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CBS’ decision to put two unproven new series back-to-back on lucrative Thursday night — comedy How To Be A Gentleman and drama Person Of Interest — was quite a gamble for a risk-averse network like CBS. And now, the tandem starts to spell trouble for the network in their first airing together. In its premiere, How To Be A Gentleman (2.7/8) was down 33% from the debut of the now-defunct $#*! My Dad Says in the 8:30 PM slot last year but still did better than anything but X Factor in the half-hour. Gentleman dragged down Person Of Interest (2.7/7, 12.4 million), which slid a modest 13% from its premiere last week directly behind The Big Bang Theory. The ripple effect continued with The Mentalist (2.5/7, 12.7 million), down 11%. The only good news for CBS last night came at 8 PM, where Big Bang (4.8/15, 14.5 million) matched the fast national 18-49 rating for its season premiere last week and was once again the top program of the night in viewers and the 18-49 demo. CBS (3.0/8, 12.3 million) was No. 1 for the night in total viewers and second in 18-49.
How quickly they fall. After a disappointing start last week, ABC’s Charlie’s Angels (1.5/4) took a 29% dive in Week 2 and is facing likely early cancellation. Grey’s Anatomy (3.5/9) was down 15% from its two-hour opener last week. At 10 PM, Private Practice launched its fifth season with a 2.8/8, down 15% from last season’s debut and its lowest-rated premiere ever, but it still won the 10 PM hour in 18-49. ABC (2.6/7, 8.4 million) finished third for the night in viewers and 18-49.
Fox’s The X Factor (3.8/10, 11.9 million) was down two tenths from last Thursday’s fast national demo rating. (The reality series usually gains 1-2 tenths in the finals.) For the first three weeks, Simon Cowell’s singing competition has been stuck in the 4 and just-under-4 ratings level, below most people’s (and Cowell’s own) expectations, but has been keeping steady. We will get a better idea of its ratings trajectory next week when the show’s next phase, boot camp, starts. X Factor led Fox to another nightly win in 18-49.
After a promising debut last week, new NBC comedy Whitney (2.5/6) was down an alarming 24% in Week 2. Its lead-in, The Office, was down 13%. On the bright side, Whitney still managed a decent 74% demo lead-in retention, better than the other 9:30 PM comedies this week. At 8 PM, Community (1.8/5) was up a tenth from last week. Parks and Recreation (2.1/6) followed its lead at 8:30 PM, also up a tenth from its fast national last week. (It was adjusted up in the finals.) More bad news for new drama Prime Suspect (1.5/4), which was down 17% from its low-rated premiere and is in serious danger. NBC finished a distant fourth in total viewers (5.2 million) and 18-49 (2.1/6)
The CW dramas continued to rebound this week after being pummeled by the competition during premiere week. With a flashback episode, The Vampire Diaries (2.7 million, 1.3/4 in 18-49, 1.4/5 in 18-34) was up 7% in total viewers, 17% in 18-34 and 8% in 18-49 from last week. The Secret Circle (2 million, 1.0/3 in 18-34) was up 11% in 18-34 and even in viewers.
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really enjoyed the gentleman pilot – what a great cast! could develop into a hit in series if cbs will be patient with it and let word of mouth do its work
I agree snd I also work on the show.
Well that gives you a Bias Opinion now doesn’t it? since you work on gentleman. Well I haven’t been lucky to see it,but it seems like an interesting show i’ll catch it on Hulu or something. sounds pretty funny though. For Charlies Angel’s yeah Saw that coming. I Fell like they really have no respect for the late farah, or the original angels,or pretty much anyone. then again My Ethic’s about Television and film is very old maybe outdated but still works FAR better then todays crap.
What show were you watching? From the shudderingly twee title sequence to the personality-free lead to the overacting sister to Kevin Dillon’s phoned-in, high-school play tough guy character (he’s capable of so much more), the pilot was nearly physically painful. I grasped at the Dave Foley scenes like life preservers in a sea of oatmeal.
AWFUL. Just painful. Embarrassing how bad this pilot is.
