More midweek news:
Synchronize your calendars, Jack Is Back in January. Fox has announced January 13 & 14 as the nights for the premiere of Season/Day 7 of "24" (2 hours on 1/13, 1 hour on 1/14, which will be its regular timeslot [Mondays at 9]). Additionally, there will be no breaks between new episodes, meaning no repeats all the way into June. Day 7 will be set in Washington, DC and feature several notable new and returning faces. I'll stop there to avoid spoilers and death threats.

NBC has announced that it's going to start its own download service to provide fans with free downloads of selected shows. The catch? Ads will be included. And you can only have them for a week. Here's how "NBC Direct" will work: The first version of this new feature, which will begin beta testing in October, will allow users to download full length episodes for viewing on Windows based PCs. Each original episode will be licensed to users for viewing through "NBC Direct" for one week following broadcast and will then expire. The downloaded file will provide users with an improved overall viewing experience compared to traditional streaming video. The list of programs available at launch will include "Heroes," "The Office," "Life," "Bionic Woman," "30 Rock," "Friday Night Lights," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Later in the beta launch, users will be provided the free subscription option that will allow them to pre-select their favorite NBC programs they want to watch. Those shows will be automatically delivered to their computers as soon as they are available after the original broadcast. The downloadable player will also have filtering technology, which will prevent it from playing any stolen copyrighted material. Future versions of "NBC Direct," which will roll out over the next several months, will provide expanded platform functionality and will allow DRM ("digital rights management") protected versions of its programs to be downloaded to Macs and portable devices in addition to PCs. NBC.com plans future enhancements such as high-resolution versions of programming made available via a closed P2P ("peer to peer") distribution network. Using closed P2P will ensure that the maximum number of users will be able to view consistent, high-quality content directly from their desktops. Later in 2008, NBC.com plans to offer other business models for downloaded content in order to provide its users multiple options to consume their favorite NBC programs. These paid business models may include download-to-own, rental and subscription.

Edit: Follow-up to the Fox Monday ratings...the final numbers are out: Good and bad...Good: "K-ville" finished with just under 9 million viewers for Monday's premiere, 22% more than it's "Prison Break" lead-in. A Tuesday repeat saw a smaller crowd. Bad: "Prison Break" did just 7.5 million viewers, a record low for an original episode of the series. And this was against repeats (only original programming, if it counts, was NFL) so brace yourselves-it could be a tough season. But one thing that might have affected both shows' ratings is iTunes-both the premiere of K-ville and the season premiere of Prison Break are available as a FREE download for a limited time (Apple doesn't say how long this is, but from my experience it's generally until 2-3 episodes have aired and are available, so you've got until Monday, maybe another week to get them) and obviously Nielsen doesn't have a method to track how many downloads of each episode are done and viewed in lieu of watching on TV, all they can do, to a certain extent, is track Tivos/DVRs. Also, The CW brought back "Beauty & The Geek" Tuesday night, launching it in the fall for the first time. Probably a bad move-just 3.4 million tuned in. Only the series premiere in 2005 did smaller-3.2 million. The last 2 season premieres, both in January, did 5 million.
Later today (Thursday) we should have the fast overnights for the premiere of the highly controversial (and overly advertised to death...now do you people see partly why I'm so anti-Heroes?) CBS reality series "Kid Nation", but get this...CBS may already be planning a 2nd season! The Eye's website is already asking for volunteers to participate. Let me guess-Nevada. It's Legal In Nevada, isn't it?

The fast overnight rating for the Kid Nation premiere, which it should be noted wasn't screened for critics, but kids instead, was 5.8...that puts the early estimate at about 11 million, 2nd from 8-9 PM (3rd from 8-8:30, it trailed Deal Or No Deal with 6.4 and Back To You with a 6.0, but beat 'Til Death with a 4.9). In 18-49 Kid Nation did a 3.0, a close #4 on the night (3 shows did 3.1) but down 6.25% compared to last year's performance in the timeslot (premiere of Jericho). As for the much-hyped CW premieres, America's Next Top Model did a 3.2 overall with a 2.5 adults rating-that's up 4.17% over last year's opener. Gossip Girl then did 2.4 overall, 1.7 adults-down slightly overall but roughly unchanged in adults from last year (last year was One Tree Hill in timeslot). On Fox, Kitchen Nightmares, the latest from Hell's Kitchen star Gordon Ramsey, debuted at 9 with a 4.2 overall, but a very strong 3.1 in adults.

Thursday overnight ratings notes: Survivor still can start strong. The fast overnight rating is out for the latest Survivor premiere: 8.9, which results in an estimated crowd of just under 17 million. 18-49 numbers will be out soon but considering CBS won the night with a 3.9, the number should be in the 3.5-4.5 range. As for Kid Nation, the final number for the premiere is 9.38 million. And a word of advice on whether or not to believe CBS' timeslot victory claims: Don't. They, not surprisngly, are false. First, The Eye claims Kid Nation won the timeslot in 18-49. based on the overnights, as you know from above, it didn't. CBS claims it won the timeslot among kids 2-11. It didn't (That went to Disney). CBS claims it won among 6-11. It didn't. That's TV business for you. And if you missed it? It's on again Saturday night at 8. Oh, and the best part of it all? CBS actually drew a younger audience than...shock...Fox! The Eye's average audience age? 46. The Fox's average age? 51. But that's because "Back to You" starts a popular 50-something longtime comedian (Kelsey Grammer) who everyone seems to like. Fox skewing older than CBS...this may never happen again.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Sep 21 2007.

This isn't yet official, but if you picked "Nashville" as the first show to be yanked and/or cancelled this new fall TV season, you may be a winner very soon. It's starting to sound like Fox will pull it before next week after last night's show-the fast overnights indicate the show did a 1.3 rating with a .9 18-49 rating (or an estimated 2.4 million viewers). The premiere did a 1.7, or roughly 30% better. Out of 13 shows last night, Nashville ranked last in both demos. If it is pulled it's not known how many episodes will be left unaired (the listings I check show at least 10 episodes this season with 2 more definitely on the schedule) and maybe the only person that would miss it is Terry Bradshaw. It would wipe out his guest appearance in episode 4.

Monday news...
It only took NBC 2 episodes to decide on the future of "The Biggest Loser"-The Peacock has just renewed the reality show for a 5th season.

Sunday was the unofficial first night of the 2007-08 TV Season (it officially begins today), and it was not a good night to be The CW-the fast overnights just came out, and The CW set records. The bad kind. "CW Now" and "Online Nation" were more like CW Not and Offline Nation-both shows managed an anemic .7 overnight rating for their premieres, which is an estimated crowd of only 1.3 million. Even worse were the CW's cherished 18-49 age demo numbers for both: .3 for Online Nation and an astounding .2 for CW Now. Maybe CW Ouch is best. The 18-49 ratings for both were lower than the networks' precious demo low, .4 on April 12 for the BRICK Awards. Here's how the rest of the season premieres last night fared:
The Simpsons-5.6 overall, 4.7 18-49. Compared to last season it was down about 20% overall and 11.3% in 18-49.
King Of The Hill-4.5 overall, 3.7 18-49.
Family Guy-6.2 overall, 5.5 18-49 (averages for 2 episodes). Compared to last season it was up about 5% overall but up an impressive 19.1% in 18-49.
Cold Case-8.0 overall, 3.1 18-49. Compared to last season it was down 17.53% overall and 22.5% in 18-49.
Shark-7.7 overall, 2.7 18-49. Compared to the numbers for the Without A Trace premiere in the slot last season, Shark was bad ratings bait. Down 30% in households and an alarming 43.75% in 18-49.
The night was won by NFL on NBC with 10.7 overall, 7.0 18-49. More Wednesday.

9/25 Edit: The first fast overnights of the 2007-08 season have just been released...
The first official win of the season goes to ABC. Led by "Dancing With The Stars", The Alphabet averaged a 10.1 overall rating, followed by CBS with 7.9, NBC at 6.6, and Fox at 4.4. The CW managed only a 1.1, but they went with reruns. On ABC, the Dancing season premiere led all shows with a 13.5 rating (an estimated crowd of about 25.6 million), followed by "The Bachelor" with a 6.7 over 2 hours (7.2, 6.3-estimate of about 12 million).
On CBS, "How I Met Your Mother" led off with a 5.8 (about 11 million) at 8, but the premiere of "The Big Bang Theory" improved to a 6.0 for its premiere at 8:30 (about 11.4 million). Bang's number may be a little lower than it could've been because the premiere episode was made available on iTunes as a free download last week (it's now $1.99). At 9, "Two And A Half Men" did a 8.4 (just under 16 million), followed by "Rules Of Engagement" with a 7.7 (about 14.6 million). At 10, "CSI: Miami" closed out The Eye's night with a 9.8 (about 18.6 million).
On NBC, the series premiere of "Chuck" did roughly a 5.7, it tied with the CBS sitcoms for the hour but had a few more total viewers. At 9, the season premiere of "Heroes" did a 8.4. Finally, the premiere of "Journeyman" further confirmed Heroes' position as a lead-in curse (some things haven't changed) as Journeyman dropped to a 5.9 (about 11.2 million, which compared to what Studio 60 and The Black Donnellys were doing in that timeslot is actually a pretty good number).
On Fox, Week 2 of "Prison Break" did a 4.4 at 8 (about 8.3 million), but the second week of "K-Ville" was almost more like Aint-Ville. Maybe it was because the Saints...ahem...the Aints (they're 0-3, they should be 3-0) were playing on Monday Night Football, but the new series saw it's rating drop to 4.1 (just under 7.8 million).
In the all-important 18-49 demo, ABC's 4.7 was just enough to beat NBC's 4.6 for the top spot (although Heroes was #1 in the demo, Dancing was #2). CBS was a close 3rd with 4.2, followed by Fox with 2.7. The CW managed a .7.

