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Terminator not terminated

Good news for Summer Glau fans! On Friday, cast members were informed Fox will be ordering the back nine episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

After moving to Mondays this fall, the show has struggled to pull 6M and 2.0 rating in the demos. This decision may have been swayed by Warner Bros as the movie is due for release early next year.

Given Dollhouse and 24 will be taking up the Monday slots in winter, Terminator's timeslot is uncertain but one possible slot may be *cough* Wednesday 9pm *cough*.

I hope to hear more good news from Fox. *cough* Prison Break *cough*

THRFEED

Bleak future for Serialized Dramas

Top Rating Shows of the last two weeks

Note: Shows can only appear once in the top 10 list, if it appears twice, only the latest episode is included. Also football and other specials are excluded.

Top 13
1. CSI, 16th October (CBS): 18.84M
2. NCIS, 14th October (CBS) : 17.86M
3. Dancing with the Stars: Performance, 13th October (ABC): 17.66M
4. Criminal Minds, 9th October (CBS): 15.896M
5. CSI:NY, 9th October (CBS): 15.855M
6. Desperate Housewives, 12th October (ABC): 15.33M
7. The Mentalist, 14th October (CBS): 14.86M
8. Two and a Half Men, 13th October (CBS): 14.57M
8. Grey's Anatomy 16th October (ABC): 14.57M
10. Dancing with the Stars:Results: 14th October (ABC): 14.37M
11. CSI:Miami, 13th October (CBS): 13.00M
12. Survivor:Gabon, 16th October (CBS): 12.88M
13. House, 14th October (FOX): 12.82M

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

8/13 shows listed air on CBS and skew old. Additionally most shows on this list are procedurals, conversely, the ratings for niche shows such as Heroes, Prison Break and Lost have been losing viewers from its premiere season and are on the verge of cancellation (Lost will finish up in the 2009–2010 season). This is disappointing as these figures do not encourage networks to produce niche shows. Unless viewers embrace these shows the networks will keep pumping out lame old crime/cop procedurals, evident from last night's figures with the terrible Eleventh Hour beating the decent Life On Mars. These will eventually drive younger viewers away from the box.

So does this mean that serialized shows are on the verge of extinction? What say you? Leave a comment and have your say in the poll.

Thursday 18th October: Eagle Eye

Thursday saw The Eye rule with its reality and crime double. Survivor: Gabon topped the 8pm slot with 12.88M and 4.2(rating)/12(share) and 2.4/8 in the 18-49 and 18-34 demo respectively. These are fantastic numbers for a show in its 17th season. CSI followed but down significantly from its premiere with 18.8M; A18-49: 5.1/13 and A18-34 3.2/9. Nevertheless it did win its timeslot in total viewers. Lastly, the ordinary Eleventh Hour improved ~670k on last week to win the timeslot with 12.04M, A18-49: 3.2/9 and A18-34: 2.1/6.

ABC was a fair distance behind with the fading Ugly Betty scoring 8.21M, A18-49: 2.6/8 and A18-34: 2.3/7. This is a loss of 1.6M and ~20% in the demo from last year. ABC's other big show Grey's Anatomy continues to loose viewers averaging 14.57M, A18-49: 5.9/14 and A19-34 5.8/16. However, ABC will be pleased it bounced back from its terrible showing last week where it lost to The Office in the demos. Capping off the night was ABC's only new fall show, Life on Mars netting 8.47M, 2.7/7 (18-49) and 2.1/6 (18-34). These figures are worrying as last years occupant, the short-lived Big Shots slipped to those sorts of numbers in its 4th episode, not its second. I will be discussing the future of serialized dramas in another post.

Over at NBC, their 8pm comedy block is slowly dying with 8pm occupant My Name is Earl registering a disappointing 6.54M, A18-49: 2.6/8 and A18-34: 2.2/6. This was followed by the second episode of the Kath and Kim:US which lost 1.5M and 22% in the demo (6.01M, A18-49 2.7/7 and 2.2/7 (18-34)). The Office and Saturday Night Live specials are working well together with both rating in excess of 8M and 4 rating in the demos - 8.07M, A18-49: 4.1/10 and A18-34: 4.6/13 and 8.61M A18-49: 4.1/10 A18-34 4/11 respectively. NBC will be hoping critically acclaimed comedy 30 Rock pulls SNL-like numbers in two weeks time. ER finished the night off with a 18-49 victory scoring 8.81M, A18-49: 3.6/10 and A18-34 2.1/6.

