(1/19 – 1/26)
The subject of the Friday night death slot comes up fairly regularly around here. Moreso recently, what with the Terminator/Dollhouse debut right around the corner. I’m not one to argue in the face of so much damning evidence, but I do think there is a plucky young upstart with eyes on the crown. Life On Mars made it’s debut following Lost this week, and it just wasn’t good. Barring some drastic change in the numbers, or an odd act of kindness from the network, it’s looking like the island is ready to take its next victim. Elsewhere this week, Idol continued to roll, NCIS & CSI scored big, and The Bachelor was up, again.
ABC – What’s the deal with The Bachelor (10.57m/4) anyway? Is the single dad that engaging of a guy? Whatever it is, it’s working. The show grew its audience again this week. That was one of just three shows that really qualify as good news for the network this week. Extremem Makeover (11.59m/4.1) and Lost (11.23m/4.9) also did well. That is particularly good news for Lost, as it held almost the entire audience from the premiere. The caveat there is that Criminal Minds was a repeat.
As mentioned earlier, the debut of Life On Mars (6.22m/2.1) after Lost was not great. That landed it in last place, behind Law & Order, and a repeat CSI:NY. Elsewhere, Scrubs (5.07m/2.2 – 4.99m/2.2) is not holding up against the increased competition on Tuesday. Private Practice (7.74m/2.8) wasn’t exactly terrible, but I have to question just what the network is doing. Given how horribly Grey’s Anatomy repeats (5.59m/1.7), why are they burning new Private Practice episodes after Grey’s repeats? What’s the point of giving the show the cushy time slot if they are not going to actually take advantage of it?
NBC – The peacock had a similar week. There were a couple bright spots. The Biggest Loser (11.08m/4.1) was the highlight of the week, despite going up against Idol. Law & Order (8.96m/2.6) also won its slot in the demo. Somewhere in the middle, The Last Templar (9.89m/2.3 – 8.33m/2.2), while not earth shattering, wasn’t a complete failure. It was good enough to top new episodes of Superstars Of Dance (6.76m/1.6), Knight Rider (6.23m/1.9), Howie Do It (5.24m/1.5), and Friday Night Lights (4m/1.4). The crazy Super Bowl numbers from next week will be a welcome bit of good news.
CBS – There were a host of repeats this week, but what was new performed well. NCIS (19.2m/4) has no problems going up against Idol. And, it is worth noting that a repeat of The Mentalist (15.23m/2.9) did very well following it, winning the hour in viewers. CSI (20.15m/5.4) took advantage of the Grey’s repeat, while Without A Trace (12.99m/2.8) and Eleventh Hour (12.74m/3.1) both won their time slots. Eleventh Hour is an interesting show, ratings wise. It has managed to control Thursday at 10 pretty handily for the season, but you have to wonder if that’s going to be enough considering the CSI lead in.The one bad bit of news this week was the oddly placed CBS news special Wednesday at 8 (6.03m/1.1), which was virtually ignored. And by virtually ignored I mean it even lost to Knight Rider.
FOX – Like a broken record, I’ll say it again. It’s all about Idol. Three showings on Tuesday (25.54m/9.8), Wednesday (27.36m/10.2), and Thursday (24.61m/9.3) all did very well. Fringe (11.62m/4.7), Lie To Me (12.20m/4.4), and Hell’s Kitchen (10.86m/4.8) all benefited from following Idol, although they did all lose over half of the viewers, which is a little concerning. The Hell’s Kitchen one is particularly curious to me. How does that show rate a premiere after Idol, but Dollhouse doesn’t? In other news, a night of repeats for the CBS comedies spelled good things for House (15.69m/6) and 24 (12.22m/4.3).
CW – The little network mailed it in this week, with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all in repeats. That left just three hours of original programming for the week. The news was good on Thursday. Smallville (4.21m/1.7) and Supernatural (3.57m/1.6) both did well. The prospects of one more season of Supernatural are getting better and better. On Friday, Everybody Hates Chris (1.9m/.8) and The Game (1.91m/.8) continue to be forgotten.
Next week, we’ll have the big Super Bowl numbers to talk about, and they should be huge. More interesting though, will be finding out how those endless promotions for the NBC Monday pan out. Chuck, Heroes, and Medium all got a ton of pub on the big game, but they’ll be going up against a full slate of original programming. Wednesday, Life makes its return to NBC, without the benefit of any publicity at all during the Super Bowl. Really, there was a commercial for Jay Leno’s show next fall, but I didn’t see one mention of Life? Look for it to get kicked around by Lost and Lie To Me. Finally, Thursday we’ll see if giving The Office the big Super Bowl slot pays any dividends.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Feb 02, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I am constantly annoyed by the reaction of people who write about ratings with regard to Eleventh Hour. Here is a show that finishes consistently in the top 20 and in the past few weeks has been in the top 15, and yet people talk about it as if it were about to be canceled or at least on the bubble for cancellation because it doesn’t reach some undefined level of retention from the its CSI lead-in. What is it going to take to earn this show even a little respect?
*POST AUTHOR*
To answer your question quite simply, better ratings. The reason you don’t hear these same things about The Mentalist is that it manages to meet or exceed the NCIS numbers when they both have new episodes.
I’m not sure what you mean by respect. I did point out that the show has done well Thursdays at 10, and that it won its slot this week. I’m not trying to take a shot at Eleventh Hour here, or singling the show out. You’ll notice that I raised the same point about Fringe and Lie To Me. They are both in a similar situation to Eleventh Hour. The numbers are great, but they are coming on the heels of a huge show. It’s part of how TV works. Different time slots have different expectations.