Charlie’s Angels DOA. Pretty actresses but they are terrible! Minka Kelly and Rachael Taylor are unwatchable. The black girl (Annie Ilonzeh?) is the only decent one.
Please also kill: Playboy club, Whitney, and How to be a Gentleman.
Btwn Playboy Club and Charlie’s Angels I feel like these girls were cast off headshots and didn’t even audition. So bad. Go tell them to model or something.
whitney has potential but they have to dump the male lead and just have her be like rhoda — hip single woman on the prowl.
I find Chris D’Elia (the male “Whitney” lead) to be the best thing about the show. I find him to be more Donald Hollinger (“That Girl”) than Joe Gerard.
Everyone’s single on TV.
I agree. D’Elia is the only thing on Whitney that feels grounded real.
Ditto. Thought D’Elia elevated the decidedly sub-standard writing. I might be biased because I’ve seen him live, and his stnad-up and crowd work are fantastic.
They should actually drop Whitney. This guy is the ONLY watchable element of the show. He’ll go on to do much better things. Think the rest will soon be looking for a way out of the scrap heap.
+!
Whitney herself is grating. The husband has good timing without trying so hard.
Quite possibly the dumbest statement ever.
Whitney is unwatchable in so many ways. The female sidekicks are particularly grating, the stories are infantile and forced. The rhythm is off. The writing (by Whitney so far) is amateurish. What sizable portion of America would ever want to hang out with these people? And they seem to have learned nothing from what made the great TV multi-cams feel organic instead of contrived. True, shows get better over time as they figure things out, but I doubt this one will last.
WHITNEY is TERRIBLE. I tuned in last week for the premiere and canceled my season pass DVR – then channel-surfing last night decided to watch 5 minutes more of it. She’s grating and not that funny. Trying to hard. She needs to quit this and stay behind the camera on 2 Broke Girls.
Whitney has a lot of potential to be like a I Love Lucy type couple. Whitney has to show a little more but she’s got it and Chris is gold on this show.
I like the Rhoda reference! LOL!
Agreed. The guy can’t deliver a line without cracking himself up. He’s horrible.
Don’t think he is going anywhere.
Father is Bill D’Elia. Ex. Producer of Boston Legal, Chicago Hope, and Ally Mcbeal.
Shocking…obviously, America has no taste…oops, I mean the networks have no taste, and marginal creative thinking… and, the public gets it.
Gentlemen is actually a good show for CBS and they should stick with it. The budget to produce this show has to be low with no big name actors in the lead.
No one watches Community and Parks and Rec?! Those shows are brilliant. The Office may be in a transitional period but it’s still funnier than 80% of the comedies on the networks.
Whitney, welll…heading for Caroline in the City territory? I.e., kept on air WAY too long despite its awfulness, only to be eventually canceled and relegated to the dustbin of history.
NBC, PLEASE give Prime Suspect some time!!! It will gather steam and find its audience and its voice. Maria Bello is GREAT in it.
In closing…
X-FACTOR = die.
Charlie’s Angels = die.
CBS = die, except for How I Met Your Mother (btw, how did it do?)
T-M
‘The Vampire Diaries’ turned out one hell of an episode last night. I’m still on a high from it. I just wish more people watched because it is superior to True Blood in every way. The flashback episodes are always among my favorites and last nights romp through the 1920′s was great fun. If you’re not watching the show, you’re missing out. Truly.
I agree. I am NOT a vamp fangirl by any stretch but this show is top notch. The writing, the acting, everything..it’s just SO good.
Love The Vampire Diaries. It really is excellent and my favorite show. It is pretty much the only show I get excited to watch anymore.
X Factor is what American Idol was when it was good.
How To Be A Gentleman will have no word of mouth. It was boring, and it’s male lead has even less personality than Amber Heard.
Hey NBC,
Just pull the plug on Whitney now or you’re going to get a lot of TOLDJAs. What were you thinking when you thought Whitney was a good idea?
It says here one word “Shitney” ;”they can’t print that, can they?”
