Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Social Network Rankings: Grimm and Dracula Scare Up Some Chatter with Their Debuts

NBC’s two hour Friday night supernatural block kicked off this last week with ratings wins for both returning Grimm and new series Dracula (more on that at this link) and also generated a fair amount of activity on the social networks.  The former series skyrocketed to the top of the GetGlue charts for the broadcast networks for this past week and the latter landed in the fourth slot of the Top 10.  In general--as with the previous rankings--science fiction and fantasy continued to dominate the top slots of the broadcast net rankings, taking eight out of the ten places once again.  And The CW continued to perform well there with the same four entries as the previous week (Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Arrow, and The Originals).  ABC’s Once Upon A Time in Wonderland slipped out of the Top 10 in its third week as that one also continues to fall in the Nielsen ratings (more on that at this link).  On the GetGlue Cable Top 10, five slots were taken by science fiction and fantasy shows with Doctor Who popping in (even though the show is still in repeats), likely bolstered by all of the buzz surrounding the upcoming 50th anniversary.  In the Nieslen Twitter Rankings, again only The Walking Dead and American Horror Story made it into the Top 10 with the former holding steady at Number 2 and the latter slipping to Number 4.  So do these numbers impact network decision making when it comes to renewing or cancelling a show?  I discuss that in more detail at this link.


October 21-27




GetGlue Broadcast Nets




Series Network Rerun Rank Prior Rank Move -ment
Grimm NBC N 1
Up
Supernatural CW N 2 1 Down
Once Upon A Time ABC N 3 2 Down
Dracula NBC N 4
Up
Vampire Diaries CW N 5 5 Same
Agents of SHIELD ABC N 6 4 Down
Arrow CW N 7 6 Down
The Originals CW N 10 9 Down






GetGlue - Cable




Series Network Rerun Rank Prior Rank Move -ment
The Walking Dead AMC N 1 1 Same
American Horror Story FX N 2 2 Same
Doctor Who BBCA Y 6
Up
The Witches of East End LIFE N 8 6 Down
Haven Syfy N 10 9 Down






Nielsen Twitter Rankings




Series Network Rerun Rank Prior Rank Move -ment
The Walking Dead AMC N 2 2 Same
American Horror Story FX N 4 3 Down

See the full GetGlue Top 10 Charts at this link

See the full Nielsen Twitter Rankings as this link



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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Cancellation Watch Breaking News: The Walking Dead Gets a Fifth Season Renewal, and will Keep the Same Showrunner.

Coming as no surprise, AMC announced today that The Walking Dead would be returning for a fifth season next year.  That was pretty much a given seeing as the numbers for show have risen every year it has aired and it has set all sorts of ratings benchmarks.  It is currently blowing away everything non-sports related on the cable and broadcast channels and it has even beat out some sporting events of late (it topped NBC's Sunday Night Football with its latest episode).  AMC had previously announced plans for a "companion" series to The Walking Dead which will follow another group of survivors in the same zombie-pocalypse world.  And personally, I think it would be a great move to add an anthology series set in the same world as well, but that may be overkill (or over-Dead?).  No word yet on when the new series will land or how many episodes Season 5 will run.  And seeing as the comic book that the series is based on has now surpassed well over a hundred issues, there is plenty of source material for the writers to draw from for several more years. 

Zombie FiguresAlso of interest to fans of The Walking Dead, the series will keep the same showrunner going into next year.  That is comforting (especially those of us who like how Season 4 is currently tracking) seeing as both Frank Darabont and Glen Mazzara have departed during or after prior seasons.  So expect the series to maintain the same tone as the current season when it returns next Fall and also expect this one to be a force of television for at least several more years to come.


Buy The Walking Dead On Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon.com:

Cancellation Watch: NBC’s Dracula Has a Grimm Debut, Which is a Good Thing; Beauty and the Beast and Once Upon A Time in Wonderland Still in Trouble

We saw two late season bows this last week as NBC kicked off its two hour supernatural block which will run on Fridays for the next few months.  In the 9 PM EST timeslot, Grimm had its Season 3 debut which was up from where it ended last year pulling a 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 6.2 million total viewers.  That’s a good return for that show on that night and--after the expected post-premiere dip--it will likely hold steady with its numbers through the rest of the year as it coasts into a Season 4 renewal.  In the lead-out slot for the night, new series Dracula got off to a strong start as it pulled a 1.8 rating with 5.3 million total viewers and also won its timeslot among the broadcast nets.  That’s a heck of a debut for a new show bowing on Friday at 10 PM EST, but then it has some name recognition because of its title character and NBC promoted it pretty heavily.  Next week’s numbers will gauge if the premiere drew mostly curious onlookers and how many will actually stick with the show (especially considering that the critics were less than thrilled by it).  And this one has been billed as a limited-run “event” series with only ten episodes currently planned, so theoretically it will wrap up its story at that time.  But if it does keep up decent ratings (and in this timeslot, a score as low as a 1.2 to 1.3 could still count), I’m sure they will find a way to keep it going.  And the guys over at TV by the Numbers pointed out that Grimm and Dracula scored better ratings than any other NBC scripted show that did not have The Voice as a lead-in--and these are Friday shows!--so that counts as a heck of a win for the network on this night at this point.

