Movie Box Review

NBC can't put away that Alka-Seltzer just yet.

NBC:  THE VOICE, down only around 10% from last week's huge rating, is in great shape at 8PM, and those 2 strong hours pretty much guarantee NBC Monday wins the rest of the season.  So far so good.  But nightly wins aside, an enormous amount of NBC's stature and even its identity has been wagered this season on SMASH, and that part of the night is still unsettled.  Last night, Smash's 2.8 was down about 25% from last week, and as Mitch Metcalf details, that number went down sharply at the half-hour mark.  Right now the show can still fairly be called a hit, winning its hour against CBS and ABC.  But its margin of victory was a shrinking 0.2 (and really it only won the 10-10:30PM half-hour), so the show needs to stabilize quickly.  As I noted in my Pilot + 1 review, creatively the 2d episode started to show some dramatic strain, and NBC will hope those are rectified before more viewers depart. 

FOX:  The Voice is killing ALCATRAZ, which fell by almost half an additional ratings point to another season low.  (Terra Nova fans, stop grinning.)  The show has dropped 40% from its premiere rating.  HOUSE also fell to a new season low, but by a slimmer 0.1, and besides, the series is now officially a lame duck, so its troubles are more short-term.

ABC:  THE BACHELOR and CASTLE continue to hold their own against the NBC competition, with Bachelor down only 0.1 from last week and Castle (with a much-hyped 2-part Bourne-type spy plot) dead even.

CBS:  What the hell happened to HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, 2 BROKE GIRLS and 2 1/2 MEN last night?  All of them had steep falls to new season lows, down 0.6, 0.6 and 0.5 from last week even though competition from The Voice was lower this week.  (And so much for any Grammys halo effect.)  Any and all theories are welcome.  MIKE & MOLLY and HAWAII 5-0 were down a more modest 0.1 each, although that still marked a new season low for each of them.

CW:  GOSSIP GIRL, on the downswing of its illustrious career, was down 0.1 to a 0.5, beaten by stablemate HART OF DIXIE, which was even at 0.6.

Tonight ABC finally brings back COUGAR TOWN, with LAST MAN STANDING as the least compatible possible lead-in for that show this side of Man Up!  After that, the network will hope that THE RIVER doesn't collapse further from its unimpressive debut.

For one night, at least, all NBC's dreams came true.

NBC:  THE VOICE blew away its competition, especially in the 9-10PM hour.  Its 6.6 rating over 2 hours was naturally way down from Sunday night, where it had the most-watched telecast of all time as its lead-in, but for NBC it was manna from heaven.  Of course, last season Voice faltered somewhat as its run went on, so we'll see how its numbers hold up over time--still, an exceptional start.  SMASH and its 3.8 were also an easy winner at 10PM.  As Mitch Metcalf has noted, though (see his half-hour by half-hour breakdown of the numbers here), the drop over the course of the hour may be something to be concerned about--by 10:30PM, the show had lost 55% of The Voice's 9:30PM rating.  Next week, we'll find out how frontloaded all of these numbers were by months of expensive hype.  For now, though, the marketing people at NBC can exult in a job superbly well done.  

CBS:  The Eye was tearing in the face of NBC's sudden juggernaut.  Every show on its Monday line-up was either at (2 1/2 MEN, MIKE & MOLLY, HAWAII 5-0) or 0.1 above (HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, 2 BROKE GIRLS) its season low.  That still left the network firmly in 2d place in every half-hour... but 2d place isn't 1st place.

FOX:  HOUSE and ALCATRAZ both plummeted to season lows (Alcatraz was down a particularly ugly 0.6 from last week, leaving it at a very mediocre 2.2), landing in 4th place for the night.

ABC:  Somewhat surprisingly--considering the nature of NBC's new shows--the female-skewing networks held up best against the onslaught.  THE BACHELOR was even with last week, and CASTLE was down only 0.1 from its last original (although that tied its season low).  

CW:  Its young audience was largely unaffected by the sea change at NBC:  GOSSIP GIRL was down only 0.1 from its hyped 100th episode last week, and HART OF DIXIE was even.

