Maybe I wouldn't be so jaded if it weren't for Laura Innes, who played the leader of the aliens in The Event delivering our now conspiracy laden backstory.

I'm not saying the show's not enjoyable, but it has now given itself a huge uphill climb to not pay this off stupidly, in addition to being a difficult watch for the casual viewer. I'm thinking the Pilot of The Twilight Zone is about as good as we can hope for right now (dudes pressing buttons to see how an astronaut can cope with being in space for a long period of time, by himself).

There are actually a few other interesting ratings notes to point out.

1. P&R had a 1.9, which is its highest in weeks (no Rob only explanation).
2. 30 Rock still at a 1.4.
3. Up All Night at a 1.7 (will probably get renewed if it stays here, even though it shouldn't).
4. Person of Interest approaching 16 million overall viewers.
5. The Finder at a 2.3, and about to move to Fridays, where it should be able to maintain at least a 1.5.
6. The Office at a 2.6, its highest ratings in awhile.

I'm looking forward to seeing if most of this gets adjusted down.

Hey, in 1959 that was cutting edge.

It sure was, but this is 2012, and I've had just about enough of it.

Oh, how long until the TV landscape is littered with clones of Person of Interest? And how much better off will TV be for that? I predict much better off, yes I do.

One last thing about Awake, it lost 2 million viewers from episode 1 to episode 2 outside the 18-49 demo. That's brutal.

Daylight savings time hurt pretty much everything last night except GCB which rose in it's 2nd week to 2.3. Pretty strange.

Ugly numbers for everyone else - Once Upon a Time (2.8), Harry's Law (1.1), Bob's Burgers (1.9), Good Wife (1.7).

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...steady/124001/

There is a larger horror in play for Harry's Law. Last night, it had 8.872 million overall viewers, which means it has the most viewers of any scripted show on NBC, by a significant margin. It's not the viewers that count, but that same phenomenon allowed Harry's Law, with a 1.2 demo, to get picked up last season. If it hits 10 million viewers, that is really going to put NBC in between a rock and a hard place. It would be even funnier if it ends up dropping below or at a 1.0 while doing this.

GCB likely greatly benefited from a replay during the week. I'm pretty confident that show is getting renewed, as it's pretty unreal that a show like that doesn't have a huge drop from episode 1 to episode 2. The fact that it rose tells us that it has found an audience. It should stay above or at a 2.2 the entire run, and based on what happened to Pan Am, you can't say it was the slot. Couple that with Desperate Housewives leaving, and this looks to be the replacement. If the show had a massive drop off in quality from the Pilot to the second episode, maybe there will be a delayed reaction fall. Next week's going to tell us whether it has an audience retention on par with Revenge. If it does, it's getting renewed, even if just for a mid-season replacement.

Alcatraz had a 1.6 last night. I know it was up against The Bachelor finale, which probably stole a TON of its audience (NOT), but that was a disaster. I can no longer see any scenario where this show could come back, not even Fridays...

I think the only situation where Alcatraz could come back is like Breaking In. i.e. someone involved with it (i.e. Abrams) has another hot project that Fox wants. This is obviously super super unlikely, but then so is what happened with Breaking In.

I was hoping the Fringe angle could get it another 13 on Fridays, but now I think you should be worried about Fringe, as well (this is the only thing keeping Abrams here, right now, he has another Pilot for NBC, which I'm willing to say will definitely go to series). I'm hoping this was an anomaly (The Bachelor finale effing things up) in the ratings, but I think this is about as bleak as a show can look on FOX.

All the Nielsen households need to do is watch it live vs. DVR for the last two episodes or whatever it is, and it could literally be back. Just a 2.2 is all it would need, in my opinion. It didn't work last year for Human Target and Lie To Me, though, so I don't think it will work here, either. It's getting a 3.1 when adjusted for L+7, so it definitely has viewers, just not many live.

For some reason (?) Alcatraz didn't record on my DvR yesterday? Watching it now on on-demand. Hate FOX on on-demand because you can't zap commercials! But there was no DvR conflict so I am wondering if it was pre-empted in certain markets? I'm in Chicago.

There was no mention of pre-emptions anywhere, so I'm not sure what happened there. That episode was the one that was originally pre-empted for that Nascar race, and it was aired out of order. Good thing they never pay anything off on the show, so you never would have known if you hadn't watched the promo.

Count me as a +infinity to FOX's s****y On Demand.

Fashion Star debuted to a 1.6 from 9:30-11 last night. Good news for NBC's 10pm dramas.

So happy their blatant LCD audience pandering didn't work out.

Also, just noticed Body of Proof beat its lead in, The River...LOL.

Whitney hit a 1.4 last night, and Chelsea hit the death knell of a 1.0 (first week in awhile where they have been against all originals). Good thing these only have 3 episodes left, and won't have to be pulled.

BOOM. Chelsea dead, hopefully Whitney will follow (I don't think its current numbers=lock cancellation)

I'm a little pessimistic about what numbers Community is gonna come back to (I'm gonna guess 1.4) and I'm hoping syndication is what will get it that 4th season.

Community WILL come back, and Whitney WILL go away. Does that make me a hero?

Ratings last night:

Community 2.2
Missing 2.0
30 Rock 2.0
The Office 2.3
Up All Night 1.7
Awake 1.6

Those Community numbers are crazy.

Dan Harmon -

There's definite cause for excitement there, but it should probably be tempered by the fact that the normal Thursday night lineup wasn't there, and that NCAA Basketball absolutely destroyed CBS...lol. The 30 Rock numbers are much crazier than Community, though. Imagine if Community ends up saving 30 Rock. That would be really interesting. Awake, for at least one more week, has managed to stabilize on the bubble. I'm still leaning towards it being canceled, but it's really close. The Touch repeat of the Pilot was also way down, getting essentially the same numbers as The Finder's recently been getting. I think this week's numbers are a pretty big aberration, and I wonder if they could end up affecting how CBS uses the NCAA Tournament in Primetime, with their broadcast partners, next year. They gotta hate pulling a 1.7 in a slot that gets a 5.0+ almost every week.

so is missings rating good or bad for opener? it was better than awakes opener right?

Awake's best case scenario is if it stabilizes at 1.6 and then gets a bump to 1.7 or 1.8 when Parks and Rec moves to 9:30.

It seemed like NBC was trying to save Up All Night by moving it to 9:30 but their ratings the last 2 months have been awful.

Same as Awake's but it was an 8pm show and not on NBC. Pretty bad news.

R Webb, Missing skewed really old, almost like a CBS show without the 18-49 Demo. I'm not calling it dead, because it started better than a lot of the old skewing shows on ABC have. However, it's not up against its real competition, yet, and that's what makes me agree with Rendle's thinking that it's bad news. It's going to get killed in that slot (in the 18-49), when the CBS comedies come back.

I also agree about Awake's potential, and that NBC was trying to save Up All Night (future Lorne work, I'm guessing). I read everywhere that Up All Night is likely to be renewed, but they gave it the best lead in on NBC for scripted TV, and it still has crap ratings (I want it canceled, but who am I?). I doubt Parks will have much less ratings than The Office in that slot, when it comes back. It should certainly beat Up All Night's atrocious ratings. I think it's best to wait on Awake until The Mentalist comes back, since there is probably some sort of audience share, there.

The fact that the Tourney is now spread amongst 4 channels is probably not helping with those numbers either. I watched tourney coverage all night but not once had it on CBS.

I switched over to the OKC Thunder game at some point, but I seem to remember CBS having a bad game. The ratings will probably be a lot better next week for CBS.