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FOX’s 4-sitcom Tuesday excited no one.
FOX: I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER and BREAKING IN made unimpressive returns to the schedule. Daughter could claim a decent retention of its RAISING HOPE lead-in, and it also won the head-to-head sitcom battle at 8:30PM–but really there’s nothing good about a 1.6 premiere. Breaking In had less excuse, falling to an ugly 1.7 from NEW GIRL‘s strong 3.0 lead-in, which was the highest number on any network last night. And even though Raising Hope handled its shift to 8PM well, it aired against an ABC repeat last night, so future results may not be as strong.
ABC: The network actually aired some good programming last night, to little avail. COUGAR TOWN had a funny half-hour directed by Courtney Cox, and for Bill Lawrence fans, it had the additional pleasure of a guest appearance by Scrubs‘ Sarah Chalke. After that, THE RIVER finally delved into what’s supposed to be the show’s central mystery–just what happened to Dr. Emmett Cole–which allowed Bruce Greenwood to appear in more than snippets, in a creepy hour directed by Michelle McLaren. For their troubles, the show got matching lousy 1.5 ratings, 4th place for their slots. (Cougar Town at least had the excuse that it rose from its repeat LAST MAN STANDING lead-in, but as its cast members continue to flock to 2d position pilot deals, that doesn’t matter much.) The evening ended with a terrible 0.9 for a BODY OF PROOF repeat that was beaten by primary election coverage on NBC.
NBC: THE BIGGEST LOSER fell to a season and possibly a series low, dipping below a 2 for the first time. At 10PM, a DECISION 2012 special scored a not-embarrassing-for-a-news-special 1.0.
CBS: All repeats, which were still enough to win all but the 9-9:30PM half-hour of the night.
CW: 90210 returned after a month off with a fine (CW level) 0.7, but RINGER dipped to a 0.5 after that.
Tonight’s only new arrival is REVENGE FOR REAL, which ABC will use to sucker in Revenge fans rather than air repeats. The network is giving it a bit of a lead-in with a new HAPPY ENDINGS (although that show’s rating will be lowered by having a repeat MODERN FAMILY as its own lead-in). NBC airs new sitcoms at 8-9PM, and apart from that, only the unscripted shows on all the networks are original.
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