Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers Lead CBS to Thursday Victory

23 Comments

1. FROM ABC

   ABC Thursday Prime (8-11pm – 5.4 million and 1.4/5 in AD18-49): Opposite strong sports competition from CBS’ Thursday Night Football coverage and the MLB Playoffs between two of the Top 3 market teams (LA Dodgers-Chicago Cubs), as well as Fox’s highly-promoted Rocky Horror Picture Show, ABC delivered the #1 entertainment program on Thursday in Adults 18-49 with Grey’s Anatomy. In fact, Grey’s beat out runner-up Rocky Horror Picture Show by 24% on the night as the top non-sports show in Adults 18-49 (2.1/8 vs. 1.7/6). Grey’s was Thursday’s highest-rated TV series for the 5th straight week this season.

   · ABC’s Thursday primetime delivery was up week to week by 8% in Adults 18-49 (1.4/5 vs. 1.3/5).

   ABC’s Thursday Dramas Score Biggest L+3 Lifts Last Week: From L+SD to Live + 3 Day Adults 18-49, last week’s telecast of Grey’s surged by a season-best +62%, freshman Notorious jumped by a best-yet +63% and Murder shot up +91% to post the series’ two biggest-ever L+3 lifts back to back. In addition, last Thursday’s Grey’s scored its largest actual L+3 increase this season among Adults 18-49, growing by +1.3 rating points to a 3.4 rating to hold even with the prior week (after being down by 2-tenths in L+SD).

   · Starting out last night at 8pm, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy was up week to week by 4% in Total Viewers (8.1 million vs 7.8 million) and held even with Adults 18-49 (2.1/8).

   · At 9pm, ABC’s freshman Notorious grew week to week in both Total Viewers (+3% – 4.0 million vs. 3.9 million) and Adults 18-49 (+13% – 0.9/3 vs. 0.8/3).

   · Surging over its lead-in at 10pm (+8%/+33%), ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder increased from the prior week by 8% in Total Viewers (4.3 million vs. 4.0 million) and 9% in Adults 18-49 (1.2/4 vs. 1.1/4). Beating out NBC’s The Blacklist by 9% in the hour (1.1/4), ABC’s Murder ranked as the #1 TV series in its slot for the 5th week running this season among Adults 18-49.

2. Solid demo numbers for Rocky Horror Picture Show but not a big audience. At least for the first time this season outside of Wednesdays, FOX actually looked like a real network for once. FOX literally praying for the Cubs not to execute a repeat of the 2003 NLCS this weekend against the Dodgers who come in with really nothing to play for and that makes for a dangerous circumstance for the Cubbies putting all of that pressure on them.

   Next week will be interesting for CBS as BBT comes in with a new comedy behind it and the return of Mom and maybe the death season of Life in Pieces. I’m expecting Pure Genius to not only be Pure Garbage but to be Purely Cancelled.

   Wow those ratings for the NBC comedies absolutely suck and next week BBT comes in. Although The Bad Place went up by a point it came in to the day fractional which is never good and a 1.0 is basically fractional too if you’re not 1.2 or over you’re done. Now it’s below 4 million as well so NBC can say goodbye to these two loser ass comedies. What a huge mistake by NBC giving Superstore 22 episodes. Wow those are some fucking idiots over there and they gave this show a damn Olympic episode as well and there’s nothing to show for it. Seriously NBC needs to move these losers to Friday nights and burn them off over there and give Chicago Med and The Blacklist a real lead-in maybe Little Big Shots or even Blindspot which is a better fit with these shows. Chicago Med has to always do some heavy lifting just to get the network to 7 million viewers every week.

   Ms. Dungey is just letting that TGIT block just rot and Grey’s has nothing around it either. They’re actually making Scandal look valuable now and man you can put ABC’s biggest dramas of the past three seasons Murder, Quantico, and Designated Survivor as pure flops the biggest flops of the past 3 years on any network and ABC has won that award congratulations.

   Only good news to come out of ABC is the new Carol Burnett comedy coming out next season potentially. That’s all they have going for them literally.

   Go Lions this weekend against the Deadskins! Stafford finally playing like a top 3 QB in the league.

