JustTV News
| "The
Apprentice," "ER" losing steam The Donald contiues to live in his bubble as his show keeps going down the drain. It seems that everytime her declares "The Apprentice" as tv's top series, ratings take another hit. Thursday was the show dip to 14.1mil viewers and a Thursday series low 6.5/15 in adults 18-49. Not help was the fact that at 8pm "Joey" (10mil) was skirting a series low and "Will & Grace (10mil) wasn't any better. The real disappointing news for NBC came at 10pm as "ER" sunk to a new series low of just 16mil viewers and a 7.6/19 in adults 18-49. "Without A Trace" beat it by the largest margin ever in viewers (21.2mil, 32% above "ER"). And while "ER" usually has a huge advantage over its competition in adults, even that is disappearing as it sunk last night to just 9% (over "WAT"s 7.0/18). CBS, as usual, swept the night with "Survivor" at 8pm (21.7mil) and "CSI" (27.7mil). ABC, surprizingly, was in the game last night with the special "Seeing Is Believing" (11.7mil) coming in second from 8-9pm and third from 9-10pm. Fox's "The OC" (7.2mil) almost hit a season low under the strong competition, while the special "Stars Without Makeup" did surprizingly well with 7.4mil at 9pm. The UPN was an always dependable fifth with "Smackdown" (5.3mil), while the WB was nowhere to be found with the movie "Ever After" (2.4mil). (February 25) "Idol," Lost" continue to dominate Wednesday For Fox and ABC, it's essentially a "no news is good news" situation as "Lost" and "Idol" continue to dominate the ratings, much to the chagrin of news writers like me, but to the delight of the networks. "Idol" was the top rated series on Wednesday with 26.4 million viewers. Puzzlingly, the show is still not seeing the typical declines that usually happen once the voting begins, but then again, this is good news for Fox. Second in the hour was "The West Wing" (10.1mil), although the show did set a series low in adults 18-49 (2.8/6), while "Alias" was a very close third (10.0mil). "Alias" continues to lose steam, dropping 49% of its lead-in in viewers and 54% in adults. Although, giving the competition and how poorly some series are going against "Idol," this is better than most. How poorly, do you ask? Just look to "Jack & Bobby," which slipped to just 2.1mil viewers and a 0.9/2 in adults, down 59% in viewers and 63% in adults from it's lead-in. Yes, this show is headed for the garbage heap. Also near the top of the pack were "King of Queens" (10.2mil) and "Yes, Dear" (9.7mil), while "Kevin Hill" (2.7mil) drew its best ratings in a few months. Then there was "Lost." The series rebounded for a weak performance last week to notch a typical 19.5mil viewers and a 7.5/20 in adu;ts 18-49. The next highest rated series in the hour, "60 Minutes" drew just over half of that (9.8mil). Third were Fox's dying duo of "That 70s Show" (8.3mil) and "The Simple Life" (8.6mil), while a repeat of "Crossing Jordan" on NBC (6.9mil) floundered, although it did do better than "Swimsuit Model" which it has replaces. The WB was fourth with "Smallville," while "Road To Stardom" (3.3mil) drew its best numbers since its premiere. At 10pm, "Law & Order" (14.5mil) continues to surge over "CSI NY" (14.1mil), while "Wife Swap" (8.3mil) is losing the early season momentum that it once had. (February 24) "House" becoming a big hit Never mind the fact that it's still losing about 40% of it's lead-in; Fox's "House" is bomcing a big hit. Tuesday was another record performance for the series which reached 15.5mil viewers and a 6.4/16 in adults 18-49, compared to "Idol"s 28.1mil and 11.4/29. Lead-in loss was 45% in viewers and 44% in adults, and while that is still a large gap, it's much, much better than "24" did at this point last season where "Idol drew 25.1mil and a 10.8/28 rating, compared to "24"s 10.5mil and a 4.4/11. Lead-in loss there was a greater 59% in viewers and adults, so Fox is making some head-way. Who would have thought that a show like "House" would be compatible with "Idol" ? Good news for Fox is the continued acscent of "Idol" despite even the network saying that it would likely see declines. Personally, I'm out of love with "Idol" and each episode seems like a total bore, but whatever. Most other series lost ground against Fox, one again, although a few did stick out. Over on CBS, "NCIS" (14mil) continues to prove that the two series have mutually exclusive audiences, something that can also be claimed by "Gilmore Girls" (5.4mil). Though both are down around 5% since "Idol," that's nowhere compared to ABC, where 40 minute editions of "My wife & Kids" (6.8mil) and "George Lopez" (7.3mil) couldn't revive interest in those fading series. "According To Jim" (10.7mil) rebounded at 9:20 and "NYPD Blue" (10.6mil) hit a season high at 10pm a week before it's last episode. Also taking a hit was the UPN, whose "All Of Us" (2.3mil), "Eve" (2.3mil) and "Veronica Mars" (2.3mil) are down some 30% since "Idol" came on board. Over on the WB, "One Tree Hill" (4.2mil) was an easy fifth in its hour. CBS wasn't so hot at 9pm with a "One Day At A Time" reunion (10mil) and "Judging Amy" (10.8mil) didn't do much better at 10. Not to worry, "The Amazing Race" is back next week. Over on NBC, a repeat "CI" opened the night with a deadly 