# 2011-12 Season Ratings - Winter



## phrelin

For those of you that missed it or don't watch any of Producer Chuck Lorre's comedies, last night's requires you to read it to the last line which is a twist that I found hilarious and sad at the same time, though it may just be my peculiar sense of humor:


> *CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #371*​
> Sometimes when I drive past a small retail establishment that is going out of business, I'm struck by an overpowering wave of sadness. I can't help but imagine what the people involved must have felt like when they opened the doors for the first time. The sense of excitement and hope that came after that first sale. The feeling that their fledgling, street-front enterprise was the beginning of a grand, money-making empire. I still have memories of the excitement and optimism that rippled through my family when my dad opened his little luncheonette some fifty years ago. All things were possible and there was no inkling that small eateries like his were soon to be extinct. (If you were born after 1970 feel free to take a moment and google â€œluncheonette.â€) Anyway, I guess that's the reason I've always preferred to pay a few more bucks and buy something from a struggling mom and pop shop, rather than a big chain store. Speaking of big chain stores, I also feel a wave of sadness when I click my TV remote past NBC.


Anyway here's the ratings for the first Monday of the Winter schedule:








*CBS* again ran its same old winning schedule.

"2 Broke Girls" again did very well.

*ABC* premiered a new season of "The Bachelor" which compared to last year's premier was down a bit (last year: 2.7/7 - 8.89 million at 8:00 and 3.1/8 - 9.12 million at 9:00). Whether that is a result of last night being part of a three day weekend or folks aren't watching the show remains to be seen.

For whatever less-than-clever reason, ran the premier of "Celebrity Wife Swap" at 10:00. Last year they ran the regular show at that time - let's see what was it ... oh yeah, "Castle" - which pulled in a meager 3.34 million more viewers and which this fall occasionally has been beating "Hawaii Five-0."

*Fox* apparently thinks it can fix its fall "House" weak-ratings-due-to-9:00 scheduling by running two hours of reruns until it runs the two hour premier of "Alcatraz" on January 16 and then airs a new "House" at its old regular time of 8:00 the following Monday.

*NBC*'s lineup of game shows, including the "Deathly Ratings for Brian Williams" show, did as poorly as usual. NBC has decided to premier its Winter lineup premiers the first week of Nielsen's February Sweeps which run February 2 - February 29, 2012.

Whether at the beginning of sweeps the season premier of "The Voice" from 8:00 - 10:00 will do well enough to provide a decent lead into the series premier of "Smash" is questionable. If "Smash" is done well ... it still may not be able to pull enough viewers against "Hawaii Five-0" and "Castle". But we'll see.

Just like Chuck Lorre, I also feel a wave of sadness when I click my TV remote past NBC.

*The CW* is rerunning two episodes of "The Secret Circle" Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before it returns at 9:00 Thursday. The reruns didn't pull a million viewers at either hour tonight.


----------



## Cholly

It saddens me to see poor ratings for Brian Williams' show. It's well produced and generally quite interesting. I can't bring myself to watch the reinvented "Hawaii 5-0", having seen parts of a few shows. NBC unfortunately has few opportunities in placing shows against the CBS juggernaut. Even the good ones go unnoticed.


----------



## phrelin

Cholly said:


> It saddens me to see poor ratings for Brian Williams' show. It's well produced and generally quite interesting. I can't bring myself to watch the reinvented "Hawaii 5-0", having seen parts of a few shows. NBC unfortunately has few opportunities in placing shows against the CBS juggernaut. Even the good ones go unnoticed.


I haven't recorded Brian Williams, but it doesn't surprise me that it is done well.

NBC has cleverly decided to put Williams at 9:00 Wednesday beginning February 8 against CBS' "Criminal Minds" and ABC's "Modern Family". The following week Fox's "American Idol" goes to 2 hours consistently. Obviously they consider William's show a cheap programming option for a time slot they have no chance to score any ratings.

The new "Hawaii 5-0" is just an ok show. The only reminder of the original is the theme which still grabs something in me. My wife really liked its star Alex O'Loughlin in "Moonlight" but not so much in "5-0." In "5-0" he does "over act" at times making it feel dangerously like "CSI: Miami." We really were disappointed when CBS didn't pick up "Moonlight" for additional seasons since it didn't really get a fair shake because of the writers strike.


----------



## The Merg

I think that it's funny that Fox lists Alcatraz as the 9pm show and then has the footnote that they ran 2 hours of House repeats. Since it was fist advertised, Alcatraz has been set for its premier on 1/16.

- Merg


----------



## klang

The Merg said:


> I think that it's funny that Fox lists Alcatraz as the 9pm show and then has the footnote that they ran 2 hours of House repeats. Since it was fist advertised, Alcatraz has been set for its premier on 1/16.
> 
> - Merg


Pretty sure that is phrelin's footnote.


----------



## phrelin

The Merg said:


> I think that it's funny that Fox lists Alcatraz as the 9pm show and then has the footnote that they ran 2 hours of House repeats. Since it was fist advertised, Alcatraz has been set for its premier on 1/16.
> 
> - Merg


Sorry if it is confusing.

It's an image from my own spreadsheet which will allow a comparison from week-to-week, in this case Winter Mondays for a period of a five weeks until February Sweeps, with an emphasis on the "regularly scheduled show." Particularly when there are staggered premier periods it gets confusing the way I do it.

In more recent years it has become very difficult to track shows.

Many moons ago we used to have a 36 week season with a premier period of a couple of weeks in the Fall and time slots occasionally preempted for specials, news, etc., plus some reruns.

Now we have a Fall buildup to Nielsen November sweeps and a Winter buildup to February Sweeps and then a panic period for the nets other than CBS leading to the May Sweeps.

The only meaningful way to track broadcast network ratings any more is to look at blocks of 4 to 8 weeks:

Fall Buildup
November Sweeps
Holiday Doldrums
Winter Buildup
February Sweeps
The Long Spring Panic
May Sweeps
Soon even this may not have much meaning as cable and premium channels get more and more competitive picking off big chunks of audience. And then there's the problem of DVR's and streaming.

Right now for series TV the ceilings for the money generally made available to showrunners and production companies is still determined by the broadcast networks. I don't know how long that will continue.


----------



## The Merg

Oh okay. I thought that table was something that you got from someplace else. I didn't realize that you created it.

- Merg


----------



## phrelin

Here's is the first Tuesday of the Winter Schedule:








*CBS.* It was nice to see the "NCIS" gang last night. Other must agree as CBS garnered half the live viewers in that time slot and essentially for all three hours of prime time.

*ABC.* ABC needs to worry about "Work It" if it doesn't get at least a significant boost in Live+7 DVR ratings. On the other hand in the first hour ratings were higher than last year's "No Ordinary Family." In the 10:00 slot "Body of Proof" matched it's series low demo rating even under NBC's "Parenthood." This does not bode well for ABC.

I guess the Disney folks should be happy with the 9:00 slot because cheap programming did just about as well as "V" last year. But maybe they need to look at NBC as an object lesson.

*NBC.*








Comcast (and it's partner GE) has to hope that next year NBC has nowhere to go but up when they look at this:

"The Biggest Loser" has half the ratings it had two years ago.
"Parenthood" pulled 23% fewer viewers than "Leno" did two years ago.
And one has to wonder what the managers at all the affiliates who were screaming about "Leno" at 10:00 killing their 11:00 news are saying now. Funny I haven't seen a word in my usual sources of media biz news.

*Fox* ran reruns of its regular lineup.

*The CW.* :shrug:


----------



## TBoneit

I caught that at the end where Chuck said "Speaking of big chain stores, I also feel a wave of sadness when I click my TV remote past NBC."

I thought to myself, I remember "In living Color" and the NBC Peacock and look where they're at now. Pointed to as a source of humor.

Looks like Charlie was way wrong when he predicted that his departure would kill 2.5 men off. Ratings look good from what I see here.


----------



## phrelin

OK. I get it that Tuesday night ESPN had nearly 10 million viewers including a demo of 3.4 watching Michigan v Virginia Tech play to a 23-20 Michigan victory in overtime in the Sugar Bowl. But surely last night's West Virginia 70-33 drubbing of Clemson in the Orange Bowl didn't hold many viewers. Right?

Apparently I'm wrong as broadcast TV viewers were in short supply and it appears the nets figured they would hold back their regularly scheduled programming at 8:00, except ABC. Here's the first Wednesday of Winter:








*ABC* pulled increased demos for all of its shows compared to the last new episode of each. Of course, it was the only network that had new episodes for every show for the night.

*CBS* will bring "Survivor" back mid-February, so 8:00 will be a "who cares" until then. In the other two hours, the "Criminal Minds" rerun did well and the "CSI" rerun had the most total viewers at 10:00.

*Fox* for whatever reason ran a rerun of "Glee" as the lead in for the premier of "Mobbed" at 9:00. If "Mobbed" had any chance at all, that lead in killed it. Next Wednesday, Fox is going to rerun last night's "Mobbed" at 8:00 followed by a new episode. Unfortunately, that will be up against new episodes of the regular schedule on ABC and NBC, plus on CBS a rerun of "Criminal Minds" followed by "The People's Choice Awards." "Mobbed" is cheap programming, but whether Fox will have nerve enough to stick with Howie Mandel is questionable. I don't think the two episodes of "Mobbed" next week will do as well as NBC's programming as it pulled fewer total viewers than a rerun of "Harry's Law" this week.

*NBC* used reruns to waste the night away.

*The CW.*:shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Thursday of Winter:








*ABC*. Against a lineup of reruns, ABC shows did ok. Between now and the end of May against new episode competition, I expect "Grey's Anatomy" and particularly "Private Practice" to continue to the long, slow decline we've seen in the past two years.

*CBS*. Those were rerun numbers. For the night they averaged more total viewers than the others including ABC and the demos at #2 were well ahead of Fox. Thursday night will continue to be a challenge for CBS to win either the demo or the total viewers in each time slot.

*Fox* has to be disappointed when looking at the audience "Bones" reruns fails to attract.

*NBC*. To use a sports metaphor, NBC is building next year's team.

The real question is whether it was wise to schedule a two hour "The Firm" this Sunday and try to hold the audience next Thursday.

*The CW* offered its first full night of new programming in almost two months. Every night this week they ran two hours of reruns of "The Secret Circle" I guess as a catch up for all those potential fans out there.

Last night "The Secret Circle" matched its last new episode showing, a season low. "The Vampire Diaries" matched its last new episode showing. The moral of the story is that The CW as a television channel has a committed but probably shrinking fan base. Any growth will come from device streaming as that's where the generation making up most of the fan base live.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Friday of Winter:








*Fox* ran the Cotton Bowl last night giving it a win of sorts. If you think like early 21st Century financial analysts who ask "How much money did you make yesterday", it was a win for Fox. If you think like me who asks "Are you going to have an audience the rest of the Winter season", this was not a win for Fox as (1) the ratings were not even in prime time on the West Coast and (2) it made certain that whatever live viewers were watching TV (other than sports fans) got further hooked on other network regular shows.

*CBS* ran its regular lineup and won the night in total viewers. In fact "A Gifted Man" and "CSI: NY" pulled higher demo and total viewer ratings than they did during November Sweeps.

*ABC*. It continues to seem to me that ABC effectively has abandoned Fridays as "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" will be replaced by two other cheap reality shows in two weeks. Like CBS, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" pulled a higher demo and total viewer ratings tahn it did during November Sweeps. The final two hours next week will in Joplin, Missouri, doing homes for a number of folks who had major losses in the tornado.

After that, the Disney folks will be "helping" people in need through "Shark Tank" and "What Would You Do." And yes, that's sarcasm, because the context is


> Disney also made the list of companies doing right by shareholders. "Disney announced the largest dividend increase in its history, 50% in November, as the company experienced a boon in growth across all sectors,"....


*NBC*. "Chuck" is finished at the end of the month, closing with really bad ratings. It will be replaced with the cheapy "Who Do You Think You Are?"

That leaves "Grimm" in some sort of purgatory. Sandwiched between "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Dateline" on Friday is a kiss of death for a decently clever scripted show that indicated ratings promise. According to reports from the NBC Winter Press Tour, thought is being given to moving the show. Nobody should have to think much. They should alter the planned February Sweeps Wednesday at 9:00 placement of "Rock Center with Brian Williams." I'd put "Grimm" there and "Williams" on Friday. "Grimm" likely would do as well as "Harry's Law" has. The problem is, of course, it's hard to get new viewers to a show that is halfway through the first season.

*The CW* shows did not do better than they did during November Sweeps, but they did do as well.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Sunday of Winter:








*CBS*. The Broncos v Steelers playoff game which ran into overtime and then had the "Tebow effect" afterwards (as noted on the chart the game had a rating of 13.7/33 -39.05 million). That created a 30 minute overrun in the East, but because CBS schedulers had already rescheduled "60 Minutes" to 8:00, by the time you get to my San Francisco station they ran the regular shows at their regular time filling in with a "Criminal Minds" rerun at 8:00.

The "Tebow effect" gave the regular shows high ratings for the night, giving CBS the win.

*NBC* has led Sunday nights since the beginning of the Fall Season with NFL games. Apparently unaware of the obvious meaning of this, they decided to risk running the premier of "The Firm" after a "Dateline" on a night when another network was running an important NFL playoff game.

The big question for NBC is did they waste their huge advertising investment in this new show by not understanding how to schedule. For the premier, where you find out what a show is supposed to be about, the average rating was a 1.4 demo. Are they going to see "Leno at 10" ratings for "The Firm" on Thursday night when the next episode runs? Most live viewers will have no idea what's going on even if the show were to actually draw some away from "The Mentalist" and "Private Practice"?

*Fox*'s animated line did ok for the night. The animated Napoleon Dynamite premiers next Sunday a 8:30 p.m.

*ABC*. "Once Upon A Time" apparently picked up some speed from the windy draft (so many excited people watching TV) Tebow left behind. It even carried into "Desperate Housewives", which is good for ABC. It did not carry into "Pan Am".


----------



## TBoneit

Bottom line once again CSI Miami lost a viewer for the night. It wasn't there as scheduled. 

When I checked the recording it was way delayed so I just erased it. Maybe if I was still watching the 11 O clock news on CBS I'd have watched it. I switched to ABC news so when I finished watching a DVRd show I wouldn't end up with Letterman who just came across as mean spirited humor the few times I tried to watch him.


----------



## phrelin

TBoneit said:


> Bottom line once again CSI Miami lost a viewer for the night. It wasn't there as scheduled.
> 
> When I checked the recording it was way delayed so I just erased it. Maybe if I was still watching the 11 O clock news on CBS I'd have watched it. I switched to ABC news so when I finished watching a DVRd show I wouldn't end up with Letterman who just came across as mean spirited humor the few times I tried to watch him.


Out here in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday night the CBS affiliate runs other stuff, no Letterman rerun. But of course we don't have the overrun problem anyway.

Here's the second Monday of Winter:








This period preceding February Sweeps should be a period for the networks to establish their programming. So how are the schedulers doing?

*ABC*. "The Bachelor" lost the demo race to four CBS comedy reruns. "Castle" did ok at 10:00 substantially besting a rerun of "Hawaii Five-0" which this Fall it occasionally edged out in head-to-head new episodes.

*CBS* ran a night of reruns. Since they didn't win the night averaging a 2.1 in the demo compared to ABC's 2.2, my guess is that "Hawaii Five-0" may be getting a hard look by the CBS suits since it was the drag on ratings.

*Fox* continues to fail its scripted programming by wasting its available time slots running reruns of "House" in both hours. This would have been the week to premier "Alcatraz" against the CBS reruns.

*NBC*. It may look like NBC also missed the Monday scheduling opportunity. They intend to run "The Voice" and "Smash" the first week of February Sweeps, but will run an hour of "The Voice" after the Super Bowl. It's a scheduling choice I don't get, but given all the celebrities on "The Voice" maybe it's a good idea?

*The CW*. :shrug:

New episodes of the regular lineup return January 23. The question is will they lose some of their target viewers to "The Voice" the following week? I'm not a target viewer but I'll still be recording "Hart of Dixie" mostly for the music, but also as our one The CW mindless show for this year.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Tuesday of Winter:








*CBS* had half of all the live viewers last night.

*ABC*'s ratings are starting look like NBC's when pundits started discussing the decline.

*Fox*'s reruns aren't doing so well. Unlike CBS reruns that retain a meaningful share of the show's regular demo, apparently once you've seen a "The New Girl" episode there's nothing to make you want to see it again.

*NBC* was second for the first two hours of the night in both the demo and total viewers. It was also second in the demo at 10:00. This should worry ABC.

*The CW* should have sold its time last night to infomercial folks.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Wednesday of Winter:








*ABC* continues with its regular schedule but its 9:00 - 11:00 lineup took a slight hit from "The People's Choice Awards" as the demo thinks looking at their own opinions matters. Is this indicative of a problem for next week when "American Idol" returns on Fox?

*NBC* ran its full lineup for the first time last night. "Whitney" and "Are You There, Chelsea" did ok in the demo. IMHO both shows should be getting a better total viewer rating - closer the "Harry's Law" - as both should be as appealing or more appealing than "The Middle" and "Suburgatory" to the older demo.

*Fox* is eagerly anticipating next week when it premiers "American Idol" with a two hour show. "Mobbed" is a ratings disaster and for whatever reason its still scheduled for February 1 and 8. "AI" will bring missing demo viewers back to broadcast TV. It's just that each year the numbers decline.

*CBS* has held its lineup to make 9:00 and 10:00 ratings next week interesting.

Will the first "Criminal Minds" of the Winter reduce the "AI" premier second hour ratings full potential? I don't know that we'll have a clear answer. Last year it had a season low compared to the Fall, but it still was the envy of NBC.

