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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 2.2 rating, which while tying a season low was only 0.2 away from winning its hour (albeit against a repeat on CBS). In fact, Smash‘s steady rating was even more notable because THE VOICE could only give it a season-low lead-in of 4.4. UPDATE: BUT NOT QUITE SO NOTABLE IN THE NIGHT’S FINAL RATINGS–THE VOICE INCREASED TO A 4.5, BUT SMASH FELL TO A NEW SERIES LOW 2.1.
ABC: The woes of DANCING WITH THE STARS continue. Last night the show was down 40% from the previous year’s spring cycle, down 0.4 from the current cycle’s premiere last week, and only a few tenths away from a series low. CASTLE, again airing against a CBS repeat, managed to climb slightly from last week.
FOX: ALCATRAZ made very little argument for a repeat term with a 1.5 for its 2-hour season finale, in 4th place for both hours and also a series low.
CBS: An all-repeat night that was consistent with other the network’s rerun Mondays.
CW The theatrical flop CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (this was the one that tried to make Isla Fisher a movie star, featuring conspicuous consumption just as the recession was hitting) did a 0.4, about the same as the network’s repeats normally do.
Tonight ABC preempts LAST MAN STANDING and COUGAR TOWN for a Dancing With the Stars recap hour at 8PM, then restores the Dancing results show to its line-up at 9PM, which should give the network an uptick from The River. FOX hopes that a RAISING HOPE repeat can do better than the all-but-dead I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER had at 8:30PM, giving NEW GIRL a little more of a lead-in.
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