Movie Box Review

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.

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.

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.

The only shows last night with ratings north of a 3 were reruns.

FOX:  Even with weaker competition on both CBS and ABC, TERRA NOVA couldn't climb more than 0.1 from last week's season low, and with only 2 episodes left this season (the finale is a 2-hour special), time is running out.  HOUSE didn't fare much better, also up a mere 0.1 from its season low.

ABC:  Although they didn't equal Dancing With the Stars' usual rating, a combo of the classic HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS and a SHREK holiday special performed well 8-9PM.  Viewers have apparently decided that YOU DESERVE IT doesn't, and the night was rounded out by a CASTLE rerun.

CBS:  Thinking of reruns, The Eye won the night with one arm tied behind its back.  With an all-repeat lineup, CBS was victorious in every half-hour of the evening.

NBC:  The season finale of THE SING-OFF couldn't come soon enough for NBC, although it did manage to climb slightly for its last performance.  Facing repeats on the other networks, ROCK CENTER also crept up a bit.

CW:  HART OF DIXIE's 0.8 was nothing to shout about, but the fact that it marked an increase of 0.2 from the waning GOSSIP GIRL was at least a bit promising.

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.  

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.

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.

The double meaning of "little" in the title of Fox's busted sitcom pilot LITTLE IN COMMON is that the 3 couples at its center are brought together only because their respective kids all play on the same little league team.  That's about it for cleverness, though, in this comedy that's light on laughs. 

The show was written by Rob Thomas, creator of the beloved but low-rated Veronica Mars, and it's a smooth piece of work that wouldn't have embarrassed anyone had it gotten on the air.  (It's been reported that the pilot is still alive for midseason consideration, although apparently there would be a fair amount of redevelopment involved.)  The pilot's main couple is made up of Rob Corddry and Paula Marshall; they've moved from California to a suburban town in Texas so he can become the new middle school principal.  (There's zero attempt to suggest any kind of Texas atmosphere--it's just generic suburbs--and although one assumes that if the show had gone to series, we would have seen something of Corddry's job, it's just a conversation point in the pilot.)  They have a daughter who's a demon soccer player and a son who's never shown any interest in sports--until he sees the cute girl who's playing shortstop for the local little league team.  That brings Corddry and Marshall in contact with Kevin Hart and Gabrielle Union, since Hart is the (fanatical, of course) coach of the team, as well as with Lombardo Boyar and Alanna Ubach, their next-door neighbors who are also parents of the cute shortstop.   At first Corddry and Marshall don't get along with the other couples, but by the end of the pilot, they're all becoming friends; you know the drill.

Little In Common could have shared an hour with Raising Hope on FOX, but in comparison with that show it lacks any distinctiveness.  The couples are all equally bland (big laughs are supposed to come from Corddry's character getting back spasms at inconvenient moments; Boyar makes beignets dosed with tequila), and so is the storyline--there's a disastrously unfunny bit in the 3rd act where Corddry and Marshall are briefly mistaken for racists.  The cast is attractive and they play together reasonably well, but without any ensemble sparks; the strongest impression comes from Fred Dwyer, channeling Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino as a cranky older neighbor.  As directed by Adam Bernstein, who's directed a lot of single-camera cable shows, the overall feel is easygoing if impersonal.  

There's nothing horribly wrong with Little In Common, which actually makes it a challenge to redevelop; the show just isn't particularly interesting or funny.  (If I were playing FOX creative chief--and I guess I am--I'd say Family Album has more possibilities; see my review here.)   Little In Common is a comfortable half-hour that's got all the impact of Muzak.

8PM:  TERRA NOVA can't be ignored, since it's the 600-ton tyrannosaur of the new Fall shows.  The guess here, though, is that after the pilot, the special effects will become a bit sketchier, and it'll start looking more like a B-movie than a blockbuster--that's when it'll be time to go back to reliable old favorites.  For some that will mean DANCING WITH THE STARS or GOSSIP GIRL, but on this TV, it's HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, now paired with TWO BROKE GIRLS.  That one looks somewhat overly brassy, but has the tremendously talented Kat Dennings in the lead.

9PM:  Here's hoping The CW's HART OF DIXIE has some spark to it, because it's the only new life in a timeslot of returnees (admittedly, fans of  2 1/2 MEN and/or Ashton Kutcher may be more excited by this timeslot).  

10PM:  THE PLAYBOY CLUB has only looked moderately promising from what we've seen so far--handsome but predictably soapy.  Still, it's certainly a change of pace from the procedurals CASTLE and HAWAII 5-0 that are slated against it, and worth some encouragement on that count alone.

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