Movie Box Review

Adieu, GIFTED MAN.

CBS:  The season finale of A GIFTED MAN ticked up a bit to a 1.4, but while that would be great news for, say, Fringe, don't get your hopes up for Man's renewal.  A far more telling sign:  we've talked here before about "second position" pilot deals for actors, and Gifted Man's female lead Rachelle Levebre just signed for one produced by Man's own production company (and that being CBS Studios, not unacquainted with its network).  CBS won the night's other hours (UNDERCOVER BOSS slightly up, BLUE BLOODS even) to tie for the evening win.

ABC:  SHARK TANK was down slightly at 8PM, but after that the night improved sharply, with 0.3 and 0.4 respective rises for PRIMETIME and 20/20, pulling the network to a tie for the night.

NBC:  WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?, with a Reba McEntire episode (and possibly benefiting as well from the repeat on FOX) leaped half a ratings point from last week (although that still put it in 3d place for the hour), which helped propel GRIMM up 0.2 to tie for the lead at 9PM.  DATELINE lost the newsmagazine battle and fell to 3d place at 10PM.

FOX::  With February sweeps over, the network slipped into repeats, falling into 4th place for the night with KITCHEN NIGHTMARES.

CW:  Twin 0.3 ratings for repeats of NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL.

When A GIFTED MAN came onto the scene, it had all the high-class auspices a new series could want.  The pilot was directed by Academy Award-winner Jonathan Demme, was written by Susannah Grant (Eric Brockovich) and had a cast that included such strong actors as Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Ehle, Margo Martindale (who, by the time the series premiered, had won a spectacularly-deserved Emmy for the previous season's Justified) and Pablo Schreiber; its main changes post-pilot were to add ER/SVU veteran Neal Baer as showrunner, and bring another bright talent, Rachelle Lefevre, to the cast.  The basic concept--high-powered Manhattan surgeon is haunted by the chatty ghost of his do-gooder ex-wife, and gradually becomes a better and more charitable man--combined the medical genre with "A Christmas Carol" in a way that seemed promising.

And yet... Gifted Man never really worked, and now it's a longshot for renewal by CBS.  Returning to the show for its last episodes of the season, one could see that despite the tepid reception and low ratings, very little about the show had changed since its debut.  Every week, Michael Holt (Wilson) would face twin medical crises, one at his posh uptown offices and the other at the free clinic his ex-wife Anna (Ehle) had founded, where he was now reluctantly providing his services (reluctant, that is, until the case of the week passionately engaged him).  At some point, Anna would show up and chatter commentary on Michael's continued emotional blockage, invariably provoking "Huh?  Who you talking to, Doc?' reactions from those standing nearby when Anna appeared.  And although they bickered, Michael would share love-that-cannot-be looks with the unhappily married Dr. Kate Sykora (Lefevre), who had replaced Anna at the clinic.  

The season finale didn't go out of its way to be terribly extra-dramatic.  When Michael encountered the woman who had inherited Anna's transplanted heart, and the woman died in a car accident, there may have been the suggestion that the final loss of her heart might send Anna away for good, but it was kept vague.  And the possibility of Michael and Kate becoming an actual couple (they had kissed in the previous episode) was put off for another indefinite time, as Kate and her husband decided to work on their marriage some more.

Gifted Man wasn't--isn't--a terrible show, and in fact not worse than some of the procedurals safely ensconced on CBS' air.  It's limited, though, by its supernatural conceit, because it turned out that there wasn't much for Anna to do except kibbitz for a few minutes in each episode.    The show might be better off jettisoning Anna if it somehow survives to a second season, and becoming a straightforward medical show.  But one can't argue all that strongly for it--despite its pedigree, there's nothing about A Gifted Man that's become distinctive or memorable.  It's probable that shinier pilots will come to light during pilot season, and Gifted Man's talent will survive to work another day somewhere else.

FRINGE, having watched Monty Python & the Holy Grail, shouts "I'm not dead!" as the gravediggers try to take it away.

