Movie Box Review

Thriving: 
Did we mention this was NBC?  OK, fine:  FOOTBALL.  And THE OFFICE is holding on pretty well.  And PARENTHOOD's 2.2 looks OK compared to the competition.

Struggling:

UP ALL NIGHT - Yeah, it got a back-order.  Also a 2.1 rating last week.

WHITNEY - NBC can't afford to waste its one cushioned timeslot after The Office.  Right now, Whitney is doing a barely adequate job of retaining its lead-in.

Holdovers - THE BIGGEST LOSER, COMMUNITY, PARKS & RECREATION, SVU
 

FREE AGENTS:  With FOX threatening to cancel THE SIMPSONS over a salary dispute and this one heading for the cemetery, let's hope Hank Azaria has held on to some of his voice-over millions.

PRIME SUSPECT: The network will try a double-pump for 3 weeks, with repeats in the Playboy Club slot, but so far no one seems to care.

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.

In a move that shows where NBC stands right now, the network has given back order pick-ups to UP ALL NIGHT (which had a 2.1 rating in 18-49s last week) and WHITNEY (with a 2.5).  It's not clear whether these are the traditional 9-episode back orders.  The cynical among us may note that NBC needed to make these orders public before either show has a chance to air again tomorrow and Thursday, since any further declines from last week's ratings would make the new orders even more suspect.  And the really, really cynical could add that since both shows are produced in-house for the network, their orders could be cut just as quickly as they've been extended, if declining ratings warrant.

The other side of the network's ledger is that THE PLAYBOY CLUB is closing its doors, and will be yanked from the schedule in favor of the new Brian Williams-hosted newsmagazine show ROCK CENTER (not to be confused with 30 Rock), which will debut on October 31.  This gives Playboy the dubious distinction of being the first official flop of the new season.  (In other words, FREE AGENTS should be looking over its shoulder.)

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.

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.

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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