TVSquad

I guess there were more Ana Lucia fans out there than thought! :)

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Ratings are tricky because there isn't one definite standardized system. I'm not sure where your numbers are coming from, but I usually check the ratings at zap2it. According to their report:

"FOX got a 16.3/24 from the 9 p.m. "American Idol," as viewers said good-bye to Elliott Yamin. ABC's "Lost" did a lower-than-normal 8.7/13 in second."

Number differences aside, you are right that this is the lowest rated new episode of LOST this season. The more telling part is that this has been a steady decline all season. I hear rumblings that 'everything changes' next season, but remain quite skeptical. I think the continuing slide suggests that a change might be in order.

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Although both shows are somewhat mindless, I think we're reaching new lows when American Idol beats out anything, up to and including Beavis & Butthead, which I actually liked

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American Idol is a behemoth. It's a 'pick up and watch' show that anyone can drop in on at anytime without worrying about story or progress. Lost, meanwhile, is a serial through and through. I don't think it has much to do with Lost as much as it has to do with the approachability of American Idol... I'd like to see any show hold it's own against it.

In my opinion, the second season of Lost has been very well done and each episode is better than the last, but I'm not surprised that such an involved drama is getting killed by a reality show ratings-wise.

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Ya this debate can go on and on, and nothing will change. Lost is an amazing show, American Idol is a glorified kareoke competition. People watch it beacause they can suspend any rational thought for a full straight hour. This is the same reason why Arrested Development didn't stay on the air, 'a comedy you have to think about? Come On!'
The stupidity of America will always win. The show will get its ratings and in a year the only American Idol we will STILL remember is Kelly Clarkson.
I think they should move Lost anyway, to Thursdays. I bet it would do good up against CSI. But, who knows. If Lost ends up getting cancelled before all is said and done, I will have lost all faith in TV.

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"If Lost ends up getting cancelled before all is said and done, I will have lost all faith in TV."

Kinda doubtful, 14 million is 14 million :)

However, hopefully this will make ABC realize that it shouldn't stretch the show. 4-5 seasons would be enough!

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who said anything about it being cancelled? The ratings are not that bad and I think that most people thought they should watch american idol because that is more of a water cooler show and then watch Lost later. Both hours were filled with suspense and sadness.

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I figure when Nielsen starts adding in TiVo ratings Lost ratings will shoot straight back up. People Tivo the show so much.

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No need to worry about Lost. It's still their #3 show on the entire network, so it's not too horrible considering you're pairing it with AI and ABC's generally got pretty poor ratings across the board. Next week should be interesting because AI goes from 8-10 and Lost goes from 9-11. So, I think people will at least tune in for the ending/cliffhanger. I just wonder if they'll break it down like that.

I've got my Neilsen diary, though. So, Lost has our household vote!

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Doron, you are right that 14 million is 14 million and LOST is not in any danger of cancellation. The problem is that 14 million is also 9.5 million less than the 23.5 million viewers for the first episode of season two, Man of Science, Man of Faith. I'll be very curious to see what the numbers are for the finale and whether or not the answers you are looking for promo is serious or just a desperate ploy to try and bring some of those 9.5 million back.

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Also, @Aaron Peck, they do record Tivo/DVR usage. I'm asked to log when I record something, even if I don't watch it, in their Nielsen diary. I assure you that they record all this information. What we get here are just the Cliffs Notes version of what the networks pay millions for :)

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In 10 years, no one will give a crap about American Idol. But people will still be watching reruns of Lost. Quality matters in the end.

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The best way to curb the decline is to actually solve some plots instead of building new ones. It's scenario 101 and, even if it's not too bad when it's applied to Alias because i'ts aimed at teenagers and morons, it's actually very sad when writers cannot build a solid story on such a great initial idea that is "Lost"...

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Perhaps this is indicative of all hour long dramas that rely heavily on a continuing plot. 24 lets you start over ever season, but Lost depends a lot on the deepening of a frankly confusing mystery.

Do these shows start out with a large amount of viewers? Then they slowly drop of in a downward slide until viewers reach zero?

There must be some sort of timeline for how long a plot driven drama can survive before it's production become futile.

Don't get me wrong. I love Lost and watch it every week that it is not a rerun. But your average TV viewer can be quite fickle.

I think viewers will actually drop off once mysteries start getting solved. Twin Peaks didn't fair so well after viewers found out who killed Laura Palmer.

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I like LOST. But you kow what? I taped the season finale and haven't bothered to watch it yet....
I really got turned off by LOST joining in on this seasons trendy ending "let's copy Dallas and have shoootings".
The double killing was surplus to requirement violence for the sake of deliberately shocking the audience. If I want that kind of "entertainment" I would rent a violent DVD or something. I enjoy the mystery and intrigue and character build of LOST. If it's becom,e yet another, we can be more violent than anyone else show, then I'm gone.
I especially thought that Ana Lucia was an interesting character worthy of more development and it was a shame/mistake to remove the most prominent Latino on the show IMHO. Her character was very nicely flawed and well acted. But then that's just me, I don't watch American Idol either.

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I've just ahd a thought. I reffered to Dallas in my previous posting. When Dallas realised their error in allowing Bobby to escape the show, their ratings started to fall and they had to bring him back in a dream sequence..........
Be funny if this happened in LOST;)

Measntime I expect Michael to die. You can't have a cold killer walking around on this show for too long. SO another death soon IMHO......

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Ratings are down versus last year because Lost aired at 8p EST last season and did not have to face the Wednesday "Idol" at all (if memory serves me correct).
This year, obviously, they have gone head-to-head.
Anything that airs against "Idol" will get hurt in the ratings. I don't think the lower ratings are a reflection of the storyline or storytelling one bit.
Blame it on "Idol."

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Chris, I agree that anything going against Idol is going to get hurt in the ratings, but I hesitate to finger that as the only reason because of the way the ratings have declined. If it were just a case of being against Idol you would see great ratings for weeks, and then when Idol appeared you would see a drop as people left, and a leveling out to what the ratings vs Idol were going to be. That is not the case. If you look up the ratings for the year they have been steadily dropping week by week.

Head over the The Fuselage, the official LOST message board, and take a look at the episode threads. They have an 'Eh, could have been better' thread for each episode, and those threads are very active. Almost always more active than the 'Loved It' threads. There is a growing segment of the audience that are getting fed up with the stalling, the character flip-flops, the dropped plotlines, etc.

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Doc: The reason the numbers are different is that one of the numbers is an overnight ratings number. It's a statistical sample taken overnight of the major markets (LA, NY, SF, etc..)

It takes up to a week to factor in the final ratings for all the non major market cities. The ratings tend to shift as these results come in throughout the week.

So you may see different ratings results day to day until they are finalized.

I think Lost will do okay on the season finale. The first hour may be low cause the 2nd hour of the AI finale overlaps Lost. The 2nd hour of Lost should have much higher ratings.

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People that watch the show need to stop bitching about it. Enjoy it or stop watching.

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