…and it would appear it just kicked Chuck in the crotch. I’ve never really understood why exactly, but changing the clocks does take a toll on the numbers for shows. I get that we gained an hour of daylight, but what are all you people out doing at 8PM on a Monday? Chuck is the perfect example here. With a How I Met Your Mother repeat on CBS, and 20/20 making ABC the weakest it has been in months, it should have been a banner night for Chuck. Instead, the show managed to hit a low for the season.
NBC – The week actually got off to an okay start. Minute To Win It (7.47m/2.4) isn’t going to set any records, but that’s not a horrible showing. Celebrity Apprentice (8.27m/3.2) followed, and while it wasn’t up to the Undercover Boss competition, that 3.2 makes it a prized possession at NBC.
Things started to unravel on Monday. I guess we have to blame DST for what happened to Chuck (5.85m/1.9). Making it even more curious, Trauma (5.24m/1.5) and Law & Order (6.95m/1.8) were both up week-to-week. The Biggest Loser (7.34m/2.8) continues to suffer at the hands of Idol on Tuesday. And while not a failure, Parenthood (5.83m/2.3) is far from being the 10PM savior the network is looking for. Apparently, Bob isn’t the only one who is out.
Better news at 10 came on Wednesday. SVU (9.65m/2.8) continues the slow climb back to where it was pre-Lenocalypse. We should have a pretty good battle between SVU and CSI:NY by the end of the season. Earlier in the night, Mercy (5.55m/1.4) was left battling Scrubs for last place.
Results were, as usual, mixed on Thursday. Community (5.07m/2) and Parks & Recreation (4.63m/2) continue to struggle. The Bones repeat on FOX had more viewers. The Office (7.67m/3.6) and 30 Rock (6.8m/3) saw some gains, but it was against much weakened competition on CBS and ABC. The Marriage Ref (7.6m/2.9) also took advantage of that weaker scheduling. The week finished with Who Do You Think You Are (7.14m/1.7) and Dateline (6.26m/1.3 – 6.98m/1.6) on Friday.
CBS - The Amazing Race (10.1m/3) and Undercover Boss (13.51m/3.9) continue to work very well together on Sunday. Cold Case (10.23m/2.4) feels like a bit of a third wheel, but did manage to top Brothers & Sisters. Rules Of Engagement (7.7m/2.7) was the only new entry Monday. Although, it is worth noting the numbers for repeats of 2 ½ Men (12.7m/3.9) and Big Bang Theory (11.67m/3.9). Their repeats were the highest rated comedies of the week.
NCIS (18m/3.5) looked like it took a bit of a hit from DST as well. But it is nice when you land at 18 million viewers after taking a hit. NCIS:LA (15.1m/3.2) and The Good Wife (13.4m/2.6) looked good as well. Gary Unmarried (5.7m/1.8) was the only new entry Wednesday. Lucky for Gary, he was against Mercy and Scrubs. NCAA Basketball finished things off, with solid showings on Thursday (8.9m/3.2) and Friday (9.6m/3.4).
FOX - Sunday wasn’t the best of starts. The Simpsons (5.18m/2.5) and Family Guy (6.66m/3.5) were a bit off the pace. Worse though, the Sons Of Tuscon (4.47m/2.1) premiere didn’t attract much of an audience at all. Fortunately, House (11.37m/4) was there to save the day, easily winning the 8PM hour on Monday. 24 (9.01m/2.7) was at expected levels.
American Idol makes the DST theory very curious. Tuesday’s outing (22.91m/8.1) was up in viewers, and down just a tenth in the demo. But then Wednesday (20.51m/6.8) saw the show lose seven tenths against almost no competition. Human Target (8.01m/2.3) was also up in viewers, and down just a tenth in the demo.
ABC - Everyone down at ABC must really be looking forward to the return of Dancing With The Stars next week. Much of last week felt like they weren’t even trying. Sunday seemed okay, with Extreme Makeover (8.66m/2.3) Desperate Housewives (12.01m/3.7) and Brothers & Sisters (8.53m/2.4). Those are all still down on the year, but at least competitive. The schedule really started to look shaky on Monday, with a special edition 20/20 (7.99m/2.3) carrying the night.