Last Night, Sleepy Hollow was preempted by Baseball, and Beauty and the Beast again delivered another paltry 0.3 score with less than 900k total viewers.  I don’t expect this show to still be on the schedule by mid-season, but then you never know with The CW.  On Sunday night, The Walking Dead pulled a 6.8 score with 12.9 million total viewers.  That’s another drop for the show but still well above any other non-sporting broadcasts on cable or the broadcast nets this past week and it even outscored Sunday Night Football on NBC.  Over on Lifetime, The Witches of East End edged up a bit to a 0.7 rating with 1.8 million total viewers, as that one still performas well for its network.  Also on Sunday, Once Upon A Time held its own against the Game 4 of the World Series and football as it actually improved its numbers from last week by a tick to a 2.2 rating with seven million total viewers.  It was also the top non-sports program on the broadcast networks for the night, so despite its overall numbers drop from last year, it still appears safe for now.

Last Friday’s Haven continued to hover low at a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demo with 1.5 million total viewers.  That one has reached the mid-point of its fourth season and doesn’t look likely to see an upswing in its numbers over the next few weeks, so it still remains on the bubble for its network.  Also on Friday, The Neighbors was in repeats so we will have to check next week’s numbers to see if its decline will continue.

On Thursday, Once Upon A Time in Wonderland sunk yet again, pulling only a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demo with 4.4 million total viewers.  That put it at fifth place in the 8 PM EST timeslot again, behind The CW’s Vampire Diaries which enjoyed a 1.3 rating with 2.6 million total viewers.  By this point last Spring, ABC had yanked Zero Hour from the schedule after underperforming in that hour across three episodes.  No word yet on Wonderland, though, so maybe they are giving it a bit more leeway.  That show did slip out of the GetGlue Top 10 this past week, though, so its social network presence is definitely waning.  Fans should keep their eyes open for any announcements concerning the show, but should almost certainly not count on it returning for a second season. 

Here are the season to date numbers and standings through October 28th for all the shows that have bowed so far (sorted by most likely to get cancelled):


Series Network / Airs (EST) Cancel- lation Alert StD Rating StD Eps Tracking
Beauty and the Beast CW / Mon 9 PM Elevated 0.3 4 Low
Revolution NBC / Wed 8 PM Elevated 1.5 5 Down
The Neighbors ABC / Fri 8:30 PM Elevated 1.0 5 Low
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland ABC / Thu 8 PM Elevated 1.3 3 Down
Haven Syfy / Fri 9 PM Moderate 0.4 7 Low
Arrow CW / Wed 8 PM Low 1.0 3 Steady
Supernatural CW / Tue 9 PM Low 1.1 3 Steady
The Tomorrow People CW / Wed 9 PM Low 0.8 3 Down
The Originals CW / Tue 8 PM Low 1.0 4 Steady
Vampire Diaries CW / Thu 8 PM Low 1.2 4 Up
Witches of East End Life / Sun 9 PM Low 0.7 4 Up
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC / Tue 8 PM Low 3.3 5 Down
Once Upon A Time ABC / Sun 8 PM Low 2.4 5 Up
Person of Interest CBS / Tue 10 PM Low 2.2 5 Steady
Dracula NBC / Fri 10 PM Low 1.8 1 Strong
Grimm NBC / Fri 9 PM Low 1.8 1 Up
The Walking Dead AMC / Sun 9 PM Low 7.4 3 Strong
American Horror Story: Coven FX / Wed 10 PM Low 2.5 3 Down
Sleepy Hollow FOX / Mon 9 PM Renewed 3.0 5 Down

Keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for the latest numbers as well as any other ratings-related news.  You can see the current status for all this season's genre show at this link.  And for more information on the ratings numbers and how I determine the Cancellation Alert status of a show, see the Cancellation Watch FAQ.

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.