And will "CSI" with Ted Danson now accepted and Elizabeth Shue replacing Marg Helgenberger who's exit was last month, be enough of a curiosity to pull the audience away from "SVU" and "Revenge"? Probably not in the demo. In fact, with "AI" back in theory "Revenge" should benefit as it has a young star.

*The CW* is running new episodes of "One Tree Hill" and gambling on showcasing "Remodeled" next week. Since its core audience tend to be "AI" interested, I'm not sure how that will work out.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Thursday of Winter:








*ABC* did ok for the night. As I said last week, the ABC lineup will probably see the long slow decline it experienced last year.

*CBS* ran new episodes of its lineup for the first time this Winter. As expected, it won the night in total viewers and in the demo. "The Big Bang Theory" of course carried an audience into the premier of "¡ROB!". Whether that will carry through when "American Idol" starts up next week is anybody's guess.

"The Mentalist" garnered 71.2% of the viewers at 10:00. But that only translates into 44.3% of the demo. But then again, the demo was only 25% of the audience watching live TV. CBS needs to sell a lot of Cialis ads.

*Fox*, the game show and sports broadcast network, tried a new scripted show last night, "The Finder", what they call a "Bones" spinoff and which defies the meaning of the word "spinoff".

They did support it with a new episode of "Bones" as a lead-in (you remembered this because of the confusing season announcement that basically seemed to misplace "Bones" altogether). The ratings would be considered average for NBC and make The CW proud.

Next week on the game show and sports broadcast network, the second episode of "The Finder" will follow the always amusing and popular game show "American Idol" with its new episode "Auditions #2 - Pittsburgh". Some think this will give the "The Finder" a boost against the other 9:00 shows which implies there's hope for the show.

"The Finder" might be a fine show. I will watch my recording after watching my recording of "Person of Interest" (and we've already watched "Grey's"). Now when will "Bones" return?

*NBC*'s comedy lineup ratings looked like four consecutive days ratings in the early weeks of "10:00 Leno".

NBC's decision to run the premier of "The Firm" last Sunday was idiocy as I commented, particularly since they are premiering most new shows in the first week of February Sweeps. As I expected, "The Firm" got "10:00 Leno" ratings. What will they do with this show now? I know. Give it to USA where characters are welcome and it would probably pull higher ratings because they know how to schedule.

*The CW*. Thursday is the network's strong night, whatever that means.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Friday of Winter:








*CBS*. In terms of total viewers, CBS dominated the night. In terms of the demo, CBS tied with ABC for the night.

*ABC*'s "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" series finale was last night.

*Fox* returned "Fringe" last night, attracting fewer demo and total viewers than NBC.

*NBC* is burning off the last few episodes of "Chuck" to a 0.9 demo. Talk about a fickle audience. "Grimm" which should have been moved to another night last Fall is still grimly holding on.

*The CW*. :shrug:

Friday has become a permanently tough night. Here's January 16, 2009 from TVbytheNumbers' archive to compare:








It's obvious that the best one could hope for would be a total of 28 million live+same day viewers regularly watching Friday regular programming at 9:00, 75% of whom would not be in the 18-49 demo.

Not that the viewers aren't out there somewhere. The World Series on Fox pulled a half hour high of 7.9 - 24.83 million on October 28, 2011. And yet, the remaining programming that night was the same as you see for last night except CBS ran reruns. And it didn't do all that much worse than last night.

I suppose that the majority of that dollar a month that Fox - and probably soon all the other networks - will be getting from us will cover the cost of programming for Friday night plus a little for other failures.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Sunday of Winter overnight ratings, for what it's worth:








*Fox* had an NFL playoff game overrun in the East which shows up as a nearly 300% increase in the demo for "The Simpsons." While I'm sure the final ratings will indicate that Fox shows did get a boost for that overrun, it won't be 300%.

*NBC* carrying "The Golden Globes" added to the ratings confusion. In the San Francisco Bay Area the affiliate carried the Globes twice with a 4:00 showing of the red carpet arrival show, followed by "The Globes" at 5:00 followed by a prime time repeat.

*ABC* shows took a 10±% hit because of the Fox and NBC schedule.

*CBS* ratings took a larger hit which hurt the season premier of "Undercover Boss" and a new episode of "The Good Wife." They ran a rerun of "CSI: Miami" at 10:00.

We won't get meaningful Sunday ratings until the second Sunday during the February Sweeps, a week after Super Bowl 46. Even then, the first Sunday in March ABC will be replacing "Pan Am" with "GCB" at 10:00.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Monday of Winter, a night when a lot of extra viewers showed up:








*CBS*. You'll read in many of the TV news sites about Fox and NBC having successes for the night. Hmmm. CBS won the 10:00 with the total viewer tie-breaker. But the real truth for the night was the averages for the first two hours of prime time when CBS had all that competition:








*ABC* shows did well for the night and one has to take particular note that "Castle" at 10:00 is running well against "Hawaii Five-0".

*Fox* premiered "Alcatraz" offering what was really two episodes last night garnering only a slightly higher demo and about the same total viewers as did the premier of "Terra Nova" in the Fall. "Alcatraz" is a better show IMHO. Whether its scifi-twist police procedural plot will hold the audience following "House" remains to be seen. The problem is there were extra demo viewers watching live TV last night.

*NBC* really pulled in the older viewers with "Betty White's 90th." And a couple of million extra stuck around for "Brian Williams."

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Some Fox show premier ratings history for perspective:

9/9/2008 "Fringe", 3.2/9 - 9.003 million
10/4/2011 "Terra Nova", 3.1/8 - 9.22 million
10/16/2012 "Alcatraz", 3.3/8 - 9.968 million


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Tuesday of Winter:








*CBS* ran reruns of its entire lineup which allows for a reality check for the night normally dominated by the network. Basically it loses about a third of its viewers, which still means it wins total viewers for the night.

*ABC* didn't grab very many of the CBS viewers. A rerun of "Last Man Standing" pulled higher ratings than "Work It."

*Fox*. "Glee" returned with somewhat better ratings than it pulled on December 6, the last time it was against CBS reruns, when it got a 2.9/8 - 7.09 million. "New Girl" ratings on December 6 were 3.4/9 - 6.82 million, so it's holding steady while "Raising Hope" seems to be sort of holding steady.

*NBC* did not benefit from CBS running reruns.

*The CW* has an "interesting" strategy in running the premier of "Remodeled" on Tuesday and then repeating it on its regular night, Wednesday. My evaluation at this point is that it looks like the Tuesday premier was a waste of airtime.

Of course it didn't help that the return of "90210" new episodes at 8:00 was down from its last new episode which seems almost impossible.


----------



## Church AV Guy

phrelin said:


> Here's the third Tuesday of Winter:
> .
> .
> .
> *ABC* didn't grab very many of the CBS viewers. A rerun of "Last Man Standing" pulled higher ratings than "Work It."
> .
> .
> .


It had already been announced that "Work It" had been cancelled, so yes, they showed a rerun of the pilot of "Last Man Standing" instead. I guess "The new hit comedy for Tuesday nights" on ABC was a two episode abject failure. I could tell this just from the promos. Couldn't the programming folks at ABC have figured this out before spending the money on developing it? What are they smoking?


----------



## phrelin

Church AV Guy said:


> It had already been announced that "Work It" had been cancelled, so yes, they showed a rerun of the pilot of "Last Man Standing" instead. I guess "The new hit comedy for Tuesday nights" on ABC was a two episode abject failure. I could tell this just from the promos. Couldn't the programming folks at ABC have figured this out before spending the money on developing it? What are they smoking?


I don't know what makes successful comedy programming. There are so many factors and a lot of risk.

CBS which has a successful track record tried out "How to be a Gentleman" after "The Big Bang Theory" on Thursday and went right back to showing "Rules of Engagement."

Now they've got "¡ROB!" in that Thursday 8:30 slot which seems somewhat risky. It has Rob Schneider, ostensibly the clueless white guy doing Mexican cultural jokes, except that the remainder of the cast are some of the top Hispanic actors creating an "I dare you" buffer against the PC crowd. And then there is Schneider's mother, who has done some acting but is a Kindergarten teacher and School Board member in Pacifica, California, and is of Filipino decent:








The ratings success of "2 Broke Girls" on CBS amazed me, though I think it is really funny. It has been attacked for insensitivity, but they're fighting back.

ABC has done well on Wednesday with its comedy lineup with "Modern Family" as the centerpiece garnering ratings comparable to the top two CBS comedies "Two-and-a-Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory." That "Modern Family" is under attack for tonight's episode is in itself hilarious IMHO.

Fox's "New Girl" is doing well in the ratings.

NBC, on the other hand, has comedies Thursday night that are struggling for ratings but are critics' darlings. The problem there may be simply "it's on NBC."

What makes a comedy work I really don't know, but in addition to grabbing viewers with humor apparently a comedy now must defend its humor. It's a tough world for TV comedy programming folks.


----------



## sigma1914

Is Ringer done?


----------



## phrelin

No, it returns January 31.

The CW apparently must have written the course for broadcast network TV programmers on how to confuse viewers by not actually supporting a fixed schedule.


----------



## Holydoc

Phrelin,

Is AMC not even a player in the ratings? With shows like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, The Killing, Mad Men, and Hell on Wheels, I would have thought that their ratings would out surpass those of CW. 

I am probably just bias since I do not watch anything on CW and all the above series on AMC.

Was just wondering.


----------



## phrelin

Holydoc said:


> Phrelin,
> 
> Is AMC not even a player in the ratings? With shows like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, The Killing, Mad Men, and Hell on Wheels, I would have thought that their ratings would out surpass those of CW.
> 
> I am probably just bias since I do not watch anything on CW and all the above series on AMC.
> 
> Was just wondering.


 AMC shows are getting much better ratings than The CW, as are a number of cable and premier channel shows. Tuesday night's season premiers of "White Collar" (USA), "Justified" (FX) and "Southland" (TNT) all did better than anything on The CW even if you don't look at ratings for the same night and same week repeats. The cable daily results are available at TVbytheNumbers. But....

The Nielsen ratings reports are divided. The broadcast network prime time ratings are a separate category from cable channels and both separately from premium channels. The Nielsen folks do report results for the Spanish language broadcast channel network Univision, which gets around double The CW ratings each week and frequently pulls more than an NBC prime time half hour. Apparently they also report weekly results for PBS, but getting that info is a puzzle.

Along with other info gatherers, Nielsen does report online activities, but we really don't know what folks are doing.

This becomes really clear when you see the ratings for the third Wednesday of Winter:








Apparently 24 million viewers have doing something else Wednesdays at 9:00.

*Fox*. "American Idol" competition brings in the viewers like NFL playoff games. The numbers depend on where things are in the season and what's on elsewhere. But unlike NFL playoff games, there's also the slow, long decline of any show that begins in a given year. Here's three years of "AI" 2 hour premiers:
1/12/2010 11.8/29 - 29.80 million
1/19/2011 9.7/25 - 26.06 million
1/18/2012 7.2/18 - 21.61 million​
*ABC*'s shows did ok despite the "AI" premier. "Modern Family" at 9:00 in particular seemed to pick up 4 million viewers that were not there for "Suburgatory" at 8:30.

*CBS* let the first hour go with a rerun of "NCIS." They won't be bringing "Survivor" back until February 15. The Winter return of "Criminal Minds" had it's regular audience while the evolving "CSI" gained from having more folks watching live TV.

*NBC* in the first hour either took a hit from "AI". Or "Whitney" and "Chelsea" can't hold an audience. Or maybe it's just NBC. "Harry's Law" is slowly dying like most shows moved to Friday. Oh wait, this isn't Friday, it's just NBC.

Which brings us to the big hit taken by "SVU" just as romance blossoms for Detective Olivia Benson which doesn't bode well for Harry Connick, Jr. in what one reviewer called "one of the best episodes of SVU this season."

*The CW* live viewers do overlap some with "AI". But maybe the network has stumbled onto something. If you add the ratings from Tuesday's premier of "Remodeled" to Wednesday's rerun of the episode, you get a demo rating of 0.6 with 1.32 million. Or you have the same mindless viewers watching both nights.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Thursday of Winter:








*Fox*. Ouch! Here's a four year history of "American Idol" premier week night 2:

1/14/2009 11.8/29 - 29.85 million
1/13/2010 10.1/27 - 26.40 million
1/20/2011 7.8/21 - 22.90 million
1/19/2012 5.6/15 - 17.74 million
Last year "Bones" in the second hour pulled 3.5/9 - 10.55 million. Ouch again with "The Finder" pulling 2.2/5 - 6.78 million.

Some thoughts.

"AI" is getting "long of tooth" particularly the "let's all make fun of the worst tryouts" episodes. And its viewers really don't offer a lead in to another show - they just disappear.

In fact, there were 43.91 million viewers in the 8:30 half hour, 19.26 million of which were "AI" viewers. In the 9:30 half hour, there were 35.30 million viewers, 6.09 million of which were "The Finder" viewers. So 8.61 million viewers disappeared. Fox lost 13.17 million.

"The Finder" was up from its premier, though "Bones" ratings last year were 3.6/10 - 10.95 million.

*CBS*. The first hour comedy lineup held up, even though the second episode of "¡ROB!" did not do nearly as well as the first episode. We'll see how it does in future weeks.

"Person of Interest" scored its highest demo rating. "The Mentalist" did well.

*ABC*'s lineup didn't have a good night.

*NBC*. What can one say? "The Firm" demo rating is in The CW range making the prime time Leno show on 1/15/2010 look really good with its 1.4/4 - 4.41 million. I keep looking for those screaming affiliate managers and TV critics who made headlines back then.

What's even more fascinating is that last night "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" pulled a 2.7/7 demo (CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" got 3.0/8).

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## mreposter

*HOLY COW - NBC Comes In 8th!*

_The latest NBC series to take over ER's Thursday 10 PM slot, new legal drama The Firm, drew a puny 0.9/2 in the key adults 18-49 demographic, ranking eighth is the hour behind the Big 3 broadcast networks as well as four basic cable networks including slot leader MTV with its juggernaut Jersey Shore._

from Deadline Hollywood


----------



## phrelin

mreposter said:


> *HOLY COW - NBC Comes In 8th!*
> 
> _The latest NBC series to take over ER's Thursday 10 PM slot, new legal drama The Firm, drew a puny 0.9/2 in the key adults 18-49 demographic, ranking eighth is the hour behind the Big 3 broadcast networks as well as four basic cable networks including slot leader MTV with its juggernaut Jersey Shore._
> 
> from Deadline Hollywood


 Good for Nellie Andreeva of _Deadline Hollywood_. It's time someone actually in the business starts pointing out the emperor has no clothes.

The death bell for viable broadcast network television has been tolling since the labor strife of 2007-08. The ratings she lists in the story really aren't that unusual these days.

As I keep saying in discussions here, the rules of the TV game set up in 1958 make no sense. In the mid-1960's "Bonanza" episodes had 35 million viewers. Typical viewership in the 1970's for the three broadcast networks in prime time was 55-60 million. We're subsidizing a system that can no longer work IMHO.


----------



## klang

With Jersey Shore the winner of that hour is the problem really the broadcasters or our fellow citizens?


----------



## makaiguy

mreposter said:


> *HOLY COW - NBC Comes In 8th!*
> 
> _The latest NBC series to take over ER's Thursday 10 PM slot, new legal drama The Firm, drew a puny 0.9/2 in the key adults 18-49 demographic, ranking eighth is the hour behind the Big 3 broadcast networks as well as four basic cable networks including slot leader MTV with its juggernaut Jersey Shore._
> 
> from Deadline Hollywood


I'm actually enjoying this one, although I didn't expect to. That probably means it's doomed. I do find the flash-forward / flash-back stuff to be a bit irritating, but it looks like their two time streams MAY be coming closer together. I got so irritated with the same approach on Damages that I gave up on it halfway into the second season.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Friday of Winter:








*CBS* is running reruns on Friday until February Sweeps which inadvertently is quite kind to ABC's new shows and to the last three episodes of "Chuck" on NBC. But CBS still had the most total viewers in each of the three hours

*ABC* premiered a new season of "Shark Tank" at 8:00 and "What Would You Do? at 9:00 to mediocre ratings, particularly considering CBS is running reruns.

*Fox*. Well, "Fringe" gained a few over-50 live viewers.

*NBC*. Sadly that is a 2011-12 season high for "Chuck" and if NBC can't find a better place for "Grimm", they're NBC. I personally think they should have moved "Grimm" to Monday at 10:00, premiered "Smash" on Thursday at 10:00, "The Firm" to Sunday at 10:00 following "Harry's Law" and "The Apprentice" at 7:00 Sunday as a throw-away. And fortunately for me, my income doesn't depend of my scheduling for NBC.:grin:

*The CW* continued their ill-fated scheduling pattern of repeating episodes to try and find a new viewer for a show. The big question for "Remodeled" is did the show actually score a 0.9 demo with three 0.3's or did the same mindless viewers watch the show over and over and over.


----------



## Supramom2000

It really is too bad how badly Friday night shows are doing. I actually have a lot of shows on Friday to record: Nikita, Fringe, Chuck and all three CBS shows.

I don't understand the lack of viewers for Chuck and Fringe - I really like both of them!! But, with that said, my husband has bailed on Fringe.


----------



## Shades228

Supramom2000 said:


> It really is too bad how badly Friday night shows are doing. I actually have a lot of shows on Friday to record: Nikita, Fringe, Chuck and all three CBS shows.
> 
> I don't understand the lack of viewers for Chuck and Fringe - I really like both of them!! But, with that said, my husband has bailed on Fringe.


I bailed on Fringe in season 2.

I loved Chuck but this season it just seems like they're grasping for a long term solution that isn't there. It's sad because I like the characters but the story this season has been horrid.

I have enjoyed Grimm for the most part though.


