Hues Revues - TV Ratings (9/28/05).

We're getting deep into Week Two of the official Fall Season and the new shows continue to come out strong.  Surprisingly, almost everything that interests me this season is doing quite well in the Ratings.  Either the mainstream is getting smarter, or I'm getting more mainstream dumb because usually all my favorite shows are lucky to get five episodes on the air.

As an example, Commander In Chief, earned at least a look-see from me, and apparently a lot of other folks, too, as it looks like Geena Davis is off to a strong start with 16 million viewers according to the fine folks at Nielsen, who come to these numbers by asking hobos what they would be watching if they weren't lying in their own filth under an overpass.  That mess was all one sentence there.  My English teachers are spinning in their graves (assuming that my syntax has killed them).

Here's how it broke down.  Overall, ABC won the night, followed by CBS, NBC and FOX.  Oh yeah, and the other two little networks.  The "only people we really care about" Adults 18-49 crown went to NBC, who were so shocked and excited that they accidentally ordered more episodes of The Office before realizing that nobody is watching it, they're just passing out in front of My Name Is Earl and leaving the TV on.  NBC was followed by CBS, FOX and then ABC.  What this means is that even though there were more people watching ABC, nobody cares about any of them.

So how were the head-to-head match-ups?

8/7c
NCIS took this hour by storm, with nearly twice as many viewers (9.6/15 million) as any other show.  According To Jim tied with The Biggest Loser with a decent 5.2/8 million, which means ABC will probably keep renewing it, thus ensuring that Jim Belushi won't have to try and make another Blues Brothers remake with John Goodman.  FOX was right there with another forensics crime drama, to fill the gaping hole in the prime time schedule for procedurals, Bones (5.0/8 million).  But look at the netlets.  Have you noticed how UPN and WB are starting to close the gap between the big four?  Either they're growing or the big four are dropping in numbers, and you know it may be the latter.  Anywho, WB scored a close 3.6/6 with Gilmore Girls, while UPN reran a reality show (America's Next Top Model), which wasn't on top of anything.

9/8c
Geena Davis brought in a whopping 10.9/16 to take the whole night with the bow of Commander in Chief on ABC.  I've got it TIVO'd but have not watched it yet, so no spoilers.  Note, this is the nastiest hour of the night as there are no less than almost every damned thing that I want to watch on right now.  With so much crap on the rest of the week, I'd really appreciate it if you network executives would move these around a bit.  FOX rose to second place with House (8.3/12), proving that Hugh Laurie didn't need Ryan Seacrest to lead him anywhere.  Both bested CBS' "Jump The Shark" edition of The Amazing Race: Family Edition (7.0/10).  I expect this one to go downhill fast, unless it gets all touchy-feelgood like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, in which case it should be just fine.  Still, I equate this edition of Race with the final season of Last Comic Standing (let's have the comics from Season One (including the ones no one liked in the first place) take on the comics from Season Two, because we can't find enough new comics who are willing to subject their careers to this crap) which sunk that franchise.  NBC took a 5.9/9 for the hour, balancing out the highs of My Name Is Earl (7.0/10) with the disappointing lows of The Office (4.8/7).  You'd have thought the success of The 40-Year Old Virgin would have helped The Office more.  WB stayed strong with Supernatural, while UPN continued to hate life with Sex, Love & Secrets (1.0/1) being watched only by those people who broke their TV dials while watching the premiere of Everybody Hates Chris last week.  For the record, I'm watching My Name Is Earl, The Office and Commander In Chief, while recording Supernatural on the Saturday repeats on my WB affiliate.  If that changes, it looks like Bravo is reairing the NBC lineup, so I should be cool.  The excellent House will just have to wait until either Geena gets on my nerves or somebody else gets canceled or moved.

10/9c
Law & Order: SVU (10.2/16) put NBC on top this hour.  Which begs the question, if Earl is doing good numbuers and L&O:SVU is doing good numbers, what is the problem with The Office.  Do you remember the days when NBC could put on anything on between Seinfeld and Friends because people could wade through 30 minutes of Kirstie Alley bitching for two seasons if it meant they didn't have to put forth the effort to change the channels.  No more.  I guess remote control sales have really gone up.  Following up a couple of Emmys for James Spader and William Shatner (back-to-back wins for both of them), Boston Legal came in pretty strong at 8.5/13.  I meant to TIVO this, as I've determined I need to at least watch one ep if they're getting all these accolades (I'm getting all "Variety" on you now using ep like I'm an insider--skein).  All of this took the second half of the two-hour premiere of The Amazing Race down to 6.5/10.  Or perhaps it was unrelated and it was just that after an hour, everyone realized that this Race just plain sucked.  Or at least the people that matter did (that's the first number).

So what did you watch?

j/h