6.1mil viewers, followed by disappointing returns for both "Scrubs" (7.8mil) and "Committed" (6.1mil). "SVU," as usual, capped the night off with a big win for the networj (14.1mil). (February 23) "Idol" hits NBC, WB, UPN on Monday Fox has expanded "American Idol" out to Monday and NBC, the WB and the UPN were the ones to take the hit, according to the Monday ratings. "Idol" drew a below average 23.2mil viewers in the 8pm hour, while CBS was second with "Still Standing" (9.7mil) and "Listen Up" (9.3mil), both near their season averaged. "Fear Factor" was at a below average 9mil viewers with a 3.6/9 in adults 18-49. In fact, those are the lowest ratings for an original "Fear Factor" since the series premiere in the summer of 2001. ABC was next up with 8.3mil viewers for "How'd They Do That?" while the WB rebounded slightly with "7th Heaven" (5.4mil), although the show was well off its season averaged. On the UPN, "One On One" (2.6mil) and "Cuts" (3.1mil) were perhaps the most affected by "Idol." At 9pm, it was all CBS as "Two & A Half Men' (17.7mil) and an hour and a half version of "CSI Miami" (19.2mil) won the hour by a large margin. "24" was second (13.2mil), reaching a season high for Monday night, while "Las Vegas" (11.8mil) was a typical third. ABC's "The Bachelorette" (9mil) was average in viewers, but hit a season high in adults (4.2/9), giving hope for fans of the on-the-bubble series. "Everwood," which is headed for yet another hiatus, drew a solid 5.1mil and built off "7th Heaven" in adults (2.1/5 vs 1.9/5) for the first time this season and one of the few times ever. "Girlfriends" (3.8mil) and "Half & Half" (3.6mil) were oddly in repeats, but still drew above their season averaged. At 10pm, after "CSI," "Medium" (13.9mil) continues to go strong, while "Supernanny" (9.7mil) continues to be a solid alternative for ABC in the hour. (February 22) "Palau" blows competition apart So much for "Survivor" going ratings growing softer- the 10th edition of the series, and the best opener to date, blew the gate open for CBS with an average of 23.5mil viewers, peaking at more than 25 million during the 8:30pm half-hour. That lead "CSI" (30.4mil) to a near season high, while "Without A Trace" (21mil) beat "ER" by more than 3 million viewers at 10pm. "ER" was the peak of NBC's night with 17.7mil viewers, while "The Apprentice" hung on at 9pm for 15.1mil. The real trouble for NBC came in the 8pm hour where "Joey" (9.8mil) sunk to a series low in viewers and adults (4.0/11), while "Will & Grace" (10.0mil, 4.3/11) did only slightly better. While NBC daid that it didn't expect "Joey" to be at "Friends" levels, it said it would be happy with 70% retention. Guess what? Last night is was off in viewers by 60% and 64% in adults from the comparable episode of "Friends" last season, while "Survivor" was up about 4% in both measures. Obviously, "Friends" fans have said no to "Joey" and have not gone elsewhere. As for the rest of the networks, Fox took third at 8pm with "The OC" (7.9mil), which was just 0.4 ratings points behind NBC at 8pm in adults, the closest Fox has ever come. "Extreme Makeover" was at an above average 7.1mil, while "Smackdown" was fifth overall on the night with 5.1mil viewers. The WB was nowhere to be seen with a repeat of the movie "She's All That" drawing only 2.1mil viewers. At 9pm, ABC slipped into third with another Michael Jackson special taking 8.8mil viewers from 9-11pm. The UPN was fourth, while Fox's "Point Pleasant" (3.5mil) lost an incredible 56% of its lead-in in viewers and adults, not a good sign at all. (February 18) "Idol," "Lost" take Wednesday again Though both series were down from recent performances, both "Idol" and "Lost" had no problems winning their timeslots again as the competition simply bucked over. At 8pm, "Lost" (18mil) was noticeable down from last week, despite a pretty damn good episode, but it had no problem with the competition whatsoever. Fox's combo of "That 70s Show" (8.7mil) and "The Simple Life" (9mil) were virtually tied with "60 Minutes" (8.8mil) for second, although Fox had double the 18-49 rating that CBS did (4.1/10 vs 1.9/6). From there, a repeat of "Medium" sunk to just 6.6mil viewers on NBC, while "Smallville" was fifth at 5.1mil viewers, although the series was third in adults, giving its best performance since December. "Road To Stardom" (3mil) was last, although improved over recent weeks. At 9pm, it was all "Idol" (26.1mil) as the rest struggled to keep pace. "Alias" (10.5mil) was second in the hour. It's 58% retention out of "Lost" is troubling, yes, but considering the competition and how much better it's doing than "The Bachelor" last fall, it's pretty good. "The West Wing" (10.3mil) was third, with CBS's return of "Yes, Dear" (9.3mil) falling on deaf ears, despite a third place lead-in (10.5mil). From there, it was a long way down with "Kevin Hill" (2.4mil) just beating out "Jack & Bobby" (2.3mil), neither of which are likely to see a second season. At 10pm, "CSI Miami" (14mil) continues to beat up on "Law & Order" (13.7mil), although the margin is getting smaller and smaller. ABC's "Wife Swap" got caught in the middle and fell to a series low of just 8.2mil viewers. Week to date, Fox leads by a large margin of 16mil