New on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com On or About October 29th:


More New and Recent Releases at This Link

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Numbers Overload: The Walking Dead Still at the Top, but Once Upon A Time Drops Out of the Broadcast Net Top 25

Once again, The Walking Dead was at the top of the Cable Top 25, and its ratings put it above everything on cable and the broadcast networks except football.  Only two genre shows made it into the broadcast net Top 25 based on ratings for the week beginning October 14th, with ABC’s Once Upon A Time dropping out for the first time this season.  CBS’ Person of Interest continues to hold its position in the Top 25 based on total viewers, though its several rungs down from the Top 5 tier it frequently found itself in last year.

Top 25 Oct 14th to 20th

Cable Networks

Total Viewers:  Live + Same Day viewing from the overnights
1. The Walking Dead (AMC) 13.9 Million (Prior Week - #1, 16.1 MM)
8. The Talking Dead (AMC) 4.6 Million (Prior Week - #12, 5.1 MM)
10. American Horror Story: Coven (FX) 4.5 Million (Prior Week - #7, 5.5 MM)

Broadcast Networks

Ratings:  18-49 demographic in Live + Same Day viewing from the overnights
15. Agents of SHIELD (ABC) 2.8 Rating (Prior Week - #12, 2.9 Rating)
18. Sleepy Hollow (FOX) 2.7 Rating (Prior Week - #16, 2.8 Rating)

Dropping Out: Once Upon A Time (ABC) (Prior Week - #25, 2.6 Rating)

Total Viewers:  Live + Same Day viewing from the overnights
10. Person of Interest (CBS) 12.7 million (Prior Week – #10, 11.7 MM)

Live+7 Day DVR Ratings:

Top 25 Ratings Increase for the Week of September 23rd to 29th
3. Agents of SHIELD: Rating Increase - 2.1, Final Rating - 5.4
4. Sleepy Hollow: Rating Increase - 2.1, Final Rating - 5.1
15. Once Upon A Time: Rating Increase - 1.2, Final Rating - 3.8

Dropping Out: Revolution



Sci Fi TV and Other Items of Interest in This Weeks Comics:

Ash & The Army Of Darkness #1
Dynamite Entertainment

Description: The battle has been fought and won. Ash battled and defeated the Deadite image of himself and save the world. Now all he wants to do is get home a have a normal life. Too bad he messed up the Book of Dead incantation. New series. New start. Will Ash ever escape the land of the Deadites? Will he ever find his girl? Will he ever remember the last part of the incantation? Now an army of unbelievable horrors rules the land and only Ash can annoy them.

By: Steve Niles, Dennis Calero, Ben Templesmith


Sandman Overture #1 (of 6)
DC Comics

Description: Twenty-five years since THE SANDMAN changed the landscape of modern comics, Neil Gaiman's legendary series is back! THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE heralds New York Times best-selling writer Neil Gaiman's return to the art form that made him famous, ably abetted by artistic luminary JH Williams III (BATWOMAN, PROMETHEA), whose lush, widescreen images provide an epic scope to The Sandman's origin story. From the birth of a galaxy to the moment that Morpheus is captured, THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE will feature cameo appearances by fan-favorite characters such as The Corinthian, Merv Pumpkinhead and, of course, the Dream King's siblings: Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny.

"People have often asked me what happened to Morpheus to make it possible for him to be captured in THE SANDMAN #1," Gaiman said. "And now they get to find out. And finding out, they get to learn secrets of the Endless that I've kept to myself for 25 years. Family secrets. And I should warn you: one of the Endless dies on page five."

The first issue of this 6-issue, bimonthly miniseries features a stunning double-page interior foldout.

By: Neil Gaiman, J. H. Williams


Samurai Jack Classics TPB Vol. 01
IDW Publishing

Description: Jack is back! The hit TV show turned hit comic book returns in this collection of classic Samurai Jack stories. Kicking off with Jack's origin story and continuing through the first of his "Action Pack" tales, see Jack's first battle with Aku as the events that propel the entire series unfold! It's sword-swinging, fist-pumping, vengeance-getting action at its best. Collects the Samurai Jack Special plus up to CN Action Pack #20.


Smallville Season 11 Special #3
DC Comics

Description: In the one-shot tale "Hollow," newly digitized Tess Mercer is faced with the ultimate question: Can she set aside her obsession with getting revenge on her brother, Lex Luthor, to become the hero Metropolis's protectors know she's destined to become?

By: Bryan Q. Miller, Beni Lobel


More of This Week's Comics at This Link  

Friday, October 25, 2013

Cancellation Watch: Does Agents of SHIELD Need Some Marvel Superheroes to Help Fend Off the Evil Supervillain Nielsen?

