Ratings Clack – 10/12 to 10/18

NBC

It was another odd week on the television, with the big debate and baseball throwing schedules all out of whack. That doesn’t mean there weren’t some interesting stories. NBC continues to roll out their new shows, giving us the first look at My Own Worst Enemy and Crusoe. ABC met that with Samantha Who? and Eli Stone making their returns. The big story though, was probably what happened Saturday night. Yeah… I know. I mostly ignore Saturday night because the networks do too. But this week, Governor Palin stopped by SNL and it was a big hit. How big? How about the best ratings the show has seen since 1994.

NBC - Since Governor Palin claimed the big photo at the top of the post, let’s kick it off with NBC this week. Along with the great ratings for SNL, the Thursday edition of Weekend Update (8.61m/4.1) again performed well. It’s becoming sadly apparent that NBC does well with Olympics and Presedential election coverage. Those four year gaps are a bitch for that business plan. With nobody getting elected, Kath & Kim (6.01m/2.5) dropped 1.5 million viewers from their debut. With those kind of numbers, they’re going to need a Best Comedy Emmy to stick around on Thursday night. In better (not great, but better) news, My Own Worst Enemy (7.3m/3.0) and Crusoe (7.26m/1.6) had reasonable debuts. Both gain a little traction from the beauty of lowered expectations. With MOWE, it’s well above the numbers Life was putting up. And Crusoe is on Friday, where even 7.26 million viewers looks impressive.

ABC - It was time to cut the Dancing With The Stars (17.66m/4.0) performance show down to 90 minutes to make room for the debut of Samantha Who? (11.7m/3.1). Those would be good numbers in most cases, but do look a little low, given the lead in. Not unlike the debut of Eli Stone (8.82m/2.3) following the DWTS results show (14.37m/3.2). Both of those are better than another Pushing Daisies (6.29m/1.9) head scratcher. I really like the show, and want to see more of it, so I’m searching for anything to explain the low early ratings. So far, I’ve pinned it all on boobs. Yep, boobs. If you’ve been playing along with the home game, you’ve no doubt noticed that in sending Olive off to the nunnery they have covered up two of the shows most enchanting characters. Here’s hoping Olive’s return home brings with it the suitable wardrobe adjustments to rectify the situation. Because, other than that, I have no idea why people aren’t watching.

CBS - Great news for fans of The Mentalist (14.86m/3.4). After proving itself as a perfect partner to NCIS (17.86m/3.9), the show has been given a full season order. Also notable, the CBI crew managed to top the DWTS results show in viewers and the demo this week. Things aren’t quite that exciting over at Eleventh Hour (12.04m/3.2), but they had good news of their own. The show actually managed to gain viewers from its debut last week. That’s a solid win in round two with Life On Mars (8.47m/2.7). It’s still too early to call, but this one doesn’t look good for the ’70s cops. Worst Week (9.78m/3.3) got a little bump of its own this week. Just one of the little bonuses that comes with not going up against DWTS. It’s still behind Big Bang Theory (9.36m/3.6) and How I Met Your Mother (9.14m/3.8) in the demo though. Given the Two And A Half Men (14.57m/5.3) lead in, that’s disappointing. One other curious note this week, just 13 million viewers for a new CSI: Miami. Are people finally realizing the problems with that show? That’s one to keep an eye on.

FOX - Not much happened this week on FOX. With three nights of baseball and two nights of junk reruns, we were left with just House (12.82m/5.1) and Fringe (9.53m/4.1). I’m surprised to see Fringe holding at those numbers. If 9 million and a 4.0 is where it settles, we’ll have to call it a success.

CW - Things were mostly quiet over at the CW as well. Gossip Girl (3.34m/1.6), One Tree Hill (3.43m/1.7), Smallville (4.15m/1.7), and Supernatural (3.06m/1.2) all managed to crank out just what you would expect. And, unfortunately, so did Valentine (1.01m/.4) and Easy Money (.75m/.3). I’ll say it again, Valentine is actually a good show, certainly worth of better numbers than this. The one surprising bit might be Friday nights. Not so much the numbers for Everybody Hates Chris (1.79m/.7) and The Game (1.81m/.8). But more the fact that someone at the network thought it would be a good idea to move them to Friday in the first place.

For next week, things settle in a little bit. Not a lot of exciting debuts to look at, unless you count the big DWTS recap show on Tuesday (I know, you don’t), or the premiere of the new NBC Friday (DOND,Crusoe,Life). I suppose we could all take bets on how Criminal Minds is going to do with CliqueClack pal Wil Wheaton in the guest starring spot. I’ll set the over/under at 15 million viewers, and take the over.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Oct 20, 2008 @ 10:48 EST5EDT