Hefty Monday Victory for ABC Despite Weak Romantically Challenged

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERTuesday, April 27, 2010 Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:Hefty Victory for ABC Despite Lackluster Romantically Challenged Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time:Hop to It! ____________________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:Hefty Victory for ABC Despite Lackluster Romantically Challenged Monday 4/26/10 HH Rtg/Shr ABC 10.2/16Fox 7.0/10CBS 5.4/ 8NBC 3.5/ 5CW 1.6/ 2 ---------- -Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Monday, April 27, 2009):ABC: +15, CW: + 7, Fox: + 6, NBC: -12, CBS: -24 ---------- -Yesterday’s Winners: Dancing With the Stars (ABC), House (Fox), Two and a Half Men R (CBS), The Big Bang Theory R (CBS) -Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):Chuck (NBC), One Tree Hill (CW), Trauma (NBC), Gossip Girl (CW), Romantically Challenged (ABC) ---------- 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, April 26, 2010. ---------- -Ratings Breakdown: Led by Dancing With the Stars (and opposite repeats on CBS), it was an easy overnight Monday victory for ABC, which outdelivered second-place Fox by 3.2 rating points. Third overall was aforementioned CBS, followed by NBC and The CW. A 90-minute edition of Dancing With the Stars, now the most-watched show overall in prime-time, kicked-off the night with a whopping 14.3 rating/21 share from 8-9:30 p.m., building by half-hour as follows: Dancing With the Stars (ABC)8:00 p.m.: 13.3/20 (#1)8:30 p.m.: 14.3/21 (#1)9:00 p.m.: 15.2/22 (#1) My picks for the bottom to tonight are Niecy Nash and Jake Pavelka, with sassy Niecy most likely to be sent packing. In week two news, ABC sitcom Romantically Challenged has completely squandered its Dancing With the Stars lead-in support, with a second-place 6.8/10 at 9:30 p.m. Comparably, that was a loss of 17 percent from it’s week-ago debut (8.2/12 on April 19), with retention out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of DWTS of just 45 percent. At 10 p.m., a repeat of ABC’s already renewed Castle finished first, with a 5.7/ 9 in the overnights. Second-place Fox opened with House at a typically comfortably 7.5/11 (#2), followed by soon-to-conclude 24 at a third-place 6.5/10 at 9 p.m. Excluding Rules of Engagement, CBS aired all repeats, with its overnight performance by show as follows: CBS/Monday8:00 p.m. – How I Met Your Mother (R): 3.5/ 5 (#4)8:30 p.m. – Rules of Engagement: 4.4/ 7 (#3)9:00 p.m. – Two and a Half Men (R): 6.7/10 (#2)9:30 p.m. – The Big Bang Theory (R): 7.0/10 (#1)10:00 p.m. – CSI: Miami (R): 5.3/ 9 (#2) Particularly impressive for The Big Bang Theory encore was a first-place time period finish. Emmy voters missed the boat, no doubt, not awarding Christine Baraski with the statuette for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her riotous turn as Leonard’s mother. Please, Chuck Lorre…bring her back! In series-finale news, NBC’s Trauma earned its cancellation stripes with a fourth-place 3.2/ 5 in the overnights at 9 p.m. Lead-in Chuck (#4: 3.8/ 6 at 8 p.m.) also lagged, while a repeat of on-the-fence Law & Order closed the night with a last-place 3.6/ 6 at 10 p.m. Over at The CW, expected-to-conclude One Tree Hill (#5: 1.7/ 3) led into an original installment of Gossip Girl at a 1.5/ 2 at 9 p.m. (#2). As always, the strength of both dramas is dependent on the young female demos and not the overnights. But with overnights this low, do not expect too much. Source: Nielsen Media Research data_____________________________________________________________________________________ Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not -America The Story of Us Lifts History to New High:The first night of six-part America The Story of Us on History Channel finished as the most-watched special on the network to-date, with a record 4.0 household rating and 5.7 million total viewers in the 9-11 p.m. block on Sunday, April 25. America The Story of Us, which tells the story of how America was invented, averaged 2.6 million adults 18-49 and 2.7 million adults 25-54. Source: Nielsen Media Research data ________________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Tuesday 4/27/10 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Dancing With the Stars 9:00 p.m. Lost (R)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 CW: 8:00 p.m. 90210 9:00 p.m. Life Unexpected (R) ________________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -More Southland:TNT has picked up crime drama Southland for a third season, with an order for 10 additional episodes to begin airing in January 2011. TNT, of course, brought back Southland from the dead this season after NBC canceled it to make room for ill-fated The Jay Leno Show. -In Other Renewal News:Disney XD has ordered a second season of live-action comedy series I’m In the Band, with production resuming in June on an unspecified number of new episodes. -ION Benches The Guard:ION Television has shelved Canadian drama The Guard, which began airing in the Saturday 9-11 p.m. block (with back-to-pack episodes) on March 13. Various repeats will continue to fill the time period for the time being. -Speaking of Cancellations:First-run Disney-ABC weekly hour