Tonight, ABC will attempt to generate some of its own hoopla with the 2-hour premiere of "found footage" supernatural thriller THE RIVER, another series Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg.  No major events on the other networks, but this being sweeps, there are fresh episodes everywhere.

The networks (well, most of them) returned from their winter holidays only to find less viewer interest than they may have hoped.

CBS:  An easy win for the night with an all-new line-up.  But 2 1/2 MEN, MIKE & MOLLY and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER were all down from their last original airings, and 2 BROKE GIRLS and HAWAII 5-0 were only up 0.1.  

ABC:  THE BACHELOR, like many of this season's reality franchises, returned to a significantly lower rating (down 0.5) than last year's premiere.  The good news for the network was that CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP held Bachelor's audience well, scoring about what Castle does in the slot--although it was an out of time slot "preview" before the show makes its official debut tonight.

NBC:  Its "real" Monday schedule won't debut until the night after the Super Bowl, as one of their roughly 9 zillion promos for The Voice and Smash may have told you.  Until then, they're muddling through with 3rd place finishes for WHO'S STILL STANDING and ROCK CENTER, and FEAR FACTOR's tie for 2d at 9PM with The Bachelor's 2.4.  

FOX:  2 hours of HOUSE reruns kept the lights on with a 1.2.

CW:  SECRET CIRCLE reruns barely registered at a 0.3.

Tonight, like last night, NBC, CBS and ABC will air new programming while FOX and CW remain in repeats.  ABC presents the actual premiere of Celebrity Wife Swap, and precedes it, for our sins, with the debut of WORK IT, winner (for the pilot, anyway) of this season's What Is This Show Doing On the Air? award.

Forget about prestige drama and comedy:  it turned out all NBC needed was some dining on bugs.

NBC:  FEAR FACTOR returned to the airwaves with a tremendous 3.4 average over 2 hours.  This is great news for a network that sorely needs some, but it's worth noting that in this same holiday period last year, against mostly specials and repeats, The Sing-Off did a 3.6, a level that prompted the network to bring the show back as a fall series... and we all know how that worked out.  So Fear Factor may be more of a seasonal curiosity than an enduring hit.  Still:  success!  It turns out the cow blood audience doesn't overlap that much with the newsmagazine crowd (who knew?), so the glad tidings didn't extend to ROCK CENTER. 

FOX:  The positive spin on TERRA NOVA matching or setting a season low (depending on football adjustment) is that it was facing much more powerful competition on NBC than it's had all season.  Well, maybe--but it was also yet another lousy (and almost dinosaur-free) episode, as the series prepares next week for its season, and possibly series, finale.  Nobody showed up for the HOUSE repeat at 9PM.

CBS:  The 8PM experiment of putting 2 BROKE GIRLS in HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER's slot wasn't a huge success, scoring a few tenths below Mother's usual number.  On the other hand, most networks would drool for a slot-winning 4.1 rating at 8PM, so the test was hardly an abject failure.  The combination of a Broke Girls repeat at 9:30 and the strong male-oriented competition on NBC hurt 2 1/2 MEN and MIKE & MOLLY; the former set a new season low, and the latter was just a bit above its low.  HAWAII 5-0 was also near the bottom of its range, despite facing a repeat on ABC.

ABC:  Barely present, with ratings for yet another Charlie Brown Xmas special, the flop game-show YOU DESERVE IT and a CASTLE repeat all below a 1.5.

CW:  Repeats, repeats.  

Tonight CBS and FOX air new regular-series episodes, while NBC tries a Prince William & Kate special at 8PM, and ABC, oddly, has a new LAST MAN STANDING leading into a night otherwise in repeats.

Monday has become a real problem for one network and a guaranteed victory for another.

