MTV Reups 'Hard Times'

Despite garnering underwhelming ratings in its Monday night timeslot, MTV is committing to a second season of the scripted comedy strip The Hard Times of RJ Berger, ordering 12 new episodes.After debuting to 2.64 million viewers on June 6, Hard Times experienced a rapid detumescence, losing more than half (56 percent) of its premiere delivery with an average draw of 1.17 million viewers on June 14. The following week, the comedy drooped even further, averaging 834,000 viewers, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data.Through its first seven episodes, Hard Times is averaging 1.17 million total viewers. That said, the show has shown some growth in the last few weeks, luring 935,000 viewers on July 19, up 17 percent from a series-low 799,000 on July 5. Perhaps more importantly, in the last four weeks Berger has boosted its core demo (viewers 12-34) by 31 percent.A virtual mash-up of Boogie Nights and Freaks and Geeks, the raunchy Hard Times is a single-camera comedy about a 15-year-old pariah who begins to turn things around at school when a mishap at an assembly reveals that he’s freakishly well-endowed.The show is the centerpiece of MTV’s efforts to program scripted fare as a complement to its roster of reality/hybrid programs like Jersey Shore, Teen Mom and If You Really Knew Me. The latter debuted to a respectable 1.79 million viewers on Tuesday, July 20, at 11 p.m.Other scripted fare in the works for MTV include a series based on the 1985 theatrical Teen Wolf and a refresh of the BBC America teen soap Skins.One new program that isn’t likely to get picked up for a second go-around is Hard Times lead-out Warren the Ape. The latest incarnation of the former Fox series Greg the Bunny drew just 423,000 viewers in its June 14 debut, retaining just 36 percent of its lead-in. Oddly enough, a late-night repeat of the fourth episode of Warren the Ape actually out-delivered the 10:30 p.m. premiere of episode five. On July 12, Warren delivered 431,000 viewers at 2:30 a.m. EDT; the debut of the fifth installment some 18 hours later averaged 400,000 viewers.MTV closed out July with an average prime time draw of 794,000 total viewers, down 3 percent from the year-ago period. The network finished fifth among viewers 18-34, averaging 384,000 in prime (-1 percent), while holding onto the top spot among the 12-34 demo.

Convergent TV

MTV Reups 'Hard Times'

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi