, particularly when he’s got the talent to keep at it.

Dollhouse, ‘Til Death and Brothers , all certain to be canceled, are off Fox’s schedule for the November sweeps period. Dollhouse will gets its 13 episodes aired, as it seems Brothers will too. The situation with all the episodes of ‘Til Death produced or ordered and not aired is so confusing, and not worth thinking about, I will let “Riff Rafferty” fill you in via comments if you care.

While I think the prospects are still positive for Fringe because it has done much better for Fox on Thursday’s at 9 then they’ve done for awhile, there is at least some question about its future, so I will keep it in orange.

Note that the Index values for all Fox shows will continue to be very depressed for next few weeks because the World Series ratings have unusually boosted Fox’s overall average. That will slowly subside as Fox’s average evens out post-baseball.

This is a breakdown of Fox scripted shows and their renewal and cancellation prospects. Here are links to the other networks:

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