Mission accomplished!According to James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter, Britney Spears' guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother generated the highest ratings ever for the show. The overnight rating among adults 18-49 was a 4.5, attracting 10.6 million viewers. It was the only show in CBS's Monday comedy lineup to show improvement, as the rest fell in the ratings. This marks the second week in a row that the show generated solid ratings. Hibberd reports that the strong post-strike ratings for HIMYM "assures" its renewal for the fall; CBS had been previously undecided on bringing it back.
Like I said last night, I thought it was a low-water mark for the show, though apparently many of you disagreed with me. And, to be honest, even though Brit Brit did OK on the show, she was still a bit of a distraction. But, anything to help take the show from "maybe" to "definitely" status for next season is all right with me.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-25-2008 @ 2:26PM
Jake said...
I think the Brittany guest spot was OK... but I would argue more that the character of Abbey was extraneous. The rest of the show was good. I didn't think this was the worst episode but it felt like it was rewritten last minute. The flashbacking wasn't as tight as it used to be. I liked the two minute date... but I was also thinking "What's the point if we never see this character again?" So I hope Chalke comes back because she was terrific and maybe she is the one who introduces Ted to the mother, as some have speculated.
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3-25-2008 @ 11:01PM
ed said...
Remember scrubs ends this season. I think Chalke is coming back b/c I think she is the mother. The name of the show is HIMYM it doesnt imply that those kids are his but i think they are hers and he is telling them how they met.
3-25-2008 @ 2:47PM
rndmnme said...
It's only a distraction for you because you have a hang up about it being Brit Brit.
Honestly, I could care less about her. It could have been far worse. She had like 3 lines, and I actually thought it was somewhat comical.
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3-25-2008 @ 3:10PM
Robobagins said...
I with rndmnme on this. If the secretary character had been played by relative nobody in the exact same way(different body, same actions) you'd have never noticed her that much. I was honestly surprised it wasn't a "hey look at me!" role and after that quick identification that it was indeed Britney, I went back to watching the show.
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3-25-2008 @ 3:30PM
Cyantre said...
Too bad Britney didn't appear on Jericho before it got cancelled. =(
Anyways, great job C&B for getting her to do a guest spot. It was a good business decision if it means the show will be sticking around another year.
Anytime a good show is failing just get some trashy girl from the tabloids to do a guest spot, instant ratings! *sigh*
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3-25-2008 @ 4:09PM
Michael said...
For some reason whenever i see the words "Mission Accomplished" my first image is "Mission total cluster-f@#k"
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3-25-2008 @ 4:17PM
Tom said...
I was disappointed in the episode only because I thought it was average and not up to the show's best.
More to the point, Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter is a fool. CBS isn't going to make a decision based on the ratings for the last two episodes (last week was because a lot of people thought that was the Britney episode). Its all going to come down to the next couple episodes and how much of that bump CBS can hold on to.
My problem is that the character played by Britney, though necessary for the buzz, was unnecessary for the plot and took up a lot of time. Time that could have been spent showing off the other characters. The fact that almost no one but Ted had any significant screen time stinks (honestly, the episode made me like Scrubs more than it did HIMYM, Chalke was amazing)
So all those first-time viewers got an episode that was missing the show's best asset, its cast!
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3-26-2008 @ 9:53AM
LC said...
I agree. A lot of first time viewers probably don't understand why we like it so much. Although for us regular viewers it was funny to see the moustache bet come to play!
=)
3-25-2008 @ 5:10PM
Jennifer said...
I have to say, I'm surprised this piece of stunt casting actually drew viewers in. Didn't work on Joan of Arcadia (whatever Duff that was...) or Veronica Mars (god help us all, Paris).
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3-25-2008 @ 8:14PM
Bash said...
Wasn't Paris on VM just a short appearing at a Dorm door?
You can hardly call that a stunt cast *laugh* :-)
3-25-2008 @ 5:09PM
colby said...
Worst stuntcasting ever.
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3-25-2008 @ 5:28PM
Chip Douglas said...
I agree. She did nothing for the show but shorten the arc for the Alicia Silverstone/Sarah Chalke character. Maybe we will meet the mother sometime soon. I'm not convinced that we have another entire season to find out.
3-25-2008 @ 7:49PM
Bash said...
I agree with Chip - he made me realize that Britney's character actually shortened Sarah Chalke's storyline... the "going through the desk clerk"-story felt totally off in retrospect and I have to agree that it was watering down the usual rhythm of the show.
But I have to additions to this - first of all this wasn't the first episode that felt off - because there were many that weren't good. To be honest at least 30% of the episodes aren't the big great revelations that make HIMYM so outstandig. Too many episodes are meh. I now understand your criticism and to be honest from a writer standpoint you were right.
But - and that might be the "problem" here - I went into it having forgotten the stuntcasting and was pleasantly surprised Brit actually got enough talent to pull her character off. That girl can really act, at least she could perfectly do this little part - and honestly how many other shows can you name within a heartbeat where people act as if they just got off the greyhound in LA? I guess at least a dozen.
No no - I'll stick to what I said last night - I liked the episode and laughed a lot. And I still think you are wrong about the Two Minute Date. This was absolutely within Ted's character and I don't really get why you think that it was strange he could pull the date off (especially the part that he could make the movie in the shop window play on cue). To be honest I more or less believed everything about that but the fake sidewalk and housefronts threw me off since you could clearly see that it was an outside lot for the houses and the sidewalk didn't have an organic feel to them. The same reason why I dropped Jericho because everything looked so "cheap" (or "off" because it felt inorganic - another example being the first episode of "Enterprise" Season Four).
Anyway - I understand where you are coming from but I simply enjoyed the episode too much to give in to your arguments Joel :-) I was able to suspend my disbelief or better the nagging in the back of my head that that's Britney and that the street was fake :-)
4-02-2008 @ 7:22PM
debscalper407 said...
It felt like they where trying to throw Brit a bone, just helping her when she's down.
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3-26-2008 @ 12:09AM
Jeff said...
I have been there from the get go and this episode was classic Ted. a good thing, but not enough of the rest of the cast. I thought Britney was fine in the role. I am hoping this show goes two more seasons. Any more than that and it will have to shift gears significantly or become a spin off that follows lilly and Marshal.
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3-26-2008 @ 8:49AM
Ashley Boyd said...
She was in the second episode, and played Logan's girlfriend and was featured throughout. Its one of the show's biggest roadblocks when I introduce new viewers. They like the pilot then I have to warn them Paris is in the second, but then she never comes back again.
They had someone from ANTM in 'Rat's Saw God' (the rental car lady who moaned about Joss Whedon) and I think there was someone from Laguna Beach or something as a bit part, which might be the one you mentioned.
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3-26-2008 @ 9:19AM
Ashley Boyd said...
Umm that was about Paris Hilton in VM, clicked the wrong thing before.