Ratings Clack – The last summer ratings post

Finally. The weather turned to complete crap in my little burg this weekend, which can only mean one thing: Fall TV premieres are on the horizon! Next week we’ll have numbers for the new seasons of 90210, Melrose Place, Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, Glee, Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural(!). Until then, we have one last reality-heavy week to look at. There is a small bonus though … we did get our first look at Glee, Fringe, and Medium in their new time slots. They were repeat airings, but interesting just the same. Over on cable, more records as Bravo and Food had great months, and the NFL scored for ESPN.

FOX - It was another typical week where original programming was concerned. Hell’s Kitchen (7.2m/3.2) remains strong, and More To Love (4.13m/1.8) is hanging in there. 5th Grader (4.6m/1) also checked in on Friday, with a decent number for itself. The more interesting bit was a look at the new Wednesday and Thursday lineups. So You Think You Can Dance led off Wednesday with a special, “The 15 Best” (4.64m/1.9), and was followed by the director’s cut of the Glee pilot (4.2m/1.8). Thursday found Bones (5.83m/1.8) and Fringe (4.84m/1.6) paired for the first time. Those are all repeat numbers, so nothing to get too excited about on their own. It is encouraging though, looking at how close the numbers are between the shows. Both pairs look to work together rather well.

CBS - Big Brother again carried most of the load this week, doing well on Sunday (7.41m/2.5), Tuesday (8.06m/2.6), and Thursday (8.61m/2.7). There Goes The Neighborhood (3.91m/1.2) is likely finishing out its first, and only, season. The only other new programming was the CBS Fall Preview (3.84m/.9), which nobody bothered to watch. The good news for CBS, much as with FOX, was how the numbers looked for the initial run of Ghost Whisperer (5.05m/1.3), and Medium (5.11m/1.3). Almost identical. And if Medium can hold onto Ghost Whisperer viewers like that, Fridays will be a happy night for CBS.

ABC - The CMA Music Festival (7.84m/2.1) was the best news for ABC this week, allowing them to finally knock off the CBS repeat Monday and win the night outright. Elsewhere, Wipeout (7.62m/2.6) remains a success, and Shark Tank (4.79m/1.7) is steady. I’m curious to see what its numbers will do when the full fall schedule is up and running. Other originals included Crash Course (4.53m/1.7), Shaq Vs. (3.26m/1.3), and Defying Gravity (2.53m/.9).

NBC - I guess you can think of this as the calm before the storm. The only notable entries for NBC this week came from America’s Got Talent on Tuesday (12.45m/3.2), and Wednesday (12.1m/2.6). If you are only going to run one program for the week, that’s not a bad choice.

CABLE - After weeks of setting records, the new True Blood (5.19m) didn’t set a series high, but that’s still an impressive number. That doesn’t mean there weren’t records to be had this week though. Bravo announced that they had the best August ever in viewers, and the A18-49 demo. August was also the most watched, highest rated month ever for The Food Network. Getting to shows, Biography set their record for most watched premiere telecast in network history with the season three finale of I Survived… (.593m). And ESPN had their most viewed pre-season game ever with last week’s Monday Night Football (7.92m). Elsewhere, Lifetime continues to have great success with Drop Dead Diva (3.4m) and Army Wives (4.1m). Both of them were above their season averages. And finally, Mad Men (1.61m) continues to slow for AMC, but remains ahead of last season.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Sep 07, 2009 @ 16:00 EST5EDT