Spoilers Supergirl - Season 1

[davejames]

Well the latest from CBS is that last week's episode jumped from 8.9 to 11.2 million viewers after three days, and from a 2.2 to a 3.0 in the demo. For whatever that's worth.

Although as one website pointed out, as seemingly bad as the numbers may be, the only two scripted CBS dramas that are actually doing better are the original NCIS and Scorpion. So clearly Supergirl is still looking pretty darn good compared to most of their other stuff.

 

[davejames]

Incidentally, with the tragic news in Paris today, I have to wonder if Monday's episode about a series of bombings around the city will end up being postponed...

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Two things to remember with regards to ratings: 1) the network is CBS, and 2) Supergirl is made by Warner Bros., not CBS.

CBS doesn't suffer poor performers well, especially series that aren't made by CBS themselves.

Take last year as an example. Stalker (a WB show) was winning its timeslot in the demo even with a slight decline as the season wore on. CBS cut the episode order, put the show on hiatus, and plugged CSI: Cyber into its spot. CSI: Cyber (a CBS show) premiered moderately but quickly dropped well below Stalker's lowest ratings. Ultimately, CSI: Cyber received a second season renewal, while Stalker got canceled.

CBS is accustomed to having the highest rated scripted shows on television. For Supergirl to have a long run on this network, it doesn't have to beat Gotham in the ratings; it has to get better ratings than other CBS shows that can fill the Mondays at 8pm timeslot. If Supergirl continues its ratings slide, it won't matter if it's the highest rated superhero series on TV -- it just needs to out-perform what Two Broke Girls or Mike & Molly would do in that same spot.

CBS likely doesn't care that Supergirl is a superhero show or how it measures up to other superhero shows. They only care if a show can deliver the goods --ratings-wise -- or if they have a vested interest (syndication, streaming, other media, etc.) in the future of a series that they own. Genre is incidental.

 

[Christopher]

CBS likely doesn't care that Supergirl is a superhero show or how it measures up to other superhero shows. They only care if a show can deliver the goods --ratings-wise -- or if they have a vested interest (syndication, streaming, other media, etc.) in the future of a series that they own. Genre is incidental.

Is it? Superheroes are the hottest thing in media right now. The fact that CBS, a network not known for airing a lot of SF/fantasy in general, would air a superhero show at all suggests that they're eager to get on that bandwagon, that they didn't want to be the only network that didn't have a comics-based show. I mean, the last time CBS aired a superhero show was The Flash in 1990-91. That was nearly a quarter-century ago. And now they finally break that fast and do their own superhero show at the same time that there are superhero shows all over the dial? That's not a coincidence. The genre does matter here.

 

[DigificWriter]

Live+3 ratings for (I believe) "Fight or Flight" have been released, and things went up considerably:
http://www.supergirl.tv/supergirl-ratings-gain-big-in-l-3

 

[theenglish]

They need to take it out of the same slot with Gotham (or better yet, get Gotham to move to 9PM). I watch both, and I think a lot of the folks that watch one would watch both, but they're not doing either any favors in the ratings as it is.

Right now, I'm watching Supergirl and DVR'ing Gotham to watch right after, because I figure Supergirl is the new show and needs the ratings to get well established. But I don't know if watching from the DVR counts for ratings, and even if it does there are almost certainly people who are missing one or the other altogether because they forget/don't bother to record. And the way things are shaping up, if I can only give a ratings count to one or the other, I'm going back to Gotham.

Good question.

Are ratings still determined by specific families or now, in the days of digital cable and DVRs do networks monitor a wider swath of the viewing audience? How are ratings determined these days?

EDIT: I should have read more posts, but it still seems to me outdated that live viewing is still determined by those families with a ratings box in their home.

 

[davejames]

Even CBS head Leslie Moonves said in an article yesterday that overnight ratings these days are almost meaningless, and that it takes a full week now before they can fully judge a show's performance.

And if Supergirl's numbers improved that much after three days, I imagine it would look even better after seven.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Saw Benoist on James Cordon's show the other night. Quite charming.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Saw Benoist on James Cordon's show the other night. Quite charming.

Benoist, Olivia Wilde, and Saoirse Ronan...quite a nice sofa that night.

 

[davejames]

I have to agree with Corden that the French pronunciation of Benoist sounds a helluva lot cooler. In fact that's actually how I thought it was pronounced when the casting was first made public.

 

[Commander Richard]

^ Here's the clip that talks about that.

 

[Christopher]

After watching episode 3 again, I'm increasingly suspicious that Cat Grant recognizes Supergirl as Kara. The first thing she said in the interview scene was "It's you," nodding meaningfully to herself -- which was probably meant as a misdirect to make us think she'd recognized Kara, but maybe was in fact a double misdirect. Later on, she said to Lord that Supergirl "recognizes power, so she flew right to me," which could be taken as having a double meaning. And she's been uncharacteristically tolerant of Kara's challenges and critiques regarding Supergirl for the past couple of weeks -- two weeks ago she almost fired Kara for objecting to the name "Supergirl," now she's okay with Kara sitting on her couch and questioning her analysis of Supergirl.

