Benjamonster's TV

GOOD WEEK: ABC'S WEDNESDAY NEWBIES ABC's comedy lineup is working like a charm and it's due to some serious cohesion to the night. The cohesion happens here thanks to the new entries at 8:30pm and 9:30pm. At 8:30pm, The Goldbergs is shining it its second season. For three straight weeks, it has built on The Middle in the demo. Since The Middle took over at 8pm in the Fall of 2010, only Suburgatory in its first season managed to do that. And that show disappeared in its second season. The Goldbergs already has an established audience so I don't expect things to fall apart. At 9:30pm, Black-ish is the strongest 9:30pm occupant ABC has had. Since their comedy block began in 2009, the problem has always been finding a lead-out to megahit Modern Family . Take a look at how the lead-out shows have done out of Modern Family in their third week following a new episode of Family . This is based on retention percentage: Cougar Town (Fall 2009): 94% Mr. Sunshine (Spring 2011...

GOOD WEEK: "THE VOICE" We've gotten used to The Voice  being one of TV's top shows in the past couple years. But when it premiered this season, it showed some serious sign of decline even with new judges Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams. The season premiere's 3.9 demo was down 23% from last fall's premiere. Then the Tuesday episode climbed to a 4.1 demo (down 12%). This week, Monday's episode had a 4.0 demo (down 14%) while Tuesday again climbed to a 4.1 (down just 8%). The trend is getting better for The Voice as it is holding up quite well. It may be past its peak, but it's not too far past it and audiences are responding well critically to the new judges. BAD WEEK: NEW COMEDY BLOCKS Launching a one hour comedy block with two new shows seems to be an exceedingly hard task for the networks. In fact, I can't think of a successful one in years but I can think of tons of quickly gone bomb blocks ( Animal Practice/Guys with Kids, Go On/The ...

Check below this post for my review of How to Get Away with Murder ! GOOD WEEK: THE NEWBIES The first week of the new fall season saw strong performances from nearly all the new shows except for week two of Red Band Society . On ABC, How to Get Away with Murder and Black-ish were the top two new shows in the demo with stellar debuts while Forever surprised everyone by growing on its second night of a two night premiere after a lackluster first night. On CBS, Madam Secretary, Scorpion, and NCIS: New Orleans have all gotten huge total numbers of viewers. On NBC, The Mysteries of Laura held up surprisingly well in week two despite an older skew. And Gotham on FOX was its strongest show in the demo by over a full point. This might look great for the new shows but the networks did bring out their biggest guns this week. The next week sees premieres of second tier shows like Stalker on CBS, ABC's Tuesday comedies, NBC's Thursday comedies, and Gracepoint on FOX. The newbie number...

GOOD WEEK: "LAW & ORDER: SVU" Word on the street is that Law & Order: SVU is in danger of being cancelled due to its high costs for a show in its 15th season. But for a show in its 15th season, it's doing pretty well. In a season with an arc for star Mariska Hargitay, it has risen to the occasion multiple times. This week it hit at least a 2.0 demo for a sixth time. Last year, it did that just three times. We'll see what happens with this show but it's still capable of helping a new show (last year Chicago Fire , this year Chicago PD ). It's also still a reliable performer for a network that is still climbing out of a hole it dug for itself. If it does indeed end its run, it's doing it on a high note creatively and in the ratings. BAD WEEK: "AMERICAN IDOL" What in the world is FOX going to do with American Idol ? A show that takes up two and a half hours on the FOX schedule is still down 30% year to year. The Wednesday night epis...

GOOD WEEK: SCI-FI PREMIERES Even in an era of diminishing results, it seems like the networks can still get people to turn out in droves for premieres of sci-fi shows and that was proven twice this week. On Monday, NBC's Believe got a prime slot premiering after The Voice and it delivered a strong 10.6 million viewers and 2.7 demo, on par with recent numbers for The Blacklist but with a lower lead-in. Just a day earlier, ABC's Resurrection was even stronger with a stunning 13.9 million viewers and 3.8 demo for its premiere. These two shows got off to hot starts but so did Intelligence in January and many other sci-fi shows that fizzled out before that (think of The Event, V, FlashForward, etc in recent years). They will have to hold up well competing in the same Sunday 9pm timeslot. It's going to be a tougher road for Believe as NBC tries to carve out a scripted presence on the night. BAD WEEK: FOX FRIDAY Look, I know that numbers are getting worse and worse for th...

GOOD WEEK: CBS MONDAY CBS Mondays have had a tough go recently with 2 Broke Girls not working as an anchor, instant bombs in We Are Men and Partners , and a huge hole at 10pm. Things still aren't great but they're looking up as How I Met Your Mother heads towards its final episode at the end of March. Mother has been delivering a powerful 3.8 demo at 8pm the past two weeks and it has brought the entire night up, even Intelligence at 10pm. CBS needs as many good weeks as possible before Mother leaves because then there are major questions about what will happen to a night that has had comedy institutions like I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, Murphy Brown, and Everybody Loves Raymond for decades. BAD WEEK: SUPER BOWL LEAD-OUTS The Super Bowl lead-out slot is seeming less and less important with each passing year. Last year, CBS gave the slot to new drama Elementary . After delivering low numbers for a post-Super Bowl show, Elementary got no bump in its Thursday night...

GOOD WEEK: "THE BLACKLIST" The Blacklist had to face a major test in January. It had three straight weeks without The Voice as a lead-in, a fate that doomed Smash and hasn't been kind to Revolution . While it didn't set the world on fire, it held up quite well and even went up this week, its third week without The Voice , to a 2.5 demo and 10 million viewers. That may not sound incredible but you have to consider that this is a self-starting NBC show that's getting 10 million viewers - when's the last time NBC had any show do that with any regularity and no lead-in from The Voice ? This show is what NBC has needed for a long time and its adding to their growing drama arsenal. I think they can be comfortable with moving this show next week and not see it collapse and die, Smash style, or barely hang on, Revolution style.  BAD WEEK: "RAKE" At one point, FOX seemed pretty excited about their new drama Rake . They were planning to give it the pri...

GOOD WEEK: CBS TUESDAY AND THURSDAY CBS had a low rated finale night for Hostages on Monday and a so-so result from the People's Choice Awards on Wednesday but they were on fire on Tuesday and Thursday. TV's two most watched shows - NCIS and The Big Bang Theory - both topped 20 million viewers for season highs. Tuesday also had the series premiere of Intelligence garner the best total viewer count of any new show this season alongside a respectable demo premiere, though it must now face Castle and The Blacklist on Monday. Every single show on Thursday was up with all four sitcoms posting their best numbers since at least mid-October. The Millers , which was looking weaker, came all the way back to tie its season premiere numbers. While January is a great time for many shows as the viewership totals tend to rise, other shows are proving that not everything works. For these two lineups, everything was chugging along. BAD WEEK: ABC MIDSEASON PREMIERES It has been a tough s...

GOOD WEEK: NBC It has been a pretty wonderful week for NBC. On Monday, they had the always powerful The Voice and then The Blacklist scored its best numbers since September for its fall finale. On Tuesday, things were up across the board with Chicago Fire posting its best numbers since mid-October. On Wednesday, their annual combo of Christmas in Rockefeller Center and the SNL Christmas special led to a rare Wednesday win. The best news of all came on Thursday when The Sound of Music Live! shattered expectations with huge numbers that held up well throughout the entire three hour event. NBC is being smart about airing their regular specials and they're protecting their strongest shows. They made a gamble with Sound of Music but it paid off in a big way and will help NBC with its event programming since this production was getting tons of buzz in and out of TV circles. NBC still has problems (like their usual Wednesday and Thursday nights) but with the hot The Blacklist , an impr...

GOOD WEEK: CBS Through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, not one CBS show is down week to week except the dead show walking Hostages . How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, Mom, NCIS, Person of Interest, Survivor, and Two and a Half Men were even with last week while NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, CSI, The Big Bang Theory, The Millers, The Crazy Ones, and Elementary were up. That's a rare feat in an era where at least a couple shows seem to tank every week. The new normal is slightly dropping so staying even or going up nearly across the board is definitely a win for the Eye Network. BAD WEEK: FOX FRIDAY There were many eyebrows raised when FOX announced they were moving the reliable Bones to Friday to pair it with comedy Raising Hope . Even more eyebrows were raised when FOX followed through with the plan despite the successful pairing of Bones with the new Sleepy Hollow on Monday while The X Factor and Glee were tanking on Thursday. But FOX ...

