[phrelin]

As some may remember from last year, I try to keep up with the so-called "overnight" broadcast networks' ratings. It's a new year with many new shows. Here's last night's shows though some nets haven't premiered their fall shows yet as indicated in the pink highlights:

As I expected, "DWTS" took a hit at 9:00 with the season premier of "Two and a Half Men" and most stayed at CBS to watch "2 Broke Girls" (which much to my surprise we liked and will watch next week at 8:30).

NBC. I guess "The Sing-Off" is filler on a tough night - cheap to produce. But "The Playboy Club" started low and actually went to 1.5/4 & 4.62 million by 10:30 according to the final ratings. This is considerably worse than "Chase" did last year against the same competition. Looking at ratings like this some would have canceled the show at 10:45, but on NBC who knows. We haven't watched it yet. I should just move it to EHD storage until I know if NBC is going to dump it. Somebody at Comcast is gritting his/her teeth.

 

[phrelin]

Here's Tuesday of premier week:

CBS did well. "NCIS" is on track to be regularly the most popular show of the week again. "NCIS: LA" is running about the same as last year. And "Unforgettable" is every bit as strong as "The Good Wife" was in that 10:00 slot last year.

ABC didn't do so well with the "DWTS Results Show" at 9:00 against series premiers.

In its season premier "Body of Proof" did about the same as "Detroit 1-8-7" did in the early part of the season last fall which has to be a disappointment as "Body" premiered last March with 3.9/8 & 13.9 million though it settled into similar 10:00 pm second place numbers by the end of Spring 2011.

Fox's "Glee" was down significantly.

However, "The New Girl" at 9:00 opened strong but didn't seem to carry the audience into "Raising Hope" which may indicate folks won't stick with it against "Dancing Result" and "NCIS: LA". "Raising Hope" seemed to be pulling its normal audience based on last year.

NBC. "The Biggest Loser" seemed about on par with last year which was good for a cheap-to-produce show. "Parenthood" also was on par with last year though down from its premier last week.

The CW's "90210" is down from last week.

The much anticipated "Ringer" lost about a third of its viewers from last week's premier though on a par with last year's "Life Unexpected" in that time slot. If it doesn't recover, it means it lost most of the viewers not in The CW's core 18-25 (and younger) female following. Since "Life Unexpected" had no expensive stars I hope Sarah Michelle Gellar is not overpaid or it may not survive beyond its first 13 episodes ("Life's" Britt Robertson is now starring in "The Secret Circle" on The CW and it's male lead Kristoffer Polaha now is in "Ringer").

Overall, it appears that CBS newcomer "Unforgettable" has a chance though this is the premier. In its second week against other premiers "Ringer" didn't ring any great rating chimes over a The CW.

 

[phrelin]

Here's Wednesday of premier week:

Fox. Fox was the big winner this year. Compared to "Hell's Kitchen" which last year attracted 6± million viewers, "The X-Factor" pulled about 12± million at the 8:00 and 9:00 time slots.

CBS. "Survivor" is down year-to-year by a couple of million. "Criminal Minds" is about the same while "CSI" is about the same as the ill-fated "The Defenders" last year.

The CW's lineup is weaker than last year. "Hellcats" pulled 50% more viewers last year.

NBC. What can I say about NBC. Last week, NBC premiered "Up All Night" and "Free Agents" at 10:00 and 10:30 pulling in 11.5 and 6.3 million viewers respectively. They pulled in about half this week at the 8:00 and 8:30 time slots. "Harry's Law" at 9:00 represents a good showing for NBC. :sure: And "L&O:SVU" has about the same number of viewers at 10:00.

ABC did well by premiering an hour each of "The Middle" and "Modern Family".

Compared to "The Whole Truth" last year, "Revenge" is a big winner for ABC at 10:00. Whether that can continue remains to be seen. We haven't watched the show yet.

 

[olguy]

phrelin, thanks for taking the time to make these ratings posts.

We, like you surprisingly enjoyed 2 Broke Girls. Some of the other new ones not so much. I did enjoy Revenge and am looking forward to more. I hope Body of Proof can hang on. I have enjoyed watching Dana Delany since China Beach.

 

[phrelin]

phrelin, thanks for taking the time to make these ratings posts.

We, like you surprisingly enjoyed 2 Broke Girls. Some of the other new ones not so much. I did enjoy Revenge and am looking forward to more. I hope Body of Proof can hang on. I have enjoyed watching Dana Delany since China Beach.

"Revenge" is also on our list to enjoy this year after watching it last night. The writing for the pilot was excellent and the cast is solid. Emily VanCamp is one of those young actors (another Canadian) that we have been watching grow professionally, in her case since 2002 and "Everwood" and then in "Brothers & Sisters."