----------



## renbutler

We still watch Fringe religiously, although it has strayed from some of the charm of the earlier seasons. I really hope they wrap it up before it's canceled.

Grimm is excellent. I am picky about which shows I start watching, and this one barely made the cut. I'm glad I started watching.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Sunday of Winter for what it's worth:








*Fox* carried the NFC Giants at 49ers playoff game followed by American Idol which started essentially at 11:00 Eastern/8:00 Pacific. This pretty much screws up the ratings for the night.

*ABC*. "Once Upon a Time" did remarkably well considering that in half the country ABC's lineup was opposite the playoff game and on the Pacific Coast even at 8:00 was opposite "American Idol" after the game. The rest of the lineup did a little worse than usual.

*CBS*. The ratings for "Undercover Boss" took a hit. But the rest of the lineup were reruns.

*NBC* at 8:00 ran a rerun of "Dateline" against the playoff game which made sense. Then, for whatever reason, decided to burn off the last two episodes of "Prime Suspect" in the last two hours.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Monday of Winter:








*CBS* ran reruns leaving 3+ million viewers with time on their hands.

*ABC*. "The Bachelor" was a curiosity for a million or so normally CBS viewers though many did something else by the second hour. "Castle" picked up less than half million and had its lowest demo for the Winter.

*Fox* opened the night with a new episode of "House" back in its traditional time slot at 8:00 for the first time in the 2011-12. It got a serious boost in the demo, more like old times, but we won't know how much of that is because of CBS reruns until February 6. "Alcatraz" actually dropped slightly in the demo from "House" and even more over the second hour of its premier last week.

*NBC*. "Who's Still Standing" picked up some viewers over its previous two outings. I guess the fear factor at the Florida Republican Debate wasn't as much fun as "The Fear Factor" but a bit more interesting than the regular "Rock Center with Brian Williams."

*The CW*'s shows were preempted in Chicago for a Bull's game, so they may be a little off, but not by much as they were consistent with the late fall.

One final comment. Compared to the four weeks prior to the Holiday Doldrums, apparently 8 to 9 million total viewers have found something else to do other than to watch TV Live+same day. That includes about 2 million in the demo. The broadcast networks appear to have a problem.


----------



## Church AV Guy

phrelin said:


> .
> .
> .
> One final comment. Compared to the four weeks prior to the Holiday Doldrums, apparently 8 to 9 million total viewers have found something else to do other than to watch TV Live+same day. That includes about 2 million in the demo. The broadcast networks appear to have a problem.


Actually, you mean, I assume, something else other then watch broadcast network TV. They could be watching cable channels. On the other hand, like me, they just might be reading books and playing with their Christmas gifts (high tech toys for the childlike adult).


----------



## phrelin

Supramom2000 said:


> It really is too bad how badly Friday night shows are doing. I actually have a lot of shows on Friday to record: Nikita, Fringe, Chuck and all three CBS shows.
> 
> I don't understand the lack of viewers for Chuck and Fringe - I really like both of them!! But, with that said, my husband has bailed on Fringe.


 Sorry, I didn't respond sooner, but the cable ratings for Friday were slow coming and it's part of the answer.

I'm not sure whether NBC and Fox just don't get it or what. I guess as far as broadcast television goes, it's still 1958.

Friday at 9:00 on the cable channel Discovery "Gold Rush" pulled a 1.9 demo - 4.81 million. That was a higher demo than any broadcast show. It's likely to continue to get those ratings as the Discovery Channel will run the season, from episode 1 through however many there will be, always on Friday at 9:00, week after week. It will not be preempted by anything to make a quick extra buck or by someone trying to be clever as a programmer. If you like the show, you know you'll be able to watch it. Try doing that with "Fringe."

And as far as I'm concerned, scheduling sports and specials is going to be the straw that kills broadcast television. Having 50 million sports fans watch one night is the quick buck. The bread-and-butter of TV is loyal live+same day viewers who expect some semblance of loyalty back in the form of consistency.



Church AV Guy said:


> Actually, you mean, I assume, something else other then watch broadcast network TV. They could be watching cable channels. On the other hand, like me, they just might be reading books and playing with their Christmas gifts (high tech toys for the childlike adult).


 They are watching cable channels, and they are on the internet, and a lot of them are working during prime time hours in retail, restaurants, etc., trying to make enough money to pay "the cable bill."

Cable channels repeat their original programming throughout the week and at different times, so if you're a live+same day viewer who can't afford a DVR you can keep up with episodes. Take "Gold Rush" for instance. Did you have to work an extra shift at the restaurant Friday? No problem because the folks at Discovery will take care of you at the same level they expect you to provide service at the restaurant:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Tuesday of Winter, for what it's worth:








The rerun of "American Idol" on Fox did pretty well. Not much to talk about since the State of the Union and reruns was all there was to watch on the major broadcast networks.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Wednesday of Winter:








*Fox*. Here's a four year history of "American Idol" second week:

1/21/2009 9.7/24 - 25.43 million
1/13/2010 9.8/27 - 26.73 million
1/20/2011 7.6/21 - 22.27 million
1/19/2012 6.4/18 - 19.51 million

The sneak preview of "Touch" did ok, but the show won't begin regular airings until Monday March 19. This seems like a long lead time.

*CBS* shows "Criminal Minds" and "CSI" did well. The "CSI" episode was the last episode for Marg Helgenberger and attracted a season high.

*ABC* probably wisely ran reruns last night.

*NBC*. Had NBC been wise, they would have given "The Leno Show" all three hours.

I don't know what they are going to do with their "Whitney" and "Chelsea" lineup. They announced the order for a full season of "Whitney" on October 4 after a few short weeks following "The Office" on Thursday when it was pulling high demos. On December 1 it had dropped to a 1.9/5 demo making that order seem downright idiotic. Last night it pulled 1.4/4 beaten by a rerun of "The Middle".

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth [strike]Wednesday[/strike] Thursday of Winter:








*ABC* ran reruns of their lineup so many of their regular viewers were missing.

*CBS*. In the first half hour, "Big Bang Theory" outperformed "American Idol" which had a half hour rating of 4.8/14 - 15.46 million. "¡ROB!" didn't hold the viewers but has credible ratings.

In the remaining two hours, CBS ran reruns. In comparison, at 9:00 "Person of Interest" saw 4 million viewers disappear but 5.5 million viewers of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" disappeared.

*Fox* is seeing a drop in "American Idol" viewers. "The Finder" picked up a few viewers since ABC and CBS ran reruns and NBC didn't run "The Office."

*NBC*. Had NBC been wise, they would have given "The Leno Show" all three hours. Oh, I'm repeating myself....

It's actually stunning that when both ABC and CBS ran reruns at 10:00, about 7.4 million viewers disappeared and "The Firm" didn't benefit.

*The CW* ran the movie "The Covenant". :shrug:


----------



## sean10780

phrelin said:


> Here's the fourth Wednesday of Winter:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *ABC* ran reruns of their lineup so many of their regular viewers were missing.
> 
> *CBS*. In the first half hour, "Big Bang Theory" outperformed "American Idol" which had a half hour rating of 4.8/14 - 15.46 million. "¡ROB!" didn't hold the viewers but has credible ratings.
> 
> In the remaining two hours, CBS ran reruns. In comparison, at 9:00 "Person of Interest" saw 4 million viewers disappear but 5.5 million viewers of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" disappeared.
> 
> *Fox* is seeing a drop in "American Idol" viewers. "The Finder" picked up a few viewers since ABC and CBS ran reruns and NBC didn't run "The Office."
> 
> *NBC*. Had NBC been wise, they would have given "The Leno Show" all three hours. Oh, I'm repeating myself....
> 
> It's actually stunning that when both ABC and CBS ran reruns at 10:00, about 7.4 million viewers disappeared and "The Firm" didn't benefit.
> 
> *The CW* ran the movie "The Covenant". :shrug:


Don't you mean Thursday?


----------



## phrelin

"sean10780" said:


> Don't you mean Thursday?


Yeah, I don't know what day it is. One of the hazards of being old and retired.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Friday of Winter:








Once in a while we need to note the truth about Friday. In total at 8:00 and 9:00 the broadcast networks can deliver about 50%-60% of the Mon-Fri audience for regular programming. At 10:00 that number tends to be 85±%.

*CBS*. When CBS runs reruns, the audience numbers drop like rocks.

*ABC* "enjoyed" slightly higher demo ratings and significantly lower total viewer ratings for its "Shark Tank" and "What Would You Do?" at 8:00 and 9:00 against reruns on CBS than they did for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" against new episodes on CBS. I wonder how the Disney programming decision to dump a show that contributes positively to society will compare to feeding totally frivolous shows "Shark Tank" and "What Would You Do?" during February Sweeps....

*Fox*. "Kitchen Nightmares" is a low budget show, so its ratings are probably ok. "Fringe" on the other hand....

*NBC* aired the final two hours of "Chuck" to a sad 4.2 million viewers, hopefully all eating Subway sandwiches while watching.

*The CW* ran reruns.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Sunday of Winter:








*NBC* had the NFL Pro Bowl last night which ran in prime time in the East, but basically left 8:00 - 11:00 in the West to the other networks. The ratings for the game are preliminary and will be adjusted by tomorrow.

*ABC*'s "Once Upon a Time" was strong. Fortunately for CBS, ABC now carries the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movie series which attracts weak a weak demo and total.

*Fox*'s animation night did about average for nights without an NFL lead in and NFL competition on NBC.

*CBS*. Though I don't show it here, it is important to know that "60 Minutes" had a season low while the NFL Pro Bowl was on across the country. But "Undercover Boss" at 8:00 did better than its Winter premier. "The Good Wife" did very well at 9:00 as did "CSI: Miami" at 10:00.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fifth Monday of Winter:








*CBS* ran reruns of its lineup for the third week of the five Mondays leaving about 3± million viewers (1.5± demo) for the other networks.

*ABC*'s "The Bachelor" seems to run well against the rerun ratings for the CBS comedies except at 9:00.

*Fox*'s "House" looks like returning to 8:00 might help a bit, but basically Fox has done such a good job of helping it lose its audience that it has half of the 4.8/13 - 13.35 million it pulled two years ago.

The "House" 8:30 ratings were 2.9/7 - 8.78 million. The "Alcatraz" 9:30 ratings were 2.7/6 - 8.20 million. CBS was running reruns so I'll be waiting to see next week what's going to happen to "Alcatraz" assuming there will be no live viewer carryover from "House." You see "2 Broke Girls" and "2½ Men" seem to destroy any chance Fox has for live viewers.

*NBC*. Let me quote from TVbytheNumbers: "For what is probably the last Monday this season (at least NBC hopes), Univision topped NBC among adults 18-49 on yet another in season Monday."

Against reruns on the two other networks, "Brian Williams" makes the prime time "Leno" show look like programming genius. Last week the reality show "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel at 10:00 pulled a 2.5 demo and 6.73 million.

In two weeks the current geniuses at NBC are moving it to 9:00 on Wednesday against "Criminal Minds" and "Modern Family". I'm not sure it will be able to beat "Remodeled" on The CW.

*The CW* seems to have found its ratings level - lower than a typical prime time cable channel show. There were, of course, cable channel shows that did better last night.

Comparing apples-to-apples, last Monday ABC Family's series "Pretty Little Liars" pulled a 1.4 in the demo and 3.17 million. Even Syfy's airing of the syndicated Canadian series "Lost Girl" pulled 0.4 in the demo and 1.11 million. I keep wondering how The CW can make it splitting revenues with broadcast stations.


----------



## rrdirectsr

phrelin said:


> Here's the fifth Monday of Winter:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *CBS* ran reruns of its lineup for the third week of the five Mondays leaving about 3± million viewers (1.5± demo) for the other networks.
> 
> *ABC*'s "The Bachelor" seems to run well against the rerun ratings for the CBS comedies except at 9:00.
> 
> *Fox*'s "House" looks like returning to 8:00 might help a bit, but basically Fox has done such a good job of helping it lose its audience that it has half of the 4.8/13 - 13.35 million it pulled two years ago.
> 
> The "House" 8:30 ratings were 2.9/7 - 8.78 million. The "Alcatraz" 9:30 ratings were 2.7/6 - 8.20 million. CBS was running reruns so I'll be waiting to see next week what's going to happen to "Alcatraz" assuming there will be no live viewer carryover from "House." You see "2 Broke Girls" and "2½ Men" seem to destroy any chance Fox has for live viewers.
> 
> *NBC*. Let me quote from TVbytheNumbers: "For what is probably the last Monday this season (at least NBC hopes), Univision topped NBC among adults 18-49 on yet another in season Monday."
> 
> Against reruns on the two other networks, "Brian Williams" makes the prime time "Leno" show look like programming genius. Last week the reality show "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel at 10:00 pulled a 2.5 demo and 6.73 million.
> 
> In two weeks the current geniuses at NBC are moving it to 9:00 on Wednesday against "Criminal Minds" and "Modern Family". I'm not sure it will be able to beat "Remodeled" on The CW.
> 
> *The CW* seems to have found its ratings level - lower than a typical prime time cable channel show. There were, of course, cable channel shows that did better last night.
> 
> Comparing apples-to-apples, last Monday ABC Family's series "Pretty Little Liars" pulled a 1.4 in the demo and 3.17 million. Even Syfy's airing of the syndicated Canadian series "Lost Girl" pulled 0.4 in the demo and 1.11 million. I keep wondering how The CW can make it splitting revenues with broadcast stations.


I'm glad Ringer will be back on tonight.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fifth Tuesday of Winter:








*CBS* ran another night of reruns of its Tuesday juggernaut. which apparently left 4 million viewers free to watch other things and 10 million viewers free to not watch broadcast TV.

*ABC* joined CBS with reruns at 8:00 which apparently left 4 million viewers free to watch other things and 10 million viewers free to not watch broadcast TV. "Celebrity Wife Swap" finished with pathetic ratings.

*Fox*'s "Glee" gained from the CBS and ABC reruns. "New Girl" was up slightly while "Raising Hope" continues to drop.

*NBC*'s "The Biggest Loser" continues along with mediocre ratings and what appears to be a fixed fan base. For NBC, these ratings are winners since it is a "reality" show.

*The CW*. "90210" had the same ratings as last week. After 8 weeks, a new episode of "The Ringer" returned to match its series low rating. What can I say about that, rrdirectsr? Well, it does have a solid fan base.

Tomorrow we begin the season all over again as we move into Nielsen February Sweeps.


----------



## rrdirectsr

phrelin said:


> Here's the fifth Tuesday of Winter:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *CBS* ran another night of reruns of its Tuesday juggernaut. which apparently left 4 million viewers free to watch other things and 10 million viewers free to not watch broadcast TV.
> 
> *ABC* joined CBS with reruns at 8:00 which apparently left 4 million viewers free to watch other things and 10 million viewers free to not watch broadcast TV. "Celebrity Wife Swap" finished with pathetic ratings.
> 
> *Fox*'s "Glee" gained from the CBS and ABC reruns. "New Girl" was up slightly while "Raising Hope" continues to drop.
> 
> *NBC*'s "The Biggest Loser" continues along with mediocre ratings and what appears to be a fixed fan base. For NBC, these ratings are winners since it is a "reality" show.
> 
> *The CW*. "90210" had the same ratings as last week. After 8 weeks, a new episode of "The Ringer" returned to match its series low rating. What can I say about that, rrdirectsr? Well, it does have a solid fan base.
> 
> Tomorrow we begin the season all over again as we move into Nielsen February Sweeps.


Oh well I guess they can't win them all


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fifth Wednesday of Winter and the last night before Nielsen February Sweeps Month begins:








*ABC* this is the second week of reruns for ABC, a little like starving the the pack of dogs before the hunt begins tomorrow and runs through the next four Wednesdays.

*CBS*, being the last traditional broadcast network, has been allocating its reruns on Wednesday.

This week they ran "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials" at 8:00 and have been running reruns and specials in this time slot probably testing the strength of "American Idol." They know they've got ratings problems against "Idol" and the ABC comedies when they bring "Survivor" back on February 15.

At the "Criminal Minds" slot at 9:00 they didn't let the special premier of "Touch" get too much credit last ;week. They also didn't leave their viewers a pass to roam the week before when ABC ran their comedy lineup and Fox ran a two-hour "Idol."

*Fox* has a problem with the "American Idol" tryout episodes. Apparently the show just isn't "the next morning water cooler fodder" (yeah, I'm old and out of touch as I know that should read "during the show Twitter fodder") as it used to be.

Despite what you might read elsewhere, "Mobbed" got a pass from ABC and CBS last night some long lasting boost from "American Idol."

*NBC*'s first hour of comedies are doing just awful as will "Rock Center with Brian Williams" at 9:00 beginning next week.

*The CW*. :shrug:

And so tonight at 8:00 will be the starting line for the "Broadcast Network Winter Race for the Under-50-DVR-Challenged Live Viewers." :grin:


----------



## phrelin

Here is the first Thursday of the Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








Since all five networks have programming from 8:00 to 10:00, here's how they did during that key two hour period:








A couple of initial observations are in order. From 8:00 to 10:00 there were 5 million (11%) fewer viewers than last year and 2 million (12.5%) fewer demo viewers. At 10:00, when fewer people watch TV, there were 3.3 million (13%) fewer viewers than last year and 1.7 million (22%) fewer demo viewers. This bodes ill for broadcast TV, maybe. How did it look by network?








*CBS* had a significant increase in both the demo and total viewers year-over-year in the first two hours. Those increases combined with the drop in viewers means that in the long term the other networks are looking at a disaster-in-the-making.

Compared to last year "The Big Bang Theory" saw a 26% increase in the demo and a 22% increase in total viewers. Over last year's "$#! My Dad Says" fiasco, "¡ROB!" saw a 21% increase in the demo and a 7% increase in total viewers. The numbers for "Person of Interest" over "CSI" last year were 10% and 8%. "The Mentalist" was _down_ 3% and 10%.

