Just like that, the 2008-2009 season is done. We are now firmly in the grips of the summer television season. That means there will be a months long wait (10 if you’re a Chuck fan!) for new episodes. On the bright side, you’ll have plenty of time to watch the Women’s College World Series (Danielle Lawrie is awesome!) or the French Open (I’ve got Nadal and Safina). Or maybe you’ll join me in reading World War Z (Zombies!). Before you get started on that fancy new summer schedule, we have one last week of numbers to take a look at.
FOX - It was the biggie, so let’s begin with Idol. There was a fair bit of chatter about how the numbers were down for the Idol finale, but let’s be realistic. The final performance show (23.82m/8.6), and the big finale announcement (28.84m/10), were so far ahead of everything else on TV that it doesn’t even matter. Consider that only two other shows, 2 ½ Men and Dancing With The Stars, were even able to crack 5 in the demo. Even in a ‘down’ year, Idol is far and away the number one show on television.
Elsewhere, the Sunday animation block got the week off to a slow start. Perhaps it was the presence of the Survivor and Housewives finales. Simpsons (5.85m/2.9), King Of The Hill (5.22m/2.6), Family Guy (7.35m/3.7), and American Dad (5.64m/2.8) were all down a bit. That theme continued on Monday. 24 (9.65m/3.1) missed having Dr. House at 8. Tuesday did bring some good news, in addition to Idol. Glee (9.62m/3.9) premiered to critical raves and managed to post what I would call very Fringe-like numbers. The kids from So You Think You Can Dance (8.47m/3.4) kicked off the FOX summer on Thursday, winning the night in the demo. And Friday, Don’t Forget The Lyrics (3.4m/1) made its return to Friday, with very Dollhouse looking numbers.
ABC - As with FOX, ABC’s final week was carried by their reality powerhouse. Dancing With The Stars remains a legitimate hit, posting excellent numbers for Monday’s performance show (19.17m/4.4), and the big Tuesday finale (20.31m/5.2). Tom and Samantha passed the Monday keys off to The Bachelorette (8.69m/3) which was below where The Bachelor left off. However, as we saw with that one, casting is everything.
Elsewhere, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9.27m/3.1) and Desperate Housewives (13.96m/4.7) wrapped things up on Sunday. Those numbers are down year to year, and it is the lowest rated Housewives finale ever, but still solid. The only other programming of note was the two hour finale of Ugly Betty (6.27m/1.9).
CBS – Not to be outdone, CBS had a big reality finale of their own as Survivor wrapped up with the final episode (12.94m/4.2) and the reunion show (11.58m/4.1) on Sunday. The week continued with Rules of Engagement illustrating just what the power of a good lead-in will do: Rules Of Engagement (7.49m/2.7), How I Met Your Mother (8.73m/3.7), 2 ½ Men (16.18m/5.3), Rules Of Engagement (12.87m/4.4). Having watched both episodes, I can assure you, the second one wasn’t 5 million viewers better. CSI: Miami (14.19m/3.8) finished Monday with their finale. That demo number is an interesting one, as it is .4 better than the original CSI managed with its finale. Could it be that Horatio is now the top dog in the CSI universe?
Good news continued Tuesday as NCIS (16.51m/3.4) continues to hold up amazingly well against Idol. Likewise, The Mentalist (16.82m/3.7) was just fine up against DWTS. Without A Trace (11.21m/2.5) wasn’t quite as successful, and can now be added to the list of shows that entered Tuesday @ 10 and never made it back out. The short week wrapped up on Wednesday with uneventful finales from Old Christine (5.55m/1.6) and Gary Unmarried (5.52m/1.7), and another solid cliffhanger from Criminal Minds (13.99m/3.5).
NBC - It was what I would call a bizarro reversal week for the peacock. Next season there will be no scripted programming in the 10PM slot, as the network is going all Jay, all the time. Last week, the only new scripted programming was at 10PM. It wasn’t a good week. The highlight was Law & Order:SVU (6.92m/2.5) on Tuesday. Unfortunately, that highlight was the lowest rated SVU ever. The original L&O (6.66m/2) wasn’t any better on Wednesday. Medium (6.56m/1.9) made its final NBC appearance on Monday. Look for that viewer number to jump by a good two million when the show moves to Friday on CBS. Finally, Southland (6.45m/1.9) finished its inaugural season. Don’t look for those numbers to improve on the NBC Friday.
CW - It was a short week, with only four hours of new programming. Gossip Girl (2.33m/1.1) went out with a steady number. Their partner in crime, One Tree Hill (2.68m/1.3), saw a small bump, most likely aided by the announced casting changes. Tuesday, Reaper (1.71m/.7) suffered another small drop. And 90210 (2m/1.1) finished off the week.
Next week, everything changes. And by that I mean the weekly post. With so little new network programming, we’ll begin the shift to Ratings Clack Lite for the summer. We’ll still follow the new things on the networks, and start mixing in some cable results as things like Burn Notice, Psych, and Eureka get new seasons under way.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on May 25, 2009 @ 13:01 EST5EDT
