Moving away from individual shows, this brings up a whole new set of questions on the future of CBS Friday and Friday TV in general.

I completely agree that Flashpoint is brought in over Numbers based on cost effectiveness. CBS would love it if it showed positive gains over Numbers, but I'm not sure they are expecting or even planning for it to happen. As long as it doesn't completely collapse, they'll be happy.

The one disagreement that could arise is that Ghost Whisperer and Medium are suited together as Friday night TV. CBS has a history of not doing drastic changes so I think it's a case of them not wanting to completely redo their Friday schedule all at once. If Flashpoint works, I don't know what stops CBS from programming similar co-production The Bridge on Fridays. There's no set air date for it so they could easily hold off until the fall and continue production on it so that they have a full 22 before it even airs in the U.S. That leaves one open spot that I think Miami Trauma is fighting for thanks to CBS relationship to Jerry Bruckheimer. The question arises does CBS need their current Friday schedule at all or could they do better with cheaper programming? Granted, I doubt Jerry Bruckheimer is going to be cheap or neccessarily any cheaper than Ghost Whisperer/Medium, but long standing relationships have been known to be the basis of schedules on network tv. There's always the potential for a third co-production, completing the lineup also.

Again, this is all hypothetical and I could be completely off base, but that's kind of how I see CBS Fridays going.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce:

The ep cut tells me they had planned on cancelling it anyway and with lower cost alternatives in the wings, there was probably a 'let's get on with it' mentality when the early ratings were weak. CBS probably believes GW and Medium are better suited to compete in the tougher hours and the declining friday nite environment.

Thanks for posting this information. There were a few pieces of information I wasn't aware of.

quote:

Originally posted by Red:
Like many shows that originated from an outside production house, Criminal Minds included, CBS wouldn't pick it up (or at least gave indications they wouldn't) unless it became a co-producer. The 2009-present simply notes the name change of CBS's tv production house from CBS Paramount Television to CBS Television Studios, it's been a producer since pickup. I don't know how they split up the revenue from it, but I will say a couple of years ago, when the show was garnering numbers a lot closer to what it's doing now than what it did last season, there was a blurb about ABC picking up a bigger chunk of the production budget to guarantee renewal. So while it's true that revenue might be sliced up to some extent, cost is also shared, something else that goes into the bottom line.

I didn't label Ghost Whisperer a winner.

quote:

Originally posted by ThinkingOfYou:
You had Ghost Whisperer as a winner last week, even though it only got a 1.8.

Sure

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmZapataTexas:
Thanks for posting this information. There were a few pieces of information I wasn't aware of.

Last week I was kind of thinking along your lines, but looking at it further I've concluded they have to have something relatively strong and visible that has some kind of loyal audience to anchor the nite. If Flashpoint "works" late this spring, if that scheduling comes to pass, it will be largely because of the earlier momentum. It's a very decent show but has not had time or stability to develop what I call a base audience.

I just don't think they are ready yet to say cost is everything on friday and perhaps permanently lower demo standards down to 1.5 or below. While they have to be concerned about their declines apart from the other nets's problems, they still do own the nite and while it appears as though this is going to be a 2.0 kind of year for them, the season has yet to fully play out and my guess is their larger concerns right now are Sunday.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmZapataTexas:
Moving away from individual shows, this brings up a whole new set of questions on the future of CBS Friday and Friday TV in general.

I completely agree that Flashpoint is brought in over Numbers based on cost effectiveness. CBS would love it if it showed positive gains over Numbers, but I'm not sure they are expecting or even planning for it to happen. As long as it doesn't completely collapse, they'll be happy.

The one disagreement that could arise is that Ghost Whisperer and Medium are suited together as Friday night TV. CBS has a history of not doing drastic changes so I think it's a case of them not wanting to completely redo their Friday schedule all at once. If Flashpoint works, I don't know what stops CBS from programming similar co-production The Bridge on Fridays. There's no set air date for it so they could easily hold off until the fall and continue production on it so that they have a full 22 before it even airs in the U.S. That leaves one open spot that I think Miami Trauma is fighting for thanks to CBS relationship to Jerry Bruckheimer. The question arises does CBS need their current Friday schedule at all or could they do better with cheaper programming? Granted, I doubt Jerry Bruckheimer is going to be cheap or neccessarily any cheaper than Ghost Whisperer/Medium, but long standing relationships have been known to be the basis of schedules on network tv. There's always the potential for a third co-production, completing the lineup also.

