XERXES. All of CBS’ scripted shows are about relationships, they just don’t spend the entire hour focusing on the love lives of the characters. That’s why I like the network.

For example, what day it’s being aired. Shows on Friday can have a lower demo than a show on Wednesday.

Lead-ins can also make a difference. Take The Unit for example. Last year it averaged over a 3.0 in the demo, yet CBS considered canceling it while they didn’t consider canceling Cold Case, which averaged below a 3.0. Having NCIS as a lead-in meant that there were higher expectations for The Unit.

Overall viewers can come into play if two shows are close in the demo, but generally, you don’t see very many shows with high viewer numbers and really bad demos. A show with 10 million viewers will almost always have enough 18-49 viewers to be safe.

Oh, and none of this really applies to unscripted shows like news magazines or reality shows. Those are cheaper to make, so they don’t need as much advertising money. 60 Minutes could get a 1.2 in the demo all season and still get renewed.

There are, of course, other factors that go into the renew/cancel decision, but the demo is a very good way to judge a show’s likelihood of renewal, hence the renew/cancel index.

“And Septbday, really, did you actually keep those ratings information and comments? Come on!!”

No Harry I didn’t keep them. They are available for viewing @ moonlight-detective.com.

Septbday

I have tried it both ways. See the comments on last week’s Friday ratings post(zero Moonlight references from us at all!):

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/10/18/friday-ratings-crusoe/6454

“Friday Night Ratings: With or Without Moonlight, Ghost Whisperer Still Owns Fridays”

I believe you do it to get people to read your column.
You know you’re guaranteed a lot of responses when you mention “MOONLIGHT” and by doing this you’re proving you also believe in the power of ‘Moonlight’.

You’re comments regarding ‘Moonlight’ fan’s are not always kind and seem to indicate you’re weary of them. Why keep stirring the pot? ‘Moonlight’ is over, and as long as you bring it up every week you will get responses from it’s passionate fans and protesters.

By the way, I had never heard of TV by the Numbers until I saw it referenced on a ‘Moonlight’ fan site last fall.
I read it faithfully after that and still check in on Saturday or Sunday for “KICKS”

The “kicks” are becoming less and less with the constant belittling of Moonlight fans. So Bill/Robert please let ‘Moonlight’ go.

Thanks

I also have no idea how enamored ABC was with last year’s style of the expanded “last week’s” Lost leading into lost. I don’t recall those numbers being great, but I do recall them being better than ATJ.

Were they planning on bringing back Dance Wars during the DWTS hiatus?

ABC also has a number of shows in development for mid-season (The Castle, The Unusuals, a reality show from Ashton Kutcher, Cupid, and a few comedies). I can see them canceling PD, ES, BL, and DSM and treating mid-season like the start of the regular season. I think LOM is probably fairly safe right now because everything else is doing worse.

And Septbday, really, did you actually keep those ratings information and comments? Come on!!

Finally, the popularity of Numbers is absolutely perplexing.

I got in to ratings about two years ago, and I’m still learning quite a bit about the business. Before last fall, I might not have put much stock in the 18-49 demo arguments, but I’ve seen the ad rates and enough evidence to understand that the advertisers think it’s important. Whether I agree with it or not, that is part of the business.

In some ways, Moonlight, like Shark, Close to Home, and a few others, was a victim of CBS’ success. Networks HAVE to cancel shows because they need to premiere new shows or risk becoming stagnant, especially in the ratings. CBS has very little trouble finding show that get a descent viewers and OK demo ratings. So, each year CBS ends up canceling one or two shows that are getting OK ratings simply because everything else is doing better. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Moonlight and Ex-List are examples of times it didn’t. (I actually give Ex-List a little more leeway because it is something completely different than anything else CBS has on. I think CBS knew it was a risk, but wants to diversify.)

However, even on another network, Moonlight would still have been a bubble show at best. There were only 4 scripted shows on the 4 major networks that dropped below a 2.0 in the demo and were still renewed for this year. Boston Legal was renewed for 13 episodes as part of a deal ABC made to get Life on Mars. Given how badly all their freshman shows are doing, ABC has to be happy about this deal. Friday Night Lights was renewed because of a special deal with Direct TV. We’ll see how well that works out in the spring. Til Death (FOX) and According to Jim (ABC) were both renewed. The only explanation for either is that people associated with the shows have really compromising pictures of the network execs….not counting blackmail, ATJ was renewed because of syndication deals and Til Death survived because FOX didn’t want to cancel both its sitcoms.

Even with the low ratings, CBS was apparently willing to give Moonlight another shot if they could have made a deal that made it cheaper for them. This doesn’t seem to be an uncommon thing in TV. VM, Supernatural, Pushing Daisies, Boston Legal, and many other shows have cut their budgets in order to stay on the air. In Moonlight’s case, the deal fell through. CBS’s attempt at a deal wasn’t a power play, it was an attempt to save a show whose ratings didn’t deserve renewal.

Of all the shows I currently watch and enjoy (many!) only the unceremonious canceling of LOST would approach even remotely being annoying; only because I want to know how it ends! But if that happened, JJ Abrams would do a blog post, a book, or something writing about what would have happened and I’d *still* get to find out.

I also get the concept of thinking a network is stupid (believe me we get this concept!) or that it made a poor choice. But I don’t really understand the concept of being *mad* at a network at all.

Television is about entertainment, and especially on the broadcast networks, it’s free. There are many choices for entertainment, though most of them are not free. Let’s say ABC cancels Life on Mars over mediocre ratings. I’ll be a bit disappointed for about 30 seconds because I enjoy the show and would feel bad for the fans and everyone involved with making it. But, then I’m over it. It’s not like your spouse divorcing you or catching them in bed with another person. And it seems like some people react as if it was *exactly* like that!!

And yeah, I’ve read about season four before with the Russian mobsters and other stuff I can’t remember. Seeds were clearly sown for all of those plot lines, but Veronica and Keith had come full circle in terms of social standing so it may have been difficult to keep the show’s emotional pull strong without rehashing stuff. Accept the finale with serenity instead of being forever bitter about it and you’ll be happier. And keep the faith, the bitch may well be back again.

Robert- I don’t think that I said anything meaner than others have said about Moonlight fans. Every time I come to this site, I find people saying very rude things about the fans, suggesting that we are not mentally balanced. Why is that not worthy of a reply?

And Veronica Mars had an extremely apt series finale! The episode(s) was just about the best of the season and a lack of happy ending with a cliffhanger(/s) that wasn’t really one suited the show to a tee (and I mean that in the best possible way, it’s easily my favourite US network show evar). RT knew what he was doing ending it the way he did, whether he thought it would return or not.

FACT: MOONLIGHT WAS THE LOWEST RATED SHOW IN THE 18-49 DEMOGRAPHIC OF ANY CBS SHOW.