Comments on: Ratings Wednesday, September 10: 'Till Death, Do Not Disturb Debut Quietly

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:23:58 +0000

Let me chime in late to the “does CW become a major player” thread.

By narrowing their focus so much, perhaps in an effort to “win” something, they’ve effectively taken themselves out of the “major player” competiion.

As Robert said, only 12% of the population is women 18-34, so the CW has already abandoned 88% of the market.

They only program 10 hours a week, Mon-Fri 8-10pm, vs. 22 hours for ABC/NBC/CBS and 15 for Fox.

On that basis, there’s no way the CW becomes a major player.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:25:07 +0000

Though not probable, it’s not unthinkable to me that the CW will completely do an about face at some point and go after sports (not WWE necessarily). We’ve said for a while that in the future there will likely be more sports on TV because of the DVR/fast-foward proof nature of live sporting events. I saw a few articles yesterday about how NBC was not only selling ads for the Super Bowl for more money, but was selling them much earlier than had been traditional. Apparently advertisers are wanting to lock-in w/DVR proof events.

the problem for the CW is that even its core shows (90210, ANTM, and Gossip Girl) couldn’t be considered “hits” with the demos they target. All three shows generated about a 10% share with women 18-34 who were watching TV this week. Enough to win that demo against ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, but still missed ~90% of the tv viewing portion of that demo. Especially since CW is specifically targeting this audience it seems like share needs to double to be successful. The current lineup isn’t on a trajectory to produce those sort of hits among young women.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:12:11 +0000

If CW ever expected that it could actually compete with the real networks, it would have had to start acting like one from day one. Instead, in many major markets, the CW station is the one that gets preempted for various sporting events. They may have nearly 100% coverage, but they never managed to get their name out their properly. (Hell, this semester I’m taking a ratings analysis class and we were discussing the differences between broadcast vs. cable, and when listing the broadcast nets the prof listed FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, and then there are a couple of other local broadcast stations, but those are the four that are considered the broadcast networks.)

Their campaign the summer of 2006 to make people aware of the net was HORRIBLE. Whoever came up with that should have been fired immediately. “Free to be..”??? They needed something that was much more obvious in what it was saying. Something I just came up with this second: “All your favorites, one new network.” Emphasize what the hell was going on!

At this point, the only thing that could save them would be to find something that has a huge audience already attached, like FOX did with NFL. The problem is, there really isn’t anything left with huge audiences other than sports, and even that is really only football at this point. But CW isn’t interested in the male demo, so why would they even consider adding sports?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:18:29 +0000

I’d also be surprised if CW survived another two years on its current path. Targeting young women may have some advantages, but you can’t be a major network unless you target everybody. Women 18-34 make up less than 12% of the total viewing population.

Fox set itself on the map largely by outbidding CBS for NFL football and at the time people said Murdoch was crazy paying what he paid for it. Also, when Fox launched, viewing of cable channels was growing, but not yet the big competition for the broadcast networks it is today.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:15:39 +0000

I’d be surprised if the CW suvived another 2 seasons, let alone become a “big player”…it’s one big hope of a “hit” (and we mean real hit in terms of large viewers, not nice 12-34 Woman demo numbers) was 90210, and look what happened there
People don’t even watch ANTM like they used to (that can be said for alot of other series too), but The CW needs a new boss and some better programing ideas, FAST!
Looking at how FOX set itself on the map would be a good way to start

By: shawn

shawn — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:21:09 +0000

Bill,
Do you ever think the CW will be a major player among the major networks? It seems like they have a very good p/r team but after the hype they just seem to be low rated shows.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:20:13 +0000

‘Til Death was very weird last night. What happened to Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster? I hope this is the last season so Brad Garrett can move on to something a little better than this non-original crap…

By: DO NOT DISTURB: Yeah, That’s Not Gonna Be A Problem « TV BACON

DO NOT DISTURB: Yeah, That’s Not Gonna Be A Problem « TV BACON — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:37:01 +0000

[...] for Jason Bateman means we’d rather see him in front of the camera than behind it, so the deathwatch hanging over this show might have an upside after all. Maybe all three of them can find a better vehicle, because constant [...]

By: 1982

1982 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:55:30 +0000

I’m sorry that Do Not Disturb tanked. I’m not surprised but I’m sorry about it anyway. When I heard Nicey Nash was going to be on it I thought it’s got to be funny and SHE was funny as far as she could be. There wasn’t much to work with really. At least maybe if it gets the chop she might get back to RENO 911 a bit faster for S6 if there is one.

