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Showing posts with label happy endings. Show all posts

Showing posts with label happy endings. Show all posts

THE SKED'S WEDNESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:33 AM | Labels: american idol, chelsea, csi, happy endings, network scorecard, next top model, one tree, revenge, rock center, survivor, SVU, The Sked, TV ratings, Wednesday, whitney

Viewers could tell that REVENGE wasn't FOR REAL.

ABC: Serialized dramas repeat notoriously badly, so the network had the clever idea of filling in the spring schedule gap with a "news" show about true-life crimes that presumably are similar to those in the show, albeit without Emily Van Camp or Madeleine Stowe. The resulting REVENGE FOR REAL was probably about where ABC expected, a full ratings point down from real Revenge episodes, but a little higher than repeats have been scoring. The network tried to give For Real a lead-in with a new episode of HAPPY ENDINGS, but that ended up unnecessarily burning off a fresh (and funny, particularly for John Hughes fans) Happy episode, which hit a season low and didn't do any better coming out of a MODERN FAMILY repeat than a Happy rerun would have done.

NBC: Oh, NBC Wednesday, what's to be done with you? Last night's new episodes of WHITNEY and ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA could no more than tie the repeats on ABC of THE MIDDLE and SUBURGATORY that aired against them. Then the network started its 2-week experiment of moving SVU reruns to 9PM (until BENT--very temporarily--takes the slot), which was a catastrophe that resulted in a previously unimaginable (even for a rerun) 1.0 rating for SVU, which just a couple of years ago was one of the most reliably repeating series on the schedule. To the extent there's a bright side to any of this, the move of ROCK CENTER to 10PM supercharged that show all the way to a 1.0 rating, which was pathetically just 0.1 below its series high.

FOX: The season's song played again for AMERICAN IDOL, as it increased from last week (against mostly repeats on the other networks), but remained more than 35% below last year's numbers.

CBS: SURVIVOR may also have benefited from the repeat competition and hit a cycle high. At 10PM, a repeat CSI handily beat both of the new (albeit unscripted) shows on the other networks.

CW: ONE TREE HILL continued to hold at a 0.7, while AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL, perhaps benefiting from the large number of viewers for Monday's repeat of its season premiere, ticked up 0.1 to 0.6 (still far below last season).

Tonight NBC will sleeplessly await the Week 2 ratings for AWAKE, which this week has to face a new THE MENTALIST. FOX airs the last Thursday night episode of THE FINDER before it's shipped off to Fridays, and only ABC is in repeats.

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THE SKED'S WEDNESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:06 AM | Labels: american idol, chelsea, criminal, csi, happy endings, modern family, network scorecard, next top model, one tree, revenge, rock center, smash, suburgatory, survivor, the middle, The Sked, TV ratings, Wednesday, whitney

February Sweeps go out not with a bang, but with the other thing.

ABC: The first "midseason arc" episode of REVENGE looked almost exactly like all the other episodes, so it was fitting that the rating stayed even. The show will now take a break from fresh episodes until the end-of-season push in April. (Meanwhile, the network will air REVENGE FOR REAL, some kind of "ABC News" concoction about actual rich-people crimes. If it works, no doubt NBC is poised to launch Smash For Real.) Elsewhere, even with a 2-hour Idol as competition, HAPPY ENDINGS had a very nice 0.4 bump over the last 2 weeks--and continued to pile up its pre-Community Random Pop Culture Reference points with a nod to Krippendorf's Tribe that must have made Richard Dreyfuss very happy. THE MIDDLE was also up a gratifying 0.4, while SUBURGATORY was slightly up and MODERN FAMILY was even.

FOX: AMERICAN IDOL 2-hour Wednesday was in the same position as its Tuesday: dreadfully down from the parallel episode last year (44%, ouch), but only slightly down from last week. The days of its dominance certainly seem to be over.

CW: Audiences were not waiting with baited breath for the US vs. Brit version of AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL, which had a 0.6 that was down a disastrous 45% from last year's Spring premiere, and even down from its lead-in ONE TREE HILL. (And for anyone looking for excuses, sorry: last year's premiere also aired against a 2-hour Idol.)

