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Showing posts with label castle. Show all posts

Showing posts with label castle. Show all posts

THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

10:21 AM | Labels: alcatraz, bachelor, castle, dixie, hawaii, Monday, network scorecard, next top model, smash, The Sked, The Voice, TV ratings

SMASHWatch is grinning this morning, but should it be?

NBC: Airing against repeats on both of the other networks, SMASH was up a big 0.4 to 2.7, a healthy number for any 10PM drama these days. So... yay? Maybe, but the show itself continues to get markedly worse, moving with near-rocket speed from "potential Emmy contender" to "disappointing" to just plain "not good." Smash, very sadly, is becoming a collection of unbelievable characters, unmotivated bitchfest scenes and bad, on-the-nose dialogue, with increasingly painful plot developments (was it just me, or did last night's final sequence suggest the writers had been watching "On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady on Autorepeat?). But I digress: the rating was, no question about it, very good. Apart from the ABC/CBS repeats, it helped that lead-in THE VOICE was also up 0.7 from last week, confirming its new place as the big bad reality show of the season.

FOX: 2 hours of ALCATRAZ matched its series low at 1.8, coming in below not just the new programming on NBC and ABC, but the repeat sitcoms on CBS. (If anyone can make sense of the mythology on this show, congratulations. Although Parminder Nagra will never have a better job, since for half the season she's been collecting a paycheck for lying comatose in an infirmary bed.)

ABC: THE BACHELOR, airing the last episode before its season finale, continued at a very steady 2.5 (every episode this year has scored within a 0.3 ratings window), and was followed by a CASTLE rerun.

CBS: An all-repeat night. Notably, all the sitcoms were down 20-30% from their January repeats in the pre-Voice era. HAWAII 5-0 won the 10PM rerun battle with Castle, although both were far behind Smash.

CW: A frankly weird night of repeat numbers. AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL was just 0.1 below the original airing of the same episode last week (and dead even with last Monday's new episode of GOSSIP GIRL), and the repeat HART OF DIXIE was only 0.1 behind last week's new episode.

Tonight, FOX debuts its 4-sitcom line-up, with RAISING HOPE moving to 8PM, I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER returning at 8:30PM, and the season premiere of BREAKING IN following a very good episode of NEW GIRL at 9:30PM. CBS is the only network in repeats, although ABC will toss a rerun of BODY OF PROOF on at 10PM.

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THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:22 AM | Labels: 2 1/2 Men, 2 broke girls, alcatraz, bachelor, castle, gossip, Hart of Dixie, House, How I Met Your Mother, Monday, network scorecard, smash, The Sked, The Voice, TV ratings

So much for SMASH being a hit.

NBC: Leaving the numbers aside for a moment, on a dramatic level SMASH after 3 episodes is starting to lose its practically-cable sheen, and look a lot more like a high-class ABC soap. The post-pilot episodes haven't even been as good as a typical Parenthood or The Good Wife, much less Mad Men. And those numbers continue to crumble: last night's 2.3 was down 40% from the premiere, and as Mitch Metcalf's analysis shows, the drop in the show's 2d half-hour suggests the ratings aren't done falling. It's only fair to say that if Smash could just stabilize where it is, that would still be a very good number for NBC, on a level with The Office, still the network's highest-rated scripted show. And as The Sked has noted, the series appeals to the upscale viewers that advertisers covet. But... coming in 2d place to Hawaii 5-0 (and not that far ahead of Castle in 3d place) is hardly where NBC wanted Smash to be. On the very important plus side for the the network, though, THE VOICE is holding beautifully, down less than 15% over 3 weeks, and enabling NBC to keep airing those promos asserting domination over once-untouchable American Idol.

FOX: The Monday lineup is nearing bottom but may not have gotten there yet. HOUSE and ALCATRAZ were both slightly down from last week, and Alcatraz had its 2d consecutive week below the lowest number Terra Nova ever had.

CBS: HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, 2 BROKE GIRLS and 2 1/2 MEN all recovered some of last week's losses, but each continues to run below its level from the first time facing The Voice . MIKE & MOLLY and HAWAII 5-0 were steady, albeit at or just above season lows.

ABC: THE BACHELOR and CASTLE were steady, 0.1 above their respective season lows.

CW: GOSSIP GIRL and HART OF DIXIE both held with last week at 0.5 and 0.6 respectively.

Fans of COUGAR TOWN could be in for a rough night if its rating drops further from last week's blah debut. THE RIVER also needs to hit some smoother water. FOX airs the "midseason finale" of GLEE (next Tuesday there's a 2-hour Idol, then the network launches its 4-sitcom experiment). Everything continues to be new as February sweeps continue, except that CW is burdening RINGER with the terrible lead-in of a HART OF DIXIE rerun.

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THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

9:42 AM | Labels: 2 1/2 Men, 2 broke girls, alcatraz, bachelor, castle, gossip, hart, hawaii, House, How I Met Your Mother, Mike and Molly, Monday, network scorecard, smash, The Sked, The Voice, TV ratings

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.

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THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

9:55 AM | Labels: 2 1/2 Men, 2 broke girls, alcatraz, bachelor, castle, gossip, hart, hawaii, House, How I Met Your Mother, Mike and Molly, Monday, network scorecard, smash, The Sked, The Voice, TV ratings

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.

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THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

10:41 AM | Labels: alcatraz, bachelor, castle, gossip, Monday, network scorecard, rockers, The Sked, TV ratings

America is willing to follow FOX behind bars.

FOX: The 2-hour launch of ALCATRAZ went very well, with a solid 3.3 that held throughout the broadcast. That put the network squarely in 2d place for the night behind CBS's blockbuster line-up. If the show can manage not to collapse the way Terra Nova did, FOX will be quite happy with the result. (A renewable Alcatraz may also mean the end of at least one of Terra Nova or House, both of which are precariously on the bubble right now.)

NBC: The nation's love affair with Betty White continues, as her 90TH BIRTHDAY SPECIAL and a preview of her reality show OFF THEIR ROCKERS did a 2.7 and 2.6, respectively. That was good enough for 3d place, which for NBC on Mondays is a win. Having a decent lead-in for once even helped ROCK CENTER, which hit a series high 1.3, although that still left it mired far behind its competition in the hour.

ABC: THE BACHELOR, yet another reality franchise showing its age, was at a 2.4, 4th place in its 2 hours (although admittedly that was facing stronger competition than usual). CASTLE held even, closer to its season low than its high.

CBS: The other networks can throw whatever they like at the Monday night line-up, and CBS just laughs: all its shows were within 0.2 of their last few numbers, and the network won every half-hour of the night. The only remaining Monday question of the season is whether NBC's mega-hyped new line-up can put a dent in CBS when it premieres... when is it? Oh right, the night after the Super Bowl. I forget.

CW: GOSSIP GIRL, which used to have a crisp self-mocking wit that made it a guilty pleasure, continues its decline, both creatively (Blair gets religion?) and in the ratings, tying its 0.6 series low. The latest in a seemingly endless series of HART OF DIXIE repeats (but not really--new episodes return next week) barely registered.

Tonight FOX airs new episodes of GLEE, NEW GIRL and RAISING HOPE, CW brings back 90210, and on cable, USA starts the winter part of its WHITE COLLAR season. But the bigger event is the return of JUSTIFIED on FX, coming off a superb Season 2 but this time without spectacular villain Margo Martindale.

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THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:01 AM | Labels: bachelor, castle, fear factor, House, Monday, rock center, The Sked, TV ratings, who's still standing

A night mostly on pause for college football.

ABC: Although the network took the night, it wasn't able to make as much hay with its female-skewing programming as one might have expected, on an evening where the main event was the BCS Championship college football game on ESPN. THE BACHELOR, facing repeats on 3 networks, lost 0.2 from its season premiere, and then CASTLE, airing a new episode for the first time in over a month, was a lot closer to its season low than its high.

