Prime-Time Ratings:
Thursday 5/21/09

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 8.77 million, CBS: 8.16, ABC: 5.38, NBC: 4.22, CW: 1.36

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 3.4 rating/11 share, CBS: 1.7/ 5, ABC: 1.6/ 5, NBC: 1.5/ 5, CW: 0.5/ 2

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Note: Now that the traditional TV season is over, the daily listing of winners and losers will be on hiatus until next fall.

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Fox led the troops on this first unofficial night of the non-traditional season, with the two-hour season-premiere of summer favorite So You Think You Can Dance at a respectable 8.77 million viewers and a 3.4 rating/11 share among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

So You Think You Can Dance (Fox)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 8.06 million (#1), A18-49: 3.1/11 (#1)
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 8.77 million (#1), A18-49: 3.3/11 (#1)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 8.92 million (#2), A18-49: 3.5/11 (#1)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 9.35 million (#2), A18-49: 3.8/11 (#1)

Comparably, that was almost identical to the year-ago season-opener. While So You Think You Can Dance could be poised for another successful summer, personally I am not so sure a fall edition is a wise idea.

CBS aired repeats of NCIS (Viewers: #2, 7.37 million; A18-49: #3, 1.3/ 5), which leads into spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles on Tuesday next season, CSI (Viewers: #1, 9.64 million; A18-49: #2t, 1.9/ 6) and Flashpoint (Viewers: #1, 7.49 million; A18-49: #2, 1.8/ 5), which is scheduled to return with its next batch of original episodes in midseason.

Back-to-back episodes of ABC’s Ugly Betty, including the season-finale at 9 p.m., performed as follows by half hour:

Ugly Betty (ABC)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.14 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6 (#2)
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.19 million (#3), A18-49: 1.9/ 6 (#2)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.12 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6 (#3)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.63 million (#3), A18-49: 2.1/ 6 (#2t)

As a reminder, marginal Ugly Betty moves to Friday at 9 p.m. out of relocated Superanny next fall. Capping off ABC’s uneventful Thursday was a repeat of Grey’s Anatomy at a last-place 3.61 million viewers and a 1.1/ 3 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m.

In season-finale news, NBC’s Southland concluded its short-flight first season with 6.39 million viewers (#2) and a first-place 2.0/ 6 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. While that is certainly not spectacular, it did build from its repeat 30 Rock lead-in (Viewers: #4, 3.19 million; A18-49: #4, 1.3/ 4) by 3.20 million viewers and 54 percent in the demo. Earlier in the evening on NBC were repeats of canceled My Name is Earl (Viewers: #4, 3.32 million; A18-49: #4, 1.1/ 4), another episode of 30 Rock (Viewers: #4, 2.79 million; A18-49: #4, 1.2/ 4) and The Office (Viewers: #4, 3.28 million; A18-49: #4, 1.4/ 4) from 8-9:30 p.m. The absence of original episodes of My Name is Earl this fall will not help the upcoming off-network run.

Last, and very least, were repeats of the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: 1.42 million; A18-49: 0.5/ 2) and Supernatural (Viewers: 1.29 million; A18-49: 0.5/ 1), Don’t forget: Smallville, heads to the Friday 8 p.m. anchor spot next fall.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

That's actually not too bad for Ugly Betty! Considering ABC usually falls like a rock as soon as sweeps are over, having to anchor the entire night against a heavily promoted SYTYCD, which i'm sure got tons of ads during American Idol, should be considered a small victory for both Ugly Betty and ABC.

Therefore, I think it would make more sense if ABC went with Ugly Betty as a lead-off on Tuesdays @ 8pm, leading into DWTS: Results, perhaps swapping timeslots with Shark Tank, or perhaps sharing timeslots once Shark Tank finishes a short summer test run as anticipated paired with WWTBAMillionaire. Betty's competition would be the aforementioned SYTYCD, which would have aired a second season in the Fall after just starting its Summer season now, Biggest Loser, and NCIS. I think there's more room for Ugly Betty to succeed there than there is for Shark Tank -- UB would be better counterprogramming in my opinion, and give UB a better chance to survive than Fridays after Supernanny.

Finally, I would further seek to improve UB by splitting it into two 10-episode half seasons, running all original episodes: the first being a 'Fall season' airing from mid Sep through November sweeps, and the second being a 'Spring season' airing from mid-March through May sweeps, again in that Tuesday @ 8pm timeslot. Basically I believe the same scheduling mentality that ABC uses on DWTS, they should expand to most of their shows, then alternate them with replacement shows for January and February. It would especially work well and really help ABC's rerun-UNfriendly scripted dramas, such as DH, Grey's, Private Practice, etc. For example, it's really evident already in Grey's, which topped 17 million last week with an original, getting just 3 million with a rerun in the same timeslot...

quote:

Ugly Betty (ABC)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.14 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6 (#2)
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.19 million (#3), A18-49: 1.9/ 6 (#2)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.12 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6 (#3)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.63 million (#3), A18-49: 2.1/ 6 (#2t)

As a reminder, marginal Ugly Betty moves to Friday at 9 p.m. out of relocated Superanny next fall.

