The first one I remember was Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

The Wonder Years was the highest profile one before that, in the 80s I think. I remember when Parker Lewis was on, I thought it was way ahead of its time, and a really fun show. It doesn't hold up well, today, but that's probably more due to the advances in television, and greatly due to fashion trends than anything else. That show is easily as dated as watching New Jack City. I always loved the opens of the show.

The Giants/Packers lead in resulted in huge numbers for Fox last night:

8 - Simpsons 15.7 (6.8)
8:30 - Napoleon Dynamite 9.5 (4.6)
9 - Family Guy 8.5 (4.4)
9:30 - Napoleon Dynamite 7.2 (3.6)

Ominous numbers for Whitney and Chelsea against American Idol last night:

Whitney-1.6 in the 18-49 demo
Chelsea-1.8 in the 18-49 demo

Both shows lost about .5 from last week's mid-season premieres. That should pretty much stick a fork in Whitney, unless there is some kind of dramatic uptick next week. Chelsea looks to be on its way out, as well, though I'd like to keep a closer look at its ratings for about 6 more weeks. The only hope these two shows probably have is getting moved to Thursday nights at 10pm, to make a full Thursday night comedy block. If Whitney continues to fail even then, that's when Community should return, in whatever slot they would put Whitney in on Thursday nights. Maybe this would happen:

8pm-30 Rock
8:30pm-Parks and Recreation
9pm-The Office
9:30pm-Up All Night
10:00pm-Whitney
10:30pm-Are You There, Chelsea?

If Whitney continues to drown, and Chelsea looks okay, then they could try:

8pm-Up All Night
8:30pm-Are You There, Chelsea?
9pm-The Office
9:30pm-Parks and Recreation
10pm-Community
10:30pm-30 Rock

The hardest part of my schedule is that they probably won't want to re-tool it twice. So, if this happens, I bet they would pick something similar to the second schedule, and just yank Whitney completely. I guess we'll see.

Rob held pretty strong in its second week, against American Idol (and its own mediocrity), with a 3.6 and 11.726 million overall viewers. Person of Interest ticked up, again, for the second week in a row, to its highest 18-49 ratings yet.

Up All Night fell again, to a 1.9 (stick a fork in this show), 30 Rock had a 1.6 (tying the worst Community, if I'm not mistaken, so stick a fork in it, as well), and everyone's favorite laughing stock, The Firm had a 0.9 (LOLLOL) with 3.408 million overall viewers. I didn't think it would be possible for any show to do worse than Prime Suspect did on Thursdays, but The Firm has really lowered the bar. Maybe that 1.5 that Grimm put up in that slot wasn't so bad, after all.

The Finder still barely topped a 2 (2.2) with an American Idol lead in (promptly dropping 11 million viewers, and 3.4 in the 18-49 demo). I don't really understand why FOX would waste a valuable primetime hour, in their small primetime schedule, with a "spinoff". I guess we won't have to worry about that happening again, anytime soon.

Come on, NBC in its current state is not cancelling 30 Rock. Its ratings say more about Community and that 8pm timeslot than it does about 30 Rock. Star power + Awards Recognition + being in business with Tina Fey will prevent the show from being cancelled. This week 30 Rock has a new episode at 8 and 9 so it will be interesting to see how it does when it's not competing with Big Bang Theory.

You're ignoring some conditions that absolutely could change the way they feel about it. First is that there are rumors that Baldwin wants out. Second it's got more than enough episodes for syndication. I just can't see the show continuing without Baldwin. Third, they are putting up more sitcoms with no space, based on your ideas of what would get renewed. They always bump this show to mid-season, and I can't imagine it's not expensive. To say that a 1.6 is okay for this kind of show is just not correct. I'm not saying that it will get canceled, but there is absolutely some cause for concern. It's either a bad sign for 30 Rock or a good sign for Community that it gets those numbers. If 30 Rock doesn't significantly beat Parks and Rec's numbers in that two part episode, that will be a pretty bad sign for it. If it remains at 1.6, that would be a lot worse.

