One Big Happy: Steady Ratings

I am pleased to report how well One Big Happy has been doing in the ratings. A show that was once highly criticized by viewers has become loved by many. Last week’s episode had a rating of 1.1 with about 3 million viewers. Many critics are now getting on board with the show, stating that its characters become more and more likable each week, and that the storyline keeps them laughing from week to week. The ratings remained steady this week at 1.1 with 3.9 million viewers. If the show continues to do well, I am sure it will return for another season.

One Big Happy: ratings increase

My past predictions for One Big Happy were false. I thought the show was going to flop because of its worn out comedic strategies, but I was wrong. Critics were still harsh about the show last week but more and more viewers say that the show is growing on them. Last week’s rating (March 31st) was 1.2 with 3.9 million viewers. This week, the rating increased to 1.3 with 4.7 million viewers. I believe the reason for this increase is One Big Happy’s compatibility with its lead in show, Undateable. After doing some research, I was also able to find that the show ranks number one at 9:30 PM among the “Big 4” in women 18-49 and 18-34. It tied for number one in adults 25-54. The show also generated NBC’s third highest 18-49 rating in its time slot since November 18, 2014. Now that the show has grabbed the attention of a decently large audience, it needs to do what it can to keep that audience loyal. Ellen will have to continue promoting the show due to her high celebrity status and the success of her talk show. There has been no predictions for a show renewal.

One Big Happy ep. 2

As predicted, the ratings for One Big Happy have decreased from a 1.6 series premier rating to a 1.2 rating for the second episode, falling 25 percent. I did not see a lot of twitter buzz about the show, but I did see some interesting comments on different blogs. One author from afterellen.com said she actually liked the second episode of the show and stated, “I was shocked at how many commenters said they would give the show a couple more chances to knock their socks off, and if it failed, they’d just change the channel to one of 20 more shows with lesbian characters that air on Tuesday (deliberate exaggeration). It says a lot about how far we’ve come that we can afford to be picky.” Again, many viewers felt the show was trying to use the same type of humor as shows like Two and a Half Men. Some viewers said they wish OBH would write for the audience it wants rather than an audience created by other successful comedies. Promotion continued for the show this week as one of its stars, Elisha Cuthbert, appeared on The Tonight Show. One Big Happy competes with shows including iZombie, Weird Loners, The Dovekeepers, and Criminal Minds.

One Big Happy Pre & Post Season Premier

As expected, the promotion for One Big Happy dramatically increased as soon as March hit. First, executive producer Ellen DeGeneres talked about and even showed clips from the show during her talk show time. One Big Happy commercials also became more frequent as the premier date approached. Also, The Today Show’s Matt Lauer gave OBH a shout out during the eight o’clock hour. Lauer also conducted an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, asking about her roll as executive producer, and what she wanted the audience to take away from watching the show. DeGeneres said she did not want the show to focus on the lesbian co star, but rather have it just be one of the many components in the show that make it unique. DeGeneres also tweeted about the show several times before the premier.

 

After One Big Happy premiered, I looked to several websites like Rotten Tomatoes, to see what critics thought of the show, and the results were not pretty. Most websites said the show was cute but lacked original humor. Others said the show relied too heavily on the humor from past sitcoms. One critic from Rotten Tomatoes said, “Although Ellen DeGeneres is an executive producer of the show, her influence is undetectable.” Another said, “Obvious, dumb and mostly unfunny, One Big Happy is an embarrassment for all involved.” And the comments only got worse. I don’t see the show surviving for very long.

One Big Happy 3/12/15

As predicted, I was pleased to see more promotion for One Big Happy. The show’s commercial with Ellen DeGeneres is now more frequently played on NBC. After watching The Ellen DeGeneres show the other day, I was also pleasantly surprised to see her talking about the show to her audience. As the “Queen of Daytime Television” this is a smart move. Although DeGeneres is not in One Big Happy, she will bring her comedic style and its fan base to the show. Unfortunately, I have still have not seen promotion outside of this one commercial on NBC.

One Big Happy 3/5/15

Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see promotion had started for One Big Happy. In fact, not only did promotion start, but just as predicted, executive producer of the new show and talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres starred in the commercial. She brought her funny, laid back style to the commercial that I believe will bring big numbers for the premier of the One Big Happy. Other than this commercial, I have not seen any other type of promotion for the show. But when conducting research, I did see that the commercial for OBH was first aired during this past Super Bowl. Unfortunately I could only find the promotion video (posted last week) online but not the commercial.

One Big Happy

One Big Happy will premier on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 9:30 pm on NBC. Unfortunately, there has been little to no promotion of the show other than on NBC’s website. I felt it was particularly striking to learn that Ellen DeGeneres is an executive producer on the show. Perhaps the public would be more persuaded to watch if they knew this information or if Ellen promoted it on her top rated talk show. Currently, About a Boy, with a .9 rating and a share of 2, occupies the time slot that One Big Happy will be taking over in March. This is a smart move by NBC, replacing a decently rated comedy with a highly anticipated one, in hopes that OBH, once aired, will either maintain the .9 rating or even improve on it. In the spring, the show will also be competing against top network programs including Secrets & Lies on ABC, The Good Wife on CBS, and The Last Man on Earth on FOX. Although these are all dramas, it’ll be interesting to see how their viewership compares to OBH. The show’s writer, Liz Feldman of Two Broke Girls, and star of the show, Nick Zano, who also starred in Two Broke Girls, will take their fans and bring them to OBH. Hopefully there will be more promotion for the future show in the upcoming weeks.

One Big Happy Preview: http://www.nbc.com/one-big-happy?cid=SEM%7COBH%7Cmdssn2015%7Cggl%7Cna%7Cna&hcoref=SEM&WT.srch=ggl&sky=one%20big%20happy&k_clickid=7a8df81d-83bd-1ba9-7a0f-0000040bf086