Firstly you should remember that the UK and US use very similar systems to gather ratings information, so if you’re arguing that the US system is inaccurate then the UK system is just as inaccurate. You must also remember that Doctor Who (which averages 7-10 million viewers) is one of British television’s biggest shows and far from the norm for British television these days, that sits more in line with 3-5 million.

As it is Doctor Who on average pulls in more than 10% of the UK population and usually scores a huge share of the available audience, which generally speaking is more important in British ratings than your actual total viewers. Now keeping that in mind if you’re using the ‘Doctor Who projection’ then the biggest shows on American television should actually be taking 30+ million viewers, which would put them in line with the 10% of the population figure, which would also be not a million miles away from what the biggest shows would attract pre-cable.

Having said all that you have to remember that millions of Americans watch cable. So whilst 5 million people might watch Eastwick its not even close to a stretch to guess that ten times as many people are watching something on cable. Just as it has in the UK cable has eaten into the broadcast audience, remember in the UK it wasn’t that long ago that many shows were pulling 10+ million viewers now that’s reserved to ‘big’ episodes of the soaps, the season finale of Doctor Who and The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. The numbers haven’t fallen because less people watch television they’ve fallen because less people are watching traditional broadcast.

Ugly betty should be moved at Weds 10pm timeslot

80 million people are not watching Lost, don’t be ridiculous.

If someone would move something to 8 it would be nice. Glee, Modern Family, whatever.

Gary is only hanging around to pair with OC. It’s proven that it has no legs on its own so it’s gone come May. Two years with no real upward trend is by far enough. CBS will feel it has given it more than a fair chance and let it go.

That’s kind of like saying New Coke actually beat Crystal Pepsi in a national taste test. Face it, both shows are losers. If you take into account Gary leads into Criminal Minds, then it should stand to reason that it should probably be higher than Christine every week, now shouldn’t it?

I’m glad to see Glee staying in its usual range.

Come January, SNF is finished, so expect NBC to move L&O to Sunday, pairing it w/Celebrity Apprentice. Mercy may end up in L&O’s Friday slot come Jan., as so not to compete with AI. Just a hunch.

“Old Christine will be canceled sooner or later.”

Well, I guess you’ve guaranteed yourself bragging rights with that bold prediction.

Hank got 1.5 in the demo and The Middle is 2.0, its not good but at least The Middle improved from Hank, a better lead in would help the show.

I really feel bad for Kelsey, maybe they should try stunt casting, one of the Frasier cast perhaps like “Niles”, I haven’t seen David Hyde Pierce since Frasier ended.

I was actually rooting for Hank to do well just for the sake of the whole ABC Comedy Wednesday line up but oh well.

I love The Middle too, I’m glad it already got a full season despite the low ratings. But for what is worth it did built a lot from Hank.

Honestly, last night I tried to find a reason to laugh during “Hank” but to no avail. It tells a lot about a show when you need a laugh track to cue the audience to laugh…really, the actors are great but the writing leaves so much to be desired for.

Alex, you’re one commenter I don’t skip. World Series game 1 is next Wednesday, and game 6 is scheduled for the following Wednesday (Nov. 4). I’m guessing a Yankees-Phillies series would go 6.

and mercy will probably last till march or maybe will pop up in nbc’s 2010 fall schedule.

and, oh, eastwick is near on getting yank, sadly, jay leno show is an easy competition, still the show barely register

and hank, why did abc even picked up this show?

Criminal Minds
- 14.268 million viewers
- 9.0/14 HH
- 3.8/10 A18-49

With a continuous run 13 episodes will last until the week of December 14th. If there are two weeks off at Christmas then there 6 weeks until the Olympics in February. Heroes has a 19 episode order to take it through. Mercy and Trauma are fighting for an extended order to get those extra episodes between 13 and 19, if they don’t get it the question is what does NBC fill those hours with pre-olympics, Day One? that game show about deceptively simple tasks? Reruns?

That colorful peacock at least has something to smile about. People are finally finding “SVU” in its new time slot. Too bad they’re not finding the kind of good show that used to air in its old time slot. Although it’s rather concerning that they haven’t picked up anything yet. “Mercy” is their fourth-highest rated show and won its time slot two weeks running. What the hell do they want from it?

And “Eastwick” fell? Again? Wow, viewers REALLY aren’t enchanted with this one. ABC pushed this week’s episode pretty hard, too.

Mercy is no longer the complete disaster it appeared to be and after that worryingly slow start SVU is starting to pick its audience back up and just in time for sweeps. Hopefully it’ll crack a 3.0 next week. Personally I’d be interested in the half hour break downs for Mercy and SVU this week, it’d be interesting to know whether the second half hour of Mercy beat The Middle and whether the second half hour of SVU at least managed to equal Cougar Town.

Speaking of the ABC comedies, the original euphoria over them is slowly starting to fade. Despite all the buzz heading into the season Cougar Town is dropping and after watching a few episodes I’m not all that surprised. Nor am I surprised that Hank and The Middle started weak and are getting weaker. I’m a little disappointed that Modern Family has dropped quite so far but given what’s surrounding it that’s not that hard to understand and it is comparatively speaking still doing well. With the numbers as they are I think my thoughts that Lost returns to Wednesday nights and the comedy block moves to Tuesday is getting closer to reality. Meanwhile the less said about Eastwick the better.

Fox continues to have a great night, they’re looking for the 18-34 demos on Wednesday nights and So You Think You Can Dance and Glee are both delivering that nicely. Personally I hope we get to see Glee repeat next week rather than baseball just because I think it’ll be interesting to see how Glee repeats.

CBS has to do something about the second comedy block, it isn’t working in the current form. I still think shipping an established show from the Monday block over to Wednesday night is the way forward, whether that should be Rules of Engagement or How I Met Your Mother (the only real options) is open to debate. Personally I’d go with Mother. Criminal Minds continues to do well and New York continues to look less than strong. Although given how weak the 10PM competition is it does look fantastic.

Over on The CW I continue to be amazed that they’re airing repeats out of Top Model…

The Middle has turned out to be one that grows on me each week…very similar to Malcolm in the Middle but maybe even more eccentric from the beginning. MitM started out pretty subdued and as it progressed Hal became more and more zany and over the top as the show aged. It started as a showcase for what people thought was a young new star actor with Frankie Muniz and by the time it went off the air all that you were really tuning in for was to see what Brian Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek were gonna do next. On the Middle Neil Flynn of Scrubs fame seems to be the most normal and grounded of the entire family.

You know, if ABC was really smart, they’d be on the phone trying to get Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher or Susan Sarandon to make cameo appearances. After all, Veronica Cartwright’s involvement, while nostalgic, really isn’t helping much.

I’d hate to think Cher, Susan or Michelle would feel themselves to be “above” doing network TV, but what else have they been doing lately?

It couldn’t hurt. Do you hear me, ABC?