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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Not a great night for bubble shows.

CBS:  On a night where CSI NY and BLUE BLOODS both won their hours and were up slightly from last week, A GIFTED MAN went down 0.1 and tied for 3rd place at 8PM.

FOX:  KITCHEN NIGHTMARES and FRINGE were both down 0.1 from last week, but while that still left Kitchen comfortably in 2d place for its hour, Fringe matched a series low 1.1 and continued to make it hard for FOX to consider renewing it.

NBC:  WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, with a heavily-promoted "Marisa Tomei murder mystery" episode, held steady with its season premiere, and then things got even better.  GRIMM was up 0.2 from last week, just 0.1 from the lead in its hour, and DATELINE (some big story/interview this week?) was up a whopping 0.4 from last week, beating out 20/20.

ABC:  SHARK TANK got the night off to a great start, up 0.3 for the week and winning the 8PM slot.  PRIMETIME was up 0.1, and while that was only enough for 3rd place at 9PM, it was a closely-bunched trio.  But then 20/20 fell flat at 10PM, down 0.3 from last week.

CW:  NIKITA held at a 0.5, and although SUPERNATURAL was down 0.1, its 0.7 is still solid for CW.

Tomorrow night's big event is the GRAMMYS, the one night of the year CBS pretends it's hip.  The show scored a 9.9 last year (up a bit from the year before), and faces all-new episodes on ABC and FOX, plus a 2-hour FEAR FACTOR special on NBC.

America wasn't in the mood for scripted drama.

NBC:  The network replaced the deceased Chuck with the reality show WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? and could only pull a 4th place 1.1 in the hour (admittedly a bit better than Chuck was doing, and probably at a lower price).  GRIMM had a bad week, even though it tied for 2d in its hour--it matched its season low 1.4, down 0.4 from its last original.

FOX:  KITCHEN NIGHTMARES won its hour with a 1.6, but then FRINGE plunged to a 1.1 despite airing one of the season's best episodes, tying its season low.

CBS: The network tied for the win on the night, but A GIFTED MAN, CSI NY and BLUE BLOODS were all down slightly from their last original episodes.

ABC:  Shared the win, sparked by a 20/20 that tied Blue Bloods for the lead at 10PM.  PRIMETIME, though, was down 0.3 from last week.

CW:  Another pair of tied season lows for NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL.