(2/1 – 2/7)
Turns out, not much. If you watched the big game, you couldn’t have missed the heavy promotion for the new NBC Monday. Chuck, Heroes, and Medium all got plenty of exposure. There was even a song and dance number. The Office got its fair share as well, with the bonus of being the show that followed the game. At the end of the day though, throwing those ads at 98 million sets of eyeballs didn’t bring the ratings that the network was looking for.
NBC – The Super Bowl is such a slam dunk that even NBC couldn’t screw it up. The game brought huge ratings. Over 98 million viewers and a ridiculous demo number of 36.7. That was followed up by The Office (22.9m/11), which did its best numbers ever, obviously. Unfortunately for NBC, that didn’t really translate to gains through the week. Let’s start with Monday. Chuck (8.45m/3) and Heroes (8.54m/4) were both up slightly over their last original episodes. Medium (8.56m/2.9) was on pace with them, and better than anything else that has been in the 10 PM hour this season. But that all added up to fourth place for the night. All of that Super Bowl promotion couldn’t have been entered into with the idea that, “We’ll get fourth place!”
The results were actually worse for The Office (8.48m/4.3), at least when compared to the last original. Somehow, the show actually managed to lose viewers and demo. More puzzling, the last original went against new episodes of Grey’s and CSI, and this time CSI was a repeat. That, of course, led to another drop for 30 Rock (6.39m/3.1). The Office is still doing fine in the ratings, and one of the few bright spots on the schedule, but really, after all that time and money spent on the Super Bowl promotion, Monday and Thursday both have to be a huge disappointment. Elsewhere, The Biggest Loser (10.35m/4) continues to make Tuesday the most successful night for the network. Paired with L&O SVU (10.34m/3.7), it’s the only night that isn’t surrounded by question marks.
FOX - Yes, Idol was once again the big story, but the more interesting bit to me was on Thursday. Bones (10.86m/3.2) might have the most loyal audience of any show on television. It seems that no matter how many times they move the show, the audience goes with it. I’ll say it again, if FOX is really serious about trying to change their fortunes on Friday night, they would be putting Bones on at 8, leading in to Dollhouse. In other non-Idol related programming, House (14.87m/5.6) and 24 (11.34m/3.7) continue to rule Mondays.
Getting to Idol, the numbers were up this week for Tuesday (26.6m/10), and down for Wednesday (26.38m/9.9). Those once again led to good nights for Fringe (12.78m/5) and Lie To Me (12.99m/4.7). Both of them were up over last week, although they were up against weakened competition. Look for Fringe to dip again this week with a new episode of The Mentalist on tap.
CBS - It was a slow week with a lot of repeats, and an ill-advised news special. Monday was all new, and gave Jack & House a fight. Big Bang Theory (10.84m/4.1), How I Met Your Mother (10.31m/4.3), 2 ½ Men (16.55m/5.5), and CSI: Miami (16.1m/4.5) are all doing great. Worst Week (9.92m/3.1), on the other hand, seems to be running out of time. Wednesday found the Katie Couric Grammy special (6.55m/2.2) in the place of Criminal Minds. I guess the working theory is that if they keep rolling these things out there, someone will start watching them. Friday was again a walk for the network, with new episodes of Ghost Whisperer (11.39m/2.8) and Numb3rs (10.18m/2.2). Of course, that was against no real competiton. That changes next week when Terminator and Dollhouse kick things off.
ABC – Far and away, the most surprising thing to me this season is the performance of The Bachelor (11.02m/4.1). It was up, again, this week. Against the CBS comedies, House & 24, and the Super Bowl hyped NBC Monday, the show still gained viewers. Things weren’t as exciting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Scrubs (4.82m/2 – 4.68m/2.2) remains down. And Lost (11.01m/4.7) looks to be starting its slow gradual descent through the season, dropping despite going against Katie Couric. Life On Mars (5.76m/2) continues to sink post-Lost as well. There was better news on Thursday. Grey’s Anatomy easily won the 9PM hour (15.27m/5.8). More encouraging though, the crossover with Private Practice (12.91m/5.3) paid off very well.
CW - It was more of the same this week for the CW. Gossip Girl (2.3m/1.1) and One Tree Hill (2.65m/1.3) continue to struggle with the increased competition on Monday. 90210 (2.49m/1.3) is down against Idol, but surprisingly outpacing Gossip Girl, despite the competition. It’s also setting the bar for the return of Reaper, which will take over that spot. Privileged (1.65m/.8) looks to be on the way out. And, once again, the strongest night of the week is Thursday, thanks to Smallville (3.93m/1.6) and Supernatural (3.37m/1.4).
There are a few interesting things to watch for in the coming week. Will the slightly boosted numbers for the NBC Monday hold up? Everything is new on Tuesday, with a NCIS that delves into Gibbs’ history, and the latest chapter of The Mentalist vs Fringe. Idol expands to two hours on Wednesday, complicating things for Lost, Life, and Criminal Minds. Thursday, Survivor returns, although Bones won’t be there to battle with. That’s all fun, but the big story will be Friday night. Terminator: TSCC and Dollhouse debut with the new FOX Friday. The network has promised patience, but that should probably be taken with a really big grain of salt. Both of the shows need all the ratings they can get. Fortunately, they have the good luck of going against a night of repeats on CBS, which is about the best they could hope for debuting on Friday.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Feb 09, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
I think Kevin Reilly can be taken at his word, vis-a-vis patience with FOX Fridays. While T:SCC is a VERY expensive show to produce, I bet FOX keeps its commitment through the end of the season. Then they’ll see where the numbers are (and I dont mean the ratings!!) and decide if it makes sense to keep spending money on it.
*POST AUTHOR*
I hope you’re right, because I really want to see where Dollhouse goes. I’m just awfully nervous about the prospects for the night, given the history of the Fox Friday, and what happened to Terminator on Mondays. If it struggled to find 5 million viewers there, is it reasonable to expect more will find it on Friday? There is certainly less competition, but my fear is that the tribe has spoken where Terminator is concerned, and it’s not going to be doing Dollhouse any favors.
And while I get what you mean when you say you’re not talking about the ratings, indirectly, you are. They will play a part in figuring those other numbers to see if either of these shows return. It will certainly be interesting to see the numbers for both of the shows.
Well, as you allude to Brett, it’s very important to consider the competition angle on Monday nights this past fall. I can’t remember a more competitive lineup, network over network, from 8 to 10. ANY show leaving that lineup should, in my opinion, reap a larger audience because of how diluted the viewership was this fall on Monday nights. Now, as we all know, Friday nights is the hinterlands of of broadcast television scheduling. But if anyone is going to tune-in on a Friday night, I think it’s the Dollhouse/T:SCC geekdom crowd and their legions of DVRs.
But this is why they play the game … :-)
woah woah woah woah woah waoh, this isn’t my batman glass. but my real question is WTF? what time slot is 90210 going into if reaper is taking there slot??
*POST AUTHOR*
djbuhhda, after Privileged ends its run, 90210 moves to 9PM and Reaper takes over at 8. It gets 90210 out of Idol’s path, which is probably a good thing for the show.
noooooooo. that sux because then i cant watch it because fringe is on, oh well, they will probly show repeats on wensdays like they are now hopefully.