Movie Box Review

The word "turkey" comes to mind when looking at last night's pre-holiday landscape.

ABC:  The cycle finale of DANCING WITH THE STARS was of course the highest rated show of the night and enough to give ABC the Tuesday win, but in keeping with the way this whole cycle has gone, it was distressingly down more than 20% from last year's fall finale.  The show did manage to lift LAST MAN STANDING and MAN UP! one or two ticks along with it.

FOX:  A special Tuesday X FACTOR did OK, but its 3.2 rating was down significantly from regular airings.

CBS:  By this network's lofty standards, a lousy night, with both NCIS shows and UNFORGETTABLE all hitting season lows.  (And yet even Unforgettable did well enough to beat the entire NBC line-up.)

NBC:  BIGGEST LOSER tied its season low, and PARENTHOOD set one.  But hey, don't those Smash promos look cool?

CW:  90210 fell to the low 0.6 end of the network's range, followed by another repeat of the HART OF DIXIE pilot.

Things won't get better tonight, with holiday travel and preparations in play.  ABC will nevertheless air a full schedule of new shows, which should give it an easy win albeit at diminished levels.

ABC has announced a slate of midseason premieres, and what's missing may be more notable than what's there.  There was no mention of the returning COUGAR TOWN on the schedule, nor the new (and based on its pilot, exceptionally promising) sitcom APT 23, not to mention Shonda Rhimes' Washington drama SCANDAL.  Vulture says that according to their inside source, Cougar Town will in fact be on the air on February or March, so for now at least we can hit "Pause" on our plan for a new rebel network that starts out with Community, Cougar Town and the return of Arrested Development.  

As for what the network did announce:

SUNDAY:  As had been anticipated since the Upfronts, ABC will give GCB (which is really GOOD CHRISTIAN BITCHES but the Parents Television Council won't let the network say so) the post-DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES slot on Sundays 10PM starting March 4, and then hope it can be the successor to that show's fading audience.  The last show to get a shot at that throne, PAN AM, was given only one extra episode, bespeaking scheduling needs rather than any real encouragement.  Although the show isn't officially dead, ABC's development season would have to be awfully bad for it to come back.

MONDAY:  No changes, but the next cycle of DANCING WITH THE STARS will debut March 19, giving The Voice plenty of time to settle into its Monday slot on NBC, since it starts the night after the Super Bowl.

TUESDAY:  Say goodbye to the awful MAN UP!--and now say hello to the even more dreadful (based on the pilot) WORK IT, a cross dressing comedy that may even now be making Billy Wilder's gravestone weep.  It's inheriting the post-LAST MAN STANDING slot to cement ABC's Tuesday 8-9PM as the worst comedy hour on television.  At 9PM, CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP will have a 5 week run starting in January, then the effectively creepy THE RIVER will take over for 7 weeks until the DANCING WITH THE STARS results show returns to the hour.  BODY OF PROOF only received an extra order of 3 episodes, so the 10PM slot will open up early in 2012, meaning that may be where Scandal (or whatever currently inhabits Scandal's slot) will go.

WEDNESDAY:  You don't mess with what's working:  no changes.

THURSDAY:  In the troublesome 8PM slot, WINTER WIPEOUT will run Jan-March, and then THE MISSING, which looks to be Ashley Judd as Liam Neeson in Taken, takes over.

FRIDAY:  SHARK TANK replaces the 8PM hour of EXTREME MAKEOVER in February.

SATURDAY:  If Cougar Town and Apt 23 go here, I'm starting a boycott.  (They won't.)

A consistent night, but mostly not in a good way.

FOX:  GLEE only slipped 0.2 points from last week, but it was an ugly symbolic dip, putting the show below a 3 rating for the first time this season.  It also looks like NEW GIRL's days of ratings that begin with a 4 are over, as the show's pre-baseball numbers seem to have fallen permanently.  However, a 3.5 rating, especially building on its lead-in, is still a strong success, and creatively the show had another thoroughly charming episode last night.  (Note:  FOX's Tuesday, which could really use some stability at this point, will have yet another disruption next Tuesday, since in order to clear Thanksgiving night for specials, the network will air X Factor on Tuesday and Wednesday.)

ABC:  Both LAST MAN STANDING and MAN UP! tied their lows, which is OK news for the first (already back ordered) and a probable death sentence for the latter.  This cycle of DANCING WITH THE STARS can't end soon enough for ABC, and BODY OF PROOF is lucky it's in one of the week's weakest hours.

