quote:

Dancing with the Stars built from lackluster lead-in Just For Laughs (#4: 3.0/ 5 at 8:30 p.m.) by a mammoth 257 percent,

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Originally posted by Naleyfanforver:
MARCH 19, 2008
The Programming Insider

Marc Berman

Prime-Time Metered Market Tuesday Ratings:
Fox’s Idol Rules; ABC’s Dancing with the Stars a Formidable Opponent

Tuesday 3/18/08

Household Rating/Share
Fox: 15.4/23, ABC: 7.5/12, NBC: 5.6/ 9, CBS: 4.4/ 7, CW: 1.9/ 3

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Tuesday, March 20, 2007)
ABC: +60, NBC: + 6, CW: no change, Fox: -15, CBS: -46

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Note: The fast affiliate results for Tuesday will be posted at PIFeedback by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Tuesday, March 18, 2008.

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Dancing with the Stars (ABC)

-Disappointing Preview:
Miss Guided (ABC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Just For Laughs (ABC), Beauty and the Geek (CW), Big Brother 9 (CBS), Jericho (CBS)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
One look at the prime-time landscape last night and an immediate observation comes to mind: too much reality. Fox, of course, led the Tuesday troops care of another two-hour edition of American Idol, which averaged a 15.4 rating/23 share in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

American Idol (Fox)
8:00 p.m. 14.6/23
8:30 p.m. 16.3/25
9:00 p.m. 15.6/23
9:30 p.m. 15.3/23

Although anything is always possible on this show, it looks like Kristy Lee Cook should have her bags packed.

In the 9-10 p.m. battle of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars vs. American Idol, both reality/competitions finished below average, but Fox’s Idol clearly reigned supreme. Take a look:

Tuesday 9-10 p.m.
American Idol (Fox): 15.5/23
Dancing with the Stars (ABC): 9.9/15

Overall, the 90-minute edition of Dancing with the Stars averaged a healthy 10.7/16 in the overnights from 9-10:30 p.m., building by half hour as follows:

Dancing with the Stars
9:00 p.m. 9.4/14 (#2)
9:30 p.m. 10.3/15 (#2)
10:00 p.m. 12.3/19 (#1)

Dancing with the Stars built from lackluster lead-in Just For Laughs (#4: 3.0/ 5 at 8:30 p.m.) by a mammoth 257 percent, and the 9-10 p.m. portion beat year-ago occupant Primetime: The Outsiders (3.6/ 5 on March 20, 2007) by 175 percent. That clearly makes it a winner. As for last night’s show, go Kristi Yamiguchi!

Leading out of Dancing with the Stars was the premiere/preview of sitcom Miss Guided, which dipped to a second-place 6.4/11 at 10:30 p.m., holding only 52 percent of the 10 p.m. portion of Dancing with the Stars. Do not expect much when Miss Guided moves into its regularly scheduled Thursday 8 p.m. time period tomorrow.

Earlier in the evening on ABC was a repeat of holiday special, It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown at a fourth-place 3.7/ 6 in the overnights at 8 p.m.

NBC finished third overall for the evening with its combination of a two-hour edition of The Biggest Loser 5 (5.1/ 8 from 8-10 p.m.), which always manages to get on the map among adults 18-49, and a repeat of Law & Order: SVU (#1: 6.8/11 at 10 p.m.). Next was CBS care of a repeat of NCIS (#2: 6.9/11), which is one of the few shows that can stand up to American Idol, Big Brother 9 (#4: 3.2/ 5), which was squashed opposite Idol and Dancing with the Stars (I did say there was too much reality last night, didn’t I?), and struggling Jericho (#3: 3.3/ 6). Too bad CBS buried this abbreviated second season of Jericho in the “cursed” Tuesday 10 p.m. hour.

Last, and very least, was the CW’s line-up of Beauty and the Geek (#5: 1.6/ 2) and One Tree Hill (#5: 2.2/ 3), which deserves accolades for building by 37 percent out of Beauty and the Geek.

quote:

Originally posted by Chimera:

quote:

Dancing with the Stars built from lackluster lead-in Just For Laughs (#4: 3.0/ 5 at 8:30 p.m.) by a mammoth 257 percent,

Scheduling JFL as the lead-in to DWTS was probably one of the dumbest moves ABC has done in recent memory.

It looks like DWTS dropped by about 10% in the 9pm-10pm hour, while the 10pm half-hour was higher than Monday's average. And what's that, AI actually dropped in both half-hours it faced DWTS (instead of building every half hour)? I think that's the first time that's ever happened to Idol!!

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Originally posted by Holly:
How did you like all the subtle product placements in AI last night?

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Originally posted by xwiseguyx:
Now, if you want to see a show that just LOVES product placements, you should be checking out the Biggest Loser. They set up scenes with Trainers talking with their Trainees about how it's important that they chew Wrigley's Extra when they want to chow down on a donut or cooking with Reynold's plastic bags for a yummy healthy meal. After hearing those, you will relish the ones on Idol.

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:
How did you like all the subtle product placements in AI last night?

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Originally posted by Holly:
I don't watch AI or Biggest Loser ('reality' TV for me is pretty much limited to Discovery and Food Network) so I don't know how they compare. I just thought Ken Levine's take on it was funny.

There are some product placements that I don't mind. The Psych and Monk guys use Dell computers, Brenda (The Closer) is tempted by Nabisco cookies, and the CSI: Miami crew drives Hummers. None of that bothers me in the least (I thought the Nabisco one was hilarious). On the other hand, product placements can also be really obnoxious.

====================

quote:

Originally posted by Chimera:

quote:

Originally posted by Chimera:

quote:

Dancing with the Stars built from lackluster lead-in Just For Laughs (#4: 3.0/ 5 at 8:30 p.m.) by a mammoth 257 percent,

Scheduling JFL as the lead-in to DWTS was probably one of the dumbest moves ABC has done in recent memory.

It looks like DWTS dropped by about 10% in the 9pm-10pm hour, while the 10pm half-hour was higher than Monday's average. And what's that, AI actually dropped in both half-hours it faced DWTS (instead of building every half hour)? I think that's the first time that's ever happened to Idol!!

It'll be interesting to see if these trends continue in the fast nationals. It's still somewhat unclear if either show was hurt that much...