NBC: On the plus side, nothing got worse. ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA and SVU remained tied with their all-time lows, while WHITNEY and ROCK CENTER were a wildly exciting 0.1 above theirs'. Next week, the network begins its Wednesday roundelay, with a new version of the schedule practically every week. Fun!

CBS: No good news here, either: CRIMINAL MINDS tied its season low, while SURVIVOR and CSI were 0.1 above their respective lows. The latter, though, still had enough to win the 10PM hour.

When NBC chose tonight for the debut of its difficult, highly conceptual AWAKE, the plan was for it to face no competition at 10PM but reruns. Which is true, except ABC had the interesting idea of re-running its star-studded JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE post-Oscar special in the slot as counterprogramming. Otherwise, little is new on the schedule: FOX has another 2-hour Idol, and CBS stuck a new ROB amidst the rest of its otherwise all-repeat night.

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THE SKED'S WEDNESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:05 AM | Labels: 20/20, american idol, are you there chelsea, criminal minds, csi, happy endings, middle, modern family, one tree, remodeled, rock center, suburgatory, survivor, SVU, The Sked, TV ratings, Wednesday, whitney

At FOX, perhaps the most terrifying 7 words in the English language: AMERICAN IDOL May Not Have Hit Bottom.

FOX: Despite no special competition on any other network, Idol's 5.1 was down a full ratings point from last week, and down a horrible 35% from last year's parallel episode. This is still, of course, a very high rating (FOX easily won the night), and Idol, as Mitch Metcalf has shown, skews fairly well with high-income viewers, but make no mistake: these declines are costing FOX millions of dollars. Even worse, since advertiser refunds are customarily made in the form of free "make-good" spots on the schedule, and nothing else on FOX rates anywhere near Idol's numbers, the network will have to give away either more Idol inventory or a lot of time in other shows. And worst of all, it's not clear that these drops are going to stop anytime soon.

NBC: So this is NBC, 2011-2012: nothing but football in the winter, and nothing but The Voice in the spring. The network is certainly entitled to a little dancing in the street over the fact that they really do have this season's music competition show of choice (at least so far), but the rest of the schedule is an atrocity. Last night's 1.2 has to be one of the lowest non-holiday, in-season (let alone sweeps) Sun-Thurs nights for any network ever. The highest rated show of the night was SVU, with a 1.6 that was its lowest rating in a dozen years on the air. WHITNEY was the night's "success story," as its 1.5 managed to stay 0.1 above its series low. ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA? hit a new series low 1.3 (Chelsea may be there; no one else is). And let's not even talk about the unbelievable 0.6 for ROCK CENTER.

ABC: But then, not a lot of good news for anyone last night. THE MIDDLE and SUBURGATORY hit new season lows of 2.3. MODERN FAMIILY and HAPPY ENDINGS were, respectively, 0.2 and 0.1 above season lows. (Endings, however, did win the prize for Random Pop Culture Reference Of the Week--a prize Community usually owns when it's on the air--when Brad, whose cologne attracts pigeons, was referred to as "Mr. Tuppence A Bag," about as sweet a Mary Poppins gag as you'll ever find.) The idea of pre-empting Revenge with a special pre-Oscar "Before They Were Stars" installment of 20/20 must have seemed like a good idea at the time; at 1.4, it wasn't.

CBS: The hits keep coming: SURVIVOR's 2.8 was the lowest regular episode in that show's 12-year history, and CRIMINAL MINDS tied a season low 3.1. But then--gasp!--something good: CSI, with its 2d Elisabeth Shue episode (but probably helped as well by the weak competition on ABC) went up 0.2 from last week, with a 2.8 that almost equaled the NBC and ABC ratings combined.

CW: ONE TREE HILL's 0.7 was higher than last night's Rock Center. REMODELED, though, continued marching graveward with a 0.3.

