TVGuide Winners and Losers

[shipperx]

From TVGuide.com:

Winners
Heroes: Sci-fi fans have turned this into what looks like a breakout hit. Even though the show dropped more than two million viewers from its premiere, it was still very strong with younger viewers, especially men aged 18 to 49. The key now will be to keep pleasing the type of rabid but fickle fans that such genre shows can attract.

Jericho: The Biz didn't believe this show — about life in a small town after a nuclear holocaust — had any chance of surviving. But its ratings mushroomed in the second week, which is always a good sign, and made CBS competitive on Wednesdays at 8 for the first time since Bill Paley left this mortal coil.

Brothers & Sisters: Despite having the stench of failure all summer (cast changes, new executive producer, reshoots), this soapy drama is doing a better job of holding on to its Desperate Housewives lead-in than Boston Legal did, and that's the bar ABC execs are using to measure its success.

Losers
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: NBC execs can talk all they want about upscale viewers who are tuning in to the new drama from Aaron Sorkin. But it doesn't matter how much money they have if the ratings continue to decline. This show has lost viewers in every half hour it's been on the air.

Kidnapping shows: Both NBC's Kidnapped and Fox's Vanished couldn't even get people in the door for their season-long yarns about missing people. You won't see anyone try this concept again soon. We think.

'Til Death: Fox was asking a lot of its new Brad Garrett sitcom to have it open in the very competitive 8 pm/Thursday time slot against CBS' Survivor, NBC's My Name Is Earl and ABC's Ugly Betty, which rode into the hour with a lot of preseason buzz. But Fox is being patient. Insiders say 'Til Death (and Happy Hour) will be back in November after baseball coverage is over. Hey, you can afford to be patient when you've got American Idol coming back in November.

Smith: We were dazzled by the cast in the pilot episode, but likable villains are a tough sell these days, even if John Wells is writing their dialogue. This CBS drama could be the first new show to get yanked. 


(BTW:  Smith just became the first officially cancelled new show of the season, and Heroes became the first new show to officially get a full-season pick-up).

Comments

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

It must be an odd time over at NBC - you spend millions hyping Studio 60, and fizzle. Spend hardly anything over Heroes, and not only a good crowd; but the most sought after crowd on TV.

Do you laugh or cry?

[jerrymcl89.livejournal.com]

I think what you mostly do is look for a new timeslot for Studio 60, although it's not obvious to me what a better slot would be.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

S60 is in trouble. Heroes actually blipped up slightly from last week's ratings in the overnights (though not in the fast nationals... or maybe I have that backwards. At any rate, Media Week's ratings were higher than Zap2it's.). However, S60 lost audience... again. Not only from week to week, but from the first half-hour to the second half-hour.

Now, Sorkin got a sweet deal, so they have a guarenteed 13 eps. But S60 is in dangerous territory, moreso than usual because it was bought in a bidding war between networks so they have a huge-ass licensing fee being paid for the show and its ratings aren't living up to what it's costing NBC. If it were cheap, it might survive with this rating, but given how expensive it is, and how much audience it's losing from its lead-in and in week-to-week... well, Sorkin better hope that ratings turn around soon. Though I don't really expect that they will. Goodness knows there are more involving and amusing dramas about plagiarism on Fandom_Wank and Bad_Penny than what was on this week's ep of S60.

Still, it has the luxury of 13 episodes to find itself, so maybe it can turn itself around.

[jerrymcl89.livejournal.com]

I think there are some shows the networks are willing to let be DOA (as, for example, 'Firefly' was, because Fox really didn't believe in it) and some that they go the extra mile for (like '24', which began with underwhelming ratings). I would think NBC will go the extra mile to try to get S60 to work, which at the very least would mean trying it in another slot.