viewers to CBS's 12.6mil. NBC is third with 10.2mil, followed by ABC's 9.8mil. The WB leads the UPN 4.4mil to 2.9mil. In adults, Fox again leads with a 6.8, while NBC and CBS are both tied at a 3.9. ABC is only slightly behind with a 3.7, followed by the WB (1.8) and the UPN (1.2). (February 17) A place for "Grey," and other news ABC has scheduled yet another mid season series, this time "Grey's Anatomy," which will get the very plum post "Desperate Houswives" timeslot starting in last March. The series will have a number of new episodes of the series as a lead-in, which is a very good thing. CBS has renewed "The Amazing Race" for two more seasons, which pretty much locks the series in the Tuesday at 9pm timeslot next season. Fox has also given "House" 4 more episodes as the series is doing a much better job of holding the "Idol" audience than "24" did last season. In fact, it's doing better than "The OC" did too, which is surprizingly given the lack of "cool" about this series. (February 17) Puzzling Monday ratings has all down Every once in a while, there seems to be a machine error at Nielsen that take everybody for a ride in the ratings. Monday was one such nights as many series hit season lows, rather surprizingly. Over on the WB, the most glaring numbers came from "7th Heaven" (5.2mil), which hit a multi-season low for a new episode after averaging more than 7 million viewers for the last few weeks. "Everwood" came in a 4.4mil viewers, not too bad, but not too great either. Over on ABC, "How'd They Do That?" (8.8mil) was in its normal range, but both "The Bachelorette" (8.4mil) and "Supernanny" (9.5mil) puzzingly hit season lows, while the same was true over on Fox with both "Trading Spouses" (7.1mil) and "24" (10.4mil). The other networks were near normal. NBC has "Medium" (14.7mil) still going strong, although "Las Vegas" (11.3mil) and "Fear Factor" (10.7mil) were both under their season averages. CBS won from 9-11pm with "Raymond" (17.5mil), "Men" (16.7mil) and "Miami" (19mil), while the UPN was slightly above average with the premiere of "Cuts" (3.7mil) and "Girlfriends" (3.9mil). When this many series take a hit all on the same night, you have to wonder what's going on at Nielsen. There weren't any major losses, but it's very rare for all series to lose steam all at once on all networks. Next week we'll see if this is a blip or a trend. (February 15) Week to date ratings We're into sweeps, and I'm still not updating every day. Sorry about that. Here's a rundown of the week to date in the ratings. CBS leads with 12.8mil viewers, and will likely only increase that with the Grammy's airing on Sunday. Fox is second with 11.3mil viewers, while NBC is third (10.6mil) and ABC fourth (9.1mil). ABC is looking to have a big night on Sunday as well and will likely pass NBC. ABC could even pass Fox for second on the week, depending on Sunday. Assuming that ABC draws 17.5mil viewers on Sunday (which is likely) and Fox 7mil (again, very likely), ABC would indeed pass Fox for second. Compared to last season, ABC and Fox are the only network showing any gains. CBS is down 8% in viewers and 23% in adults (to a 4.0), NBC is down 15% in viewers and 25% in adults (3.8), while Fox is up13% in viewers and 14% in adults (4.9), and ABC is up 14% in both measures (to a 3.3). Final weekly averages will likely see CBS even (The Grammy's did not air this week last season), NBC down even further, Fox holding and ABC up some 20% in both measures. It's best just to leave the subject of the WB and the UPN alone. (February 13) "Simple Life" flunks on Wednesday I guess that even the American public has their limits for watching idiots on tv: "The Simple Life 3" is not is not so much a hit this time around. After getting off to 13.3mil viewers two weeks ago, the show debuted at 8:30 to just 8.6mil, down from "That 70s Show" (8.8mil), and pailing in comparison to what "American Idol" (26.1mil) drew at 9pm. It could have been the intense competition, but even that wasn't so much. "Lost" (19.5mil) was near the top end of its ratings range, while "60 Minutes 2" (10.6mil) was near a season high. NBC was out of it with "Swimsuit Model" (5.6mil), while "Smallville" (4.7mil) continues to be lackluster. On the UPN, "Road To Stardom" was at a disappointing 2.7mil viewers. At 9pm, it was "The West Wing"s turn to suck as said series sunk to a series low 9.6mil viewers and a tiny 2.7/6 in adults- fourth in the timeslot. While NBC said that the show will most likely be back next season, it's more out of lack of anything new to air in the timeslot than the series strong performance. "Alias" over on ABC hung strong with 11.3mil viewers and a 4.7/11 in adults- down dramatically from "Lost." Considering the competition, however, the ratings really were pretty good, and as "Idol" is likely to decrease once the results shows take over Wednesday, this is really the lowest that the series will go. so ABC definitely has something to cheer about. Over on CBS, an hour of "King of Queens" (9.8mil) was third, while "Jack & Bobby" (2.2mil) and "Kevin Hill" (2.2mil) were in a race to the bottom- and both lost. In the late hour, "CSI NY" took first in viewers (13.9mil), while "Law & Order" (13.2mil) was second. "Wife Swap" was near a season