CBS:  Everything was within 0.1 of where it's been lately, all's right with the world.

NBC:  Another bad symbolic decline, this time for PARENTHOOD, which dipped below a 2 for the first time all season.  Amazingly, that still makes it one of the network's strongest 10PM shows.  (Fun Fact!  Last week's SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE had a 2.7 rating in the 18-49 demo--which wasn't even its highest of the season--and that outrated every primetime show on NBC except The Office and football.)  BIGGEST LOSER fell from last week and was back in oblivion.

CW:  Both 90210 and RINGER stayed within the network's normal corridor.

Tonight FOX will look for some recovery from X FACTOR, while ABC will hope that a supposedly pivotal episode of REVENGE gets a response.

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.

The networks were mostly happy to see the Halloween in their rearview mirrors.

FOX:  TERRA NOVA got the bounce that it desperately needed:  2.6 is far from a thrilling rating and still keeps the expensive show on the bubble, but at least it's in the hunt.  HOUSE was also up, although its 2.7 won't encourage FOX to make the expensive deals it would take to bring the show back.

CBS:  All the 8-10PM shows over a 4, and a solid win for HAWAII 5-0 at 10PM.  Life is good.

ABC:  DANCING WITH THE STARS did quite well, making the drop for CASTLE (which will probably go down even further in final numbers due to the usual Dancing overrun) even more perplexing.

NBC:  The network isn't really part of the Monday conversation; it's just waiting for February, when post-Super Bowl the night will have its 2 big hopes, the return of The Voice and Smash.

CW:  GOSSIP GIRL appears to be terminally down, and that's not helping HART OF DIXIE.  The network has only one more week of original episodes before it takes its customary 2-month break until January, and that kind of absence could make things even worse.

Isn't Sweeps supposed to be when viewers watch more TV?

FOX:  The post-baseball hangover continues.  After Terra Nova and House struck out at the plate on Monday night, the Tuesday line-up came to bat and didn't do much better.  GLEE's season low was a full 30% below last year's season average, and the show was barely ahead of ABC's lackluster half-hour at 8PM.  NEW GIRL is still a solid success, but almost a full month's absence didn't make viewers' hearts grow fonder for Zooey Deschanel, and the show was down 20% from its last airing.  That dragged RAISING HOPE down as well.

ABC:  The good news for the Alphabet was that Glee's decline made its first hour look not so bad.  Nevertheless, LAST MAN STANDING is barely a success with a 2.6, in 3rd place for its slot, and MAN UP is barely breathing with a 1.8.  Declines at the other networks boosted DANCING WITH THE STARS slightly, and technically BODY OF PROOF went up too, although that increase may dissipate in final numbers thanks to typical Dancing overruns past 10PM.

NBC:  Here's a fun fact:  apart from Sunday and football, Tuesday is the only night of the week where the entire NBC schedule scores over a 2 in the ratings.  That Murderers Row of television was even up a bit last night, and it was particularly good news that despite last week's preemption for a Prime Suspect repeat, PARENTHOOD bounced right back to within 0.1 of a tie for its timeslot lead.

CBS:  5-10% declines across the board from last week, but still good enough to win every half-hour of the evening except 9PM, when New Girl (at least in preliminary numbers) edged out NCIS LA.  

CW:  By this network's standards, RINGER is doing nicely with a 0.8 that built slightly on its 90210 lead-in.

The days when networks filled Sweeps months with stunt programming are long gone, and tonight's only wrinkle is that NBC will air an Up All Night repeat following the new episode at 8PM instead of a Whitney repeat.

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.

Another night of atypical FOX programming as we head to the World Series endgame(s).

ABC:  The real test for the network's new sitcoms will be next week when Glee returns, but ABC can't be happy with the preliminary results:  the very expensive, hugely-promoted LAST MAN STANDING is a passable sub-3, while MAN UP! is already (mercifully) in trouble, with a lousy 1.9.  That lead-in did DANCING WITH THE STARS no favor, and even with significantly reduced competition on NBC, BODY OF PROOF couldn't reach a 2.

FOX:  X FACTOR may not be a blockbuster, but it's doing nothing but good for FOX. Filling in on Tuesday for World Series week, it tied its season high and easily won the night for the network.