CBS:  An extremely soft win for the night (1.6 average).  UNDERCOVER BOSS was down 0.4 from its season premiere, A GIFTED MAN (in its penultimate episode, at least for this season) was down 0.2, and only BLUE BLOODS was up a slight 0.1 from last week, when it aired against ABC's Whitney Houston tribute.

FOX:  FRINGE was up 0.1, and while that doesn't sound like much (and isn't), at least it was in a tightly squeezed pack at 9PM (1.5-1.4-1.3-1.2).  The show now takes 4 weeks off, to return at the end of March with what it hopes won't be its final 8 episodes in this timeline and universe.  

NBC:  GRIMM continues to be a very niche success, at the top of that 9PM scrum by a bare 0.1 and showing no signs that it could thrive in the tougher competition that exists Sun-Thurs.  WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? is flopping at 8PM with a 1.0, and DATELINE barely won the newsmagazine battle at 10PM by 0.1.

ABC:  The network was in 2d place by only 0.1 at both 8PM and 9PM (SHARK TANK particularly benefited from Undercover Boss' decline), but 20/20 slumped without the buzz of the Whitney Houston story.

CW:  Repeats, although it's worth nothing that the 0.4 scored by NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL was only 0.1 below what some of the network's new episodes have been rating.

Tonight is repeat hell, except for NBC's burn-off of THE FIRM episodes (another kind of hell).  Tomorrow night is likely to be joyful for fans of black-and-white silent French films, and depressing for everyone else.  (It's a mark of just how dreary this year's Oscars are that the media has spent 2 days obsessing about Sacha Baron Cohen's publicity stunt for his new movie instead of the awards.)  All the other broadcast networks are staying away, as are many scripted cable locales, with the exceptions of giant hit WALKING DEAD on AMC, and enormous flop LUCK on HBO.

.  

Not a great night for bubble shows.

CBS:  On a night where CSI NY and BLUE BLOODS both won their hours and were up slightly from last week, A GIFTED MAN went down 0.1 and tied for 3rd place at 8PM.

FOX:  KITCHEN NIGHTMARES and FRINGE were both down 0.1 from last week, but while that still left Kitchen comfortably in 2d place for its hour, Fringe matched a series low 1.1 and continued to make it hard for FOX to consider renewing it.

NBC:  WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, with a heavily-promoted "Marisa Tomei murder mystery" episode, held steady with its season premiere, and then things got even better.  GRIMM was up 0.2 from last week, just 0.1 from the lead in its hour, and DATELINE (some big story/interview this week?) was up a whopping 0.4 from last week, beating out 20/20.

ABC:  SHARK TANK got the night off to a great start, up 0.3 for the week and winning the 8PM slot.  PRIMETIME was up 0.1, and while that was only enough for 3rd place at 9PM, it was a closely-bunched trio.  But then 20/20 fell flat at 10PM, down 0.3 from last week.

CW:  NIKITA held at a 0.5, and although SUPERNATURAL was down 0.1, its 0.7 is still solid for CW.

Tomorrow night's big event is the GRAMMYS, the one night of the year CBS pretends it's hip.  The show scored a 9.9 last year (up a bit from the year before), and faces all-new episodes on ABC and FOX, plus a 2-hour FEAR FACTOR special on NBC.

A night of virtually all-new programming brought in plenty of viewers.

CBS:  Back with new episodes for the first time in over a month, the network was up across the board by 0.2-0.4.  On a night where football reigned, that didn't win any hours, but bodes very well for when the atypical competition is gone.

NBC:  Even poor CHUCK got an upswing as it enters its final month of existence, albeit to a 1.0.  The night's only rerun, GRIMM, couldn't even beat CW in its hour.

CW:  Both NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL were up 0.1 from their pre-hiatus episodes, giving them solid numbers for that network.

ABC:  EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION, on the verge of fading into non-regular programming, was up to 1.4-1.6 over its 2 hours.  With a new Blue Bloods on hand at 10PM, 20/20 fell into 4th place (because FOX was still airing its game) for its hour.

FOX:  The COTTON BOWL didn't score a huge number (its final rating, probably somewhere around a 3, will be determined early next week when national numbers are released), but it was strong enough to win every hour of the night.

