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UPDATED: NFL football was a major factor in primetime last night as it handed NBC a nightly ratings win, secured Fox’s second place via an overrun and wrecked havoc in CBS’ primetime lineup because of local NFL overruns in 10% of the country, including top markets like New York and Philadelphia.
ABC, the only network that does not carry professional football, got good ratings news about newcomer Pan Am and bad news about veterans Desperate Housewives and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Pan Am (3.1/8 in adults 18-49, 10.9 million) held onto 100% of its Desperate Housewives demo lead-in and added 1.1 million viewers. Pan Am, which gives ABC a second promising new drama this season along with Revenge, which opened to a 3.3/9 on Wednesday, became the first program to build on Desperate Housewives in total viewers since May 2006 when Grey’s Anatomy aired in the Sunday 10 PM slot. Of course, Desperate Housewives is not the ratings juggernaut it once was. The dramedy’s final season opened with a 3.1/7 and 9.8 million viewers last night. That was down 28% from last season’s debut and the series’ lowest rated premiere ever. Its lead-in, back-to-back episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (1.3/4, 2.3/6) were down 13% and 8%, respectively, from last season despite featuring First Lady Michelle Obama.
Following a highly-rated football overrun, Fox’s veteran The Simpsons (3.8/10) was up 3% from last fall’s debut but back then, Fox’s animated lineup did not have a big lead-in from a football overrun on the opening Sunday of the season. (Under their agreements with the NFL, CBS and Fox alternate in carrying the late Sunday game.) The Cleveland Show (3.1/7) was even with its premiere last fall, a half-hour Family Guy (4.1/9) was down 9% from last year, when its season opener was hourlong, and American Dad (3.0/7) was also flat with its debut last season, which was delayed by a week. Family Guy and The Simpsons finished the night as the top 2 non-sports programs of the night in 18-49.
NBC wrapped a mostly disappointing premiere week with a routine Sunday victory, courtesy of Sunday Night Football. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 23-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts, which was missing star quarterback Peyton Manning, drew a 13.2 overnight rating/21 share, up 2% over last year’s Week 3 game (Jets-Dolphins, 13.0/21). It marks Sunday Night Football’s best overnight rating in the six years on the opening Sunday of the TV season. But in the less reliable fast nationals, the game’s 7.2/17 rating in 18-49 was down 22% vs. the fast national result of the corresponding game last fall. NBC is projected to win Sunday night in total viewers and adults 18-49.
Because of the football overrun in 10% of the country where the start of CBS’ primetime was pushed, CBS’ fast nationals are approximate. The season premiere of 60 Minutes (2.6/7) now runs down 16% vs. last September. The Amazing Race (3.0/7) is currently down 21%, the time slot premiere of The Good Wife (2.2/5) is down 12% from its last season opener on Tuesday and CSI: Miami (2.2/5) is down 31%
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Yes, but football could not compare with Alicia and Will on The Good Wife. Holy smokes – that was an amazing episode of television. Bravo to the real kings of television: The Kings!
Wow. I mean — wow. Where to begin? Best not to…
I’m a longtime TGW watcher, but this episode was weak. The case Alicia was defending was a nonstarter (whenever a script drags in video-game footage as a clue, it’s usually a lame script). As well, I really think the show has shot itself in the foot by making her character just as much of a cheater as the people she has to deal with. Alicia is supposed to be the moral center/rooting interest of TGW, but if she becomes as corrupt/compromised as everyone else, who’s to care about?
Alicia & Will are epic! Seriously that show is so good it’s almost unbelievable. Best hour of television. And that steamy scene, never seen anything like it before in a long time. Talk about 2 characters having the best chemistry in a show.
PAN-AM: UNINSPIRED AND BORING. Pretty to look at, but like Playboy Club, acting and story left much to be desired. will not tune in next week.