And this just in...someone forgot to tell Kiefer Sutherland 24 isn't back yet. He was busted early this morning on a misdemeanor DUI and released. Evidently he was out of character and not trying to save the world after making an illegal U-turn overnight. No word on if he tried to tell the cops he was really Jack Bauer.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Sep 25 2007.

And it's official...the first series to get yanked during the new season is...drumroll please..."Nashville"! To absolutely nobody's surprise, Fox has pulled it and put it on hiatus effective immediately, however to maybe everyone's surprise it is not yet cancelled. The Fox says it will be rescheduled at a later date. Said yanking came after the second episode only managed a .9 18-49 rating last Friday. As for subsequent schedule changes, repeats of the first 2 episodes of "K-Ville" will air in the show's Friday 9 PM timeslot the nest 2 weeks, followed by Major League Baseball postseason coverage on 10/12 (already announced) and the premiere fo "The Next Great American Band" on 10/19. That means the earliest Nashville could be back is 10/26, but that might be during the World Series and it's right before the November Sweeps, so I wouldn't expect it back until at least December, if it really comes back. It is not known how many episodes are left unaired, but there are definitely 2 left and possibly as many as 8 according to TV listings.

Weekly Nielsen ratings Report for Week Ending 9/23/07:
This last week is when the fun really began-with the new season now officially underway it was a mix of summer finales and early fall premieres. One thing that seemed clear, though, is the controversy strategy seems to have backfired in the end-naturally we'll start with perhaps the most controversial new entry: "Kid Nation" on CBS. The Eye overhyped it to death online (especially on the sites I get most of our TV news from) like almost no other series ever, and by that you probably know what other series I'm talking about, but anyway, said effort (including screening it for kids but not TV critics) yielded only 9.4 million viewers for the premiere. While the second half-hour improved considerably over the first that's probably less than hoped for and it only finished 3rd & 2nd in the half-hours. Ratings for a Saturday replay were not available. As for Fox, the other noteworthy new series debut, "K-Ville", finished with a final number of just under 9 million for it's premiere. It finished 2nd in its timeslot and improved over it's "Prison Break" lead-in, good but bad because Prison Break's crowd of 7.5 million is the series' smallest yet for a new episode. As for the other debuts last week, all on The Fox, "Back To You" premiered Wednesday with 9.5 million, winning the 8 PM timeslot. Afterwards, the return of "'Til Death" drew 7.8 million, and "Kitchen Nightmares" debuted with a fairly weak 6.6 million. On Sunday, "The Simpsons" started its next season with 9.6 million, "King Of The Hill" followed with 7.8 million, and an hour of "Family Guy" jumped up to about 10.8 million. Back to CBS, as The Eye also brought back some shows-"Survivor: China" began Thursday with about 15.4 million-still good but still continuing the slow decline of crowds for the aging groundbreaker. On Sunday, CBS featured what I can call, for a week anyway, the Power Of Cold Shark block (I so miss Race Case Trace), consisting of a special "Power Of 10" starting with 7.1 million, then the season premiere of "Cold Case" with about 12.7 million, and finally "Shark" in its new timeslot with 11.4 million. Mixed numberse there-it did better in the timeslot than last year with a better lead-in, but last year's Shark premiere crowd was 14.7 million, not a good number, so monitor its performance closely. Also on CBS, "Big Brother" finished its 8th go-around with 8.6 million, it now heads to the Fate TBD zone. On NBC, "Deal Or No Deal" began its 3rd season with a special Monday airing that drew 11.7 million viewers before it heads off to its new Friday timeslot in addition to Wednesdays. On Wednesday, the 2 hour "Last Comic Standing" finale drew 7.1 million total viewers, putting up identical numbers both hours. Again, football led The Peacock with Sunday night's NFL game averaging about 19 million viewers over 3 hours. And finally there's The CW-on Wednesday the returning "America's Next Top Model" showed it likely will still be The CW's Top Performer this season, just over 5.2 million came back to make it the network's top show, while "Gossip Girl", aka the next Veronica Mars, had a mixed debut. Overall it drew 3.5 million viewers, not terrible, but it did lose 1/3 of it's Top Model lead-in AND lost over 10% of its own crowd on the half-hour, putting it in the gossip danger zone already. Fans might want to get that gossip going quickly. On Sunday, the premieres of "CW Now" and "Online Nation" both drew just 1 million each. Blame football overruns. Oh, and for the few who haven't heard, the final pre-hiatus crowd for "Nashville", which is confirming that Friday night is indeed the death slot for TV shows, was 2.2 million. "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" before gave it 4.8 million. Just inc ase you were wondering.

On cable, numbers were much different without "The Closer". ESPN's Monday Night Football led the way with 11.6 million for last week's game, more than double the crowd of #2 show "Hannah Montana" with 5.1 million. 2 hours of WWE Raw sandwiched around "Burn Notice" rounded out the top 5. Also of note was the performance of "Mad Men" on classic movie network AMC-while 1 million sounds like very little, it's evidently a very good number for a scripted series on the old movie channel, and it gets an extreme rarity on AMC-a second season.

The Week's Top 10 Most Watched Shows, in order: NBC's Sunday Night NFL coverage, Fox's Sunday NFL overrun and NFL postgame coverage, "Survivor: China", "CSI", "Cold Case", Monday's "Deal Or No Deal", ESPN's Monday Night NFL coverage, "Shark", "60 Minutes", "Without A Trace".

Edit: Inadvertent notable omission from the ratings-The Ken Burns miniseries "The War" (or at least parts 1-7 of it) was seen by an estimated 18.7 million viewers Sunday, which if official would actually make it the #2 program of the week. This is highly unlikely though-PBS did some serious spinning and this includes re-broadcasts and, according to Nielsen totals, the actual number is more like 15.5 million (which still would be #2 on the week). However it is not recorded because, through some for whatever reason requests by PBS and because the network(s) are commercial-free at all times except before & after shows (and of course during those notorious pledge drives), Nielsen does not keep track of actual ratings for PBS programming.

And as promised, here are the fast overnights for the Tuesday premieres:
ABC won the overall ratings for the night with a 9.5 rating. Fox was second with a 8.0, followed by CBS with a 7.6. NBC was a distant 4th with a 5.5, and The CW rounded out the night with a 2.0. In the 18-49 demo, Fox emerged on top with a 5.4. ABC & NBC tied for a distant second with a 3.6, followed by CBS with a 2.9. The CW did a 1.5.
At 8, Night 2 of the Dancing With The Stars premiere led all with an 11.8 (about 24 million) for ABC. CBS followed with the return of NCIS doing an 8.7 (about 16.5 million), then Fox with 5.2 for Bones (about 9.8 million) and NBC with 3.9 for hour 1 of The Biggest Loser. The CW got a 1.9 (about 3.7 million) with Beauty & The Geek.
At 9, Fox not surprisingly won the hour with the House season premiere, which did a 10.7 (about 20 million) and also won the night in 18-49. ABC was second with the conclusion of Dancing doing a 13.0 and the return of Boston Legal with a 7.1 (just under 13.5 million). The premiere of The Unit did a 6.7 on CBS (about 12.7 million), with Loser doing 4.7 on NBC. The premiere of Reaper did a 2.1 (just under 4 million) on CW, a slight improvement over its Beauty lead-in and a good initial number. Compared to Veronica Mars this time last year, Reaper was about even in total viewers but up very slightly in 18-49 (VM had done a 1.4 in the demo on 10/3/06).
And at 10, Law & Order SVU on NBC led with an 8.0 (about 15 million), Cane debuted with a 7.5 on CBS (about 14.2 million, plus it built on its lead-in, always a good sign), and the conclusion of Boston Legal on ABC closed out the night with a 6.8 (about 12.9 million). Check back around 12:30 PM ET Thursday for the Wednesday overnights.
(All viewer totals are estimated and based on 1 ratings point equaling 1.9 million viewers and includes live and same-day DVR viewing but does not include downloads from fee-based services like iTunes, Amazon Unbox, etc.)

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Sep 26 2007.

Some crazy and not-so-crazy news from NBC this morning:
First, the not-so-crazy: Schedule changes for "The Biggest Loser" and "The Singing Bee": Starting this Tuesday, The Biggest Loser will move from 8 PM to 8:30 PM and will run 90 minutes instead of 2 hours. The Singing Bee will move to 8 PM.

Now the crazy: Seems those "final" Monday ratings may not be final...here's the deal: Unbeknownst to probably all outside Nielsen, they have a "new processing option" for ratings this season. In Nielsen New Processing Option 2.0, which will soon be referred to as a silly abbreviation I come up with, if a new episode of a series airs as scheduled during the week and then is repeated exactly the same way later in the week (meaning the same episode with the exact same national commercials, which does not include local commercials) on any network-owned network, the ratings generated on said repeats will count toward the original show's airing. The catch? Said episodes must air in a single calendar week-for Nielsen ratings purposes, that's Monday-Sunday. So it should be no surprise that NBC is taking advantage of this with, and not surprisingly this quite disgusts me of course, what else? "Heroes". Remember this past Monday's season premiere? It's going to air again Saturday at 8 PM on NBC. And it will have the exact same national commercials, which will all be for the episode's only sponsor, Nissan. So under NNPO 2.0, Nielsen will take Saturday's ratings for the show and add them to this past Monday's rating to get a new final Monday rating! Cheap, isn't it? The best part for The Peacock-It's Legal. So when the final numbers for the Heroes premiere come out next week, expect them to be higher than the initial final Monday number, which currently is 14.1 million viewers. That would place it 2nd at 9 PM Monday, and compared to the series premiere last year would be roughly unchanged in total viewers but up 10% in that sucker-them-in 18-49 demo NBC seems to have trouble with. But, as an example, let's pretend that this repeat draws, and this is just a random number, 6.7 million viewers. That number will be added to Monday's for a grand total of 20.8 million viewers, even though all were not watching at the same time. Would this work if the same sponsor(s) were not on board for both episodes in exactly the same way, meaning they all bought the exact same ad time in 2 broadcasts of one show in one week? No. It also wouldn't work if it's a Sunday episode that aired, say, on a Friday. That's different weeks for ratings purposes. That's where it hurts ABC, who airs 3 important shows on Sunday. Ditto CBS. And yes, the other broadcast networks are most en fuego over this. Oh, and it's worth noting that had NBC aired the rerun this way on the cable network Sci Fi, which NBC Universal owns, the numbers would still be added to Monday's. So why not do this on Sunday, you ask? Simple-NBC has no Sunday series this fall. It has football. Which beats pretty much everything. And by the way, Nielsen indeed didn't tell anyone about this either. Until Tuesday. Typical. So that's one fewer TV choice for me to make Saturday night and one more major sin for me to commit then...Go Buckeyes (it's probably my ABC College Football game this Saturday night at 8-what, you think I'd actually try and watch Heroes on a Saturday night? No way, that's my Poker and wrestling/MMA night).

