JustTV 2004/05 TV Review: Wednesday2004/2005
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8:00pm
What does it take to launch a hit show? A wide open timeslot, a great concept, great writing, and great promotion. Thankfully, ABC was "Lost" (13th in viewers, 16th in adults). Ratings for new episodes always ranked in the top 10, the lower averages reflecting repeats, and brought ABC back to life in a timeslot it used to own. What does it take to air a flop? A scandal, derivitavness and being older skewing. So was CBS's "60 Minutes Wednesday" (69, 120). That show actually ranked second in the timeslot, reflecting the general suckiness of the competition. The race for third was mixed, with Fox generally taking it with the virtually dead "That 70s Show" (91, 56), the never-started "Quintuplets," (120, 88) the so-over "The Simple Life" (64, 36- which was bumped all over the place) and the kinda promising "Stacked" (43, 24). NBC, meanwhile, started with "Hawaii" (83, 98), went with "LAX," then with "Swimsuit Model" (121, 110) and then did "American Dreams" (83, 94), none of which did anything for the network whatsoever. Over on the UPN, "Next Top Model 3" (121, 98) and "4" (121, 98) drew identical ratings, while the WB's "Smallville" (134, 129) continued to fall in the ratings, setting series lows and not looking so great to the WB only 2 seasons after drawing some of the networks best ratings ever. I give it another season.
9:00pm
Ah, Wednesday at 9pm. Once the home of greats, the best it has to offer now is "Idol"(3, 2) ? Although highly rated, quality tv it ain't. Actually, most of the quality shows struggled in the ratings as drama overload effected many viewers. Early in the season, NBC had it with "The West Wing" (34, 53), while CBS was a solid second with "King of Queens" (50, 46) and "Center of the Universe" (55, 48), while ABC struggled with "The Bachelor" (61, 44). Fox, dear Fox, aired.... what did it air? Outside of baseball playoffs, mostly "Nanny 911" (69, 49), which was a moderate success, while the UPN actually stuck with one show over the entire season- "Kevin Hill" (162, 155). I didn't say that anybody actually watched it. Still, that was much better than the WB, which went with "The Mountain" (176, 177) to ever decreasing results, setting some networks lows, and then switched to "Jack & Bobby" (174, 170), which was not a whole lot better.
Once January rolled around, ABC kicked into gear with "Alias" (43, 29), which, despite great early returns, settled back into mediocre numbers towards the end of the season, which had alot to do with the aforementioned "Idol." Fox aired a number of series after that, including the "The Simple Life" and "Life on A Stick" (64, 40), but finally settled with "Stacked" as the season drew to a close. None did well. Over on CBS, "Yes, Dear" (53, 53) subbed for "Universe" and did okay, usually building from its lead-in, while over on NBC, "Revelations" (40, 44) stepped in a did really well- for one episode. All in all, it was a confusing hour. The only series that aired consistantly in the slot were "King of Queens" and "Kevin Hill" on CBS and the UPN, both owned by Viacom. Hmmmm........
10:00pm
Before the season started, CBS was quite modest about "CSI New York," saying that it probably wouldn't beat "Law & Order." Well it did. Frequently and by a big margin. "CSI" (21, 24)had a very clear advantage in adults, but as the season drew to a close, the race in viewers between it and "Law" (25, 35) became extremely close. The problem was "CSI" losing viewers, not "Law & Order" gaining them. Take that as you will. Over on ABC, "Wife Swap" (53, 36) got off to a very promising start and frequently won the slot in younger demos and beat "Law & Order" in adults, but sunk as the season drew to a close. Still, it was a whole lot better than "Eyes" (89, 77), which just went to show that ABC shouldn't even bother with dramas in the hour anymore.