Please note: As a courtesy, please do not reproduce these comments to newsgroups, forums or other online places. Links only please.
Welcome to The Futon's Ratings Survival Guide, our annual feature which takes each new fall series on the broadcast networks and tells you the numbers it will need to survive for a second season. In general, a show's success isn't so much where it lands on the weekly ratings chart but rather how it performs in two key categories:
1. How much of its lead-in audience it retains. If a show averages 10 million viewers that's a good thing. But if the show that airs before it is averaging 30 million viewers, that's not a good thing. Why? Because 20 of those 30 million viewers decided to turn off that particular channel when the next show came on.
2. How it performs year-to-year in its time period. A new show is usually in its time period because the network thinks it can do better than it did in that slot last year. In other words, do worse than the show that was canceled after three weeks last fall then you too probably are not long for this world.
As you'll see, together these measurements paint a clear picture on how a particular show is doing. So without further ado, let's begin.
REVENGE (ABC)
(Wednesdays at 10:00/9:00c)
Despite the success of comedies "The Middle" and "Modern Family" on Wednesday nights, the Alphabet has yet to find a compatible drama for the 10:00/9:00c hour. "Happy Town," "The Whole Truth," "Off the Map" and "Eastwick" were among the time slot's short-lived tenants in recent years. That leaves newcomer "Revenge" with the unenviable task of turning said tide.
Here's how ABC has fared on Wednesday nights the past two seasons:*
wednesdays in 2009-2011 | time | viewers (retention) | adults 18-49 (retention) |
Modern Family: Season 2 | 9:00 PM | 11.09 (170.09%) | 4.37 (215.27%) |
Modern Family: Season 1 | 9:00 PM | 9.30 (128.99%) | 3.71 (161.30%) |
Cougar Town: Season 1 | 9:30 PM | 7.01 (75.38%) | 2.90 (78.17%) |
Cougar Town: Season 2 | 9:30 PM | 6.61 (62.01%) | 2.67 (64.18%) |
The Middle: Season 2 | 8:00 PM | 8.24 (N/A) | 2.42 (N/A) |
The Middle: Season 1 | 8:30 PM | 6.94 (114.71%) | 2.28 (128.81%) |
Mr. Sunshine | 9:30 PM | 6.12 (71.00%) | 2.21 (65.58%) |
Better With You | 8:30 PM | 6.53 (80.62%) | 2.03 (85.65%) |
Happy Endings: Season 1 | 10:00 PM | 4.60 (76.16%) | 1.87 (81.30%) |
Eastwick | 10:00 PM | 5.00 (71.43%) | 1.71 (62.87%) |
Hank | 8:00 PM | 6.52 (N/A) | 1.66 (N/A) |
Off the Map | 10:00 PM | 4.97 (77.90%) | 1.66 (69.75%) |
Ugly Betty: Season 4 | 10:00 PM | 4.39 (71.85%) | 1.53 (59.30%) |
Happy Endings: Season 1 | 10:30 PM | 3.56 (81.65%) | 1.48 (84.09%) |
Scrubs | 8:00 PM | 3.89 (N/A) | 1.35 (N/A) |
The Whole Truth | 10:00 PM | 4.48 (62.75%) | 1.30 (45.14%) |
Happy Town | 10:00 PM | 3.31 (68.39%) | 1.05 (55.85%) |
* Viewers are in millions, adults 18-49 is the percentage of said viewers in the demographic; all are based on fast national data, using only first-run episodes in its regular time period.
COMING TOMORROW: ABC's "Charlie's Angels," CBS's "Person of Interest" and NBC's "Whitney" & "Prime Suspect."
|