In Late Night news, Ferguson can apparently beat Fallon even when their lead-ins are tied. That sure boosts his stock.

Do note he again beat an ABC repeat, but that’s hardly news. TJLS now regularly beats ABC repeats.

And here’s a bit more fuel for the Leno Ragers this morning. Of the four ABC scripted shows it goes head to head with, two have failed (Eastwick, the forgotten) and will be canceled, one is on the bubble (Castle), and one is doing well (Private Practice). So Leno will outlast at least half of the ABC 10pm scripted schedule this fall!
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‘TJLS’ is also impacting CBS.

I think the older demos that watch ‘TJLS’ have taken a chunk of A50+ audience away from some of the CBS 10 pm crimetimers too (‘CSI:M’ and ‘CSI:NY’ are both down from last year), and may be the reason that ‘Numbers’ is on the brink of cancellation.

HH/% A18-49 P2+ for:
CBS 10 pm Series 13wks-2008/09 vs 13 wks-2009/10
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‘CSI: Miami’ 9.0HH/15% 3.90 13,740,000 vs 8.4HH/14%, 3.74, 13,023,000

‘Without a Trace’ 7.7HH/13% 2.64 11,693,000 vs. ‘The Good Wife’ 8.4HH/15%, 2.68, 12,605,000

‘CSI: NY’ 8.8HH/15%, 3.64 13,670,000 vs 8.3HH/14, 3.13, 12,988,000

‘Eleventh Hour’ 7.2HH/12%, 2.89 11,028,000 vs. ‘The Mentalist’ 9.2HH/16%, 3.32, 14,483,000

‘Numbers’ 5.9HH/11%, 2.19, 9,206,000 vs. 4.8HH/9%, 1.62, 7,463,000

Although ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘The Mentalist’ are up over same time period series last year, I think going into the fall that CBS had higher expectations for both series, especially ‘The Mentalist’ (‘TJLS’ has probably blunted ‘The Mentalist’ from growing on last season’s fall-13-week average of 10.1HH/15%, 3.62, 16,126,000).

I will never understand people who say, “I like Show X at 8 p.m. and Show Z at 10 p.m. on network UNO. I don’t like Show Y at 9 p.m. on the network but I’d rather sit through it than change the channel or turn off the TV and return when a show I like is airing.”

Also, if I’m already watching TV, I’m more likely to keep watching TV than I would be to turn on the TV for a 10 pm show that I like but don’t particularly care about. (OK, maybe part of that is my remote doesn’t work so I have to manually get up and turn my TV on and off and I’m lazy, but…).

I think lead-in adds casual viewers because they don’t particularly care. Of course, if they hate the show, they won’t watch it, but if its an OK show, they might keep it on. They’ll watch it if it’s already on, but they wouldn’t seek it out.

That wasn’t my idea, I was responding to MonapertX as to why they don’t do that.

Add to that the fact that networks advertise on cable networks like TBS and TNT, and I think the lead-in thing is overrated.

FOX deserved its low ratings. I thought Carrie would opened with a Christmas carol instead she opened with feminine male dancers and a weird “country” performance. She should leave the dancers for Adam Lambert…

And wow CBS was well ahead of its competitors- Now if CW’s original shows could only get half of those numbers, Dawn would get ecstatic!

Usually because they don’t own the rights to air them.

Probably too many heavily serialized shows and the popularity of ABC.com and HULU’s showings of ABC programmes.

Why cant networks repeat stuff from past seasons, like shows which were cancelled or ended 5 or 10 years ago. Would anyone be excited to see a The Practice repeat or vintage episodes of Boston Legal?

Now ABC has at least 2/3 sitcoms, 1 non scripted in Shark Tank (which seams to be a reliable and CHEAP [sharks use own money!] banker) and depending on the V return (let’s not forget it did hold above 3.0 for the 4 episodes aired) and the midseason shows (let’s hold are breath!) there is room for around 1 or 2 dramas.

Come to think about it, that’s not a ideal amount, but much more than last year. The problem with this year are the long running shows losing viewers (although not that much).

LOST will almost certainly pick up viewers who are desperate to find out what the reason is!

Do note he again beat an ABC repeat, but that’s hardly news. TJLS now regularly beats ABC repeats.

And here’s a bit more fuel for the Leno Ragers this morning. Of the four ABC scripted shows it goes head to head with, two have failed (Eastwick, the forgotten) and will be canceled, one is on the bubble (Castle), and one is doing well (Private Practice). So Leno will outlast at least half of the ABC 10pm scripted schedule this fall!

Of course on Friday Jay competes with the unscripted 20/20, do you rage against it as well? It is presumably just as evil as TJLS, since it takes time away from scripted dramas.

So now that Leno lost to a repeat again, why are you not doing your cynical gloating to the Leno fans? After all, whenever Leno does slightly better, you relish in saying, it is a “rough morning for the Leno ragers.” Fair is fair.

I will miss Better Off Ted. ABC gave it plenty of chances, more than it deserved and now that it has The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougar Town and 3 comedies for next season, ABC is definitely going to cancel it. At least we got 2 seasons of the show.

8:00 – Holiday Specials
9:00 – Holiday-themed Wipeout
10:00 – Super Millionaire

The holiday specials, which are mostly repeats, work fine for ABC and are usually #1 or #2 in the 8pm hour; Wipeout could be #1 or #2 in the 9pm hour depending on the competition; it’s almost a given that Super Millionaire would beat Jay Leno in the 10pm hour.

Is it part of their mission statement that they will only make dramas and America’s Next Top Model?

Retract my previous post. I was comparing the ‘Melrose Place’ A18-49 number to Household numbers for Valentine’, ‘Easy Money’ and ‘CW Now’. ‘Melrose Place’ did not tie the record last night (which is actually 0.1 in A18-49).

My bad.