WOW! a tale of two weeks for SouthLAnd. I knew the procedural vs procedural theory was right. I was not buying that bad rating last week for SouthLAnd like other people were. That lead-in was awful as the 30 Rock repeat was down their in the low 3 millions. Not good as I think NBC needs to program different things during the summer on Thursdays from 8-10pm. Flashpoint still effected SouthLAnd's numbers from getting 7-8 million viewers. If I were NBC, I would move Law & Order and SouthLAnd repeats to Fridays effective immediately to get ready for the fall. It might also be wise to start the season for NBC Friday on Friday September 11, 2009 two weeks before CBS does to get a jump on that GW & Medium audience.

Dance did another solid job but I don't think they can pull these numbers off in the fall especially head to head with DWtS in that second hour.

Was that a repeat of UB or an original?

UB aired its 2 hour season finale.

quote:

Originally posted by ThinkingOfYou:
Was that a repeat of UB or an original?

quote:

Originally posted by ThinkingOfYou:
Was that a repeat of UB or an original?

Those were the last two originals. A repeat wouldn't have cracked 3 million, considering a rerun of Grey's barely managed to do so...

quote:

Originally posted by ThinkingOfYou:
Was that a repeat of UB or an original?

It was the 2 hour season finale.

Very bad numbers for UB, it's dead on fridays if it can barely get 1.9 without big competition on thursdays

In other news: the Eurovision Song Contest pulled 122 millions on Saturday. Good luck beating that

122 million? Wow.

quote:

Originally posted by robert:

In other news: the Eurovision Song Contest pulled 122 millions on Saturday. Good luck beating that

SOUTHLAND is an excellent show...one of the best NBC has in a long time...good to see the ratings go back up in face of light competition.

Hopefully its new night against the UNBELIEVABLY renewed DOLLHOUSE (what WERE they thinking) can see its ratings improve enough to get a full season order.

Agreed and I think it has a shot if last night proved anything. It won't need much over a 2 demo to be successful on Fridays.

quote:

Originally posted by A.C.:
SOUTHLAND is an excellent show...one of the best NBC has in a long time...good to see the ratings go back up in face of light competition.

Hopefully its new night against the UNBELIEVABLY renewed DOLLHOUSE (what WERE they thinking) can see its ratings improve enough to get a full season order.

That was for the whole of Europe though.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmDeepEnd:
122 million? Wow.

quote:

Originally posted by robert:

In other news: the Eurovision Song Contest pulled 122 millions on Saturday. Good luck beating that

I watched priview for The CW midseason drama Parental Discrition Advised and I must say it's quite good and I will be watching. I don't know where they plan to put it though.

quote:

Originally posted by Fifty:
I watched priview for The CW midseason drama Parental Discrition Advised and I must say it's quite good and I will be watching. I don't know where they plan to put it though.

It does look great. Well casted too.

Terrible rerun performance for the CW, on its strongest rerun night.

ABC has little interest in Ugly Betty which is why it shipped it to Fridays and narrowly avoided cancellation. Fans should be happy they are getting a final season of the show.

quote:

Originally posted by Chimera:
That's actually not too bad for Ugly Betty! Considering ABC usually falls like a rock as soon as sweeps are over, having to anchor the entire night against a heavily promoted SYTYCD, which i'm sure got tons of ads during American Idol, should be considered a small victory for both Ugly Betty and ABC.

Therefore, I think it would make more sense if ABC went with Ugly Betty as a lead-off on Tuesdays @ 8pm, leading into DWTS: Results, perhaps swapping timeslots with Shark Tank, or perhaps sharing timeslots once Shark Tank finishes a short summer test run as anticipated paired with WWTBAMillionaire. Betty's competition would be the aforementioned SYTYCD, which would have aired a second season in the Fall after just starting its Summer season now, Biggest Loser, and NCIS. I think there's more room for Ugly Betty to succeed there than there is for Shark Tank -- UB would be better counterprogramming in my opinion, and give UB a better chance to survive than Fridays after Supernanny.

Finally, I would further seek to improve UB by splitting it into two 10-episode half seasons, running all original episodes: the first being a 'Fall season' airing from mid Sep through November sweeps, and the second being a 'Spring season' airing from mid-March through May sweeps, again in that Tuesday @ 8pm timeslot. Basically I believe the same scheduling mentality that ABC uses on DWTS, they should expand to most of their shows, then alternate them with replacement shows for January and February. It would especially work well and really help ABC's rerun-UNfriendly scripted dramas, such as DH, Grey's, Private Practice, etc. For example, it's really evident already in Grey's, which topped 17 million last week with an original, getting just 3 million with a rerun in the same timeslot...

quote:

Ugly Betty (ABC)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.14 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6 (#2)
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.19 million (#3), A18-49: 1.9/ 6 (#2)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.12 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6 (#3)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.63 million (#3), A18-49: 2.1/ 6 (#2t)

As a reminder, marginal Ugly Betty moves to Friday at 9 p.m. out of relocated Superanny next fall.