The Muppets Post #12 – Jamie Zaslav

The Muppets came back after missing last week and had their worst week yet, earning a 1.1 rating share in adults 18-49. This was a season low for The Muppets and is a bit concerning, however, since they are rebooting after next weeks ‘finale’ of sorts. They are calling it their ‘Winter Finale’.

The Muppets did not air during Thanksgiving week on ABC in lieu of the classic holiday special, ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’. The Thanksgiving special did very well though, doing the best in it’s 8pm time-slot, beating The Voice and NCIS. They earned a 2.2 rating share in adults 18-49. That rating beats the all the ratings The Muppets have received in the last seven weeks.

I wonder if they are going to try to make a push to get better ratings on the last episode, or continue to slide. I am also curious about how they will change-up the show when it comes back in the spring.

You can find the most recent episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/09-going-going-gonzo

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Grandfathered Post #12

In recent Grandfathered news, the show announced a new guest starring role with Drake Bell. For fans of the Nickelodeon show, Drake and Josh, the duo of Josh Peck and Drake Bell has been around since the early 2000s. This addition of the guest star will helpfully draw younger viewers from the millennial generation into the show and hopefully captivate them with the humor in the dialogue.

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If you take a closer look at Fox’s website for the show there are quite a few interesting components. First, all of the episodes from the season are available for streaming. This feature allows for viewers to catch-up if they missed an episode, but also encourages the development of new viewers because they can start the show from the beginning. Another interactive feature on the website is the prominence of the #BeYourFoxYSelf. This feature allows viewers to upload their own photos and put their faces next to John Stamos. These “new” photos are on display on the website to create an interactive platform. Another interest component of the website is it’s alliance with a website called Instacart. The main chef in the show is the “owner” of the account and places the ingredients in a virtual cart to fans can see what he cooks and make it on their own. Also, there is a promotional offer in which if you use the promo code GRANDFATHERED you can receive five dollars off your next order.

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Minority Report- Post #12 People’s Choice Award

This coming Monday is going to be Minority Report’s final episode. The season and series will be over. None of the over-the-top(OTT) subscription sites have picked it up to continue and as far as I know none of the international networks have picked it up either. This past week the ratings dropped as well. The ratings dropped to .54 and 1.52 million viewers. According to some sites, this might be because it was a holiday week and people were traveling and not as focused on their weekly television schedules, causing fewer viewers to tune in this week. Minority Report also did not follow the tradition of having a Holiday themed episode. Most series write an episode either around Thanksgiving or Christmas/ New Years, or both. Minority Report did not take part in this and it does not look like that will be the case for the finale next week either. There was no advertising for a holiday special and there was very little commercial time for the series finale either.

Before the pilot premier and throughout the series the show never really had very much publicity. I noticed that I was always seeing commercials for Fox’s other shows as opposed to Minority Report. They have however started to sell commercial time for the episodes that are shown online on Fox.com. I am not sure if this is the case for the show when it airs during its prime time slot on Monday nights though.

The most shocking part about this whole season is that even though it is most likely over after this season, the fans that watched really support it. The show was nominated for a people’s choice award. This isn’t a huge award show but it still means that it has fans that voted for it.

This season has left me with multiple unanswered questions. First, will this effect Spielberg’s reputation at all because he put his name on it as the executive producer and played a huge role in the beginning phase of the show? Will this people’s choice award nomination increase awareness and start talks for possible deals to keep the show going through other OTT and VOD subscription sites? Most importantly, how will it end?! Will the Precogs end up back in the milk bath and if so will they stay there? I am finally hooked to this show as is sadly comes to and end, but I will just have to wait and see.

The Grinder: Post #12

Although the numbers appeared steady, The Grinder’s ratings were at an all time season low after last night’s episode. The series viewership numbers have seen a  consistent decrease since October 20th from 2.864 M viewers to 2.249 M viewers as of last night, November 24th.

Despite the dismal numbers, The Grinder Screen Shot 2015-11-26 at 12.10.46 AMis not the only series to notice surprisingly low numbers last night. One of television’s highest rated series and a main competitor among other shows, Dancing With the Stars finale episode’s numbers dropped since last fall’s finale. As stated in today’s TvByTheNumber’s article, “the show drew a 2.4 rating in A18-49, a 0.6 drop from last year’s 3.0.” Both NBC’s The Voice and CBS’ Limitless hit season lows as well. The Grinder’s lead-in, Grandfathered dropped 11% in ratings. As this is a busy holiday week with many travel arrangements, the lull in numbers is presumably attributed to this fact. I would not be                                                                              surprised to find a boost in numbers after                                                                           L+3 ratings roll in.

 

 

Scream Queens – Post #12

With just three episodes left of the first season, it surprisingly remains unknown whether or not Scream Queens will continue on to a second season. In a recent post by Tvbythenumbers, the comedic-horror show received three straight-faced faces  ( 😐 ). These three images, according to TvBytheNumbers, symbolize how they are in a toss-up between the show’s ultimate renewal and cancellation. Viewers question if the decision will be known by the first season’s finale in three weeks.

On an upside, last night’s episode is receiving great reviews by critics, and may just be the best episode for realistic character interactions. Since the episode was focused around Thanksgiving and family, multiple guest stars made their debuts; Rachele Smith, Faith Prince, Alan Thicke, Chad Michael

SCREAM QUEENS: Top Row L-R: Guest stars Rachele Brooke Smith and Chad Michael Murray, series star Glen Powell and guest star Patrick Schwarzenegger. Bottom Row L-R: Guest stars Julia Duffy and Alan Thicke in the "Thanksgiving" episode of SCREAM QUEENS airing Tuesday, Nov. 24 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2015 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Cook Allender/FOX.

