TV Ratings: 'Good Guys' starts soft; FOX wins Wednesday anyway

American Idol seems to be shedding viewers rather than increasing their numbers just as it becomes finale time. That's backwards from the usual. Has AI peaked?

I have to agree with the headline. I (someone who *hates* reality TV) watched The Good Guys last night and feel like I wasted an hour. I really wanted to like it too.

Shame about "The Good Guys". It was very entertaining. Alas, America would rather view scripted reality shows. You are all diseased.

Its nasty botox Kara's fault, no one likes her. She is so tore up and doesnt have any musical talents esp compared to Paula, hope they get thisloser off of the show next season.

The best news i have heard is that CBS is keeping most of it's prime time line up in tact. The outstanding crime shows and the very funny Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men all come back and it spells dome for ABC and NBC. Again no network will be close to CBS for the 2010-2011 season. American wins with the way CBS presents it's Crime show programs. Kill or lock up the bad guys. FYI.......there is a new movement in American to boycott the States and cities that are boycotting Arizona so please everyone support that so we can finally once and for all take our country back from the lawbreakers that come here and send money out od our country to other corupt goverments that hate us.

Maybe it's not a symptom of a mediocre show as much as it is that people are getting really tired of the same rehashed devices. In the case of Good Guys, it's the buddy comedy, which peaked sometime around Lethal Weapon 2 and has gone downhill since. This wouldn't be a bad trend to continue if the shows or movies themselves were not such dreck (and about 80% of them are). By now, I've grown more than a little sick of seeing a straight-laced person being paired with a nut job. It's been done, it's been done, it's been done, ad infinitum.

Interesting that American Idol is still bleeding viewers. "Only" 18.5 million is still pretty decent these days, but not for what's supposed to be a "cultural phenomenon" that "brings the whole country together" (FOX hyperbole employed liberally). Since this is near the end of the season, the numbers should be much higher. I think FOX will be kicking themselves in a few seasons when AI starts dropping below 12 million per episode. They need to put it back as a summer series, where it belongs. Same with all "alternative" shows.

And saying it for the seven billionth time (or thereabouts): a show shot on video or employing shaky camera work does not make or break a series, no matter what some might think. If the show is well-done and interesting, the methods employed in filming it will be secondary (or even tertiary). Presuming that a show's success is based on something that most people don't even notice or care about is what in logic and statistical analysis is called an illusory correlation. It's like when survey results are mentioned on the news where one thing seems to cause another thing to happen, only to find that later there was no relation between the two at all. Same thing here.

Rena, I disagree about The Good Guys being well promoted. I had no idea it was on until I read a story about it in my tv guide.

That said, if Fox likes the show it could survive after all Glee had the post Tuesday AI Finale spot last spring and posted worse numbers than almost any (if not the worst numbers) show that has ever had a post AI performance slot (prior to this season).

I'm a little shocked by the super-low numbers for The Good Guys.

The show was very well promoted and I would have guessed a fairly big premiere, especially with Idol as the lead-out.

Kevin Reilly must be kicking himself for having renewed the show without waiting for its premiere in a vain attempt at fooling viewers into thinking that since it was already renewed it must be must-see.

This PR maneuver clearly brings only headaches if the show doesn't work and doesn't help the ratings, so why are so many networks ignoring the data and doing it anyway?

Back to Good Guys, I was one of the very few who watched it and I found it quite boring and the fast forward ability of the DVR came in good stead for me.

@Mary: Like you, I wanted to like it. Matt Nix is one of the very few truly good writers working on TV today.

I can only guess that FOX's notes must have weighed heavily in the unhappy mix of comedy and drama.

Tim Matheson's direction was directionless as usual. He is a really good actor whose work I always enjoy, but as a director, he really doesn't bring much to the table visually and his constant re-framing only showed how poorly staged the show was.

The photography was also sub-standard, looking in places like it was shot on video (the credits said it wasn't).

But perhaps worse was Colin Hanks was was as alive as a piece of wood. Certainly it looked like he was hired only because of his last name. One can only guess what a good actor like NCIS' Sean Murray (who has a passing resemblance with him) would have brought to the part.

Now I understand why FOX waited until the season was over to launch it. But then it picked it up for next year, perhaps over the altar of "we just can't launch too many new shows at once", but FOX would, like its brethren, be better inspired to try a high number of shows and see which ones resist the onslaught of nonsensical network notes.

Know it all is at it again. Telling everyone what to do! No life at all.

I didn't realize The Good Guys was on last night, otherwise I would have watched it.