Ask Ye For Whom the Bell Tolls?
October 13th, 2009 | Jonathan Gray
Tv By the Numbers just updated their Cancel/Renew Index for scripted shows (note: no reality, sports, news, or Jay), which divides a show’s demo ratings by its network’s average ratings to get a sense of how it’s performing relative to its colleagues. Go read, but some highlights:
- Most at risk are Til Death with an anemic 0.28, Brothers at 0.31, and Dollhouse at 0.33. All are FOX shows, so you gotta figure they’ll kill off the first two in time for the American Idolization of TV in January (if not earlier), and though FOX announced that it will play all 13 episodes of Dollhouse, you gotta figure that’s it.
- NBC’s worst performing show is Law and Order, at 0.48. Its worst new show is Trauma at 0.72
- CBS’s worst performing show is Numb3rs (which, like L&O is on Friday, so surely it has a little extra slack) at 0.54. Close behind is its newbie struggler, Three Rivers at 0.58
- ABC’s worst performing show is Hank at 0.64
- The CW’s bottom-feeder is (what else?) Melrose Place at 0.80
- The best performing new show? The CW’s Vampire Diaries at 1.65, though FOX’s The Cleveland Show is also doing very well at 1.52
- The best show overall is ABC’s Desperate Housewives at a whopping 2.09
I made this Flickr set before the new season began that features subway ads for new shows. I figured some of them would still be up long after the advertized show is canceled. Interestingly enough, I never saw subway ads for “Beautiful Life,” I think they were too risque for the MTA.
Judging from TV By the Numbers’ post, the majority of new shows at risk of being canceled, weren’t featured in subway ads. Hank and Three Rivers are the only exceptions.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gladiolabean/sets/72157622202614688/
That’s a very cool thing to do. And I love the idea of MTA ads correlating with success (both in terms of sending a message about what audiences know about, and in telling us which shows a network really cares about marketing)