Sweeps Winners & Losers
12-01-06 | 09:02 AM
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Sweeps Winners & Losers
From tvguide.com. Good to see the new gameshows didn't work out so well.
Originally Posted by TVGuide.com
Sweeps Stakes
This November's winners and losers
It's time to put a fork in another ratings sweeps month. When the final numbers come in, CBS will be the winner in total viewers while ABC takes the crown among the 18- to 49-year-olds that advertisers care about. Here's a look at what was hot and what was not.
Hot
Desperate Housewives: It was nicked in the ratings due to tougher competition from NBC's Sunday Night Football but still finished as the No. 2 among all shows in viewers aged 18 to 49. (In November 2005 it was No. 1.) Not bad considering TV critics were throwing dirt on this show a year ago. It's funnier than ever, but ladies, please, go easy on the Botox.
Criminal Minds: It's the grisly gift that keeps on giving to CBS' Wednesday lineup. Up 14 percent from last November among viewers 18 to 49, Minds became a dominant time-period winner once ABC rested Lost for Day Break. Against Lost's fall finale, it scored its most competitive position ever.
CSI: CBS has a reputation for believing in its schedule and not overreacting to what its competitors do, and that seems to be paying off again. CSI has lost a chunk of viewers to its new time-period competition, Grey's Anatomy, but it has been closing the gap week-by-week. For the month, it was only three share points behind Grey's in the 18-to-49 category, and they tied in viewers.
Heroes: The only new series in the top 10 kept scoring new ratings highs this month. It will be interesting to see how the show does when NBC has to run repeats.
Low-rated freshman shows: It's never been a better time to be on a show with lousy ratings. Friday Night Lights, Studio 60, Men in Trees, Standoff, 'Til Death and The Class all had their seasons extended, even though they had audience levels that would have gotten them axed not so long ago. The new adage in network TV is: You can't cancel everything.
Not
O.J. Simpson: Call us sick, but the Biz loves a good circus. So we were disappointed when the Juice's Fox special with Judith Regan got pulled. Does this mean we won't hear from Michael Jackson again, either?
Fox: Not to pile on, but none of the new shows have clicked. The O.C.? Is that still on? Execs at Fox have got to be counting days until American Idol comes back. The amazing thing is, they'll likely be right back in the running for leadership in the 18-to-49 demo when it does return.
Game shows: It looked like they were going to become an unfortunate quick fix for failing scripted shows. But it was one episode and out for Fox's The Rich List. As for ABC's Show Me the Money, that piece of Shat should be gone soon, too.
Sweeps stunts: "Sweeps" was once the buzzword that described the networks at their most ratings-craven. That's no longer the case. CBS, the most-watched network in the sweep, won with 97 percent of its regular programming schedule intact. The networks didn't exactly turn their schedules upside-down with specials or big events this month. (Some of the specials that did run, such as NBC's hours with Madonna and Tony Bennett, hurt more than helped.) Sweeps were designed to provide local TV stations, not the networks, with ratings that they could use to sell ads in their markets for the next few months. But the biggest cities get overnight ratings all year round. Execs will tell you that it's much more important to establish hit shows than to get the bragging rights provided by a sweeps win. Of course, we'll still be writing about them anyway.
This November's winners and losers
It's time to put a fork in another ratings sweeps month. When the final numbers come in, CBS will be the winner in total viewers while ABC takes the crown among the 18- to 49-year-olds that advertisers care about. Here's a look at what was hot and what was not.
Hot
Desperate Housewives: It was nicked in the ratings due to tougher competition from NBC's Sunday Night Football but still finished as the No. 2 among all shows in viewers aged 18 to 49. (In November 2005 it was No. 1.) Not bad considering TV critics were throwing dirt on this show a year ago. It's funnier than ever, but ladies, please, go easy on the Botox.
Criminal Minds: It's the grisly gift that keeps on giving to CBS' Wednesday lineup. Up 14 percent from last November among viewers 18 to 49, Minds became a dominant time-period winner once ABC rested Lost for Day Break. Against Lost's fall finale, it scored its most competitive position ever.
CSI: CBS has a reputation for believing in its schedule and not overreacting to what its competitors do, and that seems to be paying off again. CSI has lost a chunk of viewers to its new time-period competition, Grey's Anatomy, but it has been closing the gap week-by-week. For the month, it was only three share points behind Grey's in the 18-to-49 category, and they tied in viewers.
Heroes: The only new series in the top 10 kept scoring new ratings highs this month. It will be interesting to see how the show does when NBC has to run repeats.
Low-rated freshman shows: It's never been a better time to be on a show with lousy ratings. Friday Night Lights, Studio 60, Men in Trees, Standoff, 'Til Death and The Class all had their seasons extended, even though they had audience levels that would have gotten them axed not so long ago. The new adage in network TV is: You can't cancel everything.
Not
O.J. Simpson: Call us sick, but the Biz loves a good circus. So we were disappointed when the Juice's Fox special with Judith Regan got pulled. Does this mean we won't hear from Michael Jackson again, either?
Fox: Not to pile on, but none of the new shows have clicked. The O.C.? Is that still on? Execs at Fox have got to be counting days until American Idol comes back. The amazing thing is, they'll likely be right back in the running for leadership in the 18-to-49 demo when it does return.
Game shows: It looked like they were going to become an unfortunate quick fix for failing scripted shows. But it was one episode and out for Fox's The Rich List. As for ABC's Show Me the Money, that piece of Shat should be gone soon, too.
Sweeps stunts: "Sweeps" was once the buzzword that described the networks at their most ratings-craven. That's no longer the case. CBS, the most-watched network in the sweep, won with 97 percent of its regular programming schedule intact. The networks didn't exactly turn their schedules upside-down with specials or big events this month. (Some of the specials that did run, such as NBC's hours with Madonna and Tony Bennett, hurt more than helped.) Sweeps were designed to provide local TV stations, not the networks, with ratings that they could use to sell ads in their markets for the next few months. But the biggest cities get overnight ratings all year round. Execs will tell you that it's much more important to establish hit shows than to get the bragging rights provided by a sweeps win. Of course, we'll still be writing about them anyway.