NBC: WHO'S STILL STANDING? did what it's been doing, up 0.1 from its Monday night average. FEAR FACTOR, predictably, hit a season low 2.2 with its male-skewing crowd, and it dragged ROCK CENTER to a 0.8 series low. NBC is just counting the Mondays (3 more) until it launches its new Voice/Smash line-up... what was that day again? Oh yes, the night after the Super Bowl. If only they'd air some promos to remind people...

CBS: The Rerun King came within 0.1 of winning the night with no original programming at all.

FOX: ALCATRAZ premieres next week; meanwhile, 2 rerun episodes of HOUSE managed a 1.1.

CW: The long draught of repeat Mondays is nearly over, but last night was another pair of 0.3s.

Tonight, the 2d episode of WORK IT airs, and we'll find out what word-of-mouth has wrought. ABC, CBS and NBC air new regular episodes, while FOX and CW remain in repeats.

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THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

10:38 AM | Labels: 2 broke girls, 2.5 Men, castle, fear factor, Mike and Molly, Monday, network scorecard, terra, The Sked, TV ratings, you deserve it

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.

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THE SKED'S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

4:49 PM | Labels: castle, charlie brown, country, gossip, hart, How I Met Your Mother, Monday, prep and landing, rock center, Sing-Off, The Sked, TV ratings, you deserve it

For CBS on Mondays, the other networks can huff and puff and put specials on the air, but they can't blow The Eye's house down.

CBS: Against atypical competition almost across the board, all their hits were big winners, and all within 0.2 of their last original episodes.

ABC: Their best number of the night by far was for the umpteenth repeat of 1965's A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (although its 2.8 was still way below competitor HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER with a 4.5 on CBS). After that, a PREP AND LANDING held the Charlie Brown audience pretty well, but YOU DESERVE IT was a disastrous 1.0, and CASTLE rebounded as best it could to a 2.0, its season low.

FOX: The AMERICAN COUNTRY AWARDS were below Terra Nova's lowest score, let alone House.

NBC: Must we speak of this? NBC's average for 3 hours of primetime was a 1.0, which would be unacceptable even on a Saturday. The number of people who didn't want to watch a SING-OFF Christmas special was exceeded only by those who wanted no part of ROCK CENTER. And there are still 2 months of Mondays until The Voice and Smash arrive...

CW: GOSSIP GIRL has clearly jumped the shark with a 0.6, low even by CW standards. (We'll see if the car crash that ended the midseason finale brings people back in January.) However, HART OF DIXIE is finding an audience, again significantly up from its lead-in.

Tonight is another December hodgepodge, with repeats on CBS against new episodes on FOX, while ABC throws Middle and Suburgatory reruns into the Dancing With the Stars Results slot, and NBC regales us with a Michael Buble Christmas special for our sins.

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THE SKED: Monday Ratings - Network Scorecard

10:39 AM | Labels: 2 1/2 Men, castle, dancing, Monday, network scorecard, rock center, Sing-Off, terra, The Sked, TV ratings

It was all trick and no treat last night, especially for one of the networks.

FOX: The network can blame Halloween for distracting some of its family audience, and cite the atypical competition from ABC's Shrek special, but a 2.1 for TERRA NOVA is still quite alarming. With only a few episodes remaining until its December season finale (FOX had previously said this season would have only 13 episodes), the network will be right to worry until it sees whether the show can rebound next week. HOUSE was also dismal at 9PM, so the goblins were definitely out at Murdoch Manor.

NBC: ROCK CENTER debuted with a 1.0 rating even lower than Playboy Club had been doing, which won't make the network affiliates who inherit the 10PM numbers for their local news very happy. That was well below even the lousy SING-OFF lead-in, which garnered a 1.4. At this point, NBC is just counting the days until Friday, when they'll find out if the Grimm premiere was a fluke or something that resembles a success.