low 9.3mil viewers, but it did manage a second in adults over NBC. (February 10) Gilmore third on Tuesday Even 5 seasons in, the WB's "Gilmore Girls" continues to surprise in the ratings. It's 100th episode drew 6.3mil viewers, falling behind, of course, "Idol" (28.7mil) and "NCIS" (12.7mil), but beating out ABC (6.1mil avg), NBC's "Most Outrageous Moments" (6.1mil) and the UPN (2.1mil avg). Yes, the WB was third at 8pm on Tuesday. Want the even better news? The show tied for second in adults with a 2.8/7. "One Tree Hill" followed it with 4.2mil viewers, nothing spectacular. The big news in my house last night was the finale of "The Amazing Race," which failed to match the numbers for its last finale. Still, at 12.6mil viewers and a 5.1/13 in adults, it was second in its timeslot. Winning at 9pm was "House," which, rather surprisingly is doing a much better job at holding "Idol"s audience than "24" did last season. The show drew 15mil viewers and a 5.9/14 in adults, taking both measures. At 10pm, "SVU" (14.3mil) was NBC only bright spot as both "Scrubs" (6.5mil) and "Committed" (5.5mil) are obviously not working for the network. As "NYPD Blue" leads up to its finale, it cant seem to pique viewer interest- only 9.7mil of the bothered to watch the 4th to last episode. (February 9) "Supernanny" a Monday winner Despite stiff competition in the 10pm timeslot on Monday, ABC's "Supernanny" is quitely becoming tv's unsung hero. The show drew a series high 11.4mil viewers on Monday, despite "Medium" (14.1mil) and "CSI Miami" (18.8mil) also staying in solid ranges. The show also drew a 4.7/12 in adults, not too far behind the numbers for second place "Medium" (5.8/14). The show also ranked in the top 20 last week in households. This is starting to look like a Wednesdays at 10pm situation where the CBS and NBC duke it out with dramas, while ABC picks up viewers with a reality show. Compared to the same Monday last season, ABC was up 62% in the timeslot, NBC 14%, while CBS dipped 8%. So obviously, the networks have grown their audience in the slot thanks to some saavy moves. To viewers who deride reality series- there are some timeslots where it is simply not worth developing expensive new series. ABC's Monday line-up is one of them- remember the "Miracles/Practice/Whatever" disaster? ABC's other saavy moves are working on the rest of the night, too. The dirt cheap "How'd They do That?" drew 8mil viewers at 8pm, while "The Bachelorette" hit a season high 9.7mil at 9pm. While none won their timeslots, or even came second, that's pretty good for a night that ABC has written off the past few seasons. Overall, it was up 44% in viewers and 74% in adults 18-49 versus the network premiere of "The Mummy Returns" this Monday last season. This is exactely why ABC is seeing such growth this year- it's not giving up in any timeslot. The network is also poised for some big growth this week as last season is posted only one series in the top 30 for the first full week of sweeps. This week, it could have as many as 7. Elsewhere on Monday, there really was nothing to talk about. "7th Heaven" hit 7mil viewers, staying well above its season averages for the third straight week, while the 7th to final episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" was at a nothing special 17.7mil viewers. "Fear Factor" continues to struggle at 8pm (10.7mil) with two other more family friendly reality series competiting against it, while "24" (11.1mil) was third in its timeslot in viewers, but second in adults. (February 8) Random series news As you all know by now, the UPN has cancelled "Enterprise." While the move to Fridays was paying off at the beginning of the season, since the show came back from the Christmas break, it's failed to break 3mil viewers and has been hovering around a 1 rating in adults. Considering the price, it's a goner. "American Dreams" is also all but dead. NBC is moving to series to Wednesdays at 8pm (the timeslot that killed "Ed") starting in March so that "The Contender" con take over it's Sunday night timeslot. More fuel for the "Home Edition"/"Cold Case" fire, I suppose. NBC has also cut the number of episodes this season from 19 to 17, which means the series has already potentially taped its series finale. Even the producer is not expecting it to be back. In the same timeslot, only over on the WB, the future "Charmed," as I reported in the "Cancellation Clock" section, is also very much up in the air. The writers have a potential series finale in the can just in case. "Charmed"s ratings are down some 20% so far this season. Lack of timeslot support certainly doesn't help, but the show is algo gettting up their in years. Also on the WB, "Blue Collar TV" is moving back to Thursdays in March while the new reality series "The Starlet" will get the go for Sundays at 9pm. (February 8) "Happy Days" at ABC ABC's network themesong these days could very well be "happy days are here again" and the alphabet goes through an unpresicented transformation from fourth to second thanks to multiple hits (not just one, like "Millionaire" last time around). And as the season progresses, it's becoming increasingly clear that ABC is going to be the network to beat in future seasons. Sure, the network was hot last