American Idol has become such a ratings juggernaut that it’s always a little surprising when something actually tops it. The Grammy Awards were able to do just that last week, thanks to the best ratings for the show since 2004. The other big event for the week was the return of Lost on ABC. It didn’t approach the Idol or Grammy numbers, but it did finish the week as the number one scripted show in the adult demo. Granted, it was the season premiere, but knocking off Grey’s, House, 2 ½ Men, and Big Bang Theory is always worth noting. On cable, the big surprise was probably the performance from USA’s White Collar and Psych. Both were well down from last week.
CBS - I was surprised by the numbers for The Grammy Awards (25.87m/9.9). I watched most of it, and just didn’t think the show was that good. That could just be that my musical taste has aged beyond what works for television. Whatever the case, it made for a great start to the week. The success continued on Monday with How I Met Your Mother (9.28m/3.7), Accidentally On Purpose (8.43m/3), 2 ½ Men (16.51m/5.1), Big Bang Theory (15.51m/5.4), and CSI: Miami (13.44m/3.7) teaming up to win the night in viewers and demo.
The news was good on Tuesday as well, despite the crazy competition. NCIS (19.23m/4.3) held up to Idol, and the boost ABC saw from the Lost recap. Even better than that, the more impressive number came from NCIS: LA, which faced much stiffer competition this week. Week to week, ABC, NBC, and FOX were up 8.14m viewers and 4.7 in the demo. Despite that, NCIS: LA only dropped .49m viewers and .1 in the demo. The Good Wife (12.81m/2.6) also held up well, considering the increase from Lost over The Forgotten.
Things kept rolling on Wednesday, with the Superbowl Commercials Special (10.99m/2.9) and CSI: NY (14.16m/3.4) winning their hours while Criminal Minds (14.75m/3.8) held strong against Idol. Thursday was also solid, with the Surviving Survivor (8.11m/2.4) special, CSI (14.49m/3.2), and The Mentalist (14.68m/3.3). Friday, as usual, brought easy wins in all three hours for Ghost Whisperer (8.77m/2.2), Medium (9.1m/2.2), and Numb3rs (9.18m/2).
FOX - The week started off slowly, with The Grammys taking their toll on the animation block of The Simpsons (4.95m/2.4), Cleveland (4.5m/2.2), Family Guy (6.19m/3.2), and American Dad (5.06m/2.5). Business picked up on Monday, thanks to House (13.38m/4.8). 24 (9.96m/3.1) was down, but remains above the Lie To Me numbers. Tuesday, American Idol (24.71m/9) won the night, and Kitchen Nightmares (8.99m/3.8) made its debut at 9.
Wednesday was rather curious. After the ratings dive that Lie To Me took last year when the network moved Idol to 9, I didn’t think they would do it again. But they did, and the results were as expected for Human Target (7.8m/2.4). The surprise this time was that Idol (21m/7.8) took a hit as well. It’s not hard to make the case that if those two were swapped, both would go up. Bones (12.37m/3.3) and Fringe (7.4m/2.6) wrapped up the week with another strong Thursday. It will be interesting to see what happens with these two when they return and Survivor is back in full swing.
ABC - As we saw with the Golden Globes, the ABC Sunday takes a hit from awards shows. That was the case with The Grammy Awards, with Extreme Makeover (8.54m/2.2), Desperate Housewives (11.44m/3.7), and Brothers & Sisters (7.65m/2.4) all down. The news was better on Monday, with The Bachelor (11.73m/4.1) finishing second in the 8pm and 9pm hours. Tuesday was all about Lost. The recap (9.97m/4.1) was well above what Ted and Scrubs have been offering, and the premiere episode (12.09m/5.5) was the number one scripted show of the week in the demo. It’s a great start to the final season.
There was good news on Wednesday as well. The Middle (7.32m/2.7) seems to have found its legs, and Modern Family (9.19m/3.9) weathered the relocation of Idol to 9 very well. Cougar Town (6.26m/2.9) was off a bit, and Ugly Betty (4.03m/1.4) is now just finishing out the run. Thursday, the news wasn’t good for The Deep End (5.08m/1.3). That’s a fifth place finish in the demo. Grey’s Anatomy (12.55m/4.5) and Private Practice (9.25m/3.3) looked good by comparison, but those numbers are low for both of them. Friday finished things off with Supernanny (5.39m/1.5), Shark Tank (4.66m/1.4), and 20/20 (8.66m/1.8).
NBC – Not even trying to compete with The Grammys, NBC rolled out another SNL Special (3.06m/1.2) to start the week. Chuck (6.73m/2.4) brought better news Monday, holding fairly steady against a full complement of competition. Heroes (4.42m/2) was again a distant fourth at 9. The Biggest Loser (9.48m/3.7) moved to 9 on Tuesday, and had a very good night against heavy competition.
Mercy (6.21m/1.6) was flying solo on Wednesday, and still hasn’t found any traction. Thursday, Community (5.23m/2.3) and Parks & Recreation (4.88m/2.3) were both up slightly, but remain well off the pace. The Office (7.37m/3.8) was much more competitive, moving up to number two in the demo. 30 Rock (5.79m/2.9) was okay to wrap the night. Dateline (6.49m/1.5) finished things off on Friday.
