Prime-Time Ratings:
Wednesday 4/29/09

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 14.86 million, CBS: 10.58, ABC: 6.67, NBC: 6.39, CW: 2.63

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 5.0 rating/14 share, CBS: 2.6/ 7, ABC: 2.4/ 7, NBC: 1.7/ 5, CW: 1.2/ 3

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Criminal Minds (CBS), CSI: NY (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
The Unusuals (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Fox finished first on this atypical night of programming care of old faithful, American Idol. The Big 3 networks preempted their regularly scheduled 8-9 p.m. programming in favor of President Obama addressing the country on his 100th day in office. Here is how the coverage fared in the overnights. Keep in mind, of course, that results for any live event are always approximate.

Presidential News Conference
NBC – Viewers: 6.68 million (#2), A18-49: 1.6/ 5 (#2t)
ABC – Viewers: 6.12 million (#3), A18-49: 1.6/ 5 (#2t)
CBS – Viewers: 6.01 million (#4), A18-49: 1.6/ 5 (#2t)

Combined, that is an estimate 18.81 million viewers who tuned into the hour to hear the President speak. Rebel Fox nixed President Obama and left regularly scheduled Lie To Me intact, at it won the time period with 7.88 million viewers and a 2.4 rating/8 share among adults 18-49. But considering the lack of competitive entertainment options, this performance is nothing spectacular. The still potent America’s Next Top Model was fifth in total viewers (4.00 million), second among adults 18-49 (1.8/ 6) and ahead of Lie To Me among adults 18-34 (2.1/ 7) and women 18-34 (3.1/10).

Fox’s American Idol stood well above the competition at 9 p.m., with 21.85 million viewers and a 7.5/19 among adults 18-49. As for Adam Lambert landing in the bottom two, nothing will ever surprise me anymore when the voting results are in. But Matt, as expected, did depart. That leaves overrated Danny and Kris, aforementioned Adam and the oldest teenager in the world, Allison, in the top 4.

Tied for second behind American Idol was ABC’s Lost and CBS’ Criminal Minds as follows:

Wednesday 9 p.m.
Criminal Minds (CBS)
Viewers: 13.27 million (#2), A18-49: 3.3/ 8 (#3)

Lost (ABC)
Viewers: 8.81 million (#3), A18-49: 4.0/10 (#2)

Rounding off the hour was a repeat of NBC’s Law & Order: SVU (Viewers: #4, 4.81 million; A18-49: #4, 1.3/ 3) and a repeat of 90210 on the CW (Viewers: #5, 1.25 million; A18-49: #5, 0.6/ 2), which was its best encore performance in the demo since last October.

CBS moved into the winner’s circle at 10 p.m. care of CSI: NY, which averaged 12.47 million viewers and a 3.2/ 9 among adults 18-49. The upcoming season-finale of CSI: NY out of CSI on Thursday, May 14 will, no doubt, get a boost. Second in the time period was NBC fossil Law & Order (Viewers: 7.69 million; A18-49: 2.2/ 7), followed by ABC’s struggling The Unusuals (Viewers: 5.08 million; A18-49: #3, 1.7/ 5). No…there was nothing unusual about that performance.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

New low for Lost? It needs to move away from Idol if ABC expects it to get any higher ratings.

Unusuals needs to go to Saturday nights. ABC's upfronts will be a bunch of nothing but the old dying shows.

Sorry, Sportzz Fanzz, but "The Unusuals" appears to have the "usual" numbers for a dud.

LTM didn't benefit from NO scripted competition. Pathetic.

ABC is in dire need of new comedies.

quote:

Originally posted by KSO:
New low for Lost? It needs to move away from Idol if ABC expects it to get any higher ratings.

Unusuals needs to go to Saturday nights. ABC's upfronts will be a bunch of nothing but the old dying shows.

"Lie to Me" seems to be dying.

quote:

New low for Lost? It needs to move away from Idol if ABC expects it to get any higher ratings.

All Lost has to do is air its sixth season and die.

ABC needs to bring on a lot of new shows and aggressively schedule them. If not, it's going to have a problem next season. They can't rely on past dramas to get them through this year.

quote:

Originally posted by KSO:
ABC's upfronts will be a bunch of nothing but the old dying shows.

Lost was good last night for the first time in like 5 episodes, which it had to be for its 100th episode. I bet it got at least two million in dvr viewers, probably more than usual since it was a milestone episode, hence the lower numbers.

I find it funny that the reason the episode was so good is because of Daniel's return, who surprisingly has been one of the better parts of this season. Now he's gone, but at least Locke is back next week.

