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Retooled and returning last night for its third season, ABC’s Body Of Proof (1.2/3) did not offer strong ratings evidence Tuesday. The drama was down a cratering 45% from its Season 2 premiere on September 20, 2011 and tied a series low. It was also down 37% from its Season 2 finale in April. Meanwhile, in another debut, The CW’s Cult (0.3/1) premiered at 9 PM. Opening weak, the new midseason suspense drama attracted about 940,000 viewers and was down from the 1.4/1 who watched the finale of Emily Owens M.D. in the same slot February 5. The second episode of the second season of NBC’s Smash (0.9/2) stumbled again last night, down 25% from its season premiere to a new series low. The Season 2 premiere of the musical drama February 5 was the show’s previous low.
Related: ABC’s ‘Body of Proof’ Looking To Break Retool Curse
Everything was back to normal on TV on Tuesday after the State of the Union took over most of the schedule last week. ABC started its night with a double serving of reality: At 8 PM The Taste (1.6/5) was up 7% from 
last week, and at 9 PM,a one-hour The Bachelor (2.6/7) was down 13% from its Monday airing but even with its two-hour broadcast two weeks ago. NCIS (3.5/10) kicked things off on CBS. The long-running cop show dipped 5% from its last original February 5. NCIS: LA (2.7/7) was also down from its last original two weeks ago, falling 13%. Freshman Vegas (1.5/4) was flat with its last new show February 6, matching a series low. With 15.648 million watching, CBS still won the night in total viewers and adults 18-49.
The usual double shot of Betty White’s Off Their Rockers began primetime on NBC. The 8 PM (1.3/4) airing of the hidden camera series slipped 7% form its last original three weeks ago to tie a series low. On the flip side, the 8:30 PM (1.4/4) broadcast bopped up 8% from last week’s show. Go On (1.1/3) was down 15% from its last original January 29. That’s a new series low for the struggling freshman comedy. NBC’s other freshman, The New Normal (1.0/2), was also down from its last original three weeks ago, dipping 7% to hit a series low.
Fox’s comedy block kicked off with Raising Hope (1.5/5) last night. The show was down 6% from its last new broadcast two weeks ago. A repeat of New Girl (1.3/3) followed with a new New Girl (2.2./6). which fell 5% from its last original February 5. The Mindy Project (1.6/4) was down 16% from its last new show two weeks ago.
The CW had a new Hart Of Dixie (0.5/1) last night, down a tenth from last week.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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“Smash” missed momentum due to State of the Union last week. Plus, the retooling is turning out to have magnified the problems with the show. Last night’s was the most boring episode of the series, and the new cast members are not appealing. They are basically turning Messing and Borle into “Will & Grace 2,” and Huston has been shoved to the sidelines, in favor of temporary addition Hudson. All boyfriends/spouses dumped from last season, are looking better, now.
Here’s a question for NBC: do they think Betty White is their ratings savior? Don’t get me wrong, Bety White is a television treasure, but I don’t see her being the ratings boost NBC needs.
Don’t forget NBC has The Voice, Revolution, and genre hit Grimm. Although on the drama side obvi only having 2 hits is slim-pickings. And i have to say am annoyed Grimm has been off the air for so long. I don’t understand that scheduling at all. I like 1600 Penn but otherwise not crazy for comedies. Smash should be pulled. Body of Proof should be pulled. I like the Fox comedies so far
The real problem is these shows have been off a long time.The audience has left the room. They aren’t coming back & new ones aren’t either. Get used to it. The shows are no better , either one of them. They should have been left alone . Maybe this country needs to do what the Brits do- a show is here for a limited amount of time and move on.
Either that or 13-ep, cable-like seasons that burn straight through with no breaks. Always found it weird that “24″ could blast straight through but “Lost,” “FlashForward,” “V,” “The Event,” etc. had these momentum-killing breaks, then the nets would be wondering where the audience went.
Completely agree with you. Run the shows straight through with no breaks. Then replace those shows with the next batch.
The scheduling at NBC is ridiculous. Makes no sense.
” Always found it weird that “24? could blast straight through but “Lost,” “FlashForward,” “V,” “The Event,” etc. had these momentum-killing breaks, then the nets would be wondering where the audience went.”
Why do nets insist on thinking viewers have endless time and energy to keep track of so many shows? And why do they greenlight premises few series can sustain in the long run?
