The introduction of the Justice Society lifted Smallville to new heights. Last night’s much-hyped two-hour episode, “Absolute Justice,” attracted roughly 2.8 million viewers, the show’s largest audience of the season. It also gave The CW its best Friday night in more than a year. From a demo perspective, the feature-length episode earned season-high numbers in all categories, including adults 18-49 (tie), men 18-49, and adults 18-34.
Did the episode fall short, meet, or surpass our expectations? Sound off below! And for Ken Tucker’s assessment, click here.
Oh did it EVER exceed expectations. The fight between Stargirl and Icicle was unbelievable. Dr. Fate stole ever scene he was in. A fantastic show, a fantastic episode!
Dr Fate was cool
I SECOND THAT….Dr. Fate was really cool!
FUNNY MOMENT….When Lois compliments him on his superhero outfit and he responds with a quick “thank you”. Curious if Geoff Johns actually wrote that one in or if actor Brent Stait improve that line LOL Overall, it was a good episode!
whoops….
I meant “IMPROV” (typo) XP
The show as a whole was a good show, however I thought the climax was very anti-climatic. Clark could have taken out Icicle all by himself with no problem. I also think it’s about time to let Clark fly!!!!!
I thought it was awesome. Dr. Fate was amazing, Waller was fantastic.
Clark was heroic and I loved the glimpses of his fate, and Lois’!
smallville better come back for another season bceause absolute justice made the ratings go up and i personally would like to see dr. fate come back and go deeper into the clois realationship. Absolute justice rocked!!!!!!CLarks fate rocked it was awesome
It was great. Totally delivered beyond all expectations.
I liked it also
Wow 2.8 is pathetic. I guess not much is expected of this show. For a show that had the JSA, it should have average way past 3million. I bet the CW demos weren’t that great either (talking about women 18-34).
For the CW, 2.8 million is really really great. Why don’t you check your facts before you write
CW has managed to get over 4 or 5 million with many shows (including Smallville in its prime). 2.8 million is NOT “really really great”
it’s a friday night two-hour event for a show in its ninth season on the cw. 2.8 million average IS “really really great”.
No, 2.8 is NOT great. The 4.03 that the Vampire Diaries had the night before is pretty good. Viewers are just so out of touch with quality television anymore, it’s pathetic. And The CW really did nothing special to help plug this movie event. Too bad. It was an amazing two-hours.
Uh he/she is right. 2.8 is very poor. Might be great for CW and Smallville (AND a Friday night). But 2.8 for most shows would be laughable and a definite death knell. Ratings-wise it totally sucks.
You may think 2.8 million is poor. But it’s still pretty high factoring in the age-range it’s set for, the fact it’s on Friday night, and beat a season-finale dollhouse episode. One tree hill averages 1.97 million, Supernatural averages 1.54 million, Smallville usually averages 1.49 million…
CW doesn’t have as many outlets as other networks so that’s actually quite good for them. How about you check facts before you comment.
Daniel obviously doesn’t realize the difference between shows on friday nights compared to sun-thurs nights.
It’s called the death slot for a reason.
actually the only CW show to hit 4 million an episode is vampire diaries. every other show does 2 million or lower except smallville and supernatural.
exactly Stefano but this is on a Friday so what do those Tuesday and Monday episodes have to say for themselves. Like Heroes for instance with better advertising and more outlets those rating are are sad. Smallville does great for having partically zero advertising and being on on a Friday
and veronica mars did over 3 million and EVERWOOD used to score 4 million on the WB ooh how i miss them
Actually, for the CW, on a Friday, it’s REALLY great. Shows like Dollhouse on a major network like Fox couldn’t manage to achieve these ratings. If it was on a different night, I would agree that it’s bad, but it’s not. Friday always has lower expectations than other nights.
I miss the good ol’ days on The WB. Somehow even though it was still small like the CW, somehow it got better ratings overall. Smallville premiered with almost 10 million viewers, and kept around 6 million for the first 2-3 years or so. Then, it fell to around 4-5, and stayed between 3-4 for years, until they moved it to Friday.
As for Supernatural…it started with a good 6 million in the first season, then kinda fell to 3-4million and now it brings 2-4 million usually.
Wow, a LOT of ill-informed (OK, let’s just say non-informed) comments being made. What was “Everybody Hates Chris” getting on Fridays a year ago? Maybe 2 million viewers?
And to Daniel below and his “5 million” “fact,” I can only ask: “WHEN?”
Smallville, Supernatural, America’s Next Top Model and Vampire Diaries have all managed to get between 4 and 5 million viewers. That’s 4 out of CW’s 9 shows. 4-5 million is not impossible for CW – it actually happens quite often.
Sorry but Supernatural has never averaged between 4 and 5 million ever. some episodes back in season 1 may have hit 4 but that was nearly 4 years ago. The other 3 have but your counting a reality show which is cheap to produce and no one cares what the ratings are really. WB just doesnt come close anymore to the ratings it used to in its prime. So sadly high 2′s are great for them.
Steve: Supernatural in the first season actually had between 4-6 million throughout the season. Then, it stayed around 3-4 million and now it mostly stays between 2-3 million. Also, it’s been almost 5 years. (late 2005- Early 2010)
I guess it seems like the 10th season of Smallville is a guarantee now. That is great, and I’m glad Absolute Justice performed well!