ABC's Agents of SHIELD slipped yet again in the ratings on Tuesday to a 2.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 7.4 million totals which now puts it a full two ratings point below where it started just over a month ago.  Its numbers where they stand are still not that bad, and could still win it a second season if it does not sink further.  But the trend we have seen in the past few seasons with broadcast network sci fi shows that start out very strong then start to drop is that the decline continues throughout the season and usually has them on the bubble or worse by the time the networks are deciding their schedules for the coming year (I will be looking at this trend in more detail in an upcoming post).  So does Agents of SHIELD need a few superheroes to come in and tackle the super-baddy that is the Nielsen ratings?  Well it sure wouldn't hurt.  The Thor sequel hits the theaters in two weeks and I was wondering if they might try to do some crossover with that one.  It would be great to get a Thor cameo appearance in the series, and a call-out to the show from the movie would be pretty awesome as well.  After that, maybe they need to start bringing in some named Marvel superheroes to re-invigorate interest in the show.  Obviously the big ones like Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, etc. are already spoken for by the movies, but Marvel has a huge stable of heroes that the series could still draw from (please not Squirrel Girl, though).  We have already seen a few super-powered characters show up, but some recognized names would be nice to help bolster those sagging ratings.  Keep an eye on the numbers for now, but this one is definitely no lock to a second season at this point.

Also on Tuesday, The CW's The Originals slipped a bit to a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demo with 2.2 million total viewers, which still keeps it at a decent level for the fifth place network.  In the next hour, Supernatural edged back up a tick to a 1.1 rating with 2.3 million total viewers as that one continues to enjoy its best numbers in several years.  Over on CBS, Person of Interest remained steady at a 2.2 rating with 13.2 million total viewers.  It seems to have found its level for this year and will probably hang around these numbers for most of the season.

On Wednesday, NBC's Revolution leveled off its decline, though it's still pretty low at a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demo with five million total viewers.  Though it had to contend with Game 1 of the World Series, so remaining steady might actually be considered a small win for the show.  Over on The CW, Arrow slipped down to a 0.9 rating with 2.9 million viewers while The Tomorrow People dropped to a 0.7 score with 1.9 million total viewers.  These possibly took a ding from the baseball game, so we will see where they stand next week.  To close out the night, FX's American Horror Story slipped down to a 2.1 rating with 3.8 million total viewers.  It may have been impacted by the game as well, but its numbers are still well above its first two seasons, so it is riding along comfortably for now.

A few other notes:  My earlier post from this week reported Monday's Beauty and the Beast numbers at a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demo with1.7 million total viewers which represented a very positive upward swing for that show that could have gotten it to a level where fifth place CW might consider keeping it around.  However, that was based on the preliminaries and there must have been a error with those numbers (no, Nielsen never makes mistakes) and the finals dropped the show back to a 0.3 rating with only about 800k total viewers.  So this one is still smack dab in the danger zone and could find itself booted from the schedule by mid-season.  Also, FOX's Almost Human from J.J. Abrams was originally scheduled to have its bow a week from this coming Monday, but that has been changed.  Instead, it will debut Sunday November 18th after football then take up its scheduled Monday 8 PM EST timeslot the next night.  The thought is to benefit it from a strong lead-in from the game which should help its premiere.  But then viewership typically drops off once the holiday season starts the following week, so you have to wonder if this is really going to help the show in the long run.  Keep an eye on this site, though, for the early numbers.

The preliminary numbers for the Thursday night shows will be available later this morning, so keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for those and other ratings-related news.  You can see the current status for all this season's genre show at this link.  And for more information on the ratings numbers and how I determine the Cancellation Alert status of a show, see the Cancellation Watch FAQ.



Why Were They Cancelled? 
The Plight of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television in the Face of the Unforgiving Nielsens and Networks

Ever wondered why your favorite science fiction and/or fantasy show disappeared from the television schedule, never to deliver anymore new episodes? The reason why, most likely, is that it was cancelled because its ratings were low. And this book looks at those many cancelled sci fi/fantasy shows as well as the Neilsen ratings and television networks that dictate their fates. Available now for only $1.99 on Kindle from Amazon.com.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Changing Tide: Did GetGlue Save Hannibal and Can the Social Network Rankings Help Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Haven and Other Shows?

So I have been tracking the Social Network Ranking this season which measure social activity on sites like Twitter and GetGlue, and the fact is that sci fi shows tend to be doing quite well there as opposed to the performance we typically see based on the old-school Nielsen ratings system.  While there are currently only three broadcast network shows in the Top 25 based on their 18-49 rating (Agents of SHIELD, Sleepy Hollow, and Once Upon A Time), the GetGlue Top 10 is dominated by the genre.  And fifth place network The CW has done particularly well there with Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Arrow, and new entry The Originals all making regular appearances so far this season.  And the fact of the matter is that genre shows performing well in these rankings really means . . . well . . . um . . . I don’t truly know at this point.  But I do believe that this new way of tracking audience engagement could become an important factor in gauging the success of a show.

