On this Thursday, October 10th: The Brief Show Rankings, HTGAWM is the new acronym to learn, Gracepoint drags FOX through the mud, and NBC Thursday comedies have problems, along with the news of the day.
BRIEF SHOW RANKINGS*:
Top 5: How To Get Away With Murder (ABC) / Scandal (ABC) / Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) / Bones (FOX) / (tied) Bad Judge (NBC) + Parenthood (NBC)
Bottom 2: A to Z (NBC) / Gracepoint (FOX)
HTGAWM IS THE NEW ACRONYM TO LEARN
ABC is making some serious strides forward overall as a network, destroying the non-football networks by more than double the rating size (2.8 to FOX’s & NBC’s 1.2). The head reason being How To Get Away With Murder‘s dominance, only 7 tenths lower than the #1 telecast, the Thursday Night Football game (CBS; Colts v. Texans), being the #1 scripted TV show of the night.
Also, going back to yesterday’s news article about shows with the high-income viewers ratings, HTGAWM was #14 on this list. So although HTGAWM was the #1 program of the night, Scandal can still one-up them with high-income viewers, landing 6th on the list. But I’ll give more points to the series that’s slowly reaching football numbers.
So getting a full-season order was just a formality, and a big something for ABC to continue its dominance. This could be a complete ‘nother level when CBS returns to their scripted Thursdays of Big Bang, 2.5 Men, and The Millers. ABC could CBS for the night.
But not for too long. The season order was only for 15 episodes, due to Viola Davis’ movie career (not unheard of; the Friends cast did the same, reducing their final season from 24 eps to 18 to work on other projects). So the spring for ABC might not be as bright as they hoped it to be. But hey, they’ll take 15 episodes.
GRACEPOINT DRAGS FOX THROUGH THE MUD
This is the most unfortunate year for FOX, and we’re not even a month into the new season yet. First they cancel Hieroglyph before its premiere, then the same fate happened to Tina Fey’s highly-anticipated college show. Kevin Reilly then left as President of FOX Entertainment, and now we’re understand why. Besides Gotham and Bones, everything FOX touches is failing, the worst of them discussed yesterday with Red Band Society. Well, misery now has company.
Gracepoint landed in the dark group, being the 3rd new show with a live rating below 1.0 (with a .9 rating). That’s even worse than the NBC comedy lineup of Bad Judge & A to Z. And those shows ain’t doing any better (but we’ll get to them in a moment). Now granted, I think a good amount of the low viewership has to with competition and that this is a remake of Broadchurch. It also doesn’t help to do promos on a network that has no viewership practically anyways. But its rating left it two-tenths away from Vampire Diaries (CW).
Guys. Vampire Diaries.
The sad thing: this series is actually way better than most of the shows on TV, so perhaps this is a Hannibal or Friday Night Lights situation. But the difference was NBC had other shows to help. With Bones getting older, American Idol out of the picture until winter (and Glee’s final season definitely get that post-slot), FOX doesn’t have any help. They need a splash, and though Gotham is helping, it’s not enough. So already 3 weeks in, FOX may be dead and dragged through the mud until spring.
NBC’S BAD JUDGE & A TO Z NOT WORSE THAN LAST YEAR
After last season, I really thought that NBC could not get worse with their low-rated comedies. But with The Biggest Loser hitting series low after series low, leading-out new comedies are…well, the phrase is “stumbling get out of the gate”, but that’d mean they’re moving forward.
Which makes me laugh when I read a press release stating Bad Judge was the first new comedy to maintain its debut rating in week 2. It got a 1.3 rating this week, matching its series premiere. And I’m like, that’s a good thing? It was also good that Laura held a 1.5 rating for two straight Wednesday broadcasts. Guess what? It’s still not a good show, and it fell the next week. I’m not usually one to hate on press releases. I mean, networks have to show some benefits for low numbers to appease advertisers. And I have to give credit when credit is due, it built on TBL audience by one-tenth of a rating point, unlike their lead-out program. A to Z, which nabbed a tragic 1.0 rating last night falling from a 1.2 premiere, is losing ground. The show’s quality isn’t all that wonderful, but doesn’t deserve a 1 point rating.
But let’s be realistic: NBC (and FOX) are competing against very, very heavy programs on CBS (football) and ABC (Shondaland). That wasn’t the case last year, where the NBC 8p comedies facing a dismal Once Upon A Time in Wonderland (ABC) suffered worse numbers than we’re seeing now for a 2nd week. Welcome to the Family got cancelled almost instantly, while we knew Sean Saves‘s fate well before it was canned. Now it’s a tougher competition and the ratings are a tish better. Just a tish.
We’ll see how long these shows last this time. But you’re in a lot of trouble when your network’s #1 program of the night is Bad Judge. NBC Thursday and ABC Tuesday comedies: a rough, rough start against rough, rough competition.
IN OTHER NEWS:
- SNL vet Jan Hooks passed away Thursday, she was 57.
- Katy Perry will be performing the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Between Coldplay (not as big fan base) and Rihanna (not safe for family), I thought Perry would get it of the 3. Doesn’t make me any happier about the move. At all.
- Nielsen caught a bug that made network TV ratings slightly inaccurate from March through this past week. The adjustments should be minuscule, but you never know.
- CBS’s Under the Dome and Extant were renewed for season 3 and 2, respectively. Reckless will not be.
- Bones stayed constant ratings-wise, matching its premiere last week
- American Horror Story (FX) had its most-watched audience ever of 6.127 million.
- Survivor’s Remorse (LeBron Jame’s show; Starz) got renewed for a 2nd season
- Parenthood (NBC) has this on timeslot competitor How To Get Away With Murder: it had a higher Live+3 increase with 69% (to HTGAWM‘s 61%)
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central) added comedians Hasan Minhaj and Trevor Noah, which doesn’t tell us if Jon Stewart is taking the “Meet the Press” hosting job we’ve been hearing about…thought I’m sure he’ll say no
- There’s going to be a “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” series by Sony, based from the movies that was based on the children’s books.
- Victor Garber is back on TV, cast on The Flash (CW) as Dr. Martin Stein
*in acending order; A18-49; excluding sports; also bottom two excludes CW b/c that’d almost be every show there and they’ve been bullied enough
**Just so you all know, I get my information from all over, but I primarily use TVbytheNumbers.com
Joseph Mwamba 
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