I'll be back later today with Wednesday's fast overnights.

And this I just came across: Want to be a Nielsen Family? You might get your chance soon!
News Story
And this just in from said article...screw everything I just said about NNPO 2.0. It's now on hiatus. Figures.

Wednesday's fast overnights are now coming out, here's the first breakdown:
ABC again won the night overall with a comfortable margin, averaging a 9.4 for the night. CBS took a distant second with a 7.0. NBC was a close third with a 6.8. Fox was way off the pace again with just a 3.6, and The CW closed out the night with a 2.4. In the 18-49 demo, ABC edged out a win with a 4.2, just holding off NBC at 4.1. CBS was 3rd with a 3.3, then it was Fox at 2.5 and finally The CW with 1.8.
8 PM was all ABC as "Dancing With The Stars" waltzed off with an 11.1 (about 21 million viewers). "Deal Or No Deal" was a very distant 2nd with a 5.6 (about 10.6 million). Week 2 of "Kid Nation" was 3rd with a 4.8 (about 9.1 million), with Fox in 4th with "Back To You" week 2 doing a 5.1 (about 9.6 million) and "'Til Death" doing a 3.8 (about 7.2 million) for a 4.4 average. The CW was in last, but "America's Next Top Model" was its usual competitive self with a 3.1 (almost 5.9 million, an outstanding number for the series). At 9, ABC won again as "Private Practice" became, for now at least, the top-rated series premiere so far this new season with a 9.7 (about 18.4 million, no doubt attributable in part to having a Dancing lead-in but it was off a notable 32% in 18-49 over "Lost" last year, which despite the good premiere number is an instant yellow flag). NBC again took 2nd as the premiere of its "Bionic Woman" remake did an 8.4 (just under 16 million) and was the night's top 18-49 program. CBS took 3rd with "Criminal Minds" at 8.2, Fox was a distant 4th with week 2 of "Kitchen Nightmares" at 3.5 and CW finished with a 1.8 for week 2 of "Gossip Girl" (about 3.4 million, if that number holds that's about a 10% drop from the premiere). And at 10, CBS pulled in front with an 8.1 for "CSI: NY", while ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" premiered with a 7.4 (about 14 million, nice but off 21.74% from debut of "The Nine" in 18-49). NBC's "Life" opened with a 6.5 (about 12.3 million) for 3rd but won the hour in 18-49.
Both Minds & CSI on CBS saw, respectively, 22.22 & 26% 18-49 losses compared to last year, bad signs already (especially the CSI number). On NBC, the debuts of Bionic & Life both were up an incredible 60% for Bionic and an equally impressive 50% for Life in 18-49 over last year's numbers in said timeslots (Biggest Loser & Kidnapped, respectively). If these hold for the next week or two, they could get early renewals as these are outstanding figures for NBC.

2 final notes on ratings for this upcoming season based on numbers I just found: In terms of households, 1 ratings point will equal 1,128,000 households, up from last year and based on an estimated 112,800,000 households in the US (but as far as I'm aware 1 point will still equal about 1.9 million viewers for ratings estimate purposes). 1 ratings point in 18-49 will equal 1,315,000 adults in that age demo based on an estimated 131,050,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 49 in the U.S.

Also, Fox has confirmed the previously reported schedule changes for the next few Fridays in wake of "Nashville" going to hiatus (more on that too) and other changes: The first 2 episodes of "K-Ville" will be repeated the next 2 Fridays (the premiere this Friday, episode 2 on October 5) at 9. Then new series "The Next Great American Band" debuts October 19 with 3 2-hour episodes Fridays at 8 then goes to its regular timeslot, Fridays at 8, on November 9. This likely means that, while not yet confirmed by Fox, Nashville seems to be headed towards a November 9 return. As for October 12, Fox already had baseball coverage scheduled.

Late edit: The cable network Sci Fi has now ordered a 3rd season of "Eureka" and a 2nd season of "Destination Truth". Eureka should return in summer 2008 with production beginning in early 2008. Destination Truth should return in 2008, exact date TBA.

9/28 news: The Canadian reality series "Kenny Vs. Spenny", which had a short run on the cable network GSN in the US a few years ago, will return to the US soon. The cable network Comedy Central has ordered 10 new episodes of the series and acquired the rights to 10 old ones, with the new episodes being produced by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The series will premiere November 14 on Comedy Central.

And finally, here are the big numbers of the week: The first Thursday fast overnights...
For the most part, the big Thursday ratings wars lived up to expectations. In the end, CBS emerged the victor with an acerage rating of 11.3, holding off 2nd-place ABC with a 9.4. NBC took a distant 3rd with a 5.7, Fox was 4th with a 4.2. The CW closed out the night with a 2.4. The 18-49 demo was much closer, with CBS edging out ABC by a very narrow margin of 5.8 to 5.7. NBC was 3rd with a solid 4.3, then Fox with a 1.9 and CW with 1.4.
At 8, CBS took the hourly win with "Survivor: China" with an 8.4 (about 15.9 million viewers). The season premiere of "Ugly Betty" put ABC in 2nd with a 7.4 (about 14 million). 2 new episodes of "My Name Is Earl" took 3rd for NBC with a 5.3 (about 10 million). Fox's "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" was 4th with a 4.8 (about 9.1 million). The CW was a not-terribly-far-off 5th with the return of "Smallville" doing a 3.1 (about 5.8 million).
In the first big 9 PM contest of the season, CBS scored the overall win with "CSI" doing a 14.8 (about 28.1 million). ABC took 2nd with "Grey's Anatomy" doing a 13 (about 24.7 million) but Grey's did win the night's 18-49 crown. NBC took the very distant 3rd with 2 episodes of "The Office" doing a 5.4. Fox was 4th with a 3.6 for "Don't Forget The Lyrics". CW repeated the "Reaper" premiere.
And at 10, CBS clinched the sweep of the night with "Without A Trace" scoring a 10.9 (about 20.7 million). The series premiere of "Big Shots" on ABC took 2nd with a 7.8 (about 14.8 million), and the season premiere of "ER" on NBC closed the night with a 6.4 (about 12 million).
Next week features the all-important 2nd week for most shows, where we'll get a better idea of what kind of season shows might be in for in terms of viewers and retention rates (anything more than a 20% drop in viewers from the premiere numbers is cause for concern), and Wednesday we should have the first overnight ratings for ABC's heavily-hyped new sitcom "Cavemen" (based on the Geico commercials). Will it be The Flintstones for a new generation or will they go back to helping us save 15% in 15 minutes? We'll find out then.

9/29 news: This is more an update on the news posted a while back on NBC pulling it's shows off iTunes...not necessarily the case. I've noticed some new and old NBC shows ARE still available on iTunes! Here's what seems to be the deal with them: If they are produced by NBC Studios or NBC Universal, they're not going to be there this season, not new episodes anyway. You'll have to go to NBC's new upcoming service or Amazon Unbox to get the. But if they are NOT produced by NBC, they probably will still be there. So far that means if you want to get the first seasons of "Chuck" and "Journeyman", the 3rd season of "My Name Is Earl", and the 7th and final season of "Scrubs", you may be in luck. There were season passes for Chuck & Journeyman earlier in the week but they're gone now. You can get a season pass for Earl now, but pay the $46 at your own risk for now. We'll know about the status of Scrubs when it premieres, but if you want "Friday Night Lights", "Heroes", or certain others, head for Amazon...and by the way, Amazon Unbox-downloaded content WILL NOT play on iPod. I checked. Either way, happy legal downloading.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Sep 29 2007.

Time to wrap up Premiere Week with the Sunday fast overnight ratings:
The overall win on the first Sunday of the season goes to ABC with an 8.9 rating, followed by CBS with an 8.6, then NBC with a 7.7, Fox 4th with a 4.0, and The CW somehow mustering just a .6. In the start-fast 18-49 demo, the first big Sunday night ended in a tie: NBC and ABC both did a 5.0 in the key demo. Actually it was a tie kind of night-CBS and Fox then tied for 3rd with a 3.2. The CW managed a .4. Both CBS and NBC had live sports last night so these numbers are likely to change.
CBS won at 7 PM with it's combination of the NFL overrun and the start of a 90 minute "60 Minutes" kicking off what I will (lamely) call for now the "60 Minutes Of Cold Shark" Sunday lineup. Football and 60 combined for a 9.9 (just under 19 million). Hour 1 of a 2 hour "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" gave ABC 2nd with a 5.8 (about 11 million). NBC's Sunday Night NFL pregame coverage was 3rd with a 4.3 (about 8.1 million). Fox managed a 3.0 for 2 "The Simpsons" reruns. "CW Now" only managed a .6 (about 1.1 million) with Online Nation falling short of 7 digit crowds with a .5.
At 8, ABC moved in front with Extreme Makeover hour 2 improving to a 8.6 (about 16.3 million, overall total of about 13.8 million). 60 Minutes did an 8.3 for CBS followed by hour one of NBC's NFL coverage at 7.9. New Simpsons and "King Of The Hill" combined for a 4.6 on Fox (Simpsons did a 5, King a 4.2) and CW did .6 for a "Gossip Girl" rerun.
In the first big 9 PM contest, ABC took the title for the night with the return of "Desperate Housewives" opening with a 12.2 (about 23.1 milion) and 7.4 in 18-49. Of course there is some gray area: Said 18-49 number is off 22.92% over last season. NBC barely got 2nd with 8.7 for NFL, with CBS a close 3rd with 8.6 for "Cold Case". Fox wrapped up its night with a 4.4 between "Family Guy" (4.9) and "American Dad" (3.9). CW finished up with a .8 for an "America's Next Top Model" rerun.
And in the 3-way race at 10, ABC won again with "Brothers And Sisters" opening with a 9.1. Hour 3 of NFL did an 8 on NBC, and "Shark" reeled in a 7.5 for CBS.
And on Saturday, Fox won with a 3.8 for a "Cops" special and "America's Most Wanted", NBC did a 3.1 for reruns of the "Heroes", "Chuck", and "Law & Order SVU" premieres, ABC & CBS tied with a 3.0 as The Alphabet aired NCAA Football (USC-Washington) and The Eye went with repeats of the premieres of "Moonlight" and "Cane" and the season premiere of "48 Hours Mystery".
Final numbers will be available Wednesday.

