1 of 1- paterson1
- Member
Offline
Disaster Saturday Night For ABC
Preliminary prime time ratings for last evening look to be a mess for the US over the air networks. But especially bad for the alphabet network. Ms. Marvel is a comedy/drama that ran last year on Disney+. ABC ran the first three of six episodes last night. The best numbers for the show were in the first hour with 880,000 viewers. Under one million viewers for a major US network in prime time.
Things got worse in hour two with 630,000 people tuning in. With 250 ABC affiliates across the US, this works out to 2,520 viewers per station. Naturally large affiliates in New York, Chicago, Miami, LA, Philadelphia etc. had more than 2,520 people watching. However this means that in some smaller and medium markets, it is possible that virtually nobody was tuned in.
The strike better end fairly soon. With the exception of sports, the US OTA networks could become irrelevant to viewers and advertisers. Here are the preliminary numbers from last night. Numbers could be adjusted up or down with an update later in the week.
Courtesy of the TV Ratings Guide..
Last edited by paterson1 (August 6, 2023 1:52 pm)
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: Disaster Saturday Night For ABC
I don't disagree with your conclusion that these numbers were disastrous. But I strongly suspect there may be more here than meets the eye. Here are some other possible factors for reaching these lows.
1) Saturday Night Not So Live
Saturday has been the lowest HUT (Homes Using Television) night of the week for a long time now. Many people are out enjoying the short summer, especially on the weekend. Which is why all the networks are showing endless reruns all year long. (Hard to believe it was once the night All In The Family and Mary Tyler Moore called home.) Too soon to know what the DVR playback numbers are, which will take up to a week to determine, so the final rating could be bumped a bit. But almost certainly not enough to make much difference.
2) The Kids Are Alright
The show is aimed primarily at a teen audience, who are probably not at home to watch it (see above.) Not sure how many older adults, the primary viewers of network TV, a superhero show like this will appeal to.
3) It's New, But It's Old
This has already been online at Disney+ for a long time and I suspect those who want to see it have already done so long ago. So no incentive to tune it in again, especially with commercials and when they can watch it on demand whenever they want.
4) I Hate To Say It But...
The show centres on a very religious Muslim family, who proudly practice their religion, go to the mosque, talk about their traditions, sing Bollywod-type songs and even speak in a foreign language (Urdu) during the show. America is not the most tolerant place right now, sadly, and I can only wonder how this might affect those shrinking numbers from one episode to the next. I hope I'm wrong. But given the current state of hate-based biases and crimes down there, I'm very afraid that could be a factor.
Now the question is - do they show the final episodes from season one next Saturday? I believe they will - what else are they going to fill three whole hours with on an already lightly viewed night? But it's always a possibility they could cancel it entirely. Just last week, The CW pulled two shows they promoted fairly heavily, after they bombed so badly, it was no longer worth their while to keep them on the air after the second week.
One thing is certain - the ongoing and potentially very long writers and actors strike is not going to help OTA, which is quickly threatening to become the AM band of the TV world.
- paterson1
- Member
Offline
Re: Disaster Saturday Night For ABC
The points you made are all somewhat of a factor RA. But what is concerning beyond the ratings for all of the OTA networks is the fact that they seem to be willing to writing off certain nights during the week.
Friday and Saturday is a dead zone and has been for a while. Even Sunday beyond NFL football and 60 Minutes is also turning into another night that has dreadful ratings when football is not on the schedule. At some point will Monday or Tuesday meet the same fate?
One show that you and I argued about earlier was ABC's Generation Gap which was on last summer. You felt the show bombed last year and wouldn't be back, and questioned why CTV would produce a similar show. Generation Gap did come back this summer and has been one of the few bright lights for ABC prime time. However it is sad when a second rate game show like this one year later is one of the networks highest rated shows.
Is anyone really missing late night talk shows? I wonder if any of the hosts would be allowed to write their own monologues like Johnny Carson and David Letterman did years ago during other strikes. Even if they were allowed, I have a feeling that Jimmy, Jimmy or Stephen wouldn't do this.
- •
Thread Starter