Tonight FOX airs an hour of Idol, followed by THE FINDER. All the networks feature new episodes, except NBC, which airs its last Grimm rerun at 10PM (Awake starts next week), and CW, which moves to its own drummer and is already in Thursday reruns even though we're still in February sweeps.

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THE SKED'S WEDNESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

12:01 PM | Labels: american idol, chelsea, criminal, csi, happy endings, middle, mobbed, modern, network scorecard, one tree, Person to Person, remodeled, revenge, rock center, suburgatory, SVU, The Sked, TV ratings, Wednesday, whitney

Somewhere, Edward R. Murrow weeps.

CBS: The attempt to resurrect Murrow's 59-year old celebrity interview vehicle PERSON TO PERSON with Charlie Rose and Lara Logan flopped badly with a 1.1 (wait, people didn't want to see the inside of Warren Buffet's house?). But Survivor will be back next week, so no long-term damage done. CRIMINAL MINDS was in its recent neighborhood (its lead over Mobbed on FOX will likely look better when final ratings are released and the Idol overrun into Mobbed's hour is removed). As expected, CSI took a big hit from the last new episode, which was Marg Helgenberger's finale, but still won its hour. Next week Elisabeth Shue debuts as the show's new female lead, and we'll see if that does anything for the show.

FOX: AMERICAN IDOL held at a 6.0, which naturally destroyed the competition but was still down almost 30% from last year at this time--and was also about 10% below Monday's number for The Voice. MOBBED was purportedly up for the night, but again that may well change once the Idol overrun is removed.

ABC: THE MIDDLE and SUBURGATORY were basically even with their earlier numbers against Idol, while MODERN FAMILY and HAPPY ENDINGS, which had last aired new episodes against a 2-hour Idol, predictably did better against Mobbed. REVENGE matched its last few originals--we'll see if next week's arc finale gives the show a bump.

NBC: Even though Idol was stable, its NBC competition of WHITNEY and ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA? managed to be down to a pair of 1.5s, which is even with the series low that Up All Night had when it aired on Wednesdays. ROCK CENTER unsurprisingly was slaughtered in its new 9PM timeslot, with a 1.1 against 3 networks that all averaged a 3.0 or more in the hour. SVU was in last place at 10PM, although considering the difference in lead-ins, a 2.2 (only 0.5 behind CSI) was almost a moral victory.

CW: ONE TREE HILL continues to hold nicely with a 0.7, while REMODELED continues to need one of its own with a 0.4.

Virtually all new sweeps episodes on every network tonight. NBC will air a 1-hour 30 ROCK at 8PM, preempting PARKS & RECREATION, which should have little effect on the ratings, and while the network waits to launch AWAKE after sweeps, it'll re-air the post-Super Bowl edition of THE VOICE at 10PM.

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THE SKED'S WEDNESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

10:59 AM | Labels: american idol, are you there chelsea, criminal, csi, happy endings, harry, modern, network scorecard, one tree, remodeled, revenge, SVU, The Sked, TV ratings, Wednesday, whitney

AMERICAN IDOL returned to the schedule, towering over everything... except its own past.

FOX: Idol came back with a 7.4, which naturally squashed all its competition. In fact, it beat the ratings of the other 4 broadcast networks combined. And yet... the number was down 24% from last season's Wednesday premiere. Last year's 9.8 Wednesday premiere translated into an 8.8 Wednesday season average, so if the numbers work out the same way this time, the show could end up with a 6.6 Wednesday average. That will certainly keep it as the season's top non-football series, but not quite the monolith it used to be (admittedly, a problem every other network would commit serial murder to have).

NBC: All the networks choked on FOX's dust last night, but none more than the Peacock. The 8-9PM sitcoms plunged, with WHITNEY at a new series low 1.6 and ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA? not much better with a 1.8. This was followed by by the usual sad 1.1 for HARRY'S LAW, and a new 1.8 all-time low for the once-mighty SVU, which didn't even have to compete with Idol.

ABC: All things considered, a decent 2d place for the night, except at 9:30PM where Criminal Minds narrowly beat out HAPPY ENDINGS. None of the network's shows were down more than 0.4 from last week (MODERN FAMILY and Happy Endings declined only 0.1), and REVENGE even managed to inch up.

