Community Is Poison, The Following Is Building And Cult Has A Cult – The Week In TV Ratings

Published Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:47:08 -0600

Last updated Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:56:10 -0600

Jamie Wotton writes for Bleeding Cool.

After pretty much every show having a dismal spin of the dice last week, this weeks ratings were a lot more varied, perhaps generally positive. Let's get to it.

On Monday, in a move that hopefully prevented Fox execs from sweating too much, The Following climbed back to form again – scoring a decent 2.8. I would be happy calling this a legitimate hit and a seal for second season renewal now. Fox being Fox, and always wanting to reinvent the wheel, there murmurs that The Following will echo the cable model consistently, producing around 15 episodes a year. But now, looking at Fox's entire slate, I'm not sure if they can do that. I believe there was a similar plan for Terra Nova and Alcatraz but everything keeps bombing. Creatively, the show has no where to go but up, but will 22-episodes dilute what people are watching? Very curious to ﬁnd out.

There is little else to note on Monday; after going to admirable heights couple weeks back, The Carrie Diaries has fallen into old ways, hitting at 0.4. CW exec Mark Pedowitz is currently prepping some terriﬁc sounding pilots for the Fall season, so as much as I wish the net was in better shape, I wouldn't be too sad to lose a few shows this season.

And, as much as I wish The CW hasn't had its great misfortunes, it really does provide a great segue because… Cult premiered on Tuesday to cult-like numbers. The Rockne O'Bannon show about a cult TV show, mysteries, actual cults and meta-humor – or whatever – clearly will not be sticking around.

Also not returning, I'd reckon, are two recently and pointlessly retooled shows: Smash on NBC, which garnered a series low 0.9 rating and ABC's Body Of Proof, also at a series low of 1.2.

Wednesday had ABC's comedies, in a little better shape than the last time we saw them. The Middle got a 2.2, The Neighbors 1.9, Modern Family 3.9 and Suburgatory 2.0.

ABC head Paul Lee has his work cut out for him next season on the comedy-front. It's clear at this stage that witty young-skewing comedies do not ﬁt in on a Modern Family-dominated lineup. Lee needs to work on crafting similarly consistent traditional shows in the single camera style. Get Tim Allen off Last Man Standing and stick him in a single-camera family or workplace sitcom and you'll have a hit. You're welcome.

In what-the-frak news, Community on Thursday is taking Parks and Recreation down with it. Community hit another series with low 1.1, inexplicably leading Parks to a 1.3.

30 Rock, may she rest in peace, did not do well as a lead-in either but Parks still did ﬁne. there. So, Parks barrelling down does not make any sense whatsoever to me. This new Harmonless Community is poison.

Scandal, ABC's sophomore hit, keeps doing well for itself, levelling at 2.7. It's not
hitting a Grey's Anatomy 3.0 just yet though. Perhaps knowing Shonda Rhimes can still
work her magic will see ABC let Rhimes end Anatomy when see sees ﬁt – but if it does continue into next season, I believe it will have outlived all the other shows born in the famed 2004-2005 erruption which brought us Lost, Grey's Anatomy, House, The Ofﬁce and others.

On Friday, no one seems to watch anything other than Shark Tank anymore. The latest
instalment scored a 1.8. A itty bit higher than Nikita on The CW at 0.3.

The Oscars aired on Sunday, and right now the ratings are higher than last year. The Seth MacFarlane-hosted gig scored a 12.1 demo with 36.9 million viewers tuning in. Last years scored a 11.7 demo.

The rating is subject to change because it was a live event but, in general, I tend to stick to ﬁrst-announced numbers, because the changes are rarely much to take note of.

See you guys next week, where I'll be writing this column a year older, not much wiser, but deﬁnitely still a television lover.

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