On this Tuesday, October 8th: Brief Show Rankings, The ABC Tuesday Comedy collapse, The Flash goes big for CW, and other news.

BRIEF SHOW RANKINGS

• Top 5 Rated Tuesday Shows: NCIS (CBS), The Voice (NBC), NCIS: New Orleans (CBS), Chicago Fire (NBC), The Flash (CW)
• Bottom 2 Rated Tuesday Shows: Mindy Project (FOX), Manhattan Love Story (ABC)

ABC’S SELFIE & MANHATTAN LOVE STORY ARE PRETTY MUCH OUT THE DOOR

I saw this news bulletin this morning and I just started laughing. I couldn’t believe this was actually being said, considering how low their ratings are.

Reading my daily trades, I came across a press release about Selfie and Manhattan Love Story, both on Tuesdays at 8P and 8:30P, respectively. Granted, they’re on a very difficult time slot [The Voice (NBC) & NCIS (CBS) both compete at 8p]. But these pilot series are not doing well, Selfie yesterday got a 1.1 rating, with Manhattan Love Story getting a dismal .9 rating. These are pretty bad ratings for a 2nd showing. 

But that’s not what made me laugh. ABC sent a press release stating this sad, but true fact: Selfie and Manhattan Love Story are Tuesday’s most watched comedies. And I’m like…say whhhhhhhaaatttt?

But it’s true! Shocking, right? Granted, there are only two other comedies to compete with: FOX’s New Girl & The Mindy Project. Technically, New Girl was the highest rated comedy of that night at 1.3, with Selfie at 1.1, Mindy with 1.0, and Manhattan at .9. But if you go purely on viewers, both Selfie (3.9 million viewers) and Manhattan (3.2 mill) out-viewed New Girl (2.6 mill) & Mindy (2.1 mil). And the capper? ABC’s comedies out-viewed FOX’s comedies last week too.

And what does this all mean?

Nothing. Which is why I’m laughing. I don’t think this saves the show, but perhaps a save-of-face for advertisers who paid so much to have their ads on the programs and may now be regretting it. This kind of gives off a glimmer of hope. Or perhaps there’s information I’m not accessible to, such as perhaps both ABC shows are high in affluent viewers.

But I don’t think it matters. Next week, NBC will have their new comedy Marry Me and sophomore year for About A Boy begin their runs, both favored critically higher than the two on ABC. I’m sure ABC may wait for NBC’s comedies to premiere before they cut the shows off. But I wouldn’t. Only 1, a max of 2 shows ever make it past their initial season, and looking at ABC’s other shows (namely Black-ish and How To Get Away with Murder), both these comedies are the least likely to get renewed.

THE FLASH BLEW UP!

CW has to be significantly proud of itself for their premiere. The show was the 5th highest-rated show of the night, grabbing a 1.8 rating on a tough time slot (again The Voice and NCIS), out-rating Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) by .2 rating points. While I think the show will fall eventually, it gave CW their highest rating premiere in 5 years, most watched episode in 4 years, and ranked 3rd for the highest rating ever in the CW network’s 8-year history. The show, along with Supernatural, helped CW beat ABC for Tuesday for 3rd place behind NBC and CBS. But we’ll see how many people stick around for episode 2.

IN OTHER NEWS: 

• Jay Leno returns with a new car show on CNBC
• New show NCIS: New Orleans a silent successful for CBS, retaining near 90% of NCIS‘s audience in its 2nd episode.
• Awkward (MTV) was renewed for a final 5th season.
• Lifetime is going to make a 4th and final Flowers in the Attic telepic