CBS: With Survivor between cycles, the network aired an NCIS repeat at 8PM, which predictably got smashed. CRIMINAL MINDS hit a season low, but down only 0.2 from its last fresh episode, which aired against much lighter competition. The only real disappointment was CSI's 2.8, which won its hour but was down 0.1 despite the start of the much-hyped exit of Marg Helgenberger's character.

CW: ONE TREE HILL was down to a 0.7, which is still better than Gossip Girl or 90210 have been doing. The REMODELED repeat that followed did the same 0.3 as the first run had done the night before.

Tonight, more Idol, with fresh competition from all the other networks, including the second episode of ROB on CBS.

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THE SKED: ABC'S Spring Schedule

11:21 AM | Labels: ABC, body of proof, cougar, Grey's Anatomy, happy endings, Private Practice, scandal, The Sked, trust

The bi-yearly gathering of TV journalists is going on in LA this week, and while the schedules for most networks have already been set through the rest of the season (sudden cancellations notwithstanding), ABC, with its piles of short-run series ordered from last year's pilot season, had some additional announcements to make:

TUESDAYS: Beginning April 24, PRIVATE PRACTICE will move for the remaining 4 weeks of the season into the 10PM slot currently occupied by the not-long-for-this-world BODY OF PROOF. This will give the network a chance to see whether the show is now strong enough to survive without a Grey's Anatomy lead-in, and also clear space for the Thursday move below.

WEDNESDAYS: Starting April 11 (after HAPPY ENDINGS is done for the season, with what should be a minimum of repeats from here on), the very promising sit-com now known as DON'T TRUST THE B____ IN APT 23 will inherit the prime post-Modern Family slot at 9:30PM. For those keeping count, this makes 2 series this season in which ABC is coyly trying to suggest but not use the word "Bitch," the other being whatever they're calling Good Christian Bitches, which will air on Sundays starting in March. We all look forward to next season's network spin-off Once Upon a F___ing Time.

THURSDAYS: Shonda Rhimes isn't losing the post-Grey's slot, just shuffling it a bit. When Private Practice moves to Tuesdays, Rhimes' new Washington-set soap SCANDAL takes over, as of April 5.

The one piece on the ABC board still unaccounted for is the return of COUGAR TOWN, as to which the network continues to be vague. One can't help but notice, though, that a half-hour might open up on Tuesdays if WORK IT were to meet a tragically untimely demise, providing yet another reason (as if any were needed) to root against it.

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THE SKED'S WEDNESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

10:50 AM | Labels: criminal, csi, happy endings, harry, i hate my teenage daughter, model, network scorecard, revenge, survivor, SVU, The Sked, the x factor, TV ratings, up all night, Wednesday

Last night, viewers took a stand against the hatred of teenage daughters.

FOX: I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER, in its 2d airing (and first against new episodes on ABC) slumped to a 2.1 rating, losing more than a third of X FACTOR's lead-in 3.3. The Teenage Daughter numbers may continue to be erratic, because for the next 2 weeks ABC will be in holiday mode, airing a Barbara Walters special and more repeats on Wednesdays against original Teenage Daughter episodes. But eventually programming will return to normal, and there's no basis to think Teenage Daughter has what it takes to survive. Meanwhile, that X Factor number was itself its lowest rating other than Thanksgiving Eve, and a further decline from last week.

ABC: Taking Thanksgiving Eve out of the equation, almost all the network's shows tied or set season lows (the quasi-exception was HAPPY ENDINGS, 0.1 above its non-holiday low). However, some of those numbers are better than they sound: Happy Endings was facing sitcom competition for the first time all season, and even at its lowered number, REVENGE was only 0.1 out of first place in its timeslot.

CBS: SURVIVOR did a fairly standard number for the season (which in the context of this night looked pretty good), while CRIMINAL MINDS and CSI both tied season lows.

