Articles

July 31, 2012
 

THE SKED’S MONDAY SCRIPTED CABLE SCORECARD – 7/30/12

 

Probably not surprisingly, the cable show hardest hit by the Olympics on Monday night was WWE RAW on USA, which fell from 2.3 to 1.5 for the evening, ending up behind LOVE AND HIP-HOP on VH1, which was down only 0.2 to 1.8.  Nothing scripted came close to either.

TNT:  THE CLOSER, entering its home stretch with a “shocking” episode ending that was a bit too telegraphed, was essentially untouched by the Olympics, maintaining a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demo (about 25% of its total viewers).  PERCEPTION fell to 0.7 in the demo, and lost 800,000 total viewers, not boding well for when it loses its lead-in, especially since one thing Closer isn’t doing particularly well on the way out is setting up Mary McDonnell as the new face of the franchise.

SYFY:  WAREHOUSE 13 and ALPHAS both declined significantly from last week’s season premieres, and particularly in Alphas‘ case, they didn’t have much room to fall.  Warehouse was down to 0.6 and lost half a million viewers, while Alphas slumped to 0.5, down 400,000 viewers.  (Both shows are about 50/50 between 18-49s and older viewers.)  The shows need to stabilize quickly if they’re to keep control of their destinies.

ABC FAMILY:  Both BUNHEADS and THE SECRET LIFE OF AN AMERICAN TEEN were slammed last night, whether because of the Olympics (the appeal of gymnastics and swimming?) or some other reason, with Secret Life falling from 0.7 to 0.5, while Bunheads slumped from 0.6 to 0.4, and each show lost about 400,000 total viewers.  Since both shows were equally hit, the network might regard the declines as aberrations (although it also might want to consider airing rerun episodes against the Olympics next week).

MTV:  TEEN WOLF either got older or younger this week, as its 18-49 demo rose to 0.7 while losing about 50,000 total viewers, meaning its viewers were more concentrated in the 18-49 age group, while those on either end of the demo had something else to do (like watch the Olympics).



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."