Movie Box Review

On a rare night this week not affected by baseball, a mixed set of results for the networks.

NBC:  The strategy of double-pumping WHITNEY and PRIME SUSPECT with repeat episodes on Mondays and Wednesdays in order to expose new viewers to the shows backfired:  those people must not have liked what they saw, because both series fell to new lows, a terrible 2.0 for Whitney and a worse 1.3 for Suspect.  On any other network (except CW), that would get them both cancelled, but the truth is that with NBC in its current state, it's hard to tell just what the network will find "acceptable."  Incredibly, with the exception of football and THE OFFICE (which held up well, albeit 20% below last year's average), there won't be a single show on NBC this week with a rating over 2.1.  In comparison, the entire Sun-Thurs CBS schedule probably won't have a single show under that mark.  Depending on what ratings were proffered to advertisers in this year's Upfront sales, the network may need to air a tremendous number of "make-good" (i.e., free) ads in compensation for under-delilvery.

ABC  CHARLIE'S ANGELS had s slight uptick from last week (and the network instantly issued a press release to crow about it), but let's face it:  a 1.3 and 5th place in the timeslot (behind CW) isn't good news, and it's hard to imagine the show seeing the lights of November in its current timeslot.  GREY'S ANATOMY was up, but still 20% below last year's average, while PRIVATE PRACTICE was also up and a more reasonable 15% below last year.

CBS:  A BIG BANG THEORY rerun proved far more compatible with the show's new episode than How To Be A Gentleman had been.  The bad news was that even with a much stronger lead-in, and an enormous amount of promo attention from the network, PERSON OF INTEREST barely ticked up and still ranked in 3d place for its hour.  THE MENTALIST just barely edged out Private Practice to take the hour at 10PM.

FOX:  The network finally got to air a regularly scheduled night of programming, but all the confusion of this past week may have taken a small toll, as X FACTOR declined slightly.  However, it was still strong enough to give FOX a comfortable win for the night.

On what used to be network TV's marquee night, only one series had a rating over a 4...

NBC:  ...and it certainly wasn't on NBC.  THE OFFICE is now the only non-football show on NBC to exceed even a 2.5 rating.  So far, Office is holding up pretty well post-Carell (down about 20% from last year's season average), although its number isn't all that impressive compared to comedy hits on all the other networks.  Still, that's by far the network's good news.  WHITNEY's plunge means that not a single new NBC fall series is any kind of success.  (Under the "you can't cancel everything" rule, that doesn't mean all these failures will be thrown off the schedule.  In fact, it's very possible several of them may get back orders for spring, not because NBC is suddenly talent-friendly--ah, the spin!--but out of sheer desperation, since apart from Smash, the network's midseason shows are midseason for a reason.)  NBC may be a couple of weeks away from a very difficult decision:  if they can't save both Whitney and Up All Night, which one gets the life-raft of the Office lead-in?  Meanwhile, at 10PM PRIME SUSPECT is on the critical list with a dire 1.5 rating.  From 8-9PM, COMMUNITY and PARKS & RECREATION provide some stability, albeit of the low-rated kind.

CBS:  THE BIG BANG THEORY is the hit of the night, with a terrific (and stable) 4.8.  But after that, things are a lot bumpier.  HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN didn't open (meaning that CBS Marketing was only able to get 2 Broke Girls any kind of debut sampling this fall, and that was because of the 2 1/2 Men lead-in) and is probably headed downhill from there.  It's not just that PERSON OF INTEREST is running 20% below CSI's rating in the same timeslot last year-- it's about 13% below the number CSI is doing now in its weaker Wednesday 10PM slot.  And THE MENTALIST is 20% below last season's average, despite NBC being a non-factor in the timeslot.

ABC:  It's just a matter of time till the misbegotten CHARLIE'S ANGELS heads to the trash-heap.  GREY'S ANATOMY, unable to capitalize on NBC's and CBS's problems, is running 20% below its average last year, but at least in its season debut, PRIVATE PRACTICE hit last year's average. 

FOX:  Once again, when all the smoke had cleared, X FACTOR may have declined a bit from last week, but it gave FOX an easy win for the night.  Next week's experiment with a repeat New Girl at 9:30PM is sure to have a strong lead-in, and the results should be interesting.

CW:  VAMPIRE DIARIES continues to be by far the network's strongest show, and even ticked up a bit this week, while SECRET CIRCLE seems to have settled in to a 0.9 rating, which ain't much, but is above-average by CW standards.

Tonight, CBS will hope that viewers watching A GIFTED MAN, unlike the show's protagonist, won't be seeing dead people.  Look for our Pilot + 1 Review later.

8PM: Thursday is DVR night, as all the networks pack in some of their hottest shows to get premium dollars from movie studios advertising the weekend's new openings.  COMMUNITY and PARKS & RECREATION are two of the best shows NBC has left, and PARKS & RECREATION, in particular, took giant leaps in quality this past season.  Meanwhile, there's no better guilty pleasure on the air than THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on The CW, far more ingeniously plotted than other TV shows (and blockbuster movies) that delve into the high school realm of the supernatural.  That's not even mentioning the enormously popular BIG BANG THEORY or X FACTOR, which FOX certainly believes will be their appointment series of the Fall.  Odd ladies out may be CHARLIE'S ANGELS, which looked decent enough in its promos but entirely predictable, and may have taken on too tough a time slot for its own good. 


9PM:  Will THE OFFICE recover from the loss of Steve Carell?  Maybe not--the post-Carell episodes this past season weren't exactly promising--but the show has been so good for so long that it deserves every chance; its new slotmate WHITNEY, though, will have to be better than its promos if it's to survive.  Fans of BONES know that the season finale set the stage for a new season not to be missed; the reboot could either work smashingtly or bust the show's fragile mix of mystery, screwball comedy and occasional soap.  Thinking of soaps, GREY'S ANATOMY isn't the behemoth that it once was, but it's still a sturdy entertainment that delivers the suds.  Even the new shows in this slot are big guns:  PERSON OF INTEREST has the JJ Abrams pedigree and stars the LOST cult's favorite Michael Emerson, while THE SECRET CIRCLE will test Kevin Williamson's ability to launch a new franchise back-to-back with his VAMPIRE DIARIES.  Advice for this hour:  DVRs won't be enough, so make sure you know where your chosen network streams its shows online.

10PM:  After the rush of 9PM blockbusters, things calm down in a big way at 10PM.  THE MENTALIST and PRIVATE PRACTICE both have their core audiences, but it would be awfully nice to get some new blood flowing in this slot, so the hope is that NBC's PRIME SUSPECT will be worthy of its classic British predecessor; casting the very strong Maria Bello in the lead is a good first step.

WHAT TO WATCH THE REST OF THE WEEK: