Last week was a bit of an odd one for programming as the networks went a bit experimental. Over at FOX, Bones tried its third night in a week. On ABC, The Unusuals took over for Cupid and someone gave the OK for another Lost clip show. CBS continued the shuffling of their procedurals by bumping NCIS, The Mentalist, and Criminal Minds back an hour. The results, as you might have suspected, were varied. While a lot of that was strange, the biggest surprise of the week was Thursday, which found just about everything taking a hit in the ratings. In other news, According To Jim still stinks out loud.
ABC - With Desperate Housewives (13.85m/4.8) and Brothers & Sisters (9.46m/3.3) back with new episodes, the week got off to a great start. The good news continued on Monday as Dancing With The Stars (20.53m/4.7), Surviving Suburbia (9.87m/2.4), and Castle (8.21m/2.1) were all up in viewers, week-to-week. Although, Surviving Suburbia was down in the demo. The party ended on Tuesday.
Seriously, what the hell is with ABC and According To Jim (3.37m/1 – 3.35m/1)? I mean, I get it. Syndication money, blah, blah, blah. But come on. We have to wait until random distant Saturday in the future to get the final episodes of Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone, but According To Jim gets 8 PM on a Tuesday? With 3 million viewers? And a 1 demo? The facts are these … According To Jim sucks. Anyway … the news was better at 9, with the DWTS Results (14.73m/3.2). That led in to the special broadcast of The Unusuals (5.81m/1.5), which fell short of what Cupid has been doing there. Worse for The Unusuals, that was better than the regular installment on Wednesday (4.74m/1.4). That one certainly didn’t receive any help from another Lost clip show (6.75m/2.9), and those two episodes may have sealed the fate of the show. That’s too bad, I really like it. Earlier on Wednesday, Scrubs (4.6m/1.9) and Better Off Ted (4.19m/1.7) continued to struggle.
On a very strange Thursday where viewers just didn’t really show up, In The Motherhood and Samantha Who? were benched for a Grey’s Anatomy repeat before the regular Grey’s broadcast (13.51m/5) and Private Practice (9.08m/3.3) got the week back on track. Those numbers are oddly low for Grey’s, but as you’ll see, everyone had issues on Thursday, so we’ll need to wait and see how these numbers go.
NBC - It was another rough week for the peacock, which started off with nobody interested in Miss USA (4.99m/1.4). The Celebrity Apprentice (8.41m/3.2) is holding up, as is The Biggest Loser (9.26m/3.7), but that doesn’t really soften the blow for the weekly Monday results. Again, things didn’t look good for Chuck (6.11m/2.4) and Heroes (6.45m/3.1). Both shows remain mired in fourth place, despite the fact that Dr. House made way for Bones, and four of the five CBS shows were repeats. That means that Chuck remains on the bubble. Heroes will be back in the fall, but with a shortened season. Somewhat better, Medium (7.34m/2.5) managed to win the 10PM hour in the demo, while finishing third in viewers.
As with ABC, NBC was also oddly down on Thursday. My Name Is Earl (5.54m/2.2) was the lone exception, gaining slightly in viewers over the previous week. The rest of the shows all took a drop. Parks & Recreation (5.2m/2.3) wasn’t really a surprise. The show just isn’t very good, yet anyway. It has only been two episodes. More surprising, though, were the results for The Office (7.28m/3.8), 30 Rock (6.3m/3.1), and Southland (8.11m/2.4). It’s too early to say whether this was just a wacky Thursday, or if this is what it looks like when Southland goes up against a new Private Practice. That’s a matchup to keep an eye on, though.
CBS - I’m really not sure what the programmers at CBS are up to. For two weeks now they have been juggling things around the schedule. This week, that meant a repeat Mentalist in the CSI: Miami spot on Monday, NCIS and The Mentalist repeats both moved back an hour on Tuesday, and the new Criminal Minds (13.72m/3.5) moving to 10 on Wednesday. I can only guess that it’s all a series of tests for setting the schedule next fall. Perhaps something to do with how they plan to take advantage of NBC’s Leno shenanigans. With that in mind, it is worth noting that the Criminal Minds numbers are above what CSI: NY usually does in that spot.