fall, but it had quite a few missteps, like "Complete Savages," and "The Bachelor," to name a few. But since the new year rolled around, ABC is even managing to turn those misfortunes around. "Alias" after "Lost" was a stroke of brillance, "How'd They Do That?" and "Supernanny" are rocking on Mondays, letting "The Bachelorette" to hold audience levels despite moving to a new night, and dumping "Savages" on Friday for repeats of "8 Simple Rules" has helped the entire night. The network has been up at least 20% in the ratings for each of the last four weeks, and now comes sweeps. ABC's problem area was Thursdays, and while specials aren't a long term solution, the "Happy Days" reunion certainly proved that the night is not dead to the network. The reunion drew a spectacular 20mil viewers from 8-10pm, averaging a first place finish over the two hours despite heavy competition on both NBC and CBS. That sent "Joey" (10.0mil) to a new series low for a new episode, while 'Will & Grace" (10.1mil) was only minimally better. "The Apprentice" at 9pm managed 15mil viewers, slightly off its season averages. Over on CBS, "CSI" drew just 24.8mil viewers for a new episode, with ABC obviously siphoning off the 25-54 year old viewers that drive that series. A repeat of the show drew 11.5mil at 8pm, giving ABC a win over the two hour span. The network did dip at 10pm with "PrimeTime" (9.3mil) not holding up well against new episodes of "Without A Trace" (19.3mil) and "ER" (18.1mil). Over on the other networks (otherwise known as the afterthoughts), Fox did manage to get 7.3mil out of "The OC," but that was ruined by the 3.5mil who tuned into "Point Pleasant," worsening the timeslot and making "North Shore" seem like a hit. The UPN was fifth with "Smackdown" (4.5mil), while the WB was two million more viewers behind with the movie "Dr. Doolittle." What's up next for ABC? Well, it doesn't have alot of stunt scheduling planned for this month, and nor does it need it. Thurdays at 8pm will be taken over by "Jake In Progress" in March (which is getting critical raves so far). With the lack of comedy competition in the hour (and a weak NBC not really offering much resistance), ABC could be primed to open up a new night to sitcoms, which would be the best way to go on Thursdays. If the show can draw at least 7 million viewers, it will be a keeper for ABC on the night. And with no comedy competition at 9pm, it could open up that hour as well. "Housewives" will likely only get hotter (Oprah's constant raving certainly isn't hurting), while "Lost" has proved that it can more than stand up to "Idol." What makes ABC's revival so exciting this time is that it's not about one series, it's about a plethora of series that are heating up all at once- "Housewives," "Lost," "Alias," "Home Edition," "Supernanny" -the list goes on and one. And that's something that the rest of the network are sorely lacking. (February 4) CBS has "Num3ers" to win Who'da thunk it? CBS's new drama "Num3ers" premiere to a huge 15.2mil viewers in its new Friday timeslot, massively outdrawing the competition and instantly reversing the net's dying fortunes on the night. It did get a big bump by a special episode of "CSI Miami" (12.2mil) at 9pm, but it still wasn't even close. "20/20" was at an above average 9.5mil viewers while "Medical Investigation" sunk to just 7.2mil viewers opposite the stiff competition. At 8pm, however, CBS wasn't so lucky with "Joan Of Arcadia" struggling to just 7.8mil viewers. Amber Tamblyn wants to leave the series? I wouldn't be so sure that I'd fight to keep her if numbers keep coming in like this. NBC was second on the night with two episodes of "Dateline" performing well (10.1mil, 11.5mil), while ABC was third with the picking-up-steam "8 Simple Rules (7.8mil, 8.2mil for a repeat) coming in for the cancelled "Complete Savages." At 9pm, "Hope & Faith" & "Less Than Perfect" averaged a rough 7mil viewers. But that was still leaps and bounds better than Fox, which is now 0 for 2 in the new mid season drama department. 'Point Pleasant" sunk to 4.2mil viewers on Thursday, and now "Johnny Zero" comes up with only 3.5mil, 5th in the timeslot, beating only a repeat of "Road To Stardom" (1.3mil) on the UPN. The biggest news of the night on the WB was the series finale of "Grounded For Life," but viewers didn't seem to care: the episode came up with only 2.5mil viewers. (January 29) "Lost" continues to draw opposite "Idol" ABC's "Lost" continues to amass a sizeable audience- more impressive still is the fact that it was in repeats and opposite "American Idol." The show drew 12mil viewers at 8pm- a record for a repeat of the series, ranking second in the timeslot. "Idol" (26.7mil) of course, was first, with "60 Minutes" (9.5mil) coming in third. Then there was a huge drop, with "Swinsuit Model" coming in at just 4.6mil viewers, just ahead of "Smallville" (4.2mil), which in turn hit a series low for a new episode. "Road To Stardom" (2.1mil) continues to flounder on the UPN. At 9pm, "The Simple Life" debuted to a solid 13.3mil viewers, but the real story was "Alias" (11.5mil), which decreased just 4% on its lead-in in viewers, but increased 26% in adults. Yes, "Alias" has finally found its niche. The real test will come when "Idol" moves