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Last night marked the return of one TV star, Kiefer Sutherland, and the departure of another, Marg Helgenberger. Sutherland’s new Fox series, Touch, drew a 3.9/10 among adults 18-49 and 11.9 million viewers in a preview behind American Idol. It matched the demo rating for the preview of Glee behind Idol in May 2009 despite a much weaker lead-in; American Idol was still in its prime in 2009, and Glee followed the performance finale, while Touch was behind an auditions episode of a declining Idol. Touch‘s retention, 61%, was the highest ever for a drama debut after Idol. Despite not being labeled as a premiere, if treated as one, Touch would rank as the second-highest-rated new drama series this season behind ABC’s Once Upon A Time (4.0, 12.8 million viewers), and as Fox’s highest-rated drama opening in three years. Idol‘s Aspen auditions episode (6.4/18) was down 11% from the fast national for the two-hour season premiere last Wednesday (vs. the 8-9 PM hour only, the drop was 7%). Fox won the night in 18-49 and total viewers.
Helgenberger’s farewell episode as a CSI regular posted a 3.3/9 in 18-49 and 14 million total viewers, up 17% in the demo form last week, buoying the veteran crime drama to season highs in both categories. CSI‘s lead-in, Criminal Minds (3.6/5), also was up from last week, by 13%. It was helped by not facing Idol and an original Modern Family at 9 PM. (ABC aired reruns last night.) NBC’s reconfigured Wednesday 8-9 PM comedy block continued to struggle mightily against Idol. Whitney (1.4/4) was down 13% from last week and Are You There, Chelsea? (1.4/4) was down 18%, both hitting series lows. They barely edged ABC’s comedy repeats in the hour, The Middle (1.5/4) and Suburgatory (1.4/4).
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Touch was really interesting. I will definitely keep watching and am very curious to see how this plays out over the first season. Way too many EPs on the show and no need for that, but it’s a good show in my humble opinion.
I wonder if a network has ever cancelled it’s entire lineup, and exchanged it for a new one in the fall. With the exception of The Voice, and Sunday Night Football, NBC has absolutely nothing worth renewing. Even SVU is tired and dull. Whitney is clearly grating on it’s once small loyal audience’s nerves. Are You There, Vodka… is bound for cancellation. GRIMM is a joke, even ROCK CENTER is irrelevant. It’s quite an amazing thing to witness, a network in such dire straits, arguably unprecedented. SMASH better work, but my instinct says it won’t. It looks like a Lifetime series. Bob has to decide between saving face and going renegade and wiping the slate clean. In fact, that’s a show I would watch. Here’s the pitch: “Celebrated cable network president inherits failing legendary broadcast network, decides to make drastic changes that go against the grain, his job hangs in the balance”. Bob, be a hero. Throw it all away and rebuild. Stop selling garbage.
This post made me laugh as it’s spot-on. The only things I watch on NBC are The Today Show (the first half-hour before I go to work), Sunday Night Football and I actually do enjoy watching The Voice. I tried watching the shows curretly on NBC but it was pure agony. Horrible, horrible, horrible. I had such high hopes for Grimm too; that show has been a major disappointment.
I have to admit – I’ve given up on NBC. I just don’t think they are capable of producing any quality television dramas or comedies. Smash looks interesting but since it’s on NBC, I’m sure it’s going to be crap. I’ll give it a shot of course but I don’t have any expectations of it being any good.
I agree with 90% of this, except Community, Parks & Recs and 30Rock are all fantastic comedies that deserve better ratings. So maybe quality programs would take off on NBC if anyone @$%&ing watched it.
Can someone explain how Idol gets away with pretending these are real auditions when they have film crews shoot the back-story and “waking up and driving to the audition” of the contestants that get the invite to Hollywood?
Do they go back and film them after the contestant makes the cut?
Yes.
Actually, no. They film people with “interesting” stories before the Hollywood auditions. They have to go through two other auditions with producers before they can even get to audition in front of the judges.
Please put Whitney & Chelsea out of their (and the audience’s) misery. I actually believe that NBC is in such a creative rut, why not doing something crazy and pretend you are MTM Studios back in the day – sign good, creative comedy writers, leave them alone and let them do their passion project with little interference – who knows – you might find the next Seinfeld or The Simpsons? You have nothing to lose at this rate – everything is failing as you stay married to the “note everything, make it like everything else on the air and test it, test it, test it!” business model.
Yeah, it sort of feels like Wednesday night is for comedy what Friday night is for drama…a place for NBC to take shows “out back.”
It was idiotic to try and establish a beachhead on Wednesday night against ABC’s comedy line-up AND American Idol. I think Greenblatt realized that keeping Whitney on Thursdays would erode the small but loyal fans of good, well-written shows like Community and 30 Rock. So he paired it up with Chelsea on a night where neither one stood a chance and bolstered the aging Thursday night by adding UP ALL NIGHT. He’s hedging his line-up and cutting his losses.
“Up All Night” is worse than “Whitney” (Whitney at least has had occasional good scenes in between the bad ones; “Up All Night” has become everything that is bland and personality-free about single-camera comedy), but clearly “Whitney” was dragging down Thursdays in a way that worse shows — like “Outsourced” and “Perfect Couples” — were not. A mediocre single-camera show will always get better reviews than a mediocre multi-camera show like “Whitney.”
OTOH, NBC has been letting writers do comedy passion projects with minimal interference for years. They’re “Community” and “30 Rock,” and no one watches them. The trick is to find comedies that are passion projects and have mainstream appeal, which NBC hasn’t been able to do. Instead they clung to the hope that audiences would discover “30 Rock” and make it a hit like “Seinfeld” and “Cheers,” and it doesn’t work that way. NBC needs to make great multi-camera shows, and they can’t.
100% Exactly my thought. Can NBC FINALLY cancel this drivel they call a comedy hour from 8-9 PM ET on Wednesdays? These two shows are atrocious!
There is only one series I watch on TV. I will be adding Touch, to my DVR. A lot going on and I’m looking forward to watching it unfold. GREAT writting, writer’s.
I have an overwhelming fascination with Quantum and Theoretical Physics, meaning I believe in the theories.
It’s great to see Kiefer S, again!!!
Great writing on Touch, I wasn’t sure where it was going, but it got there in grand style. A winner for Fox.
As for Idol, well, I’m finding Tyler, Lopez, and Jackson pretty cool this season so far. No over the top slobbering and cheerleading for the singer’s, yet.
Grimm is a very decent show and has attracted a core loyal audience – I hope it stays around for a few seasons.
Touch sounds that nic cage movie knowing. Oh well hopefully irony does t bungle it like he did heroes.
Maria Bello’s Prime Suspects is a good show on NBC but Grimm had some episodes that were good but as said it can do better. CBS, ABC, USA, and FOX have all the interesting shows.
I’m sorry, but I cannot stand “Touch.”
It breaks one of the most important rules in storytelling: DO NOT WRITE/FEATURE AN UNLIKABLE MAIN CHARACTER. That little kid is annoying as $h!t, just a real brat — and he doesn’t even need to say anything to be unlikable.