Posted Jun 26th 2009 3:00PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Ratings, Reality-Free
With all the press coverage given to Michael Jackson, you'd think a special about his life would trample the ratings of all the other networks. Apparently, that isn't the case as an ABC special about the life of Farrah Fawcett
won in the ratings against a similar Michael Jackson retrospective on CBS.
I think it likely helped that Barbara Walters hosted the ABC special (which was a
20/20 special and therefore had more name value than a generic special), whereas the special on Jacko was simply a CBS documentary. I'm still amazed at the rapid turnaround time that the networks can produce specials like these. They have turned it into an art.
It is debatable over who was the bigger name, although both were icons on their time. Jackson seems to be getting more coverage because his death was more of a surprise than Farrah's. Either way, Thursday was a hell of a day.
Posted Jun 16th 2009 5:02PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Web, Ratings, Reality-Free
ABC's
Lost was the
most watched TV show online in May, ranking up more than 36.4 million total video streams, according to Nielsen VideoCensus. Another ABC show,
Grey's Anatomy, was the second most watched show online with the network's
Desperate Housewives rounding out the top three. All three ABC shows brought in about 80 million online viewers for the month.
Variety posits that May's season finale cliffhangers put the ABC shows on top of the list. That's a fine theory, but here's another one – ABC led the online pack because Nielsen VideoCensus doesn't count any viewing done via Hulu, arguably the most popular site for streaming free online video content from TV networks.
Continue reading Lost is number one online -- if you don't count Hulu
Posted Jun 10th 2009 1:33PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Late Night, Talk Show, Ratings
The ratings for
The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien have been slipping since he took over, which is to be expected. Possibly less expected is that while he's been dipping,
Late Show With David Letterman has seen a slow increase. So much so that last night,
David Letterman beat Conan O'Brien in the ratings. That should certainly help
Letterman's negotiations for that contract extension to 2012. The real question is how will this ratings battle settle down?
Certainly there's no reason for the
Tonight Show camp to panic yet. Letterman stomped Leno for awhile early in Leno's run, when Letterman first jumped to CBS. But Leno is a very different comedian and host than O'Brien. Perhaps too different? The concern isn't so much that O'Brien's numbers are dipping, because the curiosity factor was going to inflate his initial numbers anyway, it's that Letterman's are on the rise. That could be defectors from the Leno era making a move. But should O'Brien even want to bring them back, or should his battle be for new viewers that maybe weren't watching Letterman or Leno.
Continue reading Conan's Tonight Show ratings slip beneath Letterman's
Posted Jun 10th 2009 7:28AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Ratings
Everybody knows Kendra as one of Hugh Hefner's former girlfriends. The one-time stars of E!'s
The Girls Next Door have left the mansion and moved on to their own projects. Bridget Marquardt has moved on to her own Travel Channel show,
Bridget's Sexiest Beaches, while Holly Madison was just on
Dancing with the Stars. It looks like E! went the right route by choosing to follow the youngest and wackiest of the bunch, Kendra Wilkinson.
Her self-titled new show premiered Sunday on E!, and
Kendra set a ratings high not seen since the premiere of The Anna Nicole Show in 2002 with 2.6 million viewers. People love their former Playmates, apparently. As an admitted follower of
The Girls Next Door; my wife has a thing for all things
Playboy and I got sucked in despite myself; Kendra was always the girl that I found the most annoying. She was so childish and superficial... and that laugh! Oh my god, that laugh made me want to reach through the screen and strangle her! So no one was more surprised than me to find that I actually enjoyed this premiere.
Continue reading Kendra's the biggest thing since Anna Nicole for E!
Posted Jun 8th 2009 2:04PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Apprentice, Celebrities, Big Brother (US), Dancing With The Stars, Ratings, Celebreality
I can't watch
I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! The show is basically
Big Brother but with an unwillingness to compete. Why do celebrities sign up for physically and mentally demanding reality shows when they don't want to compete? I'm looking at you,
Dustin Diamond. To attempt to get some viewer sympathy, the celebrities are playing for charity. I feel bad for the charities that Heidi and Spencer have because I wouldn't want their douchebag antics associated with the charity's image.
