Movie Box Review

AMERICAN IDOL's best days are behind it.

FOX:  Idol gave FOX an easy win for the night, but it continues to be 30% below last season, and last night dipped 0.3 from its first Thursday.  It appears as though the show didn't even win the time-slot for its first half-hour, falling behind BIG BANG THEORY on CBS (although Idol recovered at 8:30PM).  Again:  a 5.4 rating these days is still tremendous, and Idol isn't going anywhere, but it's no longer the fearsome beast it's always been.  The best news for FOX last night was that THE FINDER did a very robust 2.9 at 9PM, although the number (which may come down if Idol had an overrun) comes laden with asterisks, as it faced a mix of repeats and atypical competition in its hour.

NBC:  The network let it be known this week that, with much of THE OFFICE cast not under contract after this year, it's already starting to prepare for a post-Office schedule by developing a Rainn Wilson spin-off that could start airing in early 2013.  Last night it got a look at what an Office-less Thursday might look like:  with a fresh 30 ROCK airing at 9PM, not a single show on the once-Must-See night could reach even a 2 rating.  In the Ignominious Department, THE FIRM, even with reruns on the other networks, only scratched its way to 1.0.

CBS:  Big Bang, as noted, seems to have beaten Idol at 8PM, and even though ROB declined at 8:30PM, its 3.5 was still quite strong.  After that it was repeats, although it's worth noting that the MENTALIST rerun at 10PM equaled the combined ratings for NBC and ABC in the hour.

ABC:  Conserving its original episodes for February sweeps, the network was all-repeat last night, with nothing over a 1.5.

CW:  Preempted the schedule for the dreadful theatrical movie The Covenant (featuring a couple of Gossip Girl actors) and managed a 0.5.

Tonight we bid hail and farewell to CHUCK, which was never a breakout hit but managed to hang around fairly entertainingly for 5 seasons. Although series finales are notoriously tricky, up to now the show has remained admirably faithful to its mythology and tone, so let's hope it sticks the landing.

Silent Night = America's TV sets during holiday season...

FOX:  Reality competition shows are supposed to build as contestants are eliminated and the show nears its conclusion.  THE X FACTOR, though, has been steadily slipping, and as it heads into its final week, it's now shed 35% of its early ratings.  The show is still a success for FOX, but like Dancing With the Stars and The Biggest Loser this season, it may reflect an audience that's getting a bit tired of the genre.  BONES was a repeat.

CBS:  PERSON OF INTEREST took some advantage of the fact that for the first time, it didn't air against any regular competition, with reruns on NBC and FOX, and a weak special on ABC--not that it zoomed upward last night, but holding steady from the prior week and a couple of ticks above a low looks like a win at this point.    THE MENTALIST technically faced a new competitor on NBC, but that was a straw foe, and it also held even with last week.  A repeat BIG BANG THEORY at 8PM held down RULES OF ENGAGEMENT at 8:30.

ABC:   A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS was down 10% from last year, and there was coal in the stocking for Katie Couric, whose Year In Review special could only muster a 1.5.

NBC:  Repeats at 8-10PM, with all ratings below a 1 except THE OFFICE's 1.1, set things up for a terrible PRIME SUSPECT result, and the show delivered:  even with a new episode, it barely breathed a 0.8 on its way to the Island of Misfit Television Shows.

CW:  Repeat after me:  Repeats!

Tonight, NBC airs new episodes of CHUCK and GRIMM, and ABC is also all-new.  FOX goes the holiday special route, with yet more Charlie Brown plus ICE AGE and SIMPSONS repeats, and CBS is in rerun mode.

The final Thursday of November sweeps wasn't impressive for anyone.

ABC:  The network had to be disappointed with the 2.5 earned by its 2-hour, much-promoted "intervention" episode of PRIVATE PRACTICE, which was down not only from Grey's Anatomy numbers but even from Practice's 2.8 last week.  (It was, however, a strong episode, especially the first hour written by Shonda Rhimes.)  The Katie Couric/Regis Philbin interview special at 8PM did better than recent episodes of the dead CHARLIE'S ANGELS, but not by much.

FOX:  X FACTOR continued its slide, with last night's 3 its lowest Thursday number by a factor of 10%.  That was, however, still good enough for an easy 2d place finish in its hour.  The news was better for BONES, which capitalized on the absence of Grey's to win at 9PM.  

