Ratings Roundup: 8th October 2011
Oct 8th
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: I think we all saw this one coming!
After all the pre-publicity hype and hoopla, American Horror Story finally launched this week, scoring 3.18 million viewers and a 1.6 18-49 rating for FX. That’s the best cable demo score of the night and good news for FX, following the failure of their last big drama, Lights Out.
Since Halloween is just around the corner I could see the Horror Story ratings staying strong. But reviews were definitely mixed – and though I liked the show, I would certainly admit it’s not for everyone. That was one seriously dark and twisted premiere.
THE X FACTOR: It’s been quite an up and down ride for the Simon Cowell talent fest. After sky high expectations at the start of the Fall season, Cowell’s ego came crashing down to earth after the X Factor premiere attracted with just 12.5 million viewers – well below the 20 million the British talent judge had hoped for and his chief rival, American Idol.
First Look: Kiefer Sutherland – Touch
Oct 7th
Jack Bauer is back… well not really, but at least actor Kiefer Sutherland is returning to network TV.
Yep, with the networks already clearing the decks of their Fall duds (goodbye Playboy Club, Free Agents and H8R), it’s now time to start thinking about the next batch of shows coming our way. And one of the most anticipated is Touch…
Here’s the deal. Sutherland plays the widowed father of a mute, autistic 11 year old son who can supposedly predict the future. Along for the ride are Danny Glover as a professor who works with gifted children and Undercovers star Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a social worker who grows close to the family. Fox have high hopes for the series, which will premiere in Spring in what’s known as the ‘Kiefer slot’ – Mondays at 9pm (boy, do I miss 24!)
Now here’s where it gets worrying. Touch is Executive Produced by Tim Kring, the guy behind Heroes – a great concept that got caught up in its own psycho babble and flamed out fast. And I have to say, looking at the Touch trailer, I’m getting the same sense of glacial pacing and ridiculously overwrought themes. This trailer doesn’t really make me want More >
Quick Take: The X Factor USA – Boot Camp Week
Oct 7th
Okay everyone – it’s official! The X Factor just slammed The Voice and American Idol into the realm of second-rate talent shows.
The evidence – this week’s terrific Boot Camp episodes, which showcased a whole heap of great singing, a mini-Simon meltdown and one of the most exciting contestant reveals in a long time. If this doesn’t give the steady but slightly disappointing X Factor ratings a kick-start, I honestly don’t know what will!
Okay so Steve Jones still possesses the personality of a doorknob and the X Factor producers were on emotional manipulation overload with their backing tracks and editing (Whitney’s One Moment In Time received a well timed encore!) But I honestly think this season has such a strong batch of talent that when we get to the final 16 it’s going to be very, very hard to whittle these guys down week by week.
Next week features the famous ‘Judges Homes’ section of the contest where some of the remaining dead weight will be cut loose. But before we drop in on the Haus Of Abdul here’s eight of my favorites so far:
2011 Fall TV Preview: Last Man Standing
Oct 5th
When Does It Start: Tuesday October 11th at 8pm EST on ABC
In A Nutshell: It’s Home Improvement version 2.0
What’s It About: Mike Baxter (Tim Allen) is a director of marketing at a sporting goods store in Colorado He’s also outnumbered by the women in his life. There’s his wife, Vanessa (Nancy Travis) and three daughters, one of whom is a single mother. Cue lots of jokes about male / female misunderstandings and Allen’s trademark male cluelessness…
Richard Recommends: Revenge
Oct 4th
It’s been a while since we ran a Richard Recommends here at Remote Patrolled – so with the Fall season upon us it’s high time I started cheering some of the standout shows of the new season.
And my first pick is Revenge, ABC’s soapy saga which is rapidly turning into my new Wednesday night addiction (after The X Factor that is!)
Now we’re still early in the Fall season so there’s always a chance Revenge is going to go south on me – and the show does have to resist the tendency to become a ‘revenge of the week’ style show. But so far so good. Revenge is pure, pulpy trash and knows it. And who doesn’t like a bit of trash from time to time!
