Bachelor Ignited ABC Wins Monday

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERTuesday, March 2, 2010 Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:An All Bachelor Night Leads ABC to Victory Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time:Yabba-Dabba-Doo!____________________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:An All Bachelor Night Leads ABC to Victory Monday 3/01/10 HH Rtg/Shr ABC 9.8/15CBS 8.2/12NBC 5.5/ 8Fox 5.2/ 8CW 1.2/ 2 ---------- -Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Monday, March 2, 2009):NBC: +25, CW: +20, CBS: + 2, ABC: + 1, Fox: -17 ---------- -Yesterday’s Winners: The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love (ABC), How I Met Your Mother (CBS), Two and a Half Men (CBS), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love – After the Final Rose (ABC) -Honorable Mention:24 (Fox) -Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):Life Unexpected (CW) ---------- 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, March 1, 2010. ---------- -Ratings Breakdown: ABC led this first Monday in March, beating second-place CBS by a comfortable 20 percent in the overnights. In the distant No. 3 spot was NBC, followed by Fox and The CW, which aired a double does (repeat and original) of Life Unexpected. ABC’s victory was a result of the season-finale of The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love, which averaged a solid 9.8 rating/14 share in the overnights from 8-10 p.m., building by half-hour as follows: The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love (ABC)8:00 p.m.: 9.2/14 (#1)8:30 p.m.: 9.6/14 (#1)9:00 p.m.: 9.4/14 (#2)9:30 p.m.: 10.6/15 (#1) While I have personally poked fun at The Bachelor for years, I was one of the many people who tuned into see Jake choose Vienna. Leading out of the season finale was special The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love – After the Final Rose at a dominant 9.9/16 from 10-11 p.m. For more on Jake Pavelka, see TV Tidbits below. Kudos to ABC for a very successful season of The Bachelor. In season-premiere news, the return of benchwarmer CBS sitcom Rules of Engagement finished second at 8:30 p.m., with a 6.2/ 9 in the overnights. Comparably, retention out of lead-in How I Met Your Mother (#2: 7.0/10) was 89 percent (which was similar to former occupant Accidentally on Purpose). CBS moved into overnight winner’s circle at 9 p.m. care of veteran Two and a Half Men at a 10.5/15 -- the highest rated show of the evening. Next was The Big Bang Theory (#2: 9.7/14 at 9:30 p.m.), which normally builds among adults 18-49, followed by CSI: Miami (#2: 7.9/13 at 10 p.m.), which took a backseat to The Bachelor special. The question at NBC, of course, was if The Winter Olympics would have a positive impact on the network’s schedule. Although relocated Law & Order was an improvement over former 9-11 p.m. occupants Heroes and The Jay Leno Show, the network still finished a distant third for the night, with an anticipated fourth-place ranking among adults 18-49. Chuck opened the evening with an uneventful fourth-place 4.9/ 7 at 8 p.m., followed by a two-hour installment of Law & Order at a 5.8/ 9 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Here is the half-hour breakdown: Law & Order (NBC)9:00 p.m.: 5.4/ 8 (#4)9:30 p.m.: 6.0/ 9 (#3t)10:00 p.m.: 5.8/ 9 (#3)10:30 p.m.: 6.0/10 (#3) Next was Fox care of a repeat of House (#4: 4.5/ 7) and 24 (#3: 6.1/ 9), which build from the 8:30 p.m. portion of the House encore (4.6/ 7) by 33 percent. The CW opened with a repeat of Life Unexpected (#5: 0.9/ 1), followed by an original installment of the drama at a 1.4/ 2 at 9 p.m. (which was also, of course, No. 5). Life Unexpected will air in originals beginning next Monday, followed by the return of Gossip Girl. Source: Nielsen Media Research data____________________________________________________________________________ Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not -Strong Return for Jay Leno in Late Night:NBC is playing down the initial overnight results for the return of Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show. But based on Monday’s results, Leno dominated with a 5.4/14 from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., the best overnight performance for The Tonight Show since Conan O’Brien stepped in on June 1, 2009. CBS’ The Late Show With David Letterman trailed with a 3.0/ 8, while ABC’s combination of Nightline (3.4/ 8) and Jimmy Kimmel Live (2.1/ 6) ranked third overall. -Most Watched Hockey Game in 30 Years:Sunday afternoon’s gold medal hockey match-up between USA and Canada scored an average 27.6 million viewers -- the most-watched hockey broadcast of any kind since USA and Finland going for the gold in Lake Placid on Feb. 24, 1980 (32.8 million). Comparably, this beat the 2002 Salt Lake Gold Medal Game (17.1 million) by a massive 10.5 million viewers (or 61 percent). And it outdelivered the majority of key top events over the past year, including the 2010 Grammy Awards (25.9 million), 2010 Rose Bowl (24.0 million), 2009 World Series, Game 4 (22.8 million), 2009 NCAA Basketball (Championship 17.6 million), and NBA Finals, Game 4 and 2010 Daytona 500 (16.0 million each). To put this into perspective, what follows are the most-watched hockey broadcasts of all time. 1. USA/Russia - 1980 (Miracle on Ice): 34.2 million2. USA/Finland - 1980 (gold medal): 32.8 million3. USA/Canada - 2010 (gold medal): 27.6 million4. USA/Canada – 2002 (gold medal): 17.1 million5. Unified/USA – 1992 (semifinal): 11.7 million USA vs. Canada peaked at 5:30 p.m., with 34.8 million viewers as USA’s Zach Parise sent the game into overtime. And the overall competition averaged a 15.2 rating/30 share in households, also the highest rated hockey game since USA vs. Finland in 1980 (23.2/61). The match-up, meanwhile, was the most-watched television event in Canadian historically, with an average audience of 16.6 million viewers on the nine television networks within Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. Almost one-half of the Canadian population watched the entire game on average, while 80 percent of Canadians saw some part of it. Source: Nielsen Media Research data ________________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Tuesday 3/02/10 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Lost (R) 9:00 p.m. Lost10:00 p.m. 20/20: Before They Were Famous 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 (series premiere) Fox: 8:00 p.m. American Idol (two hours) CW: 8:00 p.m. 90210 (R) 9:00 p.m. Melrose Place (R) New Show Descriptions Parenthood (NBC) -The Premise:Based on the 1989 Ron Howard theatrical, four grown siblings share the “headaches, heartaches and joy” of being parents. -The Scoop:Ron Howard at the recent Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour on why there is a second TV show version of Parenthood: “We had tried once to do sort of a sitcom version of it. That was, you know, just misguided. Didn’t work, didn’t live up to, in my mind, the potential of all the stories that were — and the characters as they existed in the movie. And the first question that we asked was, “Well, why do you need ‘Parenthood’? And we made an argument for why the foundation of that family worked. Ultimately, it’s about the unbelievable ups and downs of parenting, the absurdity of it, the pain of it, and also, significantly to me, the nobility of it. But it’s also just about being responsible and being in a family. And that always creates great suspense and great drama. We felt that he could take this thing and bring it forward to today in a way that was compelling.”-The Reality:Considering Parenthood the series did not work the first time – NBC aired a half-hour comedy based version in the fall of 1990 – you have to wonder why it is back. But with solid lead-in support from The Biggest Loser and opposite ABC’s failing The Forgotten there could be some room. Even so, the expected older audience skew may not be all that compatible with The Biggest Loser. -Chance of Survival for Parenthood (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1):5-1 ________________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -ABC Unveils Next Round of Contestants on Dancing With the Stars:The new season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, which returns on Monday, March 22, will feature the following celebrity contestants: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson, sports reporter Erin Andrews, Beverly Hills, 90210 rebel Shannen Doherty, reality star Kate Gosselin, Olympic star Even Lysacek, Clean House host Niecy Nash, NFL great Chad Ochocinco, bachelor Jake Pavelka, Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, and daytime star Aiden Turner. The big surprise, no doubt, was Buzz Aldrin, but as always this is the usual mix of entertainment and sports. This time, however, there are only 11 contestants competing. -Speaking of ABC:The new season of The Bachelorette, this time around with 25-year old Ali Fedotowsky, will kick-off on Monday, May 24 at 9 p.m. -Glee Live! In Concert!:Effective Wednesday, May 18, the cast of Glee -- Lea Michele (Rachel), Cory Monteith (Finn), Amber Riley (Mercedes), Chris Colfer (Kurt), Kevin McHale (Artie), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), Mark Salling (Puck), Dianna Agron (Quinn), Naya Rivera (Santana), Heather Morris (Brittany), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike) and Dijon Talton (Matt) -- will perform in a singing and dancing celebration of the Golden Globe Award winning show. The four-city engagement begins in Phoenix and concludes in New York City on May 29. For more information, click on www.gleetour2010.com. -New Yorkers, Take Note:WABC in New York, which is in a current dispute with carrier Cablevision over retransmission fees, is threatening to pull The 82nd Annual Academy Awards, which is scheduled to air this Sunday. The cable operator and network have been without a deal for two years, according to ABC, with the network granting extensions on a month-by-month basis. Stay tuned. -OxygenLive to Go Live:OxygenLive, the real time destination for cable net Oxygen that launched in December and gives fans the opportunity to interact with a show when it airs, will go live 52 weeks per year. OxygenLive will be activated for all original Oxygen programming including upcoming dating/relationship show Love Games: Bad Girls Need Love Too (which premieres on March 16), and the new season of Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, which returns on Monday, April 5.______________________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Yabba-Dabba-Doo! What was the name of the Fred and Wilma’s pet saber-toothed tiger on animated The Flintstones? Baby PussGravel GertieHoppityRockySimba The answer to yesterday’s question: Four of the following series switched networks midway through their runs. Which one didn’t? MannixMatlock My Three Sons Step By StepTaxi Is: a) Mannix, which aired on CBS only from 1967 to 1975. As for the others: -Matlock - (NBC): 1986-92, (ABC): 1993-95-My Three Sons – (ABC): 1960-65, (CBS): 1965-72-Step By Step – (ABC): 1991-97, (CBS): 1997-98-Taxi – (ABC): 1978-82, (NBC): 1982-83 -Current kudos goes to:Mark Amato, Woodie Belk, Gerry Bixenspan, Larry Collins, Tom Condosta, Denny Crane, Reid Davis, Mike Dugger, John Ferlazzo, Arleen Fong, Julie Friedlander, George Gardner, Karen Garner, Maureen Goldman, Randy Hainlen, Bob Ingersoll, David Jackino, Ken Jobe, Eric Kaufmann, Tom Kilgallon, Mary Kinoshita, Synda Kollman, Mark Krause, Steve Kurtzer, Stephen LaRue, Patty Lynch, Jim Moore, Michael Murphy, Aaron Paquette, Alan Perris, Alex Petrilli, Jr., Greg Phelan, Gordon Purcell, Joe Rubi, David Ruckman, Ron Salmon, Andrew Stearn, Jodi Titkin, Larry Weinstock, Ted Zawislak

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Bachelor Ignited ABC Wins Monday

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