Body of Proof was excellent last night. It has to hold up to these quality episodes in order to survive until hopefully/maybe DWTS can give it a boost again. But as others have noted, this show has been off the air for far too long. I thought it was cancelled. Glad to see it came back much improved. And then there’s the other problem of Paul Lee bringing in a host of failed programming year after year that fills the 8-10 pm hours on Tuesdays while DWTS is between seasons. He really is an abomination as a programming scheduler.
Yes, Body of Proof was quite good last night… I like the new cast additions, but it will take some time for people to find it after too long a hiatus. I had thought it was cancelled and was surprised to see it on the lineup. There was little publicity for it. I don’t understand… either networks are behind a show or they aren’t. Why broadcast without a decent PR push?
Why the long hiatus’? It’s not in the best interest of anyone…. audiences move on, potential audiences don’t know what to expect… it’s all confusing and one would think, counter intuitive for it’s success, to simply drop a show for a long period then start it back up without warning.
I was looking forward to the return of Body of Proof – until the gore started. What is with these shows? Bones is another one I used to love that is filled with disgusting special effects. Yes, I know it’s not real. That’s not the point. IMO, when the characters and story matter, it’s not necessary to dress them up with blood and guts and maggots. So, I exercise my prerogative to change the channel and will continue to do so.
Totally disagree. Dana way over acted and was so annoying. Think I will give it one more episode before I hang it up.
Dana is too mean. They need to soften her up a bit. It’s a good show and I love the cast. It just needs to lighten up. Great possibilities!!!!!!!!!!
“Maybe this country needs to do what the Brits do- a show is here for a limited amount of time and move on.”
This has been obvious ever since the nets started really losing audience share (ten years plus, correct?) Could they lose any _more_ money at the rate they are going?
Not that it may have a huge impact on the ratings, but CULT was available to watch on Hulu prior to the premiere. So some people presumably saw it there.
The pilot of Emily Owens MD was also available on hulu several weeks ahead of time, yet it still pulled in 1.67 million viewers. In addition, it premiered during a dispute between cablevision and the CW, which left over 3 million customers without access to the CW. I assumed this would have been taken into consideration but they canceled it anyway. I don’t think Cult will make it very far.
Shame more people aren’t watching The New Normal. It’s got a great cast and unique premise. Althought its been hit/miss – as with all Ryan Murphy shows – last night was by far the best episode of the series. The first half was laugh out loud funny, the last half left you crying. Such a real and relatable show, hope NBC gives it a better time slot.
People aren’t watching The New Normal because it’s a niche show but co-stars Ellen Barkin who has made it her life mission to insult and issue incoherent drunken death threats to anyone who disagrees with her on Twitter. If they’d cast some other washed-up old has-been (not exactly a shortage of them in Hollywood) in the role, the show might have more viewers than can fit into the standard elevator.
Or maybe “The New Normal” isn’t as “normal” as you think.
Body of Proof was awful. Not worth the wait.
Greenblatt, who had SMASH at Showtime and brought it with him to NBC, should have made the show as if he were airing it on Showtime. Instead, any edge or originality is watered-down in order to air on NBC. A show like this should have been a yearly event – 13 episodes a year – aired with NO interuptions. I don’t understand why cable gets this and the “real” nets don’t!? Breaking Bad, Mad Men, True Blood, Downton, Homeland…? NBC et al need to rethink the idea that they need 26 eps a year to entertain.
But Greenblatt isn’t actually edgy. He didn’t do anything great at Showtime. He hasn’t done anything good at NBC. He has a lousy sense of humor and can’t pick a comedy to save his life. He mostly gives jobs to all of his friends and the same 10 people over and over again. He’s useless. All he’s ever seemed to care about is Smash. It’s failure is the greatest testament to his lack of taste, trust and talent.
Talk about hitting the nail on the head.
Mr Greenblatt seems to be the poster boy of an out of touch Executive. He does run with a clicky little former Showtime crowd. The emperor has no clothes.
Kevin Reilly from FOX described such executives very well. Heads up their ass.
FOX is airing all 15 episodes of The Following in a row. It will be interesting to see if this changes how they schedule or order series. Also, I believe FOX is toying with the idea of doing some off-cycle development stuff, correct?
Isn’t Kevin Bacon the main reason why this 15 episodes in a row thing is going on for The Following? Because he only wanted to commit to a low number of episodes instead of the usual 22/24? That’s why they’re airing it like that and it works. If it weren’t for Bacon and some other star who didn’t care about the long episode order had been on the show, we would have the breaks.