Pan Am was a very good period drama for network tv and here’s why. It was inspiring. Period pieces can resonate with a network tv audience if they have a fun positive energy to them. That’s what Pan Am has in common with American Dreams and The 60s. All 3 of these shows take the 1960s and show them being fun and inspiring. An inspiring show does not make it bad. There was something wholesome and inspiring about this pilot because at least the stewardesses get to see the world. The Playboy Club is a tougher sell because the show didn’t do a good job of selling the concept as inspiring to women. Also, the writing and acting were junk. At least Pan Am feels like it’s about something interesting. Pan Am needs to figure out a balance between stories on the plane and the trips these stewardesses will take.
I agree with all you say!
I agree with you too Jack. I loved it!
My industry spouse was ridiculing the show because it’s not Mad Men, but I took a chance and let my 9-year-old watch a few minutes before she went to bed. She was mesmerized, and anything that she shouldn’t have seen flew over her head.
Thoughts:
- What I loved was the period details. In general, it seems as if Pan-Am tries to get outside more than Mad Men, and it’s showing all sorts of stuff I really want to look like. I found myself getting annoyed when the show tried to put in more plot and characterization and thinking, “Show more of the airport!” and “Show more of the magazine covers!!!!”
- To me, the acting looked great.
- The writing was more head-on and not as subtle or as good overall as on Mad Men, but it was pretty good. One problem: it felt as if the people doing the show tried a little too hard to “rip plot lines from the headlines.” But, on the other hand: maybe the Bay of Pigs really did happen the week the route shown in the show started up. If the writers rip ideas from the headlines, I think it would add a lot to the credibility if the producers could somehow show snippets from the real ABC news show about events that really did affect Pan-Am, to emphasize that they’re just reporting what happened, not making it up. Otherwise: I’d honestly rather mellower, less high-stakes than more. I have enough tension in my life without having to feel tense about what’s on the screen.
The problem is The Playboy Club was like a high-end Hooters for its era with better costumes and actually pretty stringent policies in protecting the bunnies. That in itself is a tough sell as it is not very glamorous.
Advertising, like in Mad Men, was a very glamorous job and there were episodes just dedicated to the employees working on an idea that showed its rough edges in addition to its perks. Pan-Am centers around traveling with women not feeling obligated to a family or a spouse (though looking around was not frowned upon) and entering the workforce that involves seeing the world. You can see the idealism these ladies have (not quite hitting the second-wave feminism as of yet but perhaps budding) and it is very palpable. I do hope they do critique just how tough their job is though beyond seeing an ex who was not being completely honest because I think the group of actresses on the show are capable of running with that material.
I REALLY LIKED PAN AM, HAS POTENTIAL TO BE A BIG HIT.LOVED THE CAST.
I’ve never missed an episode of Desperate Housewives but it really has been terrible in the last couple of years. Last night’s premiere episode was no exception. Lazy writing. Lazy acting. I couldn’t care less about the characters anymore (and Felicity Huffman’s emasculating shrew would be beaten to death in real life) but I’m only sticking around because it’s the final season.
Pan Am looked great but I watched it for Christina Ricci and she was barely in the premiere. WTF? Also, a half hour into the episode, I still had no idea what the show was supposed to be about other than the vague thing about stewardesses and pilots. The only interesting character on that show is the French chick. Nice to see Kelli Garner finally got the gap between her teeth fixed. Won’t be bothering to watch it next week.
Pan Am’s Kelli Garner is voluptuous, gorgeous, sexy and beautiful. I love her. She’s amazing. That woman is incredible. She’s a very talented actress. It’s an exquisite performance by her, just wonderful.
I wanted to fall in love with “Pan Am,” but did not. Yes, it’s beautiful to look at, but where “Mad Men” creates a period look that doesn’t distract from the script, “Pan Am” comes across as a bit too precious and self-aware. The set design is the main character, and while it brings back fond memories to many of us who lived through the period, it is not an aspect that will encourage me to visit weekly. The characters are less than intriguing, and the immediate jump into the “spy” subplot is unfortunate. The male actors, in particular, are week, and frankly, I could not care less what happens in the lives of these people. Yes, I’ll watch next week, but I am much less excited, after having seen the pilot.
Yeah, the spy thing on Pan Am and the Mob Boss murder on Playboy Club. With both shows consciously ripping off Mad Men what possessed them that dumbing them down with cliche TV plot points would somehow improve on the formula? Bad moves.
