Comments on: Thursday Ratings: Hell's Kitchen is Back, Private Practice Plunges

By: Clare

Clare — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:19:32 +0000

I missed the new episode of Private Practice this week. Last week’s promo was all “In 2 weeks time, the Crossover begins..blah, blah” so I assumed both shows were back then.

Crap move by ABC to air a new episode of Private Practice when the promos clearly said in 2 weeks time !! Ratings-wise, I think it did well considering that !

By: ABCFanatic

ABCFanatic — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:33:10 +0000

Bring on Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy new episodes!!!

no more replays until the end of the season.

By: Denise

Denise — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:16:55 +0000

RIP Kim Manners of Supernatural. He was a great director/producer. I kinda wondered if the numbers went up a small tick from X-files fans who may have found out Kim Manners worked on Supernatural. I’m not sure if that’s any kind of factor, but if is, it’s probably not a very large percentage.

By: kye

kye — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:36:56 +0000

wow a repeat of 30 rock beats a repeat of greys anatomy

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:19:36 +0000

Joseph, all good points. In fact, I should have made them in the original post. I will edit them in.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:07:14 +0000

Hell’s Kitchen may be off from its previous season premiere, but this is by far the earliest it’s ever began. The first three seasons began in June or the last week of May, and season four began at the start of April (probably due to the writer’s strike). This is the first time it’s ever been a midseason show. There’s probably quite a few people who didn’t realize it’d be starting this early.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:57:20 +0000

Ike is right. On most hour long dramas production time is 8 working days per episode. (I think? Something close to that.) As it is a lot of actors, particularly on a popular show, have to fit filming movies around their TV filming schedule. 30 episodes a season would be nearly impossible.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:49:44 +0000

I wouldn’t exactly say that Private Practice “plunged.” Sure it dropped in the ratings, but it did better than most of it’s run on Wednesdays. And considering most of the stuff on TV was a repeat this week, I think people forgot. I wouldn’t have known about Private Practice or CSI being new this week if it hadn’t been for my TiVo season passes.

By: Ike

Ike — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:43:22 +0000

JT and Matt, I don’t watch Grey’s but they may not be *able* to produce 30 episodes a year. An enormous amount of work goes into the production of most hour-long dramas — more than you might think. The writers may not want to churn out 30 a year. The cast may not want to do that many episodes. So it’s not necessarily ABC’s fault.

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:57:33 +0000

Charles, I think that episode of Smallville was pretty good. Some hardcore fans didn’t like it because they’re Lana and/or Clana haters. The new team of writers is amazing.

One more thing: I watch Gossip Girl and Smallville & Supernatural are among my favorite shows. I hope there’s nothing wrong with that…

By: Nick C

Nick C — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:57:26 +0000

Bloody Valentine is still making money at the 3D capable theaters. It’s a 3D experience.

Charles, yes SN generally gets one promotion a night, sometimes (rarely though) 2. Getting 2 promos an hour is a very rare thing for them.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:39:06 +0000

No it didn’t. Bloody Valentine made over 20 million opening weekend, and another 10 the following weekend, which is nothing to whine about for a slasher film.

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:37:24 +0000

Thanks Bill! Interesting that Smallville rose at the half considering the episode was far from stellar. And I mean really far. Those Smallville writers, I’m telling ya!

By: cool

cool — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:30:34 +0000

Bloody Valentine bombed in the box office.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:29:28 +0000

Half hour breakdowns
Smallville:
4,060 1.6/5 1.4/4
4,296 1.8/5 1.6/5

Supernatural
3,597 1.6/4 1.5/4
3,552 1.6/4 1.5/4

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:22:21 +0000

They aired 1 or 2 promos for SN during the Privileged repeats on Tues/Weds. That’s fairly normal I believe…its usually only one though. But whatever, its nice to see the show on the rise again. Hopefully it can sustain its growth.

Do you guys have the half hour breakdowns of Smallville and/or Supernatural?

