Comments on: Ratings Tuesday, September 16: Power-House

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:10:03 +0000

House is suffering because it is going out at 8pm, if it was on at 9pm it’d be a different story. And before Fringe can be called a success we should see how well it holds up against Dancing With The Stars.

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:59:10 +0000

Oops, didn’t scroll down far enough to see the post-strike Monday airings.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:18:17 +0000

Julia, I with you 100%. I’ll run some numbers and post something before Monday about my expectations for broadcast viewership overall for the season.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:08:35 +0000

Holly, House dropped below 16 million viewers with original airings three times last season — in the range of ~13.5 million to 15 million per each of those three episodes. They were all post-strike airings. Julia, I’m sure Bill will do a more thorough analysis, but we will not be shocked by 10% decreases over last year for the broadcast nets during primetime

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:51:42 +0000

I recall reading an article during the writer’s strike about how after the last strike 10% of viewers just didn’t return to broadcast TV. Could this be a sign of the same thing occurring again?

By: dave

dave — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:43:48 +0000

House should be expected to drop of significantly. Shows only remain massive hits for 2 or 3 seasons almost without exception. (AI is one) It happened to Desperate Housewives, Lost, and even 24. People lose interest. It happens. House is still an exceptional moneymaker for Fox and will milk many more seasons out of it.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:20:52 +0000

Hmm, I just looked it up, and House premiered to over 19 mil at 8pm in 2006. Makes this rating look even less impressive.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:32:31 +0000

Good for 90210… better thn next week even though it was against House!
House did well so did Fringe!!!!

just out if intrest, does anybody know what the ratings were like for ‘LAS VEGAS’ is its 5 year run?? Wikipeida doesnt say! thanks!

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:29:37 +0000

Mike G., Last year House premiered to over 18 million and a 7.8 in the demo, a drop of 4 million and 2.0 in the demo against weak competition is not good. Without anything to compare it to, these numbers are not bad, but they are not great either. Given its status and popularity, it should be getting closer to 16 and 6.0 (1 mill and 1.0 lower than it ever got last year for a new episode, but it’s at an earlier hour). It’s still they highest rated scripted show that FOX has to offer, but the premeire numbers have to be worrying the Powers That Be a bit.

By: alex

alex — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:57:52 +0000

I think that some people just thought House was on at 9 like last season and so turned on the TV at 8:30, increasing the second half numbers. And some maybe just turned it on at 9, saw it wasn’t House, and watched something else.

By: Mike G.

Mike G. — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:55:46 +0000

It seems pretty natural for shows to start shedding viewers after the initial interest has worn off. I am curious to know when Fringe will hit that plateau. Holly, you say that the numbers for House need to increase. I think they are good. What do you think the numbers should be? How high is great? AI numbers probably aren’t realistic for a scripted show.

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:51:41 +0000

Fringe’s increase can be explained in one word, House. While it did better than I expected, I’m still looking at last nights numbers as the initial sampling. We’ll see what happens next week.

The year-to-year drop for House is significant even with the move to 8. It’s in no danger of getting canceled, but the numbers still need to increase.

By: Outlander

Outlander — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:45:43 +0000

Honestly, I feel that Fringe is a bad X-Files knockoff and will burn itself out quickly. That said, given that its ratings improved over last week and are that large, it’s time to start playing taps for TSCC.

By: Guess Who

Guess Who — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:38:44 +0000

FRINGE is like merging X-FILES with LOST. Like it so far – not in love with it yet. Hope it sticks around. I wonder if it survives until LOST ends – we will find out that MEGA DYNAMICS actually runs the HANSO FOUNDATION and Widmores company? It would be funny of dead LOST characters started showing up on FRINGE.

By: Mike G.

Mike G. — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:35:43 +0000

I am actually surprised that Fringe did that well also, but I do see it as a good pairing with House. Both of them have a certain amount of “ick factor” associated with them. It is a good start for Fringe…I am not surprised about the success of House. Let’s see if Fox can continue to carry the night once all of the other new shows come on. My guess: Tue night belongs to Fox.

By: GRD

GRD — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:19:10 +0000

Hurray for “House”!

And way to show off that racism, CW-and-rest-of-the-English-media. Ignore the Hispanic channel just because it doesn’t make you look as good. Nice.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:18:35 +0000

I think putting it after House is just going to make its deficiencies more noticeable. A large part of the problem is that Pacey has very poor delivery and timing, and is quite obviously trying very very hard to be the same character as House. But he can’t pull it off.

Of course, the other huge problem is the lead female, and since House doesn’t have any great female leads, I suppose that won’t be underscored. Though the Fringe lead is far more annoying than even Cameron has ever been.

(I should note, I say this as someone who gave up on House a couple seasons back.)