*ABC*'s "Wipeout" year-over-year dropped 28% in the demo and 25% in total viewers. "Grey's Anatomy" dropped 17% and 13%. "Private Practice" dropped 12% and 7%.

*Fox*'s problems are also significant. "American Idol" was down 22% in the demo and 16% in total viewers over last year. "The Finder" is down a whopping 29% and 32% compared to "Bones" last year.

*NBC*. What can one say about NBC. The comedy lineup took a loss across the board. But last year in the 10:00 hour they ran two comedies. This year "The Firm" pulled 62% fewer in the demo and 31% fewer in total viewers.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Friday of the Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








Here's the results of the first two hours of competition compared to last year:








Overall, there were about 10% fewer demo and total viewers than last year. This is a worsening problem for the broadcast networks overall, but Friday nights are becoming the second Saturday in terms of available demo viewers except for World Series games and the like.

*ABC*'s unscripted lineup gave a lackluster ratings performance but still won the demo.

*CBS* hopefully is selling Cialis commercials as the over-50 crowd seems to be around Friday. It's a tough world at CBS. "Blue Bloods" would probably pull significantly higher demos at 10:00 Tuesday, but the network needs it to maintain control of the Friday total viewer number. And the network does continue to do that.

*Fox*. "Kitchen Nightmares" pulled nearly the same ratings it did last year which I assume works for the network. Last year "Fringe" pulled 1.7/5 - 4.29 million, so it's on the Fox slow death march for scifi shows.

*NBC*'s "Who Do You Think You Are" pulled a 1.3/5 - 7.32 million last year. By locking "Grimm" into Friday, NBC has successfully dimmed its hopes. They should have shifted it to Tuesday night at 10:00. A year ago "Dateline" at 10:00 pulled 2.2/7 - 9.25 million.

*The CW*. As you can see from the 8:00 - 10:00 averages, year-over-year the slow death march of the network plods on. But as of this week, I get to watch it in HD.


----------



## rrdirectsr

phrelin said:


> Here's the fifth Wednesday of Winter and the last night before Nielsen February Sweeps Month begins:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *ABC* this is the second week of reruns for ABC, a little like starving the the pack of dogs before the hunt begins tomorrow and runs through the next four Wednesdays.
> 
> *CBS*, being the last traditional broadcast network, has been allocating its reruns on Wednesday.
> 
> This week they ran "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials" at 8:00 and have been running reruns and specials in this time slot probably testing the strength of "American Idol." They know they've got ratings problems against "Idol" and the ABC comedies when they bring "Survivor" back on February 15.
> 
> At the "Criminal Minds" slot at 9:00 they didn't let the special premier of "Touch" get too much credit last ;week. They also didn't leave their viewers a pass to roam the week before when ABC ran their comedy lineup and Fox ran a two-hour "Idol."
> 
> *Fox* has a problem with the "American Idol" tryout episodes. Apparently the show just isn't "the next morning water cooler fodder" (yeah, I'm old and out of touch as I know that should read "during the show Twitter fodder") as it used to be.
> 
> Despite what you might read elsewhere, "Mobbed" got a pass from ABC and CBS last night some long lasting boost from "American Idol."
> 
> *NBC*'s first hour of comedies are doing just awful as will "Rock Center with Brian Williams" at 9:00 beginning next week.
> 
> *The CW*. :shrug:
> 
> And so tonight at 8:00 will be the starting line for the "Broadcast Network Winter Race for the Under-50-DVR-Challenged Live Viewers." :grin:


Was Revenge a rerun back on 02/01/12? My DVR didn't record it.


----------



## phrelin

rrdirectsr said:


> Was Revenge a rerun back on 02/01/12? My DVR didn't record it.


Yep, in fact all nets ran reruns at 10:00 that night.


----------



## rrdirectsr

phrelin said:


> Yep, in fact all nets ran reruns at 10:00 that night.


Thank you.


----------



## Laxguy

What happened on Friday at 9 such that the percentages total way more than 100%?

Also, are any of these charts pastable as tables? The jpegs can be a bit hard to read, as they don't scale up well.


----------



## phrelin

Laxguy said:


> What happened on Friday at 9 such that the percentages total way more than 100%?


 
Sorry. I fixed that and put a total in so I don't screw that up again.


> Also, are any of these charts pastable as tables? The jpegs can be a bit hard to read, as they don't scale up well.


I have never figured out how to paste a complex Excel table into a post. I can upload and link to a larger scale jpeg or perhaps an html created by Excel such as the one for 02/01/2012. Whatever works.


----------



## Laxguy

Yes, that one reads well. 

I think I've said this before, but I very much appreciate your posting and comments!


----------



## phrelin

Laxguy said:


> Yes, that one reads well.
> 
> I think I've said this before, but I very much appreciate your posting and comments!


Thanks and also as I think I've said before, I'd do the spreadsheet for myself anyway and enjoy sharing here. I'll provide a link to the html spreadsheet in the intro on the word "Here's".

Here's the first Sunday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








As usual when live "events" are involved, the rating/time matrix for the Super Bowl doesn't mean anything, but can't be ignored, so NBC's ratings are shown for EST using the 10:30 ratings for "The Voice". Unless otherwise mentioned, the other networks ran reruns of various programming and, except for Fox, not even reruns of their regular schedule.

*NFL - Super Bowl XLVI*. The NFL pulled ratings similar to last year. I don't know what it says about us (including me) that this is the only American TV entertainment during the year that has numbers like this. It has nothing to do with the network it is on.

*NBC*. Each year the network awarded the Super Bowl attempts to take advantage of the lead in with such a high number of viewers to bolster one of its shows. NBC ran the season premier of "The Voice" exposing it to the about the same number of viewers who couldn't find the remote as "Glee" pulled last year. We'll see if it does any good as "The Voice" premiers in its normal time slot tonight.

*CBS* at 8:00 ran a new "60 Minutes Presents: Three Remarkable Women" which appears to have found 4 million mostly over-50 viewers, probably most on the West Coast.


----------



## Laxguy

Very nice! 

Now, if NBC could use a rolling average for several weeks, they'd look good!


----------



## phrelin

Laxguy said:


> Now, if NBC could use a rolling average for several weeks, they'd look good!


My guess is we'll see those numbers mixed in the spin from NBC for the week and the Sweeps period.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Monday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*NBC*. Robert Greenblatt, Chairman of NBC Entertainment since Comcast took control and the guy who brought "Smash" to the network, has to be cautiously smiling this morning.

"The Voice" pulled "Dancing with the Stars" level ratings last night - a huge jump off benefiting from the post-Super Bowl season premier airing.

The hour ratings for the premier of "Smash" were remarkable. But, and this is a significant "but", when we look at the half-hour numbers, "cautiously" had better be the nature of Greenblatt's smile.

8:00 "The Voice" pulled 5.3/15 - 15.38 million
8:30 "The Voice" pulled 6.2/15 - 16.77 million
9:00 "The Voice" pulled 7.3/17 - 19.19 million
9:30 "The Voice" pulled 7.7/18 - 19.39 million
10:00 "Smash" pulled 4.2/10 - 12.73 million
10:30 "Smash" pulled 3.4/9 - 10.27 million

From the 9:30 ratings of "The Voice" to the 10:30 ratings of "Smash" we see a drop of 56% in the demo and 47% in total viewers. And there is a 20% drop during the 10:00 hour.

So while it looks like NBC may be a player on Monday nights, they probably will be just a full-fledged player. That would be good for them.

*ABC*'s ratings were about what they were in January.

*CBS* comedies took a small hit in the demo ratings. "Hawaii Five-0" may or may not have something to worry about. It appears it depends entirely on whether "Smash" will hold that 10:30 audience.

*Fox*. The Fox lineup took a bigger ratings hit than CBS or ABC. Here are the two hour averages when every network is in the competition:








This is Fox's strongest two-hour lineup of scripted shows and they find themselves possibly in #4 position during the Sweeps.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Tuesday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*CBS*. Except for the 9:00 half-hour, CBS won both the demo and total viewers. The first two-hour average comparison is remarkable:








It was the 200th episode of "NCIS" but the ratings were pretty normal.

*ABC* ran two new episodes of "Last Man Standing" followed by the 2-hour premier of "The River." In the first two hours of the night ABC's demo ratings averaged barely higher than NBC's "The Biggest Loser" and NBC ran higher in total viewers. The 10:00 hour of "The River" did better than "Body of Proof" usually does, but that doesn't offer much as "Body" will be back in that slot next week.

*Fox*. "Glee" was down slightly from last week, but "New Girl" and "Raising Hope" were both up slightly.

*NBC*'s ratings were fairly constant for Tuesday keeping the network in 4th place in the demo for the first two hours (though in terms of total viewers they beat ABC) and 3rd for the 10:00 hour.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## Church AV Guy

If I'm reading the chart properly, The River between the 9 and 10 o'clock hours dropped from 8.2 to 6.82 million viewers. That's 17% of the audiance (1.4 million viewers) that they lost between the first and second hours of the pilot episode. That does not look too good, or am I reading to much into those numbers?


----------



## phrelin

Church AV Guy said:


> If I'm reading the chart properly, The River between the 9 and 10 o'clock hours dropped from 8.2 to 6.82 million viewers. That's 17% of the audiance (1.4 million viewers) that they lost between the first and second hours of the pilot episode. That does not look too good, or am I reading to much into those numbers?


No, you're not reading too much into the numbers. Here's the half-hour numbers and if I were an ABC suit I'd be suffering from anxiety until next week:

9:00 2.5/ 6 - 8.67 million
9:30 2.4/ 6 - 7.73 million
10:00 2.3/ 6 - 7.16 million
10:00 2.2/ 6 - 6.49 million


----------



## Church AV Guy

Ouch!


----------



## Laxguy

Church AV Guy said:


> Ouch!


Hmmm, and I would have fallen in there somewhere, bailing halfway through... if they counted old guys using DVRs!


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Wednesday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*ABC* ratings were pretty much what they've been.

*CBS*, on the other hand, didn't do so well last night with it's resurrection of "Person to Person" at 8:00. Here's the first two hours averages:








However, "Criminal Minds" still does well for the network and "CSI" still won the 10:00 sweepstakes for both demo viewers and total viewers.

*Fox*. Last year 2/9/2011 "American Idol' pulled 8.3/23 - 23.67 milllion which was noted as being down compared to the same week the prior season. So I'm not sure what Fox thinks of a 6.0/17 - 18.94 million this year, though it's still a time slot winner by a wide margin.

"Mobbed" is also doing ok, up from last week. Last year "Human Target" started slipping with a 2.4/6 - 8.30 million. So "Idol" can provide a good lead in, but the 9:00 show has to be appealing on its own because it is against strong competition from ABC and CBS.

*NBC*. The two 8:00 comedies slipped some more. "Brian Williams" almost pulled as high as it did on January 16 after the "Betty White" birthday thing. That's not much of a rating for 9:00 on Wednesday. "SVU" wasn't far behind the other two at 10:00 and was up significantly over its last new episode outing.

*The CW*. "Remodeled" is a disaster.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Thursday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*ABC*'s "Wipeout" is a ratings wipeout. "Grey's Anatomy" still has a top demo draw, but only pulled two-thirds of the total viewers "Person of Interest" pulled for CBS. And "Private Practice" does not retain those demo viewers at 10:00.

*CBS* as usual won total viewers for 9:00 and 10:00. It also won the demo at 10:00 _and_ at 8:00 as "Idol" for 8:00 to 8:30 had a 5.2/15 while "Big Bang Theory" had a 5.5/16.

*Fox*'s "American Idol" still wins the first hour overall, but last year pulled 7.3/20 - 21.73 million. "The Finder" is also well below "Bones" last year. But taken together, these shows won the two-hour 5 network competition:








*NBC*. If there wasn't The CW....

*The CW*. Thursday was supposed to be a strong night for The CW. But "The Secret Circle" can't get above a 1.0 demo rating.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Friday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*ABC*, from the viewpoint of the "Let's Make Money" game show that the networks play every night, won the night. Truly cheap to produce, "Shark Tank", won the demo in the first hour, while another cheapy, "Primetime: What Would You Do?", came in second in the 9:00 hour. While "20/20" came in third in the 10:00 run, it was a close third.

*CBS* ran its last Friday with three hours of scripted programming, at least for awhile. In terms of total viewers eyes over three hours, CBS has over 40% on Fridays. Even in the two-hour five-network contest, they got 38% of the total viewers:








But whether a network can make enough money selling Cialis-demo commercials to support scripted shows is unclear. One thing is clear, on Friday there aren't enough demo eyes to go around.

On most nights, from 8:00 to 10:00 the demo represents a third of the viewers, and during the 10:00 hour they represent a fourth of the viewers. On Friday night it's 10:00 at every hour as 10 million viewers aren't there for the first two hours including 8 million demo viewers.

"A Gifted Man" tied with NBC for third at 8:00. "CSI: NY" won 9:00 with a demo of 1.7/5 and a total of 10.34 million. "Blue Bloods" won 10:00 with a 1.8/5 and a total of 11.77 million, which means to me that a show with two old-guys, Tom Selleck age 67, and Len Cariou, age 72, keep the old demo up to watch this show. (As an aside, I guess Cariou's character fathered Selleck's character at age 5, but we old guys overlook these anomalies.)

Beginning next week "A Gifted Man" moves to 9:00 while CBS brings in "Undercover Boss" at 8:00. "CSI: NY" returns to 9:00 on March 30 and "A Gifted Man" becomes a forgotten show.

*Fox* ended up running a pathetic fourth in the first two hours because of "Fringe."

Goodbye "Fringe" and when will Fox learn there is no audience for formula scifi. ABC's "Lost" was not formula. It was original, clever, well-cast, etc. There is room for one on broadcast TV, one that doesn't feel anything like "Lost" or any other previous scifi. I'm waiting for it.

*NBC*'s "Grimm" placed second at 9:00. They should be running it on Tuesday at 10:00 against ABC's "Body of Proof" and CBS' "Unforgettable."

*The CW* is looking for a 1.0 in the demo.


----------



## renbutler

phrelin said:


> *Fox* ended up running a pathetic fourth in the first two hours because of "Fringe."
> 
> Goodbye "Fringe" and when will Fox learn there is no audience for formula scifi. ABC's "Lost" was not formula. It was original, clever, well-cast, etc. There is room for one on broadcast TV, one that doesn't feel anything like "Lost" or any other previous scifi. I'm waiting for it.


I don't know why Fringe isn't more successful, but it's not because it's formulaic, or because it isn't original, clever, or well-cast.

This season, it certainly isn't as captivating as it was in the past. But we're still watching, and I look forward to an outstanding conclusion (hopefully better than Lost's).

BTW, last I saw (sometime earlier this season), Fringe had higher DVR numbers than any show on television.


----------



## phrelin

renbutler said:


> I don't know why Fringe isn't more successful, but it's not because it's formulaic, or because it isn't original, clever, or well-cast.
> 
> This season, it certainly isn't as captivating as it was in the past. But we're still watching, and I look forward to an outstanding conclusion (hopefully better than Lost's).
> 
> BTW, last I saw (sometime earlier this season), Fringe had higher DVR numbers than any show on television.


Keep in mind that when referring to the DVR numbers, they generally refer to the highest percentage increase. For instance, the headline Live+7 DVR Ratings: 'Modern Family' Tops Absolute Gains; 'Fringe' Tops % Gains in Week 18with a story reporting the show had a whopping 81.8% increase but the demo actual increase went from a live+same day 1.10 to a live+7 day 2.00, an increase that didn't even make the top 25 for real numbers.

And advertisers really don't care about the 7 day number, even for "Modern Family" which that week which saw a jump in the demo from 5.10 to 7.80.

EDIT" And, by the way, I really like "Fringe", but taking all seasons into account, it is basically a crime procedural with a scifi twist but with an interesting seasonal scifi story arc.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Sunday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








There really isn't much to say here. I guess one could note that "The Grammys" on CBS didn't even pull 50% of the viewers the Super Bowl did the previous week but did get about a third more than "The Voice" post-Super Bowl airing. "The Grammys" were up 41% over last year, at least partly because of the death of Whitney Houston and maybe partly because it was really good entertainment.

And, everything considered, "Once Upon A Time" on ABC did pretty well.


----------



## renbutler

Alcatraz down to 1.9 (2/13)! I already have accepted that either Terra Nova or Alcatraz isn't going to see another season. But if I had to bet on it, I would have bet on Alcatraz's return -- until I saw last night's number...


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Monday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*NBC*. Here are the half-hour ratings:

8:00 The Voice 5.1/14 - 14.88 million
8:30 The Voice 5.7/15 - 15.66 million
9:00 The Voice 6.3/15 - 16.83 million
9:30 The Voice 6.5/15 - 17.05 million
10:00 Smash 3.1/ 8 - 8.85 million
10:30 Smash 2.5/ 7 - 7.34 million

"The Voice" was #1 in the demo and in total viewers for the whole two hours _increasing each half hour_ with the two hour averages as follows:








On the other hand "Smash" was #3 in total viewers in both half hours and was #1 in the demo in the first half hour, but tied "Hawaii Five-0" in the second half hour demo. This confuses me a bit, because I thought "Smash" would appeal to the older viewers. Instead the other two networks both got 36% of the older viewers while "Smash" only pulled 28%.

In a complete reversal of fortunes, Monday is now NBC's to lose. The initial problem is that in the 10:00 hour 25% of the "Smash" demo viewers last week were visitors. They just don't watch TV that late. But "Smash" has eroded the demo ratings of the two other nets, compared to last fall.