By: Nick C

Nick C — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:15:07 +0000

Robert, I have the details on SUPERNATURAL promotions from their marketing department. I don’t watch GOSSIP GIRL, 90210, or ONE TREE HILL, or PRIVILEGED. Not that there is anything wrong with those that do.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:13:23 +0000

Robert, I looked back at the 10/30 episode where SUPERNATURAL pulled in very similar numbers. GA was not a repeat that night. Yet SUPERNATURAL did extremely similar numbers in the 18-49, overall, and 18-34 (don’t know about women). The difference between that night and this night? That night was the 2nd most promoted episode of the season (after last nights) because it was the HALLOWEEN episode.

I’ve always thought that SUPERNATURAL could pull in better numbers if the CW treated it better with marketing even marketing it to their blessed female demo viewers of their teen soaps. I think when you now look at these two nights you have an argument for it with some valid numbers to back it up.

Guys love the show for the macho testosterone levels and horror aspects. Young women dig the show because the leads are young hot men. I’ve never understood Dawn’s idea that the show wasn’t appealing to her demo. Promote the show more, and maybe they can get another show over 4M viewers on a regular basis.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:12:48 +0000

Nick, please tell me you get some report about the promotions and aren’t actually watching Gossip Girl and 90210 to see how many promotions it is giving to SN/Smallville!

Most of the times Grey’s has run repeats this year so has SN. I’m not going to go back and check out all the overnights (please feel free to do it though!) — I don’t think it’s pure coincidence that SN experienced highs in the female demos against a repeat of Grey’s, how much was that, how much was additional promotion and how much was popularity of the movie — my hunch would be Grey’s absence, in addition to reruns on NBC were the bigger contributors.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:02:53 +0000

Robert, I agree the high school thing for SUPERNATURAL probably kept viewers around as it was amusing. However it did receive its highest marketing level of the season from the CW, it had promos aired not once but twice during GOSSIP GIRL, ONE TREE HILL, and 90210 which is something they normally do not do. The show usually gets 1 promo a night. BLOODY VALENTINE is doing real well in the female demo at the theaters and Ackles is the hero in the film. I think it may well be a combination of all the above, but the huge jump in women 18-34 not positive that GA being a repeat caused that. I mean GA has had repeats before was there significant boosts then?

By: Jeff G

Jeff G — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:50:13 +0000

I agree with Matt2. I thought the story line for CSI was very well done. Mr Fishburne is also doing a good job wth his character. I enjoy the subtlety of his not being comfortable with fingerprint processing. I also enjoyed Mr Guilfoyle (Det. Brass) being more involved in the plot.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:47:09 +0000

I think it was no new Grey’s Anatomy…and a good Sam & Dean “when they were young” story (no real drop off from 1st half hour to the second). The Grey’s thinking isn’t 100% speculative since SN had season-highs among women 18-34 and women 18-49, but, still speculative.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:43:41 +0000

So is SUPERNATURAL benefiting from good marketing (for the first time all season the show’s episode was marketed through out the week) or is it Jensen Ackles new popularity stemming from BLOODY VALENTINE or a combination of both? I know from friends it was a fight to market the show so heavily and it was only allowed because it was a “Highschool Episode,” but the numbers for it were incredibly strong. Or is it that it was up against repeats of GA? I’m not sure they’d share the same audience…

It also backs up my thought that right now it’s the most promising show the CW has for ratings earnings for the future. Too bad next season is supposed to be the last season (for the CW). With FRIDAY THE 13TH coming out in 2 weeks their other star is starring in that film. Maybe that film can boost SUPERNATURAL a little more.

3.5M without NFL hidden boosts is something to be proud of on the CW.

By: Matt2

Matt2 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:17:22 +0000

I don’t see the doom and gloom in Private Practice’s ratings. Over the years as ABC has aired new series behind repeats of Grey’s, the tendency has been for the new episodes to score worst than the low rated GA repeats. The fact that PP picked up over 2 million viewers on GA lead-in and really was only off its new avg. of 9.1 million by about 1.5 million viewers is really the most telling aspect of this weeks numbers. It’s a clear signal to ABC that the show is growing, unlike Life On Mars which is just pathetic.

