Comments on: Thursday Ratings: Survivor Returns Well, Grey's Boosts Practice To Demo Beatdown

By: Jesse

Jesse — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:26:40 +0000

Symbolic or not, I stand behind my stance that it wasn’t a smart move on Fox’s part.

By: nick

nick — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:23:27 +0000

FYI
The NAACP Image Awards were aired on Thursday the 12th because it was the actual 100th birthday of the NAACP…symbolic.

By: ABCFanaticDancing

ABCFanaticDancing — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:03:30 +0000

Ahhh Private Practice is having agoood ratings the show is not even good

Ugly Betty should have good ratings its a good show!

By: Claire

Claire — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:35:23 +0000

ABC over saturated the character Addison on the fans in the worst way possible. It is through the strength of their flagship show Grey’s that ratings were boosted for Practice and yet fans all over the next have expressed anger over feeling “forced” to watch Practice in order to watch the Grey’s characters. And many who have tried to watch Practice prior are so royally put off by the stunt, that you may see the dropping of Practice’s ratings within a couple of weeks after the crossover ends. I think ABC may see this backfire in the long run. You cannot use gimmicks, deceptive promos and the over saturation of a once likeable character an dnot expect fallout. Fans are angry and most are not invested enough in Practice to continue to watch it and push ratings up after this cheap ratings ploy is done. I see ratings going under 7 mill within a month of this. While better than it’s crap Wed ratings, that hardly anything to brag about for Private Practice. The show has shown all the way through it’s run that without Grey’s Anatomy, it has nothing to fall on. When will we ever see what this show would do if it stood on it’s own? Maybe because ABC alrady knows the sad answer to this.

By: Riff Rafferty

Riff Rafferty — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 15:06:07 +0000

“2. You cancel it without even giving it a CHANCE in a new timeslot, also called the “My So Called Life” approach. My So Called Life, If I’m not mistaken ran up against Mad About You, then one of the top rated sitcoms, and was clearly being pummelled, and was not given a chance anywhere else.”

Alan, you think that show was not given a chance? How about “McKenna,” which aired after it? It had higher ratings than “My So Called Show” all of the first 3 weeks it was on — this while running up against “Seinfeld,” which I’m fairly sure was more top-rated than “Mad About You.” Of course, those happened to pretty much be all the weeks it was on, since Ted Harbert dumped it after 3 episodes. Only 2 of the remaining 10 segs were ever even burned off. I wasn’t aware that Harbert failed to air any of “So Called’s” episodes.

“Ugly Betty” was able to maintain an audience in this time slot in the past. If it can’t anymore, too bad, so sad. I’m done trying to suspend disbelief that Daniel is some dashing, debonaire “stud” who is light years out of Betty’s league. For me to buy that, they would have had to have cast someone a wee bit better-looking than Eric Mabius. Any of the nerds on “The Big Bang Theory,” for instance.

Unlike “Betty,” I’m not ready to write “Kath & Kim” off yet. That show was very well-cast, and Molly Shannon, Selma Blair, John Michael Higgins and Mikey Day have terrific chemistry with each other — and great comic timing, to boot. And the production values have gotten a LOT better since the lousy pilot(s). The writing still isn’t very good, but get rid of Michelle Nader and all the hacks who came from “Jesse” and “What I Like About You” and I don’t see any reason why it too can’t get better. But forget all that, it’s from Reveille and it frequently has better 18-34 numbers than “Earl.” What more do ya need to know?

By: playe

playe — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:55:52 +0000

–Nice job airing the NAACP Awards, Fox. Lord knows Bones wouldn’t have doubled those ratings. *rolls eyes*—

Are you knocking the NAACP just because it awards african americans?

By: jay

jay — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:32:54 +0000

The GA/PP crossover is the one success story of the networks so far this winter. With PP’a strong cast and the continual fascination that demo has with medical stories, it may well retain a lot of its audience after the crossover hoopla is over. As for GA just beuing asnother ER, that’s probably true, but ER was around forever. Four scripted shows alone on ABC – GA, PP, DH and Lost, are keeping them in a tight 18-49 race. That shows among other things how much smaller the pie is for the nets and how just a few successful shows can make a difference. Look at Fox and Idol, which not only dominates the dermo on its own but creates a lead-in for shows, historically, which are grafted to other nights and keep them somewhat in the game on nights they used to lose big-time to NBC and CBS.

