Man … last week was just a bloodbath in the ratings. With the exception of Thursday night, it was bad news for all of the shows at the top of my list for every night. Kings on Sunday, Chuck and Heroes on Monday, Reaper on Tuesday, Better Off Ted and Lost on Wednesday, and Dollhouse on Friday. Not a lot of good to report for any of them. On a brighter note, there was good news for the returning Fringe, and the debuts of Parks & Recreation, Southland, and Harper’s Island.
NBC - Let’s rip the bandage off quickly and start with NBC. The week got off to an awful start as Kings (3.62m/1.1) hit a new low. That’s low enough that the show has now been shuffled off to Saturday to finish its run. The bad news continued on Monday. Chuck (6.09m/2.1) was actually up in viewers week-to-week, but that’s still 4th place in both categories. The news wasn’t any better for Heroes (6.11m/2.6). That’s also good for 4th place. More troubling, though, is the demo number. That’s shockingly low for Heroes. The news was better on Tuesday, with The Biggest Loser (8.09m/3.2) and SVU (9.27m/3.3).
And then it all went off the rails again on Wednesday, with the season (series?) finale of Life (4.6m/1.3). Of all the shows that are going to get the axe over the next six weeks, that’s going to be the one I miss the most. Thursday brought better numbers, although they come with some caveats. Parks & Recreation (6.77m/3) had a reasonable debut, but that was behind a one time shot of The Office at 8 (7.2m/3.3). With Earl in that spot for week two, expect a drop. A second Office episode at 9 (7.94m/3.9) was around usual levels, followed by 30 Rock (6.75m/3.1). Southland (9.72m/3.2) debuted with numbers right on pace with what ER has been doing all season, but that was a premiere, and it didn’t face a new Private Practice, so we need more data. Finally, Friday Night Lights (4.36m/1.3) finished off the season rather weakly, but it is operating on an entirely unique system, so that number is not of much consequence.
ABC - It was an interesting start to the week, with Dancing With The Stars (19.88m/4.6) leading in to Surviving Suburbia (11.25m/3). That’s a good number for Suburbia, but it is almost certainly a function of the lead in, as we’ve all learned by now from the Samantha Who? numbers. More interesting was Castle (9.03m/2.3). It held almost the same number as last week, despite the weaker lead-in. That’s good news for Castle, because the same can’t be said for Cupid (5.71m/1.6). Week two saw the demo number cut in half, and that was following the DWTS Results (14.56m/3.3).
That puts Cupid in a similar position to The Unusuals (6.83m/2.1), which also struggled. The weakness of those two shows may be the best thing that has happened to Castle. Earlier in the night, Scrubs (4.55m/1.9) and Better Off Ted (4.04m/1.7) continued to struggle. And Lost (8.57m/3.8) managed to hit an all time low in the demo. Finally, Thursday brought another drop for In The Motherhood (4.57m/1.3) and Samantha Who? (4.87m/1.4), who would, no doubt, like that cushy slot following DWTS back.
FOX - By comparison to those two, the Idol mothership had a much better week. House (13.29m/5.1) and 24 (10.96m/3.8) stood strong against DWTS and basketball to start the week. And that carried through to Tuesday with Idol (22.81m/8.1) and Fringe (9.88m/4). That was right on pace with the last Fringe in February. News was not so good Wednesday, with Lie To Me (8.56m/2.5) continuing to drop since the move of Idol to 9 (22.98m/8). I’m still not sure why the network made that move. Lie To Me would probably be doing Fringe-like numbers with the two reversed.
Thursday remains vastly improved with the combination of Bones (8.88m/2.5) and Hell’s Kitchen (7.59m/3.3). And Friday remains a trainwreck, with Terminator:TSCC (3.56m/1.3) and Dollhouse (3.56m/1.4). Both shows finished the night 4th in viewers and 3rd in the demo, behind the likes of Wife Swap, Supernanny, and Howie Do It. More troubling? Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader averaged around 5.75 million viewers and a 1.3 demo for new episodes Friday at 8. Don’t Forget The Lyrics was around 5.14 million and a 1.5 demo for new episodes at 9.
CBS - Awards and sports got the week off to a great start. Sunday’s Country Music Awards (14.77m/3.8) were an upgrade to the usual schedule. Ditto for Monday’s presentation of the NCAA Championship game (17.65m/6.3). The rest of the week was, for the most part, by the crime-filled book. NCIS (17.81m/3.6), The Mentalist (16.92m/3.6), Without A Trace (12.15m/2.7), Criminal Minds (13.61m/3.3), and CSI:NY (12.5m/3.3) were all at expected levels.
Things were a little different on Thursday. Survivor (11.32m/3.5) remains strong, but the demo weirdness continues for CSI (16.36m/3.7). Seeing CSI below a 4 is as strange as seeing Lost there, or Heroes below a 3. Did everyone not get the message that CSI had Charisma Carpenter dancing in her underthings? That fantastic sight was followed by the premiere of Harper’s Island (10.49m/2.7). That’s a good number, considering what the show is. Following CSI, it would be cause for concern if it was a regular series, but for the expanded mini, it should be fine. Finally, the network easily won all three hours Friday with Ghost Whisperer (10.23m/2.5), Flashpoint (9.72m/1.9), and Numb3rs (9.72m/2.2).
CW - It was a short week, with the entire schedule boiling down to Reaper (2.11m/.9), 90210 (1.96m/1.1), and Next Top Model (3.69m/1.7). It’s worth noting that Reaper has more viewers than 90210, despite airing against Idol, but the demo is still too low to expect a third season for the gang from the ‘Bench.
For the coming week, According To Jim returns (again?), but nobody cares about that. So, we’ll be looking to see if Heroes has hit bottom or not on Monday. Wednesday will find Bones filling in for Lie To Me, and most likely the Bones fans will follow right along. Thursday we’ll learn what an Earl lead-in means for Parks & Recreation. And Friday, Prison Break tries to right the FOX Friday ship.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Apr 13, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
We can only hope and pray for Life not to be axed by NBC.
I’ve had so much on my plate, everything is still sitting on the DVR to be watched and I’ve taken to getting my Heroes episodes from the Netflix streaming video on Xbox 360. I don’t supposed NBC bothers to count the number of people who are doing that. And thanks to the idiots driving the Idol machine, I missed the last 8 minutes of Fringe last week, so I got that episode from the Xbox marketplace. So between DVR and downloads, I rarely watch anything as it airs and I suspect more people are doing the same but those numbers don’t all get counted so that’s why some shows seem to be doing worse than usual…IMHO.
Chuck, everything that generates money is counted. If you pay for Netflix your viewing it on the XBox counts more than if you were simply tuning in to the channel on a regular TV with no recording machine with a backchannel (e.g. TiVo, which is reporting back what you watch).