TV RATINGS:
Which shows make the grade?
It’s judgment hour in the TV business, that time of year when TV network executives read the tea leaves and try to divine the future. And this year, the picture is cloudier than usual.
One thing is certain: TV ratings for the top shows are down across the board from this time last year, which can mean one of two things.
One: Fewer people are watching television.
Or, as is looking more likely, consumers are watching TV in new ways, ways that don’t lend themselves to the traditional way of measuring audiences. That can mean anything from streaming online video onto personal MP3 players to recording programs on a PVR and watching them the day after they air — so-called “live-plus-seven” ratings.
Here then is a quick look at the real-time ratings for prime-time programs as they aired on the major networks and a handful of specialty channels, over the course of the 2011-12 TV season.
Monday
Mondays suddenly became the most competitive night of the TV week thanks to the emergence of The Voice as a contender to Dancing with the Stars’ ratings dominance. House, traditionally one of the most-watched dramas of the week, dipped slightly, as it became clear the eighth season would be its last.
The Voice aside, the big winner on the night was Hawaii Five-0, which led all Monday programs the week of April 9 to 15 and topped two million viewers some weeks. Global TV, which shows Hawaii Five-0 and House in Canada, benefited, too, from the switch of Bones to Monday nights. .
Riches for some inevitably meant lean pickings for others. Costly, heavily promoted first-year dramas such as Terra Nova (City), Smash (CTV) and Alcatraz (City) stumbled, and at least one of them, Terra Nova, never recovered.
CBC, meanwhile, managed to coax enough viewers to first-year sitcom Mr. D to warrant a second season. A: Hawaii Five-0 (Global), The Voice (CTV), Dancing with the Stars (CTV Two), Two and a Half Men (CTV), NCIS (Global) B: Mike & Molly (CTV), 2 Broke Girls (City), House (Global), Bones (Global), Castle (CTV) C: Mr. D (CBC), How I Met Your Mother (City) D: Smash (CTV/CTV Two), Terra Nova (City), Alcatraz (City), Law & Order UK (City), Little Mosque on the Prairie (CBC), Redemption, Inc. (CBC)
Tuesday
Glee — when it’s an original, that is — causes just that for Global TV, with 1.8 million viewers joining an already strong performance for NCIS: Los Angeles (two million viewers or more, most weeks, for first-run episodes). Global shuffles NCIS between Mondays and Tuesdays, depending on whether Glee is new that week, but NCIS viewers don’t seem to mind: The original, now in its ninth season, consistently pulls in two million viewers or more to Global TV, for firstrun episodes. Just as remarkable: NCIS and its L.A. spinoff prove surprisingly durable in reruns, too, with 1.3 million viewers the rule rather than the exception, even for repeats.
The big surprise for CTV this night is Missing, which pulled in 1.8 million viewers in back-to-back weeks this month. That’s much more than in the U.S., relatively speaking, where Missing is considered only a 50-50 bet for renewal by parent network ABC. A: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles (Global), Glee (Global), Missing (CTV), Rick Mercer Report (CBC) B: Unforgettable (CTV), 22 Minutes (CBC), Whitney (CTV), Hot in Cleveland (CTV) C: Arctic Air (CBC), New Girl (City), Body of Proof (City), Parenthood (Global), The River (CTV) D: Last Man Standing (City), Cougar Town (City)
Wednesday
How broken is the network-tv business model, really? If any one night proves that a mass, mainstream audience will watch network TV — provided the shows are engaging, entertaining and well-produced — in large numbers, it’s this night.
One time period — Wednesdays at 8 — has produced not one, but three hit shows in the week’s Top 20 ratings chart, two of them Top 5 hits. Survivor (Global), American Idol (CTV) and Dragons’ Den (CTV) draw a combined audience of 5.7 million viewers in Canada, an astonishing number, consider- ing that one million viewers is the bar for a bona fide hit.
Dragons’ Den’s cascade effect has boosted Republic of Doyle at the later hour; Doyle is that rare homegrown drama that routinely pulls in one million-plus viewers.
