NBC – Or did they? For some strange reason, Saturday’s episode of Persons Unknown (3.7m/1.1) gained some two million viewers. Could it be that two million extra people just found the show? Sure, anything is possible. More likely, there were some shenanigans with pre-emptions and the final numbers, which aren’t out yet, will drop dramatically. Still, it is a good time to point out that it is one of the better summer shows. If you haven’t caught up yet, it’s worth a look.
Elsewhere on NBC, it was more of the same. Sunday Night Football (11.44m/4.2) was again the star of the week on all the networks. That was, again, followed up by a strong showing from America’s Got Talent (10.19m/2.9 – 10.3m/2.6). Minute To Win It (5.65m/1.6) remained steady, if not impressive, to cap off the week.
FOX - Lie To Me (4.96m/1.7) kicked off the week, and leaves me wondering why the decision was made to run the show over the summer. You could easily add three to four million viewers to each of those episodes if they aired in the fall behind a solid lead-in. With SYTYCD wrapped up, Master Chef (5.03m/2.1) made the move to Wednesday, taking a bit of a hit in the process. The week wrapped up with NFL Pre-Season games on Thursday (5.79m/2.1) and Friday (5m/1.8).
ABC - It was a very slow start to the week with Scoundrels (2.73m/.8), The Gates (2.58m/.9), Bachelor Pad (5.46m/1.9), and Dating In The Dark (3.69m/1.5) on Sunday and Monday. Wipeout (8.98m/3.1) picked up the pace on Tuesday. Those numbers also offered a little boost to Shaq Vs (4.82m/1.9). The week ended with the usual showing from Rookie Blue (6.38m/1.6).
CBS - Big Brother (7.56m/2.4 – 7.61m/2.6 – 7.55m/2.5) and Flashpoint (6.4m/1.3) were both right on pace.
CW - On the positive side, both 18 To Life (.75m/.3 – .71m/.3) and Plain Jane (1.32m/.5) were up week-to-week. On the negative… 18 to Life was pulled from the schedule.
CABLE - I’ve made mention on more than one occasion about how great the numbers for History’s Pawn Stars (6.08m/2.2 – 6.24m/2.3) are. Well, the show is a real hit now, because it’s been cloned. TruTV has a new show called Hardcore Pawn (1.99m/.9 – 1.78m/.7) about — get this — a family run pawn shop. As the Guinness boys would say, “Brilliant!” Not so brilliant? Airing the show in the same exact time slot as Pawn Stars. It wasn’t even close. Other cable bits:
Basic:
Premium:
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Aug 23, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Funny that Persons Unknown gained 2 million viewers. It was totally pre-empted in the Baltimore market by a football game. It’s possible the NBC affiliate ran the show on their -2 digital channel though, but if you were planning to DVR it, you were out of luck. At least there’s On Demand!
Airing “Lie to Me” now is a joke. This is the best show currently on TV – it has such a high production value, such intruiging stories. I know I gave a crushing review when the show first got on the air because I found it hard to believe all the analysis BS but once I got past that and they got the character interactions and development into the forefront, I found out that it is a highly entertaining series. I don’t get Fox. It’s really a joke what they are doing here.