to 9pm next week, but it should do okay. "King of Queens" was third in the hour with an average of 11.4mil viewers, while "The West Wing hit a season low of 10.8mil. Over on the WB, the return of "Jack & Bobby" was met with a wide sea of blahness, drawing just 2.4mil viewers, only 100,000 more than a repeat "Kevin Hill" on the UPN. At 10pm, "CSI NY" drew 17mil viewers, much thanks to a Katie Couric special on NBC (10mil) and a repeat "Wife Swap" (7.5mil). (January 27) "Idol" down, but "House" benefits "American Idol" took a tumble on Tuesday, but that didn't stop lead-out "House" to benefit from the much improved lead-in. TV's premiere reality series drew 27.6mil viewers on Wednesday- down about 6 million from its premiere, but up slight from the numbers it drew last week. It was, of course, overwealmingly first in its timeslot and gave lead-out "House" a record 12.8mil viewers- better than "24" performaned in the timeslot at this point last season, but still down more than 50% from its lead-in. Why isn't Fox able to find a suitable lead-out for this reality series? "The Simple Life" may just change all of that tonight on the network. CBS was second overall with a repeat "NCIS" (11.7mil) holding strong at 8pm. "The Amazing Race" (11.8mil) rebounded and drew its best numbers since early December, while at 10pm, "Judging Amy" (11mil) was second, but third in adults. Also in the hour, "NYPD Blue" (9.2mil) is huffing towards its finale, while the increasingly great "SVU" (14.7mil) once again blew away to hour. Other dramas on the night included the return of "Gilmore Girls" (5mil) and "One Tree Hill" (4.2mil) to slightly lower numbers than they drew last fall, while "Veronica Mars" slipped to 1.8mil for a repeat on the UPN. And now onto the sitcoms. They seem to be the ones hardest hit by the surge of any reality series, and Tuesday was no exception. On ABC, "My Wife & Kids (6.9mil) and "George Lopez" (6.8mil) were near series low, while the UPN had "All Of Us" (2.3mil) and "Eve" (2.2mil) continuing to struggle. At 9pm, "According To Jim" (10.7mil) was back at pre-"Idol" numbers, while lead-out "Rodney" (9.5mil) held quite a bit of that. The real losers came on NBC, where, even with Colin Ferrell, "Scrubs" could only draw 7.3mil, while "Committed" dipped to 6.7mil. (January 26) "Medium" continues to roll NBC is continuing to get good returns from "Medium" as the drama brought in 15.7mil viewers in week four, nearly matching its premiere numbers in both viewers and adults. Helping was the fact that "CSI Miami" (14.9mil) was in repeats, and the fact that the rest of NBC's Monday night line-up, "Fear Factor" (11.2mil) and "Las Vegas" (12.2mil) is not in shambles like much of NBC's schedule. ABC was also a factor in the hour with "Supernanny" (10mil) continuing to put up good numbers, giving ABC something futher to cheer about. An hour earlier, CBS was the winner in viewers with repeats of "Raymond" (14.9mil) and "Men" (13.6mil), while "24" (12.3mil) took the hour in adults. NBC was third, with ABC's "The Bachelorette" (8.3mil) taking fourth. Many have deridded this series' performance, but the fact of the matter is that it is showing solid gains for ABC on the night and is on par with the performance of "The Bachelor" last fall, which had double the lead-in. "Everwood" (5mil) was fifth. At 8pm, there wasn't much to talk about with NBC first, CBS second, and ABC third with "How'd They Do That?" (9.5mil)."7th Heaven" had a pretty good night, bringing in 7.8mil viewers and tying "Trading Spouses" for the hour. Nothing on the UPN was worth noting. (January 25) "Lost" dents "Idol" Although Fox still won the 8pm timeslot on Wednesday, ABC can heave a hugh sigh of relief as it's line-up held up against the intense competition. "Idol" drew 26.4mil viewers for its Wednesday premiere, down some 3 million viewers from last season and down 7 million from its Tuesday premiere of this season. "Lost," meanwhile, drew 19.6mil viewers, down about a million from its most recent episode, but still ranking as the third most watched this season. "Idol" drew an 11.4/27 in adults, compared to a 7.3/18 for "Lost." At 9pm, ABC outright won with "Alias" (14mil) drawing identical ratings to last week, while Fox's premiere of "Point Pleasant" sunk to 11.7mil, second in the timeslot. At 10pm, ABC was third with "Wife Swap" (10mil). There were actually some left over viewers on the night, and CBS and NBC took advantage of that. "King Of Queens" (13mil) was at a season high at 10pm, and "Law & Order" (15.2mil) was close to on at 10pm. Also at 9pm, "Centre of The Universe" (10.4mil) managed to beat out "The West Wing" (11mil) in adults, while at 10pm, a "CSI New York" repeat (10.7mil) was second. The bloodshed came at 8pm where "60 Minutes" was at a low 8.5mil, while "Model Search" on NBC sunk to just 4.2mil viewers. Even worse was "Road To Stardom" on the UPN, which attracted just 2mil viewers. (January 20) "American Idol" soars to record I was one of those naysayers who thought that "Idol" was going to take a dip this season, but that became anything but true on Tuesday night as the fourth edition opened to an amazing 33.5 million viewers, the series second best results ever, even up over last season's finale. The show