CBS: Everything was down (and will likely come down further in final national numbers, due to San Diego coverage of the ESPN game), but not badly. As of now, last night's 2 1/2 MEN is still running almost 20% ahead of last season's average.

ABC: The SHREK cartoon repeat did nothing much at 8PM (although not that far below Terra Nova), and may have contributed to DANCING WITH THE STARS' depressed rating, pushing it to a start time out of its usual slot. The arrival of Rock Center seemed to boost CASTLE.

CW: Their audience is doing other things on Halloween night, so as is traditional for them, they aired reruns.

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THE SKED: Monday Ratings - Network Scorecard

10:11 AM | Labels: castle, dancing, gossip, hawaii, House, network scorecard, Prime Suspect, Sing-Off, terra, The Sked, TV ratings

Baseball threw FOX--sorry--a curveball, but there was plenty of bad news for everyone last night.

FOX: Since the playoff game lasted until 8:52PM eastern time, it isn't clear why FOX didn't just fill in the 8 minutes left in the hour and go straight to House at 9PM. But for whatever reason, they ran their full schedule, and the result was the lowest-rated TERRA NOVA to date, and a terrible HOUSE number that came in 3rd place for the hour and ran (in preliminary ratings) 40% off last week's season premiere. Also, a lot of angry DVR users.

ABC: As Mitch Metcalf has noted, the current ABC number is illusory, because it includes the hugely inflated rating for Detroit, which was actually watching ESPN's football coverage. But ABC fans should cherish these numbers while they last, because even with the inflation, DANCING WITH THE STARS was only even with last week, and CASTLE was down almost 10%. So there isn't any good news coming.

NBC: Can you say "catastrophe"? THE SING-OFF actually found a way to go down more than 20% from last week, and only close friends of Maria Bello watched the repeat of PRIME SUSPECT. It's worth noting that post-football, NBC expects Monday to be its marquee night of the week, with The Voice leading into Smash. They're certainly not doing anything to prepare the way.

CBS: Even The Network of Stability took a hit last night. The only drop that amounted to more than a blip, though, was the near-20% decline for HAWAII 5-0--but that show had a good excuse, as it was facing unscheduled competition from House.

CW: The network sells its advertising on the basis of Woman 18-34 rather than the Adults 18-49s that the other broadcast networks use, but still: the fact is that CW is still being outrated by many cable networks (which have the benefit of subscription fees to supplement their ad revenues). Last night, GOSSIP GIRL was down more than 30% from last season's average, and it's not clear how the economics of the network can continue to work this way.

Tonight's big ratings event: ABC's premiere of LAST MAN STANDING, carefully scheduled for a week when FOX isn't airing GLEE.

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The Sked: Advisory -- ABC Ratings Will Be Inflated Tuesday Morning

8:40 PM | Labels: castle, dancing with the stars, espn, fast nationals, monday night football, nfl, The Sked, TV ratings

When you see the fast nationals Tuesday morning, ABC's ratings for Dancing with the Stars and Castle will be overstated by at least a few tenths of a rating point. WXYZ, the ABC station in Detroit, is carrying the Chicago Bears-Detroit Lions Monday Night Football game live in primetime. In contrast, Dancing with the Stars is scheduled to air at 2 am on WXYZ, followed by Castle.

The NFL sells local over-the-air broadcast rights to the markets involved in each ESPN Monday telecast. (The station carrying the game in Chicago is an independent UHF station so it will not impact the fast nationals.) Basically, the fast nationals measure all viewing and DVR activity on each network affiliate in primetime. The fast nationals assume each network program is aired as scheduled -- so all the viewing in primetime on WXYZ in Detroit (and it will be substantial, a high double-digit demographic rating) will be temporarily credited to Dancing and Castle. The official nationals released later in the day (precise program ratings rather than time period ratings) will correct this error and measure the Detroit viewing of Dancing with Stars and Castle in late night.

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THE SKED: Monday Ratings - Network Scorecard

10:53 AM | Labels: 2 broke girls, castle, dancing with the stars, gossip, hart, House, network scorecard, playboy, Sing-Off, terra, The Sked, TV ratings

The news was mostly good for the networks last night--except for the one show whose news was fatal.

