ratings-related stories
Posted Jun 10th 2009 11:09AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Mere hours after the series premiered on the cable net,
Showtime has renewed Nurse Jackie for a second season. Why so fast, you might wonder? Well, Showtime could point to the biggest premiere since 2004, but because it was on pay cable the total number of viewers is less than two million. Those are the kind of numbers that would get it canceled on USA or TNT, not to mention ABC or CBS, but for Showtime it's excellent.
Excellent is also what a majority of TV critics and bloggers -- including
Jane -- had to say about the Edie Falco dark comedy. Some were more effusive than others, but for all intents and purposes, the press was pro-Jackie from the get-go. But not everyone loved the show.
Nurses complained loudly about the depiction of their profession.
Continue reading That was fast! Showtime gives Nurse Jackie second season pickup
Posted May 27th 2009 11:22AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Ratings
You just
knew that the perfect storm of tabloid stories, very effective ads and promos, and a holiday where nothing else was on was going to make for
boffo ratings for the
Jon & Kate Plus 8 season premiere. But the numbers are staggering by almost any standard: 9.8 million people viewed the train wreck on Monday night, surpassing the numbers for any network -- broadcast or cable -- that night and doubling TLC's previous high water mark. What was that mark? The season four finale of
Jon & Kate, of course.
I can't cast any aspersions on the size of the audience, because I gladly flipped on TLC to see
the 73 minutes of extreme discomfort. And, boy, did I hate myself for doing it.
Continue reading Jon & Kate draw 9.8 million rubberneckers... including me
Posted May 22nd 2009 9:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: American Idol, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Judges
The week before the
American Idol gigantic-mahunga-godzilla two-hour-plus finale aired, Simon Cowell predicted it would be a
"ding-dong finale." Of course, that brilliant prognostication was hype personified, but Simon did his job. The finale drew 28.8 million viewers. Ironically, the buzz in the biz when those figures were revealed skewed it as a bad thing.
It was the lowest-rated American Idol finale ever. But it still drew a tremendous amount of eyeballs, so why is it being characterized as a flop?
The answer is simply this:
American Idol is competing with itself. It's expected to exceed its highs year after year, and generally speaking in television, that just doesn't happen. Older shows decline, and yes, even superhits like American Idol can't stay on top forever. Look at
ER or
CSI.
Continue reading American Idol's finale was a flop?
Posted Apr 29th 2009 6:19PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Heroes, Ratings, Chuck, Reality-Free
Of course, a lot of fans do care, and they want at least one of these shows to be renewed last year (maybe even both). But in general? The
ratings for the finales of both shows were rather lackluster at best.
The season finale of
Heroes had an average of 6.4 million viewers, while
Chuck got 6.1 million. Both of those numbers are actually down from the season average (7.7 million viewers for
Heroes and 6.5 million for
Chuck). Now, I'd love to have 6 or 7 million people reading my stuff, but I guess that's not enough in television land.
Continue reading Chuck and Heroes end their seasons, but a lot of people just don't care
Posted Apr 16th 2009 1:40PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The networks haven't announced their official fall schedules yet. That happens next month at the
network upfronts, or whatever each network is now calling them - upfronts, announcements, presentations. But just from seeing the ratings of certain shows and stories that have leaked to the press already we can get at least a fairly accurate idea of which shows are going to definitely be renewed, which are probably canceled, and which shows are "on the bubble." ("On the bubble" means they're in the middle, balanced on the fence between getting canceled and being renewed. It's named after Sebastian Bubble, an executive at NBC in the early 50s.)
USA Today has a complete rundown of all of the network shows you might be wondering about (in handy chart form!). After the jump, a look at some of the more interesting possibilities.
Continue reading Which shows are renewed, canceled, or on the bubble?
Posted Apr 10th 2009 9:38PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Cancellations, Reality-Free
On paper,
Trust Me looked like a sure fire hit. I tuned in week after week to watch the show, so I consider myself a loyal viewer, but I have to be honest. The show never took off.
Bob got it right in his early look,
Trust Me had all the elements for something special, but it just never jelled.
TNT has cancelled Trust Me after one season.
The guy in charge of TNT programming, Michael Wright, implied that a drama set in the advertising business was just a little too inaccessible for viewers. And that was the issue; not enough Nielsen numbers.
Continue reading TNT pulls the plug on Trust Me
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 9:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Cancellations, Ratings, Reality-Free
According to industry scuttlebutt,
My Name Is Earl is on the ropes and at risk of being canceled by NBC. Nikki Finke is reporting that it's practically a done deal at NBC, but
Earl could be moving to Fox.
It's not just the lousy Nielsen ratings that have done the shaggy-dog sitcom in, it's also the rising production costs. NBC has an entire line-up that's bleeding in the ratings, so surgery is required. It is very likely that
Earl will get the ax.
Continue reading Could My Name Is Earl jump to Fox?
Posted Mar 10th 2009 2:19PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free, The Mentalist
Here we are in the middle of the March sweeps period (March this year instead of February, because we were supposed to switch to digital TV on February 17 and Nielsen was worried that would screw up the numbers) and
The Mentalist is a repeat tonight. Not only that, but it's the third week in a row where the show has been a repeat.
Hmmm...I wonder why CBS has made this decision?
Continue reading Wait a second ... The Mentalist is a repeat again tonight?
Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:28PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory
How happy is
Chuck Lorre this morning? I'd say on a scale of one-to-ten, he's an eleven. According to reports,
CBS wants more of its Chuck Lorre sitcoms. In particular, they're talking three years more of
Two and a Half Men and at least two for
The Big Bang Theory.