In other news when will the reality shows stop? It’s out of control. America’s Got Talent, America’s Next Top Model, Greatest American Dog, Super Nanny…If Susan Powder were here she’d say “STOP THE INSANITY!”

By: jay

jay — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:54:22 +0000

My gut which I dont consult much about tv ratimgs tells me the so-so debuts of Fox shows bodes ill for the much more hyped ABC returns like Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money etc. As for Swingers, I’m sold on it as a surprisingly adult and thoughtful sleeper. Not the exploitative crap I thought – though of course it was that too, as all TV is. But more intelligent than Dallas, Dynasty, et al from the ” moral ” eighties.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:37:02 +0000

Nobody talks about ratings for The Simpsons because its been in reruns for four months! That will change very soon!

Big Love hasn’t been on in months, and Weeds has too few viewers to make it into the weekly top shows data we see from Nielsen which is limited to 40 shows out of hundreds and hundreds of shows. Just an addendum to Bill’s point, we often see that sort of data places besides press releases from the networks, but they are on other sites and its not coming from Nielsen and it’s nothing we can count on regularly so we can’t “put it into production”.

Weeds data is posted somewhat regularly (though not since the August 11 episode)here.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:26:32 +0000

dearme, no "overnight" ratings for cable prime-time are made public by Nielsen, what we do see all comes from press releases. We feature it when we find it. We do have final cable top 20 ratings on a weekly basis. Search our site for "Simpsons" and you'll see plenty of ratings information.

By: dearme

dearme — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:20:03 +0000

I feel like a loser coming here everyday checking out the numbers for these loser shows (Moonlight, Swingtown, Gossip Girl and “REALITY” crap). Don’t they have nightly ratings for cable channels? Ratings for Big Love and Weeds are such a mystery and How come nobody talks about ratings of The Simpsons?

By: TheTruthHurts

TheTruthHurts — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:09:38 +0000

Jerry McConnell starred in a series last season “Carpoolers” which was a rip off…of a lousy pilot that never got picked up called “The Commuters” for CBS in 2005 I believe…same concept about guys commuting to work..yawn…the nitwits also love to shoot loads of pilots starring David Arquette who is as unprofessional on a set as they come…”Do Not Disturb” is garbage…proving once again that when development scores a hit its pure luck…and they havent scored a breakout hit in many years…as proven by the olympics…americans will turn out to watch television…but if u give them crap..then they’d rather surf youtube or eat bad chinese food like that bloated pig marc berman who is a tv insider like i am sarah palin…is she hot or what? A classic quality MILF. I can’t wait to see NBC’s fall slate…man that should be worse then bad.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:03:03 +0000

I commend Bill for resisting the urge to go with “Disturbing Premiere for ‘Do Not Disturb’”.

I doubt I could have exercised such restraint!

By: Wow

Wow — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:01:57 +0000

AGT is doing good but omg, everything else is doing horrible basically! what is “Greatest American Dog”?? is it like american idol for dogs?? and let me guess, they have a panel of judges right? mean guy, nice girl, cool guy, judging the dogs? omg.

By: Raymond

Raymond — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:54:32 +0000

I concur – thought what the CW finds with its encores is that once it drops back to one airing it does not see much of a gain (see Girlicious and Reaper – both had multiple airings – well Reaper once or twice – but neither saw significant upticks after one of the airings was dropped – eg the two airings combined did not become the new single airing). As for it being a good thing – well given that Styllista is debuting so late it does fill up a gap for them and maybe when 90210 drops back to one airing some viewers will rejoin it on Tuesday nights.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:47:27 +0000

Raymond, the 90210 encore practically matched the original in total viewers. Actually it had 69% of the viewers the original had (comparing fast affiliate data for Wednesday night vs. fast affiliate data for Tuesday night), but that’s more than 2/3rds. Again, I’m not sure that’s necessarily a good thing, but it is interesting…

By: Raymond

Raymond — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:41:24 +0000

Just felt like pointing out – that while many are quick to shoot down Prison Break – Bones (which I still feel is a strong show ratings wise) actually did worse in the 18-34 demo (2.5 vs 2.6) this week. I simply find this an interesting observation – I think we will see more of PB. And Do Not Disturb is DOA expect it gone within a few weeks (aka Happy Hour mach 2) – in some ways I bet they’re wishing they kept Back 2 You. Nice uptick for Model also and the encore of 90210 nearly matched the original of GG at this point last season (ep 2).