Here's Thursday's ratings:

Fox. "The X-Factor" did somewhat better than "Bones" last year at 8:00 and more than double the ratings of "Fringe" at 9:00. The show's going to be a winner for Fox. Relatively cheap and has audience appeal. I don't get it, but I'm not in the audience they care about anyway.

CBS did great with "Big Bang Theory" but took a slight loss over last year at 9:00 and 10:00.

NBC's "Prime Suspect" premier was where CBS' "The Mentalist's" last year's viewers went at 10:00. Last year NBC aired "The Apprentice" at that time slot with very low ratings. NBC's comedies took a hit this year.

ABC. "Charlie's Angels" came out weak. "Grey's Anatomy" was down 30% from last year. Oh, oh.....

The CW. "Vampire Diaries" was down 30% over last year and "The Secret Circle" was down 37% over last year's "Nikita." Both were ok for the network based on their typical ratings, however.

 

[Church AV Guy]

I have to say, phrelin, I really appreciate it that you take th time to generate thses posts. I find them helpful, and very interesting.

NBC looks to not be doing too well this premier week. By the way, was Tuesday at 9:00PM a typo for NBC or did The Biggest Loser actually get a 24 rating (18-49)?

 

[spartanstew]

So far, Revenge is the first series I've dumped. Felt like I should have been a few years older, a different gender, and sitting on the couch eating bon-bons while I watched it.

 

[olguy]

So far, Revenge is the first series I've dumped. Felt like I should have been a few years older, a different gender, and sitting on the couch eating bon-bons while I watched it.

I'm not sure gender has anything to do with it but phrelin and I are both geezers so maybe that explains why we enjoyed it. And somebody pass the bon-bons please. :lol:

 

[John Strk]

Thanks for posting the ratings phrelin. I really enjoyed Revenge a lot more than I thought I would and Emily is adorable.

This show is a keeper!!!

 

[phrelin]

Here's Friday of premier week:

CBS. The network that has controlled Friday total viewer ratings continues. It's new show "A Gifted Man" did about 50% better than "Medium" did last year in total viewers but about the same in the demo. The other two are about the same as last year.

We watched "A Gifted Man" last night and are on the fence about it.

Fox. "Fringe" did 66% better in the demo and 22% better in total viewers compared to "The Good Guys" last year. But whether the raw numbers 1.5/5 & 3.53 million are good enough to sustain the show through to another season pickup is questionable at best.

Last year they ran a rerun of "House" at the 8:00 and pulled 0.6/2 & 3.11 million. "Kitchen Nightmares" did better with 1.6/6 and 3.84. It's these numbers that nag. It costs next to nothing to rerun a show and only slightly more for a reality show. Which brings me to....

NBC & ABC. For both these nets, reruns were the first order of business followed by their "news" programs "Dateline" and "20/20". Historically, the two "news" programs pull satisfactory ratings and sometimes even better.

The CW. "Nikita" and "Supernatural" did much worse than last year's lineup of "Smallville" and "Supernatural."

One thing is obvious about Friday. The 18-49 "demo" isn't home watching TV in numbers significant to the high-paying advertisers. Apparently it's the over-50 crowd and particularly us geezers and our wives. All week long only CBS is selling total viewer numbers and they like to see 12+ million. On Friday they have to settle for 10± million.

Last night we watched a number of recorded new shows in addition to "A Gifted Man."

ABC's "Charlie's Angels" was painful to watch. We stopped early on, something we almost never do, not even for The CW shows. It's off our recording list. Maybe we just remember the original too clearly, but the nothing seemed to work and the acting seemed way off.

"Person of Interest" was interesting both in premise and cast. We'll continue to record it.

"Prime Suspects" was a surprise - a strong ensemble cast of familiar faces. And the writing, though uneven, was clever for a crime procedural.

Its problems are that it's on NBC and it's on Thursday at 10:00. It needs a few more viewers. Perhaps it will get them from "The Practice" after next week's premier as its central character is a strong woman played by Maria Bello.

Its strength may be that Britain's ITV is one of its production companies, along with Universal Media Studios and Film 44 ("Friday Night Lights"). We'll continue to record it.

 

[phrelin]

I don't even look at Saturday ratings and normally consider Sunday ratings unreliable. I did look at Sunday overnights this week because of scheduling changes from last year. The problem is you can't rely on them because football affects different time zones and networks differently. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see them:

It is nearly impossible to compare these ratings to last year, except that the Fox animated shows are about the same. In terms of time slots CBS is about the same. It's new Sunday schedule for "The Good Wife" pulled about the same as last year's second hour of "Amazing Race" premier and about the same as it was doing last March.

