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 »
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 »
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 »
DVR Emergency: the 2009 season begins in earnest
All right, everyone! I hope you’ve cleared your DVRs and TiVos of all those Housewives of Atlanta episodes, the selective Daily Show programs from three months ago, and all the Eurekas you recorded during the Viewer Picks marathon of a few weeks ago. According to my sundial, the Fall 2009-2010 season begins in earnest tonight. And, if you only own one digital recording device that can only mean one thing: DVR Emergency!
Yes, once again you need to peruse the TV schedules and select only those shows that you will absolutely watch sometime in the next nine months. This week is particularly bad since 1) a majority of shows are premiering, and 2) many of these shows are offering extended premieres to kick off the season. Other than Saturday, you probably won’t get a break from DVR scheduling either, thanks in part to all the summer shows still running on cable. Needless to say, the term “hosed” seems adequate.
Take tonight’s schedule, for example.
CliqueClack’s 2009 finale and premiere guide: the sequel
April 1st, 2009 — The day that CliqueClack released the most comprehensive list of finales and premieres ever to grace the Superinterweb.
April 2nd thru present — The days that the networks released a poop-load of new information.
So goes the world of television. That’s okay, because we can keep up with them just as fast. So, that’s why, if you follow the link above or below, you’ll see premiere updates for a number of new series as well as some of your favorites. You’ll also find the start and end dates for the remaining episodes of Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money, which is probably very important to many fans.
Plus, everything is sanitized for your protection. And, with the crap that will be oozing out of your TV this summer, sterilization is a good thing. I mean, don’t you feel dirty after watching an episode of Wipeout?
New entries to the guide signified with an asterisk (*)
Tonight on the tube: The Cha$e begins
Sci Fi
8:00p/7:00 Central
- It’s prom night on ABC Family’s Lincoln Heights. ABC offers up a special performance recap show of Dancing With the Stars. At 8:40p/7:40 Central Gavin and Stacey learn that house hunting is harder on a relationship than one might think over on BBC America.
- Gibbs finds himself second-guessing his judgment on the case of a deadly robbery on CBS’s NCIS. Alternately, FOX’s House never second-guesses himself. Even when he’s wrong. Tonight he’ll probably get it wrong at least twice when treating an agoraphobic man in his home.
- The winner of last season’s The Biggest Loser joins a show full of surprises. The contestants will start competing individually while the eliminated contestants will return for a chance to get back in the competition. That’s on NBC. On Lifetime at the half hour, Rita Rocks has proven itself well enough to get a full season order.
- Over on The CW, you’ve got Annie’s sweet sixteen and Jennie Garth returning to 90210. In honor of this Veteran’s Day, MyNetwork TV offers up Heroes at Home, a special showcasing the sacrifices and experiences of six real-life service men and women of the war in Iraq.
Tonight on the tube: Election coverage, few alternatives
Comedy Central
7:00p/6:00 Central
- Maybe you’ve heard. There’s a Presidential Election in the US tonight, and coverage of it will pretty much consume ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and most of the major news cable outlets. Many of those have already started. Who will declare a winner first, and probably before all the polls close? Will anyone call it for the wrong candidate like they did in 2000?
8:00p/7:00 Central
- If you get bored with watching the numbers come in all night long, you can always flip it over to The CW. They don’t really have a news team, so they’re sticking with 90210. Tonight, a sleepover turns into a house party as Annie releases her frustration about Harry’s son given up for adoption. ABC Family is also all new with Lincoln Heights.
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