drew an equally eye popping 14.0/33 in adults 18-49, giving Fox something to be extremely happy about. Will the show keep it up? The auditions which open the series typically rate 25 to 33% better than the regular competition, so ratings will come down, but expanding the auditions to 10 episodes was a very smart move by Fox. Was there room for the other networks on the night? Well, CBS didn't lose much at all with "NCIS" (14.7mil), "The Amazing Race" (10.5mil) and "Judging Amy" (11.5mil) just about equalling their last new episodes. NBC did okay at 8pm with a "Biggest Loser" reunion (8.5mil), and "SVU" at 10pm (15.6mil) was just as strong as ever. It was, unfortunately, "Scrubs" (6.5mil) that took the hit, and new comedy "Committed" (5.7mil) dropped even more of that audience. ABC's sitcom line-up was particularly hard hit, peaking with "Jim" (9mil), while neither the WB nor the UPN bother to air anything new. (January 19) "Lost," "Alias" still red hot Another Wednesday, another impressive result from the gripping "Lost" on ABC. Though the show was down from its series high last week, it still drew 20.7mil viewers, it's second best results ever. "Alias" was also down at 9pm, but still drew the series 3 best results ever at 14.5mil viewers. It was down 30% in viewers from "Lost," (much better than the 50% that "The Bachelor" dropped last fall), but a lesser 21% in adults (6.1/15 vs 7.8/21). Both were overwealmingly first in their timeslots. "Wife Swap" (9.7mil) was third at 10pm, but is still putting up much better numbers than "Karen Sisco" last season. CBS was second overall with strong numbers all around. "60 Minutes" (10.6mil) was second at 8pm, "King of Queens" (11.5mil) and "Centre of The Universe" (9.5mil) were third at 9pm, while "CSI NY" (14mil) was second at 10pm, though it was tied for first in adults. NBC was third overall with the 6.3mil who tuned in for "Swimsuit Model" averaging out the 15mil who watched Elizabeth Rohm leave "Law & Order" and the 12mil who tuned into the reinvigorated "West Wing." Fox was pretty much out of the race at 8pm with Fox's sitcoms drawing 5.5mil viewers, while "Nanny 911" increased to a strong 9.6mil at 9pm and a second place finish in adults. Will Fox let this show sit on the sidelines? Why not bring it back for Fridays? Over on the UPN, "Road To Stardom" (3.4mil) beat out a repeat of "Smallville" (3.2mil) (seriously, when is the WB going to air original episodes again?), while the slumping "Kevin Hill" (2.7mil) still beat out "Big Man" (1.7mil). (January 13) "Passions" roars to series highs With a story headline that you NEVER, EVER see, a soap actually hit a series high last week. That soap was the now riveting "Passions" as viewers were salivating to find out exactely what was going to happen next. The series averaged a 2.2/14 rating among women 18-49, tying its series high set 3 years ago, and a 2.9/16 in women 18-34. In absolute numbers, 1.472 million women 18-49 tuned in, a record, and the Tuesday episode (Jan 4th) saw 1.587 million of those women and 1.084 women 18-34, both series records for single episodes. It ranked 4th on the week in women 18-49, it's highest ranking ever, off just 15% from its "Days" lead-in in the broader demo (2.6/16), and second in the younger demo, off just 3%, another series record. Although the household ratings will not come out until Friday, "Passions" has a very real chance of climbing out of 9th place for the first time ever, maybe climbing as high as 7th. It's truly a good time to be a "Passions" fan. (January 13) "Medium," "24," ABC strong Monday Monday turned out to be a strong night for the networks with three series bringing home good ratings and three networks thanking god that viewers actually showed up. The happiest network, without a doubt, was NBC, which saw "Medium" (16.3mil) increase on its premiere numbers to become the highest rated series of the night. It beat out a repeat of "CSI Miami" (13.7mil) by a comfortable margin and increased on its lead-in by 31% ("Las Vegas" (12.5mil), even if "Fear Factor" (10.7mil) wasn't too hot earlier in the night. Over on Fox, "24" (12.5mil) premiered to its best premiere numbers yet, winning its timeslot on adults by a comfortable margin. ABC's good news came in two forms: at 8pm, "How'd They Do That?" drew 11.6mil viewers, and "The Bachelorette" drew 9.3mil at 9pm. The numbers for the "Home Edition" spin-off are great because the series costs literally nothing to produce (it's literally like having a "Behind the scenes" type series) and beat ABC's numbers from last year by some 50%. The numbers for "The Bachelorette" were great considering that the franchise is dying and just moved to a new timeslot, and its 4.3/10 in adults beats all the results from the fall edition of "The Bachelor." ABC is certainly smiling- with Mondays out of the way, it still has a chance at beat CBS on the season in adults (it currently trails by 0.08 points). Elsewhere on Monday, CBS was below par with a line-up of repeats while the WB got nothing out of the "Critic's TV Awards" (2.8mil). Random ratings news It's not good enough for its own TV Talk edition, so here is random TV news for the week just ended. The big news is that ABC is now within striking distance of CBS on the