Sci Fi fans regularly argue that the Nielsen ratings system--which the networks currently rely heavily upon--is inaccurate and out of date.  The most common accusations against it are that the system relies on faulty sampling and that it has not keep up with technology by monitoring delayed viewing, internet streaming, episode downloads and more.  The Nielsen Company has made some attempts to adjust to the times and claims they will start to broaden their measurements, and they are now tracking Twitter activity, but the old-school overnight ratings (the ones that do not count DVR viewing beyond Same Day or internet streaming) are still heavily driving network decisions (we have already seen multiple cancellation--though no genre shows yet--based on them this early in the season).  The new system of tracking social network activity could start to change the tide, but that will only happen if sponsors embrace them and start to look at that as a new way of marketing their products.

Currently both Nielsen and GetGlue are tracking social activity relating to television shows and both are getting considerable attention.  The former tracks activity on twitter three hours before a show airs, during the broadcast, and three hours afterwards.  The Top 10 that they currently publish each week combines broadcast network and cable airings.  The latter site is built around watching television (and movies) and it lets people “check in” and make comments and interact with other users watching the same show.  The GetGlue charts track this activity and I believe they factor in activity from other social network sites, though I’m not quite about the timing and whether it centers around the live broadcast or not (I am contacting them to get further information on how their tracking works).  GetGlue publishes two charts weekly, one for broadcast network shows and another for cable airings.

On the Nielsen rankings this season, so far Vampire Diaries made the list the first week though it dropped out after that one appearance.  Since then, the only genre entries have been The Walking Dead and American Horror Story and the former topped the chart in the week of its Season 4 premiere.  The GetGlue charts on the other hand have been dominated by sci fi / fantasy shows this season with the past two weeks having eight out of ten genre entries on the broadcast net list and four to five on the cable list.  Most interesting here is the lower rated shows like The CW entries, Syfy’s Haven, and ABC’s new Once Upon A Time in Wonderland which has fallen flat in the Nielsen ratings in its inaugural season.  Now the fact is that quite a number of these are youth-skewing shows and the younger crowd tends to be more active on the social networks.  But still, this is measuring a sizeable audience that advertisers have a desire to reach out to.

1 FREE Audiobook Credit RISK-FREE from Audible.comAnd it will take the sponsors getting more involved to make these rankings truly have an influence on network decision making.  Companies could start paying to advertise on a show’s official site (perhaps they already are) and maybe start advertising on GetGlue as well (though I don’t know how the networks would benefit from that).  Or maybe companies will pay attention to these rankings and start buying add spots for lower rated shows because they believe that represents their target audience.  But in some form, these rankings will likely have to generate income towards recouping productions costs for them to make an impact on network decision-making when it comes to the renewal or cancellation of a TV series.  Still, with that said, we may have already seen an example where these social rankings did make a difference with NBC’s psychological/horror series Hannibal from last season.  

That series had a late-season bow in April--a factor which often negatively impacts ratings--and it was scheduled in the Thursday night 10 PM EST timeslot, a rough hour for most networks, especially NBC the last few years.  The show actually started with decent numbers for its network in that particular hour (a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic based on the overnights), but it started a downward trend after a few episodes and wrapped up with a rather tepid 0.8 score from the Nielsens.  And yet Hannibal was renewed for a second season and touted by the network as a win for quality television on their schedule.

So with such a lukewarm ratings performance, how did this series manage to win its second season renewal?

Part of this could very well be the weight that the Hannibal franchise holds with its multiple feature films pulling in over a billion dollars total at the box office as well as a series of books by original author Thomas Harris.  Part of it could be that the show received accolades from critics and was hailed as an example of quality television on the Prime Time Schedule.  But then there is also the fact that the series regularly topped the GetGlue charts during its run and it had a strong presence on Twitter especially right around the time of its live airings.  It’s hard to gauge how much influence its social network presence had, but the fact is that it did no better in the ratings than the previous year’s Awake in that same timeslot and that one got the axe. 

So going into the current season, perhaps the best way to judge is to see if shows performing poorly in the ratings but well on the Social Network Rankings are given a bit more leeway.  And we could have an immediate test of that with ABC’s Once Upon A Time in Wonderland.  That series debuted poorly a couple of weeks ago with only 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic based on the overnights.  Then in its second week it dropped to a 1.2 score.  Last season, ABC’s Zero Hour also faltered in the same Thursday 8 PM EST timeslot and the network yanked it from the schedule after three weeks.  If Wonderland continues to sink, it would be reasonable to expect ABC to make a move after this week’s episode based on what they did with Zero Hour last year.  However, Wonderland has landed in the GetGlue Top 10 with both of its first two episodes, so if the network stays its hand, maybe that plays a part in their decision-making.  There are other factors, though, such as the fact that the show is close-ended and will wrap up its story after one season (with other story possibilities in the wings if it did do well in the ratings) and also the likelihood that it will just get tacked on with parent series Once Upon A Time in any syndication package.  But if Wonderland stays popular on the social networks, there's a chance that may keep it afloat as well.

