Thursday shows hit series lows after strike
Don Day April 27th, 2008
ABC’s Thursday night lineup last week should have been a sure-fire winner: all-new episodes of Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy and Lost on the first night of the May sweep. But after a strike-induced hiatus for all three shows - Grey’s and Ugly hit series lows, according to TVWeek.
ABC isn’t alone. Both ER and My Name is Earl scored their lowest original episode ratings ever. The Office slipped 22% Scrubs was off 37% from last week, Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader fell 16%. CBS’ CSI even hit its lowest non-Thanksgiving rating ever.
Fluke?
11 Comments Add your own
1. Charles | April 27th, 2008 at 10:56 am
And yet the newspapers only talk about how American Idol has slipped in ratings!
2. Anonymous | April 27th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Personally, I’ve stopped watching television on the television altogether. When I moved, I procrastinated getting cable and eventually decided I was better off without it. CNN used to be the background noise of my day, but I feel better informed without it now. I watch what very few prime time programs I like online in the morning because they get me wired more than they lull me to sleep. During the writers’ strike, I was desperate for content and started listening to back episodes of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on NPR, which I like to listen to in the evening because I can close my eyes, and if I fall asleep, all the better. I started watching 30 Rock this season, which blew me away with the MILF Island episode. I still watch The Office, but I can tell they’re having to stretch the concept to keep it fresh, since so little of it is set in the office anymore. I was never really a fan of the other shows mentioned.
I think, in general, people may have learned from the strike that TV isn’t as important to them as it used to be. They at least don’t have to structure their lives around appoinment viewing.
3. Anonymous | April 27th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Prime time is just about dead. Speaking of which, how are the ratings for the TV-only episodes of Gossip Girl?
4. discreet_chaos | April 27th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I guess that I may be one of the bad guys because I watch of three of the networks nine o’clock block (Eastern), Thursday night shows, but I tend to watch most of them online. Prior to the strike, I’d usually watch one of the networks live, but because I got out of the habit, the post-strike storylines haven’t become “important” and because it’s usually not dark when they start, I’d have to say that I’ve been watching all three of them as a stream.
5. Randy | April 27th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I had a talk with my director of sales, we a local affiliate, last week about the “death of network primetime” and what how are we preparing for it. You would have thought he was a newspaper publisher in 1998. He just didn’t believe it was going to happen.
6. hey | April 28th, 2008 at 4:06 am
american idols number are amazing considering how all the other shows are falling. and back in january they said how idol was “dying” basically because it “only” got 33 million. omg. thats all i have to say. idol can easily bounce back next season if it gets more interesting personalities among the contestants (it was like they were so scared for a new sanjaya that they picked very boring people), but the dramas, im not so sure if they can bounce back.
7. Rocker | April 28th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Most of these shows are mature hits (or in the case of ER, truly geriatric). Ratings for shows always plateau and eventually decline…I think the real emerging issue here is that with all the fragmentation and viewing options, it’s becoming impossible to launch a new hit…so all the old shows will eventually wither away and there’ll be nothing to replace them.
8. Gorman | April 28th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Not to mention the fact that the season’s “groove” is just now returning. There was a new show here, then another one a week later, but Show C didn’t come out until nearly a month after the first two.
All the spring shows’ return from the strike has been so scattershot, it’s not exactly conducive to appointment TV.
9. Rick Ellis | April 28th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I’m stunned that no one has mentioned the seemingly obvious cause.
With the easy availability of full-episode streaming, it’s no wonder that first-run ratings are down. Everything is much less of a ‘destintion” viewing decision, and the result is slumping ratings.
“Idol” isn’t as impacted by the streaming, because no one cares about an episode a day or two after it originally premiered.
10. tdc | April 29th, 2008 at 7:02 am
and i am stunned that no one makes the correlation to the decline of local tv news-
just like day-old idol episodes, news has no shelf life.
why not stream ALL your newscasts?
11. Foxy | July 4th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Good Post
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