Until Life On Mars aired Wednesday, I didn’t know it was possible to make a bad crime drama. To create a great premise and go absolutely nowhere with it, takes alot of skill. Whatever happened to the LOM series that was the awesome pilot episode, is a mystery for the L O S T survivors to answer. L O S T had yet another stellar episode Wednesday night and the proficiency in the writing of this penultimate season continues to be unparalleled.

Getting back to Thursday night, CSI’s story of the crime fighting mentally ill guy was so original, so intense, and such a thriller, it was everthing a crime drama could hope to be and then some. The cute cleverness at the end of the story with the Don Quixote book and the mental patient was the equivalent of putting a cherry on top of your ice cream sundae- so good!

Another good move would be for ABC’s programming to take some advice from JT. Why they aren’t producing 30 episodes a season knowing that the repeats don’t repeat to big audiences is really a no brainer. It’s one thing to have all the tools in the shed to work with and it’s another thing to be able to use the tools. Unlike NBC’s one or two series, ABC still has a boatload of healthy, vibrant series scoring double digit audiences even while DWTS is on vacation. They also have another boatload of pilots that sound like winners. If they had a programming dept. that was on top of things that could easily make this spring a three way race.

By: Lourdes

Lourdes — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:08:27 +0000

I don’t think Eleventh Hour was the biggest loser since it’s keeping almost the same amount of viewers from last week. It’s still strong. And with CSI as a lead in without Grissom.
Private Practice is boring as well as Grey’s Anatomy. Sorry
And CSI viewers don’t need to stay and watch Eleventh Hour since they’re totally different shows, totally different tastes.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:03:27 +0000

Tom, Those are the correct numbers above for all three of those shows. For average viewers: Earl > Smallville > Kath & Kim.

Perhaps what Zap2it meant was that over the entire hour Smallville beat the *combination* of the two NBC shows, which was the case.

By: Errol

Errol — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:56:22 +0000

Are we forgetting that ABC gets paid a heck of a lot of money for airing reruns of hit shows than they would if they displace said show for another program, even for just one week? If ABC aired True Beauty Thursdays at 9 in place of Grey’s Anatomy for just one week, they wouldn’t be getting the money that a repeat Grey’s would muster. Additionally, ABC doesn’t need to advertise a rerun. They would have to advertise Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone or Pushing Daisies. The saved non-network promos for a rerun program therefore makes ABC more money through an actual paid advertisement. Why do you think ABC Primetime doesn’t promote ABC Daytime? It doesn’t make financial sense to do so when ABC Primetime is doing much better. They only do it when it suits them.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:54:17 +0000

Are you sure about smallvill’s viewers, acording to ZAP2IT Smallvile had more total viewers than My Name Is Earl and Kath & Kim.

By: idizzle

idizzle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:48:09 +0000

As a matter of fact David McCallum does pretty amazing things on NCIS and while not actually award worthy most of the others aren’t half bad. Sean Murray annoys me with his eyebrow acting, but seriously there is so much bad acting going on on House and Lost and just because one actor gets repeated nominations it doesn’t actually mean the ensemble is any good.

In short, before I promise to get back to ratings, people need to stop stereotyping procedural versus serialized shows so much. Just because CSI Miami has a standing line to the Guild of incredible bad actors.

By: Josh Emerson

Josh Emerson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:46:58 +0000

ABC’s excuses for not airing the final episodes of Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Eli Stone are a joke. It’s not like they’d be any more of a black hole in the ratings than repeats of Betty and Grey’s are (or Lost, which gets about 5 mil on a Wed. repeat). What they would do is please fans of the shows who are still pissed about losing them.

By: cool

cool — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:26:43 +0000

^ good writing and acting? seriously? thats why Without a Trace or NCIS is full of Emmys

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:26:18 +0000

Private Practice is plunging because it’s been really bad lately. Sloppy writing, boring plotlines and nameless guest stars. If I see one more “pregnant lady in distress” storyline on that show I’m going to scream. (FYI, I only watch because I recap. But it’s getting really painful to sit through)

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:24:47 +0000

good performance from Private Practice… but a little strange abc airs a new episode when all the rest is on repeat mode!