Both The Cult and The Following are poor excuses for creative expression…they are exploitive at their core. While The Following’ production values are at least good, The Cult, except for moist skin, is weak on every level.
But the important thing to ask ourselves is what is the point of these show? Even Breaking Bad has a message of moral consequence. These shows are low budget horror film material . nothing wrong with that genre because the audience knows what they are paying for. In television, the audience comes for character and story. Not just story.
Ad don’t get me going on The American because who really cares about these people?
DOA speaks for itself.
I could see why NCIS was down State of union address from last week probably don’t realize it was on
BTW NCIS was good last so was NCIS LA
I can’t wait for next week Ducky get kidnapped
Renewing low-rated shows and retooling them doesn’t solve the problem of low ratings.
See: Up All Night, Breaking In, Touch, Body of Proof.
Here’s what’s insulting my middle America brain… I like Go On, just like I enjoyed Samantha Who, Cougar Town a couple more of these well cast and well written comedies that were never given support after their initial launch . Although the ratings don’t back me up, believe me when I say we don’t all watch or want to watch Betty White ( as awesome as she is) , the voice, idol, or the billionth apprentice. Just give good shows the support they need to stand on their own two feet…please!!
“Smash” needs a consistently odious villain a real “Butcher of Broadway” type withering and cruel and venal and vain like J.R. Unrelieved and unrepentant; someone you love to hate. Nobody cares about seeing Michael Reidel and Bernie Telsey and Jordan Roth. America doesn’t care if they’re real and doesn’t know who they are. Nobody was real in “All About Eve.” If you’re gonna do cameos do it with big promote-able celebrities. Not one has turned up in a restaurant scene which is unheard of in the Theater District. Mike Todd “I Love Lucy” stuff. Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, etc. (Gotta jolt people back and keep them.) But no one will do it if the show doesn’t get up to speed (although that may help it to get back up to speed.) But real Broadway problems – housing, booze, drugs, homophobia, sex addiction on the road, juggling jobs, unemployment – with theatrical fantasy providing the antidote to the reality. It can still look smart, pretty, beautiful. The kid from “Newsies” is really appealing. And bring back Dev (if possible.) With McPhee and Hudson perceived as just too “American Idol” which itself is not what it used to be but maintains on hit status momentum at this point. You watch the show and you’re reminded of “A.I.” which, as the ratings exhibit, everybody’s kind of bored with. Try to split it up the middle because therein lies the chase.
The retooling didn’t work for Body of Proof. It was awful. Zero chemistry with Mark Valley. I miss Peter. And then with such a weak story. I’m afraid it’ll drop fruther next week.
I stopped watching Smash last season around episode 5 and was thinking of checking the new version out but it seems it’s not really worth it. Oh, well i’ve nothing to do now, let me check it out.
Her character in Body of Proof is always so mean and nasty. Over time it wears you down to the point where the show is not enjoyable to watch. Change her personality and you will improve the ratings. People quickly tire of mean spirited and argumentative characters
Hey, in the old days, series had 39 episodes a year and they were generally terrific.
Of course, in the old days, the industry was run by grown-ups.
Very true about Greenblatt and his army at NBC favoring friends. Kate Walsh is a supporter of Jen Salke’s supported charity Operation Smile (great cause btw), however she ends up getting a comedy deal last fall. Really?
And the same Showtime ladies who created and ran those dark shows are now boarding NBC’s comedies. See: Linda Wallem & Darlene Hunt. Greenblatt, Salke and Tal Rabinowitz were very high on Go On & New Normal (friends with Perry & Ryan Murphy, of course), but their pet projects are performing the same if not worse than Whitney.
With all these NBC flops, they have to renew Whitney at this point right? I don’t really like the changes they made to Whitney this season, but it’s still better than all of NBC’s other crappy shows. I love you Whitney, and I mean it.
What the hell do these networks expect to happen when programs are off the air for so long. Either film more episodes or have shorter seasons-one or the other. People forget about programs when they don’t air for quite some time.Hiatus after hiatus is one of the primary reasons network shows are dying. Not to mention the inconsistent scheduling because of so few episodes over such a long tv season. Nowadays,you gotta be a fuckin’ magician to figure out when the next new episode of your favorite show will be on
So true.
“Nowadays,you gotta be a fuckin’ magician to figure out when the next new episode of your favorite show will be on.”
