TV Ratings: Mixed Ratings For ABC's "LOST"
It could have been worse. "Lost" did win the 10pm timeslot in the 18-49 demo and it did post the highest ratings for ABC since the two-hour "Lost" season finale last May. Unfortunately, it could have also been much better. The drama lost over 4 million viewers as opposed to the same time last year.
With 14,68 million viewers and 6.5/16 rating in the 18-49 demo on Wednesday night, "Lost" scored higher ratings than anything ABC (or any other network, for that matter) had aired in the 10pm timeslot since NBC's ER season premiere on September 21, 2006.
For comparison, last year's 10pm drama "Invasion" was watched by only a little over 9 million viewers on ABC.
The problem is, on the year-ago night, "Lost" scored a much heftier 18.74 million viewers airing opposite "American Idol" at 9pm.
Also, last fall "Lost" averaged 16,67 million viewers during its 6-episode Others-centric mini-season.
Although one might argue "Lost" has its own audience and does not rely on strong lead-ins, those numbers from last fall may still, to a certain extent, have been positively affected by the blockbuster reality show "Dancing With The Stars", whose results shows averaged over 20 million viewers on ABC Wednesdays at 8pm.
Keep in mind that viewing levels for a first episode following a hiatus are normally somewhat inflated and that unlike this week's recap special "Lost Survivor Guide" which scored over 9 million viewers at 9pm, the drama will be airing next Wednesday out of the barely seen comedy "In Case Of Emergency".
That means week #2 and subsequent airings will be much more important in determining how much of a staying power "Lost" has at this point.
There is no doubt, however, the network has truly mishandled one of their premium assets, by chopping up the third season of "Lost" in two parts, filling the three-month break in between with a bunch of losers (at least ratings-wise), and then to cap it all off moving "Lost" (that did wonders for them at 8pm just two season ago) around as if it were a loser itself.
If it ain't broken, why try to fix it?
This is TELEVISIONISTA
posted by Justin Van De Kamp at
8:37 AM
2 Comments:
I completely agree they dropped the ball with this one, Justin. At first I thought it wouldn't be too bad to have the hiatus at least we'd get no repeats. But to put the bomb Daybreak and the bad comedies leading into Lost and changing the time really reminds me of what they did with Commander in Chief, a hit at first then they destroyed it with their taking it off the air and changing writers.
I just saw last night that they will be putting on last week's episode before Lost, at least sparing the new episode from In Case of Emergency which does 3 million!
As a huge fan of Lost, I was disappointed by the ratings, but less people tend to watch TV at 10pm. I think the base for Lost is 13 million, but if they don't up the ante with the storyline and do something with that 8 to 10 block, the show will be in trouble, which would be very sad.
hey, justin. i love your website. i just wanna know when dancing with the stars come back, will it be leading into lost or not? i mean 12 million is worse than 'heroes'! So , abc should really consider moving lost into the 9 pm timeslot to increase viewing levels
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home