ABC won Monday night with the 1-2 punch of “Dancing with the Stars” and “Castle.” From 8-10, “Dancing” averaged 19.7 million viewers and a 4.2 rating, to lead the night. “Castle” logged good numbers at 10, with a 3.1 rating and 12 million viewers.
NBC was in fourth for the night, and its Monday night slate keeps getting worse; cancellation looms for “Lost” wannabe “The Event,” which drew only 6.5 million viewers and a 2.2 rating, and “Chase,” which fell to a 1.5 rating and 5 million viewers. “Chuck ” is also on its last legs, with a 1.9 rating and 5.3 million viewers and 8.
CBS had a good night for second place. At 8, “How I Met Your Mother” averaged 8.5 million viewers and a 3.4 rating, while “Rules of Engagement” drew 8 million viewers and a 3.0 rating at 8:30. “Two and A Half Men” was still Monday’s top scripted show, with 13.2 million viewers and a 4.3 rating. “Mike and Molly” stayed strong with a 3.5 rating and 10.7 million viewers. “Hawaii 5-0” fell a little bit, drawing 10.5 million viewers and a 3.1 rating, to tie for first at 10.
“House” was typically strong for Fox, with a 3.6 rating and 9.5 million viewers, but the network was again brought down by “Lie to Me,” which fell to just under a 2.0 rating and 5.5 million viewers–a sure sign the show is in trouble.
The best reason that Lie to Me is in trouble is because of how abruptly they moved it due to the cancellation of Lone Star. I only saw that the premiere was on by chance. For months I thought it would debut in November then suddenly a show is cancelled and Lie to Me is moved in to the very next week. There’s absolutely no way you can notify all of your previous viewers in such a time frame.
Yeah! I didn’t even know Lie to Me was back on until reading this right now!!! Why isn’t my DVR taping it?
That’s not why the show’s doing poorly. The show only averaged 6.4 million viewers and a 2.7 rating. Most shows experience a 15-25% drop year over year–at most the show should drop about 1.6 million viewers and .7–about what it’s dropped. The sad fact is that it was barely watched last season, and even less are watching it this season–promotion or not.
Additionally, the fact that it’s losing more than 4 million viewers and a whopping 45% of it’s 18-49 lead-in is extremely troubling. Unless Fox has nothing else to fill the whole–it’s going to be cancelled. It may not be yanked before the season is over–but it will not get renewed.
LIE TO ME has recovered somewhat, seeing that it ended the season with a 2.6/8 and 2.4/7. The last thing FOX said about the show is that it has been resilient in whatever time slot it has been put in, which is good. With these numbers, you would think that the show is ok, even without a back 9.
Does this mean the event will be cancelled, god I just started liking a show, and following it. Its the only one that I follow loyally. Crap.
Way to get it wrong big time. The Event was picked up for a full season.
I did forecast cancellation too early. But the ratings are terrible; if NBC is renewing them it’s because so many of their shows are so low and they can’t cancel everything; they don’t have enough shows to plug the gaps. With Comcast taking over soon, don’t expect these low rated shows to get renewed next year.