Ratings Results for the Week of March 22nd – The Trend is Downward

By John J. Joex

Another week of ratings numbers and pretty much no show received good news from the Nielsens (except maybe The Mentalist, but who cares because arguably it shouldn’t even be included here). So I will just do a quick show-by-show rundown.

As disastrous as the premiere of Kings was, the ratings for its second episode were even worse. It’s down at numbers you might expect from the CW, and I wouldn’t be surprised if NBC just yanked it from the schedule altogether. NBC could find no solace in Monday nights either as it Science Fiction and Fantasy line-up of Chuck, Heroes, and Medium continued to perform poorly. NBC still insists Heroes will return for a fourth season, but the jury is still out on the other two.

On Tuesday night, Reaper actually improved its numbers by a tick, but considering it was the only original programming available on the networks during its hour with the other channels running Obama’s news conference, I’m not certain that is saying much.

On Wednesday, Lost continued to lose viewers as it hit a season (and I believe series) low in ratings for a new episode. Sure, American Idol presents some pretty formidable competition, but I didn’t expect Lost to sink this low. However, responses to our recent poll suggest that fans are still loving the show. Life on Mars actually continued to improve its numbers a bit as it heads into its finale next week. I guess a few more viewers are stopping by to see how the series wraps things up.

On Thursday, neither Smallville nor Supernatural has rebounded to the numbers they enjoyed earlier this season. Apparently that break they took in February really drove people away, which is a shame because Supernatural is really hitting on all cylinders these days.

On Friday, The Sarah Connor Chronicles saw a slight improvement in total viewers, but nothing to get excited about. Dollhouse, on the other hand, dropped two ticks in the 18-49 demographic from last week. I’ve resisted doing it so far, but after the continued downward trend I’m bumping this one up to an “Elevated” Cancellation Alert.

Lastly, ABC’s Cupid premieres this coming Tuesday, and even though I prefer not to give a show a Cancellation Alert status until at least one episode has aired, I’m going ahead and putting this one at “Elevated”. The show has received no love whatsoever from the alphabet network so far and seems almost assuredly destined for the scrapheap.

Ratings Results:

Title Day / Time (EST) Network Rating (Viewers 18-49) Timeslot Rank Total Viewers (Millions) Jericho (R) Sunday / 7 PM CW 0.3 5th 0.87 Kings Sunday / 8 PM NBC 1.3 4th 4.58 Chuck* Monday / 8 PM NBC 2.1 4th 6.05 Heroes* Monday / 9 PM NBC 2.9 4th 6.48 Medium* Monday / 10 PM NBC 2.2 3rd 6.56 Reaper Tuesday / 8 PM CW 1.0 5th 2.48 The Mentalist Tuesday / 9 PM CBS 3.8 2nd 17.53 Fringe Tuesday / 9 PM FOX Returns Apr 7th n/a n/a Cupid Tuesday / 10 PM ABC Premieres Mar 31 n/a n/a Knight Rider Wednesday / 8 PM NBC Season Completed n/a n/a Lost* Wednesday / 9 PM ABC 4.0 2nd 8.82 Life on Mars Wednesday / 10 PM ABC 2.1 3rd 5.67 Smallville Thursday / 8 PM CW 1.5 5th 3.74 Supernatural Thursday / 9 PM CW 1.2 5th 3.17 Eleventh Hour Thursday / 10 PM CBS Pre-emtped n/a n/a Ghost Whisperer Friday / 8 PM CBS Pre-emtped n/a n/a The Sarah Connor Chronicles Friday / 8 PM FOX 1.3 4th 3.83 Dollhouse Friday / 9 PM FOX 1.3 3rd 3.87

Title % Chg from Prior Wk % Chg from Lead-In Cancell- ation Alert Jericho (R) 50.0% n/a n/a Kings -18.8% n/a High Chuck* 61.5% n/a Moderate Heroes* 163.6% 38.1% Low Medium* 69.2% -24.1% Moderate Reaper 11.1% n/a Medium The Mentalist 18.8% -2.6% Low Fringe n/a n/a Low Cupid n/a n/a Elevated Knight Rider n/a n/a High Lost* -4.8% 110.5% Low Life on Mars 5.0% -47.5% Cancelled Smallville 7.1% n/a Renewed Supernatural 0.0% -20.0% Renewed Eleventh Hour n/a n/a Moderate Ghost Whisperer n/a n/a Low The Sarah Connor Chronicles 0.0% n/a High Dollhouse -13.3% 0.0% Elevated *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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