Image Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images; Harper Smith/NBC; Bob D'Amico/ABCSheesh, have most of you given up on television for the remainder of 2010? A bunch of shows hit season lows on Monday, with specials like the American Country Awards practically dead on arrival. Perhaps you were shopping? Those who did tune in chose CBS over everybody else: The network won the night in adults 18-49 (3.3 rating/9 share) and viewers (10.5 million), even though only two of its shows posted gains versus their last original episodes. How I Met Your Mother was up 3 percent to a 3.6/10 (9.4 million) and Rules of Engagement was up 7 percent to a 3.1/8 (8.8 million), but Two and a Half Men hit a season low with a 4.1/10 (13.3 million), as did Mike & Molly (3.4/8, 11 million), and Hawaii Five-O (2.7/7, 10.2 million). Each 18-49 rating point represents 1.3 million viewers.
NBC finished second for the night in the demo (2.4/6) and viewers (7.3 million), with the two-hour special The Sing-Off posting a 22 percent gain versus last year (2.8/7) and averaging 8.5 million. Chase, however was down 6 percent versus last week (1.5/4) and only lured 5 million.
Fox and ABC were tied for third among 18-49 (1.5/4) while the Alphabet finished third in viewers (6 million) followed by Fox (5.9 million). Skating With The Stars posted another dreadful rating – a season low of 1.0/3, down 17 percent versus last week. It averaged 4.8 million. (You think ABC will renew this show?) There was a repeat of Modern Family, which did no favors for Castle: The drama earned a season low of 2.2/6 – down 12 percent from its last original on Nov. 15. It averaged 8.6 million.
Fox aired the American Country Awards, which earned a mere 1.4/5 in the demo and drew 6 million viewers.
I’d be curious to see the numbers for the big Jets/Patriots game last night. Perhaps that had something to do with the low numbers…and oversight in this column I feel.
No Castle last night for me in New Hampshire…the Pats were on Monday Night Football. Thanks for the reminder though. Going to watch it right now.
Maybe it’s because Boston and NYC were watching MNF?
I think that was a big part of it. I definitely would have been watching ‘Castle’ if it hadn’t been preempted by Pats vs. Jets. I tuned to ABC just for the background noise, and I’m happy for my home team, but I would have preferred some Nathan Fillion for my Monday night.
Not just Boston and NYC. I was too. Though many people in NY probably turned the game off early.
I watched every minute of the game. It’s great to see the Jets get hammered.
1 and 3 against teams with winning records. But I should not gloat since my Ravens can’t seem to close out games. D@mn you Cam Cameron!
Rob, I won’t mention that I’m a Steelers fan. Still, it’s become the best and most consistent rivalry in the NFL. Wish I wasn’t too nervous to watch.
Skating With The Stars was so bad I turned it off before I saw anyone skating.
It would be awesome if they cancelled the skating show before they picked a winner. “Ratings so bad we gave up.”
LOL, that would give me a reason to watch!! Stick a fork in it… its done
… and no one noticed it was gone.
Same here!
When I first saw the promos I thought it was a parody from SNL or Conan especially when Vince Neil appeared. This is up there on the unintentional comedy scale!
On the urging of my boss I tuned in. Holy cow. Could a show be any worse? (I don’t have cable so that might be rhetorical.) But I was actually embarrassed for the contestants – whoever they are. The judging….yikes. I think dear old Dick Buttons should have enjoyed his glory days of Olympics – for him to be known for this in his glory days? That’s unfair. What in the WORLD possessed him to take this job?
I watched Property Virgins (cuz House wasn’t on) and the Closer.
CLOSER opening was incredible.
Numbers are not accurate since 1/4 of the country was watching Monday Night Football. I am a Castle fan and very disappointed that I had to miss it because the local stations aired football. The game was on ESPN, there was no reason to air it on local ABC stations.
Maybe if the networks showed something decent I’d watch it.
“The Closer” was fantastic!!