By: Immunityidol.net » Surviving the Ratings - Episode 1

Immunityidol.net » Surviving the Ratings - Episode 1 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:58:46 +0000

[...] Tvbythenumbers.com: After almost 9 years and 18 incarnations, Survivor still has gas left in the tank, and with it CBS [...]

By: Ladiesman217

Ladiesman217 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Smallville was strong with a repeat.

Does anyone have the breakdown for it?

By: clutz

clutz — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 06:34:32 +0000

Thursday nights in the non-Nielsen household:
1) Catch up on one or two DVR’d shows (Wrecreation Nation, Junkyard Wars, Naked Archaeologist, Paranormal State…depends on the mood)
2) BURN NOTICE!!!!! Thanks to Bill Gorman, Robert Seidman, and of course Bruce Campbell for getting me hooked on that show

By: Jesse

Jesse — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:28:26 +0000

Nice job airing the NAACP Awards, Fox. Lord knows Bones wouldn’t have doubled those ratings. *rolls eyes*

I’m just bitter at there being only 1 new ep of Bones in the last 3 weeks.

Happy for 30 Rock. Love seeing it’s numbers being high. And it was a fantastic episode last night. Jon Hamm is great on the show.

By: cool

cool — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:20:40 +0000

I cant believe The Office had a 99 million lead in and only can beat Lost for just one week

By: Matt2

Matt2 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:08:19 +0000

I’m not surprised by the big viewer numbers for Grey’s Anatomy and I expected an uptick for Private Practice. But I never expected PP to be pulling nearly 15 million viewers this early into its Thurday night transition. And the 6.1 thrashing for GA and the 5.8 thrashing delivered by PP in the demo categories has got to eat at even the CBS execs. I imagine those will be the highest demos of the week excluding American Idol. And skew bad news out of it if you must, both GA and PP have such strong acting and writing that those numbers are going to hold up even after the crossover is complete. As someone else alluded to earlier, even if PP drops to a 11.4 viewer rating and a 3.9 demo rating, its better than anything it ever achieved on Wednesday last fall. But I’m sure ABC is not concerned. PP consistently retains 85-90 percent of the Grey’s audience. The fact it retained nearly 100% of the demo audience is astounding. Whatever happens, ABC must be thrilled with this week’s numbers!

By: thedemonhog

thedemonhog — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:11:53 +0000

I can’t believe that ‘The Office’ is going to beat ‘Lost’ this week in the demo.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:46:36 +0000

I’m shocked too, Private Practice did great last night. Retention was amazing, and quite deserved of a renewal.

By: johnthemon

johnthemon — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:43:04 +0000

wow, 3.8 for 30 rock!

I was afraid the recent ratings lull would be permanent, of course this could just be a fluke.

I just can’t believe people are still watching Survivor…I mean good grief! I was never fully onto the survivor boat, but I watched the first season, and the part of the Fall 2003 season (don’t remember the number), but it’s on like season billion and people still find it interesting. Why?

By: sdfds

sdfds — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:42:39 +0000

yeah, Michael, like I’m going to watch “Everybody Hates Chris” reruns instead…

By: DaisiesDeathKnell

DaisiesDeathKnell — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:32:52 +0000

Survivor still continues to amaze…..everybody thought there wasn’t enough juice left for a second season, especaily against Friends, and then it went on to become the highest rated show of that year. It’s the textbook example of reinventing and tweaking a concept just enough to keep people interested.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:47:05 +0000

I think ABC’s decision to air Practice on a night away from Grey’s was a worthwhile gamble. It got quite a bit of publicity and if it succeeded would have given ABC a foothold on Wed. I feel like they had to try, at least.

When it didn’t work out, putting the shows back to back was the best move. Now I think Practice will keep a lot of the new viewers brought in by the crossover.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:22:08 +0000

tom, ratings are percentages of those US TV age groups, so a 6.1 rating for 18-34 means 6.1% of that population, and a 6.0 rating for 18-49 means 6.0% of that population were watching.

You can learn more at these two links:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/demystifying-the-s
http://tvbythenumbers.com/numbers-102

By: tom

tom — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:12:14 +0000

question: how can grey’s have a 6.1 in 18-34… and a lower 6.0 in 18-49? wouldn’t all the 18-34′s be included in the 18-49? what am i missing? would that mean that 0 people watched ages 35-49?

By: Junior M.