CTV’S one-two crime punch of Criminal Minds and CSI hasn’t missed a beat, despite mid-season cast upheaval on CSI: Both dramas routinely pull in around two million viewers. A: Survivor (Global), American Idol (CTV), Dragons’ Den (CBC), Criminal Minds (CTV), CSI (CTV) B: Republic of Doyle (CBC), Bomb Girls (Global) C: Modern Family (City), Kitchen Nightmares (Global), Law & Order: SVU (CTV) D: Best Friends Forever (CTV), The Middle (City), Revenge (City), Suburgatory (City), Are You There, Chelsea? (Global), The Office (Global)
Thursday
Curing it with (pseudo) science: The Big Bang Theory has defied the non-believers and is now the most-watched scripted weekly program in Canada. Here’s empirical evidence to back that up: 2.2 million viewers watched the April 12 episode — and that was a rerun. More viewers would rather watch a Big Bang Theory rerun than watch a fresh episode of nearly every other show on TV, in other words.
Big Bang’s gain inevitably led to other shows’ pain. Casualties on the night included established sitcoms Community and 30 Rock for Citytv, with just 250,000 viewers between them, and aging stalwart The Office, which lost viewers following Steve Carell’s departure last spring.
CBC serious-minded reliables Doc Zone and The Nature of Things averaged 500,000 viewers apiece, against tough completion: not stellar, but enough to warrant their return in the fall. A: The Big Bang Theory (CTV), Grey’s Anatomy (CTV) B: The Mentalist (CTV), Touch (Global) C: American Idol (CTV), Awake (Global), Person of Interest (City), Doc Zone (CBC), Nature of Things (CBC), The Firm (Global), Private Practice (City), The Vampire Diaries (CTV) D: Community (City), The Exes (Global), 30 Rock (City), The Office (Global), Scandal (City)
Friday
Friday is the new Saturday, where TV is concerned. The major broadcast networks have suffered across-the-board audience erosion, in part because the shows aren’t particularly compelling, and in part because viewers have found other things to do, like watch the shows they recorded Thursday on PVR but haven’t had time to watch.
That has opened the door for CBC, which has crafted a bona fide hit with its consumeroriented program, Marketplace. Marketplace’s heady numbers — one million or more viewers most weeks — have helped boost news program the fifth estate and a first-year comedy, The Ron James Show, while The Rick Mercer Report is pointing 500,000 viewers or more for same-week reruns.
CTV is having the strongest night of the private broadcasters, and must be privately hoping CBS renews on-the-bubble CSI: New York, which continues to perform better here than it does in the U.S. There’s no such worry with CTV’S other two draws on the night: First-year supernatural thriller Grimm has outperformed expectations, and Blue Bloods is pulling in 1.7 million viewers in the late hour. Grimm and Blue Bloods are both renewed. A: Blue Bloods (CTV) B: Marketplace (CBC), CSI: New York (CTV), Grimm (CTV), the fifth estate (CBC), Undercover Boss (CTV), The Finder (Global) C-plus: Harry’s Law (Global), The Ron James Show (CBC), Shark Tank (CBC), A Gifted Man (Global), Kitchen Nightmares (Global), Who Do You Think You Are (City) D: Fringe (City), Ringer (Global), Mantracker (City), Nikita (CTV)
Saturday
The night can be summed up in one word: hockey. During the regular season, Hockey Night in Canada pays the bills — some of them, anyway — for an increasingly beleaguered CBC, while the playoffs speak for themselves.
The big surprise of the night, and not in a pleasant way, has been the lacklustre performance of The Celebrity Apprentice. A: Hockey Night in Canada (CBC) B: Saturday Night Live (Global) C: W5 (CTV) D: The Celebrity Apprentice (Global)
Sunday
The most crowded night of the week, by far, also produced one of the year’s big surprises.
The Amazing Race has always been popular in Canada, but nothing like this: 2.3 million viewers the week of April 9, to finish No. 1 that week; 2.4 million viewers a week earlier; and 2.5 million viewers — and No. 1 on the week — the week of March 19.
The Amazing Race scored 2.6 million viewers on April 22, despite airing directly opposite the Vancouver Canucks’ Stanley Cup elimination game — which topped 3.3 million viewers, to win the week.
The other surprise was the meteoric arrival of the familyfriendly Once Upon a Time, a filmed-in-vancouver fable that pulled in 1.4 million viewers for CTV, despite airing at the awkward early-evening hour of 7 p.m., an hour before its broadcast on parent network, ABC. A: The Amazing Race (CTV) B: Once Upon a Time (CTV), Heartland (CBC), Desperate Housewives (CTV), GCB (CTV), The Good Wife (Global), CSI: Miami (CTV) C: The Simpsons (Global), Family Guy (Global), Canada’s Got Talent (City), NYC 22 (Global) D: Pan Am (CTV), The West Block (Global)