Celebrity reality shows can succeed without having to play the charity card. It's all about maintaining the quality level.
Continue reading Charity doesn't make for better TV
Posted Jun 5th 2009 1:34PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Ratings, Reality-Free
Despite
glowing reviews from our own Danny Gallagher, it looks like
The Goode Family is moving. Specifically, it's moving to
Friday nights at 8:30 P.M., which is affectionately known by some as the "death slot". No specific reasons for the move are given, but the words "super low ratings" are used in the article to describe its first two weeks, so that could be a clue.
I did catch the premiere episode of the show online and thought it was cute and an interesting 180 degrees from the
Hank Hill lifestyle that Mike Judge has been working with for 13 years.
Of course, ABC has been cruel to good animated shows before (coughcough
Clerkscoughcough). The show isn't canceled yet, but I give it six episodes. I actually think the show would have fared better on Fox, or given Judge's attempt from this show to skewer extreme liberals, perhaps on Fox News. It probably would have worked better than
The 1/2 Hour News Hour.
Posted Jun 4th 2009 10:10AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Law and Order, Celebrities, Ratings, Reality-Free, Celebreality
If Jay Leno isn't the answer for NBC prime time, perhaps the network should think about booking President Obama. NBC News devoted two hours, on Tuesday and Wednesday night, for
Inside the Obama White House and the
ratings were strong. Better than the insipid
I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here, which acted as a lead-in. Of course the season finale of
Law & Order: SVU on Tuesday didn't hurt the news production.
Having watched the two hours, NBC should sign the president ASAP. There's always the curiosity factor when a viewer is being given access behind the scenes, and that's what
Inside the Obama White House did. It was a look at the real West Wing, which reminded me a lot of the fictional, Aaron Sorkin
West Wing creation, and that was quite cool. President Obama still fascinates me, and
it's well past 100 days.Continue reading NBC scores with Inside the Obama White House
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 3:28PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Ratings
We must really like our televisions to be filled with crap. After all, as a country we continue to support it with nice, big, juicy ratings. Take NBC's
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here debuted with 6.4 million viewers, enough for number one on the night, beating out
The Bachelorette. I didn't watch it, but our own
Jackie contributed to that number. I got enough of Sanjaya on
American Idol thank you very much. Plus, I saw Stephen Baldwin being interviewed for this on
Late Night and right there I'd had enough of the whole show.
But not America, apparently. Maybe it was all the hoopla about
Heidi and Spencer (The Hills) quitting after like 20 minutes because no one would rub their feet or whatever. Did those horrible promos featuring Sanjaya getting set upon by bees really make you want to watch? Was it the last addition of Frangelina?
Mrs. Rod Blagojevich? Or is it the car wreck lookie-loo phenomenon?
Continue reading If you keep watching crap like I'm a Celebrity they'll just make more
Posted May 31st 2009 8:33AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Ratings, Reality-Free
Coming as no surprise to anybody, the final performance of Jay Leno on
The Tonight Show absolutely
slaughtered the ratings of the rerun of
The Late Show with David Letterman. Given the enormity of the event, it's a good thing Dave just decided to hang it up and show a rerun that night in the first place.
I've made no secret of the fact that I've always preferred Letterman to Leno, but even I can see how Leno's laid-back, straight-forward presentation style seems more palatable with mainstream America than Dave's snark and wit. But then, I've never had anything resembling mainstream tastes.
Jay now moves to 10 P.M. and Conan takes his place as Letterman's direct competitor. Leno's style does suit the more family-friendly hour he's been placed at. Starting Monday we'll learn whether it was the man or the name-brand built by Leno and those before him that kept people watching
The Tonight Show.
Posted May 28th 2009 1:03PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Ratings, Reality-Free
Good news for all you
Reaper fans who are disappointed at the lack of renewal of your favorite Satanic show.
TV Guide reports a
surge in the number of people watching the final episode (2.22 million). I haven't kept up with the individual episode ratings, but I assume they were less. Sadly, it still got beat in viewership numbers by
According to Jim, which is why it is still difficult to think of The CW as a real network.