By: goldy

goldy — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:19:31 +0000

i don’t know why people watch Boring crime drama’s like CSI

sure the Writing and Acting is top notch

but after a while it just gets too Repetative and Boring

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:08:01 +0000

Oh also CSI is still rolling with Fishburne. Sure GA had 1/3 it’s usual audience with repeats but it was still a strong showing for CSI.

Agreed, ABC should air those PD and DSM episodes instead. They’d do better than UB repeats.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:01:28 +0000

For as bad as Grey’s repeats, what’s up with Ugly Betty? It might have been equally as profitable to air those much maligned last Pushing Daisies episodes. They could have hardly done worse.

Good point. While I know they wouldn’t do this, if ABC really did want to air those eps of PD and DSM like they claim, it looks like airing them in place of UG and GA repeats wouldn’t hurt them very much.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:57:03 +0000

Grey’s Anatomy got beat by The Office in total viewers and 30 Rock in the demo?! Ouch. ABC doesn’t repeat well at all. Ugly Betty was worse, a repeat of Kath and Kim beat UB in the demo!

This time last year, 30 Rock was getting those numbers on an original episode.

Private Practice didn’t tank completely on its own, but there’s no way that show can anchor a night like ABC had hoped for originally.

By: JT

JT — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:55:17 +0000

I agree with you Vader. ABC is stupid for airing a new PP after a repeat of Grey’s. Just when PP was showing signs of life, too. They are really stupid…always shooting themselves in the foot.

However, ABC is even dumber for not realizing that they need to produce more episodes for serialized dramas Grey’s and DH. It would be one thing if the repeats could muster up 9 to 10 million viewers, but the ratings for the reruns are pitiful.

They should be producing 30 episodes per season. It may cost more, but it would stop the ratings from plunging on these two shows. Either do that or put them on a 6 to 9 week hiatus sometime during the season. The repeats are useless.

By: idizzle

idizzle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:52:49 +0000

Vader, I’ve been told (when asking this same question before) that ABC needed to get some PP episodes out of the way in order for the x-over eps later on to sync up as PP apparently was ahead in production.

For as bad as Grey’s repeats, what’s up with Ugly Betty? It might have been equally as profitable to air those much maligned last Pushing Daisies episodes. They could have hardly done worse.

CSI doesn’t seem in any hurry to make that post-Grissom drop people predicted.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:51:38 +0000

nbc lover, indeed it was, I was mixed up. Fixed.

By: cool

cool — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:49:38 +0000

I think Private Practice was only .6 in 18-49 from EH (who had a 20 MILLION LEAD IN) and still beat EH in 18-34. Stupid move by ABC but clearly the biggest loser was EH, with retetion below the 50% of CSI.

By: nbc lover

nbc lover — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:49:19 +0000

smallville was up in each demo i think

By: mswood

mswood — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:44:32 +0000

Best Spring performance of Supernatural since the 2006/2007 season.

By: Raphaela

Raphaela — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:43:12 +0000

Bill , which is the order do you thing that will be next week at 9 PM ? I think CSI wins but GA will down and HK will be third.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:42:47 +0000

half hourly info for Hell’s Kitchen:

9-9:30p: 11.862M, 5.1/13
9:30-10p: 10.292M, 4.7/12

By: Vader

Vader — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:40:25 +0000

What an idiotic move by ABC, way to leave Private Practice on its own. What moron thought that would work? They just shot themselves in the foot with that move…

Nice to see CSI will do well even without Grissom.

By: Raphaela

Raphaela — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:40:00 +0000

Good numbers for HKitchen, I hope that GA will be down next week.

By: S.

S. — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:38:39 +0000

Private Practice still did better than the last episodes without a lead-in, I was expecting 6.5M,and 2.4 tops in the demo.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:35:43 +0000

Thanks Fin. Fixed.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:33:20 +0000

While I know Grey’s repeats horribly, I still can’t believe it can’t even break 2.0 in the demo. Even a repeat of 30 Rock beat it!