I couldn’t warm up completely to the look of the show, because it came across as kind of cold – maybe it is digital where in Mad Man, it is all sets? I’m not sure. I liked it though, mainly because the cast is really good. Not sure about the spy stuff, and the bay of pigs, etc. they should figure out what type of show they want to be. Also, the music was uninspiring, sounds like the same score from The West Wing, just a little bit worse.
Yeah, and why can’t period pieces fully invest in the hairstyles? In Mad Men, I buy that the characters are from the past. The hairstyle of the pilot in Pan Am – too contemporary & styled.
Where is Pan Am going to go, series wise?
Person of Interest is still the best of all the new pilots I’ve seen.
PAN AM looked just beautiful — my TV set glowed for an hour after it ended — but they are going to have to come up with actual storylines to hold the audience because the budget won’t support that much CGI week after week.
I give Ep 1 a pass because they are introducing the look and feel and throwing every possible dollar at production design and introducing the players, but let’s see how Ep 5 goes.
I loved seeing the Pan Am Worldport at JFK (Idlewild) in all its glory though. In Delta’s hands, today, that same terminal is a reeking shithole.
I disagree about POF being the best o’ the bunch… what a lazy piece of EVERYTHING. For a feature writer to write something like that, and for them to actually film it, shows Chris Nolan possesses most of the brains in the family.
Jack, I couldn’t disagree more. What is “inspiring” about a bunch of pickpocketing stewardesses who sleep with married men and get krept on by skeevie pilots?! I don’t get it. Oh, and one of the stewardesses is a spy involved in international espionage?!?)? Huh?? Sounds like a network exec’s idea to me. I don’t think Pan Am knows what it’s about. At the end of the day I just thought it was boring and completely UN-inspiring.
Pan Am was pretty compliant with the US government to assist them in spy/intelligence matters. You act like spying is this terrible thing when the character is doing it for her country, which was at the time one of the bravest things one could do.
Yeah the pilot was at times a little too all-encompassing but I do find the actresses charming and its idea of female empowerment and idealism entering a workforce that had a lot of perks seemed genuine, especially compared to The Playboy Club.
In a weak premiere year, this definitely was watchable escapism than an slow-burning nuanced critique of an era like Mad Men. Some people hoping for the network’s answer to Mad Men might not like it but I liked that it was not a copy-cat and had its own identity. I hate TV doppelgangers.
What is inspiring is them wanting to travel and see he world.
Pan Am was pretty but boring. Ick.
Yep. I don’t think I’ll be watching again.
It’s a show about flight attendants. I’m sorry, but OBVIOUSLY it’s going to be boring!
Yeah, PAN AM left me surprisingly cold–and I really wanted to like it. Maybe it needed a slower rollout for us to get to know the characters (which is what hooked me onto MAD MEN.) As it stands, it’s got too many plotlines and the male leads are right weak. It seems to be nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, not a well-developed drama.
And REVENGE and 2 BROKE GIRLS are the best pilots I’ve seen thus far–and I sure wasn’t expecting REVENGE to be good.
The ratings for Good Wife and Desperate will both be down this season because they are splitting the female audience. The numbers will probably bounce back and forth between the two as the audience difference is less than a million. Once Desperate is done, The good wife will bounce back.
D Housewives had what is the FUNNIEST Laugh out loud episode it has ever had — Marcia cross and eva longoria driving the stick shift car — hilarious. Good wife is amazing as well — so glad that will and alicia are together.
Pan am was better than i thought, i know they were talking about the two different storylines — the espionage or the romance, i feel like the espionage got in the way a bit.
Remember when Chicago Hope and ER premiered the same year and the audience clearly chose the winner of the “doctor’s show”, I wonder if “Playboy and Pan Am” are too close in tone and feel for both to be successful. Chicago hope had a good run but it never lived up to the success of ER. I accidentally watched the rebroadcast of “Playboy” on Bravo and it was very watchable as far as the premier ep. of a drama goes. I like the girl that became the “Lead Bunny” a lot.
