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 »
Ratings Clack – Smallville continues to defy the odds
We do often get caught up in the big numbers from the big networks. It is, after all, hard to overlook the fact that NCIS is still growing its audience in the 7th season. There are still some very interesting stories happening on the little network, CW. When it was announced that Vampire Diaries would be paired with Supernatural, while Smallville was shuffled off to Friday, many people expected that was the end.
The show wouldn’t be able to come back from a year grinding away on Friday nights. After a few weeks looking at the numbers though, that’s not the case at all. Clark and the gang can celebrate good times, despite taking a hit from the move. In fact, this week Smallville topped new episodes of One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, 90210, and Melrose Place. It’s far from done. Elsewhere, we had our first sizable crop of repeats this week, which brought some interesting results. Read the rest of this entry »
Dollhouse – Evil to the core
Wouldn’t you know it … as we head into a Dollhouse-free month, the show goes out with the best episode of the season. It was so good, I was left wondering why the season didn’t start out on this note. Priya’s story not only gave us the history of Sierra, but also offered a very bleak look behind the scenes at the Dollhouse. All that while advancing a number of the bigger picture plot points.
Update: (Because it has become a Saturday tradition) Proving once again that the quality of the episode doesn’t have a lot to do with the ratings, Dollhouse was down this week. 2.15 million viewers with a .8 demo.
Who will Whedon kill when he directs Glee?
When it leaked today that Joss Whedon will be directing an episode of Glee later this season, the twitterverse practically exploded with squeals of fanboys across the world. To be fair, I just retweeted the original report from TVGuide’s Mike Ausiello … I did not, in fact squeal. The good news for Dollhouse fans (all three of us) is that this commitment will in no way affect Dollhouse’s chances for a back nine pick up. Because, really … Does anyone expect a pick up at this point?
Are we being too hard on FOX?
Last week I went on about how I think Dollhouse should be shown the door. Dollhouse fans have their petitions at the ready, and their Twitter avatars changed, in support of the show. Then you’ve got people like me who say the show deserves to be canceled, thinking, “what the hell is FOX thinking, keeping such a low-rated show on the air?” Yet, on the air Dollhouse remains. In fact, FOX has just stated that it will air the full 13 episodes it ordered for the season, despite how awful the ratings have been.
People not digging this season of Dollhouse probably think FOX is out of its mind for allowing it to stay on. Hell, I even think it’s weird. Though I continue to think Dollhouse deserves the ratings it’s getting, I commend FOX for keeping the show on for the fans.
In a way I feel bad for FOX. No, really, I know it sounds like complete lunacy, but I do!
Ratings Clack – Favre and Baseball create havoc
It was a strange week for ratings. Brett Favre playing against Green Bay made for a huge Monday Night Football (21.84m/9) audience on ESPN. And then the baseball playoffs ran through the rest of the week, calling a lot of the seemingly odd drops in viewers into question. Despite that increased competition, there was some good news to be had. The Biggest Loser, Bones, The Office, Lie To Me, Castle, and The Simpsons all managed to make gains week-to-week. Dollhouse also got in the game, stopping a four episode streak of series lows. On the other side, it’s starting to look like ER took all of it’s viewers with it when it left. The premiere numbers for Three Rivers were not good, and NBC’s dueling medical dramas continue to struggle. Read the rest of this entry »
For all of my whining, Dollhouse does some things exceptionally well
It seems that everyone on the planet is talking about Dollhouse’s ratings these days. I’ve decided that, since this is a post about Dollhouse the show, and not necessarily the TV landscape, I will refrain from discussion about the how the ratings better improve quickly, because no one is watching this show. Nor will I talk about how, if the show was better, more people would be watching. Because I think we all could use a break from talking about how much trouble Dollhouse is in.
(The previous paragraph was brought to you by tonight’s episode’s sponsors, the Sarcasm Police)
Seriously, though, folks, as disappointed as I have been in this show since the season started, there is a lot of good going on.
Update: Ratings are up this week. 2.25 million viewers and a 1 in the demo.
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