Sometimes it seems like some sort of subscription HBO-lite version of the networks where they could put good but lower rated shows would be nice.

IMO, fans of scripted drama have to root for Leno to fail….not a good trend. But perhaps inevitable?

HA

chuck

There’s still a seed of a good show here if they can just find it.

I think this is it for Earl on NBC, and I’m fine with that. It was a good show that has told all of its entertaining stories already.

Bones and Parks & Recreation are in danger

With numbers like these and with much less competition, I can’t even fathom how NBC would choose it over Chuck…

Doesn’t she have an Emmy or Golden Globe or whatever to back up the argument that she’s a talented comedic actress? And no, not just anyone can write a sitcom. Check that, anyone can write a sitcom, you’re right. The Big Bang Theory proves every week than anyone can write a sitcom. But to write a funny sitcom? That takes serious talent. And then to juggle Emmy winning writing with Emmy winning acting? Yeah, Tina Fey is pretty much awesome.

As for what level a disaster would be, I’ll do a whole post in August about this, but here’s how the NBC 10pm M-F shows did this season (excuse the terrible formatting):

Show STD 18-49 Rating Da Airings
DATELINE FRI 1.5 ….F.. 19
LIPSTICK JUNGLE 1.5 ..W.F.. 12
MOMMA’S BOYS 1.8 M…… 4
MY OWN WORST ENEMY 2.0 M…… 9
LAW AND ORDER 2.1 ..W…. 22
MEDIUM 2.5 M…… 11
SOUTHLAND 3.1 …T… 2
LAW AND ORDER:SVU 3.3 .T….. 23
E.R. 3.4 …T… 23

Leno did a 1.4 demo rating last fall at 11:30. If he only does a tiny bit better, which I’d say is a given, he beats the fall Monday and all Friday shows from this season, it’s not inconceivable that he beats the L&O numbers. So, the hurdle for Leno to beat 3 of the 5 days from this season is pretty low already.

plus the “shady” characters are really cliche and the story isn’t very ‘smart’. no one asks where people are, it feels like more time has gone by in the story than has. days seem off with past events… its just not very well written or pieced together.

a mini event like this has to pull people in from the get go, while i hope it eventually picks up; there just isn’t much to keep you connected to any aspect of the show. three episodes in and i don’t really care to even know who the killer is nor do i really care about who gets killed. i love mini events like this but so far it hasn’t lived anything near the hype or marketing.

it’ll be interesting to see how next week folds with ugly betty back. i can see the show taking a fair hit with the surprise return and forced hiatus.

“I think the reason you don’t see much mentioned about Supernatural and Smallville is because they are on the CW and nobody cares. CW doesn’t obviously care how they do as they keep showing reruns constantly instead of airing new shows all in a row. It’s difficult to tell week to week what they’ll be running.”

I have to say the CW is also rather perplexing when it comes to the episodes streamed on line–I realized last night that I had forgotten about the new one, and the most recent episode on the site was “After School Special,” from January. Things have now been updated to include “Sex and Violence,” leaving them five episodes behind.

And I thought Fox was erring by holding “House” episodes for eight days rather than six. Sheesh. At least I discovered that Wallace Shawn is on Gossip Girl in the process.

I’d imagine there’s some backup plan. Whether it’s 5 nights a week of Law & Order reruns, or adding 5 hours of Dateline NBC or some combination. I doubt it’s producing extra scripted shows to be held in reserve. NBC’s trying to save money, not spend more “just in case”.

Since Heroes got renewed, YES!!!!!

“I have a couple of questions about the Leno show.

“One, I would assume he is going to go on hiatus for the summer, or different times of the year…what are they going to do then? Surely not reruns of Leno.”

I’ve seen both 39 and 46 weeks of “fresh programming” quoted for Leno, with the latter in the preponderance. And NBC has the Vancouver Olympics.

One, I would assume he is going to go on hiatus for the summer, or different times of the year…what are they going to do then? Surely not reruns of Leno. Isn’t there room for some 13 episode runs of different shows during a Leno Hiatus? I would think a hiatus is more likely if he gets away from the talk format (I haven’t been following the details of his show since I will never watch it…so maybe this is a dumb question).

Second, Doesn’t NBC have to have a backup plan in case it absolutely falls off a cliff in a month or two or six? I realize everyone assumes it will be cheap and get decent numbers compared to The Tonight Show, but if he tries a new concept it IS possible it would do low numbers…….especially in 18-34. Though I suppose it is so cheap it wouldn’t matter?

Of course I can’t stand late night talk shows and can’t believe what numbers they get now…and surely can’t understand how Leno is considered watchable….so I suppose I am biased in that regard.

At any rate, are they not going to have some midseason replacement/13 episode shows on the back burner for summer or just in case?

The idea of fitting thumb print scanners is lovely but doesn’t overcome the fact that you’re still going to be using a tiny sample group so ultimately the exact same problems and complaints would arise. Logistically there’s just no way to measure a huge number of people in the detail and time that Nielsen does with their comparatively small sample.

There are however many, many ways in which you can get a bigger sample size of just the general audience size but the devil is in the details.

Hell, everything took a hell of a drop… Hope this gona get back on tracks next week.

Or maybe DVR numbers are gonna jump big time.

I think these are some of the weirdest numbers I have ever seen overall. Was there a big drop in overall viewership? Everything sort of did poorly. For example Bones pulls a 3.0 a week ago Wednesday and then a 2.0 for the first half hour last night at its regular time. That drop for Southland seems sort of massive for two weeks overall.

By the way Supernatural and Bones are two of the three shows I do not miss each week on commercial TV.

Lizard

from http://www.nielsenmedia.ca/;

Borealis was built-to-order for the world’s most complex television market. No other country has to deal with the massive volume of programming, stations, and telecast formats along with multiple-time zones, languages, survey panels and US simulcast. The Canadian market also requires measures not used elsewhere, such as Average Minute Reach/Frequency.

Now whatever that means I have no idea but apparently we canadians are hard to track, heh

Oh well time to warm up the TV almost 9pm here.

By all means please create a cheap, reliable and easy system that measures how many people are watching any given show but if you take it to advertisers and/or the networks they’ll also want to know how it measures how many under-50’s that number represents and how many under 30 and how many men under 30 and how many female trend setters under 20. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Nielsen system isn’t perfect and nobody (not even Nielsen) thinks that it is but for better or worse its currently the best system anyone has.

The anecdotal ‘no one I know watches…’ or ‘everyone I know watches…’ argument is all well and good but unless you know a huge number of people and categorically disprove the Nielsen numbers it means nothing. The fact you know 20 people who don’t watch Dancing with the Stars or American Idol isn’t particularly surprising since of the 303 million people that live in the US Nielsen estimates that about 25 million of them watch American Idol and about 20 million watch Dancing with the Stars. To be honest it wouldn’t surprise me if you knew 20 million people who didn’t watch either of those shows, the fact that you knew 20 million people would surprise me though. But as things stand more than 280 million people in the US don’t watch Dancing with the Stars and about that number don’t watch American Idol either.