Ratings are so bad this year, Wall Street is worried. Nashville and Arrow debuted strong but Chicago Fire, not so much. But Chicago Fire improved on its lead, and it's on NBC so let's see how that shakes out. Looks like soapy/bitchy shows do work for ABC but the formula that NBC can rally around still remains to be seen. Maybe the hunkiness of the firefighters was played up too much too appeal to the male viewers who are the market for action shows. CW's gamble on expanding their male audience with Arrow may be paying off, though shows like that can nose dive in week two.
I turned Chicago fire off 10 minutes in. Kept looking for an "and" and it just wasn't there. They're fire men AND spies. They're firemen AND junkies. They're firemen AND all having affairs. They're firemen AND from the future. Closest I could come was... They're firemen AND they're sad that their friend died in a fire. Well? If that's the heights and depths of your imagination... Why not just make a reality TV show about firemen then? Oh. Because real firemen aren't sexy like super models.
That's the "and." They're firemen AND they're super sexy models. Not enough girls watch NBC. They should have swapped with ABC for Last Resort.
I'm sure they forgot that ever existed. It went off the air in 1996! plus, it had a three year run, NBC should be so lucky nowadays.
Hmm... just out of curiosity, I went and looked at the length of the drama shows on the network that have debuted since 2000. Horrible track record for NBC. NBC: Crossing Jordan - 6 Law & Order: Criminal Intent - 6 (moved to USA) Chuck - 5 Friday Night Lights - 5 Las Vegas - 5 Medium - 4 (Moved to CBS) Heroes - 4 Ed - 4 Parenthood - 3 American Dreams - 3 Harry's Law - 2 Life - 2 Lipstick Jungle - 2 Grimm - 2 Boomtown 1.25 Awake - 1 Bionic Woman - 1 Black Donnellys - 1 Book of Daniel - 1 Chase - 1 Crusoe - 1 Deadline - 1 E-Ring - 1 The Event - 1 Friends With Benefits - 1 Hawaii - 1 Heist - 1 Inconceivable - 1 Journeyman - 1 Kidnapped - 1 Kingpin - 1 Kings - 1 Knight Rider - 1 Law & Order: LA - 1 Law & Order: Trial by Jury - 1 LAX - 1 The Listener - 1 Love Bites - 1 The Lyon's Den - 1 Medical Investigation - 1 Mercy - 1 Mister Sterling - 1 My Own Worst Enemy - 1 Outlaw - 1 Persons Unknown - 1 Prime Suspect - 1 Quarterlife - 1 Southland - 1 (moved to TNT) Surface - 1 UC: Undercover - 1 Undercovers -1 Windfall - 1
I'm curious to see what the lists look like for the other networks but I doubt it will match this level of ineptitude in getting past the first season.
CBS: CSI: - 13 CSI:Miami - 10 NCIS - 10 CSI:NY - 8 Cold Case - 7 Without a Trace - 7 The Mentalist -5 Ghost Whisperer - 5 Numb3rs - 5 NCIS: LA - 4 The District - 4 The Good Wife - 4 Hawaii Five-0 - 3 Blue Bloods - 3 The Guardian - 3 The Unit - 3 Unforgettable - 2 Person of Interest - 2 The Agency - 2 Jericho - 2 Joan of Arcadia - 2 Hack - 2 That's Life - 2 Close to Home - 2 Shark - 2 3 lbs - 1 The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampsire - 1 Cane - 1 Citizen Baines - 1 City of Angels - 1 Clubhouse - 1 The Defenders - 1 Dr. Vegas - 1 The Education of Max Bickford - 1 The Ex-List - 1 First Monday - 1 A Gifted Man - 1 Harper's Island - 1 Made in Jersey - 1 Miami Medical - 1 Presidio Med - 1 Queens Supreme - 1 Smith - 1 Swingtown - 1 Three Rivers - 1 Viva Laughlin - 1 CHAOS - 1 Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior - 1 Century City - 1 Moonlight - 1 Wolf Lake - 1
By the way, those receiving three points a piece for correctly predicting Next Caller would be cancelled before the season started:
I tried watching the pilot to viva laughlin the other other night. I got as far into it as Hugh Jacksons first lip sink, maybe 15 minutes and turned he bugger off.
Some say you should try everything once, but there are some things you don't ever need to try to know they won't turn out well.
ABC is keeping Last Resort and 666 Park Ave alive a little longer. Hoping either or both will see an uptick? Once ratings fall, they rarely come back up. But ABC can't afford to be picky. PS, Beauty & The Beast has cratered - down 42% from last week - but Arrow is stable and looks like a keeper.
These two are safe (for now...next season's another matter)‘Elementary’ And ‘Vegas’ Get Full-Season Orders
At least they didn't promote the hell out of it during the Olympics. It would make them really look foolish if they had done that.
I don't think we'll see any more cancellations this week, but I won't tally the points up until the 31st.