The hemorrhaging continues…
The Nielsen overnights for week four of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip tell the tale: 6.8/11 (compared to 7.2/11) and 8.76 million viewers (down from last week's 9.05mil). The one sliver of good news is a .3 increase in adults 18-49, to 3.8/ 9.
There are rumors afoot that NBC will replace it midseason with Battlestar Galactica.
Newsflash: Studio 60 still sucks
Not that I want to beat a slowly-dying horse, but NBC's Studio 60 continues its streak of suckage. In the bizarro world of Aaron Sorkin, where a fifth network exists with apparently only one show -- exactly like Saturday Night Live, but even less funny-- the public's sense of humor is shall we say, not too well developed. See, the premise of the latest episode ("The West Coast Delay") is that there's this supposed fresh material, so good it gets "The Room" of 16 comedy writers to crack up, and makes it on the air. Only problem is it's hacked. (That's comedyspeak for plagiarized.)
Here's the complete "bit":
At schools today all the kids are diagnosed with stuff like dyslexia, hyperlexia, ADD, ADHD... in my day you were just stupid. What's wrong with my son? Oh him, he's just stupid. Next!
America's the most overweight nation in the world. We've got so much food here, we drop it on people along with bombs. If you really want to mess with somebody's head, drop a cruise missile and a couple of tons of Hot Pockets on their ass!
(artificial laughter ensues.)
Um, wow, the comedy never stops.
Worst part? As if we weren't tortured enough by it initially, we get to listen to the lamest joke ever three-and-a-half times... and it keeps getting unfunnier!
The storyline appears to be based on an actual event: Jay Mohr's hack of another comedian's material back when he was on SNL. Mohr revealed the story in his book Gasping for Airtime -- but in that case, he lied about it at the time, and NBC had to duke it out in court.
DHARMA gets busy… with more blondes
So Lost kicked off its third season tonight, with the usual mess 'o new mysteries, flashback revelations and Evangeline Lily taking a hot shower.
Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet: big ol' spoilers below...
As with the opener last year, the first shot is a close-up eyeball of a new character, the latest blonde hottie to be added: "Juliet" played by Elizabeth Mitchell -- who perhaps not so coincidentally looks an awful lot like Julie Bowen (AKA Jack's ex-wife). Leastwise, seems they've got more for her to do than the last two killed-off blondes. (Hint: Like being Jack's love interest.)
Latest answers: yes, "The Others" are left-over DHARMA guys, and have an unseen station... one that explains the polar bears and sharks. Oh, and they apparently have reading groups to discuss Stephen King novels.
NBC Deathwatch
"Studio 60 Tumbles" says MediaWeek:
9/18/06 - Overnights: 10.3/16; Viewers: 13.41 million; A18-49: 5.0/13
9/25/06 - Overnights: 8.7/14; Viewers: 10.83 million; A18-49: 4.2/11
10/02/06 - Overnights: 7.2/11; Viewers: 9.05 million; A18-49: 3.5/ 9And, to make matters worse, erosion in the second half of Studio 60 continued, with a loss of 8 percent in the overnights (7.5/11 to 6.9/11), 650,000 viewers (9.38 to 8.73 million) and 5 percent among adults 18-49 (3.6/ 9 to 3.4/ 9). Both CSI: Miami and The Bachelor: Rome did not lose steam at 10:30 p.m.
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
Ouch. A loss of a third of the audience already -- how do you think they're gonna spin these numbers for advertisers? Studio 60 costs $3M an episode to produce, and was supposed to be the savior of the network. NBC better have an impressive mid-season replacement lined up. Look for those calls for network chief Jeff Zucker's head to come to fruition. (Check out: FireJeffZucker.com)
Backpatting, Wiki-style
As the three regular readers of my blog may know, I've been a Wikipedia-addict for the past two years. This is, perhaps not so coincidentally how long the series Lost has been on the air. Since last year, I've been a regular (perhaps excessively so) editor for the show's article -- and now, it's all worth it: check out today's featured article on Wikipedia's Main Page (October 3).
Oh, and Lost is back on Wednesday-- not that I have to remind my quarter-of-a-dozen readers. I'm sure I'm going to find something wrong with it too.
Incidentally, the best pilot I've seen thus far this season is Dexter, a procedural with a psychotic twist, which may be Showtime's answer to The Sopranos. Think CSI crossed with Hannibal Lecter. If you don't get Showtime, you can check it out for free on their secret promotional site (Password: "sneak peak"). Definitely not for the squimish, though.