CABLE - Clearly, the biggest premiere on television last week was The Walking Dead (7.26m/3.8). Not only was that enough to best the season finale of Jersey Shore (6.64m/3.7), it also put our merry band of zombie killers above 54 of the 66 new programs on the broadcast networks in the demo. Wow! The result also calls to mind all of the stories about how AMC has been busting everyone’s balls about cutting costs on the show, while throwing truckloads of cash at Mad Men. We’ll have to wait and see where the numbers settle in for the season, but it would seem there might be more stories about money/renegotiations/etc in the offing.
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FOX - It’s that time of the year, where baseball puts much of the FOX schedule on ice. With a less than marquee matchup, the World Series games (14.17m/4.2 – 14.28m/4) didn’t bring the crazy numbers. Really, those are only small gains over what would have been the regularly scheduled programming of X Factor on Wednesday and Thursday. X Factor (8.84m/3.4 – 10.39m/3.9) shuffled off to Sunday and Tuesday to make room. That left Terra Nova (8.31m/2.8), House (8.34m/3.1), and Kitchen Nightmares (3.46m/1.4) as the only regularly scheduled programming for the week.
ABC - The news was pretty good for week two of Last Man Standing (10.34m/3.1). Leading off the night with ten million viewers while facing NCIS and X Factor is a great sign. Unfortunately, a lot of those viewers bailed on the premiere of Man Up (7.78m/2.4). That’s not really an encouraging result for the premiere. Week two will be more telling, but I’m not optimistic. DWTS Results (13.8m/2.6) and Body Of Proof (9.27m/1.9) finished off the night. Earlier in the week, it was business as usual for Dancing With The Stars (17.76m/3.3) and Castle (11.23m/2.5), while Desperate Housewives (8.27m/2.7) and Pan Am (5.84m/1.8) continued to stumble.
The Wednesday comedy block remains a success with The Middle (9.13m/3), Suburgatory (8.82m/3.1), Modern Family (13.04m/5.7), and Happy Endings (6.8m/3). Revenge (7.99m/2.5) seems to be settling in slightly above Body of Proof, Pan Am, and Private Practice (6.38m/2.3). News of cancellation didn’t offer any help for Charlie’s Angels (5.57m/1.2) on Thursday before Grey’s Anatomy (9.54m/3.6). The week finished with the Friday premiere of Extreme Makeover (5.09m/1.1 – 6.05m/1.7).
CBS - Rules Of Engagement (11.45m/3.6) looked very good in filling the post-Big Bang Theory (14.93m/5.1) slot that was recently vacated by How To Be A Gentleman. Add that to Monday’s group of How I Met Your Mother (9.81m/4.2), 2 Broke Girls (11.47m/4.4), Two And A Half Men (15.14m/5.3), and Mike & Molly (11.51m/3.9), and the comedy business is just fine for CBS.
Crimetime is looking strong as well, headlined by NCIS (19.41m/3.9), Criminal Minds (13.15m/3.9), NCIS LA (15.35m/3.4) and Hawaii Five-O (11.07m/3.1). The second tier of CSI Miami (10.64m/2.4), Unforgettable (11.88m/2.5), CSI (10.79m/2.6), Person Of Interest (12.42m/2.7), and The Mentalist (12.54m/2.5) looks ok too. Add in Amazing Race (9.21m/2.7), Good Wife (10.33m/2.1), and Survivor (11.24m/3.3) and there really are no glaring holes in the Sunday-Thursday lineup. Friday, A Gifted Man (8.65m/1.2) remains a bit suspect, but CSI NY (10.7m/1.8) and Blue Bloods (10.78m/1.7) continue to cruise along.
NBC - As usual, the week started with the big highlight of Sunday Night Football (16.57m/6.6) before getting a bit iffy with everything that follows. Unfortunately, with the entire Thursday night in repeats, there wasn’t even the usual bonus of The Office to soften the blow. The Sing Off (4.34m/1.6), Biggest Loser (5.17m/1.9), Parenthood (5.03m/2), Up All Night (5.63m/2.1), Harry’s Law (8.39m/1.3), and SVU (7.66m/2.2) leave the network desperately searching for any kind of hit.
CW - There’s not a lot to discuss with another fairly typical week from the CW schedule of Gossip Girl (1.16m/.6), Hart Of Dixie (1.65m/.6), 90210 (1.41m/.8), Ringer (1.81m/.8), Next Top Model (1.94m/.9), Vampire Diaries (3.03m/1.4), Secret Circle (2.12m/.9), Nikita (1.73m/.6), and Supernatural (1.82m/.7). The one bit that really stands out to me is Hart Of Dixie gaining half a million viewers out of Gossip Girl, despite facing the stiffer competition.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Oct 24, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