CBS:  As usual, largely unaffected by the outside world.  The only off note was that despite a big promotional push, UNFORGETTABLE was still at a blah 2.5.  However, that's good enough to win the hour, and seems to be sufficient for the network, which rewarded the show with a full season back order.

NBC:  BIGGEST LOSER continues to show no signs of life, and is a 2-hour block of trouble for the network.  The PRIME SUSPECT repeat didn't do more than a Parenthood repeat would have, but presumably a few viewers watched who hadn't seen the show before, and that was the goal.

CW:  Out of the game with 2 RINGER repeats.

Tonight's edge-of-the-seat suspense is whether there will or won't be a World Series game played due to rain..  Since FOX will air repeats in case of a rain-out, that will obviously make a huge difference to their rating.  The other networks, however, had already largely scheduled repeats for this last pre-Sweeps night (ABC is all new except for a rerun Modern Family), so it won't matter much in the big picture.

The World Series continued to have little effect on the competition, although that might change on Wednesday.

CBS:  Once adjustments are made to remove local coverage of last night's football game, the line-up should be just about where it was last week.  With the successful transition to Ashton Kutcher on 2 1/2 MEN and the hit introduction of 2 BROKE GIRLS to the line-up, CBS's Monday is a night all the other networks can only aspire to.

ABC:  DANCING WITH THE STARS wasn't able to take advantage of the male-skewing World Series on FOX (probably because it's also old-skewing), while CASTLE stayed on par.

NBC:  Next week ROCK CENTER will make its debut at 10PM, but it won't find the night a friendly one, with SING-OFF heading further down every week.  So far no one seems to care about the network's PRIME SUSPECT push, but we'll see how (if) it pays off on Thursday.

FOX:  The Series scored better than TERRA NOVA/HOUSE have been doing on Mondays, but not enough to make all the schedule turmoil worthwhile.  However, Wednesday (and especially Thursday, if there's a Game 7) may be a different story.

CW:  Some nice news for HART OF DIXIE, which outscored its GOSSIP GIRL lead-in by a third and may be finding an audience.  (Although the decline of Gossip Girl, one of the network's mainstays, is a problem.)  Next week CW will preempt both shows for Ringer reruns because their target audience often has other plans on Halloween night--however, Hart of Dixie didn't seem to have gotten the memo, since their November 7 episode is pretty clearly one that was originally aimed at Halloween.

Comparisons to last Monday may be misleading, since due to baseball overrun that night, many shows aired either out of their normal timeslots or against atypical competition.

FOX:  TERRA NOVA, for example, didn't begin until almost 9PM last week, and FOX can't be pleased that it didn't come back last night all the way to the prior week's number; it was down almost 15% from 2 weeks ago.  Making matters worse, the show will be preempted next week, either by Game 5 of the World Series or by a repeat if the Series only runs 4 games.  The network will be hoping the very expensive show can return with strength in November.  Similarly, HOUSE is still 20% off both its season premiere and last season's average.

CBS:  Even with declines since its massive premiere, 2 1/2 MEN is still running 20% ahead of last season's average.  Without having to face House in the 10PM slot, HAWAII 5-0 rebounded to where it had been 2 weeks ago.  The other sitcoms were all down a bit from 2 weeks ago, but still comfortably ahead of last season (or in the case of 2 BROKE GIRLS, steady with its hour-mate).

ABC:  Both DANCING WITH THE STARS and CASTLE returned to their levels from 2 weeks ago.  

NBC:  THE SING-OFF was actually down a sliver from 2 weeks ago.  The network's PRIME SUSPECT runs are more promo than genuine programming, and we'll find out when Suspect airs on Oct. 27 if all the effort has had any effect.

CW:  GOSSIP GIRL is still down about 30% from last season's average.  As Mitch Metcalf noted, the HART OF DIXIE number is likely inflated by Miami football viewers.

SUNDAY CABLE NOTES:  The rest of the numbers are in for Sunday's cable telecasts, and not surprisingly what was spectacularly good for AMC and THE WALKING DEAD was less positive for their direct scripted competition:  both BOARDWALK EMPIRE and DEXTER were down in the neighborhood of 20% from the previous week.  Of course, HBO and Showtime re-air their episodes all week, as well as making them available on other platforms, so this doesn't necessarily mean lasting damage to either series.  (For HOMELAND fans:  it held well against the last half-hour of the extended DEAD episode, although still significantly below its Dexter lead-in.)

