By Jeff Rosz | May 17th, 2013  We are waiting on the overnights, but for those who cannot possibly wait to see how The Office finale failed to bring back all of its viewers…the program did over 5 million sets of eyes with a 2.9 in the 18-49 demo. This is the best performance in 16 months for the program which has been falling flat with viewers ever since the departure of Steve Carell and more so the conclusion of the will-they won’t-they Jim and Pam story arc. Even so, Michael Scott did make an appearance of sorts. Had he been all over the series ender, more might have returned, but it was more so a cameo with a “that’s what she said” joke. The real Michael Scott would have took the reigns of Dwight’s wedding and made it more about him in a grandiose manner.
Update: Viewers: 5.4 million, 18-49: 2.9 rating. In terms of the retrospective, that was 4.3 million viewers with a 2.0 18-49. These are not final numbers. Expect those to surface later in the day.
Update #2: Final numbers for The Office finale have 5.7 million tuning in and a 3.0 in the 18-49 demo.
By Jeff Rosz | May 7th, 2013  Just ‘wow.’ Last week I was impressed with yet another series high rating for Game of Thrones which is now in its third season, but apparently that was due to low expectations. The new best number for the beloved fantasy series is 5.5 million as that is how many tuned in on Sunday, May 5. There is not much to say beyond that although it is worth mentioning this is higher than any single episode of True Blood on top of the notion that HBO’s newly minted ‘most-watched’ show airs in the spring against heavy broadcast competition and carries with it a higher percentage of on-demand/post-live viewership. Like I mentioned last week though, this is still about half the height of The Sopranos’ popularity so there is clearly still room to grow.
By Jeff Rosz | April 30th, 2013  This is not exactly a vote of confidence for History’s first original series by any means, but Vikings did find 3.6 million viewers (and 1.3 18-49 rating) in his first season finale on April 28. The show came in below the March-set season opener of 6.2 million, something with a bit of an asterisk thanks to its monster mini-series lead-in, The Bible. It should be noted that the basic cable channel has already renewed the period drama for a second season although the order came down before removing its front-loaded support, prompting many (including myself) to question the wisdom of choosing not to simply wait.
While many are certain to say to themselves ‘wait a minute. Isn’t a 1.3 18-49 good for pay television?’ Well, it really is for these standards, but we also must look at it through the lens of all the awareness put out for it as well as the fact it resides on a widely-watched network. If Vikings started off somewhere else on the dial with less help at launch, we could easily be looking at that number turning to a 0.5 18-49 or even worse. Of course, that is speculation on my part, so for now just take it for what it is–a number on par with A&E’s rookie scripted Bates Motel.
Vikings returns with new original episodes in early 2014.
By Jeff Rosz | April 30th, 2013  Game of Thrones has yet another record viewership to tout. The latest hour of the hit HBO fantasy drama airing Sunday, April 28 found 5.3 million viewers in its first run, tying the series best True Blood accomplished a few summers ago. This firmly places the series as the premium network’s top program although the all-time mark could be a toughy. For that, we look at what The Sopranos did several years ago before DVR and on-demand options became an everyday choice. Tony and New Jersey mafia maxed out above 12 million which shows there is a still a ways to go for GoT. HBO is currently in 28 million households nationwide.
By Jeff Rosz | April 25th, 2013  As expected, Duck Dynasty broke more ratings records last night for A&E with their third season finale. 9.6 million tuned in for the one-hour episode and the demo numbers were really strong. The headline the media has been running with this one has been a juicy one, “Duck Dynasty Beats American Idol,” although that says more about the broadcast player’s fall from grace than another hotly watched basic cable series.
New York, NY – April 25, 2013 – A&E’s monster hit, “Duck Dynasty,” continues to break new records with the third season finale delivering an incredible 9.6 million total viewers for the one-hour episode. The episode was also watched by an A&E record 5.6 million adults 25-54, 5.5 million adults 18-49 and 2.6 million adults 18-34, becoming the most-watched series telecast in network history among all key demos. “Duck Dynasty’s” 4.3 national adults 18-49 rating (total US) was also 34% stronger than last night’s top broadcast show, “American Idol” (3.2 adults 18-49 rating). Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | April 24th, 2013  It has been a while since we visited the ratings for A&E’s new series Bates Motel from former Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse and Friday Night Lights vet Kerry Ehrin. The serialized drama continues to show surprising stability among the many twists and turns its plot has taken so far. From pot fields to Asian sex slave rings, who would have thought that nearly 100% of all first week viewers would turn out through the show’s sixth episode. That has indeed happened as the drama’s most-recent outing found 2.9 million viewers and a 1.3 18-49 demo rating. Such a figure is better than The Americans, Justified, or even Mad Men.
The only scripted hour-long broadcasts on pay television right now beating Bates Motel during this current programming cycle is the high-flying Game of Thrones over on HBO which is nothing short of a phenom, so we might want to forgive its second place status. Bates Motel has four more episodes left to air this current season and A&E has already ordered another ten for next year.
By Jeff Rosz | April 24th, 2013  For those of you who have been watching Defiance, you may want to know whether or not to expect a renewal. I personally expect one, but the ratings suggest it might not be a homerun as ratings suggested after week one. The show’s 2.7 million viewers and 1.0 18-49 rating became 2.4 million viewers and a 0.8 18-49 rating in its second outing. It is never good to see a 20% drop-off, but it is to be expected with such widely-hyped debuts. As we have seen time and time again with pay television shows during the off-summer months, the story will be had with the DVR viewing (that means Live+7 Day total) so we continue to eyeball those figures as the Syfy program looks for its trough.