NBC: UP ALL NIGHT tied its non-Thanksgiving Eve low, but that's pretty much where the show has been mired for the past month. HARRY'S LAW lost the tiny increase it had last week when it aired against reruns on ABC. SVU tied the season low it's had for the last few weeks (except when ABC aired reruns).

CW: Some good news! AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL's cycle finale mustered a 1.0, very strong by CW standards.

A moment of silence: tonight NBC airs what is currently the last-scheduled episode of COMMUNITY. May it return to us soon. Meanwhile, FOX will air what's become the Fall finale of BONES, because the episode that was supposed to air next week has been pushed to January so it can become the lead-in to the premiere of FINDER, the spin-off that's replacing it while Emily Deschanel has her real-life maternity leave (s opposed to Bones' on the show). And ABC will fill the airwaves' holiday stocking with such lumps of coal as a Christmas edition of AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS and something called THE GREAT BIG AMERICAN AUCTION.

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THE SKED'S WEDNESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

12:17 PM | Labels: grammys, happy endings, harry, i hate my teenage daughter, revenge, rockefeller center, SVU, the x factor

While ABC was away, the other networks did play (a little).

FOX: The network seized the opportunity afforded by ABC's all-repeat night to launch the last new series of the "fall" season, I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER. The result was a 2.8 that was both far more than the show deserves and unlikely to be repeated when ABC returns to the field. Despite the lack of competition, X FACTOR had its lowest rating outside of Thanksgiving Eve, but that was still enough to give FOX the win for the night.

NBC: Even though viewers seem to be in the mood for holiday classics, with The Grinch and Rudolph recently scoring very well, there was little interest in CHRISTMAS AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER, which couldn't manage a 2 and was down from last year. However, the absence of competition on ABC and an atypical non-procedural 10PM on CBS boosted HARRY'S LAW and SVU to hit or match season highs--which in this case means a still-terrible 1.4 and still-mediocre 2.2.

CBS: Not a big night for The Eye: a season-low tie for SURVIVOR, a CRIMINAL MINDS repeat that didn't even do as well as an October repeat of the show had done, and the GRAMMY NOMINATIONS SPECIAL, which scored at the level of a normal CSI repeat.

ABC: All the regular shows took a rest for the night with repeats, and big drops followed. The worst-hit, not surprisingly, was the serialized REVENGE; least-damaged was HAPPY ENDINGS, which fell less than 35% from its last non-holiday original, drawing the viewers who took a look at the Teenage Daughter promos and ran for cover.

CW: A MUPPETS CHRISTMAS repeat special actually did pretty well by CW standards with a 0.8, and AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL held that number.

Tonight it's CBS's turn to go the rerun route, while ABC will air another holiday chestnut in 1970's Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town along with a 2-hour CMA Country Christmas.

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THE SKED:: ABC Hands Out Halloween Candy Corn Pick-Ups

4:47 PM | Labels: ABC, happy endings, Last man standing, Man Up, Once Upon A Time, pan am, The Sked

ABC was in a giving mood today, and the swag was full season pick-ups. ONCE UPON A TIME, of course, has already richly earned its extra episodes with 2 splendid weeks of ratings. HAPPY ENDINGS probably cemented its claim last night, when it shot up half a ratings point from the last time it had an original Modern Family lead-in and marked its third straight strong outing--the ABC Wednesday night line-up may not be the highest rated comedy block of the week (Monday on CBS gets that title), but more and more, it's looking like the one with the highest quality (sorry, NBC Thursdays)--and they still have the return of Cougar Town and the highly promising pilot Don't Trust the Bitch in Apt. 23 in the tank. And then there's LAST MAN STANDING, which would have had to be an utter disaster not to get a pick-up... instead of a huge disappointment, which is what it merely is.

Anyone who wants to see PAN AM survive had better tune in to the next couple of episodes, because at this point in the season, the network's order of 5 additional scripts but no new episodes is more of a Hail Mary than a vote of confidence. And the lack of any new investment in MAN UP! tells you all you need to know.

