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Showing posts with label simpsons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simpsons. Show all posts

THE SKED SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

12:13 PM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,





Maybe ABC should have left "Bitches" in the title.

ABC:  GCB (aka Good Christian Bitches, aka Good Christian Belles) had a very unimpressive debut, a 2.2 that was way below Pan Am's premiere in the fall.  (In fairness, the DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES lead-in to Pan Am was a lot higher than last night's rating.)  GCB wasn't able to win its hour, and considering that it was only 0.2 ahead of 3rd place CSI Miami, the likelihood is that once it settles into post-premiere numbers, it'll be in last place at 10PM.  ABC was hoping this could be the show that inherits the 9PM Housewives slot next season, but the signs aren't good.  Meanwhile, Housewives itself, as it nears the home stretch of its run (7 episodes left), was up a nice 0.3 from its pre-Oscar week airing.  The queen of ABC's Sunday night, though, is ONCE UPON A TIME, with a terrific 3.4 that was more than a half-point higher than anything else on network TV last night.


NBC:  CELEBRITY APPRENTICE, like every other major reality franchise this year (except The Voice), is substantially down from last season, in the neighborhood of 30%.  (Things aren't going to improve much next week, when its lead-in becomes Harry's Law, a show even CBS thinks skews old.)  But the show still won the 10PM hour, and a win is a win.

CBS:  Even with a solid 2.8 lead-in from THE AMAZING RACE, THE GOOD WIFE took a tumble to a season low 1.8, and while the show probably isn't in danger of cancellation--it's the only classy drama on the network--it had better hope those upscale viewers don't go anywhere.  (It'll be interesting to see what happens March 25, when Mad Men, a show that defines "upscale," makes its return in the same timeslot.)  CSI MIAMI was only 0.1 above its own season low, but faced atypical competition with the much-hyped GCB premiere.

FOX:  Another day at the office for the animation line-up, with every show within 0.1 of its rating 2 weeks ago.  FAMILY GUY and THE SIMPSONS, though, are down 25-30% from last season's average.

It's Monday, and that means SMASHWatch is on.  Tonight is the show's opportunity to hold or even increase last week's rating, thanks to repeats on both ABC and CBS.  Also, tonight was meant to be the 2-hour season finale of ALCATRAZ, but due to last week's rescheduled NASCAR race, it's just a 2-hour episode.  CBS and CW are all-rerun, and CASTLE is a repeat after a new BACHELOR.  



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The Sked: Upscale Ratings -- FOX Profile

10:28 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Previously in this series on upscale TV ratings, we have examined ABC (many upscale shows but too many series stuck with mid-level or low audience sizes) and CBS (sizable audiences but many downscale or at best middling income skews).  Today, we look at FOX, which averages a 2.9 rating with Adults 18-49 this season to date with its regular schedule (equal to the CBS rating and well ahead of ABC's 2.4).  With Adults 18-49 in $100K+ income homes, FOX averages a 2.8 rating (slightly ahead of ABC's 2.7 and above CBS's 2.6).  FOX's upscale index of 96 is better than CBS's 91 but far below ABC's 113.

High Rated Shows.  Among FOX's many high-rated shows, the network has a pretty good distribution of upscale to mid-range to downscale properties.  Two shows, Glee (139) and New Girl (130), grace the upper right section of our chart, boasting both high ratings and solid upper-income audience skews.  Next, the FOX schedule is anchored by American Idol (105) with great (though declining ratings) and middle-range income skew, indicating its appeal to all people.  The other FOX strengths, X Factor and the animation domination anchors, start to tilt downscale: from the Wednesday X Factor (94) to Thursday's edition (88), down to The Simpsons (84) and Family Guy (71).  Not every show can be an upscale hit, but if the rest of the FOX schedule had such a balanced distribution, the network would be in pretty decent shape in terms of income skew.

Middle Rated Shows.  However, among the sizable number of middle-rated shows on FOX, there is a decided downscale skew.  There are no mid-rated FOX shows with a high upscale index and only three around 100: Monday's House (106) and Alcatraz (105) along with Raising Hope (104).  The rest of Sunday's animation block really falls off an income cliff: Cleveland Show (65) and American Dad (56), joined by freshman series Napoleon Dynamite (68) and Allen Gregory (69).  Other struggling shows from a variety of program genres find themselves with undistinguished index values in the 80s.

Low Rated Shows.  The good news for FOX is a dearth of genuinely low-rated programs, but the bad news is that Saturday's installments of Cops have the lowest income index numbers of any network program (all the way down to the 50s) and Friday's Kitchen Nightmares (66) is also very low.  Friday and Saturday are tough nights for the sales department (advertisers want to be on before the weekend starts when buying decisions are forming), and a downscale skew just makes the tough sales proposition almost impossible.

