The fact that I rode my motorcycle home from the theatre this weekend in a torrential downpour tells me that finally… after months of summer programming… the new fall season is upon us. Mostly, anyway. I like to think of last week as the pace lap before the race really gets started this week. It wasn’t a full speed run by all the networks, but there was enough new stuff to make the numbers interesting.
CW - With the most premieres, the CW leads off the week. Getting a bit of a jump on the competition, the little network kicked off new seasons for six shows. 90210 (1.61m/.9) and Ringer (2.84m/1.2), were first up, and both were in the ballpark of where last season started for 90210 and Hellcats. That makes it a good, but not great, start for both. And probably leaves them a little nervous as the coming week brings new episodes of Dancing With The Stars, NCIS, NCIS LA, and Glee to those time slots.
The news was also good for Vampire Diaries (3.1m/1.5) and Secret Circle (3.05m/1.3). That left both of them just a tenth off the pace from last season’s premiere results for Vampire Diaries and Nikita. The news wasn’t as good for Next Top Model (1.96m/.9) and H8R (1.29m/.6). H8R continues the unfortunate trend of every non-scripted series that isn’t Top Model falling flat. And Next Top Model is looking more and more like it has run its course. The other new entry was the Gaga By Gaultier (1.29m/.5) special.
NBC - The first official Sunday Night Football (25.77m/10.7) on a Sunday was, as expected, huge. The NBC Sunday will be fine for a few months now. There was more good news from the final week of America’s Got Talent (13.67m/3.8 – 14.37m/3.6). And that was played into some temporary good news for the new comedy Up All Night (10.95m/3.7). Those are nearly Modern Family numbers, and I am sure the suits at NBC would do back-flips if there was anything approaching a chance that they had a Modern Family sized hit on their hands.
Unfortunately, without the boost from AGT, round two of Up All Night is going to look a lot more like Free Agents (6.12m/2.1). By next week we’ll be comparing the numbers to Undercovers. The other big premiere was Parenthood (6.29m/2.2). That is off the pace from last season by better than a million viewers and hints at another long and iffy road for the series this season. It’s Worth What (4.78m/1.2) and Miss Universe (5.34m/1.6) were the other new entries.
CBS - There was only one big premiere from CBS, the latest season of Survivor (10.74m/3.4). That does mark the lowest fall premiere the show has ever had. On the bright side, ten million viewers and a 3.4 demo still counts as a solid result in our modern TV landscape. Survivor also provided a boost to the big finale of Big Brother (7.78m/2.9). Of course, the big fun with CBS really starts next week when we get a look at those first Two and a Half Men numbers.
FOX - Being a bit more patient, there were no big premieres from FOX. Instead, it was what has become a fairly typical summer week with In The Flow (2.29m/1.1), Hell’s Kitchen (5.78m/2.4), and Buried Treasure (2.8m/.8).
ABC - Also waiting was ABC, who finished off the summer season with Bachelor Pad (6.36m/1.9 – 6m/1.9), Wipeout (6.07m/2 – 6.92m/2.3), and Karaoke Battle USA (3.2m/.7)
CABLE - While premieres were the big news on the broadcast networks, it was time for some big finales over on cable. That meant good things for HBO, where True Blood (5.05m/2.8), Entourage (2.61m/1.6), and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2.04m/1) all went out on a strong note.
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Clacked by Brett Love 
on Sep 19, 2011 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
