FlashForward – Bryce became a whole lot more interesting
Through the first eight episodes of FlashForward I found Bryce to be a pretty annoying character. Without knowing his motivation for wanting to commit suicide before the blackout, I had assumed (like many of you, I’m sure), that he was just a stressed-out doctor who couldn’t take the pressure. Because of that, I think I’ve dismissed him and his story line to date.
Based on the previews for this episode, it was obvious that Bryce was going to be the main focus of the show this week. I was expecting a terrible installment, and perhaps those lowered expectations helped me enjoy the episode, but I thought this week was a pleasant surprise.
Ratings Clack – Should FOX switch Fringe and Lie To Me?
After the dramatic entrance of V last week, there were no similar big splash stories to lead things off this week. Then, as I was perusing the year-ago numbers, something occurred to me. It’s quite possible that FOX could improve both Monday and Thursday at 9:00 if they swapped Fringe and Lie To Me. If you look back to the initial Fringe run, it had a lot of success following House. In fact, while the House numbers are virtually unchanged from Tuesday to Monday, Fringe was holding much more of the House audience on Tuesday than Lie To Me currently is on Monday.
Example:
11/18/08: House (13.03m/5.5), Fringe (9.36m/4.2)
11/09/09: House (13.31m/5.3), Lie To Me (7.41m/3)
And that was against very similar competition. Both faced DWTS on ABC, which was pretty much a wash. NBC was greatly improved against Fringe with Biggest Loser (7.84m/3.3), as opposed to Trauma (5.35m/1.8). And CBS was mixed, with The Mentalist (15.83m/3.5) trailing the Men/Big Bang hour (13.62m/4.6) in the demo.
Now we look at where we are this season. Fringe did manage something of a rebound this week, finishing with (5.91m/2.2) on Thursday. That’s still a distant fourth place, and should find the show on the hot seat at the end of the season. It would, obviously, do better on Monday following House. The question is, would it do better than the (7.41m/3) that Lie To Me is currently offering? I think it would.
On the other side of that coin, while I’m not quite as confident about the move of Lie To Me to Thursday, I do still see the potential for it to outperform the current Fringe numbers. That bar has been set, after all, rather low. It would likely take a hit in the move, but the end result would be that Thursday at 9:00 is stronger as well. Just something to think about. The usual numbers junk is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
FlashForward – Lots of pieces, but nothing is fitting together
FlashForward is beginning to feel like one of those impossible jigsaw puzzles where the picture is printed on both sides and all the pieces fit with each other. You know the ones that you open once, spend fifteen minutes fiddling with, and then chuck across the room? My point (and I do have one) is that there are a whole lot of pieces out on “the table” right now, and I’m not sure how any of them are going to come together to create a meaningful image.
Ratings Clack – V gets off to a great start
The World Series was the big ratings winner last week, but with New York involved, everyone kind of expected that, right? What nobody expected — most notably ABC — was the success of the V premiere. The numbers weren’t just good. It was the highest rated scripted program on the network, topping the Housewives and Grey’s. Even better, the V demo rating was the highest for a scripted show on any of the networks. Someone at ABC has to be kicking themselves for only ordering four episodes of V, while they continue to crank out more Hanks than they know what to do with. Read the rest of this entry »
FlashForward – One of the biggest questions is answered
Finally.
Finally someone on FlashForward did something to take control of their future. Certainly, it wasn’t in the happiest of fashions, but I think it was a big step forward for the show. It also seems like it is going to be a catalyst for a lot of the characters as the show progresses. At the end of the day, it also made for a pretty darn good episode, one of the better installments of the show to date.
Ratings Clack – The Mentalist knocks off CSI
A combination of baseball and pre-sweeps repeats made for a bit of an odd week. Repeats don’t mean there aren’t numbers of note however. We had Jay Leno’s first shot against CSI: Miami and NY repeats, and a look at what running repeats on Friday does for FOX. That is, nothing good for Dollhouse season 3. Also interesting this week — The Mentalist finally topped CSI in viewers and the demo, and even a repeat Gibbs appearance is worth 16 million viewers. Read the rest of this entry »
FlashForward – More treat than trick
After last week’s episode of FlashForward I was pretty concerned about the show. This week, I was pleasantly surprised with this Halloween episode. I thought it was a return to form and offered many more treats than it did tricks. There was good mystery, some actual tension, and the flashes were used in a meaningful and interesting way. That’s pretty much all I’m looking for in this show, and it hasn’t been delivering lately. Hopefully, with sweeps kicking into gear next week, the show will continue with more quality episodes.
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