Fall TV, week three: 'Charlie's Angels' loses viewers
In this undated image released by ABC, from left, Rachael Taylor as Abby Sampson, Minka Kelly as Eve French, and Annie Ilonzeh as Kate Prince in "Charlie's Angels." Credit: AP
OK, we have survived the third week of the 2011 fall TV season and judgments have been further refined. It's getting ugly out there, friends. More casualties are expected. Let us go to the scoreboard:
Sunday: "Pan Am" dropped to a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49, which means it's fallen beneath the magic threshold of 2. I'm not a doomsayer on its fate - I think the show is reasonably good, and imagine ABC wants to ride this a while. Moreover, my bet is that it does particularly well on DVRs. "Pan Am" may be also getting hurt by "The Good Wife," which should be hurting "Desperate Housewives," but - due to football overruns - is punching out the flyboy and girl drama.
Friday: "Blue Bloods" is a flat out CBS drama hit - over 11 million viewers. It's one of those stealth shows that get no press, but lotsa viewers. Meanwhile, "A Gifted Man" needs to pick up its household number (7 million), or the curtain will come down.
Thursday: "Charlie's Angels?" Do you even have to ask? A goner. It's barely scratched out 6 million viewers or half-time period leaders "The X Factor" and "The Big Bang Theory." Question - although only a minor one - remains for "Person of Interest." Seems to be holding its own, losing only a small chunk of the lead-in. But I would imagine CBS and "The Mentalist" would like a stronger lead-in itself. Even so, I see no CBS changes on this night - except for "How to be a Gentleman," which has already been cancelled. What CBS puts in at 8:30 could make a big difference for "POI."
Wednesday: "Suburgatory" - which I pretty much hated - is absolutely solid at this point, though I suspect that is due to millions tuning in the last quarter hour for "Modern Family." But you take your numbers where you can get 'em, right? "Revenge," which looked hot the first week, now does not. In fact, it's probably on the fence at the moment. It's getting clobbered by "CSI." The future is iffy.
Tuesday: "Unforgettable" is easily winning the time period (10 p.m.) though I'll bet CBS wishes it were holding more of "NCIS:LA's" audience than it has so far (around 11-12 mill last week, or about two mill below the lead-in.) But it is winning the time period, and you can't argue with that. I say it's solid for now.
Monday: "Terra Nova" - phew - looks OK. It settled at around 9 mill viewers last week, and a 3.1 a/18-49 rating. Fox just set a season finale - that's right, finale - for the show this December which is not a good sign at all. This series is an expensive proposition, and to make it pay its way, Fox has probably been looking for richer demos. These numbers are merely adequate.