GOOD WEEK: "THE BLACKLIST" Oh sure, at first glance it looks like The Blacklist fell below a 3 demo for the first time this week so it wouldn't really qualify as a "good week." But then the news came that last week's episode of The Blacklist added a record number for DVR viewing in Live + 3 Day Ratings. It was up a huge 5.427 million viewers and 1.95 demo points. This show is one of DVR's biggest gainers every week which proves it is far more than a timeslot hit thanks to its lead-in of The Voice . People are watching this show even when they're not watching The Voice and that's a good sign. The same day numbers are going to mean less and less as time goes by so this news shows that The Blacklist is, without question, the biggest new hit of the fall season. BAD WEEK: "THE X FACTOR" Two years ago when The X Factor premiered, Simon Cowell said anything less than 20 million viewers would be a disappointment. Well it was a huge di...

GOOD WEEK: "MOM" The new shows, especially the huge crop of sitcoms, are still finding their way. Many have gotten a vote of confidence with a full season order from their network. But no show proved itself more worthy this week than the CBS Monday sitcom Mom , which was up three tenths in the demo for its best numbers since the series premiere. Mom has had a tough task considering it's been the new show on a night that has already seen upheaval when CBS finally decided 2 Broke Girls was not worthy of being a 9pm anchor. Whether its Girls or repeats of The Big Bang Theory , Mom has had good retention and it will have its third different lead-in when Mike & Molly has its season premiere on November 4. The show is finding itself creatively and audiences seem to be responding. This performance is certainly more impressive than the other two new CBS sitcoms despite lower raw numbers because The Millers has horrible retention out of The Big Bang Theory and The Crazy One...

GOOD WEEK: FRESHMAN COMEDIES In a fall where 13 new comedies premiered, it has been tough for any to break through but a number of them got good news this week. Mom, The Crazy Ones, and The Millers got full season orders. Brooklyn Nine-Nine got a full season order AND the much coveted post-Super Bowl slot. The Goldbergs, Sean Saves the World, and Trophy Wife got additional script orders, and Dads, and Back in the Game were up week-to-week (along with The Millers and Sean ). Aside from Welcome to the Family , which was cancelled on Friday and The Michael J. Fox Show , every new comedy had at least one thing to be happy about this week. BAD WEEK: ABC THURSDAY AT 8PM Since Ugly Betty in the mid 2000s, this slot has been a huge disaster for ABC. Just since Fall of 2009, FlashForward, The Deep End, My Generation, Charlie's Angels, Missing, Last Resort, and Zero Hour have failed here. Now the new Once Upon a Time in Wonderland had a middling 1.7 demo debut that fell hard to a 1....

GOOD WEEK: THE 3.0 + DEMO SHOWS It was a brutal week for the broadcast networks with almost every show dropping and some having catastrophic performances. It was so bad that only a handful of shows were at a 3.0 demo or above. They are: The Big Bang Theory (5.1), The Voice (4.6), Modern Family (3.9), The Blacklist/Scandal (3.1), and How I Met Your Mother/The Millers/The Simpsons (3.0). That is a pretty weak number of shows and some of them are getting pretty up there in years with one ( Mother ) ending this year. The broadcast networks have to hope that chilly fall weather will lead to more tune-in in the weeks to come because even in an ever-changing business, more than eight shows should be getting a 3.0 demo. BAD WEEK: NBC THURSDAY LINEUP Well I had the same winner for Bad Week last week but how could I not do it again even with lots to choose from after everything plummeted quickly here. Parks and Recreation is not an anchor, Welcome to the Family and Sean Saves the World are...

GOOD WEEK: "SCANDAL" After spending the 2012-13 season constantly on the ascent, Scandal returned to series highs in both viewers and the demo. The show has gone from being the top 10pm drama on network TV to the top network TV drama, period. It's 3.6 demo is better than the always popular NCIS and the hot new hit The Blacklist . Considering it only had a 2.1 demo a year ago and the massive buzz it's receiving (not to mention extra exposure as repeats will air on Tuesdays at 10pm in place of the cancelled Lucky 7 ), it seems like it could continue to grow to crazy good numbers as the season goes on. BAD WEEK: NBC THURSDAY COMEDIES After several declining years, NBC decided to revamp its Thursday lineup by pairing new family comedies with Parks and Recreation . Well this week was the first time it was fully intact and the results were not good as the results in the demo were 1.2 ( Parks ), 1.1 ( Welcome to the Family ), 1.4 ( Sean Saves the World ), and 1.7 ( T...

