09Jul2010
Ratings: “Wipeout” Still Strong, “Downfall” Dropping
Wrapping up an extremely uneventful week, it's time to look at some of this week's ratings. Starting with the ABC shows, Wipeout still continues to do very well even when adding a second episode a week this year. The usual Tuesday edition saw 8.8 million viewers tune in with a 4.8/9 rating. ABC's very good game show Downfall, from Fremantle Media, is dropping to very ugly lows, sadly. This past Tuesday's episode saw only 3.77 million viewers. It lost around 5 million viewers from Wipeout. Read on for commentary and other information.
Read MoreView Comments (3)30Jun2010
“Downfall”, its Ratings, and its Prizes
Downfall had its second episode last night. Let's get the ratings out of the way before I move on. The show, sadly, dipped 23% from last week to get a 2.7/5 rating. It held just 54% of Wipeout's audience which continues to do well every summer, getting a 5.0/8. Basically all shows dip week-to-week, but given the ratings weren't that great from the start it's troubling. We'll see how it does in the future. It's got the usual perks of being on in the summer where expectations are really low and the show's pretty cheap to do, but still. I'd love to see it stick around. But given how, apparently, completely ignorant audiences watching the show are maybe it shouldn't be a huge shock. Read on to find out why.
Read MoreView Comments (26)23Jun2010
Ratings: “Wipeout” Returns High, “Downfall” Debuts Medium
ABC debuted the new game show Downfall last night as well as the return of summer favorite Wipeout. Ratings are in for both and it's a mixed bag. Wipeout continues to entertain people (and rightfully show) during the hot summer nights. The show averaged 9.5 million viewers and peaked at 10.03 million during the final half hour. The key demographic of adults 18-49 rated a first place 3.1/10, so 10% of the people watching TV at that time were checking out Wipeout. Downfall's debut was middling at best. The show lost a little less than half of Wipeout's viewers, dropping to 5.86 million viewers. Frankly that's not that bad for summer and for how cheap this show has to be, but it obviously could be better. Comparatively, the more expensive Who Wants to be a Millionaire scored at least a million more viewers each night. The troubling thing is Downfall lost more than a million viewers through the hour, so next week should be interesting. Read on for more commentary.
Read MoreView Comments (2)26May2010
News Flashes: Ratings, “The Cube” UK, and “Password” on GSN
Ratings for the week ending May 16th are in. The show that had the best week was Family Feud. Even this late in the season the show moved up 7% to a 1.6 rating. This is the season high. Great job by them. It's actually beating Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? by a decent amount.
Read MoreView Comments (6)18May2010
Ratings Report: A Note to “Fifth Grade” Producers for Season Two
We haven't done a ratings update in a while because, well, with the season winding down we know what happens. I've checked on this stuff for the past few years and every season by this point the numbers dwindle as people realize that being outside is a lot of fun and this season is no exception.
Read MoreView Comments (6)22Apr2010
GSN’s Got a Hit With “Baggage”
It's funny that when GSN sticks with what they do best, a half hour studio based game show, the results are typically pretty good and when they venture outside of that (see Instant Recall, Unstapled, etc) the results are poorly rated and on the ugly side content wise. GSN's first new studio show in a while, Baggage, came out this week and it's already a hit for viewers and the network with some OK reviews, which is a welcome change. The Jerry Springer fronted dating game show, in its 6:30PM ET time slot, achieved a .59 rating. That's an increase of 14% from its debut episode, so people like it apparently. It's also doing very well in the key demos, seeing nearly a quarter million viewers in its desired 25-54 demographic. It fits The
Read MoreView Comments (21)20Apr2010
News Flashes: “Cash Cab”, “Jeopardy!” and “Ratings”
Sorry for the lack of any articles today. I'm having one of those days where I'm getting nothing accomplished. But news is still going on, and here's a few smaller stories for you all. *Jeopardy!'s Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational Tournament has been going on all season and we're getting down to the wire. The semi-finals and the finals will start on May 3rd. The eventual winner will receive $1,000,000 for charity. It's the first seven figure prize that show's given away in a pretty long time. Monday, May 3rd, will see Pat Sajak, Jane Curtain, and Harry Shearer face off. Tuesday, May 4th, is Michael McKean, Charles Shaughnessy, and Isaac Mizrahi who replaces Andy Richter due to scheduling conflicts. Wednesday, May 5th, is
Read MoreView Comments (16)13Apr2010
News Flashes: Ratings and MIPTV Updates
Nothing big today...just a few small updates. *The syndication season is winding down so ratings are in their normal dwindling period. The only show to rise is Jeopardy! which has been having one hell of a season. It went up 4% for the week ending April 4th, to a 5.6. It's sister show Wheel of Fortune stuck at a 6.4. I can't remember a time when Wheel and Jeopardy! were this close and it didn't involve the words Ken or Jennings. The other shows that are flat are Family Feud at a 1.3 and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader stuck at a 1.5. Who Wants to be a Millionaire shrunk by 4% to 2.3. In a phrase all too common this season Deal or No Deal was the biggest loser, down 9% to a 1.0. It's definitely going out with a
Read MoreView Comments (9)30Mar2010
News Flashes: Lyrics, The Hub, and Family Feud