CW - Another short week started with One Tree Hill (2.14m/1) and Life Unexpected (2.07m/1) down on Monday. At these levels, and considering that it is repeating better than other shows, Life Unexpected should be very interesting when renewal time comes around. Vampire Diaries (3.99m/1.9) remained the network’s big hit on Thursday, bumping ABC for fourth in the demo. Supernatural (2.28m/1.1) was down for the week. Friday, the big Smallville (2.77m/1.2) movie event made a good showing.
CABLE - There were curious numbers for White Collar (2.89m/.9) and Psych (2.86m/1.1) this week that might have USA rethinking that new schedule. Burn Notice (4.25m/1.7) didn’t suffer the same fate. You can make a pretty good guess that the Lost premiere could have hurt White Collar, but I have no idea what to make of the big drop for Psych. Elsewhere, and late, the numbers for the second episode of Caprica (1.41m/.5) are in. It’s in the same ballpark as where Stargate Universe ended its winter run (1.34m/.5). Other cable numbers for the week:
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Feb 08, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
You could argue that after four years of Psych on fridays, people simply didn’t expect it to move. I mean just because it’s calbe doesn’t mean people won’t have to adjust, right?
And if you count in “Monk” on fridays before that, it’s even more of a extreme move by USA I think.
Do you think Smallville will be back for another season? I think the season has been “strong” so far as in that the demo has always been round about the same. I don’t see the point in cancelling the show as long as it is financially possible.
The numbers for NCIS are insane. I dropped the show this year because I couldn’t stand it anymore, no character development just schenanegans but as with other shows it is a sure winner.
I hope you pick apart the Super Bowl. The half time show was the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen. I mean “The Who”?! Just because of CBS and ther CSI shows? Ridiculous.
And then they manage to have the audio five seconds out of sync over here on the old continent, and blame it to the digital conversion from HD to 480i PAL which is kind of curious considering it all went just fine the last couple of years.
Thanks again for writing this every week, can’t praise you enough for it. I like numbers :-)
*POST AUTHOR*
The problem with arguing that the move is the reason for the Psych drop is that there were over 4 million people that found it there the week before, and just didn’t come back. They had to know what night it was on now, right?
I really have no idea about Smallville. Considering the numbers for everything on the CW, it does seem like it would be hard for them to cut the show loose. Even airing on Friday it is consistently above most of their dramas in a number of measurements. That being said, it does have to end eventually, and if they did cancel it, it’s still had a heck of a run.
As for The Who, I’m one of those that didn’t mind the choice. I thought the half-time show was oddly empty, with just the stage and nothing else on the field. But it’s still The Who. They earned their spot in rock-n-roll history long ago. And I know there were a lot of complaints that they were playing the CSI theme songs, but I think those people are ignoring the fact that those songs were all huge hits decades before anyone thought of CSI. Given a choice, I would have preferred to hear Eminence Front, because it is my favorite Who song, but it’s hard to argue against any of those they did play.
And thanks for reading. :D
Oh RIGHT of course this was episode two of Psych! Sorry I thought this was the premiere you were talking about because I forgot to comment last time.
So maybe they all agreed with my accessment about that episode (didn’t watch for a whole year, made it 10 minutes into the episode before turning it off in… disbelief I guess due to lack of actual expostion but rather just throwing characters into random scenes) or maybe the competition was fiercer this week? I don’t have any schedules handy so I can’t find out in which timeslot Psych was and what its competitors were last week and this week – you don’t need to look it up, I just wanted to point out that you have at least ONE reader who’s very interested in this sort of thing :-)
Since I probably follow Smallville closer than you guys, I’ll throw my two cents in. From everything I can gather, it looks like Season 10 is a go. Most everyone but Allison is currently contracted for a 10th season, and quotes from all higher-ups suggest they’ve been more than satisfied with the numbers. My personal opinion is that S10 would be the last, but you never know.
As for SB Halftime, I thought it was terrible. Personally, I’m sick of having them trot out aging rockers just because they’re afraid of putting out any youthful performers. Besides Prince, all performers since Janet Jackson qualify for AARP membership. Nothing against the legends, but mix it up a little
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks for the update Stan. I’m only a casual viewer of Smallville, but I would still like to see it come back, preferably with Allison. What the show has been able to do on Friday has been remarkable, given the state of the rest of the CW schedule.
The second episode of Psych was much stronger than the premiere, so perhaps those numbers could come back up. Or the regular viewers may simply prefer to watch it rerun on Friday as they used to do.
When Ostroff sent Smallville to Fridays to die, I never thought it would keep the ratings as it has done. I know salaries escalate, but they’ve only retained two of the original cast and have shaken up the showrunner team twice. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made an 11th season without Mack. She’s my favorite actor on the show, but they’re barely utilizing her anyway, with much of Chloe’s relationship with Clark being transferred to Lois as the series wraps up.
I know which series I’d prefer to keep, but does anyone have the slightest idea how Caprica and Stargate Universe compare cost-wise?
Bye Bye Greek, we will miss you.
*POST AUTHOR*
Maybe… but that’s kind of what we thought after the last chapter too, isn’t it? So, who knows.
Yes but the last chapter was the first half of a 20 episode order, this chapter is the end of those episodes, and pretty much the end of the show.