TV Ratings: "Heroes" Takes a Hit
NBC's hit drama "Heroes" returned last night following a 6-week hiatus, but the ratings have actually gone down a bit. "0.7%" was one of the lowest rated episodes of the series with 11,98 million viewers. On March 5, the mid-season cliffhanger scored 14,90 million.
The drama however managed to beat "Dancing with the Stars" in the 18-49 demo finishing first in the timeslot and it also pulled in more viewers than the competing drama "24" on FOX (10,31 million) which actually finished fourth in the 18-49 demo.
"24" however built from its lackluster lead-in "Drive" which continues to sink - last night's episode scored a disappointing 4,6 million.
NBC's "Deal or no Deal" is not as big of a hit as it used to be when it did not air opposite "Dancing," but it still managed to pull in 10,84 million total viewers.
ABC's dancing competition was of course the most watched program of the evening with 18,66 million.
The series premiere of Ashton Kutcher's new reality series "The Real Wedding Crashers" at 10 did not break any records scoring 7,05 million viewers.
This was however an improvement over the last episode of "The Black Donnellys" which was seen by 5,3 million people on April 2. Since some viewers were only sampling the new show, the numbers may go down in week #2.
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Labels: Ratings
posted by Justin Van De Kamp at
3:15 PM
7 Comments:
Not good, Heroes is still in it's first season and is already taking a big hit. That might make for a tough second season.
hmm...i don't agree...i think it's the hiatus between the episodes that's to blame..not everyone knew it was back on
I agree with Stefan. It's not that it's doing poorly; it's the fact that the Nielsen families didn't know it was returning tonight. That's what happens when you have long hiatus occurring between episodes.
KC
Maintainer of Luke MacFarlane Fansite
Well, hiatuses have been the bane of shows recently. A few specific ones to be exact. And those shows have not really risen after this hiatus. I still do not think that Heroes will have a strong season next week. The hiatus itself wasn't all that long and it still took a hit. I still think that it will face a rough second season.
No it was definately the hiatus. Not to say it won't continue to take a hit. Networks need to learn that you can't stop showing new episodes for weeks and just come back and expect everyone to follow. seasons should at least be split in two (11 episodes at a time) or run them straight thru back to back. Also the ratings are really rediculous. It doesn't take into account downloads online or TIVO's which many dramas have more viewers of.
Hmm, perhaps... But why exactly do you think it will have a rough second season?
It can't be just because of the ratings.
I am sorry, but I will have to disagree with some of you.
Yes, it may have been the hiatus, but I think the network did promote the return of "Heroes" quite heavily, so I don't really see a problem there.
If you have been checking the ratings lately you may have noticed many of the shows have taken a hit. Viewing levels tend to go down as the days get longer and warmer.
Also, the drama has to battle ABC's blockbuster "Dancing with the Stars" now, so some of the viewers may have gone there, although these shows aim at different markets.
What I completely disagree with is the criticism of scheduling.
The TV season begins in September and ends in May. That's about 35 weeks. The studio can produce only about 22-25 episodes per season (for a number of reasons.) That leaves you with about 10-13 pre-emptions.
And I happen to think NBC handled those pre-emptions very well by grouping the "Heroes" episodes into 3 chapters.
Unlike those procedurals with self-contained episodes, a highly serialized show like "Heroes" can not benefit from the traditional method of scheduling: 3-4 new episodes, followed by 2-3 repeats.
So, I think NBC did a very good job scheduling "Heroes" this season, keeping the show on air when people actually watch TV.
In the future, they may consider scheduling the drama January-May like "24" does and "Lost" will do next year, but they won't be able to do so if they have only a couple of hits as they do now.
With a schedule in desperate need of new hits as NBC's current schedule, they just can't allow themselves the luxury of benching a lucrative launching platform like "Heroes" till January.
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