FOX: If anything, FOX seems to have been the victim of its own hype this fall. Like The X-Factor, TERRA NOVA is looking like a solid hit--just not the blockbuster the network foretold. Its 100% retention of the premiere's 3.1 rating (slightly adjusted from Mitch Metcalf's ratings report) is exceptional, and it looks likely to be one of the highest-rated new hours of the season. HOUSE's return was extremely solid, equal to last year's season average.

CBS: From 8-10PM, every show on the network's schedule--including newbie 2 BROKE GIRLS--rated a 4.3 or higher, which these days is amazing. (And even at 10PM, HAWAII 5-0 may have dipped a bit from that lofty level, but still easily won its hour.) 2 1/2 MEN's decline this week to a 6.1 continues to show the aftereffects of its gigantic premiere, but even if it fell some more, it would still be a smash.

NBC: This is how you find out you're about to be cancelled: at the end of THE PLAYBOY CLUB last night, the network didn't run a promo for the following week's episode, substituting one for Wednesday's SVU instead. With THE SING-OFF's 1.8 anchoring the night (and by "anchor," I mean pulling it down to the bottom of the ocean), NBC is pretty much throwing in the towel on Mondays for the fall: the reruns of PRIME SUSPECT that will run in Playboy's slot for the next 3 weeks will barely show a pulse, and while the new Brian Williams newsmagazine should do better, there's a ceiling on the kind of rating a show in that genre is likely to get. They'll wait for the return of THE VOICE and debut of SMASH after the Super Bowl to do battle for the night.

ABC: DANCING WITH THE STARS is down a colossal 35% from last year (the casting people at the network have to be scrambling for big names they can put into the spring cycle), so CASTLE's 10% decline from last season's average is nothing to complain about.

CW: The people who watched HART OF DIXIE's premiere clearly liked it, as the rating stayed rock-solid just like Terra Nova's. Of course, staying rock-solid at a 0.8 isn't the same as doing it at 3.1, but the network could hardly ask more of the show than its improvement on GOSSIP GIRL's lead-in.

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THE SKED - Monday Ratings - Network Scorecard

10:06 AM | Labels: 2 1/2 Men, 2 broke girls, castle, dancing, gossip, hart, hawaii, How I Met Your Mother, Mike and Molly, Monday, network scorecard, playboy, Sing-Off, terra, The Sked, TV ratings

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.

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THE SKED: Monday Ratings - Network Scorecard

10:27 AM | Labels: 2 1/2 Men, 2 broke girls, 20th century fox, ABC, castle, cbs, CW, dancing, Greenblatt, How I Met Your Mother, Monday, NBC, playboy, Sing-Off, The Sked, TV ratings

And... they're off! The 2011-12 broadcast TV season is underway, and already there are some clear winners and losers.

CBS: Last night was always going to be a good night for the Eye, but the extent of the good news is remarkable. The first un-Charlie Sheened 2 1/2 MEN was the most publicized event of the summer, and it delivered a massive 10.3 in the 18-49 demo (in comparison, May's season finale of American Idol did a 9.2). And the decision to schedule the pilot of 2 BROKE GIRLS as a follow-up at 9:30 proved a huge success with a 7.0; whatever happens to that show now, the network will never be able to say viewers didn't give it a look. Also great news for 2 Broke Girls: viewers were apparently longing for the return of its real lead-in HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, which had an exceptionally strong Season 7 debut with 4.9. (Next week, though, it'll face the debut of FOX's hugely hyped Terra Nova.) The only slightly dark cloud for the night was HAWAII 5-0's 3.4, which (in preliminary numbers) won the time slot, but couldn't sustain the night's momentum and lost over 50% of its Broke Girls' lead-in.