GOOD WEEK: THE "BIG GUNS" It has been a good premiere week for the broadcast networks for the most part. Most importantly, they each had a major victory with the show that matters most. ABC needed Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to premiere big and it delivered the best demo for a drama premiere since 2009. CBS needed The Big Bang Theory to come back and power The Crazy Ones to a big debut. Big Bang delivered it's best viewership total ever and The Crazy Ones had the best sitcom debut in two years. NBC needed The Voice and The Blacklist to start off strong and The Voice had its best debut since the post-Super Bowl airing while The Blacklist dominated its hour against CBS' competing new drama Hostages . Finally, FOX needed Sleepy Hollow to hold up after a surprisingly strong debut and it did as it got a 3.1 demo against The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, and 2 Broke Girls/Mom . Not everything went perfectly for the networks this week but the things that absolute...

GOOD WEEK: WEEK 2 FOR THE NEWBIES April premieres are always tricky because they come so late in the season but two late entries are making their mark for their respective networks. First on Wednesday, week two of How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life) fell a respectable amount. It was down four tenths in the demo (the same drop lead-in Modern Family had) to a solid 2.5 demo. Right now it still looks like a better option than Suburgatory was in the 9:30pm timeslot though it doesn't have a new Modern Family lead in the next two weeks. Then on Thursday, NBC's Hannibal became only the second new show this season to actually build on its lead-in despite a terrible 1.1 demo lead-in. Hannibal went up a tenth to a 1.7, which is low but far better than some NBC dramas this season. It has another week without Elementary and Scandal being new but the big test will come when those shows return with new episodes. BAD WEEK: "READY FOR LOVE" NBC had high...

GOOD WEEK: "HOW TO LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS (FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE)" There were two new series that premiered this week and ABC saw great results for its new family comedy How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life) . Of the many shows that have followed Modern Family, How to Live is one of the more compatible and it premiered to better numbers than the April 2011 premiere of Happy Endings and the same numbers as the April 2012 premiere of Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 . Now those shows didn't end up being hits but they were also incompatible with Family . I'd also say this show exceeded expectations considering the numbers Suburgatory has been getting in the slot all season. We'll see how the next couple weeks go but this was a good start. BAD WEEK: TUESDAY AT 10PM Tuesdays at 10pm have been a disaster all season and it's just getting worse. This week, Body of Proof won the hour for the broadcast networks with a 1.4 demo...

GOOD WEEK: "THE VOICE" It's amazing how one show can change NBC so much. The Voice with two new coaches returned this week after NBC's disastrous winter and while all was not well across the network, Mondays 8-10pm and Tuesdays 8pm are looking a whole lot brighter. The Voice had an eye-popping 4.8 demo on Monday night, well above the languishing American Idol . It came back to Earth a little bit on Tuesday but it was still a stellar performer. It also catapulted lead-outs Revolution to decent numbers and Go On to its best number since it last followed The Voice . NBC needs more than The Voice to succeed and they can't overexpose it but it's amazing how it can bring viewers back to a network no one was watching very quickly. BAD WEEK: CBS NEWBIES CBS renewed a bunch of new shows this week and newcomer Elementary was among them. But other than that, it looks like no other freshman will be renewed on CBS. Made in Jersey, Partners, and The Job were cancelle...

GOOD WEEK: ABC REALITY SHOWS ABC has had a surprising week with their reality shows. On Monday night, Dancing with the Stars returned up nicely from its disappointing fall numbers. Then on Tuesday, the new celebrity diving series Splash was a big surprise with a very solid 2.6 demo against NCIS and with Daylight Savings a factor. I thought there would be very little interest in this show but apparently I was wrong. Even on Thursday, the return of the non-celebrity Wife Swap did better in the 8pm hour than most Last Resort episodes and all Zero Hour episodes this year. Things may change this week when The Voice returns but it was a solid week for ABC's reality shows. BAD WEEK: "SMASH" If there's one show that symbolizes the way NBC's winter has gone, it is Smash . Filled with high expectations and a heavy ad campaign, Smash fell on its face with its winter premiere. It has continued to fall ever since reaching a 0.7 demo this week. It will be benched to Sat...