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THE SKED: Wednesday Ratings - Network Scorecard

11:16 AM | Labels: csi, happy endings, harry, model, network scorecard, revenge, SVU, The Sked, the x factor, TV ratings, up all night, Wednesday

After 2 nights of sinking numbers, stability returned to the ratings on Wednesday.

ABC: All in all, a good night. The first half of the evening was down a tenth or so here and there, but the network got help where it mattered. HAPPY ENDINGS is now hitting its stride in viewership as well as in quality: even though its MODERN FAMILY lead-in was at the same level as 2 weeks ago, and facing fresh episodes on the other networks, Ending's number was up a very healthy 15% from that night. Even better, the barrage of marketing for REVENGE is paying off with a return to 3 territory for the first time since the series premiere, giving it the time slot victory. (It should help going forward that the show has moved on from its initial "revenge of the week" structure and is now mining a more compelling continuing storyline.)

FOX: The already-renewed-for-next-year X FACTOR will likely score (after national ratings adjustment) just about what it had been doing on Wednesdays pre-baseball, enough to win the night.

CBS: All its numbers were within 10% of where they'd been pre-baseball. Falling behind at 10PM hurts a bit, but CSI is still handily winning the battle of the procedurals.

NBC: For anyone who thought the network's Wednesday ratings had surely hit their bottom--no such luck. UP ALL NIGHT is now a "success" in the way that Community is (except without the critical raves). HARRY'S LAW's 1.1 was at a level with last week's episode of Psych on USA, as well as the Sunday 10PM rerun of Walking Dead (the initial run practically tripled it), and Harry barely outrated Boardwalk Empire, a show that airs in only 1/3 of US households. SVU was beaten by CSI by a factor of 25%.

CW: AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL was on par with its usual rating.

Tonight, NBC will hope that without the World Series as competition, The Office can bounce back from its lowest Thursday rating ever. Its competition includes FOX's return of Bones to the schedule, with its much-anticipated pregnancy storyline.

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THE SKED: Wednesday Ratings - Network Scorecard

12:06 PM | Labels: happy endings, network scorecard, Prime Suspect, revenge, suburgatory, survivor, The Sked, TV ratings

It was a great night to be ABC.

ABC: With the World Series tricking FOX, it was all treat for the Alphabet. Noteworthy in the general wave of success was that HAPPY ENDINGS shot to a 3.5, and while that won't happen again against original programming on the other networks, it means a lot of new eyeballs watched last night's particularly funny episode, so ABC can hope some of them will like what they saw and come back. SUBURGATORY also set a nice new high, and REVENGE got solid viewership for a fairly pivotal episode.

NBC: Even against a repeat CSI on CBS, no one was interested in watching PRIME SUSPECT. Tonight's rating will be critical for the show, which is approaching deadline on a back order and will never get more promotion than it received this week.

CBS: SURVIVOR was buoyed by the lack of competition to win its hour, and even with repeats, CRIMINAL MINDS and CSI were strong seconds in their hours.

FOX: With the last minute scratch of the World Series game, they used GLEE reruns as filler.

CW: Reruns of RINGER continued to barely register.

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THE SKED: AB--See Our Happy Wednesdays

2:24 PM | Labels: ABC, happy endings, revenge, Submarine, The Sked, Wednesday

We said ABC would be wearing a smiley face after last night's fine numbers, and the network wasted no time in acting on the good news. REVENGE and SUBURGATORY have received full-season back orders, and HAPPY ENDINGS (which was a midseason show last year, so didn't have a full order this season) has a 6-script order with an eye toward keeping it in continuous production. No one can argue with any of this; even if FOX has been narrowly winning Wednesdays with X Factor (when it's not burdened with baseball), the ABC line-up is very solid, and although Revenge is still something of a question mark, the night is likely to remain so.

Of course, that doesn't solve the network's crumbling Sunday (they have to hope ONCE UPON A TIME isn't caught in the wreckage of Desperate Housewives), nor the fear that DANCING WITH THE STARS may not recover from its current badly-rated cycle, not to mention the fact that at some point (very possibly tomorrow) it'll be time to cancel CHARLIE'S ANGELS. But it's a start.

