Ratings Report: Summer Numbers Slide

A quick ratings report for those of you interested.  It’s the summer and we’re on rerun schedules now, so the numbers are going to be down and not looking fine for essentially everything.  Of course they’ll pick back up in September when new seasons begin, but I’m just saying.  The only syndicated shows which didn’t tumble are Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Family Feud.  Millionaire stuck at a 2.2.  I’m really curious as to what the numbers will do with the new season.  Yeah, the ABC revival is being advertised as the anniversary edition, but following the same rules, down to the clock value and dollar totals, of the syndicated version basically makes it an advertisement.  A fantastic advertisement, mind you, but an hour long ad for Meredith Vieira’s daytime version.  They are doing a ton of casting this season so maybe we’ll see the first millionaire in nearly eight years.  Family Feud stuck at a 1.3.  I was on the set a few weeks ago and the changes are really great.  That car is going to help the show more than anything.  Awarding a car for a five-day winning team is genius because, unlike before, I actually care about a family going all the way and I want to watch every step.  The extra money is fine, but that car adds a ton of tension and drama.  That’s the best decision Feud has made in ages.

The rest are down.  Deal or No Deal is down 13% to a 1.4.  Putting it simply: if Deal or No Deal with its far larger budget can stay on the air with ratings barely better than much cheaper Family Feud, we’ll be seeing Feud for quite some time.  Wheel of Fortune is down to 5.3 (down 3%) and Jeopardy! lost 4% to a 4.8.  Still, both are great.  It’s amazing how they get better ratings than a vast majority of network primetime shows.  Again, I’m always stunned that I don’t see a primetime Jeopardy! tournament on some network given the large built-in audience it has.  The only network game I could find, Wipeout, scored a 4.3/8.  It beat So You Think You Can Dance on FOX in total viewers.

As a side note, the ratings for GSN for the week of June 1st through the 7th were published a bit ago.  I’d rather not get into everything, but I found it really amusing that 1 VS 100 is beating Deal or No Deal.  1 VS 100 got absolutely no television advertising.  It just sprung up at 1:00PM ET on Saturday.  Deal or No Deal got massive advertising for weeks beforehand.  Yet still, 1 VS 100 beat Deal in ratings.  If I were a network, even GSN, I would strongly look at that.  The show was popular on NBC before it got canceled because, among other reasons, they couldn’t control the budget.  The reruns are doing fantastic with no notice and a crappy time slot.  The X Box game is very popular.  You would figure that some network would look at all the facts, cut the budget for the show (look at how the Dutch do the set and stuff for how to cut down on a studio budget) and bring it back.