season in adults. The eye currently leads 4.03 to 3.95 ratings points (if numbers are rounded, they are tied). If it should overcome, it would be a huge coup for the network that was in 4th place at the end of last season. Considering that ABC will outdraw CBS in adults on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, guaranteed, there is a real chance of this happening. With Monday now okay, the real work is to be done on Thursday. If the network could manage a 2.5 rating on the night, it would likely be able to take the crown. ABC is the top network in most of the younger demos, including kids 2-11, teens and adults 18-34, and although the total viewers crown is out of reach, it could have a shot at adults 25-54 as well. ABC is also the most affluent network according to Nielsen, taking over the title from long front runner NBC. In season-to-date news, "ER" has fallen out of the top 10 for the first time ever. Averaging a series low 15.6mil viewers, it ranks 13th on the season, behind 7 other dramas, after ranking as the number 2 drama just last season. Will NBC keep it at $7 million an episode? It still ranks 3rd in adults, so odds are good that "ER" will be around for a while yet. And with two editions of "American Idol" yet to come and another "The Apprentice," "ER" could fall out of the top 20 all together on the season factoring in repeats. Elsewhere, ABC has 4 series in the top 10 after having just 1 a year ago, and CBS has the other 6. For the first time in at least 20 years, NBC has been shut out of the lucrative group. Also in the top 10 at number 7 is "Alias," surprizingly, with its huge premiere numbers giving it the boost. The other big news is that "Will & Grace" is officially on the chopping block. If "Committed" stays above 10 million viewers, NBC will likely cancel the aging sitcom (how bad can this show get? It's clearly out of steam) due to cost. A new sitcom costs roughly $1.3 million an episode up until season 5, while "W&G" is currently tagged at $4 million. (January 11) "Will & Grace" officially out It would be the current moral climate of the country, but it could be that the show is just plain over. Whatever it is, NBC would be hard pressed to renew "Will & Grace" for another season after the lame performances it's been delievering all season. The show drew just 10.1mil viewers on Thursday at 9pm, down from the 11.9mil that "Committed" drew at 8:30 and the 12.5mil that "Joey" did at 8pm. A repeat of the show drew an even worse 9.3mil at 9:30pm. So why would NBC cancel this show? Unless it expands its sitcom line-up next year (which is unlikely), the show is too costly. With "Committed" looking okay so far (performing as well as "Will & Grace"), "Scrubs" already renewed for next season and "Joey" costing just over a million dollars an episode, paying $4 million an episode for "Will & Grace"s 10 million viewers is not looking like such a sweet deal after all. A repeat of "Medium" drew 9.3mil at 10pm. CBS was the overall winner on the night, despite "Wickedly Perfect" drawing only 9.6mil at 8pm. "CSI" (28.7mil) was in usual form and "Without A Trace" (23.7mil) managed to hit a series high. ABC was third overall with an okay performance from "PrimeTime" (8.7mil), but the time period premiere of "Extreme Makeover" (5.9mil) at 9pm was less than spectacular., but "life as we know it" at 8pm was not as bad as it seems. Despite competeing against "The OC" (7.8mil), at 4.4mil viewers it managed its best performance since October. Although that's still deadly low, it's not as bad as it seems. "Smackdown" drew a season high 5.3mil viewers for the UPN while the WB was out with a movie (2.8mil). (January 7) Alias, Lost break out With Jerry Bruckheimer on CBS and Mark Burnett on the eye and NBC, ABC was the only network of the big three without a super producer, but now more. Thans to regular-slot series highs from both "Lost" and "Alias," ABC is now hailing JJ Abrams. "Lost" drew a huge 21.7mil viewers and a 8.4/21 in adults on Wednesday, overwheamling dominating its timeslot. "60 Minutes" was second with a season high 11mil viewers, while third went to NBC and the lackluster premiere of "Swinsuit Model Search" (7mil). "That 70s Show" (6.3mil) and "Quintuplets" (5.7mil) beat the only other original programming in the hour, the UPN's disappointing "Road To Stardom" (3.2mil). Tell me again why Fox would renew "That 70s Show" for another season? It would be better off airing repeats of "The Simpsons" in the hour. At 9pm, "Alias" busted out to 17.5mil viewers and a huge 7.3/17 in adults 18-49, a much better performance than the network got from "The Bachelor" last fall. "The West Wing" was an average second with 12.4mil viewers, while both "King of Queens" (11.4mil) and "Center of The Universe" (10.2mil) were near their season averages. "Nanny 911" hit a series high 10mil viewers over on Fox and tied CBS for second in adults. Over on the mini-nets, "Kevin Hill" (2.8mil) beat out "Big Man" (1.8mil) for fifth. In the last hour of the night, "Alias" did lose 3 million viewers, but was still first in viewers over "Law & Order" (14.3mil) and "CSI NY" (12.8mil). "Alias" was also first in adults with a 6.2/16, declining 15% from its first hour versus 18% in adults. (January 6) |