Movie Box Review

A preview of next season's schedule?

CBS:  The network experimented with a new episode of THE MENTALIST at 9PM, and while the 2.0 rating was 20% below the show's Thursday season low, Friday offers fewer available eyeballs, so a decline was to be expected.  Mentalist nevertheless considerably outrated what CSI NY and A Gifted Man have been doing at 9PM, easily winning its timeslot, pushing Grimm near a series low, and helping BLUE BLOODS inch up to a 1.8.   And that wasn't even CBS' best news of the night:  in the 4-way unscripted battle at 8PM, UNDERCOVER BOSS was the winner by far with a 2.2, the highest rated broadcast on any network last night.

NBC:  Against Mentalist, GRIMM's 1.5 was 0.1 above its series low.  WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? was a weak 3rd place at 8PM with 1.0 (tying a repeat on FOX), but DATELINE, while behind Blue Bloods, nosed out ABC for 2d place at 10PM.

ABC:  SHARK TANK managed 2d place at 8PM (although a big 0.7 behind CBS), but PRIMETIME and 20/20 fell to third the rest of the evening. 

FOX:  A repeat KITCHEN NIGHTMARES tied for 3d in both of its hours.  

CW:  Repeats were at a typical (for CW repeats) 0.3-0.4.

Tonight continues to be something of a bonanza for Saturday original programming (as long as quality doesn't come into play):  THE FIRM on NBC, Q'VIVA! THE CHOSEN on FOX, and a 20/20 invitingly titled My Extreme Affliction.  Yum!  Then tomorrow, all the networks are new (with a return of Dylan Baker's Hannibal Lecter-ish character on THE GOOD WIFE), with the main "events" being HARRY'S LAW return to the NBC schedule at 8PM and the 2d episode test for ABC's GCB at 10PM.

Adieu, GIFTED MAN.

CBS:  The season finale of A GIFTED MAN ticked up a bit to a 1.4, but while that would be great news for, say, Fringe, don't get your hopes up for Man's renewal.  A far more telling sign:  we've talked here before about "second position" pilot deals for actors, and Gifted Man's female lead Rachelle Levebre just signed for one produced by Man's own production company (and that being CBS Studios, not unacquainted with its network).  CBS won the night's other hours (UNDERCOVER BOSS slightly up, BLUE BLOODS even) to tie for the evening win.

ABC:  SHARK TANK was down slightly at 8PM, but after that the night improved sharply, with 0.3 and 0.4 respective rises for PRIMETIME and 20/20, pulling the network to a tie for the night.

NBC:  WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?, with a Reba McEntire episode (and possibly benefiting as well from the repeat on FOX) leaped half a ratings point from last week (although that still put it in 3d place for the hour), which helped propel GRIMM up 0.2 to tie for the lead at 9PM.  DATELINE lost the newsmagazine battle and fell to 3d place at 10PM.

FOX::  With February sweeps over, the network slipped into repeats, falling into 4th place for the night with KITCHEN NIGHTMARES.

CW:  Twin 0.3 ratings for repeats of NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL.

FRINGE, having watched Monty Python & the Holy Grail, shouts "I'm not dead!" as the gravediggers try to take it away.

CBS:  An extremely soft win for the night (1.6 average).  UNDERCOVER BOSS was down 0.4 from its season premiere, A GIFTED MAN (in its penultimate episode, at least for this season) was down 0.2, and only BLUE BLOODS was up a slight 0.1 from last week, when it aired against ABC's Whitney Houston tribute.

FOX:  FRINGE was up 0.1, and while that doesn't sound like much (and isn't), at least it was in a tightly squeezed pack at 9PM (1.5-1.4-1.3-1.2).  The show now takes 4 weeks off, to return at the end of March with what it hopes won't be its final 8 episodes in this timeline and universe.  

NBC:  GRIMM continues to be a very niche success, at the top of that 9PM scrum by a bare 0.1 and showing no signs that it could thrive in the tougher competition that exists Sun-Thurs.  WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? is flopping at 8PM with a 1.0, and DATELINE barely won the newsmagazine battle at 10PM by 0.1.

ABC:  The network was in 2d place by only 0.1 at both 8PM and 9PM (SHARK TANK particularly benefited from Undercover Boss' decline), but 20/20 slumped without the buzz of the Whitney Houston story.

CW:  Repeats, although it's worth nothing that the 0.4 scored by NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL was only 0.1 below what some of the network's new episodes have been rating.

Tonight is repeat hell, except for NBC's burn-off of THE FIRM episodes (another kind of hell).  Tomorrow night is likely to be joyful for fans of black-and-white silent French films, and depressing for everyone else.  (It's a mark of just how dreary this year's Oscars are that the media has spent 2 days obsessing about Sacha Baron Cohen's publicity stunt for his new movie instead of the awards.)  All the other broadcast networks are staying away, as are many scripted cable locales, with the exceptions of giant hit WALKING DEAD on AMC, and enormous flop LUCK on HBO.

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Well, the good news for A GIFTED MAN is that it's not cancelled.  It even has a "back order."  However, it's about as begrudging as a back order can be:  far from the usual 9 additional episodes, Gifted Man will only get 3 extra, for a season total of 16.  This smacks of a network needing product for a few weeks rather than any enthusiasm for keeping a show on the air, but it allows the series a tiny bit of breathing room before departing on what may be a very long hiatus.

The Eye also cut the season order for RULES OF ENGAGEMENT from 18 episodes to 13 (in addition, there are 2 unaired episodes shot for last season, so the series will air 15 in all).  In this case, the decision isn't by any means necessarily a death knell for the reliable comedy, which has been performing quite decently Thursdays in the 8:30PM slot.  CBS needs the extra space to launch its new Rob Schneider comedy ROB! in that prime post-Big Bang Theory slot, starting in January.

CBS also announced that the new season of UNDERCOVER BOSS will take over THE AMAZING RACE's Sunday slot following the end of Race's current cycle, with the competition show to return at a later date.  Boss will be competing with the new hit Once Upon A Time, FOX's cartoons, and a combination of Dateline and Harry's Law in the slot.