   • Rocky Horror outright disappointed. A 1.7 demo for a musical is not good. Just another bad day for Fox.

     And I’m fearful for your home town Cubbies this weekend. Very possible the Dodgers win both games at Wrigley with Kershaw and Hill on the mound. Cubs were up 3-1 in the 2003 NLCS and we saw how that collapsed. But I want to see Chicago finally reach the WS.

     Ratings are no longer favorable for HTGAWM but it’ll see another year on ABC. And Designated Survivor — the show you were already down on before it even aired because it booted the niche Nashville out — is the No. 1 new series in C3 adjustment over L+SD BY FAR. It has since performed better over the likes of veteran boosters-to-C3 Empire, BBT, and Modern Family and all the TGIT shows. No new show has even come close. Nashville has NEVER performed this well from L+SD to C3.

     Best to get used to Designated Survivor!

     And please, refrain from foul language. Thank you.

     • But the boost is not what counts. It’s the final tally that does. That’s where those numbers are really spin over substance (especially when they’re talking percentages).

       You won’t get an argument from me about Nashville. I thought they should have canned it immediately and it hurt ABC for all the years it was on.

     • I don’t really disagree about Rocky Horror Picture Show, should’ve been on a Sunday after football but this is just a reflection of how irrelevant the FOX network has become these days. It’s a netlet now like The Cw.

       Not my hometown and I’m upset the Cubs won but happy for FOX because they can really use a high-rated World Series.

       Like I told you before don’t ever talk to me about the C3 and L+SD crap again it’s irrelevant and if it’s not live don’t matter. You wrote a paragraph like you were a spin doctor for ABC.

       Don’t tell me what to do I’m a grown man but I will keep the language down but still will be using it from time-to-time. Thank you!

       • Of course I’ll detail C3 because that’s the most relevant metric to broadcasters and advertisers. It’s not spin when it’s a fact that Designated Survivor is most thriving. The sooner you handle that info, the better!

         • I’ve never seen C3 numbers on the site.

           Did I miss them somehow?

   • Pure Genius: Isn’t that the reality show about TV executives masterminding the lowest-rated season ever? 😉

     Looking like a real network: Amazing it can be said about a network getting a paltry 5 million viewers with a special event.

     Part of the problem, besides what I wrote in another post may be that Fox no longer has enough cash on hand to promote special events…

     Ratings for cancellation: Besides the usual, a 1.0 is as tiny as a 1.2 (the difference isn’t even more than the sampling error!) They’re just excuses to renew the better connected flops. Scream Queens showed that we have finally entered the era where no audience at all doesn’t kill a show any longer.

     Of course, lack of ad revenue WILL kill the networks practicing flop renewal, but the executives will have long left with their pocket lined up with bonuses and Golden Parachutes…

     NBC comedies: I do feel like your expletive-filled rant. 🙂 As always, I think it’d be bad to have Friday become the new place where crappy shows go to die. Then again, we’re about to lose most of the nights to “you just can’t program Randomdays”… 🙁

     ABC: Dungey renewing the flops aplenty is paying off in droves. As with NBC where the flops make the Chicagos look like essential to the survival of the network, Scandal looks like a must-keep in spite of its low ratings.

     For someone who grew up loving our TV output, this is quite depressing.

     • I love that Rena about Pure Genius it made me laugh hard. LOL!

       It clearly showed for FOX that nobody will watch anything on there outside of their Wednesday offerings and even that has slipped from years past and live sports broadcasts.

       FOX’s excuse to renew Scream Queens is the worst I’ve ever seen so far no doubt about it. Advertisers need to step in before everything on broadcast TV scores under 3 million viewers because they’re the ones truly paying the price for these bad decisions. Time for a ratings system too a more accurate one.

       My goal for NBC is to kill those comedies but I’m like you that I don’t want to see Fridays used anymore for wasteland television so maybe Saturdays is a better option for the burn-off. I was being nice as you can tell offering Fridays over Saturdays. LOL! Either way NBC needs to can those two and move on because unless they plan on doing a Friends reunion where all they do is drink coffee for 1 hour and don’t say anything they’re not going anywhere in the comedy department anytime soon.