Syfy’s Haven is one more that is worth keeping a close eye on this season.  That show has thus far pulled pretty tepid ratings in its fourth year (only a 0.4 in the 18-49 demo based on the overnights), and it seems reasonable to expect a cancellation based on where shows like Eureka, Sanctuary, and Alphas were when the network axed them (all but Alphas were one or two ticks higher than where Haven is now).  At best, the show can hope for a final shortened fifth season to wrap up its storylines.  However, Haven has regularly appeared in the GetGlue Cable Top 10 this season (though usually in the lower rungs), and that may help keep it alive.  I believe it is also a less expensive entry than the ones mentioned above, so that could help it as well.

But both Haven and Once Upon A Time in Wonderland could give us some early indications on whether these new Social Network Rankings could help shows that are delivering poor numbers based on the old-school Nielsen ratings system.  It may be hard to gauge for sure at this point, but I’m thinking by the end of the current season, we should have a better idea of the impact.  And perhaps those tyrannical Nieslens will finally be toppled as many sci fi fans have long hoped for and they will be replaced by a system that more accurately gauges the viewership and popularity of a show.


Sci Fi Trifles
Useless but essential pop culture tidbits and trivia from the worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

Did you know that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski wrote a proposal for a Star Trek reboot years before the J.J. Abrams movies came out? Did you know that Han Solo was originally supposed to be a green-skinned alien and some of the early actors considered for the role included Billy Dee Williams, Al Pacino, and Chevy Chase? How about that FOX originally wanted someone more like Pamela Anderson to play the roll of Scully on The X-Files? Or that in 1974, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke predicted the Internet? Ever hear of Varney the Vampire?

Find out the truths about these and more in Sci Fi Trifles.  Trivia, anecdotes, little known nuggets and more that present an addicting glimpse into the story behind the story of sci fi. Once you've started reading them you will wonder how you have managed to life so long without knowing them!

Available now for only $2.99 on Kindle from Amazon.com. 

Buy a New Kindle Reader for as Low as $69

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Social Network Rankings: Supernatural and Other Genre Shows Continue to Dominate GetGlue Charts

Once again, genre shows are dominating GetGlue's Top 10 charts which track social activity related to programs currently on the air.  Supernatural took the top spot for broadcast network shows and three other series from fifth place CW also made the Top 10: Vampire Diaries, The Originals, and Arrow.  ABC's Once Upon A Time in Wonderland made the list for a second week in row despite its poor ratings based on the Nielsen numbers.  I discuss whether that may help the show in a bit more detail at this link.  Of course The Walking Dead continues to reign atop GetGlue's Cable Top 10 with American Horror Story just behind it.  And low rated Syfy entry Haven creeped back into the lower rungs of the list which may give it a slightly better chance of winning at least one more season.  For the Nielsen Twitter Ratings, only The Walking Dead and American Horror Story made it into the Top 10 among genre shows, and for both of those it is their second week in a row on the list.


October 14-20




GetGlue Broadcast Nets




Series Network Rerun Rank Prior Rank Move -ment
Supernatural CW N 1 2 Up
Once Upon A Time ABC N 2 1 Down
Sleepy Hollow FOX N 3 4 Up
Agents of SHIELD ABC N 4 7 Up
Vampire Diaries CW N 5 8 Up
Arrow CW N 6 9 Up
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland ABC N 8 6 Down
The Originals CW N 9 5 Down






GetGlue - Cable




Series Network Rerun Rank Prior Rank Move -ment
The Walkind Dead AMC N 1 1 Same
American Horror Story FX N 2 2 Same
The Witches of East End LIFE N 6 5 Down
Haven Syfy N 9
Up
Orphan Black BBCA Y 10 9 Down






Nielsen Twitter Rankings




Series Network Rerun Rank Prior Rank Move -ment
The Walking Dead AMC N 2 1 Down
American Horror Story FX N 3 3 Same

See the full GetGlue Top 10 Charts at this link

See the full Nielsen Twitter Rankings as this link




1 FREE Audiobook RISK-FREE from Audible

Sci Fi / Fantasy TV in Comics: Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Samurai Jack, and More

Science Fiction and Fantasy TV in Comics Due Out on or about October 23rd:

Game Of Thrones #17
Dynamite Entertainment

Description: News of Eddard Stark's arrest for treason has spread to Castle Black, where Jon Snow, now a member of the Night's Watch, finds that the onus of bastardy is nothing compared to being the son of an accused traitor. But that is the least of his problems. For the frozen corpses of two rangers, brought back for examination, prove lively enough to commit murder. Meanwhile, in Winterfell, Robb Stark calls his bannermen and marches south . . . though the wildling woman Osha argues that the real fight lies to the north, against the mysterious Others. But with Eddard and Sansa held hostage, Robb knows that only victory on the battlefield can save them. And so, together with his mother, Lady Catelyn, Robb prepares an audacious roll of the dice.

By: George R. R. Martin, Tommy Patterson, Mike S. Miller


Star Trek Ongoing #26
IDW Publishing

Description: The conflict between the Klingon and Romulan Empires erupts, with Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise trapped in the middle! Don't miss the newest chapter of the ongoing series overseen by Star Trek Into Darkness writer/producer Roberto Orci!

By: Mike Johnson, Erfan Fajar


Samurai Jack #1
IDW Publishing

Description: Cartoon Network's hit animated series is back at IDW!

The legendary samurai known only as "Jack" is stranded in a strange future ruled by the demonic wizard, Aku. His quest to return back to the past has tested him many times, but now the stakes are higher than ever. Can an ancient relic known as the Rope of Eons finally take him home?

Writer Jim Zub (Skullkickers, Street Fighter) and artist Andy Suriano (Character Designer on the original Samurai Jack TV series) begin a new era of samurai adventure!

By: Jim Zub, Andy Suriano


Arrow #12
DC

Description: FINAL ISSUE!

After the shocking events of the season one finale, Oliver reflects on the regrets of his past . . . and his course of action for the future.

Plus, when a pilot gets in deep with the wrong kind of people, the Starling City vigilante becomes an unlikely ally in the fight to save his family.

By: Marc Guggenheim, Vic Drujiniu


Star Trek The Next Generation Doctor Who Assimilation Complete HC
IDW Publishing

Description: Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise have joined forces with the Doctor and his companions to combat an unholy alliance between the Federation's most terrifying enemy and one of the Doctor's greatest antagonists. But once the Cybermen turn on their Borg allies, the Doctor and Picard find themselves at odds over how to proceed against the threat, with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance!

By: David Tipton, J. K. Woodward, Sharp Brothers


Futurama Comics #69
Bongo Comics

Description: After too many years of running MomCorp without a soul, it's finally Mom's heart that is beginning to fail. But what is a multi-millionaire magnate supposed to do when her cryogenically frozen, designated organ donor is defrosted and delivering packages across the galaxy as part of the Planet Express crew?

By: Eric Rogers, James Lloyd, Jason Ho


More of This Week's Comics at This Link  

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Cancellation Watch: Can GetGlue Save Once Upon A Time in Wonderland? Plus, The Walking Dead is Still Devouring the Nielsens

Before the season began, I predicted that ABC’s Once Upon A Time in Wonderland would struggle in the Thursday 8 PM EST timeslot, and that’s exactly what we have seen with the freshman series through its first two episodes.  This past Thursday’s airing slipped to only a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demo with a mere 4.5 million total viewers and it ranked fifth place--behind The CW's Vampire Diaries--in its timeslot.  Last February, mid-season replacement series Zero Hour quickly disappeared from that hour (after Last Resort sunk there earlier in the season), getting pulled after only three episodes aired.  That show started with a 1.4 rating, followed by a 1.1 score and then a 1.0 before ABC yanked it.  Wonderland started a little bit better with a 1.7 rating, but sunk considerably this past week to a 1.2.  If that trend continues, it would seem reasonable to expect ABC to kick the show from the schedule after this week.  However, Wonderland has one thing going in its favor and that is social media.  The series landed at Number 6 in the GetGlue charts with its premiere episode and still remained in the Top 10 this past week at Number 8 (I’ll post the full numbers for last week’s genre shows in a couple of days).  The GetGlue charts track activity from their site based on people “checking in” with the shows and I believe it also tracks other social media activity relating to the shows as well.  This is a relatively new tracking system, though, so it’s hard to gauge how much impact it will have.  The Nielsen Company has also started tracking social media activity this year, focusing on Twitter activity related to a show immediately before, during, and after it airs live.  Wonderland didn’t make it into the Top 10 Nielsen rankings, but two weeks in a row on GetGlue is still notable.  If ABC doesn’t yank the show if it sinks again this coming Thursday, then perhaps that additional factor could be helping to keep it afloat.  It’s also possible they could move this one to Sundays at 10 PM where the network’s not doing very well with new series Betrayal, and let it air out in that slot.  Wonderland was designed as a close-ended series that will wrap up at the end of its first season (with additional story possibilities in the can if it did do well in the ratings), and it will almost certainly just get tacked on to the parent series in any syndication package.  So ABC stands to make money on it anyway.  But with its sinking ratings, it remains to be seen if they will air out its episodes in the season or kick it to a Summer burn-off run like they did with Zero Hour.