I liked it when Sawyer called Kate freckles and Juliet obviously got pissed.

Kind of ironic that Daniel's mom killed him.

Lost hasn't taken that shocking death chance like it did last year with killing Michael off right away or in season three killing off Charlie.

But the good news for them is with such a large ensemble cast, so many people are expendable.

Jin, Sun, Miles and Kate serve absoltetly no purpose in my opinion, and as far as I'm concerned, only Miles ever did. Kate's story has already been told from her background, and is of no use and more except for the filmsy love triangle. No thanks.

First, if ABC moves Lost to get away from AI, Fox could very easily move AI to be with Lost. I don't think there is much ABC can do about that.

I am totally the conspiracy theory guy and I believe AI rigged the final two last night to scare more people into watching the show, voting, etc. If Adam and Danny are not in the final together, it would be a very lopsided win for either. Alison might have a chance against Danny, but Adam would crush her. Kris does not stand a chance against either. And a Kris/Alison finale would score some very low ratings, but still higher than CI or Lost.

Finally, comedies. ABC should just do some traditional family comedies with cute kids saying cute things and dumb dads doing dumb things. They just need a skilled team of actors to pull it off and some halfway decent scripts. This should top the ratings of their current comedies (except maybe SS which has a DWTS lead-in).

Problem with ABC is all their new shows fail as of late. Who thought Cupid was a good idea?

The past dramas are not going to help either. Private Practice is the only one in years that has semi-suceeded and it's no hit & piggy backing of GA. GA & DH used to get ratings like AI in the 20's now get all time lows. B&S is not doing that great either.

ABC has problems all around for next season other than with DWTS.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmLAPD:
ABC needs to bring on a lot of new shows and aggressively schedule them. If not, it's going to have a problem next season. They can't rely on past dramas to get them through this year.

quote:

Originally posted by KSO:
ABC's upfronts will be a bunch of nothing but the old dying shows.

Funny you bring that up Marc -- I've been discussing this very subject in another thread. Here's my view of their top multi-cam pilots:

Canned written by Kevin Etten, one of the writers on Desperate Housewives. Stars newcomers Tim Peper and Stephanie Lemelin, as well as Amanda Bynes, as a group of up-and-coming friends canned from their jobs (topical, eh?)

Singles with Baggage. written/created by Family Guy's Ricky Blitt. Stars Eric Christian Olsen and Alyssa Milano.

Anita Renfroe Project is written by Roseanne's Amy Welsh and produced by 2.5 Men's Kim and Eric Tannenbaum Arrested Development's
Mitch Hurwitz. Stars newcomer (and "youtube sensation") Anita Renfroe.

Jeff Strauss Project is written by... Jeff Strauss of Friends. Stars Leah Remini, Matthew Lillard, and Jonathan Silverman.

Lauren Graham Project is written by Will & Grace's Alex Herschlag and produced by 2.5 Men's Kim and Eric Tannenbaum and Arrested Development's Mitch Hurwitz. Stars Lauren Graham, of course, as well as Holly Robinson Peete and Jeffrey Tambor.

Tad Quill Project is written by... Tad Quill, Emmy-nominated for his work on Spin City and Scrubs. Stars Eric McCormack and Reno Wilson.


More details on these and others can be found here: ABC comedy pilots

The network also has two promising single-cam comedies, The Middle starring Patricia Heaton, and Cougar Town starring Courtney Cox-Arquette.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
ABC is in dire need of new comedies.

quote:

Originally posted by KSO:
New low for Lost? It needs to move away from Idol if ABC expects it to get any higher ratings.

Unusuals needs to go to Saturday nights. ABC's upfronts will be a bunch of nothing but the old dying shows.

Isn't Grahsm's comedy a single cam?

Sad night yesterday when Matt Giraud left us on American Idol. At least the judges are going to stand by him and help him through his career after Idol. Kara said that she would personally help him and is going to give her all her contacts info and her #. That is very positive news. Matt you are a true artist and will be missed from the show. You will get my support as a fan after the show. As for who is left on the show I will have to throw my support to Allison, who I think has the best chance after the show for a successful career.

Fast nat demos vs. year-ago evening

Criminal Minds +3%
CSI:NY +3%
American Idol -7%
Law & Order -27%
America's Next Top Model -10%

Lost vs. year-ago Supernanny +82%
Unusuals vs. year-ago Boston Legal -11%
Lie to Me vs. year-ago 'Til Death/Back to You +4%