Fall TV: New Shows and Ratings discussion

[Jfrosh]

"Lily? Isn't she going to have a hard time pronouncing that?"

Absolutely loved the show, but almost too good for a premier... MF and Community will remain in my DVR queueue. I'm a bit skeptical about how good Flash Forward will be, but will watch the premier tonight.

That was definitely one of the laugh out loud lines from Modern Family.

As for Flash Forward. I really enjoyed it. I think it will give me my Lost fix until the spring. Not that it is as good as lost. It seems to me that they gave a lot away in the pilot. The montage at the end of the episode really seemed to give a lot away as well. But we all know they sometimes show us things that prove to be just a diversion.

Although I don't watch it regularly, my wife does so I catch it now and again, and I thought the Grey's Anatomy season premier was very good.

[Jfrosh]

Was anybody else as disappointed with the season opener of House as I was?

I hated, hated, HATED it!

I'm as big a House fan as there is -- it's my favorite network show by a million miles, but during the two-hour premiere. I felt like I was watching an episode of Mental (if I wanted to watch Mental, which I don't, I'd watch Mental) ... or maybe One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest without Nurse Ratchet (who was, let's face it, the most interesting thing in the movie).

Oh well, at least they got him out in the end, so starting next week, we can get back to Princeton Plains and the cast we know and love.

I caught the Flash Forward premiere last night and enjoyed it enough to keep watching it. I love young Bill Shakespere as the FBI cop and Harold (from Harold and Kumar) as his sidekick. Great production values -- the opening disaster scenes could have come from a big-budget movie and enough solid story lines that I'll tune in next week to see where it goes.

Like AllenMurry, I enjoyed this episode of House. I wouldn't like an entire season in the mental hospital but it was a nice departure to get him out of his element.

You reminded me on the Flash Forward disaster scene. While it was well done, did anyone else marvel at the disaster caused by a 2 minute blackout. How many jets would fall out of the sky in two minutes. Don't most of the big ones run on auto pilot most of the trip. Wouldn't they have safety features on AF2. Seemed a little over done.

[aimo]

Was anybody else as disappointed with the season opener of House as I was?

I loved the first hour, but the second hour bugged me a bit. I loved the Hugh Laurie/Andre Braugher scenes, though the part where he called House to his father's bedside made no sense to me.

I thought the sex scene was token and stupid. Seriously, WHY is this woman hanging out in a mental hospital in the dark when no patients are around? WHY is she having a quickie with a mental patient? And the rap scene was just embarrassing.

It's going to be interesting to see what House's new addiction will be now that he's off vicodin. Another drug? Some new irritating habit? Back to vicodin? Come on, he HAS to be addicted to SOMETHING!

And I've heard rumors about a casting shakeup . . . but they could just be rumors.

[bird]

Re House: My willing suspension of disbelief got a severe workout in the premiere. On the other hand, while I really like the basic House formula, the foreshadowed character development is called for as the show ages. But House must be a jerk!

Re Flash Forward: I am uninterested in future pregnancies, personal breakups, and the whole "creepy black-dressed with three stars international conspiracy" angle. Indeed, the "will we break up" thing already has me exhausted, and it just started. However, I am pretty well read in the time-travel and precognition paradox genra, and the familiar issue of whether-the-future-is-inevitable-or-can-be-changed has me a bit hooked. I thought the end was particularly well done to set that up.

[DevilAlumna]

PS I'll suspend judgment on the whole 3-star tattoo thing. But I've got to admit the final shot -- of one grainy figure moving at Tiger stadium while everybody else was passed out -- was deliciously creepy.

My first thought was, "Detroit? Really?!"

I'm in for another couple weeks. I finally gave up on Heroes (not even going to bother watching the season premiere) and need some sci-fi-ish substitute.

And put me down as +1 for liking the House premiere. I'd like to see the Andre Braugher character more throughout the season.

[bigj4194]

i don't have a lot to contribute here, but i just watched the 1st ep of Flash Forward and i'll be tentatively adding to my list of shows to watch. im curious to see how it develops. i think it may have potential

[JasonEvans]

Not much of a surprise, but Flash Forward did big numbers on its debut night.

It pulled in 12.41 million viewers, winning the 8pm timeslot for ABC. This is the first time in years that Survivor has not won Thursday 8pm in total viewers. Survivor had a decent night (11.87 million) but Flash Forward was better.

FF also, predictably, did very well in the key 18-49 demographic. It was 2nd on the night in that demo to Grey's Anatomy. That means it beat major players like CSI, The Office, and The Mentalist in the demo. That's a big deal.

Obviously, what matters for ABC and advertisers is how FF holds up over time. Will there be a big drop off next week and the week after? TV ratings history is littered with shows that started strong and fizzled quickly. Still, it bodes well that FF gained viewers in its second half-hour, meaning folks tuned in and did not turn it off.

