Sucking them in? Bringing CW back from the dead? Vamping it up?

Flash Forward will get sampled… but there’s a lot of male audience programming elsewhere. And the biggest question is how much of its probably-good premiere number will it still have by, say, week four?

Vampire Diaries kind of lucks out… with Ugly Betty gone, it’s the only female skewing show in the 8pm hour. We’ll see tonight if this one will quickly bleed viewers from it’s high premiere or if it still has some other vampiric pun to do with healthy ratings.

Fringe at 9pm isn’t going to affect Grey’s Anatomy (which will start the season very strong because of the cliffhanger and the totally unkept secret about who lives and dies, but will fall back to more normal levels quickly, and we’ll see what the regular cast absences do to it…). It’s going to affect The Office / 30 Rock and CSI, which are more male skewing than Grey’s (Fringe, like CSI, is a fairly even gender show). But, really, we have no idea how Fringe is going to rate since it spent almost all of last season in the protected bubble of post-House and post-Idol.

By the end of last season, Grey’s was just beating CSI in viewers in addition to slaughtering its demo… I don’t think bringing old cast members back is going to fix CSI’s losses… it’s an aging show with too many clones and franchise extensions.

Mentalist will take 10pm in viewers and A18-49, though Private Practice will be much closer in A18-49 than it will in viewers.

Lizardman – 8pm is tough for thursdays. A lot of fans enjoy Survivor, however Bones has been a fan favorite since it premiered. We also have ABC’s new Flashforward, which looks interesting, NBC’s new comedy combo Community and Parks and Recreation as well as CW’s new Vampire Diaries. I’m not into the whole Vampire theme nor am I reality competitions. I do like Bones so I could probably watch that online, and I’ll probably check out Flashfoward since Parks/SNL updates are only OK. Community looks great so once that series moves to 8 I’ll likely start watching that and Parks, unless Flashforward really catches my interest. I prefer comedies but occasionally if a drama catches my interest, and its in a vacant timeslot. I’ll watch it, like The Mentalist, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, and Life on Mars last season. At 9 I’ll probably watch The Office/30 Rock. The Office is OK but I really enjoy 30 Rock, I don’t care for CSI, Grey’s, Supernatural or Fringe. At 10 I’ll watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX.

7:00 Probably DVR Bones and Vampire Diaries and watch Flashforward live.
8:00 DVR Supernatural
8:30 DVR Community until Oct. 15th.

I know most people think 9/8C will be the toughest hour but personally only Supernatural holds my interest. I’ve seen most of CSI on DVD and probably will do the same with Fringe eventually.

On the other hand 8/7C is a real problem. Bones is a lock, the tough part will be which out of The Vampire Diaries, Flashforward, and Community(once it moves to 7:30) will be worth watching.

Thanks,

Lizard

Tuesday and Wednesday absolutely BLOW and then there is 3 or shows I want to watch in same timeslot for most of the night on Thursdays.

That leaves me to watch one, DVR the second, and download the 3rd… then its video games on T/W this season I guess… that and cable shows. Thank god Sunny is back soon…

I hope FlashForward does well. It looks quite good from all the commercials I’ve seen.

Jon – unless CSI would be in its final season, I could never see it flipping with The Mentalist. Maybe for its third or fourth season CBS could move The Mentalist to its struggling sunday nights where the “likely to be axed” Three Rivers and the “likely to end in May” veteran Cold Case currently are. To me thats CBS’s weakest night, drama wise.

nkinsey – It’s highly likely that Lost will return to 9pm wednesday shortening the comedy block to one hour at 8. Its possible Flashforward could move to 8pm wednesdays and air into Lost during midseason and the comedy hour could possibly move to 8pm Thursday. My bet is that Modern Family and Cougar Town will be the two series getting a full season so maybe ABC will try its Thursday 8pm comedy block out again with these two shows. Because chances are both comedies will do badly in their current 9:00 wed slot.

“THE VAMPIRE DIARIES took a massive bite out of the competition, racking up a solid 4.84 million viewers in its debut.”

WOW!

Lost will more than likely end up again on Wednesday. And looking at their fall Wed. line-up, they NEED it on Wednesday.

I wonder if Lost will take the Flashforward slot when it returns in February? If the comedies take off then I can see being moved to 10pm on Wednesdays as an option or if the 8pm shows flop.

CSI should be able to maintain 15-17 million, but I doubt it will do anything better than that for ‘regular’ episodes. Grey’s Anatomy finished the season with a finale that hit over 17 million viewers at the end, so it should come back this season outrating CSI but slowly falling off to the 14-15 million it was doing.

Survivor should be up this fall from the spring, doing just about the same. Flash Forward is no Lost, and will probably do no more than 10 million (although it could take away from Survivor’s demo). Bones will have a lower demo but should also be able to do the same 8-10 million. The NBC comedies I could care less about, since they’ll all do the same they’ve always done. Community could come out as a success, though.

SNL is just filler so Community can have a better chance.

Vampire Diaries
Grey’s Anatomy
Private Practice

And I will be recording:

Flashforward
Parks and Recreation
Supernatural
The Office
Community
and 30 Rock!

That is precisely the point. They know Parks has no audience. They can’t have it lead the hour and they know if they just start out with Community at 8 and Parks at 8:30 no one will bother tuning in. By launching Community out of The Office they can give it a chance to succeed. Of course, they can’t keep it there because they won’t risk 30 Rock’s numbers by moving it.