Seriously, the show is still in the market, and this lends a strong case to allowing the show to get picked up elsewhere. The ratings show there is still an interest (hopefully not brought about by a lack of interest in the competition). I could see
Reaper working on a cable channel such as SyFy or Comedy Central, although it may require an even greater drop in production cost if that's possible.
Posted May 27th 2009 11:22AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Ratings
You just
knew that the perfect storm of tabloid stories, very effective ads and promos, and a holiday where nothing else was on was going to make for
boffo ratings for the
Jon & Kate Plus 8 season premiere. But the numbers are staggering by almost any standard: 9.8 million people viewed the train wreck on Monday night, surpassing the numbers for any network -- broadcast or cable -- that night and doubling TLC's previous high water mark. What was that mark? The season four finale of
Jon & Kate, of course.
I can't cast any aspersions on the size of the audience, because I gladly flipped on TLC to see
the 73 minutes of extreme discomfort. And, boy, did I hate myself for doing it.
Continue reading Jon & Kate draw 9.8 million rubberneckers... including me
Posted May 22nd 2009 9:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: American Idol, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Judges
The week before the
American Idol gigantic-mahunga-godzilla two-hour-plus finale aired, Simon Cowell predicted it would be a
"ding-dong finale." Of course, that brilliant prognostication was hype personified, but Simon did his job. The finale drew 28.8 million viewers. Ironically, the buzz in the biz when those figures were revealed skewed it as a bad thing.
It was the lowest-rated American Idol finale ever. But it still drew a tremendous amount of eyeballs, so why is it being characterized as a flop?
The answer is simply this:
American Idol is competing with itself. It's expected to exceed its highs year after year, and generally speaking in television, that just doesn't happen. Older shows decline, and yes, even superhits like American Idol can't stay on top forever. Look at
ER or
CSI.
Continue reading American Idol's finale was a flop?
Posted May 12th 2009 12:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Ratings
You won't believe which show is kicking the collective ass of TV Land's
The Cougar. Then again, maybe you will.
The New York Times reports that reruns of (Shazam!)
The Andy Griffith Show are the cable network's most watched show.
So does this mean that the former classic TV network will go back to running
shows that people actually want to watch? Probably not. Sorry to break the bad news to you. Oh, and there is no Santa Claus, and if the tooth fairy does exist, she's probably a big ol' commie.
Continue reading The Cougar is not TV Land's number one show
Posted Apr 29th 2009 6:19PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Heroes, Ratings, Chuck, Reality-Free
Of course, a lot of fans do care, and they want at least one of these shows to be renewed last year (maybe even both). But in general? The
ratings for the finales of both shows were rather lackluster at best.
The season finale of
Heroes had an average of 6.4 million viewers, while
Chuck got 6.1 million. Both of those numbers are actually down from the season average (7.7 million viewers for
Heroes and 6.5 million for
Chuck). Now, I'd love to have 6 or 7 million people reading my stuff, but I guess that's not enough in television land.
Continue reading Chuck and Heroes end their seasons, but a lot of people just don't care
Posted Apr 13th 2009 8:34AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Ratings, The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Sarah Connor Chronicles season two finale pulled in a
paltry 3.6 million viewers Friday night. The show came in behind
Ghost Whisperer,
Wife Swap and the abomination known as
Howie Do It to receive a low 1.3 rating among adults 18-49.
It's a shame. The
TSCC season finale was probably
the best episode of the series. It was smart, absorbing, and just plain batsh*it crazy. It took the
Terminator mythos in a bold new direction to set up what could possibly be an amazing third season. But a third season is unlikely with numbers like this. The show has failed to bring in even four million viewers during the past few months.
It looks like fans will have to get their
Terminator fix with Christian Bale's upcoming
Terminator Salvation and its sequels.
Fox is expected to announce its lineups for the 2009-2010 season on May 18. If
TSCC doesn't make the cut, I've got three words for series creator Josh Friedman: Comic book continuation. Hey, it worked for
Buffy!
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