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| 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) |