Have people forgotten that SV used average 8 million in it’s prime? So 2.8 million sucks quite frankly….but given Dawn Ostroff is in charge of this channel, I guess it’s decent.
Can they please bring back The WB? I miss the quality of those shows
Is it really possible that most of you don’t understand the difference between friday night ratings compared to sun-thurs nights?
Or do you not realize that this is the first season SV is airing on friday night cause the cw figured it was finished….but then us fans said um nah not yet.
it’s a show on the CW, keep that in mind … plus Smallville is in it’s 9th season
I don’t believe that the JSA is popular enough to expect a ratings boost to 3 million. Even if the comic was producing the sales that it was before Johns left, I don’t see it.
The fact they sent it to Friday to die a slow death is telling. There ratings have been dropping.
Supernatural low is 2.75 with a high of 3.14 for this season. Better for previous seasons.
Rating means money and production. If they cannot get ratings up the show may cost money than it brings in and face cancellation. This is one of those industry stories to help the show so it doesn’t get canceled.
But when the old producers and more than half the original cast left what was left for the show.
Hit 3 million in the last half an hour!
Didn’t watch it, but congrats to the show. That and Supernatural are the only two bareable shows CW has.
I agree. The WB shouldn’t have merged with UPN to become the CW. The move cost the WB some of its best shows. Plus, if you notice, aside from ANTM, all the highest rated CW shows are from the WB. UPN hasn’t contributed much.
I was really upset by the merger of WB and UPN.
WB had some great shows and UPN had some good shows… Star Trek for example.
The merger wasn’t good for the audience, nor was a boost for ratings. I wish they would break-up
How’s this for a lineup: (The WB, 2000-01)
7th Heaven, Roswell, Buffy, Angel, Dawson’s Creek, Felicity, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, Sabrina, Popular, and Sun. comedies Jamie Foxx, Steve Harvey, For Your Love, etc.
Jason, they were the days. CW is pretty poor. They pretty much just recycle long-dead shows. Vampire Diaries and Supernatural are great. The others.. not so much.
i loved it the only thing that could have improved that episode beyond its greatness is if he flew
The CW has lower ratings expectations than the big 3 networks because it doesn’t have so many outlets. I’m glad the episode did well, and I hope Dawn Ostroff see’s the value in this genre. JSA spin off!
Season 10 here we come
yeah i definitely wouldn’t be surprised if they renewed it for nexy year in may
I sure hope there is a season 10, its so rare, we all know this, to have a great story that is interesting for TEN years with the same lead…(darn you one tree hill, should have ended) so I am stoked
LOVED IT!! great episode it definitely met my expectations
This was a GREAT episode. It was much better than I thought it would be. IMO the best dynamic was between Green Arrow and Hawkman. And Hooray for getting Chloe out a little bit!
One of my favorite episodes of the series!
This episode was spectacular…so much action. Loved Dr. Fate and Hawk man.
My CW station broadcast 1 hour of a black screen then showed the 2nd hour. They should have started at 9pm and not broadcast and hour of Raymond repeats.
A few years ago, when I watched Smallville, it easily got 4 million viewers every week.
So while 2.8 million is the best of the season, it’s actually pretty pathetic considering what the show used to be capable of.
Agreed.
The show also didn’t used to air on FRIDAY nights Mandy. And the show is in it’s 9th season now. Don’t you understand how rare it is for a show to be able to continune to bring in viewers on a FRIDAY night in it’s 9th season? That is a big deal and it does show that there is a core group that is still very interested in the show. Check your facts before you judge.
MJ, you nailed it on the dot, thank you!
Seriously, when you consider things like how Grey’s Anatomy’s is in it’s 6th season, still one of the most popular shows on tv and yet has dropped over 26 million viewers since it’s best point, and 10-12 million viewers on average from only a few years ago.
Considering that, Smallville has only changed a small amount, especially considering it’s moved to a Friday, where shows on the big four networks can’t even garner 10 million viewers.
@Dee
Usually, the amount of viewers of a TV show is compared to the amount of viewers on all TV shows. But when you narrow it down to Friday nights, yes, it’s not awful. What about if you narrow it down to Friday nights at 9pm? Or Friday nights in February? Or Friday nights on February 5, 2010?
2.8 million might be good for Smallville, this season, on Friday nights. But it’s really nothing spectacular in any other sense.
This JSA episode was fantastic and had a quality level in storytelling and action that each episode should have from here on. It also makes up for that god awful season finale from last year with the “big battle” between Clark and Doomsday. THAT episode totally failed expectations.
Haha, so true. Season 8 was pretty decent, aside from that horrific season finale. I think we all just try to forget it ever happened.
Ohter than that, SV has always had good season premieres and finales. And actually, for the most part, its episodes tend to please. Absolute Justice showed how good SV can be. Now, I am really looking forward to the next episodes.
It was good, but kinda like watching Watchmen in SV
Shanks was great as Hawk man but he needed to draw a little more blood, and have Clark reign him in.
Clark needs to grow a pair, Suit up and freakin fly for gods sake he is Superman! Lois is hot, let’s get in on.I want to see her sexy and slutty
Also bring back LEX!!!!!
Superman can’t be superman without a super villian, So write the freaking check already!
Michael Rosenbaum is worth every dollar, come on it hasn’t been the same .
We need that evil spark,
that super foe!