Another new show could be headed for the exits.
ABC: 666 PARK AVENUE continued to fall, down another 0.2 to 1.5, and only a deal with the devil is likely to save it. Worse for ABC, though, might have been the 3.0 for ONCE UPON A TIME, down 0.4 from last week, and looking like its breakout hit days are behind it. In that context, the 0.1 rise for REVENGE to 2.7 looked awfully good.
CBS: Without the national late NFL game (although the network did have an overrun), 60 MINUTES fell a point to 2.6. THE AMAZING RACE and THE GOOD WIFE were both stable, at 2.6 and 1.7 respectively. THE MENTALIST, perhaps helped by ABC’s collapse at 10PM, had a very healthy increase of 0.4 to 2.0.
FOX: It bears repeating that the value of live sports on TV isn’t just in raw numbers, but in the male demos who watch, and the fact that short of changing the channel or leaving the room, the commercials are less easy to escape. Otherwise, FOX’s recent $4B renewal of its baseball deal (around $500M per year for 8 years) might seem spendthrift in light of the preliminary 1.9 rating for the start of last night’s NATIONAL LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYOFFS, lower than the network normally does with its animation line-up.
NBC: Football, on the other hand, needs no explanation, as the Peacock took its customary Fall Sunday victory with a preliminary 6.9 for NFL FOOTBALL.
Everything is new tonight (FOX continues to be preempted for baseball), and the numbers that should be particularly interesting are those for PARTNERS (can it justify its continued Monday existence?), REVOLUTION (will it slip below 3.0 for the 1st time?) and GOSSIP GIRL/90210 (can they at least hold at last week’s awful season premiere numbers?).
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