Hope you DVRd Castle because it was great, especially the group musical number at the end. Nathan Fillion is so underrated.
Perhaps there are too many manufactured “country awards”.
Yeah. Who can tell them apart? It’s also December, which is not a month that exactly beckons country music anyway. Besides, it’s the same winners (Antebellum, Lambert, Paisley, maybe Swift) at all of these country awards.
I watched The Sing Off; I love that show, probably because I can’t sing and am in awe of anyone that can. The talent on there is really good!
I agree with Steph above. Boston and NY were preoccupied by MNF on ESPN. You should check those ratings. I know everyone I live with and know was watching it.
Too bad the game turned out to be a blowout.
Castle waited too long between new episodes, a 3 week break is too long.
Agreed…and now there’s another crazy break until JANUARY! ABC is screwing with Castle fans big time. I hope the show doesn’t lose viewers because of it.
It was a two week break but it also came off of a real bad lead in. Ratings were low across the board as 5-0 had a series low with a 2.7 after two week long hiatus but with a better lead in.
I know–you’d figure the networks would understand the concept of momentum. You can’t be gone for a few weeks then have a rerun right before a new show and expect people to watch. We all thought Castle had closed for the year. My PVR was smart enough to record it.
But c’mon, who’s going to watch the networks when you have another of the hundred meaningless award shows, SWTS–only the “stars” relatives are watching now, and reruns? We were watching DVDs in one room and a new videogame download in another.
I recorded Castle. It is must-see tv for me. I agree with Lucy. I think Castle fans thought new episodes were done until after the holidays.
If something worth watching were on TV, we would all be watching or DVRing things. I personally am just bored of TV right now. Only a few shows on that I really enjoy watching and actually look forward to each week: The Amazing Race, Fringe, The Middle, and I guess Parenthood is pretty worth the time. But other than that, there just isn’t much appointment TV on this year. Tried some new shows (The Event, No Ordinary Family, Raising Hope, Hawaii 50, ect… but big disappointment. They are all off my viewing list! Lots of great casts, without good shows.TV execs, listen-up; develop great shows, get awesome casts & writers, advertise, and then do not, I repeat, do not cancel the show after a few weeks, or one season. Stick with the shows, advertise them more, support the developers, and let the shows grow into hits. Don’t expect every show to get 14 million viewers. Seems like if a show doesn’t get above a magical number of viewers (in the 18-39 range) it is laid to rest in the cemetery of dead TV shows. So sad!
HEAR! HEAR! from your post to network executives’ ears. Especially the part about not expecting every show to have 14 million viewers or some other magical number that is unreachable for most shows. The only thing I would add is to let a show run without any weeks off. It is the hiatus that can kill a shows momentum. More time needs to be spent on scheduling properly so that breaks are not necessary.
I agree. It wasn’t until I saw my DVR record light come on did I realize there was a new Castle. I waited until MNF was over before watching Castle.
Me too Danielle! I had no idea that Castle was even on, let alone a new episode! And eir is right too, they need to pay more attention to scheduling! The networks jack us around with the scheduling, cancel good shows that don’t get 14 million viewers, and don’t advertise properly (Like with Castle) that a new episode is magically appearing after being gone for weeks… Lucky for me that my DVR recorded Castle, because ABC sure did not do a good job of informing me that it was a new eppy!
I watched the country music show. The whole show was a mess. I kept thinking through the entire show who is managing this? It was fan voted and nothing more that a popularity contest. For the most part the performances were good, some outstanding the rest needed fast forward. It would have been much better watched on TIVO.
I watched the whole two hour show in about twenty minutes thanks to DVR… a couple good performances. Not sure whose bright idea it was to create yet another country awards show and I really like country music..
I agree. The whole show was awful. Very amature. I would bet money on it that some of the acts were lypsyncing. They sounded too much like the recorded version on the radio. I did enjoy the Alan Jackson segment. That was pretty cool and I don’t think he was lypsyncing. Other than that, I thought it was a terrible show and Trace Adkins did a horrible job hosting.