Sunday's schedule will bring plenty to keep an eye on:  CBS will be all new (and will start the night with a sure-to-be-massive overrun from the Denver/Pittsburgh NFL playoff game), ABC and FOX are also stocked with fresh episodes, and NBC debuts its much-hyped series version of THE FIRM.  But a lot of the action will also be taking place elsewhere, as Showtime debuts HOUSE OF LIES and brings back SHAMELESS  and CALIFORNICATION, and PBS, of all networks, achieves relevance with the return of the beloved DOWNTON ABBEY.  

It turns out that while Americans are football crazy, they're not crazy.

FOX:  The first-ever PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, in which UCLA was never close to nationally-ranked Oregon, could only manage a dismal 1.4 rating in 18-49s (although given the West Coast focus of the game, that could come up in final national ratings).  On a night when hardly anyone was watching network TV, though, that was enough to tie CBS for the lead.

CBS:   A GIFTED MAN, CSI NY and BLUE BLOODS were all down, with none scoring above a 1.6, but that still won every timeslot except 8PM.

NBC:  One hopes that whatever advertiser deal NBC made to put GAME OF YOUR LIFE on their air and disrupt the run of Grimm was worth it, because the TV-movie did a genuinely pitiful 0.5 rating.  That lowered DATELINE to a 1.0.

ABC:  EXTREME MAKEOVER was down at 8PM and even at 9PM, then a Beyonce interview on 20/20 (plus the hit Dateline took) provided a marginal benefit at 10PM.

CW:  No one cared about NIKITA's midseason finale at 8PM, as the show fell to a 0.5.  SUPERNATURAL recovered at 9PM to a 0.7, which is OK by CW standards.

Well, the good news for A GIFTED MAN is that it's not cancelled.  It even has a "back order."  However, it's about as begrudging as a back order can be:  far from the usual 9 additional episodes, Gifted Man will only get 3 extra, for a season total of 16.  This smacks of a network needing product for a few weeks rather than any enthusiasm for keeping a show on the air, but it allows the series a tiny bit of breathing room before departing on what may be a very long hiatus.

The Eye also cut the season order for RULES OF ENGAGEMENT from 18 episodes to 13 (in addition, there are 2 unaired episodes shot for last season, so the series will air 15 in all).  In this case, the decision isn't by any means necessarily a death knell for the reliable comedy, which has been performing quite decently Thursdays in the 8:30PM slot.  CBS needs the extra space to launch its new Rob Schneider comedy ROB! in that prime post-Big Bang Theory slot, starting in January.

CBS also announced that the new season of UNDERCOVER BOSS will take over THE AMAZING RACE's Sunday slot following the end of Race's current cycle, with the competition show to return at a later date.  Boss will be competing with the new hit Once Upon A Time, FOX's cartoons, and a combination of Dateline and Harry's Law in the slot.

The small fluttering bit of NBC's fall that was still breathing may have started to die last night.

NBC:  GRIMM didn't win its timeslot last night, after another 15% drop.  On Friday night, a 1.5 is still a decent number (good enough for 2d place in the 9PM hour last night), but the show's momentum is clearly moving the wrong way, and the network will be hard-pressed to justify calling the show a "hit"--not that that's likely to stop them.  CHUCK continued its creep to the TV graveyard 

CBS:  A GIFTED MAN's 1.2 was on par with its season track record and good enough for 2d place in its timeslot, but the network will have to decide very soon whether that's good enough to survive.  BLUE BLOODS took a hit at 10PM, possibly because of a promotable 20/20 on ABC.

FOX:  FRINGE hit a series low 1.1, and that's low indeed.  The series has a full season order, so it'll have plenty of time to see how Grimm plays out before there's any need to panic.  KITCHEN NIGHTMARES had an easy win at 8PM.

ABC:  EXTREME MAKEOVER was nowhere to be found at 8PM (just 0.2 above Nikita on the CW), but the 10PM 20/20 was way up over last week.

CW:  Both NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL were within the 0.6-0.8 CW norm.

The absence of World Series Game 7 didn't have the dramatic impact that might have been expected.

