I was thinking the debut numbers for Parks and Recreation were at least a modest success. Then I saw this:
Following a special The Office at 8p (3.3/11), the NBC series premiere of comedy Parks & Recreation posted a 3.0/9, which is -6% lower than Kath & Kim's premiere in the half hour (3.2/9) on 10/9/08.
If a TV show, even on NBC, having the words "lower than" right next to Kath & Kim, that can't be a happy moment.
Also the general trend for broadcast prime time continues to be down. Even the Southland premiere with a heckuva lot of promotion only managed a 3.2 rating with adults 18-49. ER's season premiere last fall (9/25/08) drew a 3.3. And Southland went up against a repeat of Private Practice.
Several shows posted or tied 18-49 series lows for airings of original episodes, Samantha Who?, Survivor, and CSI among them. And CSI was against a rerun of Grey's Anatomy.
Harper's Island, with a 2.7 was down around 15% in the 18-49 from the debut of Eleventh Hour last October which drew a 3.2.
Because of the overall deteriorating state of broadcast ratings, even intra-season, I'd still call NBC's performance last night good news for now. Not such good news that NBC's Angela Bromstad is cranking up "We are the Champions" in her office, but I'd still rate it as modestly good news. For now...
well we wont know till next week why bother speculating.
We’ll know in the coming weeks.
P&R can absolutely not perform worse than Earl. If it can build on Earl’s aud, it’ll survive. It may survive anyways because of the creators mojo, but it’ll be on a short leash.
Southland: As long is doesn’t go into a free fall this is OK for NBC, but I’d like to think they were hoping for more given the red carpet treatment it got.
I think NBC can be relatively happy with Parks.
Its below Kath & Kim but in the grand scheme of things I think NBC will chalk a 3.0/3.2 up as a victory – on a related note what was Kath & Kim’s 18-34 debut number? Or am I going to have to go and look that up myself? From where I’m sitting the Thursday comedy blocks route to success is the 18-34 demo more so than the 18-49 demo. I think if Parks can fit The Office/30 Rock model of bigger 18-34 than 18-49 for the rest of its run NBC will want to bring it back next season as long as the numbers don‘t drop too much. I fully expect the numbers to drop a little next week though.
However you look at Southland I think that’s a win in the 10PM slot.
P&R is safe just because it is produced by the producers of The Office. If the ratings gets so bad, I can see NBC bringing it back next season airing it after The Office.
I can see Southland dropping to the low 2.0s in the demo by season’s end. Not a very good showing with all the promotion.
Alex, K&K premiere had a 3.2/10 18-34 demo. Also, it had MNIE as its lead-in, not The Office and that night MNIE did 2.7/8 w/18-49s, and 2.3/8 w/18-34s
LOL. Maybe it is the Bionic Woman effect. That was the last time a show was hyped in to the stratosphere, and it was just horrible. Ever since people are wary of the publicity machines. Southland was promoted over the top, it had the 1st episode released online where the early adopters, would definitely get a look at it, and hopefully get it good word of mouth.
For all the effort promoting it I would grade the result a C-.
Can I just say I’m amazed at how well Kath & Kim debuted…
I think both shows will drop over the next few weeks, but Southland will be good enough to come back next year, especially since it’s on NBC. Harper’s Island will air it’s full 13 episodes since most will be in the summer, but if it wasn’t for that, it would probably be yanked.
The thing is that after the first Office, half a million people turned of Parks and Rec and then a million plus flipped back to watch the Office.
SOUTHLAND if kept around is moving to Wednesday Nights right? If it can survive the oncoming non-repeats it should do ok on Wednesday where the competition is CRIMINAL MINDS and that’s it until LOST comes on the air.
corey3rd, more interesting is that PARKS & RECREATION lost a lot of 18-49s but gained in 18-34s compared to THE OFFICE. That is an interesting number.
I see it as a success – I don’t like HI but I don’t think it did bad enough to get yanked from the schedule.
Nick, I’m not sure I’m following you. How did P&R gain 18-34 vs. The Office?
“corey3rd, more interesting is that PARKS & RECREATION lost a lot of 18-49s but gained in 18-34s compared to THE OFFICE. That is an interesting number.”
Yes Nick a 3.2 is obviously a bigger number than a 3.5…
this week should be repeats and not new episodes…
NBC needs something to go right. Not even the Super Bowl helped them this year.
I’d be very interested to see what these numbers are a few weeks from now. Audience retention is by far more important than what it debut at. Most shows debut at decent numbers (exception is made for Kings and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip). I want to see though how many of those people that watch they maintain.
Anyway, Viva Chuck, we want a third season!!!
Robert, misprint on what I was looking at. The numbers were switched. I’ll make sure the copy boy is fired.
So there is nothing interesting from it. Will it hold up with out a strong lead in? Will it hold up over time better than KATH & KIM? We’ll find out soon enough I’m sure.
Somehow I think Amy Poehler gets more rope.
I think P&R’s quality will improve so it probably will not nose dive as badly as kim & kath or kath & kim or dumb and dumber….
I just don’t see how Southland works long term, period.
Even if ratings do not fall much (and I don’t think they will – the Private Practice audience was watching Harper’s. Thinking the season average of what ER was pulling, minus 5-10%), NBC has no slots to place it in next year, assuming* DO/H-Loser-SVU-O/30. And that’s even if we make the assumption that it would be modified enough to fit at 9m – NBC only has one 10 pm slot available, and that doesn’t start until March.
*To be clear, that’s what I think NBC will do, now what I would do. If I were running NBC, I’d give Chuck & Heroes final season 13 episode orders in Fall and then run Day One / Southland in the Spring.