Ratings Results for the Weeks of Oct 11th: The Ratings Slide has Stopped for Now
October 17th, 2009Categories: John J. Joex, Ratings Results
By John J. Joex
The good news for most shows is that the downward trend in the ratings we have seen for most of the Fall has stopped for now. The bad news is that at least two shows had already sunk so low that it may be too late for them. Heroes actually notched up a tick in its rating in the 18-49 demographic (though it lost a bit in total viewers) and Eastwick only saw a small drop this week compared to the average of 1.5 million viewers a week it was losing. But even if both of those flatten out their attrition, I can’t imagine that their networks will tolerate these numbers for too long. Sure, the Renew/Cancel Index from TV by the Numbers has Heroes as safe and ABC mysteriously called Eastwick a “quiet success”, but this is the cut-throat television networks we’re talking about here and few shows have survived for long with numbers like these, so you do the math.
On Thursday night, FlashForward, Vampire Diaries, and Fringe all improved their ratings in the 18-49 demo a bit from last week and all will probably continue to deliver numbers like these through Fall, though if FlashFoward doesn’t correct its course, it could start dropping again. Still ABC already announced that show would get its back nine episodes so it is okay for now. FOX also announced that they plan on making it through Fall without any cancellations, so Fringe and Dollhouse both get reprieves .
On Friday, Ghost Whisperer and Medium both stayed right about where they have been for the last couple of weeks and Smallville actually saw a small improvement. Dollhouse took a break for a week because of the baseball game, which could be bad because it saw a slight upswing last week but may lose the benefit of that momentum.
Here is the full breakdown of the numbers for all of the Science Fiction and Fantasy shows that aired on the broadcast networks this past week:
| Title | Night/Time (EST) | Net | TS Rank | Repeat | Rating (18-49 Demo) | STD Avg | Total Viewers (Millions) | Cancellation Alert |
| Heroes | Monday 8 PM | NBC | 4th | No | 2.4 | 2.5 | 5.64 | Medium |
| Eastwick | Wednesday 10 PM | ABC | 2nd | No | 1.7 | 2.2 | 5.09 | Elevated |
| FlashForward | Thursday 8 PM | ABC | 2nd | No | 3.2 | 3.5 | 9.28 | Low |
| Vampire Diaries | Thursday 8 PM | CW | 5th | No | 1.9 | 1.8 | 3.86 | Low |
| Fringe | Thursday 9 PM | FOX | 4th | No | 2.2 | 2.4 | 5.96 | Low |
| Supernatural | Thursday 9 PM | CW | 5th | No | 1.2 | 1.2 | 2.63 | Low |
| Ghost Whisperer | Friday 8 PM | CBS | 2nd | No | 2.0 | 2.0 | 8.21 | Low |
| Smallville | Friday 8 PM | CW | 5th | No | 1.1 | 1.0 | 2.62 | Low |
| Dollhouse | Friday 9 PM | FOX | n/a | No | pre-emted | 1.0 | n/a | No Guess |
| Medium | Friday 9 PM | CBS | 2nd | No | 1.9 | 1.9 | 8.04 | Low |
Source: TV by the Numbers
Previous Results: The Numbers are Sinking All Around
For more on the Cancellation Alert for each show, see our Cancellation Watch column.