We are all getting lost in the fact that NBC is a bad network. Sticking with apparently expensive and poorly performing critical successes is not the way to change that image. Every network has awards hounds and critically acclaimed shows that don't get ratings. It doesn't change the fact that most networks aren't willing to keep more than one of those around. Take your pick, which would you rather watch Community or 30 Rock? Community just needs one more full season to make it to syndication. Unless they want to do a full 3 hour comedy block on Thursday nights, something is going to go away, or they'll just be sticking with the crappily rated status quo.

1. Parks and Recreation has good enough ratings to get renewed, because it's cheap.
2. The Office has good enough ratings to get renewed, and recently got significantly cheaper, with the departure of Carell.
3. Up All Night is in deep crap, with its continued slide.
4. Community has roughly the same numbers as 30 Rock, in the same slot. Yes, the competition is fierce from TBBT, but those numbers for both of those shows are just plain bad. The audiences don't cross over with TBBT nearly as much as you think they do.
5. 30 Rock has a billion episodes in the can, and there are threatened major cast departures. I am making the case that NBC doesn't need it anymore. They certainly don't place it on any kind of pedestal, or act as if it's a flagship comedy show.

NBC needs to start taking chances to get back to where it once was. Their comedies are generally smart, and appeal to a niche type audience. NBC used to be the best at the comedies that were in between being smart and LCD. That kind of stuff connects with the audience. Just because most of us enjoy some of these shows does not mean NBC should stick with them, at all costs, because they're a laughingstock in the industry. If I were an exec at NBC, I would be taking huge risks, because it's not like it could get much worse.

You sure do like to spout baseless speculation with an air of authority. Baldwin has already signed on for next season. Try doing a little research before you attempt to tell people who know what they're talking about that they're wrong.

If Baldwin signed on for another season, then great, it will be back. Way to go NBC!

I just did more research on it, and it's clear, based on his own words, that the next season will most likely be the last. I was also basing what I said on what I had read of his own words back in October. I'm sorry I don't keep perfectly up to date on all 1000 TV shows on the air, and his signing was not something that has been freely floating around on the sites I do read. He did say that he thinks the 7th season might be a shortened one, whatever that may mean.

Also, upon even more research, even though Baldwin has signed on for season 7, it has not been renewed, according to Bob Greenblatt, but they obviously wanted to lock him up to give it a better chance. I refuse to believe this show is operating in a ratings vacuum.

As much as I love shows like Community and AD I can understand why they don't make it, but I'm sad to see that even 30 Rock (a show I thought was at least a minor hit) gets crushed by garbage.


I get how it might be worth it for a network to keep a struggling show with around 80 eps going so it can go into syndication. Is there any additional syndication/dvd value by pushing past say 120, or 130?

Ok so they're not gonna cancel it next week or anything like that but it's gotta be classed as 'at risk' in terms of renewal for next season.

Having said that NBC just keeps continuing to slide. Last year a 1.8 was about good enough for renewal, now we're talking about 1.5/1.6 so who knows what will happen. So many shows are on the bubble with so many unseen factors at play...

Yes, but it's very show dependent.

Whitney and Chelsea down to 1.4 last night. My guess is Bent and Community end up in that hour in February or March.

The Touch preview had a 3.9 last night which is probably about where Fox expected.

I get a bit of a kick out of how badly done the laugh track is on Chelsea.

Whitney falling in the ratings makes sense. you know because its a sucky tv show.

The ratings for Alcatraz keep falling. I'm starting to get a little concerned. I don't think it can fall much further and remain safe.

2.7 in the 18-49
8.341 million Overall Viewers

I'm kind of confused about FOX's Monday night drop, as well. CBS was in reruns, so I can't really figure out where the viewers went, at face value.