*ABC*. "The Bachelor" two hours averaged a 2.9 demo a year ago compared to a 2.5 demo this year. "Castle" had a 2.2 demo a year ago compared to a 2.0 last night. So some erosion from NBC can be seen.

*CBS* is, of course, the network that had the ratings lead to lose if NBC could get its act together.

Last Fall, on 10/17/2011 the two hours of CBS comedies averaged 4.5 in the demo and 11.8 million total viewers. Last night it was 3.7 & 10.6 million. That's a loss of 18% in the demo and 5% of the over-50 crowd. While the other three averaged a demo loss of 0.7, "Two and a Half Men" dropped from 5.2 on that October night (which was actually low for the fall) to 3.8, a loss of 1.4, double the others. All are down from last year except "2 Broke Girls" which is well above "Mad Love".

At 10:00 "Hawaii Five-0" is down 0.5 from 10/17/2011 (which again was one of the lower ratings for the Fall) and down and down 0.2 from a year ago.

*Fox*. Unfortunately, "House" with 2.4/6 - 7.16 million was down from a 3.4/10 - 9.87 million a year ago and a 3.1/7 - 8.37 million on 10/17/2011. I say "unfortunately" because last night's episode was the best one in some time.

"Alcatraz", the new crime procedural with a scifi twist pulled 1.9 in the demo which ... compares favorably to "Fringe" getting a 1.7 on Friday??? While I haven't seen this week's episode, I like the show. Perhaps they could swap it with Friday's "Kitchen Nightmares" and improve the ratings for three shows by creating their own sci-Friday?

In any event, Fox now has "Terra Nova" and "Alcatraz" in their stable of scifi ratings losers to figure out what to do with next year, if anything. (Don't kill the messenger here. I'm just pointing out there aren't enough scifi fans like me to make up for the scifi avoiders who dominate the live viewer numbers for live broadcast TV.)

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## Laxguy

Folks at NBC must be wetting themselves this morning! (In a good way, if such a thing) Best results in eons!

I, too, like *Alcatraz*, even with the canned shots of the city- some several years old.... It has the Sci-fi element, and some elements of a procedural.


----------



## Church AV Guy

I and my wife both like Alcatraz, and this weeks was, with one exception, a very good episode. Guess


Spoiler



who in the first few minutes of the show will be dead by the end of the show. The guy might just as well be wearing a red shirt! Sheesh, how cliche.


----------



## dpeters11

"Laxguy" said:


> Folks at NBC must be wetting themselves this morning! (In a good way, if such a thing) Best results in eons!
> 
> I, too, like Alcatraz, even with the canned shots of the city- some several years old.... It has the Sci-fi element, and some elements of a procedural.


NBC did that with Cincinnati and Harry's Law (Riverfront Stadium etc). Maybe Fox will improve it in the second season like we got.


----------



## Supramom2000

I am LOVING Smash. I think it is amazing so far!!!


----------



## phrelin

Supramom2000 said:


> I am LOVING Smash. I think it is amazing so far!!!


We are also enjoying the show which is why I don't understand why the older demo is watching "Castle" and "Hawaii Five-0".

Here's the second Tuesday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*ABC*'s ratings allowed NBC to move up one notch. Here's the two hour averages:








"Last Man Standing" continues its slow ratings decline.

"Cougar Town" premiered its season to cancellation level ratings, well below the premiers in that time slot of "Work It" and "Man Up."

That failure was followed by the viewer-rejected "The River" second episode.

Finally the Disney-owned ABC closed with cancellation level ratings for "Body of Proof."

If one ignores The CW, ABC's Tuesday situation is at Disney-suits-panic-level.

*CBS*, on the other hand, continues to dominate the night.

*Fox*. On January 31, "Glee" returned with new episodes to 3.6/10 - 9.02 million. Last week, it slipped and this week it slipped some more, now having lost 22% of the return demo and 25% of the 50+ crowd.

"The New Girl" is still doing well. Each week we record and watch it. We sit there through the first 85% of the show wondering why we're watching it and then the wrap-up comes along making us laugh out loud. It's an unusual approach to comedy, at risk of losing the audience. But the humor does work.

"Raising Hope" doesn't hold the lead in.

*NBC*'s suits find themselves in third place, in fact even in second place at 9:30, through no fault of their own. For instance, we have recorded and watched every episode of "Parenthood" because we think it's good drama but recognize that it's survival is some kind of miracle. Except that like last night, it has frequently been #2 in its time slot in the demo.

Unfortunately, the reality this reflects is that only 22 million folks were watching live at 10:00 last night out of ...well, if we take the highest hour total from Super Bowl Sunday... 112 million possible live viewers. That's 20% for the networks to divide. Worse yet, they have to divide 13% of the potential live demo viewers, if one uses the highest hour total from Super Bowl Sunday as the potential.

I guess this is why Fox led the charge to charge viewers. There's no way the networks can sell enough advertising to cover the cost of shows if advertising revenue is going to be based on live+same day ratings.

*The CW* at this point would be considered a struggling cable network.:eek2:


----------



## rrdirectsr

phrelin said:


> We are also enjoying the show which is why I don't understand why the older demo is watching "Castle" and "Hawaii Five-0".
> 
> Here's the second Tuesday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *ABC*'s ratings allowed NBC to move up one notch. Here's the two hour averages:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "Last Man Standing" continues its slow ratings decline.
> 
> "Cougar Town" premiered its season to cancellation level ratings, well below the premiers in that time slot of "Work It" and "Man Up."
> 
> That failure was followed by the viewer-rejected "The River" second episode.
> 
> Finally the Disney-owned ABC closed with cancellation level ratings for "Body of Proof."
> 
> If one ignores The CW, ABC's Tuesday situation is at Disney-suits-panic-level.
> 
> *CBS*, on the other hand, continues to dominate the night.
> 
> *Fox*. On January 31, "Glee" returned with new episodes to 3.6/10 - 9.02 million. Last week, it slipped and this week it slipped some more, now having lost 22% of the return demo and 25% of the 50+ crowd.
> 
> "The New Girl" is still doing well. Each week we record and watch it. We sit there through the first 85% of the show wondering why we're watching it and then the wrap-up comes along making us laugh out loud. It's an unusual approach to comedy, at risk of losing the audience. But the humor does work.
> 
> "Raising Hope" doesn't hold the lead in.
> 
> *NBC*'s suits find themselves in third place, in fact even in second place at 9:30, through no fault of their own. For instance, we have recorded and watched every episode of "Parenthood" because we think it's good drama but recognize that it's survival is some kind of miracle. Except that like last night, it has frequently been #2 in its time slot in the demo.
> 
> Unfortunately, the reality this reflects is that only 22 million folks were watching live at 10:00 last night out of ...well, if we take the highest hour total from Super Bowl Sunday... 112 million possible live viewers. That's 20% for the networks to divide. Worse yet, they have to divide 13% of the potential live demo viewers, if one uses the highest hour total from Super Bowl Sunday as the potential.
> 
> I guess this is why Fox led the charge to charge viewers. There's no way the networks can sell enough advertising to cover the cost of shows if advertising revenue is going to be based on live+same day ratings.
> 
> *The CW* at this point would be considered a struggling cable network.:eek2:


Poor CW.


----------



## Church AV Guy

Given the ratings for the whole year so far, aside from maybe Vampire Diaries and one or two other shows, it seems that the CW network is not long for this world. I can hardly believe that they are in fact MAKING MONEY with the ratings that they are getting, and no business is in the business of losing money (now the government, that's a different story, anyway...) so how can they continue? Any idea how the overall ratings of The CW have been over the last five years or more? I seem to think that they are shrinking, and not growing. The observation that they ran a rerun instead of a new episode IN A SWEEPS PERIOD is just unbelievable!


----------



## RasputinAXP

The wife and I are loving Smash.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Wednesday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*Fox* ran "American Idol" in both hours giving it a #1 spot in every half hour. Last week "Mobbed" came in #3 in the 9:00 hour.

ABC. Here's the two hour averages competition:








ABC's comedies averaged a tie with CBS for second in the demo, but not in total viewers. And if it weren't from "Modern Family" ABC would be third in the demo also.

*CBS*. "Survivor" had its lowest season premier, but still had acceptable ratings making it #2 for the hour. Against a second hour of "Idol", "Criminal Minds" found itself as #3 at 9:00 and #2 at 9:30 in the demo even though it was #2 in total viewers in both half hours. "CSI" is still the winner at 10:00.

*NBC*. "Whitney" and "Chelsea" are clearly one season shows as NBC plans its makeover. I assume they were just giving Brian Williams some exposure with "Rock Center", but that's minimal exposure with a demo that would have truly embarrassed the prime time "Leno" experiment. "SVU" is getting a little long of tooth and will not be back next year.

*The CW*. 


rrdirectsr said:


> Poor CW.


Yeah....



Church AV Guy said:


> Given the ratings for the whole year so far, aside from maybe Vampire Diaries and one or two other shows, it seems that the CW network is not long for this world. I can hardly believe that they are in fact MAKING MONEY with the ratings that they are getting, and no business is in the business of losing money (now the government, that's a different story, anyway...) so how can they continue? Any idea how the overall ratings of The CW have been over the last five years or more? I seem to think that they are shrinking, and not growing. The observation that they ran a rerun instead of a new episode IN A SWEEPS PERIOD is just unbelievable!


It's really hard to figure out what they are doing as a company. Their core audience tends to watch "American Idol" live. So February sweeps is a disaster for them

In 2008 and 2009 they ran reruns on the comparable Wednesday against "Idol" with ratings similar to last night's ratings. In 2010 everyone ran reruns against the Winter Olympics. On 2/16/2011 they ran reruns against "Idol."

But on the comparable week in 2008 on Thursday, when "Idol" wasn't running, "Smallville" pulled a 1.5/4 - 3.67 million and "Supernatural" had a 1.2/3 - 2.94 million. They now have no night or show with comparable ratings.

I know they are getting hits on the web site for fans streaming shows which is consistent with their target demo. And you can buy music via their web site through iTunes which makes a little money. And you can buy [strike]crap[/strike] merchandise via their web site.

Whether this means anything to their advertisers and affiliates, I really don't know.

Maybe The CW is the "canary in the mine" for broadcast television. Or maybe there never really was room for a fifth general broadcast network and a niche broadcast network has to fight for revenue via the web along with some retransmission payments to their affiliates.


----------



## Church AV Guy

> ...on the comparable week in 2008 on Thursday, when "Idol" wasn't running, "Smallville" pulled a 1.5/4 - 3.67 million and "Supernatural" had a 1.2/3 - 2.94 million. They now have no night or show with comparable ratings.
> 
> Whether this means anything to their advertisers and affiliates, I really don't know.
> 
> Maybe The CW is the "canary in the mine" for broadcast television. Or maybe there never really was room for a fifth general broadcast network and a niche broadcast network has to fight for revenue via the web along with some retransmission payments to their affiliates.


It HAS to mean something when over the past few years, the ratings for the entire network are dwindling. Look at REMODELED last (Wednesday) night.

0.2/1 | 0.50 | 1.1%

That is WORSE than pathetic!

Poor CW indeed! I actually watch more on the CW network than I do on NBC. Despite its ratings, I really like Nikita, for example.


----------



## Supramom2000

Church AV Guy said:


> It HAS to mean something when over the past few years, the ratings for the entire network are dwindling. Look at REMODELED last (Wednesday) night.
> 
> 0.2/1 | 0.50 | 1.1%
> 
> That is WORSE than pathetic!
> 
> Poor CW indeed! I actually watch more on the CW network than I do on NBC. Despite its ratings, I really like Nikita, for example.


I agree. I really like Nikita. And I watch Vampire Diaries as well. I used to watch Smallville on the CW too.

BTW - just an FYI but CSY:New York is on hiatus until the end of March. A Gifted Man will be airing at 9:00 during this time.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Thursday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








We seem to have some odd results. The first hour seems to be short about 2 million viewers, while the second hour is up over 5 million viewers.

In the first _half_ hour, compared to last week "Idol" is down about 1.5 million total viewers and "BBT" is down about half a million total viewers. In the second _half_ hour, "Idol" is down about 1.1 million and "Rob" is down only 0.1 million.

But in the second _full_ hour "Idol" pulled 10 million more viewers than "The Finder", about half who didn't watch in the two prior weeks and the remainder from the other networks.

So....

*Fox* won the two hour contest...








..even though their viewers apparently were stuck longer than usual in evening commute traffic.:sure:

But last year on 2/17/2011 in the 8:00 slot "Idol" pulled 7.5/22 - 21.94 million, so the year-to-year slide continues.

*CBS* in the first hour also seemed to be hurt by that extra commute time and by the extra hour of "Idol" in the second hour. "The Mentalist" at 10:00 faced another factor that entered into the picture...

*ABC* ran one of those "Grey's Anatomy" finishes up in "Private Practice" combinations last night so even though "Grey's" hit a season low "Practice" was up winning the demo at 10:00.

*NBC*'s 2-hour comedy lineup slipped, mostly in the second hour. It appears that "Grimm" reruns ratings at 10:00 are grim. I still think they ought to run "Grimm" on Tuesday at 10:00 against ABC's "Body of Proof" and CBS' "Unforgettable."

*The CW*.


Supramom2000 said:


> I agree. I really like Nikita. And I watch Vampire Diaries as well. I used to watch Smallville on the CW too.


It appears that "Vampire Diaries" is the only show that attracts even a modicum of live demo viewers for the network this year. Ratings for everything else is not worth noting.


----------



## Church AV Guy

> appears that "Vampire Diaries" is the only show that attracts even a modicum of live demo viewers for the network this year. Ratings for everything else is not worth noting.


That's too bad, because I like Nikita, Ringer, and I still watch Supernatural. That's more shows than I watch on NBC.


----------



## Supramom2000

Yes, I forgot to add I watch Ringer as well. It really is kind of dumb, but I have to admit that they constantly surprise me with the plot. Every time I think I've figured out what direction they will move in, they surprise me. So I keep watching to see what Shiobahn is really plotting, what the step-daughter is really up to, who really took/killed Gemma, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if we find out that Gemma's husband isn't really the father of the baby! But the side plot with Gemma's dad and the investment scam is sort of a distraction. Doesn't yet fit with the rest of the story.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Friday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*CBS*. This would have been an even more interesting set of ratings for CBS had ABC and NBC not been running specials. But looking at the two hour ratings...








...it seems like running the popular reality show "Undercover Boss" at 8:00 on Friday works and it appears that "A Gifted Man' may do as well at 9:00 as "CSI:NY" though we won't know at least until next week.

*Fox* slipped again this week, this time because a few fickle reality show fans at 8:00 switched to CBS and "Fringe" didn't suddenly become popular with the live viewers.

*ABC* ran a special "20/20" called "One Moment in Time: The Life of Whitney Houston" from 9:00 to 11:00 which gave the network a demo win at in both the 9:00 and 10:00 hours but did not give the network a win in the first two hours average which means it didn't gain anything but a few bucks on one "20/20".

*NBC* ran "The 43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards" from 8:00 to 10:00. The ratings make prime time "Leno" ratings seem magical. The network really should have aired this on Saturday. What we have now is "Grimm" fans puzzling over what happened to their show.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Sunday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








Here's each network's average 1 hour rating for the 4 hours (3 hours for Fox):








*ABC*'s "Once Upon a Time" had the highest demo rating for the night. On the other hand, the ratings for the finale of "Pan Am" were so low that the network finished third for the night.

*CBS*. I had some hopes that this Sunday we'd begin to see how a real Sunday night competition would look. Unfortunately, in the East CBS had golf run over 22 minutes. It didn't have the effect of a significant sporting event, but it means the ratings aren't "clean." CBS tied for the demo win and clearly won the total viewer ratings. But it got that demo win tie from the season premier of "Amazing Race."

*Fox*'s animation lineup did fine in the 8:00 and 9:00 hours, but the 7:00 hour keeps them from winning the night.

*NBC* ran a two hour rerun of "The Voice" from 7:00 to 9:00 and premiered "Celebrity Apprentice" in the 9:00 to 11:00 time period. This gave them a demo win tie with CBS.

The demo wins for the night were:

7:00 CBS "60 Minutes" - 2.1
8:00 ABC "Once Upon a Time" - 3.0
9:00 NBC "Celebrity Apprentice" - 2.5 (premier)
10:00 NBC "Celebrity Apprentice" - 2.8 (premier)
The viewers age 50+ wins for the night were:

7:00 CBS "60 Minutes" - 9.6
8:00 CBS "Amazing Race" - 7.3
9:00 CBS "The Good Wife" - 7.5
10:00 CBS "CSI: Miami" - 7.7
Since the only one we record and watch in the age 50+ is "The Good Wife" and we do record and watch "Once Upon a Time", I'm not sure what that says about us.

Of course, what we want to watch Sunday night is "Downton Abbey", the highest rated PBS show that has consistently pulled 4+ million live viewers (not counting repeat showings) even against the Super Bowl. Unfortunately last night was the season finale. (No spoilers here, please, as I haven't watched the recording yet.)

Next season they will be adding Shirley MacLaine, age 77, to the cast to play the _mother_ of Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, played by Elizabeth McGovern's, age 50. MacLaine and Maggie Smith, who plays Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, were both born in 1934.

I assume the 3rd season will get the similar ratings from the 50+ crowd that the previous two seasons brought to PBS.


----------



## renbutler

Alcatraz down to 1.8 on 2/20. I'm starting to see the writing on the prison wall. 

If FOX has to choose between Terra Nova and Alcatraz, I wonder if they'll account for Alcatraz's stiffer competition on Mondays and what is likely a smaller budget.

Frankly, I'd feel pretty lucky to get just ONE of them back next year...


