The biggest premiere last week came from cable, as AMC finally released their modern take on The Prisoner. I had been planning for months to make a comparison between that and media-darling Mad Men. I always find the amount of coverage that Mad Men is able to generate, despite the fact that its latest season hovered around 1.7 million viewers for most of its run, fascinating. We can still make that comparison, of course, but it didn’t work out the way that I expected. The initial sampling was good, with (2.22m/.8) checking out the two hour Prisoner premiere. Unfortunately, those people were clearly not impressed. The following nights were both a forgettable (.95m/.3). That’s really not good.
Back on the networks, it was a tough week for genre. Heroes found a new low, V dropped again, there is cause for concern at FlashForward, and the must-see Fringe managed to lose two-tenths in the demo. The news was better for Dancing With The Stars, The Mentalist, and Melrose Place. Although, “better” where Melrose is concerned is a very relative term.
ABC - The week started on a positive as Sunday was up across the board with Extreme Makeover (11.71m/3.7), Desperate Housewives (14.72m/5), and Brothers & Sisters (10.09m/3.2). The good news continued Monday as Dancing With The Stars (18.84m/3.9) continued to grow as they head for the finale. That was good for Castle (10.53m/2.5). It will be very interesting to see what happens to those Castle numbers after DWTS finishes.
Tuesday took a step back with V (9.32m/3.1) continuing to drop. DWTS Results (16.02m/3.2) and the returning The Forgotten (7.53m/1.8) were off pace as well. Wednesday, the network found an improvement for Hank with a Modern Family repeat (6.13m/1.9). The Middle (7.06m/2.4), Modern Family (9.16m/3.7), Cougar Town (7.92m/3.2) and Robin Roberts: Janet Jackson (6.62m/2.3) were all solid following.
FlashForward (7.98m/2.4) continued to slip on Thursday. That’s a far cry from the (12.47m/4) of the premiere. Survivor and Bones have long since moved on, leaving the show in third place in both measures. More troubling though is the increasingly poor comparison to Ugly Betty at this time last year. For example: 11/20/08 Ugly Betty (8.3m/2.6). It’s certainly not doomed, but it’s also not a hit by any stretch. The night was finished by Grey’s Anatomy (14.07m/5.1) and Private Practice (8.93m/3.1).
CBS - It was a mostly uneventful week, as most things were in-line with expectations. Sunday started with steady performances from Amazing Race (11.39m/3.4) and Three Rivers (8.19m/1.8). Cold Case (9.59m/2.1) was up, prompting the network to call for a swap with Three Rivers on the next go. Monday was, oddly, off in the 8 o’clock hour with How I Met Your Mother (8.16m/3.4) and Accidentally On Purpose (7.28m/2.8), while gaining at 9 with 2 ½ Men (13.69m/4.7) and Big Bang Theory (13.23m/5). CSI: Miami (13.26m/3.7) came back down after the big crossover.
Tuesday and Wednesday both had solid numbers across the night with NCIS (20.34m/4.1), NCIS: LA (14.87m/3.4), The Good Wife (12.7m/2.6), Old Christine (7.27m/2.2), Gary Unmarried (7m/2.4), Criminal Minds (13.7m/3.7), and CSI: NY (13.62m/3.2). Survivor (12.33m/3.8) remains #1 in its hour on Thursday. And it is worth noting that The Mentalist (15.85m/3.7) again was above CSI (14.91m/3.5). The week finished with a typical Friday, featuring Ghost Whisperer (8.43m/2), Medium (7.8m/1.9), and Numb3rs (7.84m/1.7).
FOX - The return to the regular animation schedule brought expected results for The Simpsons (9.13m/4.3), Cleveland (7.13m/3.4), Family Guy (8.49m/4.2), and American Dad (6.18m/3). House (12.67m/5) and Lie To Me (7.23m/2.7) were off, but within reason on Monday. So You Think You Can Dance continues to soldier along on Tuesday (5.99m/2.4) and Wednesday (5.65m/2.1), along with their pals on Glee (7.36m/3.3).
Thursday brought another solid performance from Bones (9.88m/2.7), and more questions where the Fringe (5.9m/2) experiment is concerned. Despite the extra promotion for the episode, and the fact that ABC, NBC, and CBS were all down week-to-week, the show suffered another two-tenths drop in the demo.
NBC – Sunday Night Football (22.39m/8.6) was as strong as usual to start the week. And then things went a bit off the rails on Monday as Heroes (5.08m/2.2) found a new low. Could we really see Heroes fall below 5 million viewers, or a 2 demo this season? Trauma (5.18m/1.8) wasn’t helped by that. The Biggest Loser (9.56m/3.7) gave up a half hour on Tuesday for Merry Madagascar (8.97m/2.9), which did rather well.
Wednesday found Mercy (7.76m/2) climbing out of 1 point demo territory, while L&O: SVU (8.44m/2.4) continued to struggle to find its year-ago levels. Thursday night was down across the board with Community (4.87m/2), Parks & Recreation (4.55m/2), The Office (7.39m/3.7), and 30 Rock (5.72m/2.8). For those playing along at home, the 11/20/08 Kath & Kim was (5.47m/2.3). Law & Order (7.52m/1.5) finished things off on Friday.
Leno continues to trip along, making no notable waves. The real story, if there is anything more to this then what we have already seen, will come as we enter the long stretch of holiday repeats. If Leno is going to make any gains, it should happen then. The numbers for the week:
Monday 4.45m/1.4
Tuesday 5.99m/1.9
Wednesday 4.79m/1.4
Thursday 4.77m/1.6
Friday 4.75m/1.3
CW - One Tree Hill (2.63m/1.2) and Gossip Girl (2.25m/1.2) got the week off to an uneventful start. The exciting bit was to come on Tuesday though. The struggles of Melrose Place are well known, and this was the week that was all to change. The return of Heather Locklear was set to put the show back on The CW map. Yeah … it didn’t quite work out like that. After a typical 90210 (2.1m/1.1) outing, the Locklear fueled Melrose (1.57m/.8) still landed in a distant last place on the network. Next Top Model (3.69m/1.8) had a strong finale on Wednesday, while Vampire Diaries (3.57m/1.6) and Supernatural (2.51m/1.2) continued to hold down Thursday night. Smallville (2.45m/1.1) finished off the week on Friday.
CABLE – Looking back at the 11/13 numbers, things seem to be stabilizing for White Collar (4.28m/1.1) and Stargate Universe (1.8m/.7). Sanctuary (1.67m/.6) seems to have found its audience as well. The other cable numbers for the week:
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Nov 23, 2009 @ 18:04 EST5EDT
