Friday’s Numbers [10.10.2008]
By fred | October 11, 2008
Well, it was a slow Friday for sure, when the most-watched network only get as high as 7.73 million viewers, and no program can reach 9.5 million viewers or do better than a 2.6 on the demon, you know it’s a Friday. A Friday full of disappointments for everyone.
At 8.00 Ghost Whisperer was slightly up since last week, and it was the most-watched program of the night, both in total viewers and on the demo, with 9.45 million viewers and a 2.6 on the demo. Everybody Hates Chris was down to 1.76 million viewers (thus losing about 300 000 viewers) while The Game managed to remain stable.
At 9.00 you can be sure that CBS exec morons are starting to wish they could bring back that little show called Moonlight back on the air as well. Winner of the slot was Deal Or No Deal on NBC with 800 000 more viewers than The Ex List had on CBS. The show was down 1.2 million viewers since last week with only 5.71 million viewers, where last year Moonlight would get about 7.1 million of them.
To be fully honest, The Ex List was winner of the slot on the demo, but with only a 1.9 where Moonlight was getting at least a 2.0 - and I’m guessing The Ex List is still going down…
At 10.00 Numb3rs wasn’t really affected by all that, but it still doesn’t perform as well as last season. Winner of the slot with 8.03 million viewers, and tied on the demo with ABC’s 20/20 and a 2.2 for both programs.
Sadly, Life wasn’t doing too well on NBC, coming last with 4.92 million viewers and 1.4 on the demo only. Those are simple the lowest numbers of the season (and series) for Life. And because NBC is run by morons, obviously, chances are they’ll blame it all on the show.
Truth is, Life is suffering from NBC messing with the show, and of course with those scheduling non-sense we have seen. No, I don’t just mean the “it’s on Monday, it’s on Friday, no it’s on Monday again, wait, it’s on Friday again”, though that obviously didn’t help, and no also just I don’t mean that putting Life on a death slot was a stupid idea, even though it was.
But Life has the same problems that many other returning new series are having, NBC or not. Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, all are being hurt because they were doing nicely before the strike, deserved a full season pick-up, got one actually, and then it was decided that no new episodes would air after the strike. And that just doesn’t work, ever, on broadcast networks.
On cable it’s more common, people expect shows to go away for that long, they’re used to it, and there’s reruns every day or so to remind them that the shows still exists, are loved, and will be back. Here, those retarded big networks had the show gone for 10 months without any promotion or reruns or nothing, which means many just assumed they were probably dead or canceled. Why does Gossip Girl do so well this season ? hmm… I wonder if that may be because the show was back on the air after the strike…
The only shows that can make it through such long absence are 24 and Lost, and that’s only because those are very special cases,for many reasons. Because viewers would go with mid-season breaks, because the networks slowly learned their lessons, plus, expect massive promotions where they return.
And even then, if you think 24 would have any chance to do decent numbers on a Friday night, with no TV-movie and no promotion whatsoever after such a long time, you’re fooling yourselves.
It pains me to see a show that brilliant, best hour-long drama on NBC / the air, treated that way and probably to be canceled after the 13 episodes already ordered, just because NBC can’t support it, give it time, and a decent time slot. I think I need to go listen to my Zen tape or I’ll break something…
All numbers of the night below :
| Friday, October 10th | ||
| Show | Network | Viewers (18-49) |
| 8.00 | ||
| Ghost Whisperer | CBS | 9.45 M (2.6) |
| Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? | Fox | 5.79 M (1.4) |
| Wife Swap | ABC | 4.28 M (1.5) |
| America’s Toughest Jobs | NBC | 3.95 M (1.2) |
| Everybody Hates Chris | The CW | 1.76 M (0.7) |
| The Game [8.30] | The CW | 1.90 M (0.8) |
| 9.00 | ||
| Deal Or No Deal | NBC | 6.52 M (1.5) |
| The Ex List | CBS | 5.71 M (1.9) |
| Supernanny | ABC | 5.02 M (1.8) |
| Don’t Forget The Lyrics | Fox | 4.87 M (1.4) |
| America’s Top Model (R) | The CW | 1.42 M (0.6) |
| 10.00 | ||
| Numb3rs | CBS | 8.03 M (2.2) |
| 20/20 | ABC | 7.03 M (2.2) |
| Life | NBC | 4.92 M (1.4) |
| Global | Adults 18-49 | ||
| CBS | 7.73 M | CBS | 2.2 |
| ABC | 5.45 M | ABC | 1.8 |
| NBC | 5.13 M | Fox | 1.4 |
| Fox | 4.94 M | NBC | 1.3 |
| The CW | 1.69 M | The CW | 0.7 |
Posted in Numbers/Ratings
Shows: Everybody Hates Chris, Ghost Whisperer, Life, Numb3rs, The Ex List, The Game
