-Not Summer 2008’s Finest: American Gladiators (NBC), High School Musical – Get in the Picture (ABC), The 2008 Teen Choice Awards (Fox), Wanna Bet (ABC), The Mole (ABC), Nashville Star (NBC)
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-Ratings Breakdown: CBS led this first Monday in August, with an advantage over second-place NBC of 2.01 million viewers and 21 percent among adults 18-49. Next was Fox care of the disappointing 2008 Teen Choice Awards, followed by ABC and the CW, which has not benefited by avoiding original programming this summer.
CBS, which aired all repeats and still ranked first in every half-hour, opened the evening with laugh-out-loud The Big Bang Theory at 6.48 million viewers and a 2.2 rating/8 share among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. That led into How I Met Your Mother (Viewers: 6.43 million; A18-49: 2.2/ 7 at 8:30 p.m.), followed by Two and a Half Men (Viewers: 9.83 million; A18-49: 2.9/ 9), The New Adventures of Old Christine (Viewers: 7.72 million; A18-49: 2.4/ 7) and CSI: Miami (Viewers: 7.89 million; A18-49: 2.1/ 6) from 9-11 p.m. Apparently, Charlie Sheen of Two and a Half Men is the highest paid actor currently in prime-time at a reported per episode salary (including ownership dollars) of $825,000. Times that by a typical 22 episodes per season as you have a very hefty $18.15 million.
The season (or series) finale of NBC’s American Gladiators did not impress, with 5.34 million viewers (#3) and a second-place 2.0/ 6 among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m. American Gladiators led into the season (or series) finale of Nashville Star at an also unimpressive (but second-place) 6.34 million viewers and a 1.9/ 5 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. Even a low-rated performance for Nashville Star was more than it was doing on former home USA.
Over at Fox, the 2008 Teen Choice Awards averaged a bland 4.38 million viewers and a 1.5/ 5 among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m., finishing third in the block. Comparably, this is a typical performance for this awards show. Next was ABC, with its embarrassing (and fourth-place) Monday combination of High School Musical – Get in the Picture (Viewers: 2.87 million; A18-49: 0.8/ 3), Wanna Bet (Viewers: 2.81 million; A18-49: 0.9/ 3) and The Mole (Viewers: 3.06 million; A18-49: 1.2/ 4). While I give ABC credit for trying, you can’t force an audience to watch.
Last, as usual, were repeats of the CW’s Gossip Girl (Viewers: 1.10 million; A18-49: 0.4/ 1) and One Tree Hill (Viewers: 1.08 million; A18-49: 0.4/ 1). But worth noting for Gossip Girl was six Teen Choice Awards, including Choice TV…Show Drama, Breakout Show, Actress Drama (Blake Lively), Breakout Star Female (Blake Lively), Breakout Star Male (Chace Crawford) and Villain (Ed Westwick). Considering this is the target audience, chances are we will see ratings growth for Gossip Girl in season two.
The Teen Choice Awards was a waste of a two hour block. Terrible numbers. This award show needs to either be pushed off to Saturday or moved to a smaller network.
ABC Mondays are just horrendous. Below 3 million?
While American Gladiators has a slim chance of coming back, its demos are decent, considering the ratings for NBC's summer shows, I bet Nashville Star comes back Summer of 2009. The numbers are decent for a summer show on NBC, it continually built on American Gladiators ratings, and sharing it with CMT helps out on the costs.
Does anyone think Charlie Sheen is worth 18 million? I sure don't.
As for Gossip Girl improving on the ratings, I doubt a fan voted award show is going to do much to change the ratings. It sure didn't with Moonlight and the People's Choice Awards. The people who voted multiple times are already watching the show. It will all depend on how many viewers CW's new programming can bring in and where they will be distributed. I'm betting Gossip Girl doesn't improve much over the next year. CW isn't helping its case taking the whole summer off without fresh programming to draw people in.
I'd like to see the networks take one month out of the summer and run A. Pilots that weren't picked up (you never know one might spark interest) and B. The burn off of shows cancelled.
For instance FOX and ABC could air the final episodes of shows like DRIVE, REUNION or THE NINE. Would they draw HUGE ratings...no..but can't be any worse than the sludge that's airing throughout the summer---mainly clone after clone of more sucessful reality shows.
Charlie's got alimony to pay, and Denise Richards seems more likely to dine at Ivy than Olive Garden. Hence, the $18 million
Other random thoughts...
Gladiators -- now may be the time for NBC to retool the show and offer it for first-run weekly syndication in Fall 2009. I can't see ratings getting better for this show on the Peacocks, and the demos have been borderline renewal all summer (Celebrity Family Feud, which should skew much older, typically did better than AG in the demo).
Nashville Star -- if it weren't for the HSM: GITP debacle, I'd consider this the surprising flop of the summer. I thought this show, given its promotion and popularity of country music in general, could have averaged 9-10 million, not the upper 5-lower 6 numbers it received in recent weeks. Demo was also weak, and it didn't help that the show seemed to emphasize pop more than country (such "pop-centric" stylings also hurt the "Grease" reality show).
I'm thinking NBC will give it another shot, but I could also see NBCUniversal sending it back to USA.
HSM: For some reason, I can't see Disney Channel picking this up, as it rarely, if ever, moves away from its programming formula. I could see ABC moving it to Friday night, Saturday night, or Sunday night at 7p. As someone mentioned a few weeks ago, the Alphabet probably has too much invested in this to outright cancel it.
Wanna Bet: just take it out of its misery
Gossip Girl: I give the CW credit for going all out to try and win new viewers for this show. Whether it translates to better ratings in the fall remains to be seen.
Teen Choice Awards: It doesn't help that the actual awards ceremony took place a day or two before broadcast, and the target audience likely saw the results online. Perhaps Fox should air this live next year?
Originally posted by A.C.: I'd like to see the networks take one month out of the summer and run A. Pilots that weren't picked up (you never know one might spark interest) and B. The burn off of shows cancelled.
For instance FOX and ABC could air the final episodes of shows like DRIVE, REUNION or THE NINE. Would they draw HUGE ratings...no..but can't be any worse than the sludge that's airing throughout the summer---mainly clone after clone of more sucessful reality shows.
That's a great idea. I was into DRIVE and wondered where it went! For viewers who don't keep up with ratings and TV news, it can be frustrating for networks not to finish what they start.
With those ratings I think Charlie Sheen deserves every bit of that money. Two and a Half Men gets better ratings in repeats than almost every other sitcom gets for a new episode. Honestly, I still scratch my head as to why Men does so much better than the other CBS sitcoms, and all the other sitcoms on TV for that matter. It simply is not that far superior to the other shows that it deserves those ratings. However, the bottom line is Men's ratings are awesome.
Originally posted by jdinan: I thought this show, given its promotion and popularity of country music in general, could have averaged 9-10 million, not the upper 5-lower 6 numbers it received in recent weeks. Demo was also weak, and it didn't help that the show seemed to emphasize pop more than country (such "pop-centric" stylings also hurt the "Grease" reality show).
Maybe American Idol should re-tool itself to promote county music instead of 'pop'?
Nashville Star (and FOX's Nashville) were both destined to fail from the start simply because of the word 'Nashville'. Country music has that effect on people.
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