Movie Box Review

X marked the spot for network television last night.

FOX:  With very little in the way of competition, X FACTOR easily won the night for FOX.  But the rating for the first part of its season finale was one of its lowest (Thanksgiving Eve excluded), which makes it less of a disappointment than Terra Nova has been for the network, but still far from a major success.  The X Factor lead-in (and very possibly a runover into the time-slot) propelled I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER up 0.3 from last week to a 2.1, but the show still has little chance of surviving.

NBC:  WHO'S STILL STANDING? fell to a 1.7 against greater competition, and that was the network's biggest number of the night by far, with repeats of the Michael Buble Christmas special and SVU at a 1.0.

CBS:  A new holiday special with Martina McBride did a woeful 0.8, half of what the network garnered with repeats of CRIMINAL MINDS and CSI later in the evening.

ABC:  Sitcom repeats did OK, but the serialized REVENGE crashed to a 0.9 with its rerun at 10PM.

CW:  A GOSSIP GIRL repeat did an embarrassing 0.2, followed by a 0.3 repeat fashion special.

Tonight, of course, is all about the conclusion of X Factor's season finale.  CBS and ABC will be in reruns, while NBC, aside from another Who's Still Standing?, is so desperate to get rid of PRIME SUSPECT that it's burning off a new episode at 10PM.  Meanwhile, on cable the delightfully filthy THE LEAGUE airs its 1-hour season finale on FX.

Viewers continue to be uninspired by the network offerings:  with one exception, season lows were the order of the evening.

CBS:  CSI benefited from a repeat SVU on NBC and no Revenge on ABC, and scored its second-best rating of the season.  Before that, though, SURVIVOR tied a season low even though this was the penultimate episode of the cycle, and CRIMINAL MINDS also tied its season low.

FOX:  X FACTOR tied what is effectively its season low (excluding only Thanksgiving Eve), and then the good news for mankind in general is that I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER crashed to a 1.9, which should mean its imminent demise.  (Maybe FOX could adopt Cougar Town or Community for the timeslot.)

ABC:  Repeats from 8-9:30PM, and then the BARBARA WALTERS MOST FASCINATING PEOPLE special was far less fascinating this year than last, hitting a 2.3 rating that was down almost 30% from last year's special.  

NBC:  If the network's Wednesday is ugly as a rule, imagine it in repeats:  nothing on NBC's air reached higher than a 1.2 last night.

CW:  This is worth nothing:  a repeat of the VICTORIA'S SECRET FASHION SHOW special that originally aired on corporate partner CBS scored a 0.7, which is as good a many CW series have been doing with first-run episodes this season.  In fact, it came within 0.1 of tying NBC for the hour.

Tonight, a mix:  CBS airs all new regular-series episodes except a repeat of BIG BANG THEORY; conversely, NBC is all-repeat aside from burning off a new episode of PRIME SUSPECT; FOX follows a new X FACTOR with a repeat BONES; and ABC offers yet another run of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS and then 2 hours with its other news diva, Katie Couric, for a review of the year co-developed with People Magazine.  

Last night, viewers took a stand against the hatred of teenage daughters.

FOX:  I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER, in its 2d airing (and first against new episodes on ABC) slumped to a 2.1 rating, losing more than a third of X FACTOR's lead-in 3.3.  The Teenage Daughter numbers may continue to be erratic, because for the next 2 weeks ABC will be in holiday mode, airing a Barbara Walters special and more repeats on Wednesdays against original Teenage Daughter episodes.  But eventually programming will return to normal, and there's no basis to think Teenage Daughter has what it takes to survive.  Meanwhile, that X Factor number was itself its lowest rating other than Thanksgiving Eve, and a further decline from last week.

ABC:  Taking Thanksgiving Eve out of the equation, almost all the network's shows tied or set season lows (the quasi-exception was HAPPY ENDINGS, 0.1 above its non-holiday low).  However, some of those numbers are better than they sound:  Happy Endings was facing sitcom competition for the first time all season, and even at its lowered number, REVENGE was only 0.1 out of first place in its timeslot.

CBS:  SURVIVOR did a fairly standard number for the season (which in the context of this night looked pretty good), while CRIMINAL MINDS and CSI both tied season lows.

NBC:  UP ALL NIGHT tied its non-Thanksgiving Eve low, but that's pretty much where the show has been mired for the past month.  HARRY'S LAW lost the tiny increase it had last week when it aired against reruns on ABC.  SVU tied the season low it's had for the last few weeks (except when ABC aired reruns).  

CW:  Some good news!  AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL's cycle finale mustered a 1.0, very strong by CW standards.

A moment of silence:  tonight NBC airs what is currently the last-scheduled episode of COMMUNITY.  May it return to us soon.  Meanwhile, FOX will air what's become the Fall finale of BONES, because the episode that was supposed to air next week has been pushed to January so it can become the lead-in to the premiere of FINDER, the spin-off that's replacing it while Emily Deschanel has her real-life maternity leave (s opposed to Bones' on the show).  And ABC will fill the airwaves' holiday stocking with such lumps of coal as a Christmas edition of AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS and something called THE GREAT BIG AMERICAN AUCTION.  

While ABC was away, the other networks did play (a little).

FOX:  The network seized the opportunity afforded by ABC's all-repeat night to launch the last new series of the "fall" season, I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER.  The result was a 2.8 that was both far more than the show deserves and unlikely to be repeated when ABC returns to the field.  Despite the lack of competition, X FACTOR had its lowest rating outside of Thanksgiving Eve, but that was still enough to give FOX the win for the night.

NBC:  Even though viewers seem to be in the mood for holiday classics, with The Grinch and Rudolph recently scoring very well, there was little interest in CHRISTMAS AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER, which couldn't manage a 2 and was down from last year.  However, the absence of competition on ABC and an atypical non-procedural 10PM on CBS boosted HARRY'S LAW and SVU to hit or match season highs--which in this case means a still-terrible 1.4 and still-mediocre 2.2.

CBS:  Not a big night for The Eye:  a season-low tie for SURVIVOR, a CRIMINAL MINDS repeat that didn't even do as well as an October repeat of the show had done, and the GRAMMY NOMINATIONS SPECIAL, which scored at the level of a normal CSI repeat.

ABC: All the regular shows took a rest for the night with repeats, and big drops followed.  The worst-hit, not surprisingly, was the serialized REVENGE; least-damaged was HAPPY ENDINGS, which fell less than 35% from its last non-holiday original, drawing the viewers who took a look at the Teenage Daughter promos and ran for cover.

CW:  A MUPPETS CHRISTMAS repeat special actually did pretty well by CW standards with a 0.8, and AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL held that number.