Movie Box Review

Maybe ABC should have left "Bitches" in the title.

ABC:  GCB (aka Good Christian Bitches, aka Good Christian Belles) had a very unimpressive debut, a 2.2 that was way below Pan Am's premiere in the fall.  (In fairness, the DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES lead-in to Pan Am was a lot higher than last night's rating.)  GCB wasn't able to win its hour, and considering that it was only 0.2 ahead of 3rd place CSI Miami, the likelihood is that once it settles into post-premiere numbers, it'll be in last place at 10PM.  ABC was hoping this could be the show that inherits the 9PM Housewives slot next season, but the signs aren't good.  Meanwhile, Housewives itself, as it nears the home stretch of its run (7 episodes left), was up a nice 0.3 from its pre-Oscar week airing.  The queen of ABC's Sunday night, though, is ONCE UPON A TIME, with a terrific 3.4 that was more than a half-point higher than anything else on network TV last night.

NBC:  CELEBRITY APPRENTICE, like every other major reality franchise this year (except The Voice), is substantially down from last season, in the neighborhood of 30%.  (Things aren't going to improve much next week, when its lead-in becomes Harry's Law, a show even CBS thinks skews old.)  But the show still won the 10PM hour, and a win is a win.

CBS:  Even with a solid 2.8 lead-in from THE AMAZING RACE, THE GOOD WIFE took a tumble to a season low 1.8, and while the show probably isn't in danger of cancellation--it's the only classy drama on the network--it had better hope those upscale viewers don't go anywhere.  (It'll be interesting to see what happens March 25, when Mad Men, a show that defines "upscale," makes its return in the same timeslot.)  CSI MIAMI was only 0.1 above its own season low, but faced atypical competition with the much-hyped GCB premiere.

FOX:  Another day at the office for the animation line-up, with every show within 0.1 of its rating 2 weeks ago.  FAMILY GUY and THE SIMPSONS, though, are down 25-30% from last season's average.

It's Monday, and that means SMASHWatch is on.  Tonight is the show's opportunity to hold or even increase last week's rating, thanks to repeats on both ABC and CBS.  Also, tonight was meant to be the 2-hour season finale of ALCATRAZ, but due to last week's rescheduled NASCAR race, it's just a 2-hour episode.  CBS and CW are all-rerun, and CASTLE is a repeat after a new BACHELOR.  

Americans, faced with tragedy, gather around their television sets.  For the death of Whitney Houston, that meant the GRAMMYS.

CBS:  The sudden (and not so sudden) death of Whitney Houston turned the Grammys into An Event that transcended the usual awards-plus-glamor formula, and the result was a giant 14.1 rating, more than 2 rating points higher than last year's Academy Awards (and given this year's Oscar prospects, almost certain to be the season's highest-rated awards show).  Beyond the ratings, the show will undoubtedly give a huge boost in sales to the artists (especially the night's It Girl, Adele) who performed or won awards during the broadcast.  (A side note:  although advertisers are guaranteed a minimum rating for their commercials, and receive compensation if those numbers aren't hit, they get the full benefit of unexpectedly high ratings, meaning that all the sponsors of last night's show received windfalls worth millions of dollars.)

ABC:  Every other network suffered accordingly, and none more so than ABC, whose female-skewing lineup is geared to compete with NFL Football, but not with a colossus that attracts that same audience.  ONCE UPON A TIME was down about 10% from the episodes that competed with NFL playoff games, and that was the good news.  DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES hit a low that was 30% below its previous all-time bottom, and the penultimate episode of PAN AM was an embarrassing 0.7.

FOX:  Young guy-skewing shows weren't immune either, and FOX hit season lows across the board.  Its animated schedule was down 20% even from the weeks when CBS aired the late NFL playoff games.

NBC:  The network had basically given up on this night already (it'll launch the new season of Celebrity Apprentice next week), so comparatively speaking, it had the least to lose.  DATELINE and a FEAR FACTOR special did a 1.6 and 1.5, respectively, and on a cost-benefit basis that was probably the most effective competition of the night.

Tonight NBC bites its fingernails, as it waits to find out how many people will come back for a second helping of THE VOICE and, especially, SMASH.  This still being sweeps, the shows face all-new competition on every network.

 

A football appetizer, compared to next week's all-you-can-eat buffet.

NBC:  The PRO BOWL, aka the NFL All-Star Game, won the night, but at nowhere near the ratings for regular games, let alone the bonanza the network will reap next week for the Super Bowl, aka The Most Expensive Smash Promo Ever.

ABC:  ONCE UPON A TIME did a very nice 3.4, higher than its last couple of originals (which faced NFL playoff games), but then the night collapsed with a 1.5 for the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, which did not give network executives A Smile As Big As the Moon. 

CBS:  UNDERCOVER BOSS had a solid 3.0, then GOOD WIFE and CSI MIAMI were both in the midranges of their season's ratings with twin 2.2s (which are better than they sound because their seasonal highs reflect NFL overrun nights).

FOX:  All the numbers were way, way down from their last originals, thanks to the lack of an NFL lead-in.  THE SIMPSONS was only 0.1 above its season low with a 2.4, and while NAPOLEON DYNAMITE was an unimpressive 2.1, that was a strong hold of the Simpsons number.  Similarly, FAMILY GUY was only 0.2 above its season low, and then AMERICAN DAD held onto 80% of that rating.

