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.  The show has been airing on Thursdays also for the past few weeks, though that, is evidently ending now.  Maybe it shouldn’t given the popularity.

This Thursday’s episode got a 4.9/9 rating, beating competing Big Brother.  The show has basically had the same rating since the start of the series three years ago.  It’s got an extremely loyal fan base as it should.  It’s regularly one of the most funny and entertaining series on television.

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.  It’s been going down each week and this last drop is especially troubling. It’ll be a miracle to see the show come back at some point.  That’s a big shame since it’s a very good, engaging show that has improved since the first episode after stuff was reedited.

One thing that really hasn’t helped recently is an influx of contestants who don’t seem to know much more than how to scream.  Having nothing but personality on a game show like Deal or No Deal is fine.  On a trivia sense you have to have some form of knowledge.  I know there’s a lot of pressure being dangled off the side of a skyscraper, and I think everyone (or at least the few that apparently watched last week) understand that.  However, not knowing who wrote the characters Tom Sawyer and, most of all, Hamlet is just a bit depressing.