Ratings Clack 10/19 – 10/25

by Brett Love

ABC

We’re starting to settle into a groove with the 08/09 season now. That’s good for some shows, and rather daunting for others. That should figure in as the networks start handing out full season orders. We saw a couple of those last week (The Mentalist, Terminator:TSCC) that were at opposite ends of the spectrum. Following up on last week’s installment, I set the over/under for the Wil Wheaton Criminal Minds at 15 million, which was pretty close. The show came in with 14.71 million viewers. Excited by my Vegas like accuracy, I’ll go ahead and set the over/under for USC next weekend at 53 points. Yeah, it’s not ‘TV’, but watching the complete destruction of Husky football week after week is still more interesting than Kath & Kim.

NBC - Since I took a shot at Kath & Kim in the open, let’s start with the peacock. The show took another hit this week, falling to 4.98 million viewers and a 2.2. What’s worse, I don’t think that’s rock bottom. It’s really not a good show. I actually turned it off in the middle of an episode, and I’ll watch just about anything. Despite NBC’s problems, I can’t imagine that one is long for the schedule. And there are a lot of problems. We’ve talked about Monday’s before, and it continues to be a tough night. Chuck (6.7m / 2.5), Heroes (8.46m / 3.9), and My Own Worst Enemy (5.72m / 2.5) all have issues. Also troubling though, is Deal Or No Deal. Last week, two episodes managed just 7.6 million, and 6.04 million viewers. The network has finally Millionaired the show to death. Crusoe (5.92m / 4.2)is also a sore spot, as week two saw an awfully dramatic drop. The good news, ER (8.69m / 3.2) has won its time slot in the demo for three straight weeks.

FOX - Speaking of good news, there was some to be had for Terminator:TSCC fans. Apparently, the drug testing policies at the network have been relaxed, which means the show somehow gets a full season order, despite ratings (5.73m / 2.1) that continue to struggle. If 6 million and a 2 demo is the bar, I’m feeling so much better about the chances for Dollhouse. The network took it in the nuts with baseball this week as well. Game one of the World Series (13.91 / 4.5) did bring a win on Wednesday night, but that was down some 3 million viewers and 1.3 in the demo from last season. Given the choice, nobody at the network would have chosen a Philadelphia/Tampa Bay series.

CBS - In more positive full season order news, it looks like the team at CBI is going to be around for a while. The Mentalist (15.29m / 3.4) continues to be the perfect mate for NCIS (17.06 / 3.6). In other good news for CBS, the OG CSI (19.17 / 5.4) had a commanding win over Grey’s. I’m very curious to see what is going to happen with those numbers when Grissom leaves. Really, it’s good to be CBS right now. The only spot on the schedule that they really need to deal with at the moment is The Ex-List (5.65m / 1.6).

CW - Meanwhile, the messages from the powers that be were not so kind over at CW. Production was halted on Valentine (.718m / .2) and Easy Money (.721m / .2). The official story is that it was all part of the plan, but it’s looking more and more like the big MRC experiment just isn’t working. It leaves the network with just two solid nights of programming. Gossip Girl (3.03m / 1.9) and One Tree Hill (3.65m / 1.9) on Monday and Smallville (4.22m / 1.7) and Supernatural (3.25m / 1.3) on Thursday look good. Tuesdays are being hurt by Privileged (1.47m / .7), which just doesn’t seem to be catching on. And the premiere of Stylista(2.46m / 1.2) doesn’t inspire confidence on Wednesdays.

ABC - And that brings us to our old friends at ABC. My boob based Pushing Daisies (5.67m / 1.9) theory from last week was dashed this week. As you can see in the picture at the top of the post, Olive was back to her old form, and it didn’t help. There was some, kind of, good news for Eli Stone(8.51 / 2.2). The numbers continue to look low following the dancing results, but they were very close to the premiere levels. If the show can maintain that, it should be ok. That’s very similar to where we find Life On Mars(8.06m / 2.5). It seems to have leveled there, and it’s ok. I have to wonder though, if the show wouldn’t work better in another spot. Of course it’s squandering the Grey’s (14.21m / 5.3) lead-in, because how many viewers in the market for a soapy medical drama are looking to chase it with ’70s cops? That’s not peanut butter and chocolate.

For next week, the big story, other than the final, emphatic, nail in Tyrone Willingham’s coffin, will be the big premiere of 30 Rock. It will be interesting to see where the numbers fall. My guess is that they’ll fall short of what the SNL election specials have been doing, but still look pretty good. Say, 7.5 million viewers and a 3.7.