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THE SKED: Wednesday Ratings - Network Scorecard

11:29 AM | Labels: baseball, csi, happy endings, harry, model, network scorecard, revenge, suburgatory, SVU, The Sked, TV ratings, up all night, Wednesday

A smiley face for one network and a frowny one for another, on the third night this week disrupted by postseason baseball.

ABC: Everything came up fairly rosy last night at the Alphabet. SUBURGATORY should be inches away from a full season pick-up after its third consecutive strong outing, and even better, REVENGE went in the opposite direction from Pan Am, and had a nice bump from last week. That might be partly due to CSI being hurt by the unexpected baseball game at 10PM, but ABC will take it. Combine all that with the stellar MODERN FAMILY number and an impressive increase for HAPPY ENDINGS (which also might be partly attributable to the absence of X Factor on FOX), and it was a pleasant evening at ABC.

NBC: Here's where NBC is these days: their good news last night was that the repeat of WHITNEY with its 1.3 decisively outrated the new episodes of Free Agents that it replaced. (Incidentally, BBCAmerica has started airing the original British Free Agents--albeit in heavily edited form--and it's a tutorial in how a network can duplicate a show's premise, basic characters and even storylines and turn it into something completely different and far worse.) UP ALL NIGHT, with its full season order, declined to a lousy 2.0, while the best that can be said for HARRY'S LAW and SVU is that they were consistent.

CBS: SURVIVOR and CRIMINAL MINDS barely moved from last week. The CSI decline was a little steeper, but as noted, that show faced unusual competition in its timeslot.

FOX: Even though a network benefits financially from a long playoff series, at this point FOX is probably hoping Texas can just win its next game today/tonight/whenever it stops raining and put the network out of its misery. Last night's unexpected primetime game was down at least 20% from X Factor, and that will probably get worse when final numbers are released later today.

CW: Repeats of RINGER (back ordered yesterday) barely kept the lights on with a 0.4, which was even with last week's H8R and didn't affect AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL.

Tonight NBC will find out if the extra reruns this week have helped Whitney and Prime Suspect at all, and CBS will hope for an uptick from Person Of Interest.

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The Sked: WEDNESDAY RATINGS October 12

8:38 AM | Labels: happy endings, modern family, Numbers, revenge, suburgatory, The Sked, TV ratings, up all night, Wednesday

ABC's Wednesday is humming along and won the night with a 3.4 Adult 18-49 rating in the fast nationals. Modern Family at 9 led the way of course with a 5.7 (the same as last week).   Suburgatory seems to be stabilizing at a 3.0 (the three-week track is 3.3...3.1...3.0, and it could very possibly go up in the official nationals). The Middle is settling in at a 2.8 (four-week track: 3.1...2.7...2.8...2.8). Happy Endings (which was pushed in promos the past few days -- "If you like Modern Family, you'll like Happy Endings" along with guest star Megan Mullally) bounced back to a 3.3. The three-week track for Happy Endings is 3.1...2.8...3.3. Stunts still work. And Revenge (the biggest promo priority) rebounded to a 2.7 (four-week track: 3.4...2.7...2.4...2.7).

CBS was a close #2 at a 3.2 for the night: Survivor 3.2, Criminal Minds 3.7, CSI 2.6. Survivor and Criminal Minds were each down 0.1 from last week, while CSI was down a disappointing 0.3. CSI's four-week track: 3.2...3.1...2.9...2.6. Pending adjustments in the official nationals, it looks like CSI will lose the 10 pm hour to Revenge.

FOX coverage of the rain-delayed Game 4 of the ALCS is a preliminary 3.0 in the fast nationals (the primetime portion from 8:00-10:30). But the fast nationals have been wildly inaccurate with baseball recently -- expect that number to go down substantially.

