*though I'm liking White Collar and it's doing fine, I am curious if it might have been a better fit out of Burn Notice on Thursday nights once Burn Notice returns in January without Royal Pains following it... thoughts?*
I think White Collar would do great after Burn Notice and might even do 6m like Royal Pains was doing. I wonder how Psych will do without the benefit of a lead in from Monk and whether USA are confident it can air at 9pm or will they move White Collar to 9pm and keep Psych at 10pm.
SGU and Sanctuary are doing fine with Sanctuary retaining a good chunk of its lead in and Crash has really low ratings, I'm guessing Starz are hoping that Spartacus takes off for them, whether they renew Crash is another matter.
Crash is really low. I can't imagine Starz is making any profit off ratings that low.
With White Collar, it looks like it is pulling an audience that is independent and younger skewing than Monk. So a move would probably be beneficial to growing White Collar.
quote:
Originally posted by TravisYanan: Friday cable finals
White Collar - 5.075 million viewers - 3.1/6 HH - 1.2/4 A18-49 *though I'm liking White Collar and it's doing fine, I am curious if it might have been a better fit out of Burn Notice on Thursday nights once Burn Notice returns in January without Royal Pains following it... thoughts?*
White Collar - 5.075 million viewers - 3.1/6 HH - 1.2/4 A18-49 *though I'm liking White Collar and it's doing fine, I am curious if it might have been a better fit out of Burn Notice on Thursday nights once Burn Notice returns in January without Royal Pains following it... thoughts?*
Totally agree Travis, I though for sure that White Collar would be paired up with Burn Notice. The both of them are two of the most fun cable shows that are also very polished in its presentation and such.
But... White Collar is doing very well regardless.
Travis, I think USA's strategy is to have first-run programming on as much as possible, and that means they don't get to pick and choose lead-ins for new shows as carefully as they might otherwise--as you say, it's doing more than well enough. The benefit of getting people in the habit of watching USA regularly might outweigh the benefit of somewhat higher ratings for individual shows.
In the end, the way you win this game is to make shows that can stand on their own two feet. If a show can't thrive without the strongest possible lead-in, that show probably shouldn't have been greenlit to begin with.
I think that they'll have a nice lead-in for Psych with White Collar. Sure, it would do better with Burn Notice but they don't need a new show for Thursday, they need a show to replace Monk on Friday.
And about Stargate: Universe. I know that fans and MGM and SyFy like to spin numbers - hey, I'm a Supernatural fan, I know all about spinning - but I would bet my last socks that TPTB hoped to get more people to watch it. Come on, this is SGU's 1st season but it's doing only slightly better than SGA's S5. Sure, the DVR numbers look good - better than SGA's - but if there's no product placement on the show, I doubt that advertisers are all that interested in those.
I think SyFy went into this knowing that the Stargate franchise is OLD, and by no means as durable or beloved as Star Trek. They would have had reasonable expectations, for what is basically 'Stargate:Voyager'--and Star Trek:Voyager ran for seven seasons on UPN.
If they've got costs under control, this will probably hang around for years.
I like N3 well enough but I think it's time for the show to retire. It feels... tired. Like they are headed for the finish line. I'm getting slightly bored with Charlie and Amita's wedding plans and Don's mental breakdown etc. The only thing that I'm still excited about is the banter between David and Colby.
Originally posted by pisher: I think SyFy went into this knowing that the Stargate franchise is OLD, and by no means as durable or beloved as Star Trek. They would have had reasonable expectations, for what is basically 'Stargate:Voyager'--and Star Trek:Voyager ran for seven seasons on UPN.
If they've got costs under control, this will probably hang around for years.
Well, they invested 30% more into SGU's S1 than into SGA's S1 so they basically commited themselves to it - SyFy has SGU, NBC has Heroes. Both doing well for the network but not well enough to justify the costs.
We don't really know if SyFy is making money with SGU. And I, for one, don't really care. Haven't watched anything on SyFy since the BSG finale, and I'm sorry I watched that.
Originally posted by Julie: Wow, what happened to Medium last night? And this was the much-hyped Halloween episode they've been talking about since August that aired last night. Very disappointing, and somewhat strange, results, especially since it was the lowest rated show on CBS last night, they've been promoting it all week, and it was beat in total viewers by Dateline. I found it to be a good episode, too. The entire CBS lineup is considerably weaker than last year, something else I don't understand.
Very good episode, doing the subject matter justice. You learn to be cautious about ratings expectations, but I was fairly sure last nite would be not so much a breakout for Medium on CBS but certainly an uptick from the previous low 8mm's and 2.0.
Along the lines of the Halloween theme, GW and Medium couldn't get blood out of a stone last nite with their themed shows. I watched GW, which I usually don't, and they had a decent ep as well.
I loved GW's episode last night. It was very good.
I wonder if it had something to do with early Hallowe'en festivities. Anyone have any numbers from the last time Hallowe'en was on a Friday?
Great episode for Medium, too bad so many regular viewers missed it.
The GW and Medium numbers were disappointing no matter what the other nets aired, but let me say that the presence of House reruns may have pulled both shows down. What kind of viewers give up orig eps and themed eps at that for reruns, you might think? Even these stripped down numbers for these friday shows include a boatload of casual viewers who will ditch shows they really don't care that much about for a strong franchise like House. Ordinarily, such reruns shouldn't make much of a dent. But at these low levels, even losing .2 or .3 in the demo seems large.
It will interesting to watch going forward as House and Bones air this friday to see if this builds the pie or cuts into the CBS shows.
This is not an excuse for the CBS numbers, just an indication how vulnerable this lineup COULD be to further erosion.
