Articles

April 16, 2012
 

THE SKED’S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 4/15/12

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NYC 22 goes down with the ship.
CBS:  It was almost a full year ago that CBS announced the arrival of NYC 22 (which has changed titles since then), and after all that time… nobody cared.  The show debuted to a terrible 1.5, unable even to hold its mediocre 1.8 lead-in from THE GOOD WIFE (which had one of its strongest episodes of the season, thanks in part to guest star Matthew Perry as a very, very nasty politician), and unless something miraculous happens to change things in the next week or two, its stay on the airwaves will be short and sour.  The only half-decent news for the network was from THE AMAZING RACE, which tied its lowest rating of the past 6 weeks but at least won its hour.  (Race‘s 2.5 was the highest rated show on any network last night, and it’ll be interesting to see how close Game of Thrones comes to beating all the networks despite being in only 25% of US homes.)  With no major sports lead-in, even a Mike Wallace tribute hour on 60 MINUTES tied the season low.   

ABC:  It’s not clear whether the network was experimenting with or dumping its TITANIC miniseries, which aired a highly unusual 3 original hours on Saturday and the concluding hour last night.  In any case, the result was a dreadful 0.9, killing GCB, which sank all the way down to a series-low 1.5.  Next Sunday, the 9-11PM shows are preempted for a TV-movie, which won’t help GCB get back any momentum.  ONCE UPON A TIME was a 1.1 repeat, but AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS won the 7PM hour with a 1.5.
FOX:  The FOX Sunday schedule has been confusing for the past few weeks, with THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY taking random weeks off.  It may be taking its toll, as Simpsons returned with a new episode for the first time in a month with a low 2.2.  BOB’S BURGERS held on pretty well with a 1.8, up from its last new episode, and then it was Family Guy‘s turn for a rerun, pushing THE CLEVELAND SHOW (back from the Siberia of 7:30PM) to a 2.0.
NBC:  The atypically low competition on the other networks didn’t help CELEBRITY APPRENTICE, which held at last week’s 2.1.  HARRY’S LAW was down a tick to 0.9.
Tonight’s schedule features new episodes of every regular series except HAWAII 5-0, which is a repeat.  SMASHWatch will see if last week’s bait-and-switch (promoting Uma Thurman all week, only to have her show up in the last 15 seconds of the episode) dissipates any viewer excitement over her actual performance.



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."