It is worth noting that Syfy’s press release on the matter was titled ‘Defiance Continues to Deliver in Week Two.’ That is incredibly vague spin to say the least and I might add hacky. This is why you cannot trust press releases all the time because their job is to make the viewer believe more than 1% of the country is watching any given program which is seldom the case when it comes to basic cable.
By Jeff Rosz | April 23rd, 2013 Last Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones was pretty damn good by series standards, so we are not at all surprised to hear the news that the hit HBO fantasy series is about to break 5 million. The most-recent episode entitled And Now His Watch Has Ended broke last week’s record viewership with 4.9 million in the 9 PM time slot, a few hundred thousand shy of True Blood’s peak ratings (it has since fallen a bit.) Make no doubt about it, Thrones should now be regarded as the premium network’s top program, edging the vampires that rule the channel in the summer months. What is more impressive is that on-demand viewership is much stronger and broadcast competition is a lot tougher.
By Jeff Rosz | April 22nd, 2013  The ratings are out for the late night cable war Friday for eyeballs looking for Boston Manhunt coverage. Much to our surprise, CNN still topped the key demos despite its reporting flub earlier in the week. They are touting leadership among those 18-34 and 25-54 with their best nightly ratings since Election Day last November. Furthermore, it was the basic cable network’s most-watched coverage of anything non-political in a decade.
The average was 2.5 million viewers in primetime in the 25-54 demo and 1.0 million for those 18-34, only trailing to NBC’s 1.2 million among all of television in the category. However, it must be said that Fox News won overall as it snagged 6.0 million total viewers in primetime, roughly 600,000 more than “the most trusted name in news.” FNC’s 25-54 demo audience failed to crack 2 million, indicating a pretty sizable gap.
By Jeff Rosz | April 21st, 2013  Those of you who follow Saturday Night Live ratings and how consistent they have been might have noticed last night’s replay of a Chrstoph Waltz-hosted episode showed more of the same. The broadcast captured a 1.8 18-49 rating which was the show’s top repeat since a Jennifer Lawrence outing re-aired back in January. Regardless of head-to-heads though, it would appear that the long-running sketch variety series is at its peak in terms of a week-to-week recurring fanbase.
Everything seems so predictable and even Justin Timberlake’s much-hyped appearance did not deviate too much from normal outings. This is more of a vote of confidence for SNL as it looks to finish its 38th season on a high note. The next original episode will be hosted by Zach Galifianakis with musical guest Of Monsters and Men on May 4.
By Jeff Rosz | April 16th, 2013 It seems that all the hype paid off. Syfy’s launch of Defiance found 1.3 million viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 last night, making it the network’s top scripted premiere since Eureka in 2006. The cable channel has become more known for its unscripted offerings since its Battlestar Galactica days, thus the importance of having a hit like Defiance. Partially accredited with the show’s success is the enlistment of MMO game maker Trion Worlds to make a virtual version of the show’s backdrop to tie-in with on-going storylines. The game’s launch was plagued with a lot of issues from what I read, but that definitely did not slow down the success of Syfy’s newest cash cow which may be on the fast track to receive the spin-off treatment. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | April 16th, 2013 It is another series high for Game of Thrones on Sunday night as it topped the cable charts on April 14 with 4.7 million Live+Same Day viewers. The demo ratings scored a 2.4 18-49, and that is exactly what it posted in the category two weekends ago. Viewership is the one that picked up, surging 300,000 sets of eyes. This is still about half-a-million below the peak of HBO’s True Blue but then again Live+7 Day viewership easily beats the Alan Ball-created summer series in that regard. That is definitely a good sign for the show going forward after some were a bit disappointed in regards to the show’s second hour back from break.
Game of Thrones airs Sunday nights on HBO.
By Jeff Rosz | April 16th, 2013  It appears NBC made a great move last night be rescheduling their original episode of Revolution to lead-out The Voice in favor of more Marathon Bombing coverage. Not only did they save fresh, expensive content, but the network showed the power of their Brian Williams-helmed news division, hitting solid ratings–a 3.1 18-49 across 8.9 million viewers. This is up from the network’s usual time slot resident which only posted a 2.2 18-49 with 6 million viewers the prior week all while The Voice stayed relatively flat. Yes, the reality series did hit a new season high last night, but that was a mere tenth of a point above the previous Monday.
Maybe next time such a tragic event occurs, other broadcasters will join in as Castle and Hawaii Five-0 were flat despite softened scripted competition. Interestingly enough, the Peacock probably would not have done this if it were not for some ‘insensitive content’ concerning bombings in the week’s episode of Revolution. Alas, it worked out for the better although there is word that the broadcaster is scrambling to fit the rest of the series’ first season into their lineup so the finale does not air in June. Back in January, NBC cut the order for Revolution by two episodes so such an event did not occur.
By Jeff Rosz | April 15th, 2013  It seems MTV’s move of the Movie Awards to April was a good one. Viewership is almost fully restored to 2011 levels thanks in part to the promise of a few sneak peeks, one for Iron Man 3 and another for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.The basic cable channel moved the ceremony to April after striking out badly with host Russell Brand last June. Audiences were critical of the mid-blockbuster season timing which limited previews and appearances during the event known for its big budget promotions.
3.8 million viewers tuned in for the award ceremony with the 12-34 demo surging 21%. The upswing in those ages 18-34 was a bit better though, shooting up 45%.
By Jeff Rosz | April 8th, 2013  Upon weeding through the sugar-coating on AMC’s press release concerning last night’s Mad Men viewership, it would appear that the show did not hit series high ratings. After doing some more scouring, the result was negligible as the series dipped a mere 100k viewers from the previous year’s opener, a record at the time. Nonetheless, 3.4 million viewers is nothing to scoff at for basic cable. It certainly is no Walking Dead or Game of Thrones, but it outperformed the recent Justified finale AND A&E’s new series Bates Motel.
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