Edit: Dubya's animated midget alter-ego is staying around, as is what's inside the head of Carlos Mencia. The cable network Comedy Central just announced that the comedy series "Lil' Bush" and "Mind Of Mencia" both have been renewed. Lil' Bush gets a second season, Mind Of Mencia a 4th season. Both shows should return in Spring 2008. Both shows have had statements issued from the minds behind them:
"I'm thrilled the show has been picked up," says "Lil' Bush" creator and executive producer Donick Cary. "I'm sorry it had to happen in the Minneapolis airport bathroom, but if that's the way Doug Herzog wants to run his company it's cool with me." (That being an obvious dig at Sen. Larry Craig...Bill Maher did much better on Real Time)
"I look forward to doing another season of 'Mind of Mencia,'" Mencia says in a statement. "I hope this doesn't mean I can't be on 'Dancing with the Stars.'" Joe Rogan has yet to issue a statement regarding whether or not Mencia's statement was stolen from another comic. (That last line and both statements coming from the related story on the Zap2it website) Both shows averaged about 1.5 million viewers this past season, with Mind Of Mencia regularly finishing #1 in the men 18-24 demo.

10/2 news: Monday's fast overnights are out as the important Week 2 of the season begins-this is when we start getting a good idea of which series, old and new, are going to survive the whole season and which might not...
No surprise that ABC was dancing it's way to the nightly win, The Alphabet led the pack with an 11.1 rating for the night. CBS took a distant 2nd with a 7.6. NBC was 3rd with a 5.6. Fox took 4th with a 4.2, and The CW did a 1.8. In the 18-49 demo, ABC also won with a 4.7. NBC & CBS tied for 2nd at 4, Fox trailed with a 2.5 and The CW managed a 1.1.
Of course Dancing With The Stars led the way at 8, pulling in a 12.7 for ABC. CBS managed 2nd with a 5.3 (5.1 for How I Met Your Mother, 5.5 for the 2nd episode of The Big Bang Theory), NBC took 3rd with a 5.1 for week 2 of Chuck, Fox was 4th with Prison Break doing a 4.6, and The CW did a 1.6 (1.7 for the season premiere of Everybody Hates Chris, then 1.6 for the series premiere of Aliens In America).
Compared to their premieres, Big Bang Theory lost about 950,000 viewers this week, or about 12% overall. That's a little high but within the "safety zone" for now (20% is worrisome, 30% or more usually indicates imminent cancellation or indefinite hiatus if numbers don't improve). On the plus side, it again improved over it's Mother lead-in in both total viewers and 18-49 (over 10% in adults). Chuck lost a little more in total viewers-about 1.1 million-but because it had more viewers the loss was only 9.5%, a fairly good number.
At 9, Dancing went up to 13.8 to lead ABC again. CBS took 2nd with a 7.5 (8.4 for Two And A Half Men, 6.6 for Rules Of Engagement). NBC was 3rd with Heroes doing a 7.0, which again was the night's #1 18-49 show (5.6). Fox managed a 3.7 for K-Ville, and The CW closed out its night with a 1.8 for the season premieres of Girlfriends (1.7) and The Game (2.0). Compared to last year's launches, The CW's Monday lineup was down a collective 5.26% in viewers and 15.38% in adults (last year's lineup this time was 7th Heaven and Runaway).
At 10, CBS took over with CSI: Miami doing a 9.9. The Bachelor did a 6.8 for ABC, and a 5.2 for week 2 of Journeyman on NBC closed out the night. Compared to its premiere, Journeyman lost about 1.5 million viewers this week, or about a 13.33% drop.
Compared to last year, all the shows were down in total viewers by a good 10-15% or more, but 99% of that can probably be attributed to Dancing.
And for those wondering how much NBC stands to gain in final Monday Premiere Week numbers for it's little NNPO 2.0 stunt with Heroes repeating Saturday at 8 PM like it did, the early number from Nielsen is 3.6 million. So that number will count towards the Monday airing total but not The Peacock's weekly average...the number would have made it NBC's least-watched hour all week. El cheapo, isn't it?

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 02 2007.

Weekly Nielsen Ratings Report for Week Ending 9/30/07:
Premiere Week is finally in the books...or is it? The numbers say ABC won the first week of the new season...we think. We think? I'll try and keep this simple and understandable: Blame DVR/Tivos. The standard most recently discussed for ratings was Live+Same Day, factoring in DVR recordings watched the day the program aired. Naturally the ad execs only care about this stat's 18-49 numbers because if you're not in that age demo, they don't want your cash. Now the nets figure Live+7 is more accurate, but it takes Nielsen 2 weeks to come up with those numbers. And now ad execs want ratings for commercial breaks! That figure takes Nielsen 3 weeks! The simple truth is all networks saw viewership down over last year's Premiere Week in viewers and adults. But ot them, down 10% is now flat/unchanged, flat/unchangd is now up, and DVR is the 6th network. Happy TV viewing this season! Now then...
Although ABC did win the overall ratings week, CBS had the top-rated program and NBC, thanks to that little NNPO 2.0 stunt that really makes me hate the broadcast networks even more, pulled into a tie with ABC in 18-49, however in the interest fo fair play I not only refuse to recognize it but shall brand it with the dreaded asterisk of doom. So how did NBC* get there? It took advantage of the short-lived NNPO 2.0 by re-airing that "Heroes" season premiere from Monday with the same ads on Saturday. Saturday's re-air drew 3.6 million viewers, but with this trick NBC* gets that number wiped out and added to Monday's, for a new so-called grand total of 16.9 million. Thus unofficially winning the hour and proving that NBC* execs are sore losers and will do everything it can, even low-down-dirty-shame material, to make Heroes #1 and further alienate us. Heroes wouldn't have been in the week's Top 10 without this stunt. It's reasons like this why iTunes, not NBC, keeps getting my $1.99 per week for "My Name Is Earl" and NBC won't get my "Friday Night Lights" and "Battlestar Galactica" money until DVDs come out. And in the case of Earl the cash goes to 20th Century Fox, not NBC, haha. ABC's weekly win was quite significant because one, The Alphabet last won Premiere Week 12 years ago-back then, its primetime lineup included shows like "Home Improvement", "NYPD Blue", "Grace Under Fire", and "Roseanne". And it's news just because CBS didn't win the overall week, that never happens. Now let's get to the specifics: "Dancing With The Stars" led the way for The Alphabet, all 3 premiere shows made the top 10 and easily won their timeslots. Most of The Alphabet's other premieres fared relatively well, although "Grey's Anatomy" came up well short against "CSI" in Thursday Week 1. Grey's returned to about 20.8 million viewers, CSI gave The Eye about 25.2 million, tops for the week if you throw out NFL overruns, I do not. "Desperate Housewives" opened with 19.3 million Sunday, but that's off from recent years despite it comfortably winning the timeslot. As for its series premieres, "Private Practice" opened in Wednesday's post-Dancing timeslot with 14.4 million, good enough to get the 9 PM win. "Dirty Sexy Money" followed that up with about 10.4 million, good for 2nd. CBS premiered 2 new shows along with its season premieres: On Monday, "The Big Bang Theory" opened to 9.5 million at 8:30, good for a 2nd-place tie. On Friday, "Moonlight" drew 8.5 million at 9, a solid 2nd place. Also, Week 3 (I think) of "Kid Nation" did about 7.6 million-it improved in half-hours but the first half-hour was 4th out of 5 from 8-8:30. On NBC*, the series premieres of "Chuck" and "Journeyman" on Monday both did about 9.2 million viewers sandwiched around Heroes. Both finished 2nd in their respective timeslots. On Wednesday, the premiere of "Bionic Woman" (not Women, people) did just under 14 million, 2nd in the slot and winning at 9:30. The premiere of "Life" that followed did just under 10 million. 3rd out of 3 but not too far off. On Fox, 3 series returned for new seasons: "Bones" returned Tuesday with about 8.4 million, "House" opened with 18.8 million, and "American Dad" returned Sunday with 6.1 million. Also of note on Fox: A rerun of "K-Ville" replaced "Nashville this week on friday night. It worked for the better...barely. Nashville's 2nd and maybe last airing drew 2.2 million. K-Ville went up to about 2.35 million, still only about half the crowd of 4th-place WWE Smackdown on CW.

The Week's Top 10 Most Watched Shows, in order: CBS's Sunday NFL overrun, "CSI", Monday's "Dancing With The Stars", "Grey's Anatomy", "Desperate Housewives", Tuesday's Dancing, "House", The cumulative audiences of "Heroes", Wednesday's Dancing, "Without A Trace".