*Twentieth Television's syndicated edition of Don't Forget the Lyrics! is still casting for its first daytime season. It's been off of Fox's primetime lineup for around a year now. The top prize will be $100,000; and it's hosted by former Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath, taking over for Let's Make A Deal host Wayne Brady. Be sure to know all the music you can: from the 50s to current hits. All you have to be is at least 18 years old. Have a great, fun personality and love to sing and you've got a shot at being on. Click here to apply. I'd be expecting it to be a retread of the primetime version, and that's fine by me. Oh, Fifth Grader was also renewed but we already knew that. *Hasbro's takeover of Discovery Kids, called The
Read MoreView Comments (7)29Mar2010
“Minute to Win It” Week Three Ratings Recap and Preview
Week three of NBC's new game show Minute to Win It has come and gone. If nothing else the show did give off some faint vital signs, but we'll see if it's enough. Ratings improved to a 3.7/6 this week. Just simply in that rating it went up a lot from last week's 2.9/5. In viewers the show improved by around 500,000 eyes, so that's something at least. But the bad news is that it got crushed unmercifully by The Amazing Race, which had around 11 million viewers at 8:30PM ET. To make matters worse Minute even got beat by a rerun of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The only show it beat was The Simpsons, but that was only by 70,000 people which isn't anything to gloat about. It tied for last place in the key demographic with that rerun
Read MoreView Comments (17)26Mar2010
News Flashes: Rich Fields Video, “Trust Me”, and “Poker” Ratings
I've got a few news flashes for you today. *A few weeks ago we talked about ABC picking up a new Mark Burnett pilot Trust Me, I'm A Game Show Host. The show involves two hosts talking about something, with one being truthful and the other lying. The contestants have to figure out which one is trying to trick the other. It looks like that's going to tape its pilot soon. Craigslist posts are going up for a new Mark Burnett game show that fits the description perfectly. As with everything else it's based out of Los Angeles, so if you're in the area and want a shot at big money, click here to participate. It looks to be a really interesting and different show if nothing else. *GSN released some High Stakes Poker ratings
Read MoreView Comments (9)24Mar2010
Ratings Report: Everybody’s Down
Sweeps are over and back-to-normal ratings are coming in. I feel like mentioning Wheel of Fortune first. By the way, all the ratings come from the week ending March 14th. Wheel was only down 1% to a 7.3, and of course it was still the highest rated syndicated show. The interesting thing is that they really didn't save the big money wins for Sweeps like everyone else tends to do. They've apparently had a few $100,000 winners in the past week or so. It's a bit interesting that they didn't put these in the month that really mattered at this time: February sweeps. But I don't think Wheel really has to worry about that. Out of all the syndicated shows I don't think they need much help getting anyone. Jeopardy!, Wheel's very exclamatory
Read MoreView Comments (8)22Mar2010
“Minute to Win It” Slides in Week Two; Major Show Edits
I've got a few Minute to Win It news flashes for you this evening. First is the second week ratings. It's well established that the second or third week ratings for any new show are what matters, because you can see a viewing pattern. If we are to take the second week ratings into account, it's not looking good for the Guy Fieri hosted NBC game. Minute sank to a 2.9/5, with 5.2 million viewers. That's down two million viewers from last week. It lost the hour in overall ratings as well as the key demographic, which plummeted 25%. If we see it go down much more I doubt the show will even finish its run. I don't know if it'll have much effect on The Cube since I'm getting more hints that it was officially greenlit, but you never
Read MoreView Comments (16)17Mar2010
Ratings Report: Big Gain For “Jeopardy!” and “Millionaire”
The sweeps period is over with a bit of a whimper rather than a bang to be honest, but I digress. The Winter Olympics didn't help the genre much. Ratings are in for the most recent period and the shows that reaped the most benefits are Jeopardy! and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Jeopardy!, the age old quiz show, finished at a 6.3 for the month of February. It's down a tiny bit from last week, but overall the show saw year-to-year increase. It rose a big 9% from February 2009. Its sister show Wheel of Fortune finished at 7.4, flat from last week. It did go up 3% year to year, though. I bring this up because I can't remember a time that didn't involve Ken Jennings where the Jeopardy! ratings have been so close to Wheel. Good for
Read MoreView Comments (11)15Mar2010
“Minute to Win It” Debut Ratings and Episode Alert
Two things about Minute to Win It, which debuted last night at 7:00PM ET on NBC. We'll look at positives and negatives. One negative is that it was in third place for each half hour. A quick positive, though, is that it did manage to gain viewers each half hour. It's always encouraging when a show doesn't lose viewers each half. Next negative: the overall numbers were just not very good. The 7:00PM hour averaged 4.57 viewers and the 8:00PM hour saw 7.2 million. It did grow but neither number was very good. Another positive is the key demo rating. It maxed out in 2nd place and a 2.6 rating (nearly 8 million viewers total). And the show's incredibly cheap to do. If it can stay in this area then it may be safe. But shows typically
Read MoreView Comments (14)