Ratings Results for the Week of February 15th – Dollhouse Sinking

By John J. Joex

After a less than promising start a week ago, Dollhouse’s second outing did nothing to improve the show’s prospects as it pulled only a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 4.2 million total viewers. You would think that the executioner would start sharpening its axes at this, but perhaps not just yet. The show still gets a little leeway since it runs on Fridays, and it did make it to number one on the iTunes television downloads list this past week. Dollhouse still has a chance at this point if its numbers do not continue to head south (the blog A TV Calling presents four reasons the show still has a chance for renewal). The prospects for The Sarah Connor Chronicles are not so good as it lost viewers in the 18-49 demo on its second Friday outing (thought it gained a bit in total viewers). This show doesn’t have the goodwill factor Dollhouse currently holds and seems destined for the chopping block.

The news was not great for Chuck this week, either. That show lost four tenths of a ratings point and over 1.5 million viewers from the last time it aired two weeks ago. Another week like that and I will be bumping up the Cancellation Threat. The numbers for Heroes stayed mostly the same week over week holding on to the same rating in the 18-49 demo and only losing a small number of total viewers. Medium improved on its numbers from last week edging up to a 2.8 rating and almost nine million total viewers.

Lost did not have to contend with American Idol and its numbers rebounded this week pulling viewership close to what it had for its season premiere. The bad news is that starting on March 11th, FOX will move Idol to the 9 PM EST slot as it heads into the finals where the two shows will battle it out for the rest of the season. Still, even though that will siphon off a chunk of the show’s viewers, Lost need not fear for its future. The DVD sales for the recently released Season 4 set alone have already pulled in a mint for ABC, so they won’t give up on it at this point.

Wednesday night bottom feeders Knight Rider and Life on Mars received little encouragement this week. True, they both saw a slight increase in their 18-49 ratings, but it was nothing that might suggest a resurgence of viewers. Knight Rider wraps up its original episodes this Wednesday, and I’m still expecting ABC to pull Life on Mars from the schedule at any time (remember, this was the network that yanked The Night Stalker in 2005 during the middle of a two-part episode).

On CBS, new episodes of The Mentalist and The Eleventh Hour held steady and a repeat of The Ghost Whisperer stomped The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The CW will remain on repeats until March.

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 0.81 Chuck Monday / 8 PM NBC 2.3 4th 6.75 Heroes Monday / 9 PM NBC 3.6 3rd 7.75 Medium Monday / 10 PM NBC 2.8 2nd 8.94 The Mentalist Tuesday / 9 PM CBS 3.8 3rd 18.27 Fringe Tuesday / 9 PM FOX Pre-Empted n/a n/a Knight Rider Wednesday / 8 PM NBC 1.5 4th 5.49 Lost Wednesday / 9 PM ABC 5.1 1st 11.27 Life on Mars Wednesday / 10 PM ABC 2.1 2nd 5.78 Smallville (R) Thursday / 8 PM CW 0.9 5th 2.28 Supernatural (R) Thursday / 9 PM CW 0.8 5th 1.97 Eleventh Hour Thursday / 10 PM CBS 2.7 2nd 11.23 Ghost Whisperer (R) Friday / 8 PM CBS 1.9 1st 8.35 The Sarah Connor Chronicles Friday / 8 PM FOX 1.3 3rd 3.84 Dollhouse Friday / 9 PM FOX 1.7 2nd 4.22

Title % Chg from Prior Wk % Chg from Lead-In Cancell- ation Alert Jericho (R) 50.0% n/a n/a Chuck n/a n/a Moderate Heroes 0.0% 16.1% Low Medium 3.7% -22.2% Low The Mentalist -9.5% 2.7% Low Fringe n/a n/a Low Knight Rider 15.4% n/a High Lost 15.9% 168.4% Low Life on Mars 5.0% -58.8% High Smallville (R) 0.0% n/a Low Supernatural (R) 0.0% -11.1% Low Eleventh Hour 0.0% -38.6% Moderate Ghost Whisperer (R) -20.8% n/a Low The Sarah Connor Chronicles -7.1% n/a High Dollhouse -15.0% 30.8% Moderate

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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