Ratings Five-Spot Extra - Voicing Thoughts on The Voice

I didn't say much about the larger significance of The Voice's ratings last week because it seemed way premature; the show could fade to nothing in the next few weeks. That's still possible (perhaps the blind auditions heavily plugged in the promos were the real draw), but it seems a lot less likely now that it's had a more-than-solid week two. Perhaps it'll be invalidated in the coming weeks, but I'll take the risk and assume NBC has a big puzzle piece to work with going forward. Here are some early thoughts on what it all means:

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/3/11: Raise Your Voice

WHAT MATTERS:

• OK, now NBC can start feeling really good. The Voice rose 12% in week two. There are now just TWO entertainment episodes on all of TV this season not named American Idol that have done better: Glee with Britney Spears and Glee after a huge football game. Now the show moves out of its heavily-publicized blind audition phase, but it's hard to complain about the numbers thus far. More later this afternoon.

• I thought we might be done with Glee beating NCIS, but at least in the prelims it's happened again they ended up tied in finals. The NCIS spinoff was down double digits week-to-week and hit outright season lows, but The Good Wife found a way to pick up 20% from its last original despite a ton of competition.

• We got new season lows for Body of Proof (tying its post-Desperate Housewives low) and One Tree Hill. The two-tenth Body of Proof drop may seem a little worrying, but it obviously had a ton of competition and it dropped less week-to-week than its lead-in.

Demos Year-to-Year, Monday 5/2/11

Demos Year-to-Year, Sunday 5/1/11

Due to the wonkiness caused by the presidential address, I'll just mark all of the timeslot comparisons in blue as in the daily post.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/1/11

WHAT MATTERS:

• President Obama's primetime interruption at 10:45 ET/7:45 PT had weird ramifications across all of primetime. (I'm putting all stats below that involve timeslots in the less-accurate blue because of that.) The best showings of the evening seemed to be shows in the first half of Sunday primetime despite many of them being totally preempted out west. Dateline had one of its best Sunday showings of the season, then America's Next Great Restaurant hit a series high for its finale despite being seen in only 83% of the country.

• Also benefiting early in primetime were America's Funniest Home Videos and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, both above average even though Makeover was available in just 84% of the country.

• The shows that seemed truly damaged were veterans Brothers & Sisters and CSI: Miami, preempted in many cases, pushed to after the late local news in others, and airing just their first 45 minutes on the east coast (though that last one wouldn't hurt the ratings per se). Both hit series lows and were down 15%+ from last week.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/2/11: The Chicago Collapse

WHAT MATTERS:

• Most shows rated around 20% or more below their season-to-date averages. The biggest deal in terms of renewal was probably the fall of The Chicago Code, which finished two ticks behind any previous result. It didn't get much help from lead-in House, though; that show fell below the 3.0 threshold for the first time since 2004.

• The lack of Two and a Half Men continues to be felt as Mike & Molly hit a new outright series low and Hawaii Five-0 tied its low.

• Just so I'm not a complete Debbie Downer: Dancing with the Stars and Castle dominated again, and I suppose it might be worth mentioning that Law & Order: LA has now picked up three-tenths in the last two weeks, including gaining another tick this week against full-fledged competition. Might be something to keep an eye on.

Opinion Five-Spot, WE 5/1/11 - The Voice, The Office, Law & Order: CI, The Killing, The Chicago Code

Here's my Opinion Five-Spot for the week ending May 1, 2011:

The Voice - This ain't my genre, and it's been several years since I watched a full season of a talent competition (I think season 2 of American Idol?) but what do you know, I actually found this one pretty interesting! The "blind audition" phase has a Shark Tank vibe that I kinda dug. Adam Levine stood out as someone really taking the "strategy" of team-building seriously, and he snagged both people all four judges wanted. Will I be interested beyond the blind auditions? I'm quite skeptical based on the promos. But I was impressed with the production so far.

Demos Year-to-Year, Friday 4/29/11

Scheduling Five-Spot, WE 5/1/11 - Tyler Perry on TBS, CW Renewals, The Voice, Happy Endings, Love Bites

Here's your Scheduling Five-Spot for the week ending May 1, 2011:

Tyler Perry on TBS - First, TBS announced the end of House of Payne, his first show with the net which will ultimately air a whooping 222 episodes in a run of just five to six calendar years. Buta third Perry comedy will take its place, the singlecam For Better Or Worse. Ten eps are ordered, probably just a formality before another they pick up 90 more so the show can hit the fast track to syndication (a model used with the other Perry shows). TBS has had many other originals during the Perry era, but the Perry shows have pretty consistently outshone them all ratings-wise.

Spotted Ratings, Saturday 4/30/11

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox dominated with NASCAR (1.6). I don't have quite a robust enough archive to be able to say this for sure, but the performance from the special Fight Camp 360: Pacquiao vs. Mosley (0.3) might be the weakest original showing in CBS history. Pretty dreadful.

Above based on preliminary adults 18-49 ratings unless otherwise noted. | Full table forthcoming later.