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September 12, 2012
 

The Sked: Tuesday September 11 Ratings

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Written by: Mitch Metcalf
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Score another nightly victory for NBC in its early roll-out.  The network averaged a 2.9 rating with Adults 18-49 from 8-11 pm last night, which got off to a solid start at 8 pm with night two of The Voice (3.9 rating for the hour, with a 3.6 rating at 8:00 and a 4.2 rating at 8:30).  A new episode of Go On delivered a very promising 3.4 rating at 9:00, while The New Normal sagged a bit to a 2.5 at 9:30.  Against a full array of original competition on the other networks, Go On will probably settle in around a 2.9, while New Normal should be looking at a 1.9 rating.  At 10 pm, the show that you Should Watch because it has always boasted the patina of a Quality Drama:  Parenthood. The trouble is, even without any competition, the series struggles.  Last night was no exception, a soft 1.9 rating for the hour, with nowhere to go but down as the season heats up and original networks arrive against it in coming weeks.

FOX lumbered to a second place 1.5 rating with So You Think You Can Dance from 8-10 pm.

CBS was in third place with a 1.2 rating from 8-11 pm for its night of repeats:  NCIS (1.2), Hawaii Five-O (1.1) and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.2).

ABC’s strategy of multiple nights of all repeats continues to backfire badly.  Last night averaged a horrible 0.7 from 8-11 pm: The Middle (0.9), Last Man Standing (0.8), Happy Endings (0.8), Don’t Trust the B– (0.7) and Private Practice (0.5).  Everyone envies CBS’s ability to repeat much of their schedule at an acceptable level (a mid-1 rating or even up to a 2 rating in some cases), but that’s because they make non-serialized shows that can repeat.  Just repeating a schedule of serialized or quasi-serialized programs for the sake of  “consistency” and hoping for the best is a prescription for disaster.



About the Author

Mitch Metcalf
MITCH METCALF has been tracking every US film release of over 500 screens (over 2300 movies and counting) since the storied weekend of May 20, 1994, when Maverick and Beverly Hills Cop 3 inspired countless aficionados to devote their lives to the art of cinema. Prior to that, he studied Politics and Economics at Princeton in order to prepare for his dream of working in television. He has been Head of West Coast Research at ABC, then moved to NBC in 2000 and became Head of Scheduling for 11 years.