NBC: Bob Greenblatt, welcome to network TV! The opening night of his first Fall schedule couldn't have gone any worse. The decision to push The Voice to mid-season and risk pitting THE SING-OFF against regular season competition proved disastrous, and the Peacock is now facing 2 hours every Monday of the fall with a potential sub-2 rating. Even worse, whatever chance THE PLAYBOY CLUB had of finding a toehold was damanged by its lead-in, and with its 1.6 rating, it becomes the instant leader in the fall TV dead pool. An awful debut is bad news for any show, but even worse for a serialized drama like Playboy, because viewers rarely gravitate to a series whose story is already underway. If the network doesn't give up on the show quickly, look for stunt casting and other desperate measures to hype viewer interest in the coming weeks.

ABC: Facing the CBS juggernaut, and without a giant name in this season's competition, DANCING WITH THE STARS did an OK 3.9, which was down significantly from last year's premiere. The better news at the Alphabet was CASTLE's solid 3.3 at 10PM. That show's number tends to come down a bit in final ratings because of Dancing overruns, but in any event the show benefited from NBC's failure in the time-slot (and a big season finale dliffhanger in May), and is now a strong player on the night.

FOX: They're waiting till next week to launch their new shows, probably because they didn't want the 2-hour Terra Nova premiere to have to face last night's 2 1/2 Men.

CW: On the shelf till next week.

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THE SKED: SHOWBUZZDAILY’S FALL 2011/12 MONDAY TV SCHEDULE

11:18 AM | Labels: 90210, alcatraz, broke, castle, chelsea vodka, dancing, gossip, half men, hawaii, housewives, molly, mother, parenthood, ratings, schedule, television, up all night, voice

Welcome to ShowbuzzDaily's coverage of the upcoming TV schedules for the 2011/12 TV season! Above you see our guide to what to expect on Monday nights this Fall: the numbers are our projected Adults 18-49 ratings for each show; the capitalized titles are the new shows; and italics are for shows changing their time slots. Here’s our analysis of what will really be going on behind the numbers:

Although CBS will leave its schedule fairly stable, with just one new show (the sitcom TWO BROKE GIRLS with Kat Dennings), they face the biggest challenge of the night: keeping 2 ½ MEN a hit without Charlie Sheen. We think the loss of Sheen is going to lower their rating at 9PM, but that the show will still perform strongly for them, and they should continue to hold steady for the night.

NBC’s Monday was a disaster this past season, with THE EVENT, THE CAPE and LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES all failing, CHUCK barely surviving, and HARRY’S LAW only doing well enough to justify a move to a new home with the sparser, older audiences on Fridays. We think they’ll completely redo the night, leading off with their new hit reality show THE VOICE, and then trying to build on that lead-in with 2 new sitcoms that have great buzz: UP ALL NIGHT with Christina Applegate, Maya Rudolph and Will Arnett, and ARE YOU THERE VODKA? IT’S ME CHELSEA, starring Laura Prepon and based on the bestselling Chelsea Handler book. With a strong, female-oriented backbone on the night, we think they’ll move PARENTHOOD over from Tuesday, where it’s been critically acclaimed but ratings challenged. All these moves should give them a significantly higher rating for the night than they had this year.

FOX will make a big change on Mondays by following HOUSE with the new ALCATRAZ, from JJ Abrams (LOST, FRINGE) and featuring LOST alums both in its cast (Jorge Garcia aka Hurley) and its writing staff. It’s a crime drama with a supernatural tinge, and those can be risky, garnering limited—although enthusiastic--audiences. But we think ALCATRAZ has a shot of catching the wider crowds that previously showed up for LOST and HEROES.

ABC, which generally wins the night with its combo of DANCING WITH THE STARS and CASTLE, has no reason to make any changes, and The CW will stick with its brand-name shows 90210 and GOSSIP GIRL, which hits their audience of Women 18-34.

Be sure to follow ShowbuzzDaily all through Upfront week: we'll cover the actual network schedules as soon as they're announced, with our own brand of instant expert analysis... and stay tuned for reviews of the shows you'll be watching (or not) in the fall!

WANT MORE? Click on any link below to read predictions for another night:

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