In the final post in this series, we will look at NBC, home of some of the most upscale -- and simultaneously lowest-rated -- programs on network TV.  



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THE SKED'S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:02 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,




Americans, faced with tragedy, gather around their television sets.  For the death of Whitney Houston, that meant the GRAMMYS.

CBS:  The sudden (and not so sudden) death of Whitney Houston turned the Grammys into An Event that transcended the usual awards-plus-glamor formula, and the result was a giant 14.1 rating, more than 2 rating points higher than last year's Academy Awards (and given this year's Oscar prospects, almost certain to be the season's highest-rated awards show).  Beyond the ratings, the show will undoubtedly give a huge boost in sales to the artists (especially the night's It Girl, Adele) who performed or won awards during the broadcast.  (A side note:  although advertisers are guaranteed a minimum rating for their commercials, and receive compensation if those numbers aren't hit, they get the full benefit of unexpectedly high ratings, meaning that all the sponsors of last night's show received windfalls worth millions of dollars.)


ABC:  Every other network suffered accordingly, and none more so than ABC, whose female-skewing lineup is geared to compete with NFL Football, but not with a colossus that attracts that same audience.  ONCE UPON A TIME was down about 10% from the episodes that competed with NFL playoff games, and that was the good news.  DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES hit a low that was 30% below its previous all-time bottom, and the penultimate episode of PAN AM was an embarrassing 0.7.

FOX:  Young guy-skewing shows weren't immune either, and FOX hit season lows across the board.  Its animated schedule was down 20% even from the weeks when CBS aired the late NFL playoff games.

NBC:  The network had basically given up on this night already (it'll launch the new season of Celebrity Apprentice next week), so comparatively speaking, it had the least to lose.  DATELINE and a FEAR FACTOR special did a 1.6 and 1.5, respectively, and on a cost-benefit basis that was probably the most effective competition of the night.

Tonight NBC bites its fingernails, as it waits to find out how many people will come back for a second helping of THE VOICE and, especially, SMASH.  This still being sweeps, the shows face all-new competition on every network.


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THE SKED'S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

10:26 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,



 
A football appetizer, compared to next week's all-you-can-eat buffet.

NBC:  The PRO BOWL, aka the NFL All-Star Game, won the night, but at nowhere near the ratings for regular games, let alone the bonanza the network will reap next week for the Super Bowl, aka The Most Expensive Smash Promo Ever.


ABC:  ONCE UPON A TIME did a very nice 3.4, higher than its last couple of originals (which faced NFL playoff games), but then the night collapsed with a 1.5 for the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, which did not give network executives A Smile As Big As the Moon. 

CBS:  UNDERCOVER BOSS had a solid 3.0, then GOOD WIFE and CSI MIAMI were both in the midranges of their season's ratings with twin 2.2s (which are better than they sound because their seasonal highs reflect NFL overrun nights).

FOX:  All the numbers were way, way down from their last originals, thanks to the lack of an NFL lead-in.  THE SIMPSONS was only 0.1 above its season low with a 2.4, and while NAPOLEON DYNAMITE was an unimpressive 2.1, that was a strong hold of the Simpsons number.  Similarly, FAMILY GUY was only 0.2 above its season low, and then AMERICAN DAD held onto 80% of that rating.

We're a few days from the start of February sweeps, and it's not an exciting night for the networks.  CBS is all-repeat, ABC has a rerun CASTLE at 10PM, and NBC will endure its final pre-Voice/Smash Monday, while FOX hopes ALCATRAZ can keep its momentum going.  The closest thing to an event is the much-hyped 100th episode of GOSSIP GIRL on CW.
     




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THE SKED'S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

10:52 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , ,



NBC comes face-to-face with its post-football Sunday.

NBC:  No doubt the network thought that whatever the quality of its new series version of John Grisham's THE FIRM (and that quality is quite bad), name value alone would bring it an audience.  Well, not so much:  its disastrous 1.4 put it in last place for 2 hours (tied at 10PM with the certain-to-be-canceled Pan Am).  Where the terrible quality does show is in the constant audience departures throughout the show's running time.  The Firm's blight only affected NBC's Sunday as a one-time event, but there's little doubt it will now taint the network's Thursday nights in its regular timeslot.


CBS:  As expected, the Tebow/Steelers showdown (in overtime yet, albeit the shortest overtime in NFL history) was titanic, and not only gave CBS huge a 7PM boost, but also helped out the network's other shows.  THE GOOD WIFE (which conveniently had one of the niftiest episodes of its season) and CSI MIAMI both hit or matched season highs, and the network swept the night.  (Next week the even more dramatic Tebow/New England blockbuster airs on Saturday night, and FOX has the late Sunday game with NY/Green Bay.)