FOX:  Due to the nature of Season 1 production on TERRA NOVA, it was always clear that there wouldn't be any back-order this year.  That leaves FOX with plenty of time to think about whether to renew the show for a second season.  It's become an increasingly problematic decision, because at the show's level of license fee, a 2.3 rating is below mediocre.  (However, on a corporate level FOX owns the series--which may have strong overseas value due to its genre--and that will also figure into the decision.)  It doesn't help that creatively, the show has become sluggish and uninvolving, with minimal dinosaur action and dull plots.  As to HOUSE, reports are that the network's decision on whether to make the deals necessary to bring it back will be made sooner rather than later, so the show can build to a series finale if needed, and that's looking more likely than not right now.

CBS:  Remember the concern that with Charlie Sheen gone, 2 1/2 MEN would collapse?  The show is thriving, with last night's rating more than 30% over last season's average.  That goes for HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and MIKE & MOLLY as well, and 2 BROKE GIRLS, which has eased up on the hostility jokes and become somewhat bearable, is right up there with them.  Spring will bring more challenges with THE VOICE as competition (and SMASH up against HAWAII 5-0), but for now Monday is just about ideal for CBS.

ABC:  A clear winner in the battle of the newsmagazine "gets," the special 20/20 with Gabrielle Giffords more than doubled NBC's number at 10PM.  DANCING WITH THE STARS, while still substantially below last season, is building toward its cycle conclusion.

NBC:  Even with a nationally reported scoop, the interview with allegedly monstrous former Penn State Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky that was in the media all day leading up to the show, ROCK CENTER barely moved the dial.  THE SING-OFF is counting the weeks till it can fade away.

CW:  GOSSIP GIRL and HART OF DIXIE were steady, but at the low end of CW's 0.6-0.8 range, particularly bad news for Gossip.

Tonight FOX will hope that the GLEE/NEW GIRL post-baseball bleeding can heal.

One network dominated all of primetime last night...

FOX:  ...and it wasn't FOX.  You can't call TERRA NOVA a disaster--a 3.1 rating (slightly adjusted from Mitch Metcalf's report) is a decent number these days, and the show did hold its audience solidly through all of the 2-hour premiere--but given the massive hype, not to mention the expense, it's a crushing disappointment.  (Read our Pilot + 1 Review.)  After a summer of giant special effects movies, were viewers tired of spectacle?  Are dinosaurs just out of style?  The FOX executives will be pondering all of that this morning, and waiting for the numbers to settle post-premiere before making any decisions.  But this is an awfully costly show (thirteen Executive Producers) for a mediocre rating.

CBS:  All hail the Eye!  The CBS Monday line-up is starting to look distinctly Must-See-TVish, as every one of its sitcoms did a terrific number last night.  HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (which had a vintage episode last night) was 25% above last year's season average, and 2 BROKE GIRLS (which I simply don't get, but good for Kat Dennings--see our Pilot + 1 Review) built on its lead; then 2 1/2 MEN, even post-premiere event, took things to a new level with a spectacular 7.2, and MIKE & MOLLY held an excellent chunk of that lead-in.  HAWAII 5-0 mostly looked good because of its fading competition, but a 3.3 is nothing to sneeze at in the 10PM slot.

NBC:  The hole just gets deeper.  With PLAYBOY CLUB slumping to a terrible 1.3, the advice here is not to get too emotionally attached.  (Take a look at our Pilot + 1 Review.)   And while SING-OFF's 1.7 was comparatively less awful, it's still mired in 4th place with nowhere to go.  The signature decision of NBC's fall may have been holding off the network's powerhouse pair of The Voice and Smash till winter--they have to be wondering now if they chose right.

ABC:  A 3.2 is a decent enough rating, and and second place for the night isn't bad, but DANCING WITH THE STARS is officially having an off-cycle, and the network will need to bring in an extremely strong cast for Spring (especially against The Voice) to avoid damaging the brand.  Castle did perfectly well holding its lead.

CW:  HART OF DIXIE not only held all of its GOSSIP GIRL lead-in, the show even built in its second half-hour, so it did all the network could have asked in its premiere.  It's just hard to get excited about a 0.8 debut.  With the arrival of Dixie, all of the CW's shows except its Thursday line-up are below a 1, and only Vampire Diaries remains able to launch a new show.  Not good.