       Robert Greenblatt = Can’t Program Comedies

       I’m not going to lie ABC’s flops are making the Chicago shows look good, Dick Wolf should thank those ABC flops no doubt about it. ABC is in desperation mode they need Scandal.

       This is really depressing no doubt I’m glad I can talk to you about it on here Rena because guys like Son of the Bronx always defend their spins and excuses.

       • Thanks Hello Larry. You can’t mess up that badly without huge talent and lots of time spent getting degrees… 😉

         Advertisers are only paying in that it’s harder to get the impressions (that’s jargon for a viewers seeing a commercial) they need.

         They loved the network because they could fill-up their needs in making a few buys.

         That time is over.

         But they’re only paying for what they’re buying so it’s not like it’s costing them more at the end of the day (except maybe in labor to buy the ad time).

         So I don’t think they’ll “step in” or that they have any power to effect change (what are they going to say? Make better shows? To people like Channing Dungey and Bob Greenblatt who think they’re making masterpieces of the Golden Age of Television?!!)

         • Exactly but what I hope is that they stop becoming a partner with them because the corporate heads at Comcast and Disney aren’t going to like losing these partners because of these stubborn execs under them.

           • I don’t know they’ve ever been partners.

             The ad agencies are clients, all articles saying how the ad agencies give feedback on the new seasons notwithstanding.

             Interesting what you said. 🙂 It made me think that maybe it’s the owners who are stubbornly clinging to failed executives when they should have fired them all a long time ago and thought up better people to hire.

       • NBC: As long as Greenblatt is there, they should stop trying scripted. If Comcast wants scripted hits, it needs to do something daring. Maybe hand the network over to Dick Wolf. Don’t know what he’d do but it couldn’t be worse…

         Glad to talk to you too and that Marc and SotB let us express ourselves freely. 🙂

         On spin, it’s very hard for me to express myself without sounding insulting, like I did unintentionally to our friend who like HTGAWM – I hope he knows I meant no disrespect. 🙂 )

         It comes down to a large part on age. The younger you are, the more you have been barraged all your life with wilder and wilder spin.

         You used to get a good idea of how things worked reading Variety. Then Variety became a rag full of PR spin. Most site are like that (like my “buddies” at tvbytheprspin.com… 😉 )

         What helps spinmeisters is that most people have very short memories. They are very willing to accept “new normal” as they don’t really remember how it used to be. Maybe it’s a useful evolutionary response, but it makes spinning all the easier.

         Statistics are also incredibly easy to spin. Let me pick the point of origin of any series of numbers and I can show you any desired result. I’ll even make Scream Queens look good (huge percentage DVR increase people – a champ!!)

         Most people and sadly most journalists don’t have the knowledge of statistics to realize the degree to which those spins are applied (and that’s assuming the spinmeister is using real numbers which in the end-of-year tallies, they’re not, as they’re adding unaudited viewers).

         Box-office, as I mention it occasionally as this isn’t the topic is even worse as there’s no audited numbers available and the press acts like site like boxofficemojo are auditers.

         It is great however, that there is at least one spot where you can talk about the spin rather than be banned because you question it like the network hind-region-worshippers of tvbytheprspin.com… 😉

         • Yeah I appreciate Marc and SoB for that because a lot of these sites refuse to let us speak our minds. I like how small it is over here too no nonsense from upset fans who take offense to you or me bashing their favorite low-rated shows.

           I’ve been saying for a while just hand the scripted stuff over to Dick Wolf they could honestly run Law & Order and the Chicago shows all week and wouldn’t miss a beat.

           Greenblatt has gotten so desperate in the comedy area that he’s trying to reboot Will 7 Grace which is a good decision but it’s a clear reflection of how badly he failed in that area.

           It’s hard to read anything anymore as everything is spun around to make this garbage that isn’t exactly successful look like it then we get a bunch of fake hits on television and at the box office. Nothing is genuine like it used to be or memorable for that matter of fact. Like I was talking to Middle of Nashville on this other site I go to we were talking about NBC’s failures with comedies and I was like does anybody know any comedies that aired over the past 12 years since Friends, Frasier, and Will & Grace left the airwaves?

