ABC Opens Week on Winning Note

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERTuesday, May 4, 2010 Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:ABC Dominates Night 5 of the May Sweeps Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time:Don’t Be an Animal____________________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:ABC Dominates Night 5 of the May Sweeps Monday 5/03/10 HH Rtg/Shr ABC 10.5/16Fox 6.7/10CBS 6.3/10NBC 3.9/ 6CW 1.5/ 2 ---------- -Note: The year-to-year overnight comparisons are not available today. ---------- -Yesterday’s Winners: Dancing With the Stars (ABC), House (Fox), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), Castle (ABC) -Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):Chuck (NBC), One Tree Hill (CW), Gossip Girl (CW), Law & Order (NBC) ---------- Note: The fast affiliate results for Monday will be posted at PIFeedback by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Monday, May 3, 2010. ---------- -Ratings Breakdown: ABC danced its way to an another easy overnight Monday victory care of Dancing With the Stars, which averaged a hefty 13.5 rating/20 share in the overnights from 8-9:30 p.m., building by half-hour as follows: Dancing With the Stars (ABC)8:00 p.m.: 12.7/20 (#1)8:30 p.m.: 13.5/20 (#1)9:00 p.m.: 14.4/21 (#1) Considering all the performances were decent last night, most likely to depart tonight could be either Pamela Anderson, Niecy Nash or Chad Ochocinco. My pick (sad to say): Pamela Anderson. Although week three of lead-out sitcom Romantically Challenged led the 9:30 p.m. half-hour in the overnights with a 6.9/10, its advantage over a repeat of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory (#2: 6.8/10) was only one-tenth of a rating point and the Big Bang encore will likely win the time period among adults 18-49. Retention for Romantically Challenged out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of Dancing With the Stars, meanwhile, was only 48 percent. Needless to say, ABC could do better here. Top-rated 10 p.m. overnight honors went to ABC’s Castle (7.7/12), which built from Romantically Challenged by 12 percent and outdelivered CBS’ tired CSI: Miami (#2: 6.6/11) by 17 percent. Considering how CBS’ CSI franchise has slipped, is it wise to have three hours on this schedule next season? Earlier in the evening on CBS were sitcoms How I Met Your Mother (#3: 5.3/ 8), Rules of Engagement (#3: 4.9/ 7), which has totally found its comic timing this season, and a 9 p.m. edition of The Big Bang Theory (#2: 7.9/11), which can step in for Two and a Half Men in the unlikely event Charlie Sheen does not return next season. Second-place Fox had a typical Monday on this fifth night of the May sweeps with its combination of House (#2: 7.0/11) and soon-to-conclude 24 (#3: 6.4/10), which officially closes shop with a two hour installment on May 24. NBC opened the week on a typically bland note with its combination of Chuck (#4: 3.7/ 6), which is not worthy of a fourth season renewal, a repeat of Law & Order (#4: 3.4/ 5), and the regularly scheduled edition of Law & Order (#3: 4.7/ 7). And the CW capped off the night with veteran One Tree Hill, which is not expected to return, and Gossip Girl (#5: 1.4/ 2), which just does not resonate in the overnights. When you analyze any show on The CW, you must look specifically at the results among young females. Source: Nielsen Media Research data_____________________________________________________________________________________ Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not -Live Plus 7 Day Ratings – Season to-Date Update:Season to-date through April 18 and based on total viewers, what follows are the programs ranked in order of the greatest DVR usage. Led by Grey’s Anatomy on ABC, Thursday programming holds three of the top five spots (and 6 of the top 15), with five of the top 10 overall on CBS. Of the freshman mix, CBS’ The Good Wife leads the pack at No. 16 overall (with 1.78 million added viewers), but ABC’s Modern Family (#19: +1.74 million) and NBC’s Parenthood (#21: +1.72 million) are right behind. Fox’s canceled Dollhouse did not crack the top 30 based on actual added viewers, but according to additional viewers by percentage the audience-starved drama topped the charts at an added 26.4 percent (2.17 to 2.95 million). Here is the top 30 in total viewers based on DVR usage: 1. Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): 13.43 to 16.29 million (+2.86 million)2. The Mentalist (CBS): 15.48 to 18.31 million (+2.83 million)3. House (Fox): 13.43 to 15.93 million (+2.50 million)4. Lost (ABC): 10.11 to 12.31 million (+2.20 million)5. CSI (CBS): 15.23 to 17.33 (+2.10 million)6. Criminal Minds (CBS): 13.88 to 15.95 million (+2.07 million)7. NCIS (CBS): 20.15 to 22.21 million (+2.06 million)8. American Idol – Wednesday (Fox): 22.69 to 24.69 million (+2.0 million)9. The Big Bang Theory (CBS): 14.21 to 16.19 million (+1.98 million)American Idol – Tuesday (Fox): 24.02 to 26.00 million (+1.98 million)The Office (NBC): 8.07 to 10.05 million (+1.98 million)Fringe (Fox): 6.40 to 8.35 million (+1.95 million)Private Practice (ABC): 9.27 to 11.16 million (+1.89 million)Castle (ABC): 10.20 to 12.06 million (+1.86 million)V (ABC): 8.42 to 10.22 million (+1.80 million)The Good Wife (CBS): 13.41 to 15.19 million (+1.78 million)Glee (Fox): 7.95 to 9.73 (+1.78 million)Bones (Fox): 10.27 to 12.03 million (+1.76 million)Modern Family (ABC): 9.26 to 11.00 million (+1.74 million)CSI: Miami (CBS): 13.07 to 14.80 million (+1.73 million)Parenthood (NBC): 6.56 to 8.28 million (+1.72 million)24 (Fox): 9.46 to 11.18 million (+1.72 million)NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS): 16.39 to 18.10 million (+1.71 million)Desperate Housewives (ABC): 13.02 to 14.72 million (+1.70 million)FlashForward (ABC): 7.93 to 9.61 million (+1.68 million)Two and a Half Men (CBS): 15.07 to 16.64 million (+1.57 million)CSI: NY (CBS): 12.97 to 14.43 million (+1.46 million)Law & Order: SVU (NBC): 8.80 to 10.22 million (+1.42 million)Lie to Me (Fox): 7.39 to 8.74 million (+1.35 million)Human Target (Fox): 8.22 to 9.57 million (+1.35 million) Source: Nielsen Media Research data ________________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Tuesday 5/04/10 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Dancing With the Stars 9:00 p.m. Lost 10:00 p.m. V CBS: 8:00 p.m. NCIS 9:00 p.m. NCIS: Los Angeles 10:00 p.m. The Good Wife NBC: 8:00 p.m. The Biggest Loser (two hours)10:00 p.m. Parenthood Fox: 8:00 p.m. American Idol 9:00 p.m. Glee (Olivia Newton John guest stars) CW: 8:00 p.m. 90210 9:00 p.m. Life Unexpected (R) ________________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -Undercovers on NBC:NBC has ordered 13 episodes of its first scripted series for the 2010-11 season: Undercovers, a spy drama from writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams. Undercovers tells the story of two of the CIA’s best spies who marry, retire and are reinstated after a fellow spy and friend goes missing. Boris Kodjoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Gerald McRaney star. -More Justified:FX has renewed drama Justified for a second season, with an order for 13 additional episodes. The first season finale will conclude on Tuesday, June 8. -Raymond Marathon on TV Land:TV Land will gear into Mother’s Day this weekend with a marathon of Everybody Loves Raymond focused on Marie Barone (Doris Roberts) on Saturday, May 8 from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. ET. -Coming Up on ABC:ABC will unveil new scripted drama Rookie Blue, which tells the tale of five young, ambitious cops fresh out of the police academy, on Thursday, June 24 at 9 p.m. ET. -Congratulations, Julia Louis-Dreyfus:The New Adventures of Old Christine star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a Mr. TV favorite, will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today. She is the first Seinfeld cast member to receive the honor. -Half Pint Brawlers:Spike TV will add another wrestling franchise to its lineup called Half Pint Brawlers, which will focus on the so-called astonishing adventures of little person wrestlers. It launches with the first of six episodes on Wednesday, June 2 at 11 p.m. ET. -Remembering Lynn Redgrave:Lynn Redgrave, who recently guest starred in episodes of Ugly Betty and Law & Order: SVU, died Sunday night in her Manhattan apartment after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. She was 67, and her passing comes just one month after older brother Corin and one year after niece Natasha Richardson, who died from injuries sustained in a skiing accident. Bursting onto the scene in her Academy Award nominated role in 1966 British film Georgy Girl, Redgrave received Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in 1976 for George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession and in 1993 for Shakespeare for Mr. Father, which dealt with her relationship with her father Michael. She was nominated for an Emmy as Lead Actress in a Comedy for House Calls in 1981, but exited the sitcom shortly afterwards following a dispute with distributor Universal, and received her second Oscar nomination (for Outstanding Supporting Actress) for Gods and Monsters in 1999. Other regularly scheduled series roles included miniseries Centennial in the 1978-79 season, and sitcoms Teachers Only on NBC in the early 1980s and Chicken Soup opposite Jackie Mason in the fall of 1989. In 2004, Redgrave won the Barrymore Award, which honors Philadelphia theater, for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play for Collected Stories. That same year, she released a book with daughter Annabel about her battle with cancer called, "Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer.” Lynn Redgrave is survived by three children, six grandchildren, her sister Vanessa, and four nieces and nephews. ________________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Don’t Be an Animal Which one of the following choices was not the actual name of a TV series? BearcatsBirdland Dog and CatMe and the ChimpTurtle Bay The answer to yesterday’s question: Hill Street Blues, one of the most critically acclaimed series in the history of television, won a total of 25 Emmy awards. But which one of the following series stars never was awarded with one of the statuettes? Michael ConradVeronica HamelBetty Thomas Daniel J. Travanti Bruce Weitz Is: b) Veronica Hamel. Although she was nominated five times for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as icy Joyce Davenport, Veronica Hamel always went home empty handed. -Current kudos goes to:Steve Albright, Gerry Bixenspan (2x), Barbara Bloomfield, Brendon Bloomfield, Larry Collins, Tom Condosta, Audrey Davis, John Ferlazzo, Arleen Fong, Julie Friedlander, Maureen Goldman, Ken Hommel, Bob Ingersoll, David Jackino, Deb Kainer, Mary Kinoshita, Mark Krause, Patty Lynch, Lisa Menin, Greg Phelan, Gordon Purcell, Colleen Roth, David Ruckman, Ron Salmon, Maxine Shulman, Andrew Stearn, John Wick

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ABC Opens Week on Winning Note

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