Tonight ABC premieres MAN UP! and will hope LAST MAN STANDING sustains last week's strong premiere numbers to give it an effective lead-in, while CBS will continue to scrutinize the performance of UNFORGETTABLE.  

It's taken this long for full ratings to be released from yesterday, mostly because of FOX's baseball coverage.  And as Mitch Metcalf just reported, tonight is going to be a disaster for FOX as well, with a rain delay in what was supposed to be an afternoon game likely meaning the evening's scheduled X FACTOR won't air.  Before yesterday fades into memory, here's how the networks fared.

ABC:  The network launched Tim Allen's LAST MAN STANDING, and the results were... OK.  A 3.6 is certainly nothing to complain about, and if the show stays at that level, ABC will be very happy.  But this series has been a marketing priority for the network since the Upfronts back in May, and its premiere had the most carefully chosen date of any fall launch, designed to avoid competition from Glee for as long as possible.  After all that, the show managed a number only 0.3 higher than the premiere of the far less heavily promoted Suburgatory, and nowhere near the averages of New Girl or 2 Broke Girls so far this season, let alone their premieres.  The fact is that we won't know where Last Man stands until November, when FOX's regular schedule returns.  DANCING WITH THE STARS was up a bit, but we can't know if that's because of Last Man or the sharply reduced competition on FOX; BODY OF PROOF was down from last week.

NBC:  I believe (someone will tell me if I'm wrong) that last night's PARENTHOOD was the first to ever build from its BIGGEST LOSER lead-in.  Part of that is because Loser continues to sink, of course, but it's also true that Parenthood (which aired another superb episode last night--special kudos to cast members Peter Krause, Monica Potter, Dax Shepard, Mae Whitman and Max Burkholder) has been rock-solid in the ever-shrinking universe of NBC ratings, and is now one of their most reliable 1-hour shows.  

CBS:  Even with baseball as competition (which should theoretically affect CBS most due to its older audience), there was barely any movement in their numbers.  The question that the network will have to decide is whether they're content with losing one-third of the NCIS LA audience at 10PM when millions decide not to watch UNFORGETTABLE, or if they think they can do better in that slot.

FOX  As Mitch Metcalf noted in his baseball piece, at some point FOX has to wonder why it's still in the postseason baseball business.  Last night's' game with its 2.4 rating was 30% below the prior week's episode of Glee, and almost 45% lower than New Girl, and that's without even counting the mess that rain delays and extra innings have made of the network's Sunday, Monday and now Wednesday schedules.  And the worst news for FOX is that with the teams left in this year's postseason, there's more than a small chance that this will be the lowest-rated World Series ever.

CW:  As noted elsewhere, CW seized the uptick in RINGER's rating to give it a full-season order, then gave them to HART OF DIXIE and THE SECRET CIRCLE as well.  None of which changes the fact that the network did an 0.7 last night with 90210 and 0.8 with RINGER, but it seems as though, for now at least, that's good enough for this network.

Tonight's numbers will be askew due to the last minute change in FOX's schedule, but ratings to keep an eye on will include NBC's UP ALL NIGHT (for the first time followed by a repeat of WHITNEY), the results of SUBURGATORY's Week 3, and the post-premiere number for FX's AMERICAN HORROR STORY.  (We'll have a Pilot + 1 review of the latter here later tonight.)

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.

The excitement of Premiere Week is over, and shows are settling into their "real" numbers.

FOX: The small decline for NEW GIRL (which had another charming episode last night--the show has found its creative groove with remarkable speed) isn't serious.  What may concern FOX, though, is that they promoted last night's extremely earnest episode of GLEE like crazy--it was practically A Very Special Episode--and the number ticked down instead of up.  Glee is now on hiatus until November 1 because of baseball, and unless the network has some big "event" episode set for the show's return, they have to be a little worried about what that rating will be in 4 weeks.

CBS:  Even though the decline for UNFORGETTABLE was very slight, and consistent with the small drops for the NCIS shows, the fact is that the new series is losing audience rather than building one.  If that number keeps creeping down over the next few weeks (especially if Body of Proof creeps up), that could be a problem.

ABC:  Although the BODY OF PROOF number will probably come down a bit when final numbers are in (due to DANCING WITH THE STARS overrun), it's heartening that the show is moving up, even as Dancing is heading in the other direction.

NBC:  BIGGEST LOSER is starting to earn its title, and the sad part is that it's dragging down PARENTHOOD with it.  NBC is essentially out of the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday business this fall, which is scary..