NBC was fourth with a 1.7 for the night, equalling the Wednesday rating last week. Up All Night, fresh of its full-season order, declined to a 2.0, a series low. In the time period, Up All Night has tracked: 2.4...2.1...2.3...2.0.  A repeat Whitney at 8:30 (1.3) over-performed the moribund 1.0 turned in by last week's Free Agents. Harry's Law did its consistent 1.2, while SVU pulled a 2.1, third place in the 10 pm hour. SVU track: 2.4...2.1...2.1...2.1.

The CW featured a repeat Ringer (0.4), which didn't help America's Next Top Model (0.8).

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THE SKED: Wednesday Ratings - Network Scorecard

11:08 AM | Labels: Free Agents, h8r, happy endings, network scorecard, revenge, suburgatory, The Sked, TV ratings, up all night

The bell tolled for another failed new series last night, which was otherwise fairly stable.

ABC: If SUBURGATORY can hold its rating around last night's 3 for another week, it should be a strong candidate for an early back order. (See our PILOT + 1 review.) The night's other sitcoms slipped a bit, but nothing to be concerned about--in fact, a mere 0.2 fall for the second week of HAPPY ENDINGS isn't bad at all. REVENGE can keep going at last night's 2.5, but it needs to hold steady around there.

FOX: X-FACTOR continues to hold at or around a very solid 4, and gave FOX the win again last night. The only disquieting news for the network was that its lead-in did nothing for the new episode of RAISING HOPE that aired at 9:30PM, which may mean that the reality show won't provide the launching pad later this season for I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER that FOX was hoping for.

NBC: Here's what you have to say about the newly back-ordered UP ALL NIGHT: its 2.2 rating was the highest scored by any NBC show on the network's Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night schedules this week. Grading on a curve, that makes it a success. FREE AGENTS, though, was too low even for the Peacock, and has bitten the dust. HARRY'S LAW and SVU were steady, albeit at cruddy numbers.

CBS: The network's Wednesday average was even with last week: you just plug it in, and it works.

CW: It's hard to believe that even CW can live for long with H8R's 0.4 rating. AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL has stabilized, but 30% below last season.

Tonight there are several shows to keep an eye on: CHARLIE'S ANGELS on ABC, HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN on CBS (look for our Pilot + 1 Review), and WHITNEY and PRIME SUSPECT on NBC.

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THE SKED: WHAT TO WATCH THIS FALL ON WEDNESDAYS (1st Draft)

11:16 AM | Labels: csi, happy endings, modern family, revenge, suburgatory, SVU, teenage daughter, The Sked, up all night

The networks have proclaimed their Fall schedules, the new series have been (partially) unveiled, so... what now? What will actually be worth watching when network TV comes back to life in a few months? SHOWBUZZDAILY is here to help you out. The good news is that since virtually all TV series are available these days via DVR, on-demand and online streaming, we're well past the days when you had to choose one show in a timeslot and live with it--so where a slot offers a multitude of worthwhile entries, well, the only thing better than spending an hour watching TV is spending 2. Also, these are "1st Drafts" because once the pilots come to light, some arrivals may look even better than they do now, while others will be far less impressive. So consider this a work in progress.

8PM: X FACTOR is certainly the event of the early evening, and those who can't get enough singing competitions in their life will flock to it. For scripted fans, a split hour seems wise: start with the star value of NBC's UP ALL NIGHT at 8PM, with Christina Applegate, Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph; but then skip what looks like its fairly woeful slot mate at 8:30, FREE AGENTS, and switch to ABC and the moderately promising SUBURGATORY.

9PM: MODERN FAMILY is a no-brainer on the hour. At 9:30, I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER seems less funny than its title, and HAPPY ENDINGS has slowly been improving, so ABC gets the nod.

10PM: ABC's REVENGE will have to offer more than its promo if audiences are to stick with it for more than a couple of weeks; however, the alternatives of arthritic procedurals CSI and (newly Chris Meloni-less) SVU may make this a good hour to catch up on DVR recordings or check what's on cable.

WHAT TO WATCH THE REST OF THE WEEK:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Weekend

ALSO SEE MITCH METCALF'S PREDICTIONS OF FALL 2011 RATINGS:

MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN FULL WEEK

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