Idol Dominates Tuesday; Freshman Shows Flounder

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERThursday, March 26, 2009 Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:Idol Lifts Fox to Victory; Freshman Entries Lose More Steam Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time: Remember Osgood P. Conklin?______________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:Idol Lifts Fox to Victory; Freshman Entries Lose More Steam Wednesday 3/25/09 HH Rtg/Shr Fox 14.2/22CBS 7.3/12ABC 4.2/ 7NBC 3.4/ 5CW 1.6/ 2 ---------- -Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday, March 26, 2008):CBS: +66, CW: +33, Fox: +15, NBC: -38, ABC: -51 ---------- Note: The fast affiliate results for Wednesday 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 Wednesday, March 25, 2009. ---------- -Yesterday’s Winners:American Idol (Fox), Criminal Minds (CBS), CSI: NY (CBS) -Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):The Chopping Block (NBC), Better Off Ted (ABC), Life (NBC), Life on Mars (ABC) ---------- -Ratings Breakdown: Led by the two-hour performance edition of American Idol, Fox won Wednesday, with a hefty 6.8 overnight rating point advantage above second-place CBS. In the distant No. 3 spot was ABC, followed by NBC and the CW. American Idol, which aired one day later due to President Obama’s speech on Tuesday, averaged a healthy 14.2 rating/22 share in the overnights from 8-10 p.m., building by half-hour as follows: American Idol (Fox)8:00 p.m.: 12.4/208:30 p.m.: 14.3/239:00 p.m.: 14.6/229:30 p.m.: 15.3/23 Personally, I think the final three performers last night -- Adam Lambert, Danny Gokey and Allison Iraheta -- are the three that should make it to the very end. Adam…was that really you? As for the bottom three tonight, my picks are Megan Joy (who needs to stop shimmying), Michael Sarver and Scott MacIntyre. Most likely to bid adieu: Michael Sarver. A Wednesday clips edition of CBS’ Survivor: Tocantins (which I totally forgot was on) opened the evening for CBS with a second-place 4.8/ 8 in the overnights at 8 p.m. After being pre-empted last week, it would have been nice to see an original episode. But lead-out Criminal Minds perked up to an 8.9/14 at 9 p.m. (also second in the time period), followed by CSI: NY at a dominant 8.4/14 at 10 p.m. In week two news, ABC sitcom Better Off Ted dipped to a mere (and third-place) 3.4/ 5 at 8:30 p.m. -- 13 percent below its already lackluster debut one week earlier (3.9/ 6 on March 19). Lead-in Scrubs (which over-stayed its welcome in prime time by at least two years) scored a similar third-place 3.7/ 6 at 8 p.m. Lost perked up to a third-place 5.3/ 8 in the overnights at 9 p.m. (which is still not all that impressive), followed by soon-to-depart Life on Mars at a 3.7/ 6 (also third at 10 p.m.). Over at NBC, cooking competition The Chopping Block continues to sink with a last-place 1.9/ 3 in the overnights from 8-9 p.m. Yes, a 1.9/ 3! Minus any lead-in support, on-the-fence sophomore drama Life is nearing death with a 2.8/ 4 at 9 p.m. (#4), followed by veteran Law & Order at a second-place 5.4/ 9 at 10 p.m. The CW capped off this final Wednesday in March with its combination of America’s Next Top Model (#4: 2.5/ 4) and a repeat of 90210 (#5: 0.7/ 1). If proposed Top Model spin-off Operation Fabulous moves forward, Wednesday at 9 p.m. is where it belongs. If there are cross-over episodes, there is every reason to believe it would do better than former occupant Stylista. Source: Nielsen Media Research data _______________________________________________________________________________________ Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not -National Ratings in Syndication – Week of March 9:What follows are the top 10 rated series in syndication (first-run and off-network) based on households for the week of March 9, followed by any highlights of note: Wheel of Fortune (CBS Television Distribution): 7.1 rating, Jeopardy (CBS): 5.9, Oprah (CBS): 5.9, Two and a Half Men (Warner Bros.): 5.0, Judge Judy (CBS): 4.5, Entertainment Tonight (CBS): 4.2, Family Guy (Twentieth Television): 3.9, Dr. Phil (CBS): 3.8, Seinfeld (Sony Pictures Television): 3.7, CSI: NY (CBS): 3.3 -Oprah increased by 17 percent year-to-year, extending its dominance in talk to 515 consecutive weeks. -Dr. Phil was the only first-run strip (in any genre) to build from the prior week, with growth of six percent in households and as much as 13 percent among women 18-49. -Two and a Half Men extended its winning streak in the off-net sitcom genre to 73 consecutive weeks in households and 77 weeks among adults 25-54 (3.2). Charlie Sheen and company also finished first in the category among women 18-49 (2.6), women 25-54 (3.2) and men 25-54 (3.1). -Warner Bros.’ TMZ matched its season-high, with a 2.3 in households, while finishing first among all syndicated magazines for the 48th straight weeks among adults 18-34 (1.4). --------------- -Basic Cable Rankers – Week of March 16:What follows are the basic cable rankings in prime-time for the week of March 16, 2009 based on total viewers, adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and adults 18-34: Total Viewers:USA: 3.16 million, Fox News: 2.15, TBS: 1.71, TNT: 1.61, A&E: 1.55, Nick at Nite: 1.49, Lifetime: 1.40, Cartoon Network: 1.38, Sci Fi: 1.34, ESPN: 1.28 Adults 18-49:USA: 1.29 million, TBS: 987,000, TNT: 800,000, A&E: 680,000, Comedy Central: 647,000, Sci Fi: 645,000, ESPN: 624,000, VH1: 585,000, FX: 561,000, Spike TV: 560,000 Adults 25-54:USA: 1.38 million, TBS: 920,000, TNT: 788,000, A&E: 758,000, Sci Fi: 722,000, ESPN: 592,000, History: 574,000, Discovery: 553,000, Spike TV: 552,000, Lifetime and Tru TV: 541,000e each Adults 18-34:USA: 574,000, TBS: 526,000, VH1: 393,000, TNT: 392,000, Comedy Central: 387,000, ESPN: 344,000, MTV: 322,000, ABC Family: 302,000, FX: 285,000, Nick at Nite: 277,000 Source: Nielsen Media Research data_______________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Thursday 3/26/09 ABC: 8:00 p.m. In the Motherhood (series premiere) 8:30 p.m. Samantha Who? (return, new day and time) 9:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy 10:00 p.m. Private Practice CBS: 8:00 p.m. 2009 NCAA Basketball: Regional Semi-Finals, Day 1 NBC: 8:00 p.m. My Name is Earl 8:30 p.m. The Office (R) 9:00 p.m. The Office 9:30 p.m. 30 Rock10:00 p.m. ER Fox: 8:00 p.m. American Idol Results Show 9:00 p.m. Hell’s Kitchen CW: 8:00 p.m. Smallville 9:00 p.m. Supernatural MTNV 8:00 p.m. Movie: The Man in the Iron Mask (R) New Program Descriptions: In the Motherhood (ABC) -The Scoop:Three very different mothers try to juggle work, love and their parental duties in this sitcom derived from the web based series. Megan Mullally, Cheryl Hines and Jessica St. Clair star. -The Reality:Too bad the competition tonight includes the live American Idol Results Show, which was pushed back one day because of President Obama’s speech on Tuesday. What looks promising is unlikely to get sampled and that is a real shame because In the Motherhood is a sitcom the masses can relate to. My advice to ABC: a) be patient, and b) find a better time period. How about trimming Dancing With the Stars to 90-minutes on Monday, leading into In the Motherhood at 9:30 p.m.? ________________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -Mark Your Calendars, Movie Fans:ABC has announced that The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will air live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, March 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET. The annual Barbara Walters special is expected to kick-off the night at 7 p.m. ET, followed by the live Red Carpet special at 8 p.m. ET. -Twentieth Television Announces Clearances for 5th Grader:Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, the upcoming stripped half-hour syndicated version of the game show from Twentieth Television has been sold in 95 markets for a fall 2009 premiere, representing 80 percent of the country. Hosted by Jeff Foxworthy and from Mark Burnett Productions in association with Zoo Productions, 5th Grader has been cleared in 29 of the top 30 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Dallas. Stations signed on for the syndicated version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? include New York/WPIX, Los Angeles/KTTV, Chicago/WPWR, Philadelphia/WPHL, San Francisco/KICU, Boston/WFXT, Houston/KTXH, Washington/WDCA, Cleveland/WBNX, Atlanta/WAGA, Minneapolis/WUWC, Baltimore/WUTB, Seattle/KMYQ, Sacramento/KTXL, Portland/KRCW, Indianapolis/WXIN-WTTV, Hartford-New Haven/WTIC-WTXX, Orlando/WRDQ, St. Louis/KPLR and Denver/KDVR-KWGN. --------------- -ION