Movie Box Review

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.

Question for the class:  are the travails of AMERICAN IDOL and THE X FACTOR good or bad for NBC's THE VOICE?  Discuss among yourselves for the next 4 days.

FOX:  It's becoming a familiar song:  Idol easily wins the night for FOX, dominates its hour... but at a substantially lower level than it has in the past.  A 5.9 is a terrific rating, but it doesn't compare to the 9.0 Idol scored on last year's parallel night, and that kind of shortfall translates into sharply reduced advertising revenues for the network and producers.  Boosted by Idol, MOBBED hit a strong 2.9, albeit only 0.2 higher than the MODERN FAMILY repeat on ABC (and the Mobbed number may come down if there was an Idol overrun at 9PM).

NBC:  With repeats on ABC and a soft special on CBS, WHITNEY and  ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA were both up 0.3 from last week, but that still put them each at a 1.7.  The 9PM SVU repeat was low, but in the 10PM battle of the repeats, the show narrowly edged out CSI.

CBS:  The year's installment of SUPER BOWL'S GREATEST COMMERCIALS didn't do much with a 2.1, but that was enough for 2d place in the hour.  After that, 2 hours of repeats.

ABC:  An all-repeat night, with only Modern Family hitting any kind of number.

CW:  ONE TREE HILL continues to do well by CW standards with a 0.7, and REMODELED, with a 0.3, continues to do badly by anyone's standards.

Tonight:  Sweeps!  (Oprah voice) New episodes for you, new episodes for you, new episodes for everyone!  GREY'S ANATOMY will have an old-fashioned sweeps stunt episode with a Sliding Doors-ish story about alternative lives the characters could have led (if it were December, we'd call it It's A Wonderful Life-ish).  

AKA the season's final pre-American Idol Wednesday.

NBC:   In the absence of the 600-pound gorilla that's arriving in a week, the new 8-9PM hour did respectably.  WHITNEY's 2.1 was slightly higher than where Up All Night had settled in last fall, and ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA built a bit on that to a 2.3, which is more than anything else at 8:30PM has been able to do for the network all season.  On a night when 3 networks were in repeats, that was good enough for 2d place in the hour.  However, as Mitch Metcalf notes, that's partly because NBC spent a lot of money and effort marketing the shows.  And did we mention American Idol arrives next week?  HARRY'S LAW was up fractionally, while SVU couldn't capitalize much on the absence of CSI in its hour, up only 0.1 from its season low.  (And apart from Idol, next week features the start of Marg Helgenberger's departure from CSI, which can be expected to stunt that show's ratings.)

ABC:  An easy night-long win.  Everything was stable except MODERN FAMILY, which was down a not-insubstantial half a ratings point... but if you're Modern Family, you can afford to go down half a point.  Notably, even with presumably more female-skewing competition on CBS than usual, REVENGE still won its hour.

CBS:  The PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS were down 0.2 from last year, still enough for 2d place over its 2 hours.

FOX:  Basically bowed out for the night, with repeat and new episodes of MOBBED that didn't top a 1.3.

CW:  ONE TREE HILL's 0.9 season premere was excellent by CW standards.

America gives a warm "Welcome Back" to ABC's Wednesday line-up.

ABC:  With new episodes airing for the first time in a month, the network's shows (admittedly airing against lots of repeats and low-level specials on the other networks) took every half-hour of the night.  Everything was up from its last new episode in early December, although glass-half-emptiers might note that SUBURGATORY and REVENGE were only up 0.1 from what had been (excluding Thanksgiving Eve) their previous series lows.  Still, up is up, and a particularly ingenious HAPPY ENDINGS was only 0.2 off its season high.

FOX:  An off-night GLEE repeat didn't give much of a lead-in to a new MOBBED, which could only manage a 3d place 1.2 in its hour.

CBS:  A special I GET THAT A LOT pulled a not-bad 2.3, good enough for 2d place in the hour, then repeats held on to 2d place the rest of the night.

NBC:  The network's last night of repeats until it launches its "unfunny women in their 20s" 8PM hour of sit-coms next week.  The night's high point was a 1.1 for the SVU repeat.

CW:  Finally new episodes return to CW tonight, but there was still time for one more night of SECRET CIRCLE repeats with their 0.3 ratings.

Tonight, yes, CW unwraps new episodes of guilty pleasure Vampire Diaries and guilty not-so-much-pleasure Secret Circle, while ABC has 2012's first new chapters of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.  CBS, FOX and NBC (goodbye for now, Community) air reruns.