Compelling Television: Ratings and Scheduling

What are the Canadian ratings this year? Have they been posted anywhere? From BBM: 16 Sep: 2.68M (#1) 23 Sep: 2.21M (#5) 30 Sep: 2.32M (#1) 07 Oct: 1.44M (#12) 14 Oct: not in top 30 21 Oct: 2.09M (#4) 28 Oct: 1.95M (#3) These #s are listed as "Global(total)." I'm pretty sure some Canadians are able to watch Fox; don't know how that affects the ratings. There's obviously something strange about Oct 7th & 14th, because there wasn't a new episode on Oct 7th in the US, but there was on the 14th.

October 14th was the date of the federal election! Even House has to bow to politics.

Election coverage didn't start any station till 9 pm when the polls closed. I think it's a law to avoid the west coast being influenced by the east coast results by episode: 16 Sep: 2.68M (#1) (DCE) 23 Sep: 2.21M (#5) (Not Cancer) 30 Sep: 2.32M (#1) (Adverse Effect) 07 Oct: 1.44M (#12) (repeat of Ugly) 14 Oct: not in top 30 (Birthmarks) 21 Oct: 2.09M (#4) (Lucky 13) 28 Oct: 1.95M (#3) (Joy) Strange that AE did so well since it was without Wilson or Cameron and almost without Chase or Cuddy. And why did Birthmarks do so badly? Was it an effect of following AE? Global used to run House on Tuesday and NCIS on Wednesday at 9. When Lipstick Jungle got cancelled, they moved NCIS to Friday (without telling anyone) and have been re-running House season 4 on Wednesdays. Given how badly Ugly did, it seems like a strange decision unless Friday is more important than Wednesday. I know that Thursday is the most important in terms of ad dollars. edited to correct a mistake

And why did Birthmarks do so badly? Was it an effect of following AE? My guess is that people who follow US coverage didn't realize it was on. Everyone online "knew" that "Birthmarks" was scheduled for the 14th. If it was on the 7th, Canada got to see the episode a week before the US did - but I don't remember any great outpouring of messages here, on the Fox forum, or on LiveJournal (though I don't watch any Wilson specific communities) about the episode. Was "Birthmarks" even on on the seventh, and this isn't a glitch? I know plenty of Wilson-centric Canadian viewers, and if they'd seen it early, I can't imagine that they kept that secret for a week.

My bad, Birthmarks on the 14 and the repeat of Ugly on the 7th. But how did Birthmarks not make it into the top 30? House is on at 8 and the election coverage didn't start till 9. There are only 5 or 6 channels to watch the election coverage and they would have split the 9 p.m. audience.

But how did Birthmarks not make it into the top 30? house is on at 8 and the election coverage didn't start till 9. Perhaps people just had too much on their mind to focus on a television drama. Obviously in the States we had already begun election coverage at 8, thus the lack of a new episode, but I think even if it aired and there hadn't been coverage, not as many people would have watched anyway. It was just too big a night.

Perhaps people just had too much on their mind to focus on a television drama. Probably. The week before and after there are several shows from Tuesday night in the top 30; the week of the 14th there are none. Some of them were likely preempted for election coverage, but it seems weird that *all* of them would drop out of the top 30 unless it was the election itself causing the drop. I hope that makes some kind of sense. My brain feels like it's about twice the size of my skull at the moment :)

Election coverage didn't start any station till 9 pm when the polls closed. People had election on their minds, not television dramas. Not to mention, many were voting. House didn't go from a top 5 show to not even on the radar in reaction to a specific episode. It was affected by people caring who was going to lead the country.

But how did Birthmarks not make it into the top 30? House is on at 8 and the election coverage didn't start till 9. There was definitely election coverage on at 8pm on the West Coast. I know, because I had to go home after I voted to change my VCR settings from Global to Fox. So I can only speak for BC, but my experience is that when a show is pre-empted in one time slot, it's usually pre-empted across the country (sort of like why West Coasters lose an episode even if the baseball game is over by our prime time). But even losing the BC audience might have been enough to drop it out of the top 30.

Maybe it was the BC audience because it played here at the normal time and also in Manitoba and maybe further west. BC is 3 time zones ahead. It was affected by people caring who was going to lead the country. You're not Canadian, are you? :lol: This election was the biggest dud ever. No one cared except those running (voter turnout at an all time low) and the results were the same as before the election was called, a minority Conservative government. One of our satirical shows, Royal Canadian Air Farce, did a bit on better ways to spend $365 million, one them being giving 5 Timbits for every person in Canada.

You're not Canadian, are you? This election was the biggest dud ever. No one cared except those running (voter turnout at an all time low) and the results were the same as before the election was called, a minority Conservative government. Yes, I am. :D I know what happened in the election. I know we didn't have the turnout the US election did, but nevertheless, people did care there was an election on and many were voting. Federal elections do trump television dramas, even in Canada.

I'm glad to see BC had an impact somewhere. And for the record, I too cared very deeply about our election and attended an impassioned Wrecking Ball here in Vancouver that was standing-room only (as were other events across the country, I believe). So while apathy was certainly evident in voter turn-out, it certainly wasn't universal. But I still watched House on Fox :D

From today's New York Times online No Mystery: Ratings Heat Up for ‘NCIS’ link Very interesting. Competitors privately profess some astonishment at the new popularity of the series because the improvement flies in the face of the recent formula for prime-time success: a grab-people-by-the-throat concept, lots of sex, and must-see story elements that compel viewers to watch every episode or lose the thread. But as shows like that, which tend to be serial dramas, experience a ratings slide, “NCIS” is part of a swing toward more traditional storytelling, the kind of shows that also prove to be valuable assets to their owners because they can play well over and over. “I don’t know if there’s a complete swing back to closed-end storytelling,” said David Stapf, president of Paramount Network Television, the studio that produces “NCIS.” “But those shows certainly seem to be working right now.” He added, “I think what really works is the reliability if it.” PTB, take note.

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