ABC's situation is a mystery. Yeah, "Desperate Housewives" is down from fall premier week last year (but NBC's football took a larger share this year). And "Pan Am" series premier did well compared to "Brothers & Sisters" season premier last year. But we won't know whether "Pan Am" series premier can be compared to a previous shows season premier and will continue to pull that audience.

But it's interesting I guess.

 

[phrelin]

Here's Extended Premier Week Monday #2:

In terms of the big 4 nets, the two-hour premier of "Terra Nova" obviously pulled viewers away from most everything. But not enough for such a large investment. Its ratings were normal for a "House" episode in the 8:00 time slot last fall. I really don't know what Fox is going to do. I guess raise retransmission rates. "House" will premier next week at the 9:00 time slot.

I can't tell, but I think it even may have hurt the season premier of "Gossip Girl" and the series premier of "Hart of Dixie" on The CW.

At 10:00 some 4 million viewers were so uninspired by last week's season premiers they went to bed. "The Playboy Club" is dead, it just doesn't know it yet.

 

[phrelin]

Here's our first night with no premiers:

ABC. This year ABC's strategy at 8:00 is to run a cheap "DWTS" recap for a few weeks, then in October premier a couple of sitcoms. That's probably better than last year when "No Ordinary Family" premiered with higher ratings but then drifted down below acceptable ratings. However last year the "DWTS Results Show" at 9:00 on 9/28/2010 pulled 3.5/9 - 16.45 million. This year's ratings are a pretty big drop. "Body of Proof" seems to be faring well, comparable to its May ratings.

CBS. The two "NCIS" franchise shows appear to be on a course comparable to last year. "Unforgettable" may not be as strong as "The Good Wife" was last year.

NBC. "The Biggest Loser" is down slightly from last year, but for the NoBodyCares network, it's fine. "Parenthood" is actually slightly up both week-to-week and year-to-year.

Fox. Fox suits must be tearing their collective hair. "Glee" pulled 5.8/17 - 13.14 million last year. Its ratings are down from last fall, but on May 10, 2011 its ratings were 3.4/11 - 8.71 million so that seems to be where that show's following is ending up. "The New Girl" is doing well however, up over "Raising Hope" at 3.2/9 -7.48 million in the 9:00 time slot last year. "Raising Hope" is up from its May 10 rating of 2.2/6 5.45 million.

The CW. "90210" is down from "One Tree Hill" last year and "Ringer" is up from "Life Unexpected" last year.

 

[phrelin]

As usual life is what happens when your making plans, so I'm behind. Here's Wednesday:

ABC. ABC is doing fine. The comedies are on a par with last year with "Modern Family" running a bit higher. "Revenge" is demonstrating that a "better" show can turn things around a bit at 10:00 as on 9/29/2010 "The Whole Truth" pulled 1.5/4 - 5.07 million.

CBS. While the CBS ratings are fine, they are not #1 in total viewers at 8:00 and 9:00 because of "The X-Factor" on Fox. "CSI" at 10:00 is up a little from "The Defenders" last year, though down some from its Thursday 9:00 slot a year ago.

Fox. "The X-Factor" seems to be doing well, though some pundits seem to find its ratings wanting when compared to "American Idol" and ABC's "DWTS." We'll have to wait to see how it does after the audition phase to really tell what's going on.

NBC. "Up All Night" has ok ratings for NBC. "Free Agent" is dead even on NBC. "Harry's Law" is ok for NBC at 9:00 - not as well as "L&O: SVU" last year and not as well as it did last Spring. But "SVU" isn't doing as well at 10:00 as the ill-fated "L&O:LA" did last year.

The CW. "H8R" at 8:00 isn't doing as well as "America's Next Top Model" did in that slot last year and "Top Model" at 9:00 is doing as well as "Hellcats" did last year.

Since I do comparison's from last year I should note that there were somewhat more total viewers in each time slot this year.

Now for Thursday:

ABC. "Charlie's Angels" lost viewers this week, mostly to "X-Factor." It's still doing much better than "My Generation" did last year before it was canceled. "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" did about as well as last year.

CBS. "The Big Bang Theory" is running above last year in both the demo and total ratings. However, it's viewers did not stick with the network for "How to be a Gentleman" which was under "$#*! My Dad Says" ratings of 3.2/10 - 10.44 million last year. "Person of Interest" which is in the old "CSI" slot and "The Mentalist" have dropped a little from 9/30/2010.

Fox. "The X-Factor" is an interesting comparison to last year when "Bones" pulled 2.4/8 -9.18 million and "Fringe" pulled "1.9/5 -5.39 million. Obviously this show boosts Fox's income.

