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RATINGS: The Case Of Disappearing Live Nielsen Viewers
CBS’ Monday lineup recovered nicely from the head-scratching ratings losses last Monday. How I Met Your Mother (3.8/10) was up 12%, 2 Broke Girls (4.0/10) and Two And A Half Men (4.1/10) were both up 5%. Mike & Molly (3.4/8) was even, while Hawaii Five-0 (2.8/7) was up 4%. There was good news and not-so-good news for NBC: It won the night in 18-49 (4.6/11) and total viewers (12.6 million), and The Voice (5.8/14) was down only a tenth from its fast national last week and up 23% from the same episode last year to rank as a dominant No. 1 for the night in all key measures. But at 10 PM, Smash (2.3/6) was down 18% from last week. While 2.3 is still a respectable demo rating at 10 PM, the drops of 26% last week and 18% this week indicate that the musical dramedy might still have ways to go before it bottoms out. Even worse, it dropped a big 26% from the 10 PM to the 10:30 PM half-hour. Smash lost the 10 PM demo race for the first time since its launch to Hawaii Five-0. ABC’s The Bachelor (2.5/6) held steady for a third consecutive week, while Castle (2.1/5) inched up a tenth. Fox’s House (2.3/6) and Alcatraz (1.8/4) were both down another tenth from last week for a fresh season/series low. Alcatraz has now been slipping steadily since its launch as it still searches for the bottom. The CW’s Gossip Girl and Hart Of Dixie were steady.
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I said it before & say it again, “Smash” will crash. A waste of time and money.
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, anyone?
“Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, anyone?”
That’s a _very_ good comparison. Both shows have the same problems: badly-handled, unconvincing premises; unbelievably-drawn settings; off casting in crucial roles…and characters it’s impossible to care about. And they both cost the earth…:)
Sorry, but Debra Messing is almost unwatchable. She has her gay chops down don’t we all know (thank you W and Grace) but pouty mouth and pouty hubby does not an adoption subplot make. All kinds of red flags billowing in gale force winds here.
Really bad about Smash, but NBC can still be happy with The Voice, it is working great for them. CBS comedies still strong, but as always Hawaii 50 drops at 10 pm, CSI Miami was stronger there, a 3.5 demo two years ago, maybe they should move it back there.
I never thought I would see NBC number One on Monday nights.
NBC wasn’t anywhere near number one at ten though, HFO was. As it has been all season bar two weeks. CSI Miami suffered a huge drop off after TBBT and hence was moved. HFO drops around .3 to .6 most weeks, totally in line for a ten pm show. It also is the best performing ten pm show on any network for the season overall, something that CSI Miami never acheived.
You can’t compare past demo numbers from years with overall higher numbers. You can only compare relative performance. HFO is doing better than CSI miami did on that score.
what was up with the barf and vomit in your face on two and a half men ? please just leave it to the imagination,
I wanted to give it a chance but now, no way,
sheen was right, it now sucks,
Haha look @ Gossip Girl’s ratings! It needs to be cancelled at the end of the season. Of course, that won’t happen because The CW is stupid and will rather cancel Nikita or Supernatural before those so-called “edgy” shows like GG, 90210, ANTM,…
Ah how i miss the good old days of The WB and UPN with Gilmore Girls, Star Trek, Buffy, Veronica Mars, Everwood, Felicity,…
“Smash”: Dead-show walking.
Rule #1: You cannot, can not, buy a hit. (And you can’t count on a lead-in. Just see the massive drop from “The Voice” at 8 to “Smash” at 10)
Rule #2: Hits on TV are almost always happy accidents: “CSI,” “Cheers,” “Friends,” “NYPD Blue,” etc.
Rule #3: While the business seems endlessly fascinating to people in the business, to outsiders, it’s not. (Quick: Name me a film or TV show about show business, set in the business that has been a hit in the last 20 years.)
Moulin Rouge!, Get Shorty, Tropic Thunder, Entourage
Entourage.
The exception being shows aimed at the preteen audience. Almost all of the Disney Channel “orginal” programming has a show business theme, ie. Hannah Montana and all the Montana wantabees.
30 Rock.
There is a world of difference between a hit with the critics, and a hit in the ratings.
30 Rock is NOT a hit. If it had come out during the NBC heyday, it wouldve been cancelled in the first season.
30 Rock has won numerous Emmys for acting, series, writing and directing and it’s in the middle of its sixth year of production *and* its reruns are now airing in syndication. It’s a hit in ALL senses of the term.
Besides Moulin Rouge!, Get Shorty and other movies mentioned above, I’ll add to the list these movies (and a couple of TV shows) that are behind-the-scenes looks at the making of a TV series or type of show, movies (even porn), rock bands, musicians and concerts and live theater (whether drama, comedy, musical or ballet) that were hits, cult hits, awards bait and/or critics’ darlings that are now part of the pop culture vocabulary:
* Adaptation
* Almost Famous
* Anchorman — which was about the artifice of news programming
* Black Swan
* The Bodyguard — yes, it sucked, but it was released in 1992 and it wasn’t just a hit, it was a phenomenal hit worldwide
* Boogie Nights
* Dawson’s Creek — its title character was an aspiring filmmaker whose aspirations filtered through the entire series and were IMO the __only__ compelling aspects of its fifth and sixth seasons
* The Doors
* Hedwig and the Angry Inch — a cult hit
* NewsRadio
* Ray
* Shakespeare In Love
* Walk the Line
* Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries — especially Waiting For Guffman and A Mighty Wind (low-budget cult hits)
Steven Spielberg/DreamWorks and Josh Schwartz both need to go to TV jail for a while. Their many respective shows cost a fortune to launch and NEVER break through, despite having their pick of talent, writers, etc.
It’s not Spielberg, he has very little to do with the TV side. The River and now Smash.
It’s Justin and Daryl, who have great taste in material and are super smart guys.
But it’s not their fault either, they are just giving the networks what they want. It’s the writers, same old, linear stuff. No one to cheer for, nothing really groundbreaking about either show.
Seen it all before.
Alcatraz is no surprise. This is what happens when you hire producers who ran their own series into the ground.
Have to agree with you Peter, I also miss those days. Back in the UPN/WB days-a lot of the programs were more entertaining and much more fun to watch. Back then,I actually looked forward to watching tv as opposed to nowadays on most nights. So many things on tv have changed-and-not for the better. This glut of reality shows is really quite depressing at times. The “networks” cancel the few good programs,and,seem to keep the same crap on year after year. Yes,we have had so many breakthroughs on tv viewing technology such as big,flat,widescreen tvs,but,that is only good if you find something worth watching. I look at it this way: I’d rather watch a brilliant program on a 13 inch tv-than-watch a piece of crap tv show on a 50inch screen-because watching an awful program on a big screen doesn’t mask the fact of how horrible it is. One more thing: if Terra Nova,and,or Alcatraz are not renewed,and, with House ending its’ run-what will Fox be airing Monday nights? I mean-I know they have Touch-but- what else will air besides that? Just curious. Thank you.
I gave Smash a try since its debut – and now I’m just bored with it. It’s too bad as I really wanted to like it. Actually, I’m pretty bored by the majority of shows on broadcast television, the only two exceptions being Modern Family and Revenge.
We’re just weeks away from “a very special ‘Smash’.”
“In a shocking ending you won’t want to miss. Tonight at 10. Only on NBC. The Biggest Loser network.”
One of the leads will either:
1) Brush jete into the path of an uptown 6 Train.
2) Be abducted by aliens that look like the ones in “Close Encounters” or
3) Leave New York City to go and compete on a reality singing show shot in Los Angeles.
Of all things, I never thought Smash would be as dull and tedius as it is. There are some problem characters here too, including Katherine McPhee’s husband who is written as a cliche’ and is flat out annoying. McPhee herself fails to generate much excitement.
How many times is Angelica Houston going to throw a manhattan in her soon to be exe’s face? This not good stuff.
The writing on Smash is so by-the-numbers. Everyone’s having or has had an affair. Gasp. The assistant who’s All About Eve. The poor waitress who has all the talent, but can’t get a break. Seriously, my 15-year-old daughter can come up with better plot lines. Someone in this comments section said it best, “you can’t buy a hit”. That’s right, you actually have to be good and creative and think a little outside the box. While Glee has slid since it’s premiere, they at least started off with something that was more original and entertaining. This is just downright tedious. And unbelievably bad dialogue! If this is the glimpse America is getting into the great white way, then Broadway is doomed for middle America.
Exactly! The dialogue is awful, run of the mill, like a daytime soap opera, not even a smattering of funny or clever lines. I’m not rooting for any character, so why watch? No wonder I forgot it was on this past Monday. I watched it On Demand, and I’m now done with it.
The writer/creator Theresa Rebeck was “Nominated for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play ‘Omnium Gatherum’” ~IMDB
She wrote episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. That makes sense. Not.
The other writer of this week’s show, Scott Burkhardt, wrote a few low budget shorts, most or all comedy, not much of a track record to be hired for Smash, which needs some comedic moments.
SMASH isn’t failing because it’s a niche show or too smart for broadcast television, it’s failing because it’s awful. The writing is just terrible. Cliché after cliché. Dialogue sucks. Characters are two dimensional and extremely unlikeable. And the plotting is simultaneously arduous and predictable. And all this from someone who wanted to like it.
I think it’ll bottom out around a 1.3 – 1.5.
You are 100% correct, bad bad writing.
Nice directing and editing though, but even that cannot save Smash….
Someone was trying to be “cutesy” with the drink-in-the-face bit, trying to start a running gag. At least they got the ‘gag’ part right.
Yeah I have to agree with everyone. Smash is boring. It looks like an expensive basic cable TV movie. I mean how could something that is shot largely on location look and feel so canned. Debra Messing’s character is even more annoying and less relatable than latter day Grace Adler, non of the relationships feel real or honest and I’m sorry but a press secretary for the city of New York who says “Shedule?” Never gonna happen. The least you can do if you’re gonna hire a Brit, is to have him play a part that he could conceivably be in real life.
The whole thing feels like someone’s really hackneyed half-baked fantasy of showbiz. People might want to watch something about showbiz but it has to be interesting. I mean this was billed as Glee for adults and it is turning out to be as trite as every episode of Glee after season 1 and we’re only four episodes in.
Bottom line, no one is likable which I guess they don’t have to be but no one is compelling either… which is unforgivable.
And I had such high hopes for it… but I won’t miss it if it were canceled.
NBC promoted the hell out of this show and it’s just another testament to how truly bad this season has been for this network, bottoming out the way they have and can they go any lower? Wow, did Zucker and his goone-squad ruin this network for the long haul. NBC needs to be patient with Smash for at least another month just to see what kind of traction it can maintain, but they need to start pumping out some more marketing for the show or change it up a little bit too. Anything to help one of these shows succeed at this network.
Does Theresa Rebeck have a twin? If not, it’s impossible to explain how she could have written the characters and dialogue in Broadway’s terrifically smart-assed “Seminar” and the dreadful stuff that’s filling up “Smash”. People complain that Julian Fellowes stole many elements of “Downton Abbey” from other movies and TV shows. But he’s done it with panache. Even “Revenge” is better. “Smash” is just derivative without any redeeming values.
30 Rock isn’t a hit? Gosh I hope their SYNDICATION checks clear.