With Stargate Universe on a break, Syfy broke out Christmas episodes of Eureka (1.92m/.6) and Warehouse 13 (2.02m/.7) last week. Those two shows aren’t necessarily in competition with SGU, but their performance didn’t do the show any favors. One off episodes from both of those shows coming in around double the normal SGU viewer number dismisses the move to Tuesday questions. Elsewhere, The Walking Dead (5.97m/3) managed another high, finishing the brief first season with new highs.
Basic:
Premium:
ABC - Sunday night was back, with Desperate Housewives (11.36m/3.6) finishing second only to football on the night. Extreme Makeover Home Edition (8.18m/2.2) and Brothers & Sisters (7.59m/2.1) joined the housewives, and were down but not out. In fact, they were huge successes when compared to Monday’s edition of Skating With The Stars (3.94m/.8). Will ABC let the show finish its run on Monday? There was more bad news later in the night as the final Castle (7.63m/1.9) of the year took it on the chin.
The always solid Charlie Brown Christmas (8.1m/2.6) offered a little help on Tuesday, but No Ordinary Family (6.35m/1.9) and Detroit 187 (6.83m/1.4) couldn’t do much with it. Wednesday looked a lot better overall, with The Middle (8.68m/2.4), Better With You (7.15m/2.2), Modern Family (11.08m/4.2), and Cougar Town (6.44m/2.6). Given the other concerns of the network, the comedy block is looking pretty good.
Thursday opened with more holiday repeats, in the form of Shrek (6.94m/1.8) and Prep & Landing (7.58m/2.2). Then Barbara Walters showed up to show that she’s still a force, scoring with both her Oprah Special (13.27m/3) and the annual Ten Most Fascinating (12.22m/3.2). That’s slightly off what Grey’s and Private Practice normally offer in the demo, but miles ahead of what a repeat week would have brought.
NBC - Sunday Night Football (22.51m/8.3) was particularly strong to start the week. But things got really interesting on Monday. With Chuck and The Event taking a break, The Sing Off (8.57m/2.8) stepped in making a huge improvement on the night. Chase (4.99m/1.5) wasn’t able to take advantage of the lead-in boost. Gains from unscripted programming continued Tuesday with Biggest Loser (8.23m/3.1) continuing to grow in its new slot. Minute To Win It (6.98m/1.9) was a decent performer earlier in the night.
The Sing Off (7.64m/2.7) was back on Wednesday, again making huge gains over the regular Undercovers numbers. There was less excitement on Thursday, with only The Office (7.18m/3.7) putting up good numbers. Community (4.29m/1.9), 30 Rock (4.76m/2.1), and The Apprentice (4.12m/1.6) were all rather underwhelming.
CBS - There was much less ratings drama for CBS, with a mostly new week offering mostly good numbers all around. The Amazing Race (10.34m/3.1), Undercover Boss (10.5m/2.7), and CSI Miami (10.66m/2.5) made for a good Sunday, even considering the year-to-year losses for UB and CSIM. Monday was even better, thanks to the comedy block of How I Met Your Mother (9.26m/3.6), Rules Of Engagement (8.78m/3.1), 2 ½ Men (13.41m/4.2), and Mike & Molly (11.04m/3.4). Hawaii Five-O (10.51m/2.8) remains off the Miami pace from last year, but is sitting comfortably as the number one show in the slot.
More good news on Wednesday, thanks to Survivor (12.13m/3.6) and Criminal Minds (14.23m/3.5). The Defenders (10.54m/2) is hanging in there, but I get more and more worried about that one as the season progresses. The network is going to cancel something, and right now The Defenders is looking like the low hanging fruit. Thursday started well, with Big Bang Theory (12.03m/3.9). $#*! My Dad Says (9.4m/2.7), CSI (13.17m/3), and The Mentalist (13.41m/2.4) weren’t quite up to that level, but nothing to worry about there.
FOX - With another football boost, The Simpsons (9.54m/4.2), Cleveland (6.97m/3.2 – 5.96m/2.8), and American Dad (5.31m/2.5) got the week off to a good start. Unfortunately, House made way for the American Country Awards (5.98m/1.5) on Monday, and it looks like that was one awards show too many. The news was obviously better on Tuesday, with the big Glee (11.07m/4.4) Christmas episode. Raising Hope (6.98m/2.8) continues to post solid numbers at 9, and Running Wilde (4.07m/1.7) still looks like it’s not long for this schedule.
