WHAT MATTERS:
- The Summer Olympics in primetime are now exactly on the 2008 pace as the Olympics-to-Olympics trend worsened for the third straight day. Tonight brings day five, which last time around was the highest-rated evening of the Olympics when Michael Phelps broke the all-time gold medal record. Tonight, (SPOILERS!) he breaks the all-time any-medal record, so big things could be ahead.
- This was perhaps the worst day yet for those originals that went up against the Olympics. Among the casualties were ABC's Bachelor Pad and The Glass House, both down in the 25% vicinity, CBS' repeats (down 20%ish), and male-leaning lineups on USA and Syfy.
THE MENTALIST (CBS)
Scheduling history: The first season of
The Mentalist was part of a significant reinvigoration of CBS Tuesday, a night that had been fairly problematic for CBS in previous seasons. When CBS moved the show to Thursday in fall 2009, most people believed they were setting it up as the heir to
CSI's Thursday 9/8c throne. Instead,
The Mentalist hung in the 10:00 hour for three seasons and headed to Sunday starting in fall 2012. The short final season in 2014-15 aired five episodes on Sunday to fill
The Good Wife's hiatus, then moved to Wednesday to fill
Survivor's hiatus.
Saturday table now added below!
WHAT MATTERS:
- Is this what they call "failing upward"? Much-criticized NBC has been nonetheless on the upside relative to 2008 for each of the first three nights of primetime tape-delayed Olympic coverage. But we won't declare overwhelming victory yet, as it is worth noting that the growth has slowed significantly; 18% on Opening Ceremony night, 10% on Saturday and just 4% on Sunday. It looks to be only about even vs. 2008 for the day four prelims (not yet included in the chart below).
- CBS' 3 was DOA on Thursday and then even DOAer in the second and final airing three days later.
- Many of the cable options sat out the opening days of Olympic action, though True Blood (2.6) was completely unaffected and owned the Sunday cable evening as usual. Breaking Bad (1.1) shed another tenth in week three but remains hugely up year-to-year.
Let's take a look at the 2011-12 season (the seventh overall) of
How I Met Your Mother on CBS.
Bachelor Pad
Mondays, 8/7c, ABC
Bachelor Pad
Mondays, 8/7c, ABC
Bachelor Pad
Mondays, 8/7c, ABC
SOUTHLAND (NBC/TNT)
Scheduling history: Following its super-short first season on Thursday night, NBC renewed
Southland for the 2009-10 season and scheduled it on Friday night. In October 2009, two weeks before it was scheduled to premiere, NBC shockingly flipped course and cancelled the show. With several season two episodes in the can, TNT decided to take a flier on the series, scheduling it on Tuesday night the next winter. It aired three winter seasons on Tuesday for TNT, and the final one was on Wednesday.
It's that time of the four years again; starting tonight, the Summer Olympics will overtake primetime for the next seventeen nights. I'm going to take a quick look at the ratings from 2008 as a preview of sorts for this year's edition.
WHAT MATTERS:
- NBC surrounded America's Got Talent with a couple timeslot-improving specials and got a bit of an uptick. So You Think You Can Dance dropped for the fifth straight week.
- Speaking of long negative streaks, panic time is setting in for TNT's Dallas, which lost demo audience for the sixth consecutive week since its premiere. This week's drop was a biggie (from 0.95 to 0.75) and means the show has now lost more than half of its premiere viewership and demo. The show is now three tenths behind USA's competing Royal Pains (1.0), and it's not like that show's lightin' the world on fire. ABC Family got a bounce back to typical levels from Melissa & Joey (0.6) and Baby Daddy (0.7).
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