Again, this is all hypothetical and I could be completely off base, but that's kind of how I see CBS Fridays going.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce:

The ep cut tells me they had planned on cancelling it anyway and with lower cost alternatives in the wings, there was probably a 'let's get on with it' mentality when the early ratings were weak. CBS probably believes GW and Medium are better suited to compete in the tougher hours and the declining friday nite environment.

I think the 2009 listing is just referencing the name change of the same studio, which started out as Paramount Television.
Much like how Touchstone Tellevision became ABC Studios.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmZapataTexas:
So it's a co-production now? The 2009 looks like it was recent. Either way, Medium and Numbers are fully owned by CBS Productions and from this chart, Ghost Whisperer isn't. So that brings all sorts of licensing, financial, and syndication issues to deal with that the other two shows don't have to get caught up in.

quote:

Originally posted by ThinkingOfYou:
Production company(s) Sander/Moses Productions (2005–present)
Touchstone Television (2005–2007)
ABC Studios (2007–present)
Paramount Television (2005–2006)
CBS Paramount Television (2006–2009)
CBS Television Studios (2009–present)

I think audience recovery will be very difficult for GW, and Medium for that matter, at this stage of the game.

I have only a broad outline of GW's creative path, but it seems that once they played out the arc you referred to in 4 there may be an 'ok, what is left to do now?' other than return to a boilerplate that apparently was fading in appeal to begin with. Now the kid, and kids are tricky.

Medium is nicely rebounding from a season where they lost a few writers and had too many eps for the scripts they had. They're about 6/8 with good or excellent eps this year, with some new writing talent on board, but my contention has been that the decent but low ceiling ratings are the result of too many of the NBC gang saying 'not worth it anymore and not on friday' and as mentioned before the ususual style of the show is not resonating that well with the larger cbs aud.

quote:

Originally posted by Red:
That's a fair evaluation. Like I stated in another post, GW saw similar declines from season 2 to season 3. It only averaged 8.6 million viewers 2 seasons ago, when everything was considerably higher, and they still renewed. Then they stunted their way into big ratings growth in season 4. I would guess, given the history, that they'll try something similar next season, and keep Medium right along with it, see what happens and hope they're in better shape to make changes if trends don't reverse. The deterioration of Sunday night probably ensured that they keep this lineup mostly intact, because there is no obvious choice of something else to move here, and I don't think they want to abandon scripted on the night.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce:
All 3 shows share in the difficulties.

Yes, GW's decline is the biggest single problem but then again it is the best choice for anchor of the nite and if the other shows are dependent on it, that's the way it goes.

Medium is still strong creatively but as I have posted before it is out of brand for CBS despite their ownership of it and thus despite significant promotion ratings have been confined to the friday nite framework and not the larger CBS aud. My guess is there is mild disappointment that it has not grown at 9, but probably also an executive exhale that the network change was navigated with some success.

Numb3rs is the least visible and seemingly the deadest of the 3, though the ratings have picked up a bit in recent weeks. In my view it is not compatible with Medium, but on the other hand is largely running unopposed in the hour so that helps offset that.

The ep cut tells me they had planned on cancelling it anyway and with lower cost alternatives in the wings, there was probably a 'let's get on with it' mentality when the early ratings were weak. CBS probably believes GW and Medium are better suited to compete in the tougher hours and the declining friday nite environment.

quote:

