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Welcome Back
September 22
Welcome back to the Fall Season of The
Numbers Game. It's time to go through the past 2 weeks in ratings,
starting at the beginning of September and see what hits (or misses) we
got....
MONDAY, September 1/8
DEAL OR NO DEAL (NBC)
September 1: 10.89 million (2.6 for 18-49)
September 8: 9.61 million (2.1 for 18-49)
It's still pulling in very good numbers, and the numbers should go
higher once Heroes shows up in a few weeks. But I'm wondering - did they
really have to show a million dollar winner during Labor Day? It's
obvious that they did air those episodes out of order, and maybe they
didn't want to air it against Dancing With The Stars or Monday Night
Football on ESPN, but still...Labor Day?
AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS (NBC)
September 1: 7.33 million (2.4 for 18-49)
September 8: 6.48 million (2.6 for 18-49)
Obviously, the boost there was for the Million Dollar win on DOND last
week. It's bleeding viewers, which does not bode well when it moves to
Friday, the zone where most game shows go to die. But I say most, as
you'll see later...
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL - GET IN THE PICTURE (ABC)
September 1: 2.15 million (0.6 for 18-49)
September 8: 4.13 million (1.1 for 18-49) (Season /Series Finale)
It doesn't matter what day you put this one on - this one's dead. Over
on WLTI, we have a game show zombie named Augustus who eats dead game
shows. I'm going to put this one on my grocery list when I go out to
Stop and Shop.
TUESDAY
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (NBC)
September 2: 11.0 million (2.8 for 18-49)
September 9: 11.6 million (2.6 for 18-49)
This is the beast of the Summer. With only 2 weeks to go, this show is
the only one that would have a chance to do anything if it was brought
back in the Winter. That being said, NBC would be wise not to, as it
would only dilute the product. NBC has a nice looking stable of Summer
programming for 2009 - if they are smart enough to keep it there.
BIG BROTHER 10 (CBS)
September 2: 6.5 million (2.4 for 18-49)
September 9: 6.98 million (2.6 for 18-49)
The little show that could is still moving strong - and with much better
ratings than last version (and much better gameplay) is all but assured
an 11th season. Maybe some of you guys out there disagree, but the
numbers disagree with you.
WIPEOUT (ABC)
September 2: 5.91 million (2.1 for 18-49) (Repeat)
September 9: 7.1 million (3.0 for 18-49) (Season Finale)
This show will get a well-deserved Summer renewal, and ABC has one
Summer Staple of their own. The 18-49 rating was better than AGT's
18-49. Do us all a favor though - don't put the show in the Winter.
Please. I beg you. Resist the temptation of putting this as filler when
one of your September shows fails. This is a sterling example of a show
that will work in the Summer that won't work in the Winter.
HOLE IN THE WALL (FOX)
September 9: 5.1 million (2.1 for 18-49)
Considering that it lost 45% of their audience after Fringe, I'm
guessing that these are not the numbers that FOX wanted to see from
their highly advertised show. More on this later on...
WANNA BET? (CBS)
September 2: 3.87 million (1.5 for 18-49) (Season / Series Finale)
It doesn't matter what season you put this on. This one's toast for
Augustus. And Ant and Dec are 0 for 2 in the States.
WEDNESDAY
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (NBC)
September 3: 10.15 million (2.7 for 18-49)
September 10: 11.49 million (2.5 for 18-49)
AGT is cruising along with their massive numbers. However, check out the
18-49 numbers - the 2.5-2.7 is VERY low for a show that has between
10-11 million people watching. That means the elders are watching - and
probably voting. That would explain why Elvis is getting through and why
the little kids may have a major problem come the Round of 10.
AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (CW)
September 3: 3.5 million (1.7 for 18-49)
September 10: 3.84 million (2.0 for 18-49)
That rebound has to come to a relief to Tyra and company. Still, with it
going up directly against AGT for the next 2 weeks, expect lower numbers
until October.
GREATEST AMERICAN DOG (CBS)
September 3: 4.89 million (1.4 for 18-49)
September 10: 5.53 million (1.7 for 18-49) (Season or Series Finale)
With a plummet of over 45% between the debut and the finale, the chances
for renewal are iffy at best. If I was a gambling man, I would say that
this show may be going up to the Great Dog House in the sky. I wonder if
Augustus thinks that dog tastes just like chicken.
THURSDAY
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (NBC)
September 11: 9.64 million (2.3 for 18-49)
Not bad for a show that usually isn't aired on Thursdays. But it should
feel foolish that it lost to this...
BIG BROTHER 10 (CBS)
September 4: 6.46 million (2.2 for 18-49)
September 11: 7.93 million (2.7 for 18-49) (Against AGT)
More people ages 18-49 wanted to see 75 year old Jerry get kicked out of
the house than wanted to know who the Top Ten AGT Finalists are. This is
why the show is going to get renewed.
HOLE IN THE WALL (FOX)
September 11: 5.37 million (2.3 for 18-49)
So this is the show that FOX shelved The Moment of Truth for? Not good.
Even on its worst episodes, The Moment of Truth did better than that.
And I expect these numbers to get worse once Survivor and new episodes
of My Name Is Earl and Ugly Betty show up. Hence, expect TMOT to return
to Thursday nights sooner, rather than later - even if it is in burn-off
mode, which I suspect that HITW may be relegated to shortly.
FRIDAY
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER? (FOX)
September 5: 7.57 million (2.0 for 18-49)
September 12: 6.92 million (1.8 for 18-49)
These are very strong numbers for a Friday night - especially
considering the show won it's timeslot in both categories on the 5th and
in 18-49 on the 12th. Apparently families do like to get together on
Friday nights. If these numbers stay like this for the season, FOX has
found it's new Friday night programming for a long time to come.
DON'T FORGET THE LYRICS (FOX)
September 12: 5.72 million (1.7 for 18-49)
Like 5th Grader, DFTL's numbers are a drop from Thursdays, but the show
also wins the 18-49 demographics for the night in that time slot. And
just like 5th grader, if these numbers stay like this, Wayne Brady will
be singing and dancing for a while.
SUNDAY
BIG BROTHER 10 (CBS)
September 7: 7.62 million (2.7 for 18-49)
September 14: 7.22 million (2.2 for 18-49)
Of course, it did have the help of both 60 minutes and the overrun of
NFL Football, but for a repeat / clip show, a 7+ is a very nice number.
Next week: Do the numbers go up? Do they go down? How does The Biggest
Loser do? Join us next week for the results.
Gordon Pepper also goes better on Thursdays. E-mail him at
gordon@gameshownewsnet.com.
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