Surprise! A plurality of viewers in America watch American Idol, then lather, rinse, repeat. See the entire list of primetime ratings here. I adore the comprehensiveness this list. It’s really no fun when the list stops at the top 20. You do a double-take seeing Two and a Half Men there and that’s the biggest thrill of the experience. But this way, you get to scan through every title of the season past and learn that Sandy Cohen (a.k.a. Peter Gallagher, left) and his bagel slicer came in at a definitely-not-last-place No. 123. Take that, Celebrity Duets!
Some slight oddities. Shark (No. 24) outranked 24 (No. 27), and LaToya Jackson’s foray into law enforcement — axed after only four episodes — tied with Friday Night Lights (and four other shows) at No. 95. Did you find any surprises on the list? And is anyone else wondering why the CW doesn’t just cancel all their shows?
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Now, that “Veronica Mars” is gone, Annie, yes, everyone is wondering why we can’t just cancel the whole of The CW.
Studio 60 beat The Office, Scrubs and 30 Rock and finished only a bit behind My Name Is Earl. It’s good they already tore down the set. Wouldn’t want that blight sticking around… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so angry. It’s just that since I lost my VMars, I wear my bitterness on my sleeve…
“3 LBs” did surprising well for a show cancelled after two epidoses…
…as did “Smith”. Were these so ridiculously expensive to make or what?
I don’t know about 3 Lbs (the commercial made it look terrible, btw) but Smith cost a reported $3 mil an episode. Apparently, that’s way too high for a show with such a small audience.
Most of my tv schedule from the fall lies broken on the bottom half of the list. Veronica Mars was second to last. You blew it America!!
As far as I am concerned since they cancelled VM and Gillmore Girls, there is no CW channel on my tv set.
For some reason, that list seems a tad bit unbelievable but where do studios stop and say that a show still has good ratings? No. 120….! All the CW shows fall after 100!!!!
CW cancel all shows? I don’t want to even think about for one second what my thursdays would be like without those Winchester brother’s on Supernatural. Though..move the show. Putting one of the few decent shows left on the network up against Grey’s and CSI is the kiss of death…Bad planning is that network’s problem. It’s like they just pick a random time slot/show and game plan and go with it without any thought.
Seeing the CW clear house at the bottom of the list was surprising. It was also suprising to see how far back 30 Rock was (especially since they are renewing it).
What really surprised me was how high Jericho was on the list and how many “renewed shows” came after it! CBS blew it big time. I’m still calling for a boycott of CBS and all its sponsors. What a way to treat a great show!
the class beats the office?!
and people say there’s nothing wrong with this country…
What really surprised me was how high Jericho was on the list and how many “renewed shows” came after it! CBS blew it big time. I’m still calling for a boycott of CBS and all its sponsors. What a way to treat a great show!
The Office is fairly low, but look how high it is in the key demo. I think once they start implementing this new way of keeping track of viewers (using Tivo, iTunes, etc numbers), shows like The Office will show to have more viewers.
CBS sucks for canceling Jericho and Smith.
The CW sucks for canceling Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls and I will no longer be watching that craptastic channel. One has to laugh at all their shows in a row at the bottom LOL
ABC sucks for canceling Help Me Help You.
NBC picked up Friday Night Lights, so I don’t have a problem with it…yet. Actually, they did cancel The Black Donnelly’s and I wasn’t too happy about that. Gotta give them credit though for keeping their Thursday Night Lineup in tact.
FOX…I don’t really care too much about that channel.
CW was wrong to get rid of Reba and keep some lower-rated shows.
I can’t believe The Simpsons doesn’t even crack 10 million viewers! Weird. It’s one of the most well-known shows, yet it only ranked 60……
poor poor CW
I can’t believe more people watch the AI results shows than the singing night. What’s up with that?!
In the UK, there is a measure taken of TV viewers for each show called “Audience Appreciation”, which records how enthusiastic a program’s viewers are, even if the show itself has a relatively small audience and gets low ratings. This enables shows to take the time to find their audience and work out its kinks–many very successful British shows (especially sitcoms)were saved from their early struggles due to their high “Audience Appreciation” ratings. Too bad that sort of thing can’t be used here in conjuction with the Nielsen ratings. Then we’d have some quality shows like “Veronica Mars” still on the air, even if their ratings aren’t as high as they deserve to be.
There is no way The Office can be # 68. I know more people that watch The Office than any other show. It’s also consistently rated # 1 in Itunes video downloads as well as high volume of DVR recordings.
What ? Two and a half men higher than Heroes ?? And there are really 7.5 million people still watching “The Donald” on The Apprentice ? I thought I was alone with Whitney, watching this trainwreck !!
I was surprised at the cancellation of Jericho on CBS. It was a good show but another example of the networks and their stupid ideas. The idea of a fall finale and then a spring season is stupid. You lose the momentum—Lost suffered the same fate but thankfully ended with several GREAT episodes. Networks pay attention—-play the shows straight through with NO BREAKS. It was a shame CBS cancelled Close to Home as well, it was a pretty decent show. As for Friday Night Lights, with all the sports shows on all day, every day on a gazillion channels, must we have a drama about sports? If Jericho and Close to Home go, why waste time on Friday Night Lights? 24’s fall was due to a MISERABLE season—I love the show, its my favorite, but they dropped the ball this time around. American Idol needs to totally revamp itself and return to a simpler show with less guest star singers and try and focus on the one star or stars they are trying to create. Best shows–Lost, Heroes, Ugly Betty
Are those numbers including DVR? My favorite show is Lost, but I think that 14.6 million is way too high for the ratings, I think it was averaging 11 to 12 million after the hiatus. And conversely I thought Heroes did much better than that.
I am surprised and thrilled to see that Grease did so well ( I know the winner, so I’m glad she had so many viewers). I seriously thought only a million people watched it–tops. And I’m so shocked that the Office did so poorly. how has that show not gotten more viewers? it’s hands down the best thing on tv
I really wish CBS had stuck with the Ray Liotta drama “Smith” a longer. I think it had one of the better casts of the new dramas and I enjoyed the few episodes that were shown. If the writers had more time and a chance to flesh out the characters more I think the ratings would have improved. Just anothter example of the wrong shows getting canceled and crappy ones being renewed over and over again!
I liked “The Nine” and wish I could have seen what remaining episodes they didn’t air. I agree with Daryl who posted earlier that MOMENTUM is lost when we have to wait for the networks to show new episodes during sweeps. If I can’t follow my show from week to week and am forced to watch reruns ad nauseum, I am out of interest and time. That’s why reality shows are doing so well right now. New stuff each week.
I wonder if the surprisingly high ratings for some short-lived shows might be a bit misleading; if they debuted well and then had a steep drop-off, that initial spike may have skewed the numbers. For my part, I was surprised at how low “Bones” ranked, for a show I was thinking was a hit.
Glad to see “The King of Queens” high up on the list. One of my all-time fave shows and such an underrated comedy. Sad to see it go.
Daryl – So you still haven’t heard that “Friday Night Lights” isn’t just a show about football?
Things learned from these ratings:
- With the Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars, the CW managed to cancel 10% of its entire reach (maybe there is some tax reason for this).
- American Idol and American Idol (Results) have more reach than the entire CW *including* their cancelled shows.
- I want one of them Nielsen boxes (
i love the cw only b/c smallville is there– this show has a PLOT. and ACTING.
i love the cw only b/c smallville is there– this show has a PLOT. and ACTING. I LOVE IT!