While other shows sweat out the word of renewal or cancellation, Mr. Lorre seems to be CBS's prime time player they count on the most. Okay, second-most.
Jerry Bruckheimer is numero uno with the
CSI franchises,
Without A Trace, Cold Case, Eleventh Hour and
The Amazing Race.
Continue reading CBS sticking with Men and Big Bang
Posted Feb 24th 2009 2:04PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Music and Variety, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Awards, Reality-Free
Well, it looks like rejiggering the format of the
Oscar telecast paid off; ratings for the 81st annual back-patting orgy were
up 13% from last year's record-low ratings. Maybe it was the
"faster-paced" ceremony, or maybe it was just that there were some intriguing storylines (
Slumdog, Heath Ledger, what kind of nutty stuff would Mickey Rourke have said if he won... that kind of stuff). Or it could have been a matter of more people being at home to watch because, uh, they don't have the money to do anything else. But at least the ratings are back to being semi-respectable.
One interesting aspect to these ratings numbers, though,
was brought up by Newsday's Neil Best: the total number of female viewers for the Super Bowl (38.3 million) surpassed the
entire audience for the Oscars (36.3 million). So, despite the conventional wisdom, it looks like the "Super Bowl for women" is actually... the Super Bowl.
At the very least, the ratings will probably earn Hugh Jackman and producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark a return engagement. Now if they can just get this thing under three hours, they're all set.
Posted Dec 31st 2008 9:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Festivus, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
Does the title of this post have you groaning and asking yourself, "Why are we talking about this again?" If so, I'm familiar with the feeling. It's how I felt earlier this year as the gossiperati (for lack of a more disparaging term) were putting the full court press on
Britney Spears. And that was just because she went shopping, or bought a Slurpee, or something ... I didn't really pay much attention to those reports.
Suffice it to say, while it may have been for all the wrong reasons, Britney had once again captured the attention of the public at large. It's an important bit of this story, because it speaks to both why she was brought in to guest on HIMYM, and why I hated it from jump street. I certainly wasn't alone in that, as most of the TV Squad staff, and 36.9% of the readers that voted, named her for the What The *#@#%! Were They Thinking Award.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: Britney on How I Met Your Mother
Posted Dec 19th 2008 11:03AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Festivus, Cancellations, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Reality-Free
As we do every year, we here at
TV Squad are reminiscing on the top TV news stories of the year. What has 2008 brought us? Well, while we were all complaining about the lack of quality shows that debuted this season, we may have missed the second-year shows going right down the crapper.
Let's start over at ABC. Three very promising shows premiered last season --
Dirty Sexy Money,
Eli Stone, and
Pushing Daisies -- to praise from the critics and buzz from the viewers.
Dirty Sexy Money, with the cast that could be someone's fantasy cast, started off strong. There was a mystery, unique and complex characters, and some integrity. With the writer's strike went the integrity and the ratings, and recently, we got the news that
no more episodes of Dirty Sexy Money would be ordered.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: Second-year shows go down the toilet
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 9:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Today's news that CBS ordered
five more episodes of Eleventh Hour is not a big surprise. A big surprise would have been if the network didn't give the freshman drama a re-order. The Jerry Bruckheimer production has been in the most-favored nation position at CBS -- meaning whatever Jerry wants, he usually gets.
The network enjoys a very fruitful/profitable relationship with the TV/filmmaker. Together, CBS and Jerry share
Cold Case, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Without A Trace and
The Amazing Race. They're thinking of changing the initials CBS to Columbia Bruckheimer System. (Kidding!)
Continue reading CBS orders five more Eleventh Hour eps
Posted Nov 26th 2008 2:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, NCIS, Reality-Free
Considering the fact that
CSI has been the basis for two very, very successful CBS spin-offs --
CSI: Miami and
CSI: New York (in case you've been out of the loop for the past six years) -- it hardly comes as a shock that another CBS ratings powerhouse,
NCIS, is planning a spin-off. Maybe the only shock is that they've waited till now to really put thought into action.
EW's Michael Ausiello landed the exclusive and reports that the
NCIS spin-off will be like the other
CSI's in that they will not take a character from the show and make him/her the centerpiece of that new series. That means you don't have to worry about Ziva, Tony, Abs, McGee and Gibbs breaking up.
And after the fans' reaction at the end of last season, when the team was split up as the new director took over only to be reunited early this season, that's a major relief.
Continue reading NCIS planning a spin-off
Posted Nov 24th 2008 4:21PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, Reality-Free
Hoo boy! You fans of the NBC historical drama Crusoe are not going to like this news. Not at all. It will be so distressful that you're going to get up, board a ship, purposefully get shipwrecked, and live your life on a deserted island. That, or you'll just toss out your TVs in disgust and begin, dare I say it, reading or talking to your loved ones.
Ready? Here it is...NBC is moving Crusoe to Saturdays. You read right; the show is moving to the Dead Zone of primetime television. Why, do you tearfully ask, are they moving this show to a night that hasn't featured original programming in years? Well, it's to move Lipstick Jungle up one hour on Friday night in order to shore the program up. And, man, does it need shoring up. Last Friday, the show managed to eek out a 2.2 rating in its current 10 PM slot.
Continue reading More schedule wranglings for NBC involving Crusoe and Lipstick Jungle
Next Page >
Seven greatest hand cannons in TV history
TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
TV 101: How ESPN controls the world and what the other networks can learn from it