Unveils Programming Plans for 2009-10:ION Television, the home of quality off-network programming with a “Positively Entertaining” theme, will pepper its schedule next fall with the addition of CBS dramas Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds, plus three original Canadian dramas -- Durham County, The Border and The Guard. The plan is to strip Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds weeknights from 8-10 p.m., leading into a 10 rotation this fall of Durham County, plus repeats of Boston Legal and NCIS. Durham County tells the tale of a homicide detective from Toronto (Hugh Dillon) who moves his family to Durham Country to start over after his partner is killed and his wife is diagnosed with breast cancer. But the situation gets even worse when he realizes his neighbor may be a serial killer. Dramas The Border and The Guard will join the prime time line-up (also expected at 10 p.m.) in 2010. The Border is a procedural drama focused on Canadian immigration and customs agents and how they deal with various border security issues. The Guard follows four Canadian Coast Guard specialists who face daily danger out on the Pacific Ocean. ION, in addition, will launch 12 original movies in 2009-10, including a Christmas-themed made-for scheduled to debut in December. The original titles will air on the weekends. For more information on ION, click here. http://www.iontelevision.com --------------- -Cartoon Network Announces Programming Initiatives for 2009-10:Cartoon Network, the home of must see animation, has unveiled 19 new programming ventures for 2009-10, including three animated action/adventure series, four animated comedies, six live action half-hour series, three live-action specials, one CG-animated movie, and two hour-long live-action pilots. New regularly scheduled series include Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, about a boy and his dog in a strange land; Stoked, the story of six teenage surfers; Total Drama Action, which showcases all the elements of reality television; Sym-Bionic Titan, a hybrid of high school drama and giant robot battles, game show Head Rush (working title), reality/competition Survive This, and video clip show Bobb’e Says. Movies will include Ben 10: Alien Swarm, Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins, Firebreather and Tiger’s Apprentice, about an orphaned teenage boy whom is put under the protection of a mystical tiger who can take human form. Cartoon Network, in addition, will air 164 new half-hour episodes of established animated product. Returning series will include Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Chowder, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, The Secret Saturdays and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. _________________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Remember Osgood P. Conklin? Which one of the following series featured a character named Osgood P. Conklin? a) The Many Loves of Dobie Gillisb) Our Miss Brooksc) Petticoat Junctiond) Skage) The White Shadow The answer to yesterday’s question… What city did Phyllis Lindstrom move to after she left Minneapolis? AtlantaBostonPhoenixSan Francisco Tampa Is: d) San Francisco. Mary’s pesky neighbor (and landlord) headed to San Francisco for a new start after never-before-seen husband Lars died. All together now… Who makes the fog surrounding the Golden Gate simply disappear?Phyllis, Phyllis.Who makes the warning bells on the cable cars play "The Gangs All Here"?Phyllis, Phyllis.Who charms the crabs at Fisherman's Wharf right out of their shells?Who lights the lamps of Chinatown just by walking in view? ... Who?Phyllis! Phyllis! Phyllis! It sure isn't you! -Current kudos goes to:Bruce Abbott, Mark Binda, Gerry Bixenspan, Kimay Bloch, Paul Certo, Larry Collins (2x), Annie Courtney, Reid David, Malcolm Dunlop, Stephen Ferrara, Carolyn Becker Hayes, Michael Holland, Bob Ingersoll, Stephen LaRue, Roberta Lee, Laura Nachman, Tony Naldrett, Alan Perris (2x), Alex Petrilli, Gordon Purcell, Michael Ratliffe, Arthur Reinstein, Con Rigg, Ron Salmon, Mark Simmons, Michelle Stanton, Mickie Steinmann, Ronnie Tallant, Larry Weinstock

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Idol Dominates Tuesday; Freshman Shows Flounder

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