Tuesday brought a new Lost (8.87m/3.9), but the FlashForward (4.26m/1.5) flashback was largely ignored. Then Wednesday was bookended by Scrubs (3.45m/1.2) and Ugly Betty (3.33m/1.1). The hits, or lack thereof, just kept on coming. Thursday saw the return of FlashForward (6.5m/1.9) at its lowest levels yet. Friday, the whole mess was brought to a close with Thin Ice (4.06m/.6) and 20/20 (6.32m/1.5).
CW – Also working against the DST conspiracy theory, Life Unexpected (2.07m/1) was up. Even more interesting, it beat Gossip Girl (1.73m/1) in viewers, and LUX is also getting very close to GG in the younger demos as well, trailing by just .1 in 18-34 and .2 in Women 18-34. The news wasn’t as good for 90210 (1.84m/.9) and Melrose Place (1.13m/.6). We can safely assume that Melrose is done now, right?
The big story though, came on Wednesday, with Next Top Model (3.78m/1.7). That 1.7 is good for #2 at 8PM. Granted, the CBS number did include an Old Christine repeat, but still. Unfortunately, as usual, the network wasted that lead-in. This time, it went to High Society (1.18m/.5).
CABLE - Three big premieres were the story of the week. Justified (4.15m/1.5) was the second most watched premiere in the history of FX, behind The Shield. The week also saw the kick off to the 14th season of South Park (3.74m/2). That was the biggest premiere for the show since 1999. Finally, HBO launched their new epic mini, The Pacific (3.08m/1.1). That’s better than John Adams, but still probably short of what the network was hoping for.
And for a little perspective, a random episode of American Pickers (5.06m/1.8) was watched by more than any of them. Something to consider the next time someone tries to tell you that cable is somehow better than broadcast. Other cable numbers from the week:
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Mar 22, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
Wohoo! Go Human Target!
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m with you on that, because I would like to see a second season of Human Target. But I still have no idea what FOX is thinking running Idol at 9. I’d bet that if they swapped Idol and Human Target, the numbers for both of them would go up.
I wanted to mention this in the past weeks already when you asked if it was intelligent for NBC to renew the whole Thursday night comedy lineup.
The only explanation I have for these decisions is ad space. If they have companies who want to buy ad space during these hours and they want it with specific shows, then it IS a understandable decision.
The problem with that is that we know from oh so many people working in the business that network execs are morons and that in the last couple of decades several layers of “decisionmaking” have been added just to funnel money to people you went to school with (most of that knowledge I got from Ken Levine’s blog).
So I guess either Fox can really make some good money in that 9pm timeslot, they want to crush the competition in that timeslotk, or the guy who’s programming at Fox has maid from France who thought it would be “magnifique”.
On the other hand maybe they simply think that people tune in earlier and watch it while waiting for Idol to come on, kinda like the guys can watch HT now and later on they’ll watch Idol together (read: I watched your stupid show now you watch mine) :-)
Anyway, I’m with you. I think the results would be better if they simply switched them but who am I to talk. I bet I just made more sense in these 40 lines than anyone in a Fox boardroom for the last decade, cancelling Family Guy, greenlighting “Drive”, cancelling Firefly et cetera et cetera…
*POST AUTHOR*
I suppose you could look to the other network’s schedules for a reason. There really is no competition for Idol at 8PM. With Scrubs getting 3 million viewers, and Mercy getting 5, Gary and Christine are the cream of the crop. Perhaps they just want to fire the big guns at Modern Family and Criminal Minds, which are much more worthy. Not that I agree with it, but it at least makes some kind of sense.
Daylight Saving Time, blah. I call it “Government-Mandated Biannual Jet Lag” because all it does for me is screw up my mornings for about a week every 6 months. I know this isn’t really on topic, but wouldn’t it be nice if everyone just left the clocks alone?
How’s Caprica been faring this past couple of weeks?
*POST AUTHOR*
The last two weeks Caprica finished with 1.07m/.4 and 1.23m/.4, so the trend is up, but it’s still below pretty much every other Friday Syfy show.