Junior M. — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:01:55 +0000

30 Rock is back to the game, baby!

By: kyle

kyle — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:07:50 +0000

WOW Private Practise & 30 ROCK did great hmmm weird, any idea why PP is up so much? I’ve never watched it

By: Shea

Shea — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:04:16 +0000

Next week PP and GA crossover again. Expect even bigger numbers

By: Shea

Shea — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:03:41 +0000

Just Incase anyone needs to know. Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice crossover again next week in “the thrilling conclusion” to the 3 week sets of episodes

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:55:51 +0000

Dave, I think Fox’s line up of Bones/Hell’s Kitchen will do fine on Thursdays. They had the Image Awards last night as a one time special. Another commenter said they used to be on Friday. That makes a lot more sense, but maybe they had to go this week and with the Terminator/Dollhouse start they were forced to air Thursday. Too bad for Fox, but it was just a single night.

By: Should Ugly Betty Switch Nights?

Should Ugly Betty Switch Nights? — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:46:43 +0000

[...] Tom on February 13th, 2009 There is a great discussion going on in the comments of this post at TV By The Numbers about Ugly Betty’s showing against Survivor. As usual, the numbers last night [...]

By: GY

GY — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:43:29 +0000

YAY!!! Go PP!!!
They did great! Im happy, eventhough i expect some drop next week, they could stay on 9 million or 10.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:36:53 +0000

PEOPLE: FORGET ABOUT TERMINATOR SSC. Its doneeee…… WATCH SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD OF TERMINATOR tonight……

By: dave

dave — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:26:18 +0000

Why Fox struggles so much on this night is beyond me. AI should be a Wed/Thu affair. Or at least put House or 24 here.

By: dave

dave — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:24:18 +0000

Thursday is a hard day to schedule because the Movie studios, which often have ties to the networks, drive up the price of advertising. This means the stakes are higher, and the competition is tighter. It also means that shows like ugly betty hold higher value despite low ratings because young women is a valuable demographic to studios.(Rom Com)

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:28:43 +0000

S., very interesting. I used to have Uncle Barky in my RSS reader but no longer. I was unaware he was doing DFW metro ratings posts.

By: Survivor Tocantins | Thursday Nielsen TV Ratings: NAACP Image Awards, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, My Name is Earl, Ugly Betty, E.R., The Office, and 30 Rock

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:23:00 +0000

[...] Ugly Betty, E.R., The Office, and 30 Rock February 13th, 2009 | by cwalton | Quoting from Thursday Nielsen TV Ratings: NAACP Image Awards, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, My Name is… by Bill Gorman After almost 9 years and 18 incarnations, Survivor still has gas left in the [...]

By: S.

S. — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:00:38 +0000

This is what I was talking about,
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/feb/13/cbs-and-abc-dominate-thursday-dfw-ratings/
PP does better than GA for a second week in the Dallas-Forth Worth, because it airs at 9pm, a higher HUT hour.

By: Private Practice Fan

Private Practice Fan — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:23:06 +0000

I AM SO PROUD OF PRIVATE PRACTICE AND GREY’S ANATOMY. I HONESTLY THINK PRIVATE PRACTICE CAN STAND ON IT’S OWN. IT WAS GOOD TO SEE THE CROSSOVER BUT I LOVE PP MUCH BETTER. BETTER ACTRESSES AND ACTORS ON PP. I LOVE KATE WALSH AND AUDRA MCDONALD

By: JT

JT — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:17:27 +0000

sorry for the semi-duplicate response…my cpu froze for a second…LOL

By: JT

JT — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:16:29 +0000

Robert, while I do agree with you, I think that’s ABC’s problem. None of their new shows can hold the DWTS audience. If I were them, I would give an established show one of those two timeslots. I really think Brothers & Sisters could do well on Mondays at 10pm.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:12:25 +0000

If the idiots at ABC had scheduled Private Practice after Grey’s Anatomy from the start, or at least the start of this season, they wouldn’t have needed the cross overs to save it. I expect a huge drop next week, but not enough to cancel it.

By: JT

JT — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:12:09 +0000

Robert, I think that’s ABC’s problem. None of their new shows have held the DWTS lead in. I think they should try out an established show after DWTS on at least one of the nights to see if it can do any better. Personally, I think Brothers & Sisters could do well on Monday nights.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:06:10 +0000

prediction: if Ugly Betty comes back, it will stay exactly where it is. If ABC is happy with UB winning women 18-34, it might be enough.

Networks have to have some shows that run at 8pm, and UB is a good fit as an 8pm show. Would it benefit by a DWTS lead-in? in terms of raw numbers it would, but I’m not sure that improved numbers on a Tuesday would wind up paying more than the numbers it has on Thursday since Thursday advertising pays more in general.