NBC:  Well, on the plus side COMMUNITY and PARKS AND REC were both up slightly from last week.  But THE OFFICE, despite reduced competition in its hour, tied its season low, and WHITNEY, preparing for its move to Wednesday--where it will have to be a self-starter--hit a new all-time low and went below a 2 for the first time.  The cancelled PRIME SUSPECT played out the string, tying its series low.

CBS:  Even though all its shows except RULES OF ENGAGEMENT were down from last week (and PERSON OF INTEREST and THE MENTALIST both tied their season lows), the network was able to win the night thanks to the absence of Grey's.  

CW:  As the network's Thursday is on hiatus until January, it filled in for the night with an obscure aquatic action movie that happened to star VAMPIRE DIARIES' Paul Wesley.  Even with the temporary and artificial boost of NY and Denver preemptions for the brutal (if you're a Jets fan) football game, the movie did no better than the CW norm, and that will be reduced later today as national numbers come in.

Tonight the Grimm watch will continue for NBC.

With baseball out of the way, last night was a picture of what a "typical" Thursday will look like.

FOX:  The return of BONES was a very healthy 0.6 higher than its season premiere last year (when it was in the 8PM slot), and roughly on par with the numbers it was doing last Spring, when it had American Idol and its 6+ rating as a lead-in.  If it can hold at that level with a 45% lower lead-in from X FACTOR, FOX will be very happy indeed.  X Factor comparisons, meanwhile, are somewhat skewed by the fact that this was the show's first 1-hour episode, meaning that half of its running time faced off with Big Bang Theory on CBS.  With that in mind, a less than 10% drop from its previous Thursday average barely registers.

NBC:  That sigh of relief was the network seeing THE OFFICE return to a rating that starts with a "3".  However, that still puts it in 3rd place for its timeslot.  Otherwise, although the numbers for the night's other shows were all up by 1-3 tenths without baseball competition, not a single show scored over a 2.1.  And it's getting to be time to cut PRIME SUSPECT loose with its sad 1.2 rating.

ABC:  Nothing demonstrates the decreasing importance of November sweeps more than the fact that ABC is using it to burn off episodes of CHARLIE'S ANGELS.  (The last Thursday of Sweeps features a special 20/20 with Regis Philbin followed by a 2-hour PRIVATE PRACTICE ) GREY'S ANATOMY continues to run 20% below last season's average, making Private Practice--which admittedly faces no real competition from NBC in the hour--look comparatively impressive by running even with last year.

CBS:  It's hard to believe CBS is content with PERSON OF INTEREST's 4th place finish in its hour, almost 20% lower than its RULES OF ENGAGEMENT lead-in, but the show's back order suggests otherwise.  Nevertheless, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the network experiment with other programming in the hour.  THE MENTALIST, despite weak competition from NBC in its hour, is running about 10% below last year.

CW:  The network's one successful night continues to hold well, with VAMPIRE DIARIES' 1.5 not all that far behind NBC for the hour.

Tonight is, in a way, the whole Fall for NBC:  if GRIMM, without Game 7 World Series competition, can build or even hold its number from last week, it could win its hour and allow the network to claim an actual 2011 hit.  Also, A GIFTED MAN is nearing its make-or-break moment on CBS.

November sweeps began with a baseball bat in its hand, and for one network, that bat was the one wielded by Robert DeNiro in The Untouchables.

NBC:  A disaster, although its full extent won't be known until the World Series is over next week.  COMMUNITY and PARKS AND RECREATION tied all-time lows (and for those shows, that's really low), and THE OFFICE had its lowest ever rating on a Thursday, which means the network will have zero non-football shows this week with even a 3 rating.  NBC could take a tiny bit of solace from the 0.1 uptick for WHITNEY, but all that promotional effort this week aimed at PRIME SUSPECT came to naught, with an even lower rating than last week's episode.  And the news just gets worse:  Awake, the midseason multiple-dimension cop show that would be the obvious substitute for Suspect in the Thursday lineup, has been forced to take an unscheduled break in production for several weeks because of script problems.  And the cherry on the whipped cream on the network's cake is that tonight's series premiere of GRIMM will have to launch against the first World Series Game 7 in 9 years.   Truly:  Ow.

