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TV Ratings: FOX masters the 'Dance' Thursday
Fast National ratings for Thursday, May 27, 2010There wasn't much competition for "So You Think You Can Dance's" seventh season premiere, which handily won FOX the ratings war Thursday night with okay numbers. A slew of reruns (including a strong episode of "The Mentalist") went up against the reality show, in addition to the series cliffhanger finale of ABC's "FlashForward," which pulled in lower ratings than the previous week's penultimate episode. NBC's "100 Questions" wasn't noticed by even less, sandwiched between sitcom reruns.
FOX averaged 8.2 million viewers and a 5.0 rating/9 share in households for the night. Next came CBS with 7.5 million and a 4.9/9, then ABC (3.8 million, 2.6/5), NBC (2.7 million, 1.8/3) and The CW (1.6 million, 1.0/2).
FOX also took the 18-49 demo with a 3.0 rating, far ahead of the distant second-place CBS, which had a 1.6. NBC had a 1.1, ABC a 1.0 and The CW trailed with a 0.6.
Thursday hour by hour:
8 p.m.
FOX: "So You Think You Can Dance" premiere (7.8 million viewers, 4.7/9 households)
ABC: "FlashForward" series finale (5.0 million, 3.2/6)
CBS: "How I Met Your Mother" rerun (4 million, 2.7/5), "Rules of Engagement" rerun (4.6 million, 3.1/6)
NBC: "Community" rerun (3 million, 2.1/4)/"100 Questions" (2.5 million, 1.7/3)
The CW: "The Vampire Diaries" rerun (1.8 million, 1.1/2)
18-49 leader: "So You Think You Can Dance" premiere (2.8)
9 p.m.
FOX: "So You Think You Can Dance" premiere (8.5 million, 5.2/9)
CBS: "CSI" rerun (8.3 million, 5.4/9)
ABC: "Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon" (3.3 million, 2.3/4)
NBC: "The Office" rerun (3 million, 2.0/4)/"30 Rock" rerun (2.8 million, 1.9/3)
The CW: "Supernatural" rerun (1.5 million, 0.9/2)
18-49 leader: "So You Think You Can Dance" premiere (3.2)
10 p.m.
CBS: "The Mentalist" rerun (9.9 million, 6.4/12)
ABC: "Grey's Anatomy" rerun (3.1 million, 2.3/4)
NBC: "The Office" rerun (2.6 million, 1.7/3), "Parks and Recreation" rerun (2.3 million, 1.6/3)
18-49 leader: "The Mentalist" (1.8)
Ratings information includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change. Source: The Nielsen Company.
More ratings at Zap2it: Daily, weekly and cable
Photo credit: FOX
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Thank you for these ratings being low accross the board, SYTYCD is loosing viewership its about tume. Too many dance and music show on tv.
I actually enjoyed 100 questions last night.
Enjoy 100 Questions while it last. I saw a bit... not funny and the laugh track is just stupid.
Doesn't anyone watch basketball?
That Matt Damon thing was so stupid. The dude is in his 30's. He isn't yet at the level of receiving that kind of honor. One day, yes but not yet.
What you want out of a hit is what The mentalist delivers: 65% of its regular ratings with a re-run and winning the night with a re-run.
When you compare to the dismal numbers generated by NBC's re-runs, you understand the difference between an actual hit and a pretend hit. Jeff Zucker take note. ;)
Incidentally I had to guffaw at the super-small ratings for "Hollywood salutes Matt Damon". Aren't those salutes supposed to go to elderly artists who have had 50 years of constant achievement to really mean anything?
FlashForward solidified its status as this year's most conspicuous bomb, :( but count on ABC's PR to stifle any mention of that sad fact by pushing for another turn of "Modern Family is a huge hit, no really, it is". ;)
The networks need to re-learn that if they want to do continuing stories they have to set them up as miniseries, even if they call them limited-run series or whatever.
Continuing stories with an open end means "plot holes galore" to most viewers and they'll just avoid the show.
ABC had an embarassing night Thursday (I won't mention NBC since that's become the norm for them). I wonder if Univision beat it in ratings across the board.
I've said this elsewhere, but FlashForward suffered from an extremely limiting concept, plot-wise. Really, after "The Event" was figured out and solved (if it could be), what else was there to do? FF definitely should have been a mini-series, since the writers would have been forced to tighten up the plot and spend less time on the bedamned romance angles that FUBAR lots of shows these days.
I'm hoping the low ratings for SYTYCD means that people are getting tired of the things. Summer is the perfect place for these so-called "alternative" shows, since the people who like to watch such things don't really care what time of year they're on. With shows like this on during the summer, it frees up the rest of the network schedule.
@AaronR: We agree entirely on this one. Had FlashForward been a miniseries, I certainly would have been a lot more likely to give it a go.
At this point, I avoid every show that looks like it should be a miniseries as not plotting ahead leads those shows to become "plot hole central", especially with network executives giving their shrewd story guidance every week...