Fox started its new Monday lineup a week earlier than the other networks, delivering fairly good numbers for the premiere of New Orleans cop drama K-Ville and average ratings for the third-season opener of Prison Break. According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, K-Ville averaged a 3.4 rating/8 share in adults 18-49 and about 9 million viewers overall during the 9 o’clock hour, winning in demos opposite its broadcast competition that included repeats of CBS comedies and an original Singing Bee on NBC.
K-Ville outperformed the premiere of Vanished in the time period a year ago for Fox by 13% in 18-49. While these are solid numbers for a premiere, Fox must get ready for tougher competition next week as new episodes of Heroes, Dancing With the Stars and Two and a Half Men provide stiffer competition.
Continue reading K-Ville Starts Strong For Fox’s Fall Season
The third-season finale of ABC’s Lost saw its ratings down from a year ago, but it came in a strong second in its Wednesday-night time period, Variety reported. According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, the two-hour Lost finale averaged a 5.8 rating among adults aged 18-49 and 13.7 million viewers overall, peaking with a 6.6 rating in the demographic and 15.5 million viewers overall in its final half-hour. This was the show’s best performance since Feb. 7, when it premiered in a new Wednesday 10 p.m. timeslot, although its total program average was down more than 20 percent vs. last year, the trade paper reported. Lost returns in January with a fourth season.
Maybe the ratings were done because of the excess of commercials that ABC forced onto the finale. Did anyone else notice this? There were roughly 3-4 minutes of commercials every 6-7 minutes throughout the two-hour season finale. It was hard to keep watching the show with so many commercial breaks, I wouldn’t be suprised if peopled just Tivo’ed it and watched something else. ABC knew the Lost finale would do well, so they took that opportunity to exploit the finale for their financial gain. In all fairness, ratings overall have been down this year, probably due to the timeslot change, but it still makes me smile to know that their greed helped lower the ratings of the show.
Variety reports that NBC’s Heroes delivered its best ratings to date on: According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, “Heroes” (6.2 rating/15 share in adults 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall) was up nearly 10% week to week to log the highest regular-slot 18-49 score for a first-year drama in the past two seasons. It was up a big 55% over NBC’s non-sports average in the timeslot last season.
In related news, the Hollywood trade paper says that Jack Coleman, who plays the hit drama’s mysterious Mr. Bennet, has been made a series regular. He’ll join the series full time in its 11th episode. Coleman plays the father of Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), the cheerleader at the center of the show’s current “Save the Cheerleader” story arc. The actor’s character is also known as “H.R.G.” - short for “Horn Rimmed Glasses,” a strange figure who is seen kidnapping people (including Greg Grunberg’s character, Matt Parkman) and experimenting on them.
According to Variety, Heroes performed even better than was expected:
NBC drama “Heroes” opened to strong numbers on Monday, dominating its broadcast rivals and looking like the first breakout performer of the fall season. The Peacock captured the night in 18-49, with CBS on top in 25-54 and total viewers.
According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, “Heroes” (5.9 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall) topped CBS’ second-place comedy block of “Two and a Half Men” (5/12 in 18-49, 15.7 million viewers overall) and “Old Christine” (4/10, 12.6 million viewers overall) by a hefty 31% in adults 18-49 and also led in total viewers. This is the best fall premiere for an NBC drama since “Crossing Jordan” five years ago.
Continue reading Heroes Scores Big Ratings For NBC