Update 3:25p: a big fat TOLDJA! coming soon from Nikki Finke! James Hibberd reports NBC has ordered 3 more episodes of Trauma.
Update 3:50p: Thanks to E! Online/Watch With Kristen's Jennifer Godwin for alerting me that it's 3 additional hours, not four.
original post:
We'll probably have to wait for the mid-season schedule announcements or some official word from NBC, but Nikki Finke is reporting that NBC will order additional episodes of Trauma (and that all the reports on blogs that it wouldn't order more episodes were wrong!).
Finke cites improving ratings as the reason more episodes will be ordered, but if the rumor is true, it seems way more likely that NBC would order additional episodes only due to lack of bench strength and desperation. The show reportedly costs a lot to make, and the recent ratings improvements have been small, rather than "wow, where did THOSE ratings come from?"
In fact, the only ratings improvements we have seen have been in preliminary numbers which, when finalized showed no ratings improvements. Monday night's Trauma scored a 1.8 adults 18-49 rating in the preliminary numbers, and a 1.8 in the finals. It's better than a 1.7, but...
Stay tuned...
Update: on the point of lack of bench strength the commenters are speculating that any additional episode order for Trauma can only mean bad things for Parenthood (though with only 3 extra hours being ordered it doesn't seem likely it has much to do with Parenthood).
So all those people making fun of traumagirl (I think? That was the nick of the Trauma fan wasn’t it?) over the last few days have some apologies to make
what recent ratings improvements has trauma shown?
There were no improved ratings, so Finke is either completely blind to anything other than what is whispered in her ear, or, well, there is no other option.
If this is in fact true (and I’ll wait for something official) that bodes well for “Mercy” which has performed better than “Trauma” both in total numbers and in the demographics. And it costs less than “Trauma” too.
The reason I don’t think it’s even true is because when it was reported that Trauma wasn’t going to get additional episodes NBC would have been all over it correcting the reporting if it was incorrect.
Julia, it’s possible Nikki makes a mistake I have made from time to time and confusing Heroes and Trauma. There’s no chance NBC made that mistake though.
So she attributed Heroes 2.2 to Trauma this week? No, I think I’ll stick to my theory.
Mercy already got a full season pickup and has improved in ratings since that point (albeit not by much).
If this is true its because NBC has no other options. Unless they can’t because of DirecTV deal, they should push FNL to launch in February.
I can only assume Parenthood is screeeeeeeeewed.
I could see Heroes getting 6 additional episodes if it was indeed the ‘final’ season to wrap things up…but I’m still in the camp that NBC will give Heroes a Fifth and Final season to wrap things up (and since it still pulls decent ratings). It should be into syndication numbers fairly soon.
Parenthood being out of the picture could produce sudden, otherwise unexplained behavior.
What else does NBC have to air starting in January besides Parenthood? I know Day One was truncated to a miniseries, and with three hour slots on Sunday opening up (8-11 once football’s gone), they need something to put there.
Jesse, Celebrity Apprentice will fill two of those hours on Sunday.
Parenthood being out of the picture could produce sudden, otherwise unexplained behavior.
That’s the only reasonable explanation that I can come up with. Hope this completely kills any other remakes of Parenthood that might spring up ten years from now.
I also don’t think Jay will be back next fall, despite what NBC said about a “two-year” commitment. Because of that, both Mercy and Trauma might even see second seasons rather than NBC having to replace more than 15 hours on its schedule.
Julia, NBC only does a Parenthood show about every 20 years, not 10, lol. (Last time being the half-hour version with Leonardo DiCaprio back in 1990).
Yes, I meant 20. For some reason I was thinking that early 90s was only 10 years ago. It’s one of those days…
with the olympics coming up soon they probably just want to air something up to February
maybe its 4 episodes or so to run in January so they dont lauch Persons Unknown or Parenthood ? or maybe parenthood is being reduced to like 6 episodes or something? Persons has all 13 filmed already so i hope NBC premiere it in season and not as a summer series or on friday or something
Jesse they have 100 questions 30 min comedy, and the intriguing Persons Unknown trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrIi_D-VoLs
plus a lot of game / reality shows
good grief: since they ordered additional episodes of Chuck and planned to run Heroes all the way through to the Olympics they could have paired Chuck and Heroes from January-Olympics. If this winds up happening other issues must be involved.