The repetitive nature of the summer ratings have me so looking forward to the return of full schedules in the fall. Remember what that’s like? When CBS runs more than Big Brother, and The CW offers more than one burn-off episode of Easy Money. It was another week very much like so many of the previous weeks. Each of the big four networks has its summer reality tent-pole, and not a lot more. Meanwhile, over on cable, more good news for True Blood, Warehouse 13, and the Real Housewives.
ABC - The finale of The Bachelorette (9.93m/3.5) was the big winner for the week. Those are very good numbers, especially given that they are right on pace with last season’s finale. That probably helped Dating In The Dark (6.36m/2.5) retain most of its premiere audience. It will be interesting to see what happens to DITD next week, without The Bachelorette. The Bachelorette‘s wrap up show, “After The Final Rose” (6.36m/2.5), also did well. Elsewhere, the network offered I Survived A Japanese Game Show (3.78m/1.4), Surviving Suburbia (2.6m/.6) and The Goode Family (1.78m/.5), but nobody was really interested.
NBC - America’s Got Talent continued to soar through the summer with appearances on Tuesday (12.76m/3.4) and Wednesday (10.9m/2.8). Unfortunately, that’s the extent of the highlights. Sunday’s pairing of Merlin (4.21m/1.1) and The Storm (4.9m/1.1) was rather mediocre. Although, it was still better than Monday’s Great American Road Trip (3.56m/1) and The Wanted (2.17m/.5). The Philanthropist (4.95m/1.4) made a little more noise, but that’s against no competition and following the most watched show on the network.
CBS – You could call it a down week for the network I suppose, considering that they only managed to take the viewer honors on two nights. But then, Big Brother was once again the only new programming, so even that has to look like a bit of a success. The show continues to tread water on Sunday (6.17m/1.9), Tuesday (6.16m/2.1), and Thursday (6.4m/2).
FOX – It’s not a lot, but at least FOX has offered up a new show to keep an eye on. The premiere of More To Love (4.23m/1.9) wasn’t spectacular, but it does have the potential to increase those numbers moving forward. That was following Hell’s Kitchen (6.78m/1.9). The week really picked up as So You Think You Can Dance worked down to their final four on Wednesday (7.63m/3) and Thursday (7.4m/2.5). The only other new programming came from Mental (2.92m/.8).
CW – I’ve mostly been ignoring The CW all summer, and judging by the numbers, so have most of you. They did offer up a new episode of Easy Money (.41m/.2), which didn’t do any better than the burned off episodes of Valentine.
Cable – I’ve yet to see the viewer numbers for Burn Notice and Royal Pains this week, but you can make a pretty good guess that they were good. The network did send out a press release trumpeting the fact that it finished July as the #1 cable network, with much thanks to both shows. Things are going so well that both of them have now been renewed.
HBO was in on the renewal game as well. After the latest True Blood (4m) continued the strong season, the network announced that the show has been renewed. Sookie and Eric (please, not Bill…) will be keeping the same company, as Hung and Entourage were also renewed. Keeping to that renewal theme, TLC is ordering up another run of Cake Boss. I’ve never watched the show, assuming it was just a complete ripoff of Ace Of Cakes, but apparently it has averaged 2.3 million viewers, which isn’t bad at all.
Not renewed yet, but a sure thing no doubt, Warehouse 13 (3.3m) continues to be a success. Those 3.3m viewers also came with series highs in Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54. Finally, Real Housewives Of Atlanta (2.66m) set a record for a Real Housewives premiere, so I would assume you can look forward to more Real Housewives of some geographic location soon.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Aug 03, 2009 @ 10:04 EST5EDT
