THE PROGRAMMING INSIDER
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:
ABC Wins; CBS or Fox Poised for Victory Among Adults 18-49
Ratings Box:
What’s Hot/What’s Not
On the Air Tonight:
Prime-Time Programming Options
TV Tidbits:
Notes of Interest
TV Trivia Time:
Listen to Bulldog
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Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:
ABC Wins; CBS or Fox Poised for Victory Among Adults 18-49
Monday 5/05/08
HH
Rtg/Shr
ABC 8.6/13
CBS 7.4/12
Fox 7.4/11
NBC 5.6/ 9
CW 1.8/ 3
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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Monday, May 7, 2007)
Fox: +21, NBC: - 7, ABC and CBS: -16 each, CW: -22
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Note: The fast affiliate results for Monday will be posted at PIFeedback.com by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Monday, May 5, 2008.
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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Dancing With the Stars (ABC), Two and a Half Men (CBS), House (Fox), CSI: Miami (CBS)
-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Okay…let’s wait until the fast affiliate results are posted at PIFeedback.com before I officially label any of the turkeys.
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-Ratings Breakdown:
ABC dominated this second Monday of the May 2008 sweeps, beating second-place CBS and Fox by 16 percent. But CBS or Fox will likely dominate among adults 18-49 once the fast affiliate results are posted at PIFeedback.com. Fourth overall was NBC, followed by the CW.
ABC’s Dancing With the Stars was the top-rated show in the overnights for the evening, with an 11.8 rating/19 share from 8-9:30 p.m. While I would like to see Christian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke depart tonight (word of advice: never approach Cheryl at a party), sadly it is time for bubbly Marissa Jaret Winokur to bid adieu. As for the idea of Marissa hosting her own daytime talk show in fall 2009: good idea, Sony Pictures Television!
Dancing With the Stars led into sitcom Samantha Who? (#2: 7.2/11 at 9:30 p.m.), followed by The Women Tell All edition of tired The Bachelor: London Calling at a last-place 4.4/ 7 at 10 p.m. Retention for Samantha Who? out of the last half-hour of Dancing With the Stars (12.5/19 at 9 p.m.) was just 58 percent. Speaking of Samantha Who?, here is a prediction: Christina Applegate will win the Emmy next fall for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She is reminiscent of Mary Tyler Moore, isn’t she?
CBS had a typical Monday with its combination of The Big Bang Theory (#3: 4.7/ 8), How I Met Your Mother (#4: 5.0/ 8), Two and a Half Men (#3: 8.3/12), Rules of Engagement (#4: 6.3/ 9) and CSI: Miami (#1: 10.2/17). Year-to-year, the overnight slippage for CSI: Miami was 18 percent (10.2/17 vs. 12.4/20). As for Two and a Half Men crossing over with CSI, that was pretty bizarre, wasn’t it?
Fox was on the map courtesy of underrated Bones (#2: 5.8/ 9) and bona fide hit House (#2: 9.1/14) from 8-10 p.m. And next was NBC with another two-hour edition of Deal or No Deal (5.2/ 8 from 8-10 p.m.), which was telecast from the Philippines, and Medium (#2: 6.4/10), which is returning in 2008-09 in midseason. But the CW continues to lag with its revised Monday combination of Gossip Girl (#5: 1.7/ 3) and One Tree Hill (#5: 1.9/ 3). Relax, though, I will reserve judgment until I see the demographics.
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
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Ratings Box:
What’s Hot/What’s Not
-TNT Scores with Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs:
Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs on TNT averaged an improved 2.1 household rating, with 2.97 million viewers, building year-to-year by 10 percent in both categories and as much as 25 percent among men 18-34. Comparably, this was the highest rated Round 1 Playoffs coverage since 1994.
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
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On the Air Tonight:
Prime-Time Programming Options
Tuesday 5/06/08
Night 13 of the May 2008 Sweeps
ABC:
8:00 p.m. Dancing With the Stars: Judge’s All-Time Favorite Dances
9:00 p.m. Dancing With the Stars
10:00 p.m. Women’s Murder Club
CBS:
8:00 p.m. NCIS
9:00 p.m. Shark
10:00 p.m. CSI: Miami (R)
NBC:
8:00 p.m. Most Outrageous Moments
8:30 p.m. Best of Saturday Night Live R (Best of Molly Shannon)
10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU
Fox:
8:00 p.m. American Idol
9:00 p.m. Hell’s Kitchen
CW:
8:00 p.m. Beauty and the Geek 5
9:00 p.m. Reaper
MNTV
8:00 p.m. Street Patrol (R)
8:30 p.m. Street Patrol (R)
9:00 p.m. Jail (R)
9:30 p.m. Jail (R)
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TV Tidbits:
Notes of Interest
-Ghost Whisperer Heads to Sci Fi Channel:
Sci Fi Channel has secured the off-network cable rights to CBS drama Ghost Whisperer for a fall 2009 launch. Sci Fi will also have access to other classic CBS series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation (which will premiere on Monday June 2, 2008), Charmed, Early Edition, Highlander, Friday the Thirteenth: The Series and Mork & Mindy. “Na-Nu! Na-Nu!”
-The CW and Warner Bros. Team Up in Daytime:
The CW is partnering with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution to create a daily 3-5 p.m. ET programming block. Judge Jeanine Pirro, a one hour court show presided over by the Fox News Channel contributor and former Westchester County District Attorney and Country Judge will air at 3 p.m. ET, followed by repeats of sitcoms The Wayans Bros. and The Jamie Foxx Show from 4-5 p.m. ET. The two-hour programming block begins on Sept. 22, 2008.
-Lindsay Lohan Joins Cast on ABC’s Ugly Betty:
Young tabloid Queen Lindsay Lohan is heading to the small screen as the former classmate of Betty on ABC’s Ugly Betty. She will make her debut on the May 22 season-finale, and will return next fall for at least five additional episodes.
-NBC Yanks Repeats of Monk and Psych:
NBC has pulled the low-rated encore telecasts of Monk and Psych in the Sunday 8-10 p.m. block and will replace them on May11 with four consecutive repeats of The Office.
-Mike O’Malley Joins Cast of NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy:
Former Yes, Dear star Mike O’Malley will switch from comedy to drama in a co-starring role on NBC’s upcoming My Own Worst Enemy, which tells the story of a middle-class efficiency expert (Christian Slater) who lives a double life. O’Malley will play a friend and co-worker of Slater.
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TV Trivia Time:
Listen to Bulldog
Remember Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe on Frasier? What was the name of the show he hosted at Frasier’s radio station?
a) At Bat with Bulldog
b) Game Night
c) Gonzo Sports Show
d) The Pulse
e) Seattle Fog Sports Show
The answer to the yesterday’s question…
Which one of the following TV characters did not have a knack for making apple pie?
a) Margaret Anderson
b) June Cleaver
c) Maude Findlay
d) Ginger-Nell Hollyhock
e) Phyllis Lindstrom
Is: e) Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. After kooky Phyllis (Cloris Leachman) realized hubby Lars was having an affair with “Happy Homemaker” Sue Ann Nivens, she tried to turn domestic and baked an apparently awful apple pie. To the masses who answered Ginger-Nell Hollyhock, that was the character played by Rue McClanahan on short-lived ABC sitcom Apple Pie. Fooled you!
All together now…
Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well it's you girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement you show it
Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all
You're gonna make it after all
-Current kudos goes to:
David Ballarotto, Gerry Bixenspan (2x), Maureen Goldman, Bob Ingersoll, David Jackino