ABC:  Once football was done for the night, the network survived the pyrotechnics pretty well.  ONCE UPON A TIME had its highest rating in more than a month, and even DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES hit one of its best numbers of the season.  Only poor PAN AM continued unable to fly its way out of  what will surely be its terminal turbulence.

FOX:  THE SIMPSONS ran directly against the Tebow overtime in most of the country, and got slaughtered, hitting a season low.  After that FAMILY GUY improved, but was still at the low end of its season ratings.

Tonight belongs to ESPN.  With the college football championship game airing, both CBS and FOX will be in repeats, with NBC throwing another helping of WHO'S STILL STANDING, FEAR FACTOR and ROCK CENTER at the wall, while ABC airs the female-skewing BACHELOR and CASTLE. 

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THE SKED'S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:26 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , ,



Another Sunday where there was football... and then everything else.

FOX:  The early evening received a massive boost from the Giants vs. Green Bay game, which went down to the last second.  That lifted THE SIMPSONS, ALLEN GREGORY and FAMILY GUY mightily although Gregory was still down 40% from the Simpsons number.


ABC:  These are the perils of preempting your regular schedule for weeks in a row:  ONCE UPON A TIME, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and PAN AM all hit season lows on their return.  This was particularly troublesome for Once, because it did air last week and still went down another 10% from that number, losing to FOX for the hour.  The night gets even messier from here on, as Housewives and Pan Am won't be back till January, but Once airs another new episode next week.

CBS:  Very stable, although CSI MIAMI was up a bit. 

NBC:  The network is entering the "flex" part of its football schedule, which allows it within certain limits to pick the games it wants to air on Sundays.  Last night's Detroit vs New Orleans game must have looked better on paper than it played, because although of course NBC won the night, it was one of the lower-rated games of the season.  But next week's Giants vs Cowboys game, a match-up of marquee teams with real playoff implications, should be a much bigger event.  The bad news:  only 4 more weeks of regular season games left for the Peacock.

Tonight, CBS airs a regular schedule (including what should be a pivotal episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER) against preemptions elsewhere:  a SING-OFF Christmas special on NBC, CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS and PREP AND LANDING cartoons on ABC, and the AMERICAN COUNTRY AWARDS on FOX.  

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THE SKED'S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

11:12 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , ,


The last Sunday of November sweeps wasn't music to the ears of anyone.

ABC:  The AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS matched its 2010 number--which would be better news if the 2010 rating hadn't been its lowest ever, down more than 20% from the year before.  However, that's still far better than the network has been doing with its regular Sunday line-up this season.  We'll find out next week if the preemption did any damage to ONCE UPON A TIME's momentum.


FOX:  With the late NFL game on CBS, THE SIMPSONS took a hit, down 20% from last week.  Although the odious ALLEN GREGORY reached a new low, it actually retained more of the Simpsons audience than it had previously (70% compared to 60% a week earlier).  The 9-10PM hour held steady.

CBS:  The network had the benefit of the late game.  However, CSI MIAMI is becoming an increasing problem, hitting a new season low and falling behind THE GOOD WIFE for the 2d time in 3 weeks.  Next week CBS will experiment with reruns of Person Of Interest in their 2 hours against an inspirational TV-movie on ABC.

NBC:  Football, the Peacock's favorite sport.  This week's game was down a bit from recent weeks but still way more than needed for the nightly win.  Next week the network gets the relatively unpromising Pittsburgh at Kansas City match-up, but soon its "flex" schedule will kick in, allowing it to cherry-pick attractive games with playoff implications.

Tonight the TERRA NOVA watch continues at FOX.

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THE SKED: Sunday Network Scorecard

10:36 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,



Another Sunday, or as NBC likes to think of it, The Only Night That Should Count.

ABC:  ONCE UPON A TIME barely slipped from last week, proving its full season pick-up was well deserved.  DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES continues its limp to the finish line, while the only good news for PAN AM is that CBS's unexpected slump at 10PM made it competitive in the timeslot.  


FOX:   The "Treehouse of Horror" episode of THE SIMPSONS is traditionally high-rated, so no surprise that the show was down this week even with a football lead-in.  ALLEN GREGORY did as well holding its own lead-in as it did last week, with both shows down 0.3, but that's still a loss of almost 45% of the Simpsons audience.

CBS:  The odd blip of the night was that even though THE GOOD WIFE was up slightly at 9PM, CSI MIAMI took a dive at 10, and actually fell below its lead-in for the first time all season.  Meaningless, perhaps, but it'll be something for the network to be concerned about if things don't correct themselves next week.

NBC:  Ah, football.  If only the network could figure out a spinoff...

Tonight FOX will be scrutinizing the TERRA NOVA and HOUSE numbers and hoping that last week's poor showings were a post-baseball exception.

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THE SKED: Sunday Ratings - Network Scorecard

11:06 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,



The fairy tale continues for one of this season's new arrivals.

ABC:  The back order for ONCE UPON A TIME should be arriving any minute.  The fantasy soap has clearly found an audience sweet spot, and even with what will probably be the season's strongest Simpsons as competition (not to mention NBC's football and a CBS schedule boosted by the late afternoon game), it held beautifully in its second week.  In an ideal parallel universe for the network, the show would lift DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and PAN AM by more than 0.1 each, but ABC will take its happy ending as it comes.

FOX:  The SIMPSONS Treehouse of Horror episode outrated last year's installment (4.0 to 3.7), but that didn't do anything for the debut of ALLEN GREGORY, which won't be long for the schedule with numbers like last night's 2.4.  (Probably not coincidentally, FOX chose today to announce a back 9 order for Season 2 of Bob's Burgers; clearly the network knew it would have some space to fill on Sundays.)

CBS:  Football and a promotable 60 MINUTES helped the early part of the evening, but GOOD WIFE and CSI MIAMI aren't budging from the 2 neighborhood this season, and it remains to be seen whether the network will find that acceptable in the long term.

NBC:  Not a good game, as it turned out, but the presence of 2 marquee teams did wonders for the network's football rating compared to the past couple of weeks.

Tonight brings some depressed ratings due to Halloween, and the arrival of the NBC news series ROCK CENTER, not to be confused with the NBC comedy series 30 Rock.  No, really--don't confuse them.

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The Sked: PROMO WATCH -- through Wednesday October 26

9:47 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Grimm is now up to 240 promo seconds over the last week, and the return of Chuck has worked its way up to 75 seconds.  Now, NBC has to hold its breath that Texas wins tonight and ends the World Series.  Otherwise, these two shows will face an additional headwind on Friday, a Game 7.  Rock Center has had 80 seconds over the last week, and Wednesday featured a topical promo for the premiere telecast Monday, highlighting a story by Harry Smith about a town where jobs are plentiful.     

ABC's #1 priority over the past week was last night's Halloween-themed Wednesday comedy block, a bet that paid off because stunts like that work and because the episodes faced mostly repeats on the other networks.
 
 
FOX is shifting most of its limited time to "animation domination" on Sunday, particularly The Simpsons "Treehouse of Terror" episode and the premiere of Jonah Hill in Allen Gregory. 

To make the chart easier to read at a glance, there is now a "Cliffs Notes" version below that just lists the top four priorities for each network, making it easier to compare each network to the other.  For greater detail, the chart at the bottom lists all shows each network has promoted in the last week in case you are interested in finding a particular series.
   
ON-AIR PROMOTION PRIORITIES
TOP FOUR SHOWS EACH NETWORK
Over the Last Seven Days 
(# of promo-seconds)
Dates sampled: October 20 & 23-26, 2011

ABC
  Wed Comedy Block   120
  Once Upon a Time   100
   Desperate Hswvs    95
  Grey's Anatomy     95
CBS
  Unforgettable      85
   Person of Interest 70
  Rules Engagement   60
  Late Show          60
NBC
  Grimm              240
  Prime Suspect      105
  Rock Center        80
  Chuck              75
   Thu Comedy Block   75
FOX
  Allen Gregory      75
  The Simpsons       65
   American Idol      60 
  New Girl           50 


ALL SHOWS PROMOTED
(# of promo-seconds)
Dates sampled: October 20 & 23-26, 2011

ABC
  Wed Comedy Block   120
  Once Upon a Time   100
   Desperate Hswvs    95
  Grey's Anatomy     95
  Pan Am             65 
  Man Up!            60
  Extreme Mak. Home  50
   Castle             45
  Body of Proof      45
  Revenge            30
  Private Practice   30
  Last Man Standing  30
  Modern Family      30
  20/20              30
   Dancing...Stars    25
  CMA Awards         10
  Great Pumpkin      05
 CBS
  Unforgettable      85
   Person of Interest 70
  Rules Engagement   60
  Late Show          60
  Big Bang Theory    50
  The Mentalist      50
  2 Broke Girls      50
   A Gifted Man       45
  Survivor           40
  NCIS: LA           30
   Hawaii Five-O      30
  Amazing Race       30
  Two Half Men       30  
  NCIS               30 
  CSI: Miami         25
  CSI                20
  How I Met Mother   20
  The Talk           20
  Criminal Minds     15
  Good Wife          10 
  NFL on CBS         10 

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