Update: Sorry LoTS fans, it looks like I cheated you out of the 5.88 million the two hour premiere really got during the week ending November 2 -- and that certainly beat everything on the CW. Nielsen labeled the show weirdly (it didn't label the show, by, you know, it's name!) in the spreadsheet, so I deferred to others in the media who had made the same mistake I was making anyway. Still, even the third episode beat almost everything on the CW.
Bill is not always inspired to be as curious about certain numbers and shows as I am, but I'm not always inspired to actually look at ALL the numbers to see if there's anything worth actually being curious about either. Shame on us!
Thank goodness we have commenters like Chris S, who chimed in with a comment on the weekly syndication rankings and inspired me to be curious:
Funny how syndication is nearly a dead medium for first run scripted programming yet Legend of the Seeker managed to outperform everything on the CW (except for Smallville) in the Live+SD for the week. Hopefully it can maintain near this number week to week.
Legend of the Seeker is the first, first-run scripted series in syndication since we started this blog, and since 2002's She Spies. The third episode of LoTS averaged 4.31 million when it aired Saturday and Sunday 11/8 & 11/9. The number is the cumulative average of the premiere airing, regardless of when and where it aired across the country. The premiere on 11/2 & 11/2 averaged 5.88 million.
Chris is absolutely right, that # eclipses everything on the CW for the week of November 3-9 other than Smallville. But then again, those numbers are better than recent performance of even SciFi's Battlestar Galactica too, so we're not picking on Gossip Girl.
Can LOTS keep it up? That is the question. Please note: some people seem to think LOTS is a CW show because it airs on the CW affiliate in their local markets. It's not a CW show, it's syndicated by Disney/ABC and in many markets does not air on the CW.
Just further proof that Raimi and Tapert know a thing or two about syndicated TV. It also shows that Dawn Ostroff should be fired yesterday. The CW turned down this and other ideas from that pair (while STARS took them up on one if memory isn’t too fuzzy).
is this show any good?
Glad to finally see ratings for this program out there on the interwebz. I miss the days of Xena!
I don’t think the ratings will stay high because the series really isn’t all that good. This isn’t Hercules or Xena (hell, it’s not even Jack of All Trades). Yes, it fills a void in the fantasy market but eventually, it will have to deliver the goods, which it has so far failed to do. Let’s have a quick reality check – it doesn’t take much to out perform most shows on the CW or SciFi. The fact you’re on broadcast television in the first place will help you, add the fact you can place a series on local stations that have higher viewership in general than a CW or MyTV affiliate and it isn’t all the remarkable.
KJB, your theory doesn’t hold up that well. Over half of the stations it runs on are CW.
I don’t like the show, but it’s nciely filmed, so at least it’s not cheap.
Honestly I didn’t like the pilot. In fact, I kind of hated it (maybe hate is a very strong word). But then I saw the second and third episodes. Trust me: it just keeps getting better.
I set my DVR to record all first run episodes that ran on My Network TV (that’s where it was airing new episodes at the time). Since then new episodes moved to WGN while My Network TV airs repeats. So basically I’ve got the premiere and jack squat after that. Not a happy camper right now.
Thanks for the update – I was wondering how the show was doing. I doubt it keeps up the premiere numbers though because just four or five episodes in and they’re already piling up unwatched on my TiVo. Is an OK show that just fills a fantasy void – makes you miss Xena and Hercules.
I would like to know what Herc and Xena brought in during their heyday. Anybody got numbers?
Wow, it’s been a long time since we saw a Raimi/Tapert creation such as this. I’ll have to start DVR’ing it and check it out.
Will Bruce Campbell make an appearance
? Has he?
Could someone explain syndication? We don’t have it in Britain and i don’t really get it
Andrea, here’s some historical ratings data from Wikipedia on Xena
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xena:_Warrior_Princess#U.S._ratings
Season Highest U.S. ratings Network Rank
1 1995-1996 6.1 million Syndication #12
2 1996–1997 7.8 million Syndication #7
3 1997–1998 6.6 million Syndication #9
4 1998–1999 4.9 million Syndication #13
5 1999–2000 4.1 million Syndication #2
6 2000–2001 3.9 million Syndication #2[28].
There didn’t seem to be ratings data on Hercules, but I could just have missed it.
fin, Wikipedia (again!) has some good info on what syndication means, better than I could have written it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tv_syndication
Although they’re ok: if people think Merlin will be a hit and its no better than Legend of the Seeker then i would be careful. Although Merlin is on one of the main five to be fair.
Thanks
Merlin starts out rather formulaic but it gets better and better, some of the later episodes are truly excellent and the acting is always very strong, they’ve found some very talented young actors to play Merlin, Arthur and Morgana. Being an all-British production may hurt the show somewhat but I do think it should be a modest sucess, enough for NBC at least.
Purely subjective, but even though I agree Merlin being a lot better now than at first, it’s *far* from excellent. I mean, they even screwed the Excalibur myth up kind-of.
Bill,
I heart you!
I guess those numbers wouldn’t be as impressive today as what LOTS just pulled in.
BTW, Raimi & Tapert are developing “Spartacus” for Starz.