It seems more likely that ABC would use the DWTS lead-in to launch a new show.

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:56:30 +0000

Yes, I generally agree. I hate it when shows get bounced around the schedule. But when a show has a noticeable and sizeable drop in viewers, what do you do?

Networks seems to follow 2 strategies when a show is struggling.

1. You radically change the show with a “gimmick”, such as the 1980′s Sitcom gimmick (Weddings, Pregnancies, Babies and Cute Kids. Think Cosby Show or Family Ties), or the 2000′s Flash-Forward gimmick (Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill).

2. You cancel it without even giving it a CHANCE in a new timeslot, also called the “My So Called Life” approach. My So Called Life, If I’m not mistaken ran up against Mad About You, then one of the top rated sitcoms, and was clearly being pummelled, and was not given a chance anywhere else. This also happens to new shows in the fall.

So, I personally would prefer Ugly Betty be given a chacne in a new timeslot rather than options 1 or 2 be adopted. Again, that’s just the humble opinion of me (someone who doesn’t sit around all day running a TV blog for a living).

By: rick

rick — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:53:38 +0000

ugly betty is definitely declining but if abc gave it a strong lead in it would probably gain pretty big numbers. ugly betty has been a little off creativewise recently too there hasnt been any standout storylines.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:50:20 +0000

I agree with Pad and Julia. There’s nothing else in Ugly Bettys target demographic airing against it.

It’s aired at 8 on Thursdays ever since it premiered and faced much of the same competition. And you can’t say Bones was killing it because this week there wasn’t Bones and it still did poorly. The fact is UB is 3-4 million worse in the same time slot vs the same competition as 2 seasons ago and is still declining.

By: rick

rick — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:50:16 +0000

that actually sounds like a very solid schedule. although abc will never move lost to the fall. there is increased competition during midseason so abc will want such a strong demo performer in its midseason schedule

By: JT

JT — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:46:51 +0000

I think the reason Ugly Betty is struggling is because its buzz has worn off. ABC might have some success if they moved it after Dancing with the Stars on Tuesdays.

Here is what I think ABC should do come fall:

Sunday:

7-8 AFV
8-9 EM: Home Edition
9-10 Desperate Housewives
10-11 New Drama

Monday:
8-10 Dancing With/Stars
10-11 Brothers & Sisters

Tuesday
8-9 DWTS Rslts
9-10 Ugly Betty
10-11 Cupid (if it survives…otherwise a new series)

Wednesday
8-9 New Sitcom Block (Multi Cam Sitcoms)
9-10 Lost (yes, air the final season in the fall!!!)
10-11 New Series

Thursday
8-9 New Drama
9-10 Grey’s Anatomy
10-11 Private Practice

Friday
8-9 New Reality Series
9-10 Primetime: What Would You Do?
10-11 20/20

Saturday
8-11 College Football

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:45:08 +0000

Alan, every night feels crowded to some people. Particularly when they are fans of shows that are not doing well. Ugly Betty is up against less competition than it has been in previous seasons and it is doing worse. I’m not saying ABC should definitely cancel it, but if it gets moved and loses even more viewers (which it likely would), you and the other fans will start blaming ABC for an inconsistent schedule driving away viewers.

By: rick

rick — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:44:29 +0000

well im just talking about the fall where dwts doesnt face idol.

during midseason they could push the schedule back with a recap dwts at 8, dwts at and ugly betty at 10.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:36:15 +0000

Rick, ABC would not put DWTS directly up against Idol. They purposely changed the DWTS schedule for the Spring 2007 run with the stated intent of avoiding Idol.

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:36:08 +0000

Yes, thank you Julia, I do know that shows at 8 don’t compete with shows at 9. I find Thursday nights be very crowded IN GENERAL. I have felt this way for a long time. It seems even more crowded in the last couple of seasons.

From 8:00-11:00 at least 3 networks air shows I watch at the same time, and from 8:00-9:00, all 4 networks air shows that I watch at the same time.

I think Ugly Betty’s numbers would improve on a different night. Now how about YOU allow me to have THAT opinion? Or am I not allowed?

By the way, your condescending attitude is really refreshing, thanks! Makes for a great discussion.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:33:36 +0000

The results from Private Practice is very reconfortant for those like me that always tyhink that this slot was the best option to ABC. No other show did so weel after GA, even when GA did better~ratings.

I agree with Ugly Betty at 9 pm on tuesdays after DWTS.