Also worth noting that FF did all these numbers in the 8pm timeslot, which is generally tougher on dramas. It was ABC's highest rated regular show at 8pm since January of 2008.

--Jason "I am sure they are dancing a jig over at ABC right now" Evans

[YourLandlord]

FF also, predictably, did very well in the key 18-49 demographic. It was 2nd on the night in that demo to Grey's Anatomy. That means it beat major players like CSI, The Office, and The Mentalist in the demo. That's a big deal.

Do these numbers account for people that DVR'd The Office and watched FF live?

What if 10 million people [made up huge number] DVR'd The Office, but tuned in live to FF, meaning by a week later, The Office actually won more viewers?

[hc5duke]

i don't have a lot to contribute here, but i just watched the 1st ep of FlashForward and i'll be tentatively adding to my list of shows to watch. im curious to see how it develops. i think it may have potential

Agreed (tentatively adding). Interesting plot but I was definitely underwhelmed by the script and acting - same way I felt about Dollhouse. I'll give it a couple more episodes before I decide to pull it from my dvr queueue.

So far:

• Modern Family - loved it, but will they be able to keep it up?
• Community - liked it, hoping it would get better
• FlashForward - meh

and old shows:

• Psych - awesome as usual
• Office - liked it, but jumped shark a long time ago
• Parks&Rec - meh-to-ok, I don't see this lasting another 1+ seasons
• House - wtf? definitely would consider this shark jumping

now impatiently waiting for the 30 Rock premier

[JasonEvans]

Modern Family wasn't nearly as good in episode 2 as it was in Ep 1. Still, I liked that it surprised me a little bit. The whole bike and divorcee storyline was funny. I kept on thinking I had figured out what would come next and they always added something I did not expect. I was really turned off by Ed ONeil's relationship with the step-son for a while and hated where the show was going with that relationship and then they really turned it around in a great way. It shows me that the writers are actually thinking about the storylines a bit, not just going for the obvious jokes.

And then Cougartown came on. Another pretty poor effort, IMO. I am not gonna talk about it at length, but my interest is fading fast. Lets just put it this way-- the wife and I saw a commercial for Cougartown during Modern Family and the commercial said, "Courtney Cox's funniest TV series since Friends!" We turned to each other sand said, "isn't it he first TV series since Friends?" We found that commercial to be funnier than the episode of the show.

-Jason "I'll have a ratings report on these two a little later" Evans

[JasonEvans]

I forgot to mention-- after watching episode 2 of The Good Wife, we have decided to remove that one from our DVR list. It was fine, but nothing special and we think it is just another ho-hum courtroom drama. Neither of us are big fans of Julianna Marguilles, which probably hurts our interest. The story of Chris Noth being set up or something like that is really lame so far. Are we supposed to believe that the new State's Attorney is the one leaving incriminating photoshopped pictures on her doorstep each night? Really!?!?

Anyway, we have given up. It just did not make us want to keep watching.

That said, the ratings for this show are quite strong. It won its timeslot again (no real competition, but still a win) and pulled in more than 13 million viewers making it the 3rd most watched show of the night on Tuesday, trailing only the 2 versions of NCIS and beating Dancing with the Stars.

One more quick ratings note-- on Monday, Heroes had its lowest rating ever with just 5.8 million viewers. It finished a distant 4th in the ratings and was closer to 5th place One Tree Hill than it was to 3rd place How I Met Your Mother. It got about 1/3rd of the audience of House and Dancing with the Stars. This is clearly Heroes last season, I think. The wife wants us to give up on it. I don't even know why I continue to watch. It is so bad.

--Jason "moving Big Bang Theory to 9:30 has turned it into a real ratings winner-- 13+ million viewers this week" Evans

[Udaman]

My take

1) We just watched Glee last night (had DVR'd it previously), and we started with the newest show that came on last night (yes, turned TV on right as it started and were just too lazy to go watch earlier eps). We LOVED it. Funny. Well written. Solid singing. Kristen Chenoweth was a guest star and rocked the house. This show is Freaks and Geeks meets The Office, meets Northern Exposure. We are hooked. Will go back and watch the others for certain.

2) The Good Wife. Yawn. Don't buy the storyline (no way would she be treated like that in a law office). Don't buy the reactions of people (they wouldn't have said the things they did to her when she first started). As Jason said - just another court drama. Speaking of court dramas, it is A TRAVESTY that LA Law is not out on DVD. TRAVESTY.

3) Flash Forward. If they don't forget their flashes (and soon) this show will have jumped the shark after the first episode. Again, as Jason puts it - if they don't forget, then there's absolutely no way possible that the future would occur. The FBI office would be packed. The lead guy wouldn't drink. The wife wouldn't have the affair. If they all remember things, and it still happens this would be way beyond the realm of any kind of realism. We shall see. The guy walking in Tiger Stadium was creepy. Agreed, as well, that Harold was awake through all of this. He's a bad guy somehow.

