Axiom’s Edge Network Ratings Tracker

By John J. Joex

As I mentioned in my Cancellation Watch column this past week, I now consider Heroes to officially be struggling.  The series continues its downward spiral in the ratings, hitting an all-time low this past week with only 6.92 million total viewers.  A repeat of Two and a Half Men that ran against Heroes in the first half of the 9 PM EST hour pulled almost twice as many viewers.  I’m raising the Cancellation Alert on the show to Moderate.  That may not seem too bad, but take note of the fact that, with one exception, every show I have raised the Cancellation Alert on this season has either been cancelled or currently stands on the brink of getting the axe (the one exception was Fringe which started the season with pretty iffy numbers).  On the other hand, the TV By The Numbers site thinks that Heroes is still safe because it’s on NBC, which has no real ratings blockbusters to brag about.  (Cast your vote on whether Heroes should get a fourth season or the axe.)

Chuck’s numbers weren’t too great either, but they are about where we’ve seen them most of the season.  Since that show has a lot of positive buzz going for it right now, I consider it the safest among NBC’s Monday night lineup, but it’s definitely not a sure thing for renewal.  Medium dropped a bit from last week and has to be considered a ratings disappointment this season.  On the bright side, it has performed much better than My Own Worst Enemy did in the 10 PM slot earlier this season.

FOX’s Friday shows did nothing to strengthen their case this week.  Dollhouse only saw a slight drop from last week, but still, that’s not the right direction to be heading.  The Sarah Connor Chronicles lost another 400k in total viewers and just can’t seem to stop its downward spiral.  As I’ve indicated on the Cancellation Watch page, this one has almost no hope of a third season renewal.  I probably should raise the Cancellation Alert on Dollhouse, but I will give it one more week.

Tuesday night shows The Mentalist and Fringe took a break this week with Obama’s address to Congress taking up their timeslots.  And the Knight Rider finale got snubbed as NBC shifted The Biggest Loser to its Wednesday 8 PM timeslot because of the President’s speech.  That episode is now on the schedule for this coming Wednesday.

Lost took a hit this week as American Idol ran head to head with it again.  Not certain if that show was shifted there because of the presidential speech, because I thought it was not scheduled to take up residence in that slot until March.  Still the numbers weren’t too bad with Lost pulling a 4.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 9.8 million total viewers.  This is basically a preview of what we will see for Lost’s numbers as if faces off against FOX’s behemoth for the remainder of the season.

CBS’s The Eleventh Hour and The Ghost Whisperer enjoyed their usual numbers this week.  And the CW had all repeats again, but next Tuesday at 8 PM EST Reaper returns with its second season premiere.

Ratings Results:

The Timeslot Rank, and % Change from Prior Week and Lead-In columns are based on the rating in the 18-49 demographic.  The Cancellation Alert column is based on season to date performance and my assessment of how likely the network is to cancel the show.  TVbytheNumbers.com also provides their Renew/Cancel Index which tracks the likelihood of cancellation on a weekly basis.

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