Viewer totals for season/series premieres last week, by network:
ABC: "Dancing With The Stars", 21.2 million (Monday), 19 million (Tuesday), 16.8 million (Wednesday); "The Bachelor", 9.2 million (90 minutes); "Boston Legal", 10.3 million (90 minutes); "Private Practice", 14.4 million; "Dirty Sexy Money", 10.4 million; "Ugly Betty", 10.6 million; "Grey's Anatomy", 20.8 million; "Big Shots", 11.6 million; "Extreme Makeover Home Edition", 11.8 million; "Desperate Housewives", 19.3 million; "Brothers & Sisters", 12.8 million
CBS: "How I Met Your Mother", 8.1 million; "The Big Bang Theory", 9.5 million; "Two And A Half Men", 13.6 million; "Rules Of Engagement", 12.2 million; "CSI: Miami", 15.1 million; "NCIS", 13.9 million; "The Unit", 10.6 million; "Cane", 11.2 million; "Criminal Minds", 12.7 million; "CSI", 25.2 million; "Without A Trace", 16.7 million; "Ghost Whieperer", 8.7 million; "Moonlight", 8.5 million; "Numb3rs", 9.4 million
NBC: "Chuck", 9.2 million; "Heroes", 16.9 million (includes 3.6 million from Saturday's repeat, so the actual Monday number for the prmiere should be only 13.3 million); "Journeyman", 9.1 million; "Law & Order SVU", 12.1 million; "Bionic Woman", 13.9 million; "Life", 9.9 million; "My Name Is Earl", 8.7 million (1 hour); "The Office", 9.6 million (1 hour); "ER", 9.9 million; "Las Vegas", 9.3 million (2 hours)
Fox: "Bones", 8.4 million; "House", 18.8 million
The CW: "Reaper", 3.2 million; "Smallville", 5.2 million

No Wednesday report next week, the Columbus Day holiday on Monday will push everything back to Thursday. I'll have Tuesday's fast overnights hopefully around 12:30 PM today so we can all see how well 30-second commercials translate into 30-minute sitcoms (the super-hyped "Cavemen" premiere, based on those Geico commercials).

Other Wednesday news: This just in from the Well You Know Somethin' Brother Department: NBC has found its host for the new redo of "American Gladiators", to debut at midseason: Terry Bollea, known all over the world as Hulk Hogan. So Whatcha Gonna Do When The Hulkster Runs Wild On You?

And as promised, here are those long-awaited Tuesday fast overnights:
The overall numbers race was very close last night-although ABC had the top overall rating it actually was Fox with the top viewer numbers. ABC's rating was 7.9, with CBS and Fox tied in 2nd with 7.7. NBC was 4th at 5.6, The CW did a 1.8. In total viewers though, Fox led with 12.58 million to 12.28 million for CBS and 11.89 million for ABC. Fox also won 18-49 with a 5.0 rating, followed by ABC with 3.6, NBC with 3.5, CBS at 3.1, and The CW with 1.3.
At 8 PM, the big question was how many viewers curiousity over "Cavemen" would generate. The answer: Surprisingly, quite a few. The premiere of the show did a 6.1 rating (about 11.5 million). Naysayers can note that ABC's 8 PM crowd dropped about 50% from last week, but that's largely because last week had Dancing. This week's 8 PM hour did not. Yes, the number will likely come down between now and next week, but let The Alphabet do it's happy number-spinning dance for now. Maybe they'll do it in cave-speak. The hourly win went to CBS with a 10.2 (about 19.3 million) for "NCIS", clearly benefitting from no Dancing. Between Cavemen and "Carploolers" doing a 5.9 (but having a few more viewers than Cavemen. which would put Carpoolers near 12 million), ABC took 2nd with a 6.0. Fox took 3rd with "Bones" doing a 5.0, then NBC in 4th with "The Singing Bee" (4.3) and the start of "The Biggest Loser" (4.6). The CW was 5th with a 1.8 for "Beauty & The Geek".
At 9, Dancing had the top rating with 10.4, but "House" had more viewers despite a slightly lower 10.3 rating and also won in adults. "The Unit" managed a 7 for CBS, Biggest Loser did a 4.6 for NBC, and The CW closed out its night with a 1.8 for "Reaper". Compared to the ratings from the premiere, that would represent a 14.28% drop for Reaper.
And at 10, "Law & Order SVU led NBC to a win with a 7.7. "Boston Legal" was close behind with a 7.7, and Week 2 of "Cane" wrapped things up with a 6. Based on last week's overnights, that represents an estimated 20% drop from the premiere from Cane, which puts it immediately in the caution zone. If this trend keeps up, Cane might be gone sooner rather than later. (Update: The actual loss for Cane was 18.66%)

Wednesday's fast overnights:
ABC took a critical ratings victory last night while week 2 brought big drops for premieres from last week. The Alphabet took #1 overall with a 7.7 rating last night, edging out CBS's 7.5. NBC took 3rd with a 6.5, Fox was 4th with a 4, and The CW did a 2.4. ABC also took 18-49 with a 4.1, CBS was 2nd with a 3.4, just beating out NBC with 3.3. Fox was 4th with a 2.7, The CW did a 1.7.
At 8, ABC's new series "Pushing Daisies", widely considered to be the best new series so far this season, got off to that all-important good start, winning the timeslot with an 8.3 (about 15.7 million), and finishing #2 on the night in 18-49. While that's off about 1/3 from the timeslot last year, last year had Dancing so that's an unfair comparison. NBC was 2nd with a 7.1 for "Deal Or No Deal". Week 3 of "Kid Nation" did a 4.7 for CBS, Fox took 4th with a 4.2 (4.4 for "Back To You", 4 for "'Til Death"). The CW was a 5th but getting closer to Fox as "America's Next Top Model" did a 3.1.
At 9, CBS took over as "Criminal Minds" went to the lead with a 9.4. ABC held on to 2nd with "Private Practice" doing an 8.3 but it's 4.5 18-49 rating was tops on the night. NBC took 3rd with week 2 of "Bionic Woman" doing a not-so-good 6.9 (read on). Fox took 4th with "Kitchen Nightmares" doing a 3.8. The CW closed out its night with a 1.8 for "Gossip Girl".
And at 10, "CSI: NY" led the way for CBS with an 8.4, ABC took 2nd with "Dirty Sexy Money" doing a 6.7, and a 5.8 for "Life" on NBC wrapped things up.
Compared to their premieres, Bionic Woman weakened the most this week-a 17.86% drop overall and, of much greater concern to The Peacock, a 27.27% drop in 18-49. That immediately puts it on the verge of the danger zone (30%+ is the danger zone, but 20%+ is cause for concern). Life did even worse-off 28.57% in the key demo. It's overall loss was 10.77%. Kid Nation was down another 2% overall but over 10% more in 18-49. On ABC, Private Practice lost nearly 14.5% of its Premiere Week crowd and 11.7% 18-49, Dirty Sexy Money lost 9.5% overall but was even in adults. On Fox, Back To You was down just 4.3% overall but 14.29% in adults. One bright spot on this night though-Kitchen Nightmares was up 8.57% compared to its premiere and up a whopping 20% in 18-49. Part of it might be that the premiere episode was made available free on iTunes for 2 weeks, so that may have kept premiere numbers down but also brought in more fans. On CW, Gossip Girl's overall crowd was about even compared to its premiere but was up about 8.3% in adults, so the bigger concern there was it losing over 40% of it's Top Model lead-in. Also worth noting is all CW series premieres and some season premieres are also available FREE on iTunes for now.

10/5 news: And finally, Thursday's overnights:
The second Thursday of the new season went, like the first, to CBS. The Eye averaged a 10.2 rating for the night, ahead of ABC's 8.3. NBC was a distant 3rd at 5.3, then Fox with 4.5 and The CW with 2.4. In adults 18-49, CBS won with a 4.9, just edging out ABC's 4.8. NBC was 3rd with 3.8, then Fox with 2.1 and CW at 1.5.
CBS won at 8 with "Survivor: China" doing an 8.5. Week 2 of "Ugly Betty" did a 6.6 for ABC. Fox took 3rd with "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" (N/A), NBC 4th with 5.1 for "My Name Is Earl" and 4.8 for the return of "30 Rock". The CW did 2.9 with "Smallville".
At 9, the H2H was closer this week as "CSI" did a 12.8 to hold off "Grey's Anatomy" with a 12.3. Grey's again won 18-49 though. "The Office" was a distant 3rd at 5. "Kitchen Nightmares" was 4th (N/A) and The CW closed out its night with a 2 for "Supernatural".
And at 10, "Without A Trace" finished the CBS sweep with a 9.4. "ER" on NBC and Week 2 of "Big Shots" on ABC tied with 6.1. Note that Big Shots did lose over half it's Grey's lead-in, Big, big trouble. It also lost 21.28% from the premiere in 18-49. Also note that, compared to this time last year, Ugly Betty's rating this year was off by nearly 33%. Compared to the timeslot last year, 30 Rock was off about 10% from "The Office" last year (closer to 20% in 18-49) but still got a viewer boost from its recent Primetime Emmy wins.

One Monday news item: NBC has announced that "Deal Or No Deal" is headed to national syndication in fall 2008. The half-hour version will be hosted by Howie Mandel and be pretty much the same as the current version on NBC. No word yet on what the top prize will be. It's already set to debut in New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and other major markets.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 08 2007.

Well, it seems that Nielsen finally has out the first "Live + 7 Day Data" of the new season-what this is, besides something new, confusing, and will further take time away from my iPod and online poker, is a method of tracking just how many DVR recordings and replays of original TV episodes occurred within 7 days of the program's original airing. And according to said numbers, the most-DVR'd program of Premiere Week was...

Survivor: China.

2.116 million viewers DVR/Tivo'd it and replayed it within 7 days of its original broadcast, according to CBS via Nielsen (yes, they naturally are spinning the numbers already). If I read all the news and press releases correctly, these numbers eventually will be added to the regular Nielsen final numbers for the week. Overall, 5 of the top 10 DVR record/playback programs were Fox shows, 4 were CBS, the other one was ABC. Here's the top 10 (all season/series premieres unless otherwise noted):
#1-Survivor: China, 2,116,000
#2: Family Guy, 1,843,000
#3: Prison Break, 1,546,000
#4: Back To You, 1,456,000
#5: Come Rain, Come Shine (ABC), 1,256,000
#6: Big Brother (Season Finale), 1,249,000
#7: The Simpsons, 1,089,000
#8: Kid Nation, 1,006,000 (CBS made sure to note this in their release to further make their darling look better)
#9: K-Ville, 993,000
#10: Shark, 982,000
These kind of additions could make the difference in make-or-break decisions for these shows, so they will be worth monitoring.