SCREAM QUEENS: Top Row L-R: Guest stars Rachele Brooke Smith and Chad Michael Murray, series star Glen Powell and guest star Patrick Schwarzenegger. Bottom Row L-R: Guest stars Julia Duffy and Alan Thicke in the “Thanksgiving” episode of SCREAM QUEENS airing Tuesday, Nov. 24 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2015 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Cook Allender/FOX.

Murray, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Julia Duffy and Garry Grubbs. Unfortunately, even with such positive praise, the episode went on to receive its lowest rating yet – 0.8. Scream Queens wasn’t the only show with a disappointing rating; the finale of Dancing with the Stars dropped in ratings from last season. Perhaps it’s the holiday week that threw a lot of people off, but viewership continues to be much different than it was a year ago.

Week 12 Best Time Ever with NPH

As the show has come to an end and NBC is still being very silent about whether they will cancel or renew Best Time Ever with NP, the official show’s website is still going strong. NBC is allowing anyone and everyone with internet access the ability to stream all the full episodes for free and catch up with what the missed on this first season, while also promoting their NBC app that is featured on Roku, Xbox and AppleTV as well on the main site of Best Time Ever. If you scroll further down, NBC features photo galleries from people to view depending on who hosted each show as a wing man to NPH and his side-kick beauty Nicole. The website itself if very basic and straightforward, only highlighting the About the Show, the Episodes, Photos and the Video clips. Each episode is entitled after the Guest star co-host who came, which seems a bit odd to me, as their part wasnt that great. Nevertheless, when you click on episodes it allows the drop down to click on Season 1, as if NBC is ready to add a Season 2 drop down any moment, once they give the go-ahead. NPH I am sure is shaking in his boots dying to know the answer to his own fate and his show.

“Rosewood” Post #12

This past Wednesday, Fox’s “Rosewood” enjoyed a boost in demo and a .1 increase in ratings. “Rosewood” boasted a 1.5, 4.723 million this week versus 1.4, 5.167 million last week. This year Fox has moved up amongst it’s network competitors by moving up to the number 3 spot in viewership amongst major networks. Many critics are calling this increase in Fox viewership the “Empire-effect,” which is the powerhouse series that follows “Rosewood” and plays a role in “Rosewood”‘s success. “Empire” has maintained a steady and strong following.

Going along with the theme of pulling reality stars and celebrities such as Taye Diggs, “Rosewood” has now tapped celebrity Tia Mowry as a reoccurring role. Mowry will play Rosewood’s sister’s childhood friend that comes from a troubled past. Mowry has recently starred in Nick at Nite’s hit “Instant Mom”. Mowry’s character will play the role of bringing up past memories of each major character, and thus driving the character development even further.

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The Muppets Post # 11 – Jamie Zaslav

In their eighth week, The Muppets continued their ratings dip by matching their ratings of last week, scoring a 1.2 ratings share for adults 18-49. They are still on the decline after being steady at a 1.4 rating for a couple weeks. They are two weeks away from taking a winter break before their ‘reboot’ in the spring, so the ratings falling is as expected, but I am interested to see how the show does in it’s last week for its ‘finale’.

In this weeks episode, entitled “Too Hot To Handler”, Scooter takes Chelsea Handler on a date and Kermit investigates Fozzie’s girlfriend. Both muppets are dorky and tend to fail when it comes to their love interests, so it is nice to see them succeeding for once. Scooter is beginning a new relationship while Fozzie is about to take the next step in his. The episode was received very positively online despite the ratings going down.

You can find the most recent episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/08-too-hot-to-handler

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Heroes Reborn Post #11

As the fall season is nearing the end and shows are fighting to stay on air, Heroes Reborn is slowly but steadily chugging along. This week marked the 9th episode of the mini-series.    Though the storyline has been picking up speed over the past few weeks, the ratings have not reflected the hype. This week the show received a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and scored 3.78 million viewers. This is down from a 1.3 rating last week, which marked a season high.  However, it is likely that this number will jump up in this week’s live+ 7 day numbers. Last week, Heroes Reborn increased by an epic 90% going from a 1.0 to a 1.9. This increase is likely due to fans who intend on watching the show but don’t want to give up watching Thursday Night Football live in CBS. NBC may be keeping quiet about a possible second season due to delayed ratings stalling any decision making; a trend we’ve been seeing a lot of lately in the TV industry.

The Grinder: Post #11

In case you missed it, I have included a quick rundown of last night’s episode, “Buckingham Malice”: Stewart confronts Dean again about giving up his life as a celebrity if he wants to be considered a normal guy by others. Finding themselves in an odd predicament, the brothers both come to realize that Dean’s fame might actually come in handy and resolve their problem. Stewart’s wife Debbie hires a new assistant, yet finds her useless.

Now a look at our numbers taken from TV Series Finale. With an 11% increase in demo, but a 7.6% decrease in viewership (from 2.562 to 2.376), the results, neither good nor bad, exhibit the numbers finally settling, allowing executives to foreshadow the show’s future.

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Screen Shot 2015-11-18 at 1.59.32 PM Tweets – November 13, 2015

In recent news, our co-lead Rob Lowe received heat after tweeting two insensitive remarks following the terrorist attacks on Paris as disclosed in a recent TV Guide articleScreen Shot 2015-11-18 at 1.59.18 PM

 

 

 

 

The poor timing and content of Lowe’s tweet’s certainly do not put him in the best lighting, especially while The Grinder airs its 1st season. Lowe’s own twitter follower, a Parisian man, Patrick Strudwick, responded with strong words.

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Will these tweets have negative effects on the numbers? Stay tuned next week to find out.