Another TV year is officially in the books, and the statuettes have been handed out to prove it.  Since the Emmys end at 8PM LA time for the convenience of East Coast eyes, by midnight the main parties are trailing off, and those winners lucky enough to still have jobs for the new season are heading home, while the after-parties continue for industry players with time on their hands.  Some thoughts on the evening:

THE SHOW:  After a lame opening number (except for the Mad Men section), which couldn't help but pale in comparison to Jimmy Fallon's brilliant opening last year, the show stabilized into being OK.  Jane Lynch had a few good lines as host, although it would have been nice to see her make jokes about something other than being gay.  The all-co-star singing group (Cobie Smulders!  Joel McHale!) that introduced each segment wasn't worth the effort, but the Office parody was borderline brilliant, especially the gag with Jesse from Breaking Bad delivering crystal meth to Creed.  Also funny, and mercifully short:  Ricky Gervais poking fun at his own hosting style.   And thinking of parody, "The Canadian Tenors"--that's a real thing?  At first I thought it was a sequel to the Lonely Island bit, but apparently not; having them sing "Hallelujah" amidst dry ice smoke, accompanying the montage of dead people, was like an idea Mel Brooks deleted from The Producers as too over the top.  

DRAMA:  Some genuinely surprising results, and not in a bad way.  Even though it was too late to do the show any good, some recognition for the writing and acting of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS was long overdue (if only Connie Britton had been allowed to join the party--or if at least the orchestra had let Kyle Chandler thank her when he realized he'd left her out, just a milisecond after he stepped away from the microphone).  The only downside to Chandler's win was that with Bryan Cranston back next year, Jon Hamm may have seen his best chance for an Emmy pass by tonight.  Julianna Margullies was an expected but deserving winner for Actress, and two of the happiest moments of the telecast were seeing Peter Dinklage and Margo Martindale pick up statuettes for their spectacular performances in GAME OF THRONES and JUSTIFIED.  Truthfully, Martin Scorsese's direction of the BOARDWALK EMPIRE pilot wasn't even the best-directed episode of that series, let alone in the category, but his star value made him hard to beat.  After all the wins scattered among various shows, there was actually suspense to the announcement of Best Drama Series--and Matt Weiner looked downright relieved to tie the all-time Emmy record with his 4th consecutive award for MAD MEN.  Which really is, when you get down to it, the best damn show on TV.

COMEDY:  Mostly a parade of MODERN FAMILY victors, all of whom were deserving, gracious and charming (best was Steve Levitan's wife, stealing the show from her seat in the audience with her reaction shots to his speech).  Jim Parsons in BIG BANG THEORY was a surprise only because everyone assumed the Academy would feel Steve Carell was owed recognition for his last OFFICE season--but apparently not.  The shocker, of course, was Melissa McCarthy winning Best Actress for MIKE & MOLLY.  Reflected glory off her star turn in the hit movie Bridesmaids?  Support for an actress who doesn't spend more time in spinning classes than acting class?  The best thing about that category was the idea of all the nominees heading for the stage to stand in beauty pageant solidarity for the opening of the envelope (apparently hatched by Amy Poehler and Martha Plimpton), and their seemingly genuine and united delight when McCarthy won. 

MOVIE/MINISERIES:  The single biggest surprise of the evening was Barry Pepper winning Best Actor for his RFK in THE KENNEDYS--he was admittedly the best thing in the show, but given how odious that particular show was, it's not saying much.  (Too bad he wasn't at the ceremony to enjoy the moment in person.)  Apart from that, it continued to be a surprisingly tough night for HBO, which watched Boardwalk Empire get mostly snubbed in Drama, then saw its MILDRED PIERCE get trounced by PBS' wondrous DOWNTON ABBEY, with Mildred winning statues only for Guy Pearce and of course Kate Winslet.  Who, after all these years of winning every possible award, still seems honestly surprised and delighted to get them (she's the Taylor Swift of spectacularly gifted actresses).    

In all, the Academy managed to avoid any embarrassing wins, while providing a few pleasant surprises.  Not at all bad, as these things go.  And tomorrow:  the new season begins!