----------



## phrelin

renbutler said:


> Alcatraz down to 1.8 on 2/20. I'm starting to see the writing on the prison wall.
> 
> If FOX has to choose between Terra Nova and Alcatraz, I wonder if they'll account for Alcatraz's stiffer competition on Mondays and what is likely a smaller budget.
> 
> Frankly, I'd feel pretty lucky to get just ONE of them back next year...


I'm just hoping they'll put one of them on at 9:00 Friday continuing the tradition of ... I don't even know how to describe the tradition.

Here's the third Monday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








Monday's competition during this sweeps period has been head-to-head, no specials or reruns. Two of the networks, ABC and NBC, have shows running from 8:00 to 10:00, two of the networks, Fox and The CW, only have a two hour lineup, while CBS has four half-hour sitcoms during that period. Here's what the two hour averages look like:








*ABC*'s "The Bachelor" appears to have a stable number of live viewers in the demo and total keeping the show in 3rd place. "Castle" remains competitive at 10:00; even though it's consistently 3rd in the demo, it is now second in total viewers.

*CBS*. The two-hour sitcom block finished 2nd in each half hour and for the two hours. "Hawaii Five-0" was the 10:00 winner.

*Fox* is now firmly in 4th place in the two-hour competition. "House" has a decent audience that likely will be there for its series finale. "Alcatraz" with ratings of 1.8/4 - 5.96 million in a time period that has a demo of 15 million and a total of 45 million is just simply sad.

*NBC*. "The Voice" seems to be stable from last week, still in 1st place. "Smash" on the other hand lost 5 million viewers from its premier, 0.9 million to "Castle", 0.4 million to "Hawaii Five-0" and 3.7 million to activities other than broadcast TV.

"Smash" has a problem. In the ages 18-49 demo, it could easily find itself in and out of 3rd place. But it seems to not appeal to the age 50+ live viewers. There are regularly about 19 million live 50+ viewers at 10:00. ABC and CBS will each likely get 7.5 million leaving "Smash" with 4 million.

Conventional advertising wisdom says that those older viewers don't matter. But at 10:00 weekdays they average about 75% of the viewers.

For NBC, of course, "Smash" is a ratings magnet. But realistically, it is very expensive to produce and isn't a "loss leader" because it doesn't help the overall schedule. Robert Greenblatt, the new Chairman of NBC Entertainment, made the choice to bring this with him from Showtime. It would have been a good choice for a premium channel. I don't know how Comcast suits are going to evaluate that decision. Maybe he can keep them focused on "The Voice."

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## rrdirectsr

Ringer comes on tonight so I bet the CW rakes in the viewers


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Tuesday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*ABC*. The Disney suits have to be very unhappy. ABC has managed to become the new NBC, rating last in the demo in every hour. Here's the first two hour averages:








Even "Raising Hope" has a higher demo than "The River." And "Cougar Town" is a ratings loser, on its second airing of the season drawing fewer viewers than "Work It" and "Man Up", the shows ABC canceled they had bad ratings.

*CBS* continues to dominate the night even though for some reason the demos slipped. "Unforgettable" continues to win the 10:00 demo by virtue of the fact that "Body of Proof" and "Parenthood" get worse ratings.

*Fox* was 2nd in the two hour competition demo.

*NBC* no longer is in 4th in the demo in any Tuesday hour. ABC kindly brought back "Cougar Town" and followed it by "The River" thereby demonstrating just how rapidly bad programming decisions can kick you to the bottom. And the network should have moved "Grimm" into the 10:00 Tuesday slot.

*The CW*.


rrdirectsr said:


> Ringer comes on tonight so I bet the CW rakes in the viewers


 Well, it did get it's highest total viewer ratings since they brought back new episodes on 1/31/2012.:sure:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Wednesday of Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps:








*Fox*. Other web sites have noted the drop "American Idol" ratings over last week. Here's the two hour averages:








Indeed the drop from last week averaged 0.8 million demo viewers and 2.9 million total viewers which represents a 13.6% drop in the demo and a 16.4% drop in the 50+ crowd. What's significant here is the average total broadcast TV viewers for the two hours week-to-week which indicates that the lost "Idol" viewers just weren't watching broadcast TV.

Also significant is that last year (2/23/2011) "Idol" averaged 7.8/21 - 22.60 million. That's a 34.6% drop in the demo and a 28.4% drop in the 50+ crowd.

*ABC*. The two hour comedy lineup seems to be holding. For whatever reason ABC decided to give away a million demo viewers at 10:00. Again, they just quit watching broadcast TV without having "Revenge" to watch.

*CBS* is holding its own. In the first two hours it was clearly 2nd in total viewers and in the demo it was 2nd in three of the half hours, but "Criminal Minds" from 9:00 to 9:30 was 3rd behind "Idol" and "Modern Family". "CSI" was the big winner at 10:00.

*NBC* had almost twice the demo of The CW in the first two hours, although the demo ratings for "Rock Center with Brian Williams" are the same as "Hart of Dixie" pulled on Monday at 9:00 and below "The Secret Circle" on Thursday at 9:00 and "Supernatural" on Friday at 9:00. Yeah, it's that bad.

To what extent having no lead in affects its ratings is difficult to measure, but "Law & Order: SVU" is rapidly slipping at 10:00.

*The CW* found a real loser in "Remodeled" which apparently doesn't even appeal much to their young female target demo.


----------



## Church AV Guy

It seems that the CW network cannot sustain these low ratings for much longer. Can they even be making money with these ratings? Are we going to see the CW following UPN and The WB? I hope not, but it looks inevitable.

NBC seems to not have recovered from the Leno "experiment," or should I say, debacle? I know the viewing public is fickle, but I just can't see anyone looking at a show and saying, "Oh, that's on NBC. They did that Leno thing, so I'm not watching." I watch a lot more on the NBC Universal USA Network than NBC. Maybe they need to get someone from programming at USA to look into programming at NBC.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it almost seems that both of these broadcast networks are circling the drain.

Is FOX too far behind? They have a few really good shows, but overall, the ratings are pretty poor--not dismal, but poor. It's a sad time for broadcasters I fear. It wasn't this bad a few years back, was it?


----------



## Holydoc

Church AV Guy said:


> Is FOX too far behind? They have a few really good shows, but overall, the ratings are pretty poor--not dismal, but poor. It's a sad time for broadcasters I fear. It wasn't this bad a few years back, was it?


Hmm... I would not consider the ratings poor for Fox. They have the number 1 show every wed and thur. Fox has number 2 and 3 ratings locked each week in the top 10 shows.

Though CBS has some really good shows right now, Fox is holding its own, IMO. 10.9 viewers for CBS with 8.7 for FOX. NBC and the CW...well, that is a different story.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the final Thursday of Nielsen February Sweeps:








*Fox*.


Holydoc said:


> Church AV Guy said:
> 
> 
> 
> Is FOX too far behind? They have a few really good shows, but overall, the ratings are pretty poor--not dismal, but poor. It's a sad time for broadcasters I fear. It wasn't this bad a few years back, was it?
> 
> 
> 
> Hmm... I would not consider the ratings poor for Fox. They have the number 1 show every wed and thur. Fox has number 2 and 3 ratings locked each week in the top 10 shows.
> 
> Though CBS has some really good shows right now, Fox is holding its own, IMO. 10.9 viewers for CBS with 8.7 for FOX. NBC and the CW...well, that is a different story.
Click to expand...

There is a reason why News Corp insisted that affiliates agree to pass on to them $1 a month in retransmission fees, and by insisted I mean pay or lose your affiliation.

Thursday is a good night to examine the competition and particularly Fox. Let's look at half-hour ratings, comparing Fox to CBS, to see who got the blue ribbon for demo eyes to sell:








Two things are obvious. First, Fox only won one half-hour. Second Fox only has two hours to sell advertisers.

Simply put, by the last Thursday of Nielsen February Sweeps, "American Idol" ratings had declined to a new low and could only win 30 minutes. And when you compare "Idol" ratings for the 8:00 hour to last year, it's time to panic if you're a suit at Fox:








Of course, we're going to see spin aimed at advertisers. It will read something like Fox won the sweeps in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition because it looks like this:








When you add all the "Idol" hours into the total it clearly gives the impression Fox won. But, in fact, even with running "Idol" 2 hours last week, Fox was #3 at 9:00 in the averages and last night it was #4.

From a ratings perspective Fox has no general appeal programming for 2012-13. Sure they can buy expensive sports and run "Idol" into the ground.

I have an opinion about this. A decade from now much the 18-49 demo will not be watching broadcast TV leaving the audience at 50+.

For the three hours of prime time, CBS last night attracted 42% of the 50+ viewers, Fox (two hours only) with "Idol" 30%, ABC 18%, NBC 7%, and The CW 3%.

Any one of the networks could choose not to ignore the 50+ demo, but right now CBS is the only one that has made that choice. Of course, a decade from now many of today's 50+ folks will be dead while more baby boomers with different tastes will be over 50, also may not be watching broadcast TV, and maybe CBS will have lost it. Who knows?

*ABC*. "Grey's Anatomy" continued at a series low and without the 2-hour story-arc tie in to "Grey's", "Private Practice" continued its season slide.

*CBS*. As noted above "Big Bang Theory" won its half hour despite slipping a little, "Rob" also slipped, "Person of Interest" tied for the demo at 9:00 for the first time, and though winning 10:00 "The Mentalist" slipped. CBS, as usual, won the 50+ for the night.

*NBC* placed 3rd in the 9:00 hour because of "The Office." They obviously missed the obvious by running reruns of "Grimm" at 10:00 on Thursday instead of moving new episodes of "Grimm" into the 10:00 Tuesday slot.

*The CW*. Thursday was the networks strong night, so they decided to do something about that.:nono2:


----------



## Church AV Guy

phrelin said:


> *The CW*. Thursday was the networks strong night, so they decided to do something about that.:nono2:


I just can't understand why they would do this in a sweeps period. It defies any logic! Not just a rerun of Vampire Diaries, but a rerun of Supernatural in the Secret Circle time slot?!? Not that anyone can answer this question, but, WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? Or, maybe better put, WHAT ARE THEY SMOKING? Wouldn't anyone know that you need to put new episodes of all your shows in a sweeps period, or, a "special" that will produce better ratings--but not reruns!

Is the conventional thinking that American Idol has run its course, or that the loss of the original panel of judges has alienated the viewers, or is there another reason? CBS must be really happy with TBBT!


----------



## phrelin

Here's the final Friday of Nielsen February Sweeps:








And here's the averages for the first two hours competition:








One observation about the four week averages is that on Friday's only 48% of the Thursday demo is watching broadcast TV whereas 67% of the Thursday 50+ crowd watched on Fridays.

One observation about last night. The highest one hour demo was 1.9 and CBS won the night with a three hour demo average of 1.6 and a 50+ average of 8 million while attracting 43% of the viewers. The issue for the broadcast networks will become can Friday continue to be profitable?

*ABC*'s demo tied CBS in the two hour competition, for what that's worth. It is clear the Disney/ABC suits figured out that Friday is a night of cheap programming, so they were the investment-return winners for Fridays.

*CBS* will be dumping "A Gifted Man" which dropped the network's 9:00 demo rating to 3rd.

*Fox* continues to bleed money on "Fringe."

*NBC*. "Grimm" won the 9:00 hour in the demo.

*The CW* ran more reruns. :shrug:


----------



## frederic1943

phrelin said:


> *Fox* continues to bleed money on "Fringe."


Anna Torv (Olivia) is Rupert Murdoch's niece.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the final Sunday of Nielsen February Sweeps:








And for curiosity sake here's the 8:00 to 10:00 averages for the sweeps period:








Sunday's during this sweeps period have been meaningless. The first Sunday NBC had The Super Bowl, the second Sunday CBS had The Emmy's, and last night ABC had The Academy Awards. This pretty much made the ratings worthless as an indicator of viewer interest in the regularly scheduled programming. Since The Super Bowl was the most watched of the three specials, NBC has bragging rights for Sunday.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the final Monday of Nielsen February Sweeps:








*Fox* ran the Daytona 500 which had been rained out Sunday. This gave it a ratings boost which helps its averages for the two hour competition during February Sweeps shown here:








Without last night, Fox's averages were 2.2 in the demo, 4.5 in the 50+ and 6.7 total, making their regular programming #4 in the two hour race.

*ABC*. Last night ABC found itself #4 in the first two hours and, because of Fox having the Daytona 500 last night, #4 for February Sweeps. It also ended up #3 in the 10:00 slot in the February Sweeps demo, but was nearly tied with CBS for the 50+ crowd at that hour.

*CBS*. As usual, the CBS comedies do well. But the network ends up #2 in the two hour competition because of NBC's "The Voice". It's a tough night as ABC will be bringing "Dancing with the Stars" back March 19.

*NBC* was #1 in the two hour race and #1 at 10:00 for the February Sweeps using its regular programming. Good for NBC!

Unfortunately, NBC may have to worry about "Smash." I don't understand this. We record and watch all three shows, but if our only choice was to watch one of the shows live it would be "Smash". As far as we're concerned "Hawaii Five-0" is only slightly more interesting than "CSI:Miami" which we stopped watching a couple of years ago and "Castle", while enjoyable, is lightweight. But what do we know?

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## Laxguy

phrelin said:


> *NBC* was #1 in the two hour race and #1 at 10:00 for the February Sweeps using its regular programming. Good for NBC!
> 
> Unfortunately, NBC may have to worry about "Smash." I don't understand this. We record and watch all three shows, but if our only choice was to watch one of the shows live it would be "Smash". As far as we're concerned "Hawaii Five-0" is only slightly more interesting than "CSI:Miami" which we stopped watching a couple of years ago and "Castle", while enjoyable, is lightweight. But what do we know?


Funny- just finished watching last ep. of Smash a few minutes ago. There's something both fascinating and irritating about this show.

I've been rooting for NBC to pull out of its nosedive, so any good news is.....
good news.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the final Tuesday of Nielsen February Sweeps:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 averages for February Sweeps:








IMHO the Nielsen 2012 February Sweeps Tuesday results offer a snapshot at what's happening in broadcast TV.

*Fox*. Last night is why I call Fox "the sports and game show network." Instead of the regular scripted programming, the suits at Fox ran a two-hour "American Idol" last night leaving "Glee", "New Girl", and "Raising Hope" fans out in the cold, as Fox routinely does to fans of its scripted programming.

The suits at Rupert Murdoch's Fox think like all News Corp suits - everyone in the world is stupid but them. What they tried to do is make Fox's Tuesday ratings during February Sweeps look good. In this case, they think advertisers are stupid and don't see the handwriting on the wall:








By doing this, what Fox has emphasized is that

"Glee" has been running #2 in the demo at 8:00 and "New Girl" has been running #1 in the demo at 9:00.
Fox doesn't give a crap about those shows or their viewers and would not hesitate to ruin their ratings to make a one-time quick profit on some special sports or game show airing.
In the two hour competition, in scripted programming competition CBS is pulling 3 times the 50+ viewers completely devalued by Fox _and_ beating them in the demo.
Ad buyers know that Fox scripted programming can't guarantee any audience.

And the fun part of Fox cramming an "Idol" in last night is that an ad buyer can get a much clearer picture. In 2009 there was a two hour "American Idol" on the comparable Tuesday:








This tells advertisers everything they need to know as they contemplate their Spring Upfront advertising buys. The price for time on "Idol" is worth a whole lot less in the coming 2012-13 year.

But that's all ok, because News Corp has a grip on the viewer's wallet with Fox's $1 per subscriber monthly retransmission fee.

*ABC* in this February Sweeps on Tuesdays is clearly at #4 in the 2-hour competition and last at 10:00:








ABC has the same problem as Fox. One can only squeeze so much out of a show like "Dancing with the Stars."

*NBC* has gained a position to #3 thanks to ABC buying "The River" and not sticking with a sitcom for 8:30.

And "Parenthood" clearly beat ABC's "Body of Proof" in the demo.

*CBS* on Tuesday offers an opportunity to see what a broadcast network with business acumen and foresight looks like in 2012.

Over the past few years, CBS noted and adjusted for trends. Those trends are:

People in the 18-49 demo are watching less TV live.
At best, a broadcast network is only going to get a third of the demo with programs that span 22-26 weeks of each viewing year.
On the other hand, folks over 50 now make up two-thirds of the live viewing audience.
The 50+ live viewing audience will watch popular programming if it is reliably scheduled.
The only viewing audience a broadcast network can deliver reliably to advertisers is live viewers over 50 years of age.
The most popular scripted TV show on television is "NCIS" and Mark Harmon, age 60, was voted most popular television personality in a recent Harris poll. "NCIS" does consistently win its time slot in the demo.

But after adjusting out Fox's "Idol" last night, what is most important to note is that "NCIS" consistently delivered to advertisers 60% of the 50+ live viewers along with 34% of the 18-49 demo. And the 50+ live viewers made up 70% of the 8:00 audience.

And just in case "NCIS" is not popular with teenage girls, CBS owns half of...

*The CW*. Apparently The CW has a strategy, but I'm not sure it has much to do with broadcast TV other than to keep a placeholder in the less-internet-enhanced portion of the female 14-24 demographic. A recent New York Times article noted regarding Netflix:


> The CW deal, signed last year and estimated to be worth $1 billion in and of itself, runs four years.


----------



## Church AV Guy

phrelin said:


> *The CW*. Apparently The CW has a strategy, but I'm not sure it has much to do with broadcast TV other than to keep a placeholder in the less-internet-enhanced portion of the female 14-24 demographic. A recent New York Times article noted regarding Netflix:


According to TV by the Numbers, Ringer is likely to be cancelled along with at least one other show on the CW. This article is not too rosy about the future of the show(s). Too bad since I like the show. It keeps entertaining me, and surprising me!


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Wednesday, and last night, of the Nielsen February 2012 Sweeps:








Here's the 8:00 - 10:00 competition averages...