Legend of the Seeker, which was recently dropped by the Tribune Station Group, will not be returning for a third season. -Gillian in Georgia on TBS:TBS will introduce its next microseries, Gillian in Georgia, within Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns on Wednesday, April 28 at 8 p.m. ET. Sponsored exclusively by Chevy Malibu, Gillian in Georgia is the tale of a hip and single New Yorker who visits her family in a small town in Georgia. TBS will air two new minisodes each Wednesday for five consecutive weeks within commercial time. Gillian in Georgia will also be repeated online at TBS.com. -Turner Classic Movies Announces Plans for Second Film Festival:On the heels of its first TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood comes word that TCM will host a second event in the spring of 2011. TCM primetime host Robert Osborne revealed the network’s plans on Sunday night, prior to the North American premiere of the restored 1927 masterpiece, Metropolis. “It’s been a thrill for all of us at TCM that our first classic film festival has been such a success, so we’re definitely going to do it again,” said Osborne. “It’s been great fun bringing together so many legendary stars and movie fans in a place where they could interact and, at the same time, see great films. To paraphrase Bogart in Casablanca, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful tradition.”The stars who appeared at the inaugural festival included Alec Baldwin, Ernest Borgnine, Mel Brooks, Illeana Douglas, Betty Garrett, Darryl Hickman, Tab Hunter, Anjelica Huston, Marin Landau, Norman Lloyd, Luise Rainer, Tim Roth, Eva Marie Saint, Eli Wallach and Esther Williams. ---------- -Speaking of Festivals:Mark your calendars for Friday, May 28 through Sunday, May 30 for the 2010 Lucy-Desi Days Fan Appreciation Weekend in Lucy’s hometown, Jamestown, New York. Scheduled events will include a Lucy Show tribute with We Love Lucy Fan Club President Tom Watson; the Tropicana Dinner Theatre with impressionists Diane Vincent and Adrian Israel; a Tropicana Entertainment Tribute with Dann Cahn, film editor of I Love Lucy; a memorabilia auction, trivia contest and Life With Lucy Film Festival presented by Lucy’s No. 1 fan, Michael Stern; ongoing LucyTown tours; and much, much more. For more information, click on http://www.lucy-desi.com/festival/festival_info.html. -AFI and TV Land Team Up to Honor Mike Nichols:The American Film Institute will present the 38th AFI Life Achievement Award to acclaimed director Mike Nichols in an event scheduled to be taped on the Sony lot in Culver City, California on June 10 for a Sunday, June 27 airing on TV Land (at 9 p.m. ET). Celebrities scheduled to participate include Amy Adams, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Candice Bergen, Cher, Nora Ephron, Harrison Ford, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Shirley MacLaine, Steve Martin, Elaine May, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Mary-Louise Parker, Natalie Portman, Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Taylor, Emma Thompson, Sigourney Weaver and Robin Williams. -Jamie Kennedy Heads to Eureka:Comedian and actor Jamie Kennedy has been signed for a guest spot in the upcoming season of Syfy’s Eureka. Kennedy will play Dr. Ramsey in the episode entitled “The Story of O2,” which will air on Friday, July 30, 2010. -GMA The Concert Series:The 2010 Good Morning America Summer Concert Series, which returns for the second straight year to the Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, will feature the following list of performers on Fridays. May 21: Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, Camp Rock 2 May 28: SugarlandJune 4: DiddyJune 11: Norah Jones and Sarah McLachlanJune 18: Miley CyrusJune 25: Alicia KeysJuly 2: Mary J. BligeJuly 9: To Be AnnouncedJuly 16: The Go-Go’sJuly 23: Sheryl CrowJuly 30: Black Eyed PeasAugust 6: To Be AnnouncedAugust13: Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, Camp Rock 2August 20: RihannaAugust 27: Lady Antebellum For more information, click on the GMA web site at www.abcnews.com. ________________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Hop to It! Which one of the following TV characters had a girlfriend named Bunny? Peter BentonVince Carter Phil EsterhausMike HammerGeorge Utley The answer to yesterday’s question: Remember the classic episode of I Love Lucy set in California when everyone’s favorite redhead tried to impress Caroline Appleby by pretending to know a lot of stars? Which one of the then popular stars did Lucy not impersonate? Tallulah BankheadGary CooperJimmy DuranteClark GableHarpo Marx Is: a) Tallaluh Bankhead, who did ultimately guest star in an episode of the upcoming Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. -Current kudos goes to:Barbara Bloomfield, Larry Collins, Tom Condosta, Reid Davis, Darlene Dorman, Maureen Goldman, Geoffrey Gordon, Scott Hamula, Bob Ingersoll, Deb Kainer, Debbie Mirr, Michael Murphy, Tony Naldrett, David Primuth, Gordon Purcell, Julie Reis, Ron Salmon, Maxine Shulman, Michael Stern, Victoria Trombley

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Hefty Monday Victory for ABC Despite Weak Romantically Challenged

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