Heh. And it’s a hella lot easier just to go get online and find whatever you want in a snap.
The thing about celebrity cameos on “Smash” is it would give people who don’t want to do television a no-big-deal opportunity to dip their toe in the water – like Dustin Hoffman for instance. It’s no-cost visibility for them yet completely appropriate. Visibility is what reminds people you’re out there. The Anjelica Huston character would know all these people; they would be her peers, colleagues, contemporaries. Plus it could be fun; like a game that people might tune in to see; where they might turn up, etc., and who. Like Lucy at the Brown Derby or in the comissary. Plus you might be able to plug a real Broadway show now and then.
Yep. Get movie stars like DiCaprio and Nicholson who don’t do the television talk show circuit and you’re on a roll.
…a la William Holden on “Lucy” you mean…good luck pulling that off…or Frank Sinatra in “80 Days”…that’ll be the day…maybe they can dig up j. wayne…
OH REALLY!!!!????? The show that got its initial ratings because of The Voice got pushed all the way to 2013 for no reason without The Voice, debuted low two weeks ago, SKIPPED A WEEK! and came back had low ratings AGAIN? HUGE SURPRISE NBC! Why didn’t this show come back in september instead of Revolution and premiere that one right now without this long break that will surely hurt it whenever that show comes back.
In other news….Bring back Emily Owens!!!!! Who cares about Cult? I’m glad it debuted low, that will show CW that Emily should’ve stayed.
The big hits that are on now – when they go – that will be it for any semblance of traditional network TV. Everybody’s in denial.
Wow, both SMASH and BODY OF PROOF had me wonder what exactly the supposed improvements are?
SMASH – Same mistakes with different characters plus now the musical numbers suck. Felt extremely ADD and unfocused, lacked the energy and fun of season 1. The best part was the intro of Daniel Sunjata’s character. Loved the dynamic with Julia and was enlightened by his reasoning, even though the resulting scene was as boring as that new actor.
Ivy spent all her time fretting about her audition – and then we don’t get to see it?!? Instead we’re TOLD she got the job and that’s it. Valuable screen time was wasted on the gueststar, whose storyline didn’t fit in. There was a lot of theoretical talk that wasn’t followed up by anything. Are we supposed to take notes?
I liked the scene where Jimmy and Kyle were searching for a certain rewrite of a scene. But then this storyline went too far off and hinted at more backstory to come. As if SMASH was in dire need of more storylines at this point. It’s all over the place.
Huston had absolutely nothing interesting to do and both lover and ex-hubs were MIA. Such a shame. Overall I was very disappointed as I can’t point to one aspect that seems improved. As I said before, baby gone with the bathwater. A little tweaking and guidance would have sufficed. The show seems to be in way less capable hands now. And yes, I do miss Ellis and hope he pops up agin.
BODY OF PROOF – Exposition, exposition and let us TELL you (while you are washing the dishes or whatev. We can do radio!)… Dear God. First they go on and on about Peter so as to remind the audience that they hate this char being killed off. In comes Tommy (Mark Valley! Cool!) and what do they do with him? There’s no tension, subtext, drama, moments of discovery for the viewer. Nothing. Tommy apparently is the kind of guy who spills the beans to his lame new rookie partner. All the who, the where, the why. And Megan calls him a manchild because we’ve heard this only a gazillion times in the last decade. Megan still walks around overdressed and in her moron-heels (HOUSE was right!) and the lab rats are wasted. Megan doesn’t make much sense as a character. Does anyone really care that her daughter got kidnapped?
Apropos kidnapping – what’s up with all the abductions? Is it bore-us-to-death-with-the-same-thing time of the season again? Castle, CSI:NY, Body of Proof, White Collar, The Following…
The only good parts of SMASH last night were when Sexy Rexy, Daniel Sunjata was on the screen. Otherwise, I flipped whenever that McPhee Chick was on. She’s horrible AND she’s NO Marilyn. That Megan Hilty is actually really talented (Saw her on a Live at The Met special on PBS, over the holidays) AND Much more Marilyn-like. Despite being Greenblatt’s pet project, I predict this stinker will be put out to pasture by the end of this season. It’s so boring and has no believable drama to speak of. …Also predict BOP will be axed after this season. Not since China Beach has Delaney been cast in a part that makes her seem likeable or accessible to the audience. Although, she was great in her story arc on Desperate Housewives. And from the promos of her show, it simply looks boring.