...and the 10:00 competition averages:








*Fox* dominated the 2-hour competition with "American Idol" popular in the demo and the 50+ crowd. The first Wednesday "Mobbed" didn't do so well at 9:00, but "Idol" at 8:00 gave the sports and game show network a large win.

That's the good news for the suits at Fox. The bad news is that compared to a year ago when "Idol" ratings were 7.7/22 - 22.58 million, the demo dropped by 34% and the 50+ dropped by 19%.

*ABC*'s comedy lineup did ok, coming in second in the two hour demo, though it was the "Modern Family" half-hour with very high ratings that pushed those two-hour ratings up to beat CBS. Apparently those that don't continue with ABC to watch "Happy Endings" disappear from the live viewing audience.

Once you remove the "20/20" ABC decided to run on the third week (why?), "Revenge" looks a little better in the 10:00 race, well ahead of "SVU" though still #2.

*CBS*. Wednesday is tough against "Idol" but at 8:00, except for the first night when they ran that "Person to Person" (why?), "Survivor" is #2. "Criminal Minds" wins the 9:30 half hour, but the audience for ABC's "Modern Family" is large in the 9:00 half hour.

"CSI" continues to win the 10:00 hour.

*NBC* clearly made no effort to win anything on Wednesday as they start to rebuild on other nights.

*The CW*, for whatever reason, premiered "America's Next Top Model" on this night. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

As CBS (and Turner) start creating a stir for March Madness "brackets", prime time moves into the March Doldrums when some teams try to "rebuild" while others squeeze additional profits from past performances. Here's the first Thursday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








*ABC* clearly is a network trying to squeeze additional profits from reruns. The cheap to produce "Wipeout" at 8:00 seemed to earn nearly as well as it did the first time around.

"Grey's Anatomy", on the other hand, didn't. And the "Jimmy Kimmel" Oscar rerun ratings were a disaster.

*CBS* had reruns for its entire lineup except "Rob." The reruns did ok from a revenue standpoint, helping to offset the cost of production. But without a new "Big Bang Theory" as a lead-in, "Rob" suffered some though not too badly.

*Fox* ran another 2-hour "American Idol" potentially helping "The Finder" lose what audience it had. Last year on the equivalent Thursday, the two hours of "Idol" averaged 8.2/24 - 25.0 million compared to this year's 5.4/15 - 18.3 million, a 34% drop in the demo and a 23% drop in the 50+ viewers.

If this literally meant a 34% drop in revenue from "Idol", Fox's failure to adequately support other shows would represent a dim future, except they now can look forward to that $1 a month retrans fee from all of us.

Note that I am showing the Sweeps averages for only "The Finder" at 9:00.

*NBC*. In the first two hours, against reruns on the other networks, the NBC comedy lineup did not gain any viewers leaving them at their dismal ratings.

At 10:00 the "Awake" premier did win the demo, barely, against a rerun of "The Mentalist", but pulled 40% fewer 50+ viewers. To quote TVbytheNumbers:


> As an indication of how woeful that timeslot has been for NBC this season, it was NBC's highest non-sports rating in that timeslot since 4/15/11.


*The CW*. It appears that The CW is using a similar strategy to what they did last year. That worked so well for them....


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Friday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And for what it's worth here's the two hour listing:








*ABC*'s ratings for each time slot were above the Sweeps Average, so I guess that's progress.

*CBS*. "Undercover Boss" got the only demo above 1.9 last night. But the finale of "A Gifted Man" kept CBS from getting a clear win in the two hour competition.

*Fox*'s two reruns of "Kitchen Nightmares" didn't do too well.

*NBC*'s "Grimm" still indicates it could have had decent ratings if it had been scheduled correctly on another night.

*The CW*.:shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Sunday of the March Doldrums:








And here's the two hour competition:








I'm not including any February Sweeps data since three of the four Sundays were made irrelevant by The Super Bowl, The Emmy's and The Academy Awards.

In fact, the next few weeks will be the first real indication of the competition on Sunday.

What is a real indication of the status of regular programming on broadcast TV is that on 10/23/2011 when NBC had Sunday Night Football and Fox had a World Series Game, the 8:00-10:00 average live viewing totals were 14.1 in the demo and 31.67 in the 50+ crowd. Last night the numbers were 9.3 and 29.17, or 34% fewer in the demo and 8% fewer in the 50+ crowd.

Sooner or later, advertisers are going to realize that on a routine basis the only eyes on broadcast TV ads are in heads that are over 50 years of age. The 18-49 demo has moved on from live broadcast TV except when there is something they just can't miss. Whether whatever that demo is doing can be reached by advertising on a reliable basis is an interesting question.

*ABC* is the Sunday night winner in the demo and they get enough of the older crowd that they can consider it a good night from 7:00 to 10:00. But the 10:00 slot is a problem because "GBC" premiered with a lower rating than the premier of "Pan Am" and was #2 in the demo.

*CBS* finds itself having a problem night with no wins in the demo and with "The Good Wife" running #4 in the demo but #1 by a wide margin in its time slot in the 50+ crowd.

*Fox*'s animated lineup continues to deliver decent ratings even winning the demo at the 9:00 half hour.

*NBC*'s "Celebrity Apprentice" won the 10:00 hour in the demo though it only had 57% over the 50+ viewers that CBS pulled.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Monday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 - 10:00 competition:








*CBS* offers interesting numbers with its entire lineup of reruns. Looking at the total viewers for time slots, it appears most of the reduction is due to folks not watching CBS reruns - they just aren't watching.

*ABC*'s "The Bachelor" did about average.

*NBC*'s "The Voice" won the 8:00 to 10:00 competition. And against two reruns "Smash" didn't gain though it won the 10:00 competition. Again, the regular viewers of "Castle" and "Hawaii Five-0" aren't interested in "Smash."

*Fox*. If "Terra Nova" was canceled with demo's consistently over 2.0 what are they going to do with "Alcatraz"?

On April 2 they will begin to kill "Bones" by airing it on Monday nights at 8:00 and return "House" to 9:00 where it languished earlier this year.

IMHO Fox intends on canceling their entire 2011-12 scripted lineup unless "Touch" does well against "Grey's Anatomy" and "Person of Interest" on Thursday. The big question is how many viewers will be willing to gamble on "Touch" actually having a future.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## Laxguy

Wow. For the first time since Mr. Pasteur boiled his milk, I watched a show on NBC that was rated first, and wasn't a sporting event. I guess cows can jump over moons.


----------



## Church AV Guy

> Fox. If "Terra Nova" was canceled with demo's consistently over 2.0 what are they going to do with "Alcatraz"?
> .
> .
> .
> IMHO Fox intends on canceling their entire 2011-12 scripted lineup unless "Touch" does well against "Grey's Anatomy" and "Person of Interest" on Thursday. The big question is how many viewers will be willing to gamble on "Touch" actually having a future.


Terra Nova was MUCH more expensive than Alcatraz. There is more to the renewal decision than just ratings.

As far as the whole schedule is concerned, you could almost say that of FOX, NBC, and the CW.


----------



## phrelin

Church AV Guy said:


> Terra Nova was MUCH more expensive than Alcatraz. There is more to the renewal decision than just ratings.


True but as I noted in other threads, there are five production companies spreading the cost and widespread international distribution.


> As far as the whole schedule is concerned, you could almost say that of FOX, NBC, and the CW.


Fox has the Sunday animated lineup that does modestly well. On weekdays, they have 16 hours to sell. Here's what they offered this year:

Glee - marginal ratings compared to prior years
New Girl - great ratings
Raising Hope - near death ratings
I Hate My Teenage Daughter - near death ratings
Terra Nova - cancelled
House - cancelled
Bones - As of April, returns on Monday at 8:00
The Finder - death ratings
Fringe - death ratings
Alcatraz - near death ratings
Touch - premiers this month on Thursday at 9:00
American Idol - popular, but dropping year-to-year
The X-Factor - ok cost/ratings ratio
Kitchen Nightmares - ok cost/ratings ratio
Scripted drama has not been their thing lately.


----------



## Church AV Guy

> Scripted drama has not been their thing lately.


That's a bit of an understatement. Clearly, I agree with you.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Tuesday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here is the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*ABC*'s two non-reruns, "Cougar Town" and "The River" are doing terrible.

*CBS* reruns won the night other than Fox's half hour of "New Girl", which says something about the others.

*Fox* during this period is playing the confuse-the-"Glee"-fans, I guess because "Glee" ratings rose a bit during February Sweeps. "Raising Hope" (at a new time) and "New Girl" ratings were about normal. "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" was down from December. "Breaking In" was actually up from last year's season finale, if you can believe that. All-in-all, Fox is doing it's usual number on a decent scripted show, "Glee", for no logical reason at all.

*NBC*'s past three year performance may be becoming a thing of the past as ABC dropped to last place. Soon, though, well see if the return of "Dancing with the Stars" will alter that.

*The CW* actually had some new episodes last night which raised the ratings above the Sweeps average. "90210" and "Ringer" fans had something to watch.


----------



## Church AV Guy

phrelin, have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate you posting this pre-digested information. I THINBK I finally understand the ratings system and complexities since I have been following your posts.

With that said, I am unhappy about the Ringer ratings. I really like the show, and I'd like to meet the other 20 or so people in the US who like it too. Sometiomes I think the cast is bigger than the fan base.

...it would have done better on CBS, but given the higher standards there, it STILL might have not made it to a second season.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the first Wednesday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 - 10:00 averages








*Fox* won the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition. If the suits at Fox are paying attention this should have them in a tizzy. Compared to last year (3/9/2011) the 18-49 demo ratings dropped by 30% and the 50+ dropped by 20%.

*ABC*'s comedy rerun ratings were all slightly above last year. "Revenge for Real" premiered with slightly higher ratings than a new episode of the now defunct drama "Off The Map" did last year.

*CBS*. "Survivor" ratings were about the same as last year. The "Criminal Minds" rerun is down from last year. The "CSI" rerun ratings were noticeably down from last year's new episode of the now defunct spinoff "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior" which did get a 2.2/6 - 9.06.

*NBC*. Last year at 8:00 NBC had "Minute to Win It" which pulled 1.0/3 - 3.47. This year the comedy duo "Whitney" and "Are You There, Chelsea?" did better, though not well. This year's 9:00 "SVU" rerun did slightly better than last year's. Brian Williams turns out to be noticeably less popular than a 10:00 rerun of "SVU" last year. That's a problem as the second airing of the "SVU" isn't more costly than Williams' show.

*The CW*.


Church AV Guy said:


> phrelin, have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate you posting this pre-digested information. I THINBK I finally understand the ratings system and complexities since I have been following your posts.
> 
> With that said, I am unhappy about the Ringer ratings. I really like the show, and I'd like to meet the other 20 or so people in the US who like it too. Sometiomes I think the cast is bigger than the fan base.
> 
> ...it would have done better on CBS, but given the higher standards there, it STILL might have not made it to a second season.


Your welcome, and I enjoy doing it.

I too could see an upgraded "Ringer" aimed at an older demo in the CBS Tuesday 10:00 slot getting acceptable ratings. The current situation is unfortunate for a 34-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar who was at age 19 a bright new star in the first year of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on The WB. I look forward to seeing Kristoffer Polaha in a stronger show in a year or two.

Last night a new episode of "One Tree Hill", which wasn't in reruns during sweeps, pulled average ratings for the show. "America's Next Top Model" did very well compared to "Remodeled" aired during Sweeps.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Thursday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*ABC*'s rerun lineup didn't do well, but they were reruns.

*Fox*. "American Idol" lost to a new episode of "Big Bang Theory" in the first half hour of prime time, again. Compared to last year, it saw a drop in the demo of 26% and 20% in the 50+ crowd. "The Finder" seems to have found its audience, but whether that will be enough when "Grey's" is not in reruns remains to be seen. A year ago "Bones" pulled 3.4/10 - 10.95 million, 30% higher in the demo and 52% more in the 50+ crowd. Fox has decided to kill "Bones" by moving it to Monday at 8:00 rather than take advantage of its fan base.

*NBC*'s two hour comedy lineup did around average. Newcomer "Awake" lost viewers as "The Mentalist" was a new episode. It likely would have had better ratings at Tuesday at 10:00.

*The CW*. :shrug:

*CBS* ran new episodes of everything except at 8:30 where they ran a rerun of "Big Bang Theory." As one might expect, they won the night and every time slot except 8:30. "Person of Interest" has found its audience.

CBS now has the advantage of having established their scripted shows in a fairly traditional broadcast TV fashion as they see themselves as a broadcast TV network. Over the next three weeks they will be airing NCAA Basketball March Madness in the season I call the March Doldrums. In April CBS can air its regular programming, some new episodes and some reruns. That will be followed by the Nielsen May Sweeps period April 26 - May 23, 2012.

In comparison, Fox currently plans to air the return of "Bones" on Monday April 2 against the NCAA Basketball March Madness championship game. :nono2:


----------



## Church AV Guy

> In comparison, Fox currently plans to air the return of "Bones" on Monday April 2 against the NCAA Basketball March Madness championship game.


Is that why they call it March Madness?


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Friday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*CBS*. Whither Fridays....

One can only speculate about why CBS ran a new episode of "The Mentalist" at 9:00. In its regular time slot at 10:00 on Thursday it averages 2.8/8 -13.75 million. That it pulled a 2.0/6 - 11.83 million on Friday at 9:00 provides some interesting information to work with.

"CSI: NY" has been pulling no more than 1.8/6 - 10.70 million and generally more like 1.6/5 -9.75 million. What those ratings for "The Mentalist" tell me is that "CSI:NY" is at about the ceiling for a regular scripted show on Friday at 9:00.

The issues are can they hold the 9:00 ratings without a tried-and-true procedural and, if so, are those ratings high enough to support a decent scripted show?

And one has to note that "The Mentalist" episode as a lead in did not help or hinder "Blue Bloods."

CBS appears to have taken over the top spot in what is now the Friday Reality Show Hour timeslot at 8:00. Will we see in 2012-13 all the broadcast nets offering reality+news shows on Friday?

*ABC* has already gone to a reality+news shows Friday lineup. It's ratings aren't great, but they probably make money.

*NBC* has one scripted show left on Friday. "Grimm" at 9:00 is not doing well enough. It should be on another night.

*Fox* is even running reruns of a reality show on Friday and at 9:00 it's not doing any worse than "Fringe" usually does.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

kevinturcotte said:


> Is there somewhat we can see the ratings every week for our favorite shows? Is there a site that does that?


The best I know of is at the TVbytheNumbers shows listing which may not be exactly what you want.

They also offer the weekly broadcast top 25 and top cable 25 along with the live+7 DVR ratings for the week.

The live+7 DVR ratings are always interesting as they present the demo in two ways - raw number gains and % ratings gains.

For the week of February 6, 2012 - February 12, 2012 for instance, the top five raw numbers demo gainers were all live high ratings shows with the exception of "The Office":

Modern Family
Big Bang Theory
Grey's Anatomy
The Office
New Girl

The same week the five shows that got the highest percentage demo boost were all low live ratings shows including "The Office":

Pan Am
Fringe
Grimm
Up All Night
The Office

The same week the five shows that got the highest raw number total viewer boost were:

Modern Family
The Mentalist
NCIS
Big Bang Theory
Criminal Minds

They don't provide this, but same week the five shows that got the highest percentage total viewer boost were:

The Office
Grimm
Modern Family
Revenge
Alcatraz
New Girl

What's interesting about this for NBC is "The Office" and "Grimm" have a fairly strong hidden audience, meaning the shows would get decent live ratings if they were competitively placed.

I've been saying since the beginning of Winter that NBC should have placed "Grimm" on at 10:00 Tuesday. And though I've never looked at this before, "The Office" followed by "Whitney" on Wednesday at 8:00.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Sunday of March Doldrums with an addition:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 averages:








Last month Gary Holmes, a media consultant, who was for six years the Nielsen Company's Chief Press Officer and VP of Communications in a blog post The 18-49 Bad Habit wrote:


> When I worked at Nielsen, the story I heard - perhaps apocryphal, perhaps not - was that in the mid-70s a less popular network decided to make lemonade out of lemons by arguing that while it had fewer overall viewers, it had more of the younger viewers that advertisers really wanted. Presto! The birth of the coveted and highly prized 18-49 demographic.
> 
> ...But is it really true that advertisers only target 18-49 year-olds? I find it hard to believe, especially since consumers in their 50s and 60s have far more disposable income than those in their teens and 20s. The argument against advertising to anyone over age 49 is that while they may have more money, their buying patterns and brand preferences are set early in life, so there is no point trying to get them interested in anything other than adult diapers and denture cream once they get into their 50s.
> 
> This conventional wisdom seems particularly outdated now that the Baby Boomers, a generation always open to new experiences, have moved into their 50s and 60s. Nielsen and other researchers have found that Boomers' brand loyalty is no more unchangeable than other age groups. I know this from personal experience: just a few weeks ago I, a Boomer, switched brands of toothpaste, and I routinely buy different brands of shaving cream, breakfast cereal and gasoline depending on price, convenience and whim (although I have to admit I have been fiercely loyal to my cola brand since I was a preteen.)


Holmes' comments have been picked up in the advertising and media trade press.

What I've done to the ratings chart above is to add a column that clearly offers a comparison of a show's ratings in the 18-49 crowd to the 50+ crowd. I chose to do this on this Sunday to demonstrate what I will call in the future "The "Harry's Law Quandary."

*ABC*. Last week ABC "won" every hour in the 18-49 ratings and last night tied or won every hour in the 18-49 ratings but 7:00. But last night ABC did not win a single hour in the 50+ ratings.

Relying upon the fickle 18-49 crowd somehow cost "Once Upon A Time" dearly. At that time slot compared to last week there were 0.8 million fewer viewers in the 18-49 crowd and that show had 0.6 million fewer viewers.

