Some shows will be below the line, some at the line, and some above the line.

So while Mercy’s numbers are weak (we’ll see the new average this afternoon), it could indeed get more episodes, because something has to air until the Olympics. I don’t agree with Dan on Trauma though – it is simply too expensive to warrant more episodes at those ratings.

Heroes – lowering ratings proves that this once popular drama should be put out of its misery.
SVU – One of the few dramas that is safe.
Law & Order – Many think this will be the final year, however if it holds up it could very well get a 21st.
Southland – Hasnt premiered but hopefully will hold up after Law & Order.
Friday Night Lights – Already renewed by DirecTV
Chuck – This series could go either way, but things dont look good.
Trauma – Doing OK, NBC could keep it around for a while
Mercy – Same as Trauma

I did not realize that there was probably an broadcast or industry standard for these colors — I wouldn’t seek to impose on disrupting anything that many folks use; maybe a small addition of a symbol/accent character? Not sure, I’ll try to come up with something clever.

I hesitated to provide a link in my first response as I did not want to come across like some kind of spammer, but if you ever want to take a nap and/or read up on colour and web design, try this:
http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter09.html

It has links to even more resources.

Thank you for the nice website.

Just as an FYI, between 8-11% of males are color blind in some fashion. A very common type of color blindness is deuteranopia which is where discnerning red/greens becomes difficult.

I only bring this up because the colors you used for your rankings here — shades of darker red and green, well, they look more or less the same to us, and thus it makes your information harder to discern. I thank you for your time in putting this together, and only ask that next time you may consider using stronger or bolder contrasting colors to help present your information.

Thank you!

Monday
8:00 Chuck
9:00 Persons Unknown
10:00 Jay Leno Show

Wednesday
8:00 Parenthood
9:00 L&O: SVU
10:00 Jay Leno Show

Both Trauma and Mercy are tentatively scheduled to be replaced by March. Should either become successful, more eps will be ordered but I think its likely both freshman dramas will get 17-19 eps for their first years, since neither is a breakout. I dont think either will be “pulled” however.

This is the problem with these minute-by-minute predictions — they feed in to a corporate quarter-oriented mentality that doesn’t give shows a chance to grow. Forget about Law & Order, many worthwhile shows that are slow out of the gate (i.e. Seinfeld is the classic example of a slow-growing show) get tossed aside after a week or two and relegated to a lesser time-slot, promotion budgets are cut or eliminated, and pretty soon what was a shoot-from-the-hip guess becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Instead of being guided by a “I was the first to call it” Nikki-Finke-Toldja! approach, maybe this column should embargo its predictions until the sixth week of a show’s roll-out.

This post was written with the numbers available through September 27. Next week’s R/C post for NBC will take in consideration numbers through October 4.

The other factor this column fails to take into account is that new episodes of L & O make a ton of money for NBC-Universal in cable reruns and foreign.

At this point, Trauma (dismal premiere) and Mercy (numbers fell this week) are better candidates for cancellation.

C, the crazy leftness of L&O is one of the things I love about it! They can’t ditch McCoy (they’d effectively nuke the series), so instead the rest of the cast is forced to watch him slide into rightous (or should that be lefteous) indignation, as he desperately tries to grapple with the politics of being DA.

It’s like watching the circus when the ring leader is the clown! Everyone else looks at each other uncertainly, but still follow his cues!

On an unrelated note, it kicks CSI: Miami’s ass, where the approach is consistantly a guily until innocent approach of “Do you have an alabi?” “Yes” “You better have! OR ELSE!”.

[/offtopic]

The fact I like the show makes me disappointed it is likely to go off NBC (and perhaps not appear elsewhere, who knows), but doesn’t change my prediction.

They are not typical Friday numbers. Where did I write that? They are bad Friday numbers.

On the other, it’s ratings are typical Friday numbers and you’re ready to cancel it.

You are one confused wannabe.

I expect L&O to move to replace Mercy or Trauma.

NBC won’t make a decision on Parks until the regular Thursday lineup has a chance to succeed, especially with critics saying it’s much better this season.

I used to love Law & Order, but now it is so far to the left it is offensive and the prosecutor regularly engages in misconduct instead of being a good guy.

If they made it so that almost every criminal wasn’t a republican and weren’t aggressively questionable cases with questionable methods I think there ratings would go back up.

A couple of points:

Yes, season one was good, great even.

It’s not good now, not by a long shot.

I can think of multiple sci-fi shows that it is worse than (Warehouse 13 and Eureka to name a few), and many, many more dramas.

Most “comic book fans” agree that the show is terrible now, as well as most critics.

Heroes is awful right now and if the ratings continue to slip, it won’t be back for season 5, sorry.

As for everybody talking about Parks and Recreation, the series will probably be axed by May. Amy Poehler is usually funny its just that this series is trying to hard to be The Office and its not.

How exactly do I give any show a ‘chance to grow’? I’m not a network exec. I’m not part of a Nielsen family. I think what you’re saying is “don’t criticize this show because I like it, and it should keep running until I don’t like it anymore.” Okay, so where were you when they canceled all those shows I liked that you didn’t watch?

If Law and Order did a story ripped from the ACORN scandal, it would involve rich white people registering each other to vote while bringing in underage third world prostitutes who also cleaned their houses. It would be even more ridiculous than the average episode of the last couple of seasons

Gunsmoke will NEVER be supplanted as the longest-running primetime scripted drama in American TV history.

Though it should be said, it was creatively spent after eight or nine seasons. Law & Order was never creative to begin with, so not an issue there.

NBC needs to make Amy Poehler go away.

Im not gonna sit here and tell you your wrong, but to flat out say Heroes is bad like its fact, is damn ignorant. People should be able to watch what they wanna watch and be left in peace. Not get criticized for it.

And for the record, Im pretty darn sure Heroes will get renewed. Although it may not get very good numbers(not that their reliable)but the show is massively popular worldwide. Not to mention how many people watch it online and in other formats. NBC has their own rating system, calculating all the formats, not just TV. In the U.S. alone, Heroes averaged 14 million or so viewers an episode last season and this season I believe. unfortunately those numbers dont really matter, but my point is, Heroes didnt start getting crappy ratings, just because it got bad or people didnt like it… but simply because people just dont watch Live TV anymore.
Its becoming outdated.

“And no, @tvmegafan, Heroes is NOT good. I’d take any dumb cop, medical, or lawyer drama anyday and I’m a big comic book fan. Heroes is THAT bad.”

AHAHAHAHA ur joking rite? Heroes is NOT BADDDDDD, its the opposite, and better than most of the drama/scifi tv shows out there. If ur a comic book fan, then what is good hmmmm? This is the only show that has ordinary people waking up with extraordinary ability. Tell me, did u see season one? Well, that is ur opinion, not a fact.

Its funny that The Office was the underdog that wouldnt live to see the 2005-2006 season. NBC had high hopes for the failed series.

Looking back on that now, it’s kind of hilarious to read that now. It’s also kind of sad, because back then a 3.1 was considered low while it’s decent nowadays. And this was only a few years ago.

Sometimes, once in a while, a show comes along and bucks the trend of continual dropping, and The Office is one of those rare shows.

NBC has a lot of new dramas and reality shows fo midseason and without 10pm, if shows dont do well this fall, they wont bother to put any interest in them.

Mercy and Trauma woill last until December likely, and hopefully air all episodes but if numbers dont improve, both will be done.

Heroes should end after this season, and hopefully Southland doesnt bomb when it premieres on October 23, out of L&O.