Disagree with most of the above. Pan Am a good show, and yes, as the above poster points out, it was inspiring. Which is something all you bitter, jaded nitpickers need in 2011. The spy subplot I thought was good. It was based on real-life, you know. Some stewardesses DID work for the CIA. Plus it *was* the era of James Bond, Matt Helm, Our Man Flint, Man From U.N.C.L.E., etc.
Also liked the Bay of Pigs flashback sequence. So not only were they working for Pan Am, they were part of actual history. Cool.
Set design was great. Very ambitious for TV, especially the JFK set. Ricci was miscast, though. She doesn’t scream ’60s to me. And they got the hair wrong on the whole cast.
And where was the SMOKING?
Playboy Club was just boring.
Agree with Brisbane that Person of Interest was the best new show I’ve seen so far. Hi-tech, post-9/11 version of The Equalizer (think about it). High concept, great action. Cavieziel’s the best TV badass since Jack Bauer. and Natalie Zea’s having a great year between this and Justified.
Extend some scenes, put some deleted scenes back in, and it would have been box-office quality. It was just that good.
Very disappointed with The Good Wife’s season premier. Why do they feel that they have to sex-up Alicia’s character to something she truly is not? Alicia is the attractive, brainy woman (not girl) next door that we would want to be our lawyer, not a hot divorcing sexual specimen. I will agree that THE scene was very hot and bible-thumping grannies were probably switching off their RCA’s and Zenith TV sets all over the country, but it could of stood alone without the new hair, shorter skirts and low-cut tops. The writing for the main plot was rushed and lazy: All of the sudden without any prior clues or set-ups they nail the kid in a gay bar using that very trite old gay cover-up motive. And what’s with the DA’s new hot blonde investigator giving Kalinda a little girl-on-girl rivalry? The show seems to have forgotten what made it great: the foundation of rock solid legal cat-and-mouse writing along with the human drama we can all relate to or fantasize about. Piling on the hot, steamy, young flesh will only serve to shorten its lifespan and alienate its core audience.
“Pan Am” has the potential to become a hit………..but not until after the NFL season ends.
Until then, the show’s best hope is to stay number-two in it’s timeslot.
Perhaps the reason Extreme Makeover had a low start wasn’t despite Michelle Obama, but BECAUSE of her. I usually watch the show, but when I saw that she was going to be on, I refused to watch. She is not an endearing figure, despite the efforts of the media to fix that, and more people probably tuned OUT then tuned IN precisely because of her.
I, am a 33 year international flight attendant. So, much more potential and felt like Desperate Writer’s. The, writer, need to stop the loud music..too much. Desperate Housewives, could carry the last type of production, as almost everyone can relate to the bitty parts and pieces presented each week and home-life.
However, does anyone realize, the Christina Ricci, was with a starving artist, called the flight attendant scholarship. That, Bridgette, was having an affair with a pilot, involved in government espionage/spy visa/passport ring. The wedding scene, a little off, you just do not get on a major international airline like Pan Am, Twa, or Northwest Orient Airlines because your sister fly’s. Becoming an international flight involves much more requirements. Language of destination, and starting on reserve not on a magazine cover. The flight attendant and passenger, loved her. The wife, that is. I, would never attempt that and majority of us do not. However, it happens and the drawing from the child drew a picture of how we reach out to make an unforgettable experience, for the children. Going on a 6 day..no weigh in, no girdle but felt the blessing of having the most desireable job in the world.
P.S. I, am the last episode, yes, I married the pilot …. he retire’s and I still fly. Divorced, 6 months ago. Bye-bye now..have a good day..ex-pilot wife.
Pan Am – the actual male pilot was the worst and weakest link. He looked as though he was clueless as to what to do in the cockpit. It really needs someone stronger, more authentic, the guy doesn’t look like he’s out of that period..totally mis cast. Wot was with the ill fitting watch on his right wrist? He’s too young and the story line wasn’t strong enough. I don’t think back in the day they would have the guy that sat in the cockpit who looked like he may be from India, sitting there nor looking like that.
It would make it more credible if the guys were older, ok to have young girls, but not the guys, felt like 90210
I hope they recast the male pilot..the girls did a great job both acting wise and looking the part.
Won’t tune in again if it’s not recast