Sorry, its impressive Exec prod names aside, Person of Interest is a convoluted mess. The conceit is so unrelatable and so unbelievable that it’s impossible to get involved. It should be on the Syfy network – not CBS.
Surprising they even put a new show Thursday 9pm. Sign of desperation. Like JJ Abrams’ name will somehow create a miracle because he has industry hype. Wasn’t this supposed to be the best testing slew of pilots ever?? Yeah – right. When they resort to that sell, you know they’re in trouble. The shows need to speak for themselves.
Contrary to hype – CBS has problems. They are a lot like NBC with 3 Law & Orders and other aging hits before their precipitous fall. A lot of old stagnating shows that are still their best #s – and no new hits to replace them. They better watch out – with 3 CSIs dwindling and 3 former CSI timeslots ranging from “nothing special” (Hawaii 5/0) to “in trouble” (POI) – they are going to have more and more holes to fill.
They need vision! especially in drama. not just processors of the same old mediocrity. Shame is – these creative companies get more and more corporate and with that comes a lot of baggage and so inspiration and vision get muzzled by people who mostly have no idea what they are talking about but just play the game.
it is pathetic that every fall a seeming thousand new shows debut – and at most only two or three make the grade – and at that often barely. Something is wrong.
You are an idiot. Those numbers are very strong and amount to the best premier on CBS for a drama in some time. You should stick to making lattes at coffee bean, or whatever your day job is.
You’re an idiot. Person of Interest is doing very well and is helping CBS shore up the male demographic, all despite being sandwiched between disparate programming like Big Bang/Gentlemen at 8/8:30 and The Mentalist at 10.
Um, no. Person of Interest came in last among the big 4. It is not “doing well.” It was down 11% from it’s premiere, and it has a hack premise and a boring star.
It will get moved to another night. And then, in a year or two, it will cease to be.
The buzz around the CBS hallways is “oof”
Are you kidding? You must live in the same fictional world of the show!!!!!! (or work on the show)
Big Bang Theory is a 4.9. How To Be a Gentleman is considered today a flop (“debuts low”) – a 2.7. Person of Interest had the exact same #. Isolate whatever tiny segments of the audience as you may like to justify your argument, but a 2.7 is the main # that counts – and a 2.7 is the same # as HTBAG (again, “debuts low”). So that is hardly “very strong” unless you think HTBAG was strong too.
And think about it. They moved CSI out of Thursday to re-energize the night, gambling on what they hoped would be a hot new show. If they had a hot new drama on another night – they would have moved it to this most important hour like they did CSI, Mentalist, Big Bang Theory, Survivor – but they didn’t. So they had to gamble on a shot in the dark. A 2.7 is a blank, at best.
The best premiere for a CBS drama in a long time? Um – no – you don’t know what you’re talking about. Hawaii 5-0 premiered a lot higher before falling into mediocrity. So did NCIS: LA. Mentalist was a lot higher on Tuesdays too.
You need a dose of reality. Sorry if it’s your show – nice effort – but it isn’t close to the type of show that moves a network forward (ie: Lost, Desperate HW, CSI, Glee, Modern Family, Big Bang Theory, New Girl if it holds up, House, 24, etc). Not even close.
In fairness to POI – that’s a high bar. But that was the gamble that was taken by putting it on Thursday at 9 unproven. The point is – the network has problems on the horizon and this misfired gamble is the first real sign of that bigger problem. They need new hit dramas.
I wanted to sample Person of Interest because I’m a fan of Taraj, but I refuse to watch anything with which Abrams is associated. Fool me once with Alias, shame on me. Fool me twice with Lost, shame on me again. I’ll not fall for his storytelling schtick a third time. And speaking of Taraj, it’s criminal that CBS refuses to include her in the promos for Person of Interest.
X Factor will get huge during the live shows. And if it actually produces a star, that’s a game changer.
X Factor is doing really well for a brand new show.
Whitney is unwatchable — I don’t know what that studio audience is laughing at, but I tried laughing with them at home and that became the funniest thing about watching it. Second episode and they’re already rolling out the “we need to have a real first date” story? Just bad. Pootr Chris D’Elia — he seems like he could be great in a different vehicle.