Human Target (5.64m/1.6) continues to be an interesting case, when weighed against the performance of Fringe and Lie To Me. The numbers are so close that any, or all, of them could be heading for their series finale. Hell’s Kitchen (5.33m/2.3) was slightly off the pace following. Fringe (4.74m/1.7) finished its time on Thursday with a series low performance, but the more interesting story going forward might be another off week for Bones (8.36m/2.2). There’s been a lot of talk about the direction of the show, and whether or not it’s chasing away viewers. I’m curious to see if this latest slump is a winter/holiday aberration, or a sign of things to come. And the week finished with what was most likely the series finale of The Good Guys (2.32m/.7).
CW - It was a week of ups and downs, with the ups coming early. 90210 (2.18m/1.1), Gossip Girl (2.06m/1), One Tree Hill (2.2m/1), and Life Unexpected (1.73m/.9) all saw gains for the week on Monday and Tuesday. With Top Model finished, Wednesday went to the new Fashion Forward (.84m/.3), which didn’t attract any interest. Thursday and Friday were just the opposite of Monday and Tuesday, with Vampire Diaries (3.16m/1.3), Nikita (2.29m/.8), Smallville (2.56m/1), and Supernatural (2.24m/1) all taking slight hits.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Dec 13, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
Why aren’t more people watching SGU? The mind boggles!
Because it’s a badly written, badly acted, boring soup opera in space.
Do you ever have anything nice to say? Every reply is something negative.
*POST AUTHOR*
There’s no way to say with certainty why people aren’t watching, but if I was going to guess… I think they took way too long to get control of the ship. So many of the early episodes hinged on the “Oh my god, we’re all going to die! Oh, nevermind.” stories. Go back and look at the beginning of this season and just count how many times Scott is about to die. More exploration and adventure early on, and less looming death, might have helped.
Regarding SGU, it was up against a full network schedule of fresh, new episodes, Eureka and W-13 were not.
*POST AUTHOR*
I think you’re reaching there, and I would add that Eureka also did better on Friday than SGU did. However, if you want to bring the networks into it, the SGU finale was against new programming from ABC, NBC, and FOX, with repeats on CBS. Same as Eureka. Do you really think that if SGU could have just aired this week it would have gained a million viewers?
Don’t forget that Warehouse 13 also did much better than SGU on Tuesdays, pulling a 2.45m/.8 for its season finale during a week of broadcast season premieres, while SGU could only muster a 1.18m/.5 for its season premiere one week later. Also, SGU and Caprica were supposedly the most expensive shows on the Syfy network.
As to the question of looming death every episode, the biggest problem for me was that I wanted more than half of the characters to die each week rather than live because they were so annoying. It definitely wasn’t too dark, either literally or figuratively.
The ones who annoyed me early on, started talking less in later episodes. I just don’t understand why SG1 fans and Stargate Atlantis fans are not holding this great show on their shoulders while it develops. I’m not trying to take away from W13 and Eureka, I’m sure they are fine, but they are just not for me.
I had the opposite reaction, in that the few characters I liked early on dropped off of my list as we learned more about them. Of the original set, only Greer still holds any interest for me.
Of the new batch, I kind of like Park, Brody, and Volker. Ginn was good too, but that ended in a spectacularly off-screen fashion.
As to why SG-1/Atlantis fans bailed, you might well ask why devotees of Glen A. Larson’s BSG had issues with RDM’s version, or why some TNG/DS9/VOY fans didn’t transfer over to ENT. If you give people something they don’t want, they’ll tend to move on to other shows rather than sticking around for two years.
In online Stargate fandom specifically, I’ve seen plenty of old-school fans driven off by the public statements of the producers and stars just as much as the content or tone of the show. Their PR is not doing them any favors with the old guard.
I did think some of the cast interviews did not kiss the franchise ring enough. Good point.
*POST AUTHOR*
Ryan makes a great point, and I’d add that it goes all the way back to before the show was even cast. If you recall, there was a casting document that leaked and the descriptions for the characters did not go over well. It’s where the Stargate 90210 moniker came from, and set the show off on the worst possible footing.
If you look at next week’s grid, ABC is running Skating With the Stars on Monday and Tuesday. Is that a burn off or a planned end to the show?
*POST AUTHOR*
That was the plan all along, to have the finale on the 21st. I’m just wondering… if the show falls below four million viewers again this week, will the network bite the bullet and let it finish the run, or shuffle it off to Saturday to lessen the damage?
I wonder when the news about whether SGU is cancelled or renewed for Season 3 will come out? Last year the renewal notice came on the same Monday as today.
As a fan of SG1 and Atlantis, I really wanted to love this show from the start. In the beginning though, for me, there just was not enough… I don’t know if action is the right word. I quit watching but kept up with the recaps here. When I started watching it again however, I was just lost. I am hoping to catch up giving the first episodes another shot and continue from there.
Great, I hope others will as well.
Well, I think we have our answer now.