The question, as it is every summer:  will the viewers come back in the fall? ABC:  DUETS got off to a bad start last week, and despite little competition, it was down to a 1.5 in its second installment.  ROOKIE BLUE was even with last week at 1.4, but that was 2d place […]

> 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 […]

More distortions by local coverage of NFL Preseason games, especially on CBS and FOX. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over […]

> The last Sunday of November sweeps wasn’t music to the ears of anyone. ABC:  The AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS matched its 2010 number–which would be better news if the 2010 rating hadn’t been its lowest ever, down more than 20% from the year before.  However, that’s still far better than the network has been doing […]

> People will watch anything over an episode of CHUCK. NBC:  Facing nothing but repeats, a new Chuck could do no better than 4th place in its hour with a sad 0.8.  The GRIMM repeat did half the rating of the CSI MIAMI repeat at 9, but a new DATELINE did manage to win the […]

>REVENGE… not so sweet.ABC: It was finally time for Revenge to wind itself back around and reach the flashforward that started the pilot, climaxing the series’ initial plotline, but viewers weren’t all that interested, with a 2.4 that was slightly below last week and around where the show has been for the past month. As […]

  Lots of reruns. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons follow the […]

> SMASHWatch tries to convince itself that ratings are all that matter.  UPDATE:  AND MAYBE NOT THEM EITHER–SEE BELOW. NBC:  After last night’s dreadful SMASH–the first to have no connection at all to observable reality–deposed showrunner Theresa Rebeck (who wrote the episode) can’t leave the building soon enough.  But the show held on to its […]