CW:   Although it was doubtless hurt by its lousy 90210 lead-in, RINGER has felt more unconvincing and dramatically weak with each episode, and that can't be helping its numbers.

Tonight we'll find out how SUBURGATORY holds up on its second airing.  Look for a Pilot + 1 Review later, and also for a review of Ryan Murphy's new FX spectacle, AN AMERICAN HORROR STORY.

SUBURGATORY -  Only one airing so far, but it premiered well.

Holdovers - MODERN FAMILY, THE MIDDLE, PRIVATE PRACTICE, CASTLE

REVENGE -  Not really "struggling" yet, but last week's drop was worrisome.  The question is whether it can stop the fall.

PAN AM -  Same here.  It's won the battle of the 1960s shows, and it's beating CBS, but the ratings need to hold where they are now.

GREY'S ANATOMY - As with Glee, this show is still a hit, but it's substantially less of one than it used to be.

DANCING WITH THE STARS - The question is whether this disastrous cycle is just an aberration of bad casting, or if it signals the beginning of the end for this show.  That would be seriously bad news for a network that needs it to fill multiple hours per week.

Holdovers - BODY OF PROOF, HAPPY ENDINGS

CHARLIE'S ANGELS - No one cared to see a remake of this, and besides, it's not any good.  Now that NBC has issued the season's first cancellation, expect this one to be close behind.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - Dead show walking!  No one expected it to go out as dismally as it has.  A warning of the perils of hanging on for one season too many.

 
GRADE:  C-plus
 

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.

Two of the fall's most publicized new shows premiered last night, to very different results.

FOX:  The House of Murdoch won the night, as well as the biggest headline:  all those ads showcasing the goofy charm of Zooey Deschanel paid off big-time, and NEW GIRL's 4.8 rating (slightly updated from Mitch Metcalf's report) was about as good a number as the network could have wished for.  Even after the show settles down to a post-premiere level, the series should still be one of the half-dozen highest-rated sitcoms on all of broadcast TV, and if the show's quality holds up, there could be plenty of potential upside.  The only bad news for FOX was that one reason New Girl looked so good was that its lead-in, the season premiere of GLEE, was significantly down from last year's premiere--meaning that New Girl rose 20% from its lead-in (unlike 2 Broke Girls, which did a much bigger number than New Girl but lost more than 30% of its 2 1/2 Men lead-in).  The Glee number supports the idea that while it's still a hit show, its moment in the zeitgeist may have passed.  Also, RAISING HOPE didn't particularly benefit from its golden lead-in, and was only up around 10% from last season's average. 

CBS:  The network has to be a little disappointed with its UNFORGETTABLE premiere, even though the show won its timeslot:  they marketed the hell out of the series all summer, and while its 20% decline from the NCIS: LA lead-in was OK, it's nothing to get excited about.  Assuming that Unforgettable settles into a post-premiere number in the mid-2's, that'll just barely win the timeslot, and doesn't suggest a breakout hit (in comparison, the network's Hawaii 5-0 and The Mentalist, both in the same genre, typically exceed a 3).  The good news was that the 2 NCIS shows were utterly solid in their season premieres, and if Glee slips any more, CBS could have a chance of taking over the night.

NBC:  The aging BIGGEST LOSER was down from last season, and its 2.3 only keeps the show safe because it's on NBC.  On the upside, PARENTHOOD (which has quietly become one of the best dramas on network TV) was barely touched by the arrival of Unforgettable, and could find itself quite competitive at 10PM once the new show subsides.

ABC:  The network is waiting till October to launch its 8PM sitcoms, so they aired a low-rated DANCING WITH THE STARS special in the slot that doesn't mean much.  However, the Dancing results show at 9 was way down from last year's Tuesday installment, and that series, too, may have seen its best days (although given the celebrity component, it can always be hyped up with exciting new blood, assuming any is available).  BODY OF PROOF held up fine at 10PM, despite the direct procedural competition from CBS.

CW:  Not good.  RINGER (see our Pilot + 1 review) lost a scary chunk of its audience and dipped below a 1 rating, particularly bad because since it's a serialized show, those viewers are unlikely to come back.  However, the series did increase 20% from its 90210 lead-in, which has already dipped below last season's average.  Ringer can probably survive at this level, considering it's the CW, but any further declines would be very dangerous.

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.