One note from Sunday's overnight ratings: Not good for The CW again. They premiered their latest new series, "Life Is Wild" and evidently it wasn't wild enough. It only managed a 1.2 rating but even worse was the .4 18-49 rating. That is The CW's worst 18-49 rating ever in the 8 PM Sunday timeslot by a considerable margin-the previous low was .7 for 7th Heaven on 4/8. It also tied a 7th Heaven repeat from Christmas Eve '06 for the worst in season performance overall in the hour. Well, at least it improved on Online Nation's .3 in the key demo. Yes, it was up against NFL, The Simpsons, Extreme Makeover, and 60 Minutes, and yes, The CW can't even muster a 1.0 overall most Sundays, but given how well it does in 18-49 by its standards this still is just ugly.

Other early post-Holiday weekend news:
The cable network Comedy Central will not renew "The Showbiz Show With David Spade", ending its run after 3 seasons. It averaged about 1 million total viewers each episode during its run. No reason given.
The cable network Bravo won't renew "Hey Paula!" for a second season. Said to be Abdul's decision.
Anyone else remember that short-lived 1998-99 series "Cupid" on ABC? It's coming back. Creator Rob Thomas is redeveloping it for the Alphabet and ABC Studios.
And finally, despite less-than-lovely ratings for the show so far, HBO still wants to hear you say "Tell Me You Love Me"...as do certain other people. So it's getting a second season (number of episodes TBD). It's averaging 910,000 viewers through 4 episodes, by HBO standards that's rather low.

This just in...get those office pool sheets out, we have a winner in the race to be the first new show to get a full season oder! And the winner is...

Gossip Girl.

The CW has ordered a full season of 22 episodes, meaning it gets an additional 9 episodes for the full season. The show's 9/19 launch was the top-rated program among women 18-34, teens, and teen girls, which is probably the crowds the show tries to reach.

Fox has also just announced a baseball-related schedule change: Monday's scheduled games, which were to have started at 4 & 7 PM ET, respectively, have been moved to 7 & 10 PM ET, likely to get the games in primetime in each team's market. As a result, both Prison Break and K-Ville will not air this Monday because Fox has the ALCS and the 7 PM game, which was the 4 PM game (the NLCS is the 10 PM game now instead of 7 PM, that series is airing on the cable network TBS). They could be pre-empted again on 10/29 should the World Series go to at least Game 5 (it would probably fall on that date and Fox has all WS games).

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 09 2007.

Weekly Nielsen Ratings Report for Week Ending 10/7/07:
Guess Nielsen didn't take Monday off after all. I expected to have the numbers for this week tomorrow but I have them today, so here it is...Besides it being the important Week 2 of the new season, last week was really all about the debut of "Cavemen", the sitcom that ABC was putting virtually everything behind. The huge buildup was thanks in no part to the Geico commercials that ultimately spawned this new sitcom. ABC even went huge with the number spinning, but now reality hits: They claimed a good 15 million watched the premiere last Tuesday. The final number: 9.2 million. The Alphabet claimed Cavemen had the 8 PM Tuesday timeslot's biggest men 18-34 audience in 2 years. Uh, let's see what could've beaten it in said timeframe: America's Funniest Home Videos, According To Jim, George Lopez, Just For Laughs, and...oooh, here's a big one: Dancing With The Stars. And furthermore, Cavemen ranked only #24 for the week among guys 18-34. Of course the true tale is how it does in its 2nd episode, we'll have a first idea later today when Tuesday's fast overnights come out. As for the show stuck with it as a lead-in, "Carpoolers", it opened with 9.1 million, losing only a few Cavemen curious. As for the other big debut on ABC last week, "Pushing Daisies", which ABC was hoping for critical success from after positive reviews, buzz, etc., opened quite well with a final number of 13 million, which won the Wednesday 8 PM timeslot. It was the week's top new series and best timeslot showing for The Alphabet in 3 years, when it launched "Lost". Otherwise Dancing mostly led the way but crowds were down a little bit-Monday's 2 hours dominated as usual but it didn't win Tuesday at 9, it's 15.7 million lost to Fox and "House" with about 17.4 million. CBS didn't debut anything new but The Eye still led the way overall despite only having 3 top 10 shows, led by "CSI" winning the week with 21 million. Opposite CSI, "Grey's Anatomy" did a little lower than usual, only 18.4 million. The Eye's new shows continue to perform with mixed results-Week 3 of "The Big Bang Theory" finished 2nd in it's Monday timeslot with 8.5 million viewers, which improved on it's "How I Met Your Mother" lead-in of 7.9 million, and more importantly is maintaining about all of it's week-to-week crowds in the big 18-49 demo. "Rules Of Engagement" also reached double digits with 10.1 million despite losing about 3 million form it's "Two And A Half Men" lead-in. On Wednesday, the latest "Kid Nation" did 7.4 million, a distant 3rd at 8. On Friday, "Moonlight" won the 9 PM death slot with just over 8 million. At NBC, The Peacock saw some down numbers this past week too-on Monday, Week 3 of "Chuck" dropped to 8.3 million, and without the benefit of NNPO 2.0, "Heroes" plummeted to only 11.9 million. Of bigger concern-not to me of course-is that while this past Monday's episode won 18-49 on the night, it fell to a new series low in that demo. Yeah, you should be worried. On Thursday, "30 Rock" returned with post-Emmy buzz for its Best Comedy Series win, and managed 7.3 million. Still a distant 4th at 8:30 but better than the 4.7 million it ended season 1 with. The true test is how many stick around for tonight, when one of everbody's favorite 90s comedians, Jerry Seinfeld, makes his long-awaited guest appearance. On Friday, critical media favorite "Friday Night Lights" kicked off season 2 with about 6.3 million viewers at 9, which placed it 2nd out of 4. It held on to about 80% of it's "Deal Or No Deal" lead-in, which is borderline but given the new head of NBC Universal isn't as big on the show as the former head was, could already mean it's looking at 3rd & long. Nothing new on Fox except more troubling numbers for "Prison Break"-7.3 million last week extends it's streak of new series lows in ratings to 3. It might break the streak with this week's episode, early numbers for the Very Special Episode, aka an appearance by a decapitated head of a cast member killed off because she couldn't reach a new deal with the brass, and when that happens that's your series swan song (or something like that), have the episode doing 7.4 million. And at The CW, mixed as usual-the Monday comedes returned to mixed numbers-2.6 million for "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Girlfriends" around 2.3 million for "Aliens In America', and finally 3 million for "The Game". Week 2 of "Gossip Girl" did about 2.7 million, and despite losing about 40% of it's "America's Next Top Model" lead-in it's attracted enough teenage girls and enough downloads (both episodes are among the top 5 TV episode downloads on iTunes, the premiere is/was free for a time) to get a full season pickup, which means 9 more episodes. Can't say the same about Sunday-the premiere of "Life Is Wild" managed just 1.7 million. That includes a .3 rating in 18-34 that CW targets heavily. Based on numbers for "CW Now" and "Online Nation", which managed only 750,000 between them, not that many 18-34-year-olds have worse to do on Sundays. It's that, football, sitcoms, or 60 Minutes Except When It's 90 Minutes Of Cold Shark. Anyway, let's see how long before CW decides this life isn't that wild.

The Week's Top 10 Most Watched Shows, in order: "CSI", Monday's "Dancing With The Stars", "Grey's Anatomy", NBC's Sunday Night NFL coverage, CBS's Sunday Night NFL coverage/overrun (7-7:30), "Desperate Housewives", "House", "NCIS", Tuesday's Dancing, "CSI: Miami".

One news item I forgot to mention as well: Kiefer Sutherland pleaded no contest to drunk driving yesterday and will serve 48 days in jail. The sentence will be broken up so that production of "24" will not be affected. He'll do 18 days on a separate charge starting December 21, when 24 begins its winter production break. Afterwards he has until July 1 to serve another 30 days, then is on 5 years' probation among other punishments. The latter jail sentence likely won't be served until production of 24 is done for the season.

Tuesday's fast overnights just came out, so here's the skinny on week 2 of Cavemen: Last night's show did a 4.5 rating, which puts the early estimate at about 8.5 million viewers. But if last week was any indication, we can probably knock about 2 to 2.5 million off that number when it's finalized, since last week's fast number was about 11.6 million and the final number was 9.2 million. Any way you look at it the early reports are it lost about 2 million from it's premiere crowd, so we're probably looking at between 6.5 and 7 million (or down 25% or so, which is in what I call the warning zone of 20-30% loss of premiere/prior episode viewers). I don't have 18-49 numbers yet but those likely will have gone down a bit as well, meaning these Cavemen are likely one step closer to extinction again, or at the least proving one thing-TV sitcoms are not so easy a caveman could do it. At the very least it's now halfway to my over/under of it lasting 4 episodes. Fox won a close night overall (much easier win in 18-49), and House again edged out Dancing for the night's top rating. And after Cavemen, Carpoolers did a 4.9. Down a bit too but better than Cavemen so it might stick around.
The actual percentage drops for Cavemen from the premiere: 26.23% overall, 24.24% 18-49. Carpoolers dropped 12.95 & 17.65%, respectively. The 18-49 rating for Cane did worse than the final airings of Smith & 3 lbs. in the 10 PM timeslot, meaning Cane's fate could soon be similar-cancellation. As for Reaper on The CW, its numbers compared to last week were unchanged in both demos.

