Thursday, October 16, 2008

Programming and Casting News: 16th October

CBS has given Psych ripoff The Mentalist a full season. The Mentalist has been CBS's top new drama hovering around the 15M mark and 3 rating in the 18-49 demo. It also stars our very own Simon Baker, so many aussie fans will be happy.

Hollywood Reporter

NBC has ordered an additional three scripts for its sci-fi drama Medium. Medium usually premieres after Christmas, but sources are reporting that Medium might return earlier than normal given NBC's mediocre ratings this fall.

Hollywood Reporter

Jessica Walter who plays Tabitha (Harry's mother) in The CW's new teen drama 90210, has been dropped as a series regular. Her contract was not renewed for the back end of season 1 to cut production costs. However, have no fear fans, a CW insider guarantees she will be back better than ever.

EW

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

ABC has faith

Even before the ratings for the second season of Eli Stone are released ABC has ordered an additional 4 scripts of the legal dramedy.

Eli Stone had a sluggish first season averaging 7.4M and 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demo. Those figures are some what inflated by its 11M season premiere and its lead-in assisted 9M. Otherwise other episodes hovered around the high 5M and low 6M mark.

This is a real vote of confidence for the show.

EW

Monday 13th October: ABC is seeing stars


Sorry, no 18-34 demos, my usual leaks haven't managed to obtain them.

However, here's some for selected programs:

Gossip Girl: 2.4/7 A18-34
One Tree Hill: 2.6/7 A18-34
Big Bang Theory: 2.8/8 A18-34
HIMYM: 3.3/9 A18-34

ABC kicked off the night with the dominant Dancing with the Stars, followed by the season 2 premiere of Samantha Who? SW managed to retain 66% of DWTS' viewers and 78% in the demo. SW may be down on last season's premiere but it has improved on last season's post strike episodes. This would be a minor success for ABC. (But the major test will be tonight with the second season premiere of Eli Stone following DWTS: Results) Boston Legal which followed was second in total viewers but last in the demo.

CBS's comedy block is improving every week with all comedies up on last week, even the weak link - Worst Week was up nearly 1M and 0.3 in the demo. Big Bang Theory and How I met your Mother continue to power along scoring impressive demos and total viewers. However, CSI:Miami looks like it is losing steam, given the other spinoff CSI:NY is nudging 16M, CBS would be disappointed with those numbers. Nevertheless it did win its timeslot in all aspects.

After a 1 week hiatus, Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill were back on The CW with both pulling respectable figures.

NBC on the otherhand are in deep strife, Chuck is struggling to draw viewers and Heroes is sinking. :( Both are up on last week, but that might have been due to the absence of Prison Break and Terminator. Hopefully numbers for both shows improve. The other big premiere last night was My Own Worst Enemy, it netted respectable figures, however it did drop from 7.64 to 6.95M and 3.1/ 8 to 2.9/ 7 in the 18-49 demo from its first half hour. The show has received mixed reviews, I will provide a review later on this week.

TV by the Numbers and PIFeedback

Meanwhile on Cable:

Sunday
09/29/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.5/2; A18-49: 0.7/2

10/05/08 True Blood HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 1.0/2
10/05/08 Entourage HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 0.9/2
10/05/08 Dexter HH: 0.5/1; A18-49: 0.3/1
10/05/08 Little Britain USA HH: 0.4/1; A18-49: 0.4/1
10/05/08 Californication HH: 0.3/0; A18-49: 0.2/1

Monday
10/06/08 Monday Night Football HH: 7.1/12; A18-49: 4.6/12
10/06/08 The Hills HH: 2.2/3; A18-49: 1.9/5
10/06/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.6/3; A18-49: 0.7/2

- Dexter: 0.786 million viewers
- Little Britain USA: 0.657 million viewers
- Californication: 0.442 million viewers
- The Life & Times of Tim: 0.275 million viewers

TV by the Numbers

Note: 1 point approximates to 1.6M.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Sunday 12th October: ABC stable as CBS slides

Last night saw CBS struggle without the NFL Overrun with all their shows bar Cold Case slipping.

Over at ABC, America's Funniest Home Videos is finally registering the ratings it deserves. I don't know how on earth it averaged 9M last week, but thank god it has sunk.

Extreme Makeover continues to nail its timeslot and Desperate Housewives marches on albeit against weaker competition (no Family Guy and American Dad). The Housewives won its timeslot with 15.44M and 6(rating)/14 (share) and 5.1/13 in the 18-49 and 18-34 demo respectively. But, I'm not a fan of this 5 year jump. Brothers and Sisters averages fair numbers but the retention is poor.

The CW's new Media Rights Capital line up is scoring below par numbers, however, if there is a shining light it is Valentine's retention from last week, losing next to zero viewers.

TV by the Numbers and PIFeedback

Meanwhile on the Cable Networks, recently acquired World Wrestling Entertainment's "Friday Night Smackdown" logged 3.5 million, 1.1 rating for MyNetworkTV. This figure makes Smackdown MyNetworkTV's number 1 program in its history. And to think The CW dumped this for Everybody Hates Chris, The Game and ANTM repeats, is mindblowing.

In other news, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, netted 2.8M and 0.7/2 in the 18-49 demo, this is a loss of 30% on its premiere.

THRFEED

Programming News: The CW gossip




The CW has ordered another 2 episodes of its teen drama Gossip Girl (giving it a total of 24 episodes this season). After a lacklustre Season 1, averaging only 2.6M and 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demo it has risen to 3.4M and 1.8 this season.

EW

Production of The CW's new Sunday shows Valentine and Easy Money has shut down. This isn't good news as The CW recently sold their Sunday night to Media Rights Capital. According to an insider, this hiatus was pre-planned, but production for MRC's other show In Harm's Way has not ceased.

An insider has stated the reason behind this shutdown is to give the writers some time to catch up on the shows' scripts. hmmm... However, production hasn't entirely ceased as a spokeswoman for MRC has noted both Valentine and Easy Money have been given at least 13 episodes this fall.

Both Valentine and Easy Money have achieved ordinary figures, with Valentine's second episode netting 1M and 0.4/1 (rating/share) in the 18-49 demo and Easy Money pulling 750k and 0.3/1 in the 18-49 demo. The only good news for Valentine is it didn't nudge a bit from last weeks figures, however Easy Money lost 25% in viewers and demos.

I couldn't careless about Easy Money, but Valentine has a lot of potential. Fingers crossed this doesn't mean the cancellation of one of my favourite shows of the new season (Valentine)

Hollywood Reporter

Sunday, October 12, 2008

What's coming up this week? (12th - 18th October)

Missing:
Due to Major League Baseball: All return the following week
Simpsons
King of the Hill
Family Guy
American Dad
Terminator
Prison Break

Hiatus:
90210 (Returns on the 28th October)
Privileged (Returns on the 21th October)

Due to another Presidential Debate: All return the following week except for Bones and Til Death
Private Practice
Dirty Sexy Money
Criminal Minds
CSI: NY
Bones
Til Death
Lipstick Jungle

Premieres:
Monday 13th
9:30pm: Samantha Who? 2x01
10pm: My Own Worst Enemy 1x01

Tuesday 14th
10pm: Eli Stone 2x01

Wednesday 15th
8pm: Time Warp 1x01

Friday 17th
8pm: Crusoe 1x01-02

Futon Critic

If I have missed something feel free to correct me. :)

Friday 10th October: CBS rules

Three words The Ex-List. And CBS replaced Moonlight for this crap? nuff said.

Otherwise a low night with few people watching the small screen.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved

TV by the Numbers