Thursday brought the normal lineup, but as with the other networks, lowered numbers. Survivor (11.3m/3.5) wasn’t too far off, but CSI (14.64m/3.7) remains concerning. We’ll give a pass this week, but that demo number is one to watch. With things going the way they are, there is actually the possibility that a new CSI could finish fourth in the demo before the end of the year. That was unthinkable last fall. Friday brought the expected win for the night with new episodes of Ghost Whisperer (9.15m/2.1), Flashpoint (8.18m/1.6), and Numb3rs (8.84m/1.8).
FOX - The premiere of Sit Down, Shut Up (5.18m/2.3) made for a bit of a disappointing start to the week. Given the talent, and the cushy spot between The Simpsons (6.58m/3.1) and Family Guy (7.34m/3.8), that’s not a good number. Things were also a bit slow on Monday, with Bones (8.57m/2.5) taking over for House. I’m not going to take anything away from Bones on that one, though. That’s what happens when the network airs the show on three different nights in a week. Bones also got in on the strange Thursday with its regular episode (8.42m/2.3). That was followed by an also low Hell’s Kitchen (6.8m/3).
There was better news elsewhere, as 24 (10.34m/3.2) held up ok without Dr. House batting lead off. American Idol, of course, was an easy winner on Tuesday (23.96m/8.2) and Wednesday (23.95m/8.3). And while many still question what Fringe (9.89m/3.9) could do on its own, you can’t argue with the results it’s getting post-Idol. It leaves me very curious to see what they do with the show in the fall. The ever dwindling results of Lie To Me (7.97m/2.3) have to be giving pause to any thoughts of Fringe anchoring a night. That leaves the FOX Friday, which was a whole new kind of disaster this week. Apparently, not too many people care what ultimately happens to Lincoln and Michael on Prison Break (3.05m/1). And that led to Dollhouse (2.99m/1.2), which found a new low, despite having a very interesting episode.
CW - Gossip Girl (2.37m/1.3), One Tree Hill (2.45m/1.2), and Reaper (2.15m/.9) got the week off to what is a pretty standard start at this point. Things were a little more unusual with 90210 (1.88m/1) and Next Top Model (4.01m/1.9). 90210 was down a fair bit from the previous week, and Next Top Model actually finished second in the demo. And really, given the way that Lie To Me is going, it’s not inconceivable that the CW could actually win a night in the demo at some point. Wednesday at 8 is now the exact opposite of Monday at 8. Finally, Smallville (3.1m/1.3) and Supernatural (2.7m/1.1) wrapped up the wacky Thursday.
For the coming week, some numbers to watch … Monday brings the season finales of Chuck and Heroes. I think it’s far too late in the game to expect a huge change, but the prospect of a finale could offer boosts to both of them. Cupid returns on Tuesday, to make a case for a second season, and to possibly rule one out for The Unusuals. Keep an eye on the CSI demo Thursday, and watch what happens when Private Practice and Southland square off again. And Friday, Alan Tudyk stops by FOX to try and offer a boost to the sagging Dollhouse ratings.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Apr 27, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
No mention of Harper’s Island, which is apparently being shoveled to the death hole on Saturday. Networks have to stop competing for the same damned spots. On Thursdays (this past, at least) I watch the following shows all in the same timeslot: Supernatural, Harper’s Island, Private Practice and Southland. The latter two lost out and I watched them online this weekend…which never matters as I am not a Nielsen house anyway. It just sucks. All of it.
*POST AUTHOR*
Sorry, Modwild. I meant to include Harper’s Island. It did drop again, to 7.02 million viewers and a 1.9 demo. That is low for Thursday at 10, but I didn’t expect it would send the show to the Saturday wastelands. A better solution might have been to swap it with Flashpoint.
I don’t know everything looks so grim in your ratings reviews Brett… I could bet the underlying message here is that people don’t watch TV anymore (at least on Thursdays).
What’s with the NBA playoffs? Are they a factor?
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t know that everything looks grim. There are some successes, although too many of them seem to be of the reality variety lately. A lot of the grimness is just from the number of mid-season shows that aren’t finding an audience.
I’m sure there is something to the playoffs, but it doesn’t really explain last Thursday. It’s exceedingly rare to see so many shows all take a hit. I expect at least some of them will bounce back next week.