Yeah, I'd think 2.5 is an auto renewal. Anything lower it could get dicey, especially if Touch does well in the spring.

Also The Voice returns next week which won't help.

Yeah, I definitely think 2.5 is the number, as well. Remember, my rooting interest is in Terra Nova NOT coming back. If either Alcatraz or Touch fail, it leaves the door ajar.

Was there anything national going on last night, on the cable networks that could have caused the drop? There was a pretty exciting (not particularly competitive) Clippers/OKC Thunder NBA game, but I can't imagine that hurt the numbers of network TV.

Next week is gonna be an interesting week.

I thought the same thing but don't think there was anything major on cable. It was a pretty big drop with the CBS comedies still in reruns.

To be honest, I think the ratings are so weird that I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of stuff gets adjusted up in the finals. If not, it's just some kind of weird aberration I guess.

It was another brutal Thursday night for NBC, lowlighted by a 1.3 and 3.21 million viewers for 30 Rock, and a 0.8 and 2.98 million viewers for The Firm.

If The Firm isn't moved to another night by next week, I guess we have to assume NBC got paid to keep it in that slot for the entire run, or whatever would cause them to keep it there, for no apparent reason at all. Nothing in the history of network television has not been canceled practically immediately at these numbers (it will run out all 22 regardless), and I don't think any shows have even had those numbers outside of a Friday or Saturday night. All shows that had numbers like that on a Friday or Saturday night were canceled quickly.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for NBC...

0.8 must be close to an all time low rating for a new episode of a drama series. 30 Rock hit an series low 1.6 last week and dropped another 19% this week. 30 Rock will be back next year but it seems more and more likely it will be the last. The Office is going nowhere but down as well. Suddenly their flagship show is what? Whitney?

Also, NBC has spent a ****ton of money pimping Smash. With the state of his network Greenblatt must be praying every night it's a hit because if it bombs... I can't even imagine.

NBC actually did the whole Baldwin thing very hush hush, and Greenblatt made it very clear, at the time, that the series was not renewed, yet. He was quietly signed before season 6 started airing. I don't think anyone there thought the latest season would be doing this poorly. So, if it does get to come back for a 7th season, it would probably be like an 8 or 10 episode run. I personally think they would have plenty of time to wrap it up this season. It's not like they're only running 13 this year. Since they put it in the 9 o'clock hour last week, and that didn't generate any real interest (ratings crash this week, after a 1.9 in The Office slot last week), I honestly believe this show is in major trouble. Also, Baldwin pretty much said it would be a final season, next season (if it gets one).

Yeah, I think that is literally the worst non-Friday/Saturday rating for ANY drama on major network TV, possibly in the history of television, for The Firm.

It should be interesting to see how Smash does. It looks very expensive, so it will need to stick around a 2.5 I think to make it back, unless it gets like 800 EMMY nominations (which don't come out until after a decision would be made to renew it). If it debuts to a 3.0, I think it will be practically a guarantee for a renewal. It's perfectly matched with the good rated The Voice, so it has a legitimate chance of being successful. If it debuts at a 2.0 or lower, I think it will have no chance, but I don't see that happening.

I read some reports on twitter that a lot of dvrs failed to record 30 Rock last night for some reason. That may account for some of its huge drop.

Maybe NBC should just air a block of Seinfeld reruns followed by ER on Thursday nights. I bet Clooney-era ER reruns would do at least a .8.

nunnehi,

NBC's average rating for scripted shows is like 1.6 right now. There's no way anything that does a 2.0 gets canned.

Where did you read this DVR-fail news? But yeah, if it was a significant amount of DVR homes that crossed-over into the Nielsen sample (which is not that large)... yeah definitely DVR-fail could impact 30 Rock ratings.

I think it would be too shameful from NBC's perspective - but with Clooney nominated for Best Actor Oscar this year, they should totally do a Clooney-themed ER repeat week, and it would definitely (I'd guess) do a 2.0+!