ABC  It's nice to be a female-skewing network when the competition is a sports event.  IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, from 1966, doubled what Charlie's Angels had been doing at 8PM (but why are Angels episodes still scheduled for the next 2 sweep Thursdays?).  Then GREY'S ANATOMY and even PRIVATE PRACTICE were up, despite the fact that FOX doesn't usually air programming in the 10PM hour.

CBS:  A little bruised by baseball, with the 8-10PM shows all down from last week.  Surprisingly, though, even against the unusual FOX competition, THE MENTALIST held even with last week.  (Note:  rather than face World Series Game 7 tonight, the network has substituted reruns for their entire schedule.  This means the next 1 or 2 ratings for A GIFTED MAN will be life-or-death for that show.)

FOX:  We don't know just what the network's number was last night due to time-zone adjustments for live sports, but we know it was good.  Last night and tonight are the reasons there's still some value for the network in staying in the baseball business. 

CW:  Their target audience of women 18-34 has little interest in baseball, and both VAMPIRE DIARIES and SECRET CIRCLE did just fine.  (Vampire tied NBC in its first half-hour, and its rating was higher than Prime Suspect's).

On what has traditionally been the flagship night for network television, a mostly subdued start.

NBC:  Amidst the carnage of its premiere week, finally there was a tenuous hour of good news for the Peacock.  THE OFFICE held very well at a 3.9, almost even with its average last season, and that was followed by a solid 3.2 for the debut of WHITNEY.  Now, last night was a big event episode for The Office, because Steve Carell's successor as office manager was finally revealed (see our reboot review), so we'll see how those numbers hold up next week.  (Also, when quarter-hour numbers become available later today, we'll see how many people who tried Whitney out stayed to the end of the show.  UPDATE:  the quarter-hours indicate about a 20% decline from the first half-hour to the second, suggesting some viewer dissatisfaction.)  For now, though, NBC Marketing can breathe a sigh of relief that they've successfully launched a show.  Not too much of a sigh, however:  after Whitney, PRIME SUSPECT was a total bust with a sad 1.8 (UPDATE:  and a 25% decline from the beginning of the hour to the end makes the story even worse).  The 8PM hour also wasn't anything to brag about, with the terrific PARKS & RECREATION only managing a 2, and the equally marvelous COMMUNITY (come on, that 2001 sequence was sheer brilliance) just a 1.7, in both cases below last season's average.

CBS:  Good news!  THE BIG BANG THEORY had the single highest rating of the night, a robust 4.9.  Bad news!  The massively hyped PERSON OF INTEREST, even with a full-hour Big Bang lead-in, was thoroughly unimpressive with a 3.1 (UPDATE:  although it at least held steady with only about a 10% drop during the hour)--that makes 2 procedurals, with Unforgettable, that CBS Marketing couldn't get going this year.  The Mentalist, too, didn't show much, with a 2.8 season premiere below last year's average.  (Although in its defense, it faced atypical competition from ABC.)

ABC:  Nobody was longing for a reboot of CHARLIE'S ANGELS, and it managed only a dismal 2.1 debut  (UPDATE:  it grew slightly during the hour, but that's probably a function of viewership rising between 8-9PM).  (Hey--after the failed retreads of Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night, The Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, Killer Elite, Straw Dogs, Prime Suspect and now Charlie's Angels, could we maybe call a halt to remakes from the 1970s-90s for a while?  Huh?  I know Battlestar Galactica was brilliant, but that was about 1 in 100.  And yes, I'm aware a new Footloose is on the way.  Shoot me now.  End of rant.)  And the 2-hour GREY'S ANATOMY premiere with its 4.1 didn't even hit last year's average.  

FOX:  So, like, who won the night?  That would be FOX, with Night 2 of X-FACTOR.  No, it's not Idol or Voice, but it looks like it's going to be a sturdy performer for the network, and 2-4 hours of a reliable 4+ rating in your pocket every week is enough to make any network head happy.

CW:  VAMPIRE DIARIES, possibly because of the increased competition on the night, slipped to a 1.2, and more worrisome, SECRET DIARIES fell below a 1 rating.  Nothing to panic about in the CW world of ratings just yet, but not happy news either.

Tonight, the only major debut is CBS's A GIFTED MAN, but for some of us there is a huge event this evening:  FRINGE is back!  And maybe we'll find out if Peter still exists in a parallel universe where Community is a hit...