If you haven’t been following Revenge yet here’s the basic story. Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) arrives back in the Hamptons determined to avenge her father, who was set up for a crime he didn’t commit by several of the snooty, filthy rich residents. Top of Emily’s hit list is queen bitch Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) and Emily has set her sights on Victoria’s hunky son (who we see being shot in the show’s opening sequence ‘3 months More >
Coming Soon: American Horror Story
Oct 3rd
When Does It Start: Wednesday 5th October at 10pm EST on FX
In A Nutshell: Haunted houses get the TV treatment… is this the new True Blood / Walking Dead?
What’s It About: Meet the Harmon family – whose lives are about to get a whole lot weirder!
Dad Ben (Dylan McDermott) is a psychiatrist who’s recently been caught cheating on his wife Vivien (Connie Britton). Together the two have a teenage daughter called Violet, and decide to move from Boston to Los Angeles to patch up their fractured relationship. But their new home is anything but a peaceful retreat… it’s full of secrets and horrors – many of a sexual nature. Get ready for lots of dead babies, sex, jolts and psychotic behavior… courtesy of Glee and Nip/Tuck boss, Ryan Murphy.
Take The Poll: What’s The Best New Fall Show?
Oct 3rd
Hey everyone,
It’s Poll time again here at Remote Patrolled – and after asking you all what Fall show you were most looking forward to last time around (The X Factor was our winner) – it’s only natural that we ask which Fall show you’re NOW enjoying the most?
I’ve been sampling a lot of the new network offerings and I have to say it’s been a good season so far. I am of course loving The X Factor, but I also think New Girl is charming, Suburgatory made me laugh out loud several times, Pan Am has promise and Revenge and Ringer are juicy, soapy fun…
So what about you – what’s your Fall favorite so far – and why?
Here’s the options – start voting by going to the poll section in the left hand side bar (and commenting below)
Ratings Roundup: 2nd October 2011
Oct 2nd
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
Week 2 of the Fall TV season and the ratings drama continues…
WINNERS
SUBURGATORY: Fall 2011 truly is the season of the female fronted comedy.
After the success of 2 Broke Girls and New Girl (both of which held up well in week 2 – New Girl even earned the first renewal of the season) – now ABC can add its own female comedy to the list in the form of under-the-radar Suburgatory.
Yep, the Daria-esque sitcom received barely a fraction of the press and promotion awarded to the CBS and Fox comediess and still performed admirably for ABC. Suburgatory debuted with 9.81 million and a 3.3 18-49 share. That’s almost 30% higher than Better With You opened with last Fall and most impressively, built on the ratings and demo of The Middle (8.68 million and a 2.7), providing a nice lead in to Modern Family.
Plus the newbie had a higher demo rating than long running CBS shows Survivor and CSI. Not bad going! Now the big question becomes – how will those ratings hold up in Week 2 and beyond…? (I hope the show does well – I found Suburgatory pretty funny!)
More >
First Look: Dustin Hoffman In Luck
Sep 30th
And the talent exodus to TV continues…
With the movies in a truly turgid state and not enough quality roles for all the good actors out there is it really any surprise that the best and brightest are now heading to our TV screens?
Laura Linney, Glenn Close, Kate Winslet and Angelica Huston have all made the move – and now here’s Dustin Hoffman, shaking off the silliness of Meet The Fockers, to star in the new HBO series Luck.
Luck is set in the world of horse racing and features some pretty hefty talent both on screen and off. It’s created by Deadwood’s David Milch, while Director Michael Mann (The Insider, Ali) is an executive producer and shot the pilot. Meanwhile Hoffman shares screen time with Nick Nolte, another movie actor making his first major move to TV.
Hoffman plays ‘Ace’ Bernstein, a gambler just released from a 4 year prison sentence – hmm, can’t you just smell the Emmy nominations…
To be honest Luck isn’t really my thing – but with this kind of talent involved I’ll certainly take a look. But what about you… will you be watching?