You bring up a great point. I keep saying that them bring back the Weekend Update Thursdays COMPLETELY misses the point of what made it work last season: The upcoming election, the presidential debates, & Tina Palin. That made it topical and watercooler worthy.

So what is the point of having it this season (other than killing time for 30 Rock, and giving Community a nice position before it’s banished to 8P once 30 Rock comes back)?

8:00 Survivor will win, but FlashForward will be close, at least to start. I’d give 3rd to Bones. Parks will continue to crash and burn. SNL Thursdays will do worse than last year without the election looming. Community will probably do well, but will, of course, drop significantly after its post-Office launch

9:00 CSI will win in viewers, Grey’s in the demo. The CSI and the Office will be close in the demo again. Fringe will take a major hit due to the move, smaller lead-in, and increased competition. It will probably come in 4th, but FOX will be OK with that.

10:00 The Mentalist will easily take the hour. Practice will remain one of ABC’s strongest 10 pm shows.

I used to watch 30 Rock but if they are going to pair it with the dreadful Parks and Rec then so long 30 Rock. I may watch 30 Rock later on hulu or just skip it – it took a nosedive in the last half dozen episodes last season anyway.

I don’t see anything good on in the final hour of the evening.

Ratings-wise I expect Survivor, The Office, CSI, Grey’s and Mentalist to do well. CW’s shows I predict to get crushed and Fringe will struggle, doing just barely enough to survive. NBC’s 8pm eastern hour will probably not do well and it wouldn’t shock me if later in the season they move 30 Rock back to Community’s spot to save it.

Though I do think Dwight and Leslie dating would at the very least be great fun.

haha. Now why didn’t I think of the twin sister angle?! Stupid nkinsey!!

I just don’t think that would work though. This isn’t a Robert Rodriguez or Kevin Smith movie. The show thrives on being a “real world” format, so encountering the same actress might not work in the Office world.

And I am HIGHLY convinced NBC would want a cross-over. Not only do they want Parks to succeed (NBC does love that Poehler lady), but they need a strong(er) Thursday. Hell, NBC wanted a Office SPIN-OFF; so I think it’s VERY likely they will push for a cross-over – that is, if they decide they want to keep it.

CW: VD (come on, even the initials stink) will do worse than Smallville, but better with women, and Thur+Fri in total will be better than last year for CW.

CBS: CSI continues to slide, Mentalist does not do as well in live demos as last year. Still expecting CBS to swap the two shows – but while a normal network would do it in December, CBS may not do it until next year.

NBC: Office is down slightly in live numbers; makes it back in DVR & Hulu. Community is a hit (2008′s 30 Rock numbers), but Parks not given much of a second chance and disappears come Olympics (at latest).

Twin sister, duh! Seriously, they could play it as two different characters and either completely ignore that it’s the same actress or make it some sort of inside joke. “Have you ever been to Scranton? You look really familiar.” That’s if they ever wanted to do a cross-over at all.

I was actually going off of Mumbo #5′s (sorry, I couldn’t help it) comment about 30 Rock. I think if anything, the L&O franchise would be NBC’s flagship show, then The Office (or maybe Biggest Loser). It wasn’t really until this last season that 30 Rock really started to get some solid ratings.

Meanwhile, you can tell that NBC REALLY wants Heroes to be a flagship show, but the ratings show that is probably not going to happen.

Dan-

I think 30 Rock at 8P would hurt them. For Community’s sake, I would LOVE that, and God knows it would help Parks out.

Also, I think quality aside, Parks really hurt themselves by hiring Rashida Jones; thereby making a cross-over ep with Office unlikely. With Parks potentially crapping out, they could have done the show a favor by having some Office characters show up in an ep (no clue how that’d work, story-line wise). With Rashida having played Karen, unless she’s not in the scene, they couldn’t do it. Or they’d have to do it like a cameo (which would probably piss Office fans off, ruining the chances Office fans would come back to Parks).

It’s clear that CBS is grooming The Mentalist as a successor to CSI.

I tried with safari and it loaded correctly. Can someone help me?

DVR FlashForward and watch Bones at 7:00
Watch Supernatural at 8:00
DVR Community at 8:30.
I think I’ll catch up with Fringe and the Mentalist on DVD when they are released or in reruns.

Lizard

CSI is smart by bringing Sara back for those initial shows. Now if only they could talk Peterson into returning for some shows…

Now… which shows to record in the bedroom… probably woman junk for the gf like Grey’s and Vampire Diaries!

Fringe is without a doubt a living room show, and … /sigh… as much as i want to hate the show, i’ll probably end up watching and loving Flash Forward as well. in the living room.

nkinsey -The only thing is that with so many shows on the Top 4 networks getting good ratings for 9pm thursdays Supernatural may take a big hit, and with no Smallville lead in, the series may definitely suffer. Not that ratings or anything will hurt Supernaturals chances for renewal. Ironically, the creators want it to end after this season but The CW is willing to give it a season 6.

Bottom line, I don’t see any series on Thursdays in danger of cancellation anytime soon. Maybe 1 or 2 axed by May (Parks, maybe Flashforward). Also It’s highly likely that Thursdays will look the same from now until May. CBS never changes it anyway (except in January at 8 between the 2 survivor seasons but thats expected), FOX is willing to leave Bones and Fringe in their current slots until the end of the season, unless ABC decides to move Flashforward, Thursdays for them are going to look the same, and NBC and The CW plans on having their same 2 hour comedy block, and 2 hour horror block respectively.