And now another item from the Back From The Dead department: Fox is apparently interested in reviving the short-lived series "The Pitts", but this time making it animated. The show's absurdist take on family life was already darned near animated to begin with and FOX has apparently requested two scripts. If a table-read goes well, FOX may just sent the show straight to series, rather than requesting a formal pilot. It's one of 3 potential animated comedies that Fox is developing-apparently you can't have enough animation if you're at The Fox these days. As for the original, it lasted just 7 episodes in March & April 2003.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 10 2007.

A handful of new series got a few more episodes overnight: CBS ordered 4 additional episodes for "Cane", while new NBC series "Bionic Woman", "Chuck", "Life", and "Journeyman" each get 3 more. Several other shows may get additional orders before the week is over. Monitor these developments because there are also reports that a strike/lockout by writers in Hollywood is being threatened at the end of the month, which could shut down production completely on most, if not all, shows. By ordering more scripts/episodes now and getting them into production sooner, studios can stockpile new material and keep shows going longer in the event of a prolonged strike (at least have more non-repeat material). For more on this possible strike/lockout, click here.

And there's more fallout from the NNPO 2.0 mess...if you are a "Heroes" fan, proceed with caution because Heroes is being made to look more like Zeroes. The non-NBC broadcast networks are pushing hard for Nielsen to issue the actual ratings for both the Heroes season premiere and the repeat airing that following Saturday night, which under NNPO 2.0 NBC aired with the same exclusive sponsor to combine the Saturday ratings with Monday's. But what's been revealed is that, either way, it's lose-lose for The Peacock and Heroes: If the Saturday numbers are restored and reported separately, NBC's least-watched hour of Premiere Week is back on the books and down goes the weekly numbers. But if it isn't restored, there's more fun: Heroes officially becomes, among returning series, the biggest ratings bust so far this season in terms of ratings drops from week 1 to week 2. We're talking about a 30% total viewer drop, which is an instant red alert on top of the 25% drop in the must-win 18-49 demo. NBC just can't win, Heroes, er, Zeroes Or No Zeroes.

And finally, a followup to all the DVR stuff from a couple days back: Tivo has now released their Premiere Week ratings numbers...in other words, the fall television premiere week most watched shows in live, time-shifted and total viewing, according to TiVo viewers. And the most favorite show among Tivos was...

Grey's Anatomy.

It had a total Tivo rating of 27.2%, generated from a supposedly random sample of 20,000 random Tivo users. Simply put, that's how many people with a Tivo watched it either live or recorded it to watch it at some point later in the week. The most watched live program of Premiere Week via Tivo was Sunday Night NFL at 10.1%. The Top 5 overall were Grey's Anatomy, CSI, Desperate Housewives, Survivor: China, and Heroes. The Live Top 5 were NFL, Grey's, Housewives, Monday's Dancing With The Stars (9/24), and CSI. Top 5 in Time Shifting (record when it's on, watch later-this made up 2/3 of the figures) were Grey's, CSI, Housewives, Survivor, and The Office. If you want to try and figure out the night-by-night numbers yourself, have fun. Have aspirin handy too.

Now for some schedule changes at NBC next week: They've won the "Bathroomgate" sweepstakes and the first TV interview with Sen. Larry Craig since said incident, and it will air Tuesday at 8 PM. This means "The Singing Bee" won't air next week and "The Biggest Loser" will be cut to 1 hour.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 11 2007.

Monday news:
Fox today announced that new midseason comedy "The Return Of Jezebel James" has had its order cut from 13 episodes to 7 (total includes the pilot). No reason given why but given it's a spring premiere, it probably has something to do with the ever-present schedule changes that come with that unstoppable Fox midseason juggernaut. It's always a problem for Fox midseason comedies. The original timeslot for the show, announced at May's upfronts, was Wednesday at 8:30. Which, come later in that said midseason juggernaut run, usually means bump to either another night later in the summer or Sunday.

Regis Philbin is headed back to primetime game shows. CBS has ordered 6 episodes of "Million Dollar Password", a midseason game show to be hosted by Regis. It's an updated version of the popular "Password" game franchise, which ran on & off from 1961-1989 as Password, "Password Plus", and "Super Password". This time of course there's a possible million dollar grand prize.

For those who forgot or missed it, today is/was Drew Carey's first day as host of "The Price Is Right".

Quick weekend ratings notes: ABC's "Women's Murder Club" made the Friday night death slot anything but. It opened Friday at 9 with a 7.3 overnight rating, which easily beat everything that night, including baseball on Fox. It only did a 2.5 in 18-49 though, while that does sound rather low the top-rated 18-49 show Friday only did a 2.6. Afterwards, "Men In Trees" returned with a 4.9. That was 2nd of 3 but already is in that drop-off danger zone because it lost about 35% of it's lead-in. Also, it could already be 4th down for "Friday Night Lights"-it managed only a 3.6 rating and it's 1.7 in 18-49 marked a new series low (previous mark was 1.8 3 times).

Schedule changes at Fox this week because of baseball: In addition to Game 3 tonight, no "Bones" and "House" Tuesday night because of ALCS Game 4 (current start time is 8:20 PM) and, because Cleveland won the other night, there will be a Game 5, which is currently set for Thursday at 8:20. That will pre-empt what would have been 2 repeats of "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" (the season 1 finale; Don't Forget The Lyrics will return in November) If Games 6 & 7 are needed, they would be Saturday night and Sunday night. The NLCS will pre-empt various late-night programs on the cable network TBS later on unless Colorado wins Game 4 tonight, then it's over.

With regards to World Series pre-emptions/schedule changes on Fox, the schedule is as follows, which may give an idea of what shows will be pre-empted when:
Game 1-October 24 (Wednesday)
Game 2-October 25 (Thursday-no changes)
Game 3-October 27 (Saturday)
Game 4-October 28 (Sunday)
Game 5-October 29 (Monday-if necessary)
Game 6-October 31 (Wednesday-if necessary)
Game 7-November 1 (Thursday-if necessary-may pre-empt a new 5th Grader)

Also out now are the almost-official Premiere WeeK TV Ratings...Take 2 (I think). This time Nielsen has put out the official "live + 7" ratings, which includes DVR viewing up to a week after the show aired. Notable changes:
CSI was still #1, but saw its crowd increase to 27.27 million.
Grey's Anatomy moved up to #2 thanks to DVR numbers, picking up over 2 million to end at 22.97 million. Dancing With The Stars fell to #3.
The Office had the highest percentage gain in viewership, up 10.9%. It's final total went up to 10.84 million.
Journeyman and Smallville both moved up the most spots in the rankings-6 each, to 36 & 70, respectively.
Nobody DVR'd CW Now. Initial number: 777,000. Updated number: 777,000.
Now we wait on the "C3" numbers, which measure commercial viewing for up to 3 days after a show airs. Ad execs await eagerly.
Notes from Sunday's overnight ratings: Looks like CW hit new lows yet again. Only a .5 rating for CW Now, a .4 for Online Nation, and both only managed .2 ratings in 18-49...that probably will equal less than 200,000 viewers in the key demo. That's low. Life Is Wild dropped to a .8 rating and .3 18-49. You have to wonder how long CW will keep these shows going. Final numbers Wednesday.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 16 2007.

Tuesday news...
The cable networks Sci Fi and G4 have both acquired off-network cable rights for the series "Lost". The deal gives both networks rights to existing episodes and all future episodes all the way up to the end of the show (the show will end after its 6th season). The existing episodes will begin airing on both networks in Fall 2008. G4 will air both the original episodes and "2.0" versions, which are enhanced with online chats that appear onscreen while watching on TV, trivia, and other interactive features. The network also gets exlcusive weekend airing rights. Sci Fi will have 4 hour primetime marathons every week. Both networks also will stream a limited number of episodes online on their websites (g4tv.com and scifi.com, respectively).

Monday ratings notes: Despite some rather forgetful reviews, "Samantha Who?" was not forgotten by viewers last night. The new sitcom premiered and drew a 10.2 rating (about 20 million) for ABC at 9:30, probably largely inflated by Dancing With The Stars. Last night's numbers are subject to change because Fox aired live baseball.

Weekly Nielsen Ratings Report for Week Ending 10/14/07:
3 weeks into the season and the old still reigns supreme over the new. Almost every new series has now seen significant drop-offs from their premieres while the familiar ratings stalwarts continue to perform as well as ever. All but one new show last week lost viewers from the week before-we'll start with, of course, the latest episode of "Cavemen". Last week it had 9.2 million, this week it dropped to 7 million. It finished 3rd on Tuesday at 8, but not by much. It's now lost a good 40% or so of it's premiere crowd, now we'll see how committed ABC is to it. Afterwards, "Carpoolers" improved to 7.3 million, but still down a bit from its premiere too. Also a fairly big drop for The Alphabet's heavily pushed "Pushing Daisies", an opening crowd of 13 million wilted to 10.3 million this week, a drop of just over 20%. Afterwards, "Private Practice" did 12.4 million-about unchanged but did see growth in the important 18-49 demo. And Thursday's "Big Shots" gained viewers overall, up to 8.5 million from 8.2 million. OK, that is still off 3 million from it's premiere, but it had a "Grey's Anatomy" lead-in so its number is clearly inflated there. The Alphabet also got its best Friday 9 PM numbers in over 4 years when about 10.8 million tuned in for the premiere of "Women's Murder Club". Afterwards, "Men In Trees" proceeded to sort of go timber, promptly losing nearly 4 million and returning to just 7 million. At NBC, "Boinic Woman" has now lost over 4 million of its premiere crowd after drawing 10.3 million this past Wednesday. On Monday, "Journeyman" is down to just under 7 million, putting it 3rd out of 3...clearly not helped by the fact that the numbers for "Heroes" continue to come down to earth, literally. It didn't crack the 11 million mark last week and lost to both ABC and CBS. Save The World? More like Save The Heroes now as it continues to proudly boast the "biggest bust" tag...no, not that kind of bust. CBS' "Kid Nation" clearly has lost the boost it got from its curiousity/controversy factor, its crowd dropped to 6.9 million this past week-while it did improve in the second half-hour, the first half-hour barely managed a tie with Fox for 3rd with 6.6 million, and didn't beat The CW by much ("America's Next Top Model" is to the point where it starts picking up steam and viewers, this week it got up to 5.4 million and the second half-hour nearly reached 6 million, within shouting distance of 4th). Back to NBC, evidently Jerry Seinfeld didn't give "30 Rock" much of the buzz they hoped for-the crowd dropped to 6.6 million this week. That's about 15% off the season premiere and back in its familiar sppot of distant 4th at 8:30. The 9 PM totals were off a bit this week as well, with "CSI" winning with about 19.8 million, off what it usually does. "Grey's Anatomy" managed about 18.5 million. There also were some lopsided Sunday numbers on both ends: CBS got a early primetime boost from football as the matchup of The New Brady Bunch vs. Team Romo Is Burning-for those who don't get Bermanisms that's New England vs. Dallas-gave The Eye a starting crowd of 32 million in the 7 PM hour between scheduled game time and overrun. It later helped the 60 Minutes Of Cold Shark block too, 90 minutes of "60 Minutes" held onto 17.3 million of the NFL crowd at the start, subsequently cutting into NBC's NFL coverage. "Cold Case" got about 14 million despite a 9:30 start, and the first half-hour of "Shark" did 10.9 million at 10:30. Said numbers did cut into ABC's Funniest Extreme Desperate Siblings block, as all the shows saw viewers generally down this week, with only about 18.8 million for "Desperate Housewives". On the other end, The CW continues to barely register ratings on Sunday-only 700,000 watched "CW Now", an even lower 600,000 for "Online Nation", and "Life Is Wild" dropped to 1.1 million. Proof that Sunday night is the Friday Night Death Slot at The CW.

