>
On a rare night this week not affected by baseball, a mixed set of results for the networks.
NBC: The strategy of double-pumping WHITNEY and PRIME SUSPECT with repeat episodes on Mondays and Wednesdays in order to expose new viewers to the shows backfired: those people must not have liked what they saw, because both series fell to new lows, a terrible 2.0 for Whitney and a worse 1.3 for Suspect. On any other network (except CW), that would get them both cancelled, but the truth is that with NBC in its current state, it’s hard to tell just what the network will find “acceptable.” Incredibly, with the exception of football and THE OFFICE (which held up well, albeit 20% below last year’s average), there won’t be a single show on NBC this week with a rating over 2.1. In comparison, the entire Sun-Thurs CBS schedule probably won’t have a single show under that mark. Depending on what ratings were proffered to advertisers in this year’s Upfront sales, the network may need to air a tremendous number of “make-good” (i.e., free) ads in compensation for under-delilvery.ABC CHARLIE’S ANGELS had s slight uptick from last week (and the network instantly issued a press release to crow about it), but let’s face it: a 1.3 and 5th place in the timeslot (behind CW) isn’t good news, and it’s hard to imagine the show seeing the lights of November in its current timeslot. GREY’S ANATOMY was up, but still 20% below last year’s average, while PRIVATE PRACTICE was also up and a more reasonable 15% below last year.
CBS: A BIG BANG THEORY rerun proved far more compatible with the show’s new episode than How To Be A Gentleman had been. The bad news was that even with a much stronger lead-in, and an enormous amount of promo attention from the network, PERSON OF INTEREST barely ticked up and still ranked in 3d place for its hour. THE MENTALIST just barely edged out Private Practice to take the hour at 10PM.
FOX: The network finally got to air a regularly scheduled night of programming, but all the confusion of this past week may have taken a small toll, as X FACTOR declined slightly. However, it was still strong enough to give FOX a comfortable win for the night.
CW: VAMPIRE DIARIES had a good outing that was even with last season’s average, but it didn’t do anything for its companion THE SECRET CIRCLE, which lost more than 40% of its lead-in’s number.
About the Author
More articles by Mitch Salem »