NBC:  Hey, GRIMM won its timeslot, that's something NBC doesn't get to say very damn often this season.  So:  success.  A back 9 order may very well be around the corner from a network craving anything that looks like good news.  But the spin on last week's 2.1 rating was that only baseball had held it back, and yet with far less competition this week, the number is down 15%.  If it declines even a bit more, in 2 weeks it may no longer be winning its hour.  So:  success?  Meanwhile, the network has to be concerned by the godawful 0.8 lead-in Grimm is getting from CHUCK, which is tantamount to starting the night with a rerun.  If any show on NBC right now needs a strong lead-in, it's Grimm, but with its depleted stocks, the network may not have one to give it.

CBS:  A GIFTED MAN's chances for a full-season pick-up weren't helped by showing no additional signs of life with the World Series out of the way.  BLUE BLOODS had a commanding win against the 2 newsmagazines at 10PM, almost outrating both of them combined. 

FOX:  Even though FRINGE was up only a tenth from its last new episode, it deserves a little credit:  that was after a 3-week gap (a rerun and the World Series intervening), and versus the new and hugely-publicized direct competition of Grimm.  The show will never draw big numbers, but its fans are loyal.

ABC:  EXTREME MAKEOVER HOME EDITION benefited from the end of baseball, and both hours did OK.  20/20 was only a tenth below Dateline at 10PM.

CW:  Baseball didn't mean much to this network's audience, and its shows stayed on track.

The night was dominated by the World Series, but there was some fairy tale news from an unexpected place.

NBC:  All things considered, it could have gone worse for the premiere of GRIMM.  A lot worse.  Although of course it didn't win its hour against the Series, its 2.1 rating was by far the largest non-baseball number of the night, and it more than doubled its CHUCK lead-in.  This was likely the toughest competition Grimm will ever face, so unlike most series premieres, its rating could actually increase in subsequent weeks, and even if it holds where it is, that would make it a genuine Friday hit.  It would be an understatement to say this is welcome news for the Peacock.  (Although they must be dreaming about what the rating might have been if the show had premiered on a normal night.)

FOX:  This is why, for all the turmoil baseball causes to its fall schedule, FOX is still in the baseball business.  A giant rating for a Friday (even though this network has its regrets too, as the game would have been even bigger had it been played as originally scheduled on Thursday).

ABC:  A non-factor against the enormous competition.

CBS:  They took their glove and went home, airing repeats for the night. Interestingly, the 8PM repeat of A GIFTED MAN didn't do that much worse than original episodes have been doing in the slot.

CW:  Even for a Game 7, their audience isn't interested, and the numbers were pretty much the same as last week.  

There's going to be a 7th game of the 2011 World Series, and when it's over, either Texas or St. Louis will be the winner.

The loser, though, will be NBC.

GRIMM, the network's last chance for a new fall hit and the subject of exhaustive promotional efforts, just smashed against an exceptionally high outfield wall.  Even diminished by a Friday airing, a World Series Game 7 is the one baseball game of the year that's a sure-fire ratings hit. NBC can, and very well may, try to stunt the premiere by re-airing it in one or more slots during the next week, but you can never recreate the moment of premiere, and with mixed reviews, the series will have a tough time capturing the momentum it might have had.  (Also part of the collateral damage, of course:  the final season premiere of cult favorite CHUCK.  And the depressed ratings for all the other networks won't help CBS's A GIFTED MAN, which is hanging on for dear life as its back order decision point draws ever closer.)

For NBC, it's like they say at the end of unfortunate baseball seasons:  Wait till next year.

It was a good day for most of the bubble shows on the CBS schedule, as the network handed out back-orders to UNFORGETTABLE and PERSON OF INTEREST (joining 2 Broke Girls).  Neither of these shows are performing very impressively--Unforgettable is doing about as well in its Tuesday 10PM slot as The Good Wife did last year, and that show was moved to another night; Person Of Interest is below CSI's score both last year in its Thursday 9PM slot and this season in its new home of Wednesday 10PM.  But both are Good Enough:  CBS tends to be patient in any case, neither is flopping, and the network has a slim bench of midseason 1-hours (just the cop show The 2-2) to play with.