On Sunday, AMC’s The Walking Dead had a huge ratings drop of over a full point, going from last week’s 8.2 score all the way to a 7.1 with right at 14 million total viewers . . . which only means that show is descending slightly from the stratosphere.  It was unreasonable to expect that it would stay at the same levels as its Season 4 premiere (which was the most watched non-sports airing on cable ever) and it’s still far above anything that cable or the broadcast nets have on the air that doesn’t involve some sort of ball getting tossed around.  Expect this one to level off somewhere between a 6 and 7 score in the coming weeks then shoot back up for its mid-season finale.

On Monday, FOX’s Sleepy Hollow was a repeat (already?) which seemed to be a big help to The CW’s Beauty and the Beast as that one doubled its rating to a 0.6 score with 1.7 million total viewers (the CBS comedies in that hour were in repeats as well).  Those are the best numbers for that show since April of last year.  However, those are based on the preliminaries so they could still be adjusted down.  And it will be interesting to see how that one performs when it has to compete with new episodes on the other nets next week.  If it can stay above a 0.5 score, though, it might have a chance of surviving on the fifth place network.  On Sunday over on ABC, Once Upon A Time continues to slip in the ratings, this time to a 2.1 score (based on the final numbers) with just over seven million total viewers.  Still, it was the top rated scripted show on the broadcast networks (and actually topped all non-sports programming except 60 Minutes), so it’s doing relatively well on a night when the old-school channels continue to lose the battle to cable.  Plus, Once Upon A Time continues to do well in social network tracking as it was the Number 2 broadcast net show in the GetGlue Top 10.  Over on Lifetime, The Witches of East End slipped a couple of ticks to a 0.6 rating with 1.7 million total viewers.  Still, those are decent enough numbers for that network. 

On Friday, The Neighbors improved slightly to a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demo and 4.3 million total viewers, but that doesn’t help its prospects much as it will almost certainly not remain on the schedule past mid-season.  Over on Syfy, Haven continues to track low at a 0.4 rating with 1.5 million total viewers.  Likely the best that show can hope for at this point is a shortened fifth season renewal to wrap up its storylines similar to what the network is doing with Warehouse 13.  On Thursday, Vampire Diaries had its best outing of the season with a 1.3 rating (based on the final numbers) and 2.9 million total viewers (beating out Once Upon A Time in Wonderland in that timeslot).  That network is seeing its numbers edge up and is having a relatively strong beginning of the season.  

Here are the season to date numbers and standings through October 21st for all the shows that have bowed so far (sorted by most likely to get cancelled):


Series Network / Airs (EST) Cancel- lation Alert StD Rating StD Eps Tracking
Beauty and the Beast CW / Mon 9 PM Elevated 0.4 3 Up
Revolution NBC / Wed 8 PM Elevated 1.6 4 Down
The Neighbors ABC / Fri 8:30 PM Elevated 1.0 5 Low
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland ABC / Thu 8 PM Elevated 1.5 2 Down
Haven Syfy / Fri 9 PM Moderate 0.4 6 Low
Arrow CW / Wed 8 PM Low 1.0 2 Up
Supernatural CW / Tue 9 PM Low 1.1 2 Decent
The Tomorrow People CW / Wed 9 PM Low 0.9 2 Down
The Originals CW / Tue 8 PM Low 1.0 3 Up
Vampire Diaries CW / Thu 8 PM Low 1.2 3 Up
Witches of East End Life / Sun 9 PM Low 0.7 3 Down
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC / Tue 8 PM Low 3.4 4 Down
Once Upon A Time ABC / Sun 8 PM Low 2.4 4 Down
Person of Interest CBS / Tue 10 PM Low 2.2 4 Up
The Walking Dead AMC / Sun 9 PM Low 7.7 2 Down
American Horror Story: Coven FX / Wed 10 PM Low 2.8 2 Down
Sleepy Hollow FOX / Mon 9 PM Renewed 3.0 5 Down

Grimm and Dracula will have their bows on NBC on Friday, and there are still two more shows with Fall premieres after that (see the full schedule at this link).  And keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for the quickest ratings updates and on this site for the latest analysis of how this season's shows are performing.

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.



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