In passing, one has to note that "GBC" at 10:00 gained 4.5% from its premier last week in the 18-49 crowd while dropped 7.4% in the 50+ crowd.

*CBS* is normally #1 in the 50+ crowd. One show to examine is "The Good Wife" at 9:00. For the second week in a row it is #4 in the 18/49 crowd and #1 in the 50+ crowd.

*Fox* blatantly targets _the demo_ which in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition gives them 2nd place with their animated series. But those shows attract only 12% of the 50+ crowd which represents around 70% of the viewership. It should be noted that the remaining 0.2 million missing 18-49 crowd at 8:00 were missing from Fox.

*NBC*. Last night "Harry's Law" was returned to the schedule in the 8:00 time slot. NBC remained dead last in the 18-49 ratings in that hour. But "Harry's Law" moved the network from dead last to first in the 50+ crowd with 33% of the 50+ audience. One can't help but note that in the 8:00 time slot the 18-49 audience dropped by 8% while the already much larger 50+ crowd grew by 18%. And all the growth went to "Harry's Law" which also significantly reduced the 50+ratings for ABC's "Once Upon A Time" and Fox's animated lineup.

*The Harry's Law Quandary*. Clearly "Harry's Law" in its cast and its subject matter is oriented to the 50+ crowd. The show this season even lost one reasonably popular young cast member Brittany Snow. The 50+ crowd loyally followed the show to Sunday even though all the ratings pundits are telling NBC to cancel it. "The Harry's Law Quandary" applies to "The Good Wife" on Sundays.

The Harry's Law Quandary is that the broadcast networks each year are losing more of the 18-49 audience to alternative activities, particularly the internet. The largest, by far, audience is over 49 years of age. What to do, what to do....


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Monday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








Typical of the March Doldrums the 8:00 to 10:00 competition was down from the Sweeps period by about 23% in the demo even though we old folks were down only 16%.

*NBC*'s "The Voice" won the two hour competition with no one else even close. "Smash", however, continues its slide.

*ABC*'s "The Bachelor" did come in second in the demo though not in total viewers. At 10:00 "The Bachelor: After the Rose" won.

*CBS* reruns pulled higher ratings than Fox which doesn't bode well for "Alcatraz".

*Fox* suits should be worrying about their plans for Monday. They're just going to kill "Bones" and embarrass the finishing weeks of "House".

*The CW*. :shrug:

Sorry I was so late with this, but as Lennon (John) said: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Tuesday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








There were 11 million (18%) fewer viewers on average during the first two hours of prime time last night compared to the Sweeps average, which is why I call this ratings period the March Doldrums.

*ABC* ran new episodes of everything but "Last Man Standing." That left them #4 overall in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition. "Body of Proof" edged out a rerun of "Unforgettable" at 10:00 for #2 in the demo.

*CBS* with a full schedule of reruns in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition tied Fox for #1 in the demo while clobbering everyone among the 50+ folks.

*Fox* had a bright spot at 9:00 with "New Girl".

*NBC*'s reality lineup is getting mediocre ratings, including "Fashion Star."

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Wednesday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*ABC*. When you look at the 8:00 - 10:00 totals, one can't help but notice the rerun effect last week. When ABC reran their comedy lineup about 10% of viewers didn't show up. This week they're back. But the ratings are down from the Sweeps period. "Revenge for Real" is underwhelming at 10:00.

*CBS*. "Survivor" and "CSI" were average but "Criminal Minds" was down a bit.

*Fox*. Last year "American Idol" pulled 7.4/22 - 22.18 million meaning a year-to-year 20% drop in total viewers and a 30% drop in the demo.

*NBC*'s ratings were pathetic though "SVU" was a rerun.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Thursday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here is the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








For the entire night total viewership was down 19% compared to Sweeps.

*CBS* carried the March Madness NCAA Basketball First Round games last night which on the East Coast ran from 7:00 to 12:00. Here on the West Coast that was from 4:00 to 9:00 pm. The problem is TNT and TBS were also carrying NCAA Basketball First Round games, each with different games, at the same time which divides the fans. So CBS lost its normal high ratings on Thursday as it pulled only 50% of its Sweeps demo and 29% of Sweeps normal 50+ viewers for the night.

*ABC*, on the other hand, pulled 97% of its Sweeps average demo and 145% of its Sweeps average 50+ as it ran the series premier of "Missing" at 8:00 and new episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice." The problem is the latter two ran close to average in ratings. So the real gain was with the premier of "Missing" which did well above what "Wipeout" pulled in the Sweeps period. But that isn't saying much. It will be interesting to see if "Missing" can hold even that not very impressive audience when "Big Bang Theory" returns on CBS.

*Fox* won the 8:00 - 10:00 competition because of "American Idol" in the 8:00 hour. Last year "Idol" pulled 5.6/19 - 19.00. So again, year-to-year it's 20% down in the demo and 18% down in the 50+ crowd.

The rerun of the "Touch" pilot which they ran as a special in January was well below "Bones" 3.5/11 - 12.49 million last year. It will be interesting to see if this "Touch" pilot early premier idea was as foolish as I think it was. They will have a chance to run only one new episode (next week) before CBS has its regular schedule back. Can "Touch" take and hold enough of the demo from "Person of Interest" which is the CBS new show winner so far this year?

*NBC*'s return of "Community" and "30 Rock" during the 8:00 hour seemed to do well. But as we all know, "Big Bang Theory" being absent makes those ratings meaningless. And the missing 7 million viewers at 10:00 were mostly missing "The Mentalist" viewers that chose to do something else rather than see what was going on with "Awake."

*The CW* saw a 6% gain in its ratings compared to the Sweeps period. Of course, they ran reruns during one week of Sweeps which lowered the average by ... bet you guessed it ... 6%.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Friday of the March Doldrums presented along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here is the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








A large number of regular Friday viewers were absent last night reflecting the fact that we're in the March Doldrums for broadcast TV. During the 8:00 to 10:00 competition the demo was down 14% over 50 crowd was down 25%.

*CBS* is still having to share the March Madness NCAA Basketball prime time with TNT and TBS. It doesn't produce great ratings.

*ABC*'s lineup did about average for a Friday.

*Fox* ran two hours of "Kitchen Nightmares" reruns which at 9:00 got about the same ratings as a new episode of "Fringe" would give them.

*NBC* ran reruns from 8:00 to 10:00. A new "Dateline" at 10:00 pulled terrible ratings.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Sunday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out:








And here is the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*CBS* had a NCAA Basketball March Madness overrun which shifted the East Coast times for shows 43 minutes, so the CBS ratings are preliminary. What is shown by breaking out the 50+ ratings is the contrasting strategies of CBS and Fox. CBS won every time slot for the three weeks shown in the 50+ group while ranking lower in the demo except at 7:00. (All the CBS shows but "CSI:Miami" have been renewed for next year).

*Fox*, which basically competes only from 8:00 to 10:00, with 28% of the demo came in second behind ABC which had 31%, but was dead last in the 50+ group with 12% compared to CBS with 35%, ABC with 29% and NBC with 25%.

*ABC*'s "Once Upon A Time" continues to do well while "GBC" lost the demo to "Celebrity Apprentice".

*NBC*'s Sundays without football are not good, though "Celebrity Apprentice" seems to be a winner in its second hour at 10:00.

One of the more interesting statistics is that we older folks do like NBC's "Harry's Law" followed by "The Good Wife" on CBS.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Monday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








Welcome to the _Live Viewers Age Groups Ratings Competition_ where we had two popular .

*ABC*'s "Dancing with the Stars" with only 26% of the 18-49 demo is now running head-to-head with NBC's "The Voice" which garnered 34%. On the other hand "Dancing", which is aging as a show as well as in some of its "stars", garnered 46% of the 50+ compared to "The Voice" with 22%. Over last year, "Dancing" is down 26% in the 18-49 group and 7% in the 50+ group which means it retained its hold on most of the 50+ fans.

The first new "Castle" at 10:00 got a bit of a boost from "Dancing's" return.

*CBS*. Against two popular competition reality shows one would expect CBS to see a ratings drop. And though the entire 8:00-10:00 comedy lineup were new episodes and tied ABC in the 18-49 demo, the ratings were down from when the only competition was NBC's "The Voice". At 10:00 "Hawaii Five-0" won the 18-49 demo but it's ratings were down. I would expect to see the CBS lineup to get a big numbers bump when the Live+7 day ratings come out.

*Fox* as expected has lost a substantial number of viewers for "House" and last year's "Chicago Code" pulled 1.9/5 - 6.31 compared to "Alcatraz" this year with 1.5/4 - 5.07. I do not expect to see "House" or "Alcatraz" get a big numbers bump when the Live+7 day ratings come out.

In two weeks, Fox intends on killing "Bones" by premiering it at the 8:00 slot against ABC's "Dancing", NBC's "The Voice", and on CBS the Final Game of the NCAA Basketball March Madness. For some unfathomable reason they will also be showing a new episode of "House" in its new time 9:00 (where it died last fall).

*NBC* suits had to be worrying about the return of ABC's "Dancing" against "The Voice." And indeed "The Voice" did take a hit in the 18-49 demo but still won. It took a much bigger hit in the 50+ demo.

"Smash" continued to see a drop in ratings ending up #3 in all age groups at 10:00 with the return of new episodes of "Castle" and "Hawaii Five-0".

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Tuesday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*CBS* is still in control of Tuesday, averaging over half of the total viewers, a third of the 18-49 viewers and 60% of the 50+ viewers in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition. And they had an even larger share at 10:00.

*Fox*'s average for the three half-hours without new girl is 1.5 in the 18-49, 1.9 in the 50+, and 3.4 total. "New Girl" puts them at #3 in the two hour average competition ahead of ABC.

*ABC*'s first hour of comedy is not doing too well. "The River" is now gone down the river, so at 9:00 they can recover with "Dancing with the Stars" results shows. That may give "Body of Proof" a slight boost.

*NBC*'s "Biggest Loser" last night saw ratings more comparable to the Sweeps period. That probably won't hold beginning next week against the "DWTS" results shows. "Fashion Star" saw a ratings growth in the 10:00 hour.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## renbutler

Season lows across the board for FOX Tuesday. Ouch.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Wednesday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*Fox*. Though still dominating the 8:00 to 10:00 competition "American Idol" continues to drop this year. Also the drop over last year should be worrying the Fox suits. The 8:00 hour last year was 7.1/21 - 21.75 million compared to this year's 4.5/14 - 15.52 million. The 9:00 hour last year was	8.2/22 - 25.20 million compared to this year's 5.3/14 - 17.59 million. For the two hours, from year-to-year there is a 36% drop in the 18-49 demo and a 26% drop in the 50+ group.

*CBS* is keeping a solid hold on the #2 position from 8:00 to 10:00 and "CSI" easily won 10:00.

*ABC* ran reruns for the night.

*NBC*'s 8:00 hour sitcoms ratings are still very, very low. At 9:00 they premiered "Bent" to The CW level ratings. That was followed by Brian Williams with a The CW level 18-49 demo rating.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## Church AV Guy

NBC really can't catch a break!

*Nielsen Overnights (18-49)*
*NBC's 'Bent' bombs in Wednesday night bow*
*New sitcom averages a 1.0 in 18-49s in its first episode *
By Toni Fitzgerald, *Media Life Magazine* - Mar. 22, 2012

NBC's new comedy "Bent" had a rough first night.

The show bowed to disastrously low ratings, becoming the lowest-rated new scripted series this season.

"Bent" averaged a 1.0 in adults 18-49 in its first episode at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, and a 0.9 for the second episode, which aired at 9:30.
.
.
.
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/ar...0/NBC-s-Bent-bombs-in-Wednesday-night-bow.asp


----------



## phrelin

Here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the fourth Thursday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:

​
And here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:

​
I have put in red the difference between last night's number of viewers compared to the Sweeps period average as an indication of why I call this the March Doldrums for ratings. When the 50+ crowd is down more than the 18-49 demo you know broadcast TV isn't offering enough.

*CBS* had the NCAA Basketball Tournament March Madness last night even in the West Coast prime time. This is costing them income, big time.

*ABC* must have decided to burn off the initial three episodes of "Missing" during March Madness+AI. I don't get it. The rest of the night they ran reruns.

*Fox*. "American Idol" continues to see a ratings decline this year and it can't be because of the competition from the other networks, particularly last night. And year-to-year the drop is catastrophic. Last year's ratings were 6.2/19 - 20.74 million which means a 35% drop in the 18-49 demo, a 24% drop in the 50+ crowd, and 28% drop in total viewers.

The "season" premier of "Touch" started off pretty strong against rerun competition from ABC and basketball on CBS. We'll see how that holds up in April.

*NBC*. The continuing weak comedy ratings are obvious and "Awake" is just not getting viewers. Obviously, Thursday will have to be overhauled next year.

*The CW*. New episodes of "Vampire Diaries" are doing fairly well. "The Secret Circle" doesn't hold that audience even on a night when its audience doesn't even have a new "Grey's Anatomy" to consider.


----------



## TBoneit

Church AV Guy said:


> NBC really can't catch a break!
> 
> *Nielsen Overnights (18-49)*
> *NBC's 'Bent' bombs in Wednesday night bow*
> *New sitcom averages a 1.0 in 18-49s in its first episode *
> By Toni Fitzgerald, *Media Life Magazine* - Mar. 22, 2012
> 
> NBC's new comedy "Bent" had a rough first night.
> 
> The show bowed to disastrously low ratings, becoming the lowest-rated new scripted series this season.
> 
> "Bent" averaged a 1.0 in adults 18-49 in its first episode at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, and a 0.9 for the second episode, which aired at 9:30.
> .
> .
> .
> http://www.medialifemagazine.com/ar...0/NBC-s-Bent-bombs-in-Wednesday-night-bow.asp


I figured it was doomed when I saw they were doing two 1/2 hour episodes one after the other. next week too. I presume from that they don't expect it to succeed and just want to get the use of the episodes they paid for.

I watched it and I will watch it until it is no more. I also enjoyed Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

I'll most likely watch the spin off from the Closer too.


----------



## phrelin

Here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the fourth Friday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:

​
And here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:

​
*Fox*'s scheduling habits were successful in completely killing "Fringe" which last night was returned to lower ratings than The CW's "Vampire Diaries" on Thursday. Of course the lead-in "Kitchen Nightmares" returned to lower ratings than last week's repeat.

*CBS* continued its run of the NCAA Basketball Tournament which seems to have been a winner last night.

*ABC*'s lineup ran #2 for the night.

*NBC*'s lineup didn't do very well.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the fourth Sunday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out:








And here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








Most ratings pretty much stayed the course with just minor changes from week-to-week. Fox ran some reruns which dropped their numbers while CBS had an NCAA Basketball Tournament overrun which distorts their numbers slightly and persuades a few "CSI:Miami" viewers to go to bed rather than stay up later than usual.


----------



## phrelin

Here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the fourth Monday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*CBS* ran reruns of its Monday lineup.

*Fox*'s "Alcatraz" two-hour finale ran 4th behind the CBS reruns.

*ABC*'s "Dancing with the Stars" ran second in the 18-49 demo (30% fewer) behind NBC's "The Voice" while "DWTS" ran first in the 50+ group (49% more). There's a significant generational split here.

"Castle" was first in the 10:00 competition, but "Hawaii Five-0" was a rerun.

*NBC*'s "The Voice" gets very strong ratings in the demo. The big question is whether as a lead in it's propping up "Smash."

*The CW* ran a 2009 movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic" last night. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the fourth Tuesday of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








Compared to last year, in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition viewership was down about 10% across all demos. And yet, at 10:00 the demo was 24% higher than last year and 29% higher in the 50+ group.

*ABC*'s two "DWTS" shows, the recap and the results, over the two hours compared to last year were down about 28% in both the demo and the 50+ crowd. "Body of Proof" was also down that much, but did win the demo last night.

*CBS*. Compared to last year "NCIS" saw a 9% drop in the demo and a 21% drop in the 50+ group. "NCIS:LA" saw a 16% drop in the demo and no drop in the 50+ group. At 10:00 "Unforgettable" was up 5% in the demo and 4% in the 50+ group over "The Good Wife" last year.

*Fox*'s comedy lineup with a rerun of "Raising Hope" at 8:30 didn't do too well last night, including "New Girl" which during Sweeps won the demo in its time period but placed #3 last night. (Last year Fox ran reruns.)

*NBC*'s cheap reality lineup gave them #3 in the two hour competition and in the 10:00 competition.

*The CW*. :shrug:


----------



## phrelin

Here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the fourth Wednesday - and last night - of March Doldrums with the 50+ demo broken out along with the February Sweeps averages:








And here's (you may need to use the link to see a full size version of the chart) the 8:00 to 10:00 competition averages:








*ABC* ran reruns except for "Happy Endings" at 9:30 which IMHO looks like it's headed for an unhappy ending.

*CBS* ran reruns except for "Survivor: One World" at 8:00 which seems to be holding its own at #2 considering how long the show has been on - first episode May 31, 2000, last night was season 24, episode 7.

*Fox*. "American Idol" did not see a ratings drop week-over-week. Year-over-year, however, saw a 33% drop in the 18-49 demo and a 9% drop in the 50+ crowd.

*NBC* The last episodes of "Whitney" and "Are you There Chelsea" (I'm assuming even though we love "Whitney") didn't do as badly as a typical show on The CW. That's the best I could come up with.

"Bent" and "Brian Williams" on the other hand are getting the same ratings as a typical The CW show.

*The CW*. :shrug:

Tonight begins the four week Spring runup to the April 26 - May 23, 2012 Nielsen May Sweeps. Any shows that haven't yet been picked up or dropped will see their fates determined prior to the big "June Upfront" presentation to advertisers as its called.


----------