Have tried to watch Prime Suspect twice now. It’s just not that compelling though Bello is good. I gave up on it last night when the crime failed to pull me in. I expected more from this show, but it seems like just a character study of her than a well-woven crime drama. Yawn.
Agreed on how bad Whitney is. Fyi, even though it is recorded in front of a live studio audience, they mute out that laughter and replace it with a pre-recorded laugh track (NBC admitted this). So the studio audience probably has more taste than it appears and are probably not laughing with the rest of us.
when and where did nbc admit this?
I liked Maria Bello and the authentic, jaded, NYPD vibe (felt real to me, anyway) but I agree that the crime-of-the-week aspect in the pilot was short-changed. In fact it almost felt like an afterthought.
But of course you only have 43 minutes to tell your story and so your dilemma is clear: Is your show gonna be plot-driven or a character study?
Gotta make a decision.
Sump’m's gotta give, right?
Whitney is an extremely unappealing and downright unpleasant character/actress. And why don’t I watch Prime Suspect? That stupid hat.
You sir, have hit both nails on the head in regards to those shows! Hizza!
That hat was cool 10 years ago, probably when she was.
Whitney is truly horrendous.
There is no “Bright side” to Whitney. Bad numbers, bad writing, bad show. Stop trying to spin it otherwise.
I agree with TruthoMeter and A. I think Whitney has potential, but she would be funnier without the boyfriend.
People suck – I can’t believe NBC is a distant fourth, when they actually have the best programming on Thursday – Community, Parks & Rec, and Prime Suspect are the 3 best shows on TV on thursday…
PLEASE Give Prime Suspect a chance- Maria Bello and Brian O’Byrne are amazing – I really hope they give this show a real chance!!
X-Factor – They could cut this down to 30 GREAT minutes of TV, but instead it’s 2 hours of CRAP.
Charlies Angels – Kill them now, put us all out of our misery.
Person of Interest – Still unsure about Jim Caveizel, but like the show…so far…
Grey’s and Private Practice – used to love these shows, but Grey’s is downright boring and Practice is downright awful.
You could tell that HTBAG would be a disaster from the promos alone. Whitney ok but not in my DVR.
Has there ever been a week where the ratings improved on the second week after the premiere? Everything is always lower as audiences are still sampling the new titles and using their DVR on their old favorites. It will be a few weeks before anything high profile is cancelled. If the networks believe in the show and invested a lot in production (like Playboy Club), then they are going to take more time to find or build an audience. Charlie’s Angels second episode was better than the pilot, as was Prime Suspect but both shows need may need time to get a decent rhythm. Remember, the network has already seen several episodes that haven’t aired yet that they can promote if they think they can build on the audience. Nothing high profile is getting cancelled any time soon.
I agree with some of your comments…but Person of Interest is an amazing show. Last nights epi was even better than the Pilot. Sure you have to suspend belief a little but the acting and dialogue make it seem possible. Everyone should be watching it, swear down.
Folks can dislike Whitney all they like but at the end of the day the ratings decide and it’s higher rated than: Community, Parks & Recreation, Up All Night & Free Agents.
Say hello to the new According To Jim cuz Whit ain’t going anyway any time soon.
And to be fair…the show is just as good (ie not good) as The Big Bang Theory and 2 1/2 Men.
What show are you watching? BBT blows doors off the arched, predictable Whitney.
It’s cuz Community and P&R are up against the Big Bang Theory. Its got too much weight. I bet either of those would doble the ratings in the 930-10 slot.
Also, how stupid is Prime Suspect on Thursday Night Comedy Night. At least NBC had a thing before. Now after 2 hours of lighthearted comedy, we come in with murderers??? What were they thinking??? I’d rather watch Perfect Couples and Whitney back to back in that slot.
