The glass was either half full or half empty regarding Tuesday-night ratings for Fox. On the plus side, the season premiere of House (in its new 8 p.m. time slot) led all shows for the night with an average 14.4 million viewers in the overnights, and the network’s freshman series Fringe (from creator J.J. Abrams) retained 93 percent of its House lead-in, with 13.4 million viewers. Better still, episode 2 of Fringe boasted 4.4 million more eyes than the show’s two-hour premiere got last week (not counting its Sunday night encore). True, Fringe (and its super groovy title cards) clearly benefited last night by following Hugh Laurie’s established medical hit, but the folks at Fox have to be happy. The one troubling bit of data regarding the latter show, however, was the fact that House‘s numbers were off year to year. The season 4 premiere drew a final figure of 18.3 million, and last night’s overnights represent a 21 percent dip.(Do be sure to check out EW’s recent House cover story, as well as our Best and Worst Gallery of House‘s fourth season.)
Or to put it a different way, House lost more viewers between its fourth and fifth season premieres than The CW’s much-discussed 90210 snagged in total in the overnights yesterday. One not-negative note was that 90210‘s 3.3 million viewers was dead even with last week’s totals (which slipped 30 percent from the series premiere). Could it be the skin-and-bones physiques of the show’s leading ladies (a hot topic on our PopWatch blog today) are keeping those early viewers from coming back? Following 90210, the second episode of The CW’s Privileged drew 2.4 million viewers, down about 500,000 from last week’s series premiere.
Reality shows dominated the remainder of the prime-time lineup. The Biggest Loser: Families
premiered to an overnight audience of 7.8 million on NBC, and while
that figure was off about 26 percent from the show’s most recent
premiere (10.5 million on New Year’s Day 2008), the program did show
growth over every half hour of its two-hour running time. Meanwhile,
CBS’s season finale of Big Brother 10 — catch Josh Wolk’s Big Brother episode recap here, and Lynette Rice’s exit interview with the Big Brother 10
champ here — was up from its season 9 finisher. Last night’s telecast
drew an audience of 7.6 million, while the April 2008 finale drew only
6.4 million.
Reality shows dominated the remainder of the prime-time lineup. The Biggest Loser: Familiespremiered to an overnight audience of 7.8 million on NBC, and whilethat figure was off about 26 percent from the show’s most recentpremiere (10.5 million on New Year’s Day 2008), the program did showgrowth over every half hour of its two-hour running time. Meanwhile,CBS’s season finale of Big Brother 10 — catch Josh Wolk’s Big Brother episode recap here, and Lynette Rice’s exit interview with the Big Brother 10champ here — was up from its season 9 finisher. Last night’s telecastdrew an audience of 7.6 million, while the April 2008 finale drew only6.4 million.
I don’t think the networks have done a very good job in advertising the premieres for Fall TV season. My friends didn’t know it was a new ‘House’ last night….
The networks advertise in magazines and billboards and if you watch FOX, they have been showing spots the last 2 weeks. You have a copy of EW right? Hugh Laurie was on the cover last week. If that isn’t promotion, I don’t know what is then.
No TV Watch for House this season?
I really like privileged and think it is much better than 90210..the only part of 90210 that was exciting was when Kelly confronted Brenda and it was revealed who Kelly’s baby’s father was….so i hope they stick with Privileged!!!
I love House but hate the new time slot. Stupid DVR also cuts the last few minutes of the show. ARRRRG!
Seriously – what the hell is up with no TV Watches? Nothing for Bones or House, but heaven forbid you guys miss reviewing an episode of “The Hells” (that was a typo, but it’s too accurate to be corrected), “Gossip Girl”, or “ANTM”. Have all your reviewers been replaced by twelve year old girls?
If it wasn’t for Silver and Dixon, 90210 would suck
It makes me angry that Fox is pushing back its best show House for its much hyped newbie. Why did they have to do that? 9pm Tuesday nights has always been the best time when I can sit back and put my feet up, to enjoy my fave show!
PUT HOUSE BACK ON AT 9 P.M. WHERE IT BELONGS!!! GET RID OF 13!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE HOUSE and I ADORE HUGH LAURIE!
FOX and the writers are messing with HOUSE. FOX b/c they needed a lead-in for Fringe (which I did not watch), and the writers for not listening to the fans when we cry, GET RID OF 13!
They think they know better than we do what we will like/dislike about the show. This is not a few viewers not liking 13, this is a majority!
PUT HOUSE BACK ON TUESDAY AT 9 P.M. and GET RID OF 13!!!!! Then watch your
ratings zoom again!!
Wilson come home!
We love you, Hugh!
Fingers crossed for the Emmy on Sunday!
i’ve been coming back again and again looking for House recap. I’ll settle for a popwatch or whatever you call it. where is it?!?!?! It was such a great episode. worthy of a full recap.. hello??? anybody out there???
Sara, you read my mind. Lately, EW’s had such a preoccupation with these shows: 90210, Gossip Girl, The Hills, etc…who do they think their readers are, for Pete’s sake? Those shows get 5 million viewers, tops, whereas Bones and House and Fringe get millions and millions more, and are actually for (gasp!) grown-ups! Hey EW–I’ll volunteer, if your writers are too busy watching MTV! (That statement excludes Jeff Jensen, smartest EW columnist EVER.)
I’m with you Jen80. Inane shows like 90210, Gossip Girl, and MTV’s reality cr@pola are highlighted constantly in each issue — one wonders if EW is hiring Teen People rejects (thus the A and B grade reviews). So sad.
Put House back to 9pm then the ratings will improve.
WHERE IS THE TV WATCH FOR HOUSE????????
I think the fact that House ratings have gone done so much is because loyal fans who stuck with this show from the beginning and were always promised from the end of season 3, that the original team would be back in full capacity, had enough and couldn’t be bothered to watch anymore after what happened in season 4.
The new team pretty much sucks, 13 even had more screen time than House – and he’s the main character. So if Shore and Co. are wondering why there’s a 21% drop in ratings, look back at the past season and the season premiere and you’ll see. There’s only so much that Hugh Laurie can do on his own (and he’s doing great) but the reason why House worked previously was because of the amazing supporting cast that shared proper chemistry. Now it just looks disjointed and even more forced than it should be.