The scheduling shenanigans continue as we race toward the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Last week saw more holiday themed specials, and a lot of repeats. Fortunately, there were a few interesting numbers mixed in with all of the seasonal offerings. Things like big gains for The Middle, which is looking much better now that it’s not lugging around that Hank sized bag of stink. Or, Bones hitting season highs. Of course, not all of the interesting numbers were of the good variety. Melrose Place, Dollhouse, and Find My Family all found some coal in their ratings stockings.
ABC - We’ll kick things off with the home of The Middle (7.69m/2.4). With a lead in from Shrek (8.43m/2.6), The Middle was up, finally moving back in front of Gary Unmarried in their Wednesday comedy war. That led to another great outing for Modern Family (9.67m/3.8), and an oddly off the mark installment of Cougar Town (7.01m/2.8). Earlier in the week, Sunday brought typically solid performances from Extreme Makeover (10.35m/3), Desperate Housewives (14.86m/4.9), and Brothers & Sisters (10.81m/3.7).
The news wasn’t as good on Monday. It started off well enough, with Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (7.6m/2.5). But then Find My Family (5.23m/1.5) discovered that nobody can find their show. This is going to be a short lived experiment. That didn’t do any favors for Castle (7.8m/2.1). The only good news there is that it’s still well above The Forgotten.
There was more seasonal success Tuesday with Charlie Brown Christmas (11.17m/3.7) and Prep & Landing (12.04m/4.1). And more disappointment in the form of Scrubs (5.44m/2.3) and Better Off Ted (3.82m/1.5). Yes, Scrubs was up over last week, but considering the greatly improved lead in, and the fact that CBS took the night off, that’s not a good result. And Ted… good grief. The cancellation clock is, unfortunately, ticking. The week finished up with Supernanny (4.63m/1.3) and Ugly Betty (4.8m/1.4) on Friday. It’s worth noting that Ugly Betty was up again, giving hope that things can be turned around with the upcoming move.
FOX - The week started off with just one new program on Sunday, and that was the BCS Selection Show (9.28m/3.7). 9.28 million viewers or not, the BCS sucks balls and there really should be a playoff. Anyway… Monday, House and Lie To Me made way for the Carrie Underwood Holiday Special (8.55m/2.3). Clearly, Carrie is no Dr. House, but those are reasonable, if not great, numbers for a variety special. So You Think You Can Dance saw some small gains on Tuesday (6.25m/2.4) and Wednesday (6.69m/2.3) as it races toward a finale. And Glee (8.13m/3.7) closed out the fall section of its run on a high note.
Bones (10.9m/3.1) kicked off Thursday with its best numbers of the season. That’s still short of Survivor, but has made FOX a solid second Thursday at 8. Unfortunately, that didn’t do much to help Fringe (6.32m/2.3) as it faded again in the face of a new CSI. Dollhouse (2.72m/1 – 2.09m/.8) closed out the week with some small gains on Friday. The kind of small gains that still have the show in fourth place behind things like Supernanny, Yes, Virginia, and a repeat Medium.
CBS – The Amazing Race (12.3m/3.7) started the week off with good numbers for its finale, which led to okay numbers for Cold Case (9.64m/2.2). If nothing else, it is a solid upgrade over Three Rivers. Things were much better on Monday. How I Met Your Mother (8.79m/3.5) and Accidentally On Purpose (7.91m/2.8) were good enough to win their hour for the night. But the big news came from 2 ½ Men (14.84m/5) and Big Bang Theory (14.38m/5.6). 2 ½ Men continues to cling to that viewer crown, but you can feel safe in now calling Big Bang Theory the number one comedy on television.
Wednesday wasn’t quite as exciting, but did see small gains from Old Christine (7.49m/2.2) and Gary Unmarried (7.01m/2.3) to start the night. That led to Criminal Minds (14.43m/3.9) and CSI:NY (12.97m/3.2) both winning their hours in viewers and demo. There was more of that to be had on Thursday as Survivor (13.25m/4.2), CSI (16.43m/3.9), and The Mentalist (16.37m/3.6) all won their hours as well. The only new programming on Friday was the previously mentioned Yes, Virginia (5.27m/1.3).
NBC - Sunday Night Football (20.89m/7.9), as usual, was huge. That success was followed up on Tuesday by the Biggest Loser (13.45m/5) finale, which dominated from 8-10. Mercy (7.01m/1.8) and L&O SVU (7.92m/2.3) continued to struggle on Wednesday. As did Community (5.5m/2.2) and Parks & Rec (4.9m/2.1) on Thursday. Fortunately, the news was better for The Office (8.51m/4.2) and 30 Rock (6.7m/3.2). Friday’s highlight came in the form of the original Law & Order (8.77m/1.7) which won the hour in both measures.
Leno had an up and down week, with Tuesday bringing numbers (8.33m/2.9) the show hasn’t seen in months. If NBC could run a Biggest Loser finale every night from 8-10, there might be something to this whole Leno plan. In the absence of that, the other four nights amounted to two distant third place finishes, and two seconds. Leno did manage to edge out repeats of Private Practice on Thursday, and Numb3rs on Friday.
CW - There were only two nights of originals this week, with One Tree Hill (2.57m/1.2) and Gossip Girl (2.21m/1.2) doing fairly typical numbers on Monday. And 90210 (1.91m/1) and Melrose Place (1.25m/.7) bringing another off night on Tuesday. Those Melrose numbers are particularly bad when you consider that repeats from Vampire Diaries and Supernatural both beat Melrose.
CABLE – It’s a little late, but the big story for cable comes when we go back to the finale of Monk. The numbers are in, and fans sent their favorite investigator off in grand style. How does 9.44 million viewers sound? It’s a nice end for a very good show that deserves a lot of the credit for the successes USA is now having with all of their “Characters.” In less exciting sendoff news, Stargate Universe (1.34m/.5) had their mid-season finale the same night, to decidedly less viewers. That just barely edged out Sanctuary (1.33m/.4). It will be interesting to see what happens when the show returns. Other cable numbers of note:
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Dec 14, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
I love CSI: NY, and around here, we adore Gary Sinise.
I’m director of the Gary Sinise Fan Club on Yahoo, and we send out a daily newsletter Monday – Friday pertaining to all the latest news regarding Gary, CSI: NY, Steppenwolf Theatre and Operation International Children, along with Gary Sinise and the Lt Dan Band. The newsletter includes a daily photograph in professional mat and framework not available anywhere else.
I believe you would enjoy what we post and share about the CSI: NY show.
https://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/GarySiniseFanClub/
I’d love to have you, thank you for what you post and share here about his show, and very site!
Victoria