Quick help for NBC: move Parenthood to Thursday at 10, after the comedies. It could blossom more there and get a boost from the bit of promotion a move would give. That 10pm period looks vulnerable across the networks on Thursday. On Wednesday, move SVU up to 9, and give Prime Suspect a shot after another crime drama, at 10. Again, from a marketing perspective, you can position this as nbc’s crime time.
As for the comedies: crow about Community and Parks all you want, but one is a real niche comedy, with a cultish following (like Scrubs) and the other is just a blatant riff off The Office format, which people caught on to real fast and decided one of those is enough. When 30 Rock comes back, move Whitney after Up All Night on Wednesday. You’re welcome NBC. No consulting fee necessary.
Didn’t NBC used to have comedies between 8 and 10, followed by ER? That worked, didn’t it?
I agree the haters can hate all they want that show aint going nowhere. Community is on life support and shouldn’t had even made it to season 3 with those low numbers. Community’s demos would look a whole lot more better if it actually had some viewers. Without the viewers the show is a lost cause and has destroyed NBC’s lineup with its weak ratings to start the night out.
I am not the male demo but absolutely loved Person Of Interest. Great pace, exciting, and Jim Cavezel surprised me – interesting mix of danger and a droll sense of humor. Never thought of him as carrying a show but the material just fits him. Supporting players all fine.
I never heard of the lead in show tho – didnt watch it.
The comedies all look lame to me especially Whitney but it may be that when things go bad in real life we want our TV to lighten up. May be why those procedurals that were so hot a few years back have cooled down. These days they are just too heavy for working folks. Time to find the new version of Hart to Hart or Scarcrow and Mrs King.
ABC is the only network that has at least one amazing wall to wall night. I watched and loved every single one of the five shows that aired on wed night (and then they had to go and lose all my interest with Shonda rhimes/ reboot no one ever asked for/ kill a lot of the good will Minka Kelly got for coming from Friday Night Lights night)
Every show in the wed lineup was worth the time for me. Though I’m not sure how sustainable Revenge is since she seems to be checking off one person a week off of her not so long list. Are they planning on having five seasons of her battling Madeleine Stowe to the death? Still I’m enjoying it.
The only reason Whitney Cummings has a show is that she is, hands-down, one of the best networkers in the business. I met her years ago in a “general” – she’s smart and attractive for sure, but her stand-up has always been sub-par and she’s known for stealing jokes from other, more promising comedians. That’s why she’s unpopular in the better comedy circles.
All that said, Whitney’s one true gift was her ability to meet and get-to-know everybody, particularly those with clout. She’s taken it as far as she can, but now the rest relies on her talent…which has already been addressed above.
Goes to show you that looks and networking ability can take you far in this business, but at some point, those you know will be watching you from the sidelines as the light shines down on you…and if you don’t have the goods, you’ll fall as fast you rose.
“better comedy circles?”
The only new show worth watching is “Person of Interest.” It is quite good, and the second episode was very solid – content and ratings-wise.
“Prime Suspect doesn’t work, and not just because they have changed it so much from the UK version that there is no connection. Bello is wasted, and the “no respect to the leader but overcoming it” was used by The Closer. So Prime Suspect is trying to be a character show with procedural plots.
“2 Broke Girls” is so unfunny that it seemed it was trying to be cancelled by the studio audience.
“Whitney” is so annoying it’s unwatchable. It doesn’t if she has a boyfriend in the show or not, the problem is that Whitney is in the show. Maybe she could get hit by a train and the boyfriend has to find a new roommate.
Charlie’s Angels is unwatchable. Period. Miserable from beginning to end.
Right u r on all counts.
Prime Suspect – Bello is a fantastic actress but something about the show is very 80s in its feel. Watch Law & Order SVU or CI and those women cops dont have a problem getting cases or w/authority so its hard to buy the sexism angle.
2 Broke Girls – Spraying whipped cream on someone hasnt been funny since the 50s
Whitney – Had to be told who she was. Then didnt care.
CA – And this was a good idea because…..?
Person of Interest – Really got into the 1st episode and the 2nd was better. Love the NYC look. Gritty but at the same time has that dark sense of humor. What Prime Suspect wants to be.