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Once upon a time in the fairy-tale world of broadcast television, there was a network that got exactly what it most wished for…
ABC: And that network was ABC. ONCE UPON A TIME launched beautifully against male-skewing football and baseball, and was actually within hailing distance of the first half hour of the World Series and Sunday Night Football at 8:30PM (admittedly a wicked witch had cursed the football game, but we’ll get to that). Next week the competition gets a lot tougher with the traditionally very strong “Treehosue of Horror” episode of The Simpsons, but for now it’s a tremendous success story. Once Upon A Time even lifted the leaky boat of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES to a more tolerable level, although it couldn’t do anything for PAN AM, which won’t last forever with its current sub-2 rating.CBS: The network had the late afternoon football game, so 60 MINUTES received a boost. THE GOOD WIFE was down by a tick, which isn’t good when you don’t have many ticks to spare. CSI MIAMI was also down, but that’s probably attributable to the unusual baseball competition on FOX.
FOX: I’m probably representative of much of America in finding it interesting to hear that this year’s Series is a good one, but not enough to actually watch a game. The Series to date is barely avoiding baseball’s basement, but Game 6 should perk up on Wednesday, and a Game 7 would make FOX’s month.
NBC: SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL is disproportionately important for NBC due to the awfulness of its regular schedule, so a game that starts out with a 2-touchdown point spread and turns into a 55-point blowout is a nightmare. Next week’s game should rebound somewhat, as Dallas and Philadelphia are both marquee teams despite their mediocre records this season.
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