Ratings Results for the Week of March 8th – Heroes Continues to Sink

By John J. Joex

As we mentioned previously, NBC’s entertainment president has announced that Heroes will return for a fourth season, so I am dropping the Cancellation Alert back down to Low. Still, the show sunk in the ratings yet again dropping to only 6.6 million total viewers. I realize that NBC wants to stick with this one because, despite its struggles, it is one of the struggling networks highest performing series in the 18-49 and 19-34 demographics. However, if the downward trend continues, don’t be too surprised if they do a turnaround on their stance. The entire Monday night lineup saw a drop this last week, so all of those shows are on unsure footing. Still, I say that if Heroes comes back, Chuck will come with it. Medium, on the other hand, could get left out in the cold.

Why aren’t people watching Reaper? It’s one of the funniest shows on television and provides a nice contrast to some of the darker and/or more intense fare on Prime Time. Still, it did nothing to improve on the ratings of its premiere and actually dipped just a bit. The TV by Numbers guys says this has to do with Daylight Savings Time and that all shows in the 8PM EST timeslot suffer in the week after the time change. They also think that if the show holds its current numbers that it stands a good chance of getting renewed. Still, I’d like to see the viewer tally head northward just to feel safe.

Did I miss a memo or something, what was with the Lost repeat? I thought that one was supposed to run straight through without breaks. ABC apparently just decided to ceded the night to American Idol running Scrubs repeats in the 8 PM hour prior to the Lost retread. Bad news for Life on Mars as its already poor numbers plummeted without a new episode of its lead-in to give it some sort of boost. I’m guessing it will go back up next week when new episodes of Lost resume, or perhaps its few followers have just given up (this past week’s episode was pretty bad).

Dollhouse stayed flat in the 18-48 demographic this week and actually gained a bit in total viewers from last week. However, I think it’s time to raise the Cancellation Alert on this one to “Medium”. I just don’t think it has done enough yet to convince FOX to bring it back for a second season. It does continue to score well with DVR viewing and iTunes downloads, but I’m not sure that adds enough to the show’s defense. The numbers for The Sarah Connor Chronicles dwindled to almost nothing this week, assuring that show’s fate.

Smallville and Supernatural returned with new episodes after a month a repeats. Their numbers were down a bit from where they were, but they will continue to edge up in the coming weeks.

Ratings Results:

Title Day / Time (EST) Network Rating (Viewers 18-49) Timeslot Rank Total Viewers (Millions) Jericho (R) Sunday / 7 PM CW 0.2 5th 0.67 Kings Sunday / 9 PM NBC Premieres Mar 15 n/a n/a Chuck Monday / 8 PM NBC 2.0 4th 5.69 Heroes Monday / 9 PM NBC 3.2 4th 6.63 Medium Monday / 10 PM NBC 2.5 3rd 7.05 Reaper Tuesday / 8 PM CW 0.8 5th 2.17 The Mentalist (R) Tuesday / 9 PM CBS 2.8 3rd 14.25 Fringe Tuesday / 9 PM FOX Returns Apr 7th n/a n/a Knight Rider Wednesday / 8 PM NBC Season Completed n/a n/a Lost (R) Wednesday / 9 PM ABC 1.6 4th 4.21 Life on Mars Wednesday / 10 PM ABC 1.5 3rd 4.58 Smallville* Thursday / 8 PM CW 1.6 5th 3.72 Supernatural* Thursday / 9 PM CW 1.1 5th 2.84 Eleventh Hour Thursday / 10 PM CBS 2.8 3rd 11.78 Ghost Whisperer Friday / 8 PM CBS 2.6 1st 11.10 The Sarah Connor Chronicles Friday / 8 PM FOX 1.4 4th 3.90 Dollhouse Friday / 9 PM FOX 1.5 3rd 4.40

Title % Chg from Prior Wk % Chg from Lead-In Cancell- ation Alert Jericho (R) -33.3% n/a n/a Kings n/a n/a n/a Chuck -16.7% n/a Moderate Heroes 0.0% 60.0% Low Medium 4.2% -21.9% Moderate Reaper -11.1% n/a Medium The Mentalist (R) 3.7% 7.7% Low Fringe n/a n/a Low Knight Rider n/a n/a High Lost (R) -67.3% 33.3% Low Life on Mars -28.6% -6.3% Cancelled Smallville* 100.0% n/a Renewed Supernatural* 37.5% -31.3% Renewed Eleventh Hour -6.7% -33.3% Moderate Ghost Whisperer 0.0% n/a Low The Sarah Connor Chronicles 40.0% n/a High Dollhouse 0.0% 7.1% Medium *Prior week’s broadcast was a repeat airing.

The Timeslot Rank, and % Change from Prior Week and Lead-In columns are based on the rating in the 18-49 demographic. The Cancellation Alert column is based on season to date performance and my assessment of how likely the network is to cancel the show. TVbytheNumbers.com also provides their Renew/Cancel Index which tracks the likelihood of cancellation on a weekly basis.

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