Sunday, January 13, 2013
New feature! In this new weekly feature, which will be published every Saturday, I'll take a look at the best and worst of the week in broadcast television. I'm going to try and limit it to top three and bottom three, but every once in awhile, it may go higher or lower.
Now in it's sixth season, The Big Bang Theory continues to get bigger and bigger each and every week. Get this: a whopping 20.00 million viewers and a 6.4/19 18-49 demo for its most recent airing - a new series high. With American Idol premiering on Thursday, we have to watch and see if The Big Bang Theory is knocked down a few tenths or races towards another series high.
ABC tried and came up short, very short. With weak ratings in their Tuesday night timeslots, ABC decided to dump 666 Park Avenue and double pump the two comedies. Despite a semi-strong lead in (Revenge, 2.3 demo), Happy Endings performed with a measly 1.0 demo and Apartment 23 went even lower, with a scary 0.9 demo. My guess: no renewal for either series come May 2013.
Ten seasons. 221 episodes. You would think with numbers like those that NCIS would be dying, but it isn't. Despite its age, NCIS pulled a massive 21.11 million viewers and a strong 3.5 in the key demo. The other four networks combined still fell short by at least five million viewers of the NCIS performance. With strong ratings, a possible series finale storyline has to be at least five years down the road.
To be fair, did anyone actually expect this to do well? It's two hour debut on Tuesday premiered with a woeful 3.33 million viewers and a 1.3 demo. The worst news may be the fact that it actually slipped in each half hour as well - not good. With most shows falling at least 20% in week two, things are looking awful for the FOX series. What does this spell for ABC's Celebrity Diving series?
I said it last season: watch out for Scandal. It had a very stable first season and exploded during its current season. Like The Big Bang Theory, Scandal is one of the few good stories for the current television crop. It's most recent airing pulled a 2.8 demo with 8.37 million viewers - both measures a new series high. It's retention was a strong 88% and it was the number one show at 10pm on the week.
Okay, so there were worst performers, but I had to include 1600 Penn on the list. Its first episode in the timeslot did a low 1.6 demo with only 3.86 million viewers. American Idol has a two hour episode on Thursday, and with regular three week loses, 1600 Penn is only going to continue dropping. If I had to guess, I'd say a 1.2 demo this week and eventual cancellation in May, if not sooner.
Honorable Mentions: The Biggest Loser (Sunday episode), Chicago Fire, Modern Family, Shark Tank
