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Dancing doesn’t mambo as fast as it used to.
ABC: The DANCING WITH THE STARS results show did a whole lot better at 9PM than The River‘s ratings, winning the hour with a 3.0 (compared to River‘s mid-1 numbers). But the Dancing franchise is fading, and as with the performance show on Monday, Tuesday’s results were down a sharp 30+% from last year. The network started the night with a Dancing recap special whose 1.9 was just about where LAST MAN STANDING and COUGAR TOWN have been for the hour (and, again, down about a third from last year’s recap special). The return of Dancing, though, did jolt BODY OF PROOF into a semblance of life, winning its hour with a 2.1 that was 50% higher than recent original episodes.FOX: The network has to survive one more week of its unfortunate 4-sitcom experiment and hope that no lasting damage has been done. NEW GIRL fell to yet another series low (its trajectory over the last 4 weeks: 3.0/2.8/2.7/2.5) and could only manage a 3rd place finish in its hour. RAISING HOPE fared even worse with a 4th place season low 1.5 (4 week trajectory: 2.1/1.8/1.6/1.5). BREAKING IN, with an episode that predictably had the show falling down the rabbit hole of Megan Mullally mannerisms, was a tick up to a 1.4 that’s unlikely to matter much.
NBC: THE BIGGEST LOSER fell below a 2 for the first time ever with a regular episode, and FASHION STAR hit a new low 1.5.
CBS: Even the night’s winner hovered at or near season lows: NCIS tied its low with 3.4, NCIS LA and UNFORGETTABLE were respectively 0.2 and 0.1 above their lows with 2.9 and 2.0.
CW: 90210 did a decent enough 0.7, but RINGER is running out of time with a 0.5 and just a couple of new episodes left before its finale.
Tonight–restrain your excitement!–NBC airs the season (?) finales of WHITNEY and ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA?, followed by 2 more burn-off episodes of BENT. CBS has a new SURVIVOR and then repeats, and ABC again stabs HAPPY ENDINGS in the heart by making it the only new show in its line-up.
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