           • The level of discussion of the site has, I think, increased markedly recently.

             I hope this will continue.

             You are very right about upset fans who only go to ratings sites to read the spin that their favorite is really a big hit and get upset at the slightest whiff of reality or honest discussion.

             For some reason this reminds me of my favorite obtuse argument where people asked me to “prove” that what I was saying was right when they themselves didn’t realize that what they “knew” and took as Gospel was just PR spin and when asked to “prove” their side of the debate usually got very confused and aggressive before disappearing.

             Frankly I don’t miss it. 🙂

             You seem to be Dick Wolf’s biggest fan, so I knew you’d like my idea. 🙂 And I think that Mr. Wolf freed from the interference of the executive class would actually deliver much higher ratings and would pick more winners (hard to pick fewer!! 😉 ).

             One of the big problems with TV today is that the development people are no longer doing their job. They are not patiently sifting through dozens of projects to find the right ones. They pretend to (to pass the time) and know very well who they’ll order from before reading anything.

             And if you want proof 😉 look at the awfulness of most pilot scripts. Those haven’t been selected for their quality…

             Rebooting Will and Grace is so depressing that I don’t know what to say about it except that. 🙁 I agree with you of course that it’s an admission of utter failure, like FOX bringing back X-Files and 24.

             The networks spend so much energy trying to make their failure look good in the media, you wonder what would happen if that energy was deployed at looking objectively at how poorly they’re doing and righting the ship.

             On that other site, do they get mad when you tell them NBC has no comedy hit? 😉

3. As somebody who watches the Blacklist, I am confident the obsession with Liz’s baby is hurting the ratings. Every day I see on FB people complaining about how long this storyline is being dragged out!

   So many holes on Thursday overall.

   • The pilot episode of The Blacklist was one of the strongest starts to a series this decade. I still watch but I also recognize how far they’ve fallen quality-wise since then in only 3 years removed from that great start.

     • I still love the show for the most part. I can’t argue with you about that premiere! I am confused as to why NBC thought a show like Timeless can follow that kind of initial success after the Voice.

   • Agree with your observation on Thursdays. 🙂

     Hard to believe this was “Must-See Night” where networks launched hit after hit…

     Incidentally that’s why I never bought the “you can’t program on that night” nonsense. Someone not knowing how Thursdays were, even relatively recently would be certain this was a hard night to crack.

     • @marcberman:disqus can probably tell you why it use to be. I believe Thursday use to be the most advertiser demanded night of the regular season. I have no clue if it is now. TV has changed so much in how we watch and view it may not be anymore.

       • I’ll attempt my own answer. 🙂

         Thanks for the interesting question.

         I believe it had everything to do with movie advertising.

         Movies do advertise every day, but for big openings, Thursday is the Golden Day as it is close enough that people will remember the ad (at least more than if they’ve seen it Monday…) and it’s not Friday where the movie is already playing its first night.

         There’s also the “going out” factor as it was (and probably is) the night with most sets-in-use, making it comparatively easier to get more viewers to watch.

         Today it’s low-rated because the shows have been crappy for years (and years in the case of NBC 😉 ).

         But then again Dallas was a huge hit on Fridays, so it shows that “how we watch” is more a function of what’s to watch, not when it’s on.

4. Thursday Final Nationals: Disappointing Turnout for ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Musical Remake on Fox http://programminginsider.com/?p=12066

5. What to say other than Notorious is a huge weight on ABC’s not-so-great night and that HTGAWM should have been told to close down show last season…

   On FOX, maybe they forgot Rocky Horror is a “cult” musical, meaning no huge ratings… Also Victoria Justice isn’t exactly a name that’ll get people excited to watch.

   On NBC, Superstore and The Good Place are typical fake-edgy NBC duds. Their only virtue is to make Chicago Med look solid in comparison…

   The NFL’s ratings are so comparatively weak this season that the news is even talked about in the media. An explanation nobody considered is the effect of the whole “kneeling during the National Anthem”. When you have a bunch of what many consider whiny, overpaid athletes playing an overly violent game (I know if it’s so violent maybe they’re not overpaid but I didn’t say the perception had to be 100% logical!), could this have been the drop that made people tune out..?