Posts: 2846 | Location: Western Pennsylvania | Registered: 13 December 2006
Originally posted by Julie: Wow, what happened to Medium last night? And this was the much-hyped Halloween episode they've been talking about since August that aired last night. Very disappointing, and somewhat strange, results, especially since it was the lowest rated show on CBS last night, they've been promoting it all week, and it was beat in total viewers by Dateline. I found it to be a good episode, too. The entire CBS lineup is considerably weaker than last year, something else I don't understand.
Very good episode, doing the subject matter justice. You learn to be cautious about ratings expectations, but I was fairly sure last nite would be not so much a breakout for Medium on CBS but certainly an uptick from the previous low 8mm's and 2.0.
Along the lines of the Halloween theme, GW and Medium couldn't get blood out of a stone last nite with their themed shows. I watched GW, which I usually don't, and they had a decent ep as well.
First look at the ratings, I thought they were a mistake. It's almost hard to believe that 2 shows whose Halloween episodes should be highly rated were rated so low last night. Didn't watch GW, but Medium (whose Halloween episode was hyped and promoted) had a fantastic episode, something different than the usual Medium we're used to seeing, yet I believe last night's episode was a season low, when it should be a season high.
The demo ended up just below the season average at 1.9 vs. 2.0.
I've concluded that while Medium has done a decent job of changing networks, picking up the GW audience, and airing a decent season, it has a definite ceiling on CBS, and further that enough of the core from the NBC days have not made the trip over to fridays and CBS.
Apart from the fact that the show has lost about 6-7mm viewers from its early days, I just think this show doesn't resonate with the larger CBS audience that these promotions are going to. I'm not going to get into the whys and wherefores and shoulds and coulds but if you look at Medium and then the rest of the CBS drama lineup the style difference is stark.
It seems Medium should be doing much better based on the quality of show it is. But I think the verdict is largely in and I just don't think there are many new viewers to capture.
Posts: 2846 | Location: Western Pennsylvania | Registered: 13 December 2006
With Ghost Whisperer declining, there's not much CBS can do to launch Medium. There just isn't a lot of growth potential in the timeslot, as you mentioned. CBS should be happy with Medium's performance because it is a decent stop gap to prevent further erosion in the timeslot. But with Ghost Whisperer declining and being expensive with its licensing and TV on Fridays being lesser watched in general, as I wrote in the Sunday thread, I think there's a chance that Medium going to end up finding itself in another timeslot (probably Sundays at 10 PM) sooner rather than later. CBS is going to have to figure out a cheaper Friday and find something that can work with Flashpoint which I think is the future of CBS Fridays.
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Originally posted by Bruce:
It seems Medium should be doing much better based on the quality of show it is. But I think the verdict is largely in and I just don't think there are many new viewers to capture.
I read that Sunday thread post you mentioned and responded.
Mind elaborating on that "sooner rather than later" comment about Medium and Sunday? Thx.
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Originally posted by WlcmZapataTexas: With Ghost Whisperer declining, there's not much CBS can do to launch Medium. There just isn't a lot of growth potential in the timeslot, as you mentioned. CBS should be happy with Medium's performance because it is a decent stop gap to prevent further erosion in the timeslot. But with Ghost Whisperer declining and being expensive with its licensing and TV on Fridays being lesser watched in general, as I wrote in the Sunday thread, I think there's a chance that Medium going to end up finding itself in another timeslot (probably Sundays at 10 PM) sooner rather than later. CBS is going to have to figure out a cheaper Friday and find something that can work with Flashpoint which I think is the future of CBS Fridays.
quote:
Originally posted by Bruce:
It seems Medium should be doing much better based on the quality of show it is. But I think the verdict is largely in and I just don't think there are many new viewers to capture.
Posts: 2846 | Location: Western Pennsylvania | Registered: 13 December 2006
Sure. I think there's a lot of reasons for keeping Medium around. First off, it's a CBS production so they own the licensing. It has proven to be a steady performer that can be used as a utility player. I also imagine that it can be filmed on a lesser budget with fixed cost sets, so it's not likely that production costs aren't going to sky rocket in the near future.
The question is where to schedule it so CBS can get the most out of it. I don't fault CBS for placing it where it is now. In fact, I think it was a great decision. CBS wanted to give it a good start and it is a nice pair with Ghost Whisperer. It worked on paper and in practice. The problem that I don't think anyone could predict was the decline of Ghost Whisperer and Numbers around it and the decline of Friday TV in general. So you have a situation where there's Medium that has potential around two shows that for one reason or another has lesser potential. Numbers because of declining ratings and Ghost Whisperer because of declining ratings and the licensing fee.
In my view, CBS is going to have to restructure Fridays and Sundays in the near future and do a complete overhaul. In my opinion, these are CBS' two weakest days in terms of performance. I think that it makes sense to build it around Flashpoint which is cheaper and has proven to be steady and then create a cheaper night that is still steady in the ratings.
In the best case scenario, CBS would then relocate Medium to a spot that it could be better used, which in my mind is Sundays at 10 PM. I think even with the football overruns, it will attract a dedicated audience and can solve that problem more than trying to make it work on Fridays in a situation where Ghost Whisperer could be gone and Medium could potentially have another lead out. I also think the potential is there that Medium does better on Sundays since it's a higher watched time period than Fridays, so it's placement is more of an advantage to CBS.
quote:
Originally posted by Bruce:
Mind elaborating on that "sooner rather than later" comment about Medium and Sunday? Thx.
Especially since Supernanny had a slight increase.
- but I would bet my last socks that TPTB hoped to get more people to watch it. Come on, this is SGU's 1st season but it's doing only slightly better than SGA's S5. Sure, the DVR numbers look good - better than SGA's - but if there's no product placement on the show, I doubt that advertisers are all that interested in those.