The Week's Top 10 Most Watched Shows, in order: CBS's Sunday NFL coverage/overrun, "CSI", Monday's "Dancing With The Stars", "Grey's Anatomy", "Desperate Housewives", "House", "60 Minutes", Tuesday's Dancing, "NCIS", "Criminal Minds".

Other news...
Fox announced a couple of January premiere dates late yesterday, which offer a preview of some of the obligatory midseason schedule changes that are likely: According to the show's creator, the new series "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" will premiere Monday, January 14 at 8 PM, making it this season's "24" lead-in. 24 starts with 2 hours January 13 then moves to its regular timeslot the next night. This likely means that come that time, "Prison Break" and "K-Ville" either will go to new timeslots or hiatus. This does reflect a time change for Sarah Connor, the original timeslot Fox announced at the upfronts was Sundays at 9.
This also just in with regards to K-Ville: Fox has ordered 2 additional scripts of the series, potentially extending its season to 15 episodes.
Also, and this is not a joke...As buddy and lead-in Jon Stewart would say, Here It Is, Your Moment Of Zen...Stephen Colbert, host of "The Colbert Report" on the cable network Comedy Central, is running for President of the US. Only two problems though...he plans to run in both primaries (in reality, he's a Democrat) and, based on a radio report I heard this morning, he plans to run in only one state-South Carolina. Good luck. I eagerly await fellow political pundit Bill Maher's commentary and some subsequent "New Rules" on an upcoming episode of Real Time.

Edit: Update on the above story on the Fox schedule changes: Fox has announced that the fall finale of Prison Break will be December 17. It then goes on hiatus until its scheduled return on April 14. At that point it will air original episodes into June-based on the current schedule, that would mean probably 10 more new episodes.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 17 2007.

More news from Fox...
The midseason roster shuffling continues, both good and bad. The good, well, it's bad for some anyway-Hell In A Kitchen isn't going anywhere soon. "Kitchen Nightmares", the spinoff of popular reality series "Hell's Kitchen", has just been renewed for a second season of at least 10 episodes. They should air sometime in '08. Kitchen Nightmares features the epitome of en fuego chefs, noted chef Gordon Ramsay, also the host of Hell's Kitchen.
The bad is even worse for new series "New Amsterdam"-already pushed back to midseason from a fall debut, Fox has now cut the series' order from 13 episodes to 7. This is the second time in as many weeks that Fox has cut a new series order (last week it did similar with "The Return Of Jezebel James"). No reason given for the cut by Fox, but it's been revealed that the James cut was due to an "overstuffed midseason roster", which of course is that unstoppable midweek juggernaut, the slightly offbeat doctor, and then everything else that hardly anyone watches.

Fox also announced that the first sneak peek of Day 7 of "24" will occur October 25. The first trailer, a special extended one, will have its world premiere that day at 1 PM ET online at 24trailer.com and in New York's Times Square on the iconic News Astrovision by Panasonic. The worldwide premiere will be seen concurrently around the globe at locations, via mobile and online in the U.K., Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. The first promo for the new season will air during Game 2 of the World Series that night (sometime after 8 PM ET). A countdown clock starts ticking today at 24trailer.com. Synchronize watches.

Quick Wednesday night ratings notes: Among the new series, ABC's "Pushing Daisies" did a 6.6 rating, which held steady compared to last week. "Private Practice" did an 8.1 at 9, and "Dirty Sexy Money" a 6.4 at 10. NBC saw "Bionic Woman" slip to a 5.5, which means the final number will likely be below 10 million for the first time in its run. "Life" did a 5.0 afterwards. What might hurt the new NBC shows is ratings stalwart "Deal Or No Deal" is now on hiatus for 6 weeks-this only affects the Wednesday edition. The Friday edition continues as usual with new episodes. This is to make way for the new series "Phenomenon", premiering next week. And there's one related schedule change because of it: Bionic Woman is pre-empted October 31 because of a 2 hour Phenomenon. Deal returns November 28.

Edit: This just in...The ax has fallen for the first time. We have our official first cancellation of the new season! Got your pick sheets ready? The first victim is...

Online Nation.

The CW has taken it offline effective immediately. Just 580,000 watched this past Sunday, making it the least-watched show on TV. The show's biggest audience was for the premiere-just 1 million. It's not known how many episodes were produced but at least 3 are left unaired. The show's 7:30 Sundays timeslot will be assumed by "Aliens In America" repeats.

One item from cable: Comedy Central is still going to be home for Your Moment Of Zen every weeknight for a while longer, courtesy of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart". Executive producer and host Jon Stewart has signed a 2-year contract extension with Comedy Central, keeping him there until at least 2010-when he would mark 11 years as the show's host. His current deal ended at the end of 2008. This likely keeps The Daily Show on Comedy Central for at least 3 more years as a result, and also bodes well for the future of "The Colbert Report" as the deal includes Stewart's Busboy Productions, which produces Colbert. The studio also is producing "Important Things with Demetri Martin", which is scheduled to premiere next summer.

Friday news...
2 more new shows have gotten full-season pickups: ABC's "Private Practice" and CBS's "The Big Bang Theory". That makes 3 new shows so far to get full first seasons (The CW's "Gossip Girl" was the first). Practice, the much-hyped "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff, has been the most-watched new show so far this season with an average of about 13 million viewers and also is the top newcomer in the coveted 18-49 demo. The Big Bang Theory has been consistently improving on it's "How I Met Your Mother" lead-in ratings...no complaints for me there, it's been my favorite new show of the season. Just means iTunes gets another $20 or so from me for the rest of the episodes.

Thursday overnight ratings notes: CBS' new series "Viva Laughlin" evidently was more like Viva Who Cares. It debuted last night with a 5.6 overnight rating (about 10.5 million). That puts it a likely 4th out of 4 in the timeslot behind ABC, NBC, and Fox (which did an estimated 8.0 on the night for live baseball). Even worse, it lost more than half it's "CSI" lead-in crowd (CSI did a 12.7) and also lost viewers at the half-hour mark. It now moves to the Sunday 8 PM timeslot. And just to rub it in a bit more, Laughlin's numbers were not only worse than any CBS broadcast in the Thursday 10 PM timeslot so far this season, they were worse than everything last season! At least in 18-49: Laughlin did a disastrous 2.5 demo number last night. The prior low: 2.6 for a Shark repeat in December '06. CSI beforehand did a 6.4 in 18-49. Viva Laughlin? More like See Ya Laughlin. Even decent Sunday numbers may not save it (and you never know what time it will start because of NFL overruns often causing start times for 60 Minutes to vary).

CBS has also just announced that "The Unit", currently in its 3rd season, has also gotten a full season of 22 episodes.

Late news from Fox: "Nashville", which had been on hiatus since late September and rumored to return in early November, is now cancelled. The 9 PM Friday timeslot will now be filled by more episodes of "Don't Forget The Lyrics" beginning November 9. It's not known how many episodes of Nashville were produced byeond the 2 that aired, but listings for future airings led me to believe the number was at least 4 but not more than 9 or 10.

10/22 news: Notes on Sunday's ratings...
Well, if you had a choice as to how "Viva Laughlin" would do Sunday, you were right if you chose worse or much worse. In its first regular timeslot airing, and it could be its last, it went from snake eyes to bust...the new CBS drama managed just a 4.5 rating and an indescribably horrendous 1.2 18-49 rating. That 18-49 number was worse than EVERY CBS 8 PM Sunday broadcast form all of last season! (which, by the way, was a 1.4 on 5/20 for the old-skewing movie Million Dollar Baby) It also was down 22.41% overall from the Thursday premiere and a go-for-broke 52% in 18-49. And lost about 43% of it's "60 Minutes" lead-in (it did a 7.6). I'd be very surprised if it lives to see next week. Fox, not surprisingly, won the night with NFL postgame/overrun and ALCS Game 7 coverage. At The CW, replacing the now-cancelled "Online Nation" with repeats of "Aliens In America" made a huge difference. The numbers still barely register, but Aliens did a .8 rating, or about 70-80% better than Online's average. And "Life Is Wild" might have bought itself some more time-it did a 1.1 rating last night, which compared to last week was up 37.5% overall and 66.66% in 18-49 (it did a .5). Final numbers coming Wednesday, it's going to be fun.

This message was edited by SummonerSupreme on Oct 22 2007.