Originally posted by Red:
The one getting the highest 18-49 (by however small a margin) in the toughest timeslot, is the biggest problem? Numb3rs routine sizeable jump out of Moonlight, The Ex-List, Threshold, and Close to Home (in 18-49) in the past demonstrated that people were well aware of it being on. Now, whether Numb3rs should be in any more danger than Ghost Whisperer is another question. Even though Numb3rs is the one that got its order cut, I'm sure all of those decisions will come down to $$$ issues that none of us know about. CBS does make ancillary money off of Ghost Whisperer though. It's a co-production, just like Criminal Minds.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmZapataTexas:
I went over this last week, but again this week, Numbers is the most watched on this block. It seems to me that Ghost Whisperer is the main problem on this night. It's limiting Medium's potential which in turn isn't doing much to help Numbers. If anything, Ghost Whisperer, not being a CBS Production, should be the one facing episode cutbacks until CBS can figure out how to stop the bleeding.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
line-up of Ghost Whisperer (Viewers: #1, 8.01 million; A18-49: #1, 2.0 rating/7 share), compatible Medium (Viewers: #1, 8.16 million; A18-49: #1, 1.9/ 6) and expected-to-be concluding Numb3rs (Viewers: #1, 8.16 million; A18-49: #2, 1.8/ 6), which had its full season episode order slashed from 22 to 16 last week. Both Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs remain down year-to-year.

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So you're saying that Numb3rs fate all comes down to its... numbers?!

Also, imagine what Numb3ers' rating would be if it wasn't against a news magazine and Leno... it has pretty easy competition right now and gets roughly the same numbers As GW, which may help explain Numb3rs' reduced order.

quote:

Originally posted by spotupj:
This season, 15 of 16 GW and Medium episodes have hit a 1.9 demo or higher. Zero of eight Numb3rs episodes have hit a 1.9 or higher. 1.9 may seem like an arbitrary number, but the point is that Numb3rs has been, pretty much every single week this season, a little weaker than the other two shows. If something must get cut, that's most definitely the one.

Whether anything at all should get cut is another discussion.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TV is me,

Am I right in assuming that not only are fewer people watching network TV on Friday nights, but that fewer people are watching TV at all on Friday nights??

Maybe more people are going out on Friday nights and fewer people are staying home. It's been the case with Saturdays for two decades.

In fact, I fear that within a year or two, Fridays (apart from newsmagazine shows) may become an "all-rerun" night on the networks, much like Saturday has become.

One reason for last night's (November 13th) low overall numbers might be that in much of the country, many high-school football playoff games were being played last night. In areas where football is huge, that may have depressed the number of people watching TV.

I expect two occassions the next few weeks where viewing levels will be quite low:

The first will be next weekend, when I expect prime-time viewing levels (combining both broadcast and cable) on Friday (11/20) and Saturday (11/21) to be among the lowest levels ever seen for those respective nights of the week during November thanks to the opening of the new "Twlight" movie "New Moon". It will likely be one of the biggest (if not the biggest opening weekend for a movie this year, which will lure people away from TV.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the number of people watching prime-time TV on Saturday, December 12th hits a near-record-low level for mid-December due to all those Holiday office parties. Traditionally, more office and corporate Holiday parties are held on the second Saturday night in December than any other time during the month.

Since most such functions are "attendance required", that has the potential to impact TV viewing.

2012 Takes in $23.5 Million On Friday <--- LINK

Yeah, that 2012 potentially ABC show is going to be fast tracked for next year.

quote:

Originally posted by yankeesrj12:
2012 Takes in $23.5 Million On Friday <--- LINK

Is there any other indication of Numb3rs getting cancelled besides the episode order cut? Because I think it would make perfect sense for Numb3rs and Flashpoint to share the Friday 10PM spot...they will do it probably this year with 16 Numb3rs and 13 Flashpoint episodes....so why not doing it next year again? Numb3rs could just get a 13-16 episode order for season 7....any why not 8 or 9 too if ratings keep steady?

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmZapataTexas:


Yeah, that 2012 potentially ABC show is going to be fast tracked for next year.

quote:

Originally posted by yankeesrj12:
2012 Takes in $23.5 Million On Friday <--- LINK

Let's hope the proposed television series is better than the movie. If you've seen any "disaster flick" over the past decade, you've already seen "2012".

By the way, how many television series inspired by movies have gone on to become hits? "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" is the only one I can think of right off hand and it was the exception, not the rule. If history is an indicator, the "2012" series is likely doomed before one page of script is written or one scene filmed.

I am really happy about the L&O numbers. It looks like most people who watched last week's 2 hour event stayed.
Big question, will it ever take over the timeslot from Ghost Whisperer and how will that impact CBS's view on GH?