CW fans rejoice, they have finally beat another network with their male-skewing shows Smallville (4.15M, 1.7/5 (A18-49) 1.7/6 (18-34)) and Supernatural (3.06M; A18-49: 1.2/3 and A18-34: 1/3). These two programs equalled Fox in the demos but with 60k more viewers.

Fox finished last with Hole in the Wall and a Kitchen Nightmares repeat, both tanked horribly. It shouldnt be long before 5th Grader and Lyrics return to Thursdays.

Meanwhile, presidential hopeful John McCain's cameo on The Late Show with David Letterman, gave the long running late show its highest ratings since December 2005. It scored 6.5M and 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demo. Over on NBC, Jay Leno's Tonight Show featuring vice president hopeful Joe Biden netted 4.6M.

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

Wednesday 15th October: Pushing up

Programming was disrupted as a result of the last Presidential debate.

In the 8pm hour, saw Pushing Daisies and Knight Rider both improve on last week's performance. Pushing Daisies was 4th in its timeslot yet it gained 700k in viewers but slipped 0.1 in the demo from last week- 6.29M; A18-49: 1.9/ 6. Knight Rider was second in the slot jumping 1M from last week to 7.65M; A18-49 2.3/ 7. CBS's comedy block topped the slot with The New Adventures of Old Christine (7.74M; A18-49 2.1/ 6) and Gary Unmarried (7.71M; A18-49: 2.4/ 7). Fox was 3rd in the timeslot but won in the demos with the baseball.

Meanwhile on Cable, Project Runway's finale netted a credible 4.8M and 2.4/6 in the 18-49 demo. Season 5 had an average of 3.6M and 2.4M in the 18-49 bracket.

Top Design: 1.756M; 0.8/2 A18-49
South Park: 2.850M; 1.5/3 A18-49
Chocolate News: 2.158M; 1.2/3 A18-49
Sons of Anarchy: 1.869M; 1.0/2 A18-49

Nielsen Media Research data and PIFeedback

Knocked Out

ABC's gameshow Opportunity Knocks has been axed after only 3 episodes. It has been doing Dancing with the Stars:Results no favours with its latest airing scoring a mere 6.3M and 1.9(rating)/5(share) A18-49. In comparison, its competitors are rating in excess of 12M.

This Tuesday sees the return of you guessed it, Dancing with the Stars: Recap.

In other news, AMC's Emmy award winning Mad Men, has been renewed for a 3rd season. The show is consistent on the ratings front, scoring 1-1.5M each week. There are two episodes left of the second season with the finale due to air on Sunday 26th October 10/9c AMC.

Tuesday 14th October: Fox is Foxy

CBS won the night in total viewers with their crime dramas. Under-rated NCIS won the 8pm hour with 17.86M, 3.9(rating)/11(share) (18-49) and 2.3/7 (18-34). CBS's hit new cop drama The Mentalist followed but was down on previous weeks with 14.86M, 3.4/8 (18-49) and 1.9/5 (18-34), last week's Presidential debate has done the show no favours. Capping off the night, was Without A Trace with 10.99M and 2.5/7 and 1.3/4 in the 18-49 and 18-34 demo respectively.

Fox was second, but dominated the night in the demos with House winning in the key demos with 5.1/14 in the 18-49 and 5.0/15 in the 18-34 bracket. House may be down on last season's average but when DVR numbers are included, it should top 15M. Fringe, its leadout program is doing particular well with 9.53M and 4.2/10 and 3.8/10 in the key demos, this series has improved significantly since its pilot.

Over at ABC, tiring format Dancing with the Stars appears to be losing viewers, this time only scoring 14.37M with 3.2/8 and 2/6 in the demos. However, its leadin program gameshow, Opportunity Knocks is doing it no favours, registering only 5.3M, 1.3/4 (18-49) and 1.3/4 (18-34). Following Dancing with the Stars, was the second season premiere of Eli Stone, this season has been critically acclaimed but this hasn't transpired to respectable ratings, Eli Stone dropped from 10.075M, 2.5/7 (18-49) and a 1.8/5 (18-34) in its first half hour to 7.568M, 2.0/5 and 1.4/4 its second. Averaging out to 8.82M, 2.3/6(18-49) and 1.6/5 (18-34).

NBC was dead last in viewers but tied with Fox for second place in the demos with the younger skewing The Biggest Loser scoring 7.5M, 3.1/8 (18-49) and 2.8 (18-34) (2 hour average). Law and Order: SVU followed, winning its timeslot in the key demos (9.4M, 3.7/10 and 3.3/10)
and second to Without A Trace in total people.

The CW had 90210 (1.78M, 0.8/2, 1.0/3) and Privileged (1.24M, 0.6/1, 0.7/2) repeats which performed solidly.

Neilsen Media Research data