CABLE - If you’ve been playing along with the home game, you’ll recall that AMC’s critical darling, Mad Men, usually finds itself right around the 2.3m/.7 area when the ratings dominoes fall. Keep that in mind as you ponder the premiere of The Walking Dead (5.35m/2.7). Wow! It nearly quadrupled the average Mad Men demo. Think someone might be rethinking the idea of such a short first season? Of course, that was the perfect storm of a well reviewed, and well promoted, debut on Halloween. And while Halloween is not always kind to TV (see the broadcast Sunday numbers), it would seem that The Walking Dead is made for the night. It will now be very interesting to see what happens with those week two numbers. My guess, a still very good 3.9m/2.1. Other cable bits:
Basic
Premium
CBS - After a short absence, Penny is back on Big Bang Theory (14m/4.7). That was enough to just edge out 2 ½ Men for comedy supremacy on CBS, and the show only trailed Modern Family in the demo, finishing #2 overall among scripted programming. That made for another solid Thursday from $#*! My Dad Says (11.02m/3.4), CSI (13.96m/3.3), and The Mentalist (14.42m/3).
Earlier in the week, Halloween found The Amazing Race (9.09m/2.6), Undercover Boss (10.74m/3), and CSI Miami (9.67m/2.6) a bit off the pace. Things picked up Monday as How I Met Your Mother (8.88m/3.7), Rules Of Engagement (8.69m/3.4), 2 ½ Men (13.64m/4.7), Mike & Molly (10.75m/3.6), and Hawaii Five-O (10.86m/3) combined to be up overall week-to-week. Of note, H5-0 wrestled the demo crown back away from Castle, though still trails in viewers.
With Tuesday going to the election, things picked back up with Survivor (12.3m/3.7), Criminal Minds (14.58m/3.9), and The Defenders (9.94m/2.3). The Defenders remains one of the bigger question marks on the schedule, but did win its time slot easily in both measures. The week finished with another easy Friday victory, thanks to Medium (6.91m/1.5), CSI: NY (10.44m/2), and Blue Bloods (10.16m/1.7).
ABC- The big news at ABC didn’t come from where one usually expects. A big, and well promoted, episode of Private Practice (10.18m/3.9) managed to gain some 2.5 million viewers and more than a point in the demo week-to-week. Earlier that night, Grey’s Anatomy (11.92m/4.3) remained strong. It’s worth saying again though, the network has to find an answer for 8PM.
Halloween took a toll here as well, with Extreme Makeover Home Edition (6.62m/1.8), Desperate Housewives (11.1m/3.5), and Brothers & Sisters (8.15m/2.3) all down. Of course, down to a 3.5 demo is still pretty good. Dancing With The Stars (19.93m/4.3) and Castle (11.27m/2.7) were solid on Monday. As was an expanded DWTS Results (16.93m/3.2) show on Tuesday.
More good news Wednesday as The Middle (9.42m/2.9) continues to prove that patience does occasionally pay off. Better With You (7.73m/2.5) held steady, while Modern Family (12.24m/4.8) remains the comedy to beat. Cougar Town (7.43m/3) was back to normal after the Halloween boost a week ago. Robin Roberts (6.13m/1.8) stepped in for The Whole Truth, and made gains. Finally, Friday brought the return of Supernanny (4.79m/1.2).
NBC - Sunday Night Football (18.11m/7.3) took a hit from Halloween, but still walked away with the night. Monday, Chuck (6.47m/2) was right where you would expect before The Women of SNL (5.42m/2.1) stepped in for The Event and Chase. That did make for a small improvement in the 9:00-11:00 numbers, but not by much. The situation continues to get more curious with The Biggest Loser (6.64m/2.4) on Tuesday. That was with Glee and NCIS in repeats.
Wednesday, the final nail was driven into the Undercovers (5.91m/1.3) coffin. That 1.3 demo tied with CW for last place, and finished behind a repeat of Hell’s Kitchen. The news was slightly better for L&O SVU (8.14m/2.2) and L&O LA (7.83m/1.9). Although, it’s looking more and more like we’re getting close to a world with no new L&O episodes being made. Thursday, without Shrek‘s help, Community (4.61m/1.9) was back to its norm. 30 Rock (5.31m/2.4), The Office (7.65m/3.8), Outsourced (5.74m/2.7), and The Apprentice (4.04m/1.4) all fell right back into their usual pattern as well. Friday, School Pride (2.27m/.6) managed to finish 5th in viewers and demo.
FOX – The World Series and the election ate up the first half of the week. Game 4 (15.54m/4.3) and Game 5 (14.95m/4.2) both made for solid gains over the usual programming. Things didn’t pick back up until the return of Bones (9.26m/2.5) and Fringe (4.8m/1.8) on Thursday. And the week wrapped with The Good Guys (2.72m/.8) continuing to run out the string on Friday.
CW - It was another very by the book week for the little network. Nothing drastic to report from any of the shows. The numbers looked like this: 90210 (2.m/1), Gossip Girl (1.82m/1), One Tree Hill (1.82m/1), Life Unexpected (1.5m/.7), America’s Next Top Model (2.96m/1.3), Hellcats (1.94m/.9), Vampire Diaries (3.63m/1.6), Nikita (2.41m/.9), Smallville (2.61m/1.1), and Supernatural (2.42m/1.1). The highlight in there is that Smallville again managed #3 in the demo. The lowlight is that the network announced there will be no back 9 for Life Unexpected.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Nov 08, 2010 @ 09:30 EST5EDT
The Fringe numbers make me cry.