Meanwhile... Is it remotely plausible for a magazine publisher to put together an entire special issue in just a day and a half? I can believe a newspaper putting out an extra; that happened all the time. But while modern digital typesetting must make magazine composition quicker, where would they get a whole issue's worth of content in just 36 hours?

 

[USS Triumphant]

After watching episode 3 again, I'm increasingly suspicious that Cat Grant recognizes Supergirl as Kara. The first thing she said in the interview scene was "It's you," nodding meaningfully to herself -- which was probably meant as a misdirect to make us think she'd recognized Kara, but maybe was in fact a double misdirect. Later on, she said to Lord that Supergirl "recognizes power, so she flew right to me," which could be taken as having a double meaning. And she's been uncharacteristically tolerant of Kara's challenges and critiques regarding Supergirl for the past couple of weeks -- two weeks ago she almost fired Kara for objecting to the name "Supergirl," now she's okay with Kara sitting on her couch and questioning her analysis of Supergirl.

For once, you and I are on the same page - I definitely think she knows. I picked up on everything you mentioned except that last point, which didn't occur to me but fits right in.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

After watching episode 3 again, I'm increasingly suspicious that Cat Grant recognizes Supergirl as Kara. The first thing she said in the interview scene was "It's you," nodding meaningfully to herself -- which was probably meant as a misdirect to make us think she'd recognized Kara, but maybe was in fact a double misdirect. Later on, she said to Lord that Supergirl "recognizes power, so she flew right to me," which could be taken as having a double meaning. And she's been uncharacteristically tolerant of Kara's challenges and critiques regarding Supergirl for the past couple of weeks -- two weeks ago she almost fired Kara for objecting to the name "Supergirl," now she's okay with Kara sitting on her couch and questioning her analysis of Supergirl.

For once, you and I are on the same page - I definitely think she knows. I picked up on everything you mentioned except that last point, which didn't occur to me but fits right in.

That would a problem--as it stands, her sister has warned Kara about revealing her secret, and if Cat knows, it makes for another complicated type of plotting. Then, there's the matter of Winn knowing Clark is Superman. There's secrets bleeding out all over the place.

 

[DWF]

If Cat knew or suspected she'd threaten to expose her, but Linda is all but invisible to Cat.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Cat doesn't act like she co-worked at the Daily Planet with "Jimmy" who had boots on the ground during Clark's origin. Considering her personality, she could have had a whirlwind affair with young Jimmy, and "chooses" not to remember that ever having happened with this James person.

If she's observant enough to recognize Kara under her, then she's observant enough to notice Clark in the trenches beside her... Is Kara the human recognized publicly as Clark the human's cousin? Point being is that if she's been sitting on that Clark is Superman for the last ten years, then figuring out that one aliens' cousin is also an alien is not exactly rocket science.

One step Further from Cat knowing that Clark is Superman, is that Clark knows that Cat knows and they're good with each other, which kind of completely explains how Kara got this job, and kept this job despite being a bungler, that her livelihood is all a favour for Clark who got Miss Danvers her "Should'a been there 20 years" level position butlling for a billionaire. Seriously the boss does not get a kid from the labour pool who's most probably a #### up.

Cat's known what Kara is, before they even met?

(CatCo hasn't been around for 20 years, I know.)

 

[davejames]

After watching episode 3 again, I'm increasingly suspicious that Cat Grant recognizes Supergirl as Kara. The first thing she said in the interview scene was "It's you," nodding meaningfully to herself -- which was probably meant as a misdirect to make us think she'd recognized Kara, but maybe was in fact a double misdirect. Later on, she said to Lord that Supergirl "recognizes power, so she flew right to me," which could be taken as having a double meaning. And she's been uncharacteristically tolerant of Kara's challenges and critiques regarding Supergirl for the past couple of weeks -- two weeks ago she almost fired Kara for objecting to the name "Supergirl," now she's okay with Kara sitting on her couch and questioning her analysis of Supergirl.

For once, you and I are on the same page - I definitely think she knows. I picked up on everything you mentioned except that last point, which didn't occur to me but fits right in.

The writers clearly enjoy making it seem like she might know now and then, but I don't believe she actually does. Because when she asks at the end of the interview what Supergirl does for a "day job", it sounded to me as if she genuinely did not know.

Plus it's easy to see how she's too wrapped up in her own ego to really notice anyone else around her.

 

[Commander Richard]

I liked how Supergirl was afraid to get too close to Cat out of fear that she might be recognized as Kara.

 

[Christopher]

I liked how Supergirl was afraid to get too close to Cat out of fear that she might be recognized as Kara.

Which is rendered kind of moot when you see later on that Cat has a big clear photo of Supergirl to use as the cover of her special issue. Not to mention all the clear video footage of her that was on all the TVs in Cat's office the previous week.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Women recognize each other by looking at their shoes.