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 »
Quotation Marks – Canadians, vegans, vampires, and Gordon Stoltski
I’ll take “people we got an earful from this week” for two hundred!
I was going back and forth through the quotes submitted by our writers this week, and I couldn’t quite understand why the haul seemed so light. Then it dawned on me: ABC didn’t air its new Wednesday night comedy lineup this week. Can you believe how quickly those three shows (sorry Hank!) have entered our pop-culture? Yowza.
30 Rock
“Alright hosers: I want all 12 of us fighting for every meter on all three downs. And we’re gonna make this a Boxing Day the Prime Minister will never forget.” – Danny, in his Canadian football movie
“I feel about as useless as a mom’s college degree.” – Kenneth, on his problem with Danny Read the rest of this entry »
Bones – Gordon Gordon Wyatt opens Booth’s eyes
Sure, I’m going to get to the main point of my post here in a second (after the jump, lest I be slammed by the spoilerphobes out there), so I’ll spend some time stalling and talking about something else. I got all kinds of excited when I found the Simpsons Easter Egg, thinking I was all especially observant. Then, Keith informed me it was part of a contest that FOX was running, the Simpsons Scavenger Hunt. Talk about blowing the wind out of a guy’s sails.
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 »
Will Bones fans ever accept Angela with someone beside Hodgins
The story of Angela and Hodgins is, to many fans, as integral to the overall plot as the story of Brennan and Booth. It started with a crush, was solidified with a Gravedigger, and almost ended in marriage. Despite the fact that the two have been broken up for quite some time, many fans, this one included, always suspected that the two would find a way back to each other. What if something stood in their way? Not a little bump in the road like Roxie, but something with more long term potential?
Ratings Clack – Where is FlashForward headed?
FlashForward is one of the more interesting shows of the new season where ratings are concerned. On the one hand, so far it has been a huge upgrade for the 8-9 spot on ABC. And while it has been surpassed by Survivor, it does continue to hold off Bones in the demo. On the other hand, the ratings don’t seem to be settled yet, which makes each week a new adventure. This week, the yo-yo headed back up. What will next week bring? One can only guess. I continue to think that it will eventually be passed up by the fiercely loyal Bones audience at some point, finding its place as the number 3 show in the hour. Elsewhere this week, there was good news for Dancing With The Stars, NCIS, Law & Order, So You Think You Can Dance, and Smallville. The news wasn’t so good for Hank, Parks & Recreation, Three Rivers, or Melrose Place.
Bones – A glimpse of things to come
It wasn’t that long ago that I created a long, exhaustive list of why Seeley Booth and Temperence Brennan can’t get together (Spoiler Alert: It was one item long). Simply put, their chemistry wouldn’t change if they were in a more intimate relationship. Unfortunately, the powers that be continue to put off the inevitable.
One could actually argue that their relationship has already transcended to that level (minus the sex), but that neither of them have realized it yet. The emotional connection that these two share is already more mature that most television couples.
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