Conspicuously absent from the announcement was any news about the remaining new CBS series A GIFTED MAN--not even an order for additional scripts.  This can't be good, although the show will continue to get some more rope on Friday nights before said rope is cut.

In other back order news, reports are that PAN AM will get some breathing room from ABC despite its languishing ratings, now that a new showrunner is being added to the flight crew.  Steven Maeda is a veteran of CSI Miami, Miami Medical and Lie To Me, and one assumes that his arrival will also mean a new creative tone for the series, hopefully including some consistency about whether it's a soap or a spy thriller.

A quiet night, but there was some stirrings of change thanks to ABC.

ABC:  EXTREME MAKEOVER:  HOME EDITION made its Friday debut (it will ultimately be joined by Shark Tank), and while the 8PM episode didn't do much, the show zoomed forward at 9PM to come within 0.1 of CSI NY.  That was followed by a promotable 20/20 (interview with a Bernie Madoff relative), which made the most of its lead-in to take the hour.

CBS:  Despite the ABC onslaught, their numbers remained very solid (although in A GIFTED MAN's case, at a low level), with nothing moving more than 0.1 from last week.  

NBC:  Next week, the network will make its real Friday push with the debuts of CHUCK and GRIMM.  8PM remained low-rated reruns, but DATELINE was bruised by the ABC shows, down by a third from last week.  (One sidelight to NBC's decision to push the Grimm premiere by a week is that critics are by and large ignoring the delay and reviewing the show this weekend, partly because it ties in so well with their reviews of Sunday's similarly-themed Once Upon A Time.  The reviews have been mixed, so this may not end up meaning much, but as a result, when Grimm really does arrive next week, comparatively few reviews will run in the media to greet it.)

FOX:  KITCHEN NIGHTMARES won its hour steadily, and the network ran a repeat of FRINGE at 9PM.

CW:  NIKITA was up, SUPERNATURAL was down, but in both cases by only 0.1, so hard to make any judgments.

Fridays are quiet in any case, but with 2 of the networks waiting to launch their "real" schedules, last night was nearly inaudible.

CBS:  Although A GIFTED MAN upticked slightly last night, it seems clear that the show won't reach the level of the network's other Friday shows (and the competition is about to get tougher).  CBS will have to decide whether they can live with those numbers.

FOX:  The network has allowed FRINGE to survive with ratings at the current level; we'll find out in the next few weeks if the show can sustain there against the new rivals about to appear in its timeslot.

NBC:  Biding its time until GRIMM and CHUCK arrive in 2 weeks.

ABC:  Biding its time until EXTREME MAKEOVER arrives next Friday (and then SHARK TANK the following week), although they have to be gratified that their LAST MAN STANDING reruns more than doubled NBC's rerun combo of THE OFFICE/PARKS & REC.  That bodes well for next Tuesday's rating.

CW:  When you're scoring a 0.5 like NIKITA did last week, a 0.6 can seem like good times.

Fridays are only half a real night for the broadcast networks right now, so it stands to reason that they get only half the ratings.

CBS:  Will the network accept a 1.2 from A GIFTED MAN?  (And, to be fair, along with it an older audience that gives the show double the all-ages number of anything else in the slot.)  CBS doesn't have an enormous bench of 1-hours for midseason, so the answer probably hinges on whether there's a show airing elsewhere in the week that they want to move to Fridays.  We probably won't know that for a some time yet.  Even though BLUE BLOODS and CSI NY are winning their hours, their 18-49 numbers are down 10% and 20%, respectively, from last season.

FOX:  FRINGE stopped the bleeding, and the network seems to be OK with it at its current 1.3, so fans can breathe easy for another week.

NBC:  In a holding pattern until CHUCK and GRIMM debut on October 28.  It's interesting to note, though, that for the next couple of weeks Whitney will be airing 3x per week on the network:  original episodes on Thursdays, and reruns on Wednesdays and Fridays.

ABC:  Holding pattern until EXTREME MAKEOVER and SHARK TANK arrive later this month.

CW:  Even by the CW's standards, it doesn't seem likely NIKITA can survive very long with a 0.5.  Creatively, the show has been adrift this year too, with all the characters pursuing separate ends that make the show feel more like a procedural than ever.