We're a few days from the start of February sweeps, and it's not an exciting night for the networks.  CBS is all-repeat, ABC has a rerun CASTLE at 10PM, and NBC will endure its final pre-Voice/Smash Monday, while FOX hopes ALCATRAZ can keep its momentum going.  The closest thing to an event is the much-hyped 100th episode of GOSSIP GIRL on CW.

NBC comes face-to-face with its post-football Sunday.

NBC:  No doubt the network thought that whatever the quality of its new series version of John Grisham's THE FIRM (and that quality is quite bad), name value alone would bring it an audience.  Well, not so much:  its disastrous 1.4 put it in last place for 2 hours (tied at 10PM with the certain-to-be-canceled Pan Am).  Where the terrible quality does show is in the constant audience departures throughout the show's running time.  The Firm's blight only affected NBC's Sunday as a one-time event, but there's little doubt it will now taint the network's Thursday nights in its regular timeslot.

CBS:  As expected, the Tebow/Steelers showdown (in overtime yet, albeit the shortest overtime in NFL history) was titanic, and not only gave CBS huge a 7PM boost, but also helped out the network's other shows.  THE GOOD WIFE (which conveniently had one of the niftiest episodes of its season) and CSI MIAMI both hit or matched season highs, and the network swept the night.  (Next week the even more dramatic Tebow/New England blockbuster airs on Saturday night, and FOX has the late Sunday game with NY/Green Bay.)

ABC:  Once football was done for the night, the network survived the pyrotechnics pretty well.  ONCE UPON A TIME had its highest rating in more than a month, and even DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES hit one of its best numbers of the season.  Only poor PAN AM continued unable to fly its way out of  what will surely be its terminal turbulence.

FOX:  THE SIMPSONS ran directly against the Tebow overtime in most of the country, and got slaughtered, hitting a season low.  After that FAMILY GUY improved, but was still at the low end of its season ratings.

Tonight belongs to ESPN.  With the college football championship game airing, both CBS and FOX will be in repeats, with NBC throwing another helping of WHO'S STILL STANDING, FEAR FACTOR and ROCK CENTER at the wall, while ABC airs the female-skewing BACHELOR and CASTLE. 

It was a good night to be airing football.

ABC:  PAN AM has moved swiftly from "potential hit" to "possible survivor," but it's not time to bring out the air sickness bags just yet.  The real culprit of the night was DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, which was down a staggering 35% from last year's season average.  Pan Am only lost about 15% of the Housewives rating, a very acceptable drop (last year Brothers & Sisters doubled that decline), and it's still beating CSI Miami in the timeslot.  If Pan Am can hold where it is, ABC will call it a win.  However, we won't really know what ABC's Sunday looks like until the end of October, when ONCE UPON A TIME replaces EXTREME MAKEOVER in the lineup.

CBS:  Not only was the 7PM hour boosted by football runover, but 60 MINUTES also included Andy Rooney's much-hyped final "few minutes," so its number was a one-time event.  THE GOOD WIFE's ratings seem to have stabilized, basically at the same level that it was performing last spring on Tuesdays. It's way below what Undercover Boss and CSI MIAMI were doing last fall on Sundays--however, Undercover plummeted as the season went on, and CSI MIAMI followed suit, so the network is more or less where it was late last season.

FOX:  THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY were about 10% below last year's season averages, but that will even out over the course of the fall as the networks rotate the late football games.

NBC:  Football = Victory.  (Unless you're a Jets fan.)

The season's first week came to an end with more of a whimper than a bang.

ABC:  All things considered, PAN AM got off to a solid start (insert "good take-off," "little turbulence" or similar pun of choice).  Its 3.1, while not enormously impressive, held just about all of what turned out to be a lousy lead-in from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, and continued steady through the hour.  If it can continue to score in Housewives' neighborhood, the network will be satisfied enough.  The Housewives number, however, suggests that the show will limp through its final season, already 20% below last year's average.  EXTREME MAKEOVER had to compete with football on multiple networks in its first hour, then recovered to last season's average in the second.

CBS:  During football season, preliminary numbers for CBS on Sundays are tricky, because unlike FOX, CBS allows its entire schedule to slide after the late game ends.  So THE GOOD WIFE, which was the major event of its evening, didn't actually air at 9PM in parts of the country.  Based on current numbers, though, the show appears to have made an unimpressive move to Sunday, below last season's average and down from its AMAZING RACE lead-in (as well as from what Undercover Boss was doing in the slot most of last season) .  Race seems to be around its average, but the 60 MINUTES number is particularly suspect because football overruns aired in its first scheduled half-hour.  CSI MIAMI, burdened by its lead-in and aging too, appears to be well below last season's average. With A Gifted Man already looking weak on Fridays, it may not be too long before CBS contemplates getting Good Wife off Sundays and moving it to that night.

FOX:  Their animation line-up thrives with a football lead-in and the young male audience it carries, and everything scored above average last night. 

NBC:  Between now and January, let's just assume that NBC always wins Sunday nights, OK?  Even though last night's game wasn't quite the event it was expected to be, thanks to Peyton Manning's injury (although it was still a good, close game), as usual it devoured everything in is path.