4) Modern Family. Liked the first one (haven't seen 2nd yet), though unfortunately it is too much like the Office. The "normal" dad is basically being Michael from Dunder Miflin, (though we did laugh out loud at the WTF - why the face, and at him playing basketball with his kid. But the relationship of Al Bundy and the hot latina is really bad casting - way, way, way too hard to accept.

5) CougerTown. So painful it is almost impossible to watch. A super hot 40 year old, who lives in a great house in a great neighborhood would not a) struggle to find men, b) be jealous of her neighbor, c) EVER, EVER, EVER be married to the guy she supposedly was before. Terrible casting. However, that show did contain the funniest line of any show we've seen yet, when the doorbell rang and the young guy was at the door, and her friend yelled out, "You left that at the bar, B$tch." That was clever. Unfortunately, the rest was awful. We'll watch one more episode. That is it.

Four more months until Lost.

And for those of you who have not seen Breaking Bad...take this advice. Click up on your browser and open a new tab. Go to Amazon.com or ITunes, buy Season 1 of the DVD, and watch it. I would put this up near the top of all TV shows on right now, along with Lost, Burn Notice and Big Bang. Watch this show. Breaking Bad is just great, great drama.

[A-Tex Devil]

My take

And for those of you who have not seen Breaking Bad...take this advice. Click up on your browser and open a new tab. Go to Amazon.com or ITunes, buy Season 1 of the DVD, and watch it. I would put this up near the top of all TV shows on right now, along with Lost, Burn Notice and Big Bang. Watch this show. Breaking Bad is just great, great drama.

I will follow this up by recommending Sons of Anarchy --- highly. I caught the season 2 premiere and was immediately hooked and watched all of Season 1 on iTunes in a week. It took a while to get off the ground in it's first season, but it's firing on all cylinders now. Think a cross between the Sopranos and Hamlet, then drop all that emotional baggage into the story of a Northern California biker gang. Everything about it is stellar right now. The one turn off is that it can be pretty dark, even worse than the Shield. And it has definitely tested the limits of Rated MA for Mature, even on a station like FX. Not for the kiddos.

[brevity]

Lets just put it this way-- the wife and I saw a commercial for Cougartown during Modern Family and the commercial said, "Courtney Cox's funniest TV series since Friends!" We turned to each other sand said, "isn't it he first TV series since Friends?" We found that commercial to be funnier than the episode of the show.

She did Dirt on FX (and guested on Scrubs) in between. But yeah, that ad's selling point is still kinda lame.

[JasonEvans]

Ratings news from Wednesday night--

Modern Family won the night in the key 18-49 demo and only had a 12% drop-off from last week. That is very good and is especially encouraging because last week Family had a much stronger leadin (Dancing with the Stars) than this week (new comedy The Middle, which did 8.2 million viewers, just so-so). The evidence would seem to suggest that Modern Family will be around for a while.

Cougar Town also did well. It had 9.1 million viewers and was down 18% from week one-- both numbers are worse than Modern Family, but I am sure ABC is happy. Like Modern Family, it would seem that Cougar Town is one of the early successes of the new TV season.

--Jason "for you fans of Glee, with 7.2 million viewers and a strong showing in the 18-49 demo, it seems like it will be around for a while too" Evans

[Duvall]

...it would seem that Cougar Town is one of the early successes of the new TV season.

America has failed.

[JasonEvans]

She did Dirt on FX (and guested on Scrubs) in between. But yeah, that ad's selling point is still kinda lame.

Ahhh, I forgot about Dirt. Never saw it but it supposedly sucked.

The notion that Cougar is better than Scrubs is laughable though.

--Jason "Cox seems kinda desperate in this role" Evans

[A-Tex Devil]

--Jason "Cox seems kinda desperate in this role" Evans

Isn't that the point? I mean the character admitted as much in the show last night. I kinda watched it in the background and didn't think it was all that horrible. I won't watch it regularly, if ever again, but it didn't seem that bad. The new Kelsey Grammar show --- now THAT'S bad.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I was disappointed in chapter 2 of Cougartown. I found myself wishing it would hurry up and end. Not a good sign.

I liked the two episodes of The Good Wife. And I finally watched the DVR'd Flash Forward. Loved it, and now that I know the story all y'all's posts make sense to me. Looking forward to seeing it on Friday - I'm glad they are (still) doing the encore presentation Friday night, because until TWC comes out with the 3-channel DVR, Survivor and Bones will get recorded on Thursday nights at 8. Hope it continues that way (the encore presentation). I don't want to watch it online, I want to watch it on my HD TV.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I also enjoyed the new House this week, although I certainly expected that House was the "on line" winner long before he showed his shrink the $25K check.