NBC. NBC's comedy lineup is down slightly from last year. "Prime Suspects" has far more total viewers but about the same in the demo as "The Apprentice."

The CW. "Vampire Diaries" is down from last year and "The Secret Circle" is down from "Nikita" last year.

 

[phrelin]

Here's Friday:

ABC. So far ABC has abandoned Friday, using reruns and "20/20."

CBS. CBS continues to own Friday, with "A Gifted Man" doing better than "Medium" last year's ratings of 1.2/5 - 5.93 million.

Fox. Based on the ratings, I assume it is the final year for "Fringe" though its ratings are better than the 0.7/3 - 2.51 million that "The Good Guys" pulled last year in that time slot. I assume "Kitchen Nightmares" costs are cheap.

NBC. Reruns and "Dateline" weren't a great draw, although the latter is a better rating than garnered by most of their more expensive fare earlier this week.

The CW. "Nikita" apparently doesn't have the draw "Smallville" did last year, but then again "Supernatural" is down this year also.

 

[phrelin]

Here's Sunday:

Sunday is difficult. I don't do the 7:00 time because CBS and Fox regularly have football overruns in various markets making show ratings meaningless. Apparently Fox catches up in some regions somehow and the reality is Fox's animated shows are getting the same ok ratings they usually do. But CBS just runs it's lineup whenever. So I've also used CBS ratings at the half hour so that we can see how each show does on its own.

ABC took a hit on "Pan Am." One problem is that in the Eastern Time Zone the show as are all 10:00 shows is on opposite NBC's "Sunday Night Football" while in the Pacific Time Zone it is opposite NBC's affiliates offering reruns or syndicated shows. Sunday night is a ratings mess.

In week two including Sunday, CBS delivered to its advertisers an average of 12.39 million viewers per hour of prime time (8-11 pm) programming, ABC 9.30 million, Fox 8.64 million, and NBC 7.28 million.

Without Sunday, CBS delivered 12.82 million, ABC 9.57 million, Fox 9.07 million, and NBC 5.48 million.

One thing we all knew is very clear. NBC is in trouble, but without Sunday Night Football it is offering advertisers Summer cable channel ratings.

Comparing the others to Fox by using only 8:00-10:00, CBS delivered 13.35 million viewers, ABC 10.05 million, Fox 9.07 million and NBC 5.32 million.

 

[phrelin]

So here is the third Monday of the season:

NBC. I'm starting with NBC because of "The Playboy Club" cancellation. Obviously they had to do it. With those ratings and the cost of production, they couldn't continue to take the loss. Instead they are going to replace it with repeats of "Prime Suspects", a new crime procedural show that is strong in production values but also short on audience.

With "The Sing-Off" cheap to produce, I guess they can afford to not be competitive at all on Mondays.

Fox. "Terra Nova" held its demo the second week though it lost total viewers. Apparently it really doesn't serve as a lead-in for "House" which on its premier pulled significantly more viewers than "Terra Nova" but around the same as last year.

ABC. "Dancing with the Stars" isn't winning its time slots in the demo, but it is a bit shocking to see it second at 9:00 in total viewers. On the other hand, "Castle" has locked into the top in total viewers at 10:00.

CBS. "2 Broke Girls" is doing very well. While I'm showing only the "overnights," according to Marc Berman CBS won every half-hour in adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 for the third consecutive Monday with all four comedies posting year-to-year gains, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for Oct. 3. And though more viewers are watching "Castle," "Hawaii 5-0" is leading in the demo.

The CW. "Gossip Girl" is not doing as well at 8:00 as it did last year in the 9:00 time slot. "Hart of Dixie" isn't doing as well at 9:00 as "Gossip Girl" did last year in that slot.

 

[Rich]

phrelin, thanks for taking the time to make these ratings posts.

We, like you surprisingly enjoyed 2 Broke Girls. Some of the other new ones not so much. I did enjoy Revenge and am looking forward to more. I hope Body of Proof can hang on. I have enjoyed watching Dana Delany since China Beach.

We liked 2 Broke Girls too. Dana Delany sure lost a lot of weight, looks good. We like that show too.

Rich

 

[Rich]

So far, Revenge is the first series I've dumped. Felt like I should have been a few years older, a different gender, and sitting on the couch eating bon-bons while I watched it.

We dumped Whitney. Found it rather annoying. The opening credits said something about it being filmed before a "live" audience, but it sounded like the same laugh track that we hear on 2 Broke Girls. Are there different kinds of audiences, like "dead" or something else other than "live"?

Rich

 

[Stuart Sweet]

Being shot live doesn't mean they can't add a laugh track apparently.