2 BROKE GIRLS - Even those (like I) who don't particularly love the show have to respect the way it fits into CBS's Monday night schedule.  With its addition, the 8-10PM hours on CBS are the most effective ensemble on TV.

CSI:  The addition of Ted Danson and consequent reboot couldn't have worked out better for an aging series that's now convincingly winning its new timeslot.

UNFORGETTABLE - This should have been a perfect CBS procedural, but while it's not a flop, its ratings have been soft, just a bit ahead of Parenthood.  With so much of the schedule--and especially Tuesday night--performing well, it's not clear how patient the network will be with it (even though it would already have gotten a back order from NBC).

PERSON OF INTEREST - It's a bit of a puzzle why this show isn't doing better.  As procedurals go, it's high-quality and has an intriguing premise, yet it's holding 4th place in its hour.  A timeslot move is more likely than an early removal.

HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN:  It's only aired once, so judgment is premature, but it certainly didn't get off to a good start.  If it squanders most of Big Bang's lead, it won't be around for long.

THE GOOD WIFE - Any hope that the move to Sunday would find a wider audience for this excellent show seems to have been in vain.  It's the only true prestige show on CBS's schedule, so it's unlikely to be at great risk as long as its numbers stay stable, but it may not keep its Sunday slot for the entire season.

CSI MIAMI - Being pushed downward by Good Wife.

A GIFTED MAN - It's OK to have low ratings on Friday night compared to any other night of the week (except Saturday).  But Gifted Man is in Fringe territory with a 1.2.  Any further slippage and the patient may die on the table.

GRADE:  B

It being a Friday, not a single show on network television could even manage a 2 rating in 18-49s.  Even within that narrow radius, though, there was room to be a loser.

CBS:  A GIFTED MAN (see our Pilot + 1 Review) had little room to fall after a blah debut, and now it has none at all:  its 14% drop from the premiere isn't a bad retention, but its 1.2 rating is considerably lower than anything else on the network's Friday, and although the show easily wins the timeslot with older viewers, it may be doomed if it drops any lower.  BLUE BLOODS and CSI:  NY held up the flag for original scripted programming on Fridays.

FOX:  FRINGE's 1.2 was a bad 20% drop from the season premiere, and the show is again stepping dangerously close to the area where FOX will finally give up on it.

NBC:  The network again went the promo route in the night's first hour, repeating UP ALL NIGHT and WHITNEY to negligible results.  DATELINE was down considerably from last week, but still pulled a decent number for 2 hours.

ABC:  Promo runs of MODERN FAMILY, SUBURGATORY and PAN AM at least hit a 1.0 or more, but of course those shows were more successful than NBC's to begin with.  With a weaker Dateline as competition, 20/20 even edged up a bit.

It was a sleepy first Friday for premiere week.

CBS:  The network's marketing team doesn't have all that much to boast about this week:  2 Broke Girls had a monster opening, but that was because of its even more monstrous 2 1/2 Men lead-in, and now A GIFTED MAN follows Unforgettable and Person of Interest in generating only moderate interest.  A 1.4 isn't necessarily a death sentence on Fridays, but being CBS's lowest-rated show on the night might be; certainly any further decline in that number would be cause for alarm.  Blue Bloods and CSI New York both opened around their season averages.

FOX:  At this point, the FRINGE audience is what it is, within a couple of tenths of a point.  Its 1.5 last night was in line with the numbers it was doing on Fridays when it was renewed last spring, so presumably if it can stick around that level, it'll continue to survive. 

CW:  Not a surprise that NIKITA took a hit away from its strong Vampire Diaries lead-in on Thursdays. but even by the CW's standards, 0.6 is a tiny number, and if it falls any further, the show may be in trouble.   Supernatural's 0.8 looks comparatively strong.

NBC:  The Peacock used the first hour of the night for promo purposes, repeating UP ALL NIGHT and WHITNEY to limited results.  DATELINE perked up nicely for the remainder of the evening.

ABC:  Also went the promo route, with MODERN FAMILY and REVENGE repeats for the viewers who don't have or know how to use their DVRs.  20/20 wasn't a factor at 10PM.