What Happened to ABC?

[Karl Foster]

I was reading my weekly installment of Entertainment Weekly and came across the Nielsen ratings for the period 10 - 16 March, and not one ABC show is in the top 30. Here is the Nielsen ratings list for that period:

1. CSI, CBS, Thursday
2. American Idol, Fox, Tuesday
3. Survivor: The Amazon, CBS, Thursday
4. Friends, NBC, Thursday
5. ER, NBC, Thursday
6. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, Monday
7. CSI: Miami, CBS, Monday
8. Fear Factor, NBC, Monday
American Idol, Fox, Wednesday
10. Law & Order SVU, NBC, Friday
11. Still Standing, CBS, Monday
12. Scrubs, NBC, Thursday
13. Without a Trace, CBS, Thursday
14. Will & Grace, NBC, Thursday
Law & Order, NBC, Wednesday 10 pm
16. The King of Queens, CBS, Monday
17. 60 Minutes, CBS, Sunday
18. Yes Dear, CBS, Monday
19. 48 Hours Investigates, CBS, Wednesday
20. The Simpsons, Fox, Sunday
21. Law & Order CI, NBC, Sunday
Good Morning Miami, NBC, Thursday
23. Law & Order, NBC, Wednesday 9 pm
24. My Big Fat Greek Life, CBS, Sunday
25. 60 Minutes II, CBS, Wednesday
26. JAG, CBS, Tuesday
27. Meet My Folks, NBC, Monday
28. That '70's Show, Fox, Wednesday
29. Star Search, CBS, Wednesday
30. Dateline NBC, NBC, Friday

Once again, not ONE ABC show. Even their reality shows, All American Girl came in at #75, and The Family came in at #81.

I believe they definitely need some new blood and new focus.

[TNGTony]

Take your highest rated show from the highest ratings day and move it and you'll LOSE audience! Imagine that? I haven't been able to watch/PVR an episode of "The Practice" since it was moved to Mondays. Dragnet which took over the slot is a good show, but it's "Law and Order: LA" I get enough from the three shows on NBC. I do like Ed O'niell as Friday, though.

See ya
Tony

[invaliduser88]

Not one episode of Miracles during sweeps. Seems they don't want it to have good numbers.

[BobMurdoch]

NYPD Blue is on a break, which leaves Alias as the ONLY compelling series on their schedule for me.

Add in the fact that the New York ABC afilliate is the ONLY station to deny me a waiver to watch West Coast Feeds (5 times) and deny me a chance to discover some of their shows this way (I am a night owl that watches most of my shows from 11 pm to 1am most nights -- at least the ones not on my pvr).

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

[James_F]

Disney happened.... Talk about a rudderless ship... I used to watch their shows all the time now I only watch Alias as others have said.

[Pete K.]

The mouse trap snapped shut.

[Mike123abc]

I used to watch Practice every Sunday night, but on Monday I have not watched it. They are in a downward spiral at this time, they need to get a new mega hit show to help them cross promote all their other shows.

[James_F]

Not just a mega hit, but one that lasts more than 2 years, ie Who wants to be a Millionaire...

[Steve Mehs]

NYPD Blue, Miracles and Dragnet are the only ABC shows I watch. Besides these three shows and the occasional Stephen King miniseries, I hardly ever watched ABC in the past few years.

[Karl Foster]

I just remember watching ABC all the time when I was a kid. Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and the Wonderful World of Disney were shows that were always watched in our house. My sister always watched Three's Company, and my parents loved to watch Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Man, they have fallen!

[Zane26]

No Veritas last night and no Miracles either. This makes 2 weeks in a row now.

Way to go ABC !!!

[Steve Mehs]

:( I didn't realize there was a double shot of Practice last, I was really looking forward the the next Miracles, the previews looked good.

[James_F]

And now the Oscars had the lowest raiting since the 1950s... :eek2:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2883705.stm

ABC's three-and-a-half hour broadcast of the ceremony drew a household rating of 20.4 million, the lowest level since the first televised Oscar show in 1953.

[catman]

48 hours or dateline take shows off . 48 hours belongs on abc . Like anyone watches abc .

[RandyAB]

I heard that ABC won the ratings race last week.

[Ontarian]

The reason ABC sucks is because its owned by Disney!

[music_beans]

Yeah. I wish PAX bought out ABC, and maybe we would see better ratings. BTW, Disney should of left it alone in the first place.

[Karl Foster]

Originally posted by RandyAB
I heard that ABC won the ratings race last week.

Here's last week's ratings - again not one ABC series, although they did have some specials in the top 20, includig the Academy Awards, preshow, and a news special. Still - pretty pathetic. Disney needs to get out of the network tv business IMHO. This information came from:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/nielsen.htm

1 75th Annual Academy Awards, ABC
33 million viewers
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2 American Idol-Tuesday, Fox
21.1 million viewers
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3 Oscar Countdown 2003, ABC
19.5 million viewers
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4 American Idol-Wednesday, Fox
17.2 million viewers
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5 Survivor: Amazon, CBS
16.4 million viewers
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6 Friends, NBC
14.9 million viewers
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7 Fear Factor, NBC
14.7 million viewers
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8 Scrubs, NBC
14.2 million viewers
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9 Judging Amy, CBS
14.2 million viewers
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10 JAG, CBS
14 million viewers
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11 Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS
13.5 million viewers
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12 Will & Grace, NBC
13.4 million viewers
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13 Yes, Dear, CBS
13.2 million viewers
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14 Third Watch, NBC
12.9 million viewers
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15 Good Morning Miami, NBC
12.7 million viewers

16 ABC News Special-Monday, ABC
12.6 million viewers
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17 The King of Queens, CBS
12.5 million viewers
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18 Crossing Jordan, NBC
11.9 million viewers
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19 Still Standing, CBS
11.9 million viewers
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20 The Guardian, CBS
11.8 million viewers