Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By John J. Joex

NBC’s once celebrated Heroes has seen a continued erosion of viewers since its much talked about first season and especially suffered last season when viewers started abandoning the show in droves. And nothing convinced those viewers to give the show one more chance as Heroes debuted this past Monday to some of the lowest numbers the series has ever seen. The two hour season premiere for the show’s fourth season (and fifth volume) averaged a 2.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic and six million viewers. Based on a quick review of the numbers I compiled from last season, that’s the lowest number of total viewers for a non-repeat episode that the series has ever seen and just barely above the lowest rating the show has previously pulled. I am officially counting this series as being in trouble and I am starting it off with a Cancellation Alert of Medium. I will go more into that and the Cancellation Alerts (or lack thereof) for the other shows in an early Cancellation Watch column that I will post in the next few days.

ABC’s witchy new series Eastwick got off to a so-so start with a 3.0 rating in the 18-49 demo and right at eight and a half million total viewers. Not bad numbers for the timeslot, but not great either. And ABC can’t be too happy that the show is losing a fair amount of the audience from its Cougar Town lead-in, which looks to be an early hit.

On crowded Thursday night, there were some real winners and some real losers. ABC’s FlashForward got off to a strong start with a 4.1 rating and 12.4 million viewers and could snatch up hit status if it holds onto those numbers or something similar. At the same hour, the CW’s Vampire Diaries continued to perform strong for the part-time network as it notched back up a bit from last week’s numbers with a 1.7 rating. In the next hour, Supernatural held steady with a 1.2 rating, though it has definitely slacked off a bit from last season’s numbers. The big loser was FOX’s Fringe as it got pounded hard by the premieres of Grey’s Anatomy and CSI and only managed to scrap up an all time low for the show with a 2.3 rating and under six million viewers. We can only hope FOX will show patience with Fringe or move it from the warzone to a more friendly timeslot.

And so much for my predictions last week on the debut numbers for Dollhouse. I predicted a 2.0 rating and around 5 million viewers and the Season 2 premiere pulled half that. That’s right about where the show ended last season, so no telling whether FOX is okay with that or not (and I’m taking a pass on the Cancellation Alert for that show at the moment). The numbers for the season premiere of Ghost Whisperer where a bit light, but then that show tends to build as the season progresses. And CBS has to be happy that Medium held onto its lead-in and even improved the overall viewership numbers a bit. Smallville’s bow has to be a disappointment for the CW as it only pulled a 1.0 rating and two and a half million viewers. That’s considerably off from that show’s performance in the Thursday 8 PM timeslot it held for the last couple of years.

Here are the numbers for all of the Science Fiction and Fantasy shows that aired on the broadcast networks this past week:

*Rating based on performance in the adults 18-49 demographic

Source: TV by the Numbers

Previous Results: Fringe Return Delivers So-So Ratings