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:18:23 +0000

Jay — I am decidedly NOT fond of Art Bell (or George Noory) who capitalize heavily on the people who *do* believe in fairies. I like the subject matter in dramatic fiction, but Coast-to-coast capitalizes on believers and has spun an entire “cottage industry” (and its getting to be a pretty big cottage) that takes advantage of these people — AKA gets their cash. There are people who believe Stargates really exist, right now and the government is hiding them. Art Bell wouldn’t have it any other way. I would. /rant off.

By: jay

jay — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:12:55 +0000

I believe in UFOs as much as fairies on toadstools, but for tens of millions they are modern mythology. I’ve started watching X-files for the first time in syndication on Scifi, loved the original Outer Limits ( best scifi by a parsec ever ) and though am fatigued with House, once the best drama on TV, I am very glad it has boosted Fringe to hit status. Even early to bed types should be thanking Art Bell and his late night radio show for reinvigorating at the very least a terrific metaphor for alienation and social anxiety. He helped keep the dream ( or nightmare ) alive.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:12:50 +0000

I like Fringe but wouldn’t say I loved it yet (I do love House and Abram’s other focus, a little show we like to call “LOST”). But I am surprised with the retention as well. Next week will be very interesting. But sticking w/the theme of instant-anlysis, I give some credit to Fox. I didn’t really see these shows running well together. But, I have to admit they are both “dark” and cynical shows that often show the human anatomy in somewhat creepy form, perhaps its a perfect fit.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:06:49 +0000

I agree Julia, it’s inaccurate to compare any shows this year from last just cause the writer’s strike effected everything. People didn’t know if they were gonna watch a new episode or a repeat.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:58:59 +0000

Pata, you can’t start making predictions of cancelation when it’s retaining over 90% of its lead-in. Personally, I was not too fond of the show, but it appears that the House audience was, or there would have been a much bigger drop off at the half hour.

By: pata

pata — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:54:07 +0000

I think Fringe will be cancelled soon people are into now because of the hype then the desire to watch will fade.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:37:49 +0000

Yeah, it’s tough to compare this season to last season of House, due to the 8pm premiere. I don’t recall, but is FOX planning on switching it to 9pm after baseball is over like they did a couple of years ago?

Much better for Fringe than I expected. It’ll be interesting to see if it can keep these numbers.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:32:53 +0000

Catherine, 50% of TVbytheNumbers was impacted by the DVR snafu. Fortunately, the other half also recorded Fringe and saw Wilson’s last words (of the episode) to Dr. House. I always play it safe anyway with season passes and have my DVR set to record 5 minutes longer to avoid this kind of stuff which seems to happen regularly. I’m not sure if the overrun was due to extra ads, though it does seem at least a little likely.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:29:29 +0000

As long as I was already “in there” I updated the prose re: The Biggest Loser, it’s fixed.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:28:19 +0000

House also seemed to run a minute or two over which was annoying since I was recording it for someone who could not watch. I was watching the show but recording another show for the next hour. So I had to tell my husband about the final conversation between Wilson and House. Not the same as watching, is it? I wish the networks would either warn us or stop doing this. I could have made other recording arrangements. And, yes I know USA will run the episode in a couple of weeks. It is still a pain.

Were they using those extra minutes of ad time removed from Fringe to plant more advertising during House? Thus moving the House ending a little later?

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:25:21 +0000

Raymond, my bad on the Biggest Loser average, will correct when able.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:22:30 +0000

It’s interesting but last week a few more 18-49 viewer age group watched Sarah Connor than Fringe…last weeks 15 of the top 20 had less than 4 million viewers in the so called demographic(18-49)…making Sarah & friends in the top 20 for the genre…I wonder how networks are going to look to cater to the 50+ demographics; seems how they now bring in 2/3 of the viewership…???

By: Raymond

Raymond — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:21:46 +0000

I am also confused about Biggest Loser – did it average those numbers in the article or was that a typo and the average was not listed (the numbers stated as the average are stated later at the 8-9pm hour ratings).

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:18:43 +0000

Power-House? Really?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:18:23 +0000

the half hourly data for House is interesting. The 8pm effect still seems in play daylight savings time wise, so it seems likely House may build on these numbers.

By: Raymond

Raymond — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:15:54 +0000

Goes to show Wipeout is a summer program. Decent numbers for Biggest Loser – NBC will be happy with the continued quiet success of this low cost option (especially as they get 2 hours for much less than 1 hour of scripted television). Also good 18-34 number in the 9pm-10pm hour. Good job for 90210 – it seems Secret Life of the American Teenager was more of a drain on its viewers than House. CW will be very happy with these numbers. Privileged fell which was to be expected. Though it may still get 22 (depends what happens in the coming weeks and ultimately what happens with Stylista).

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:12:52 +0000

Hardly a power House relative to last year when season four premiered to 18.31 million. This episode would have ranked as the next to the least viewed episode of last year's numbers during a strike-riddled season. You can see all of last year's data for House. Still the halo for Fringe was quite impressive