David Eick's other show, "Battlestar Galactica," is still considering cutting its fourth and final season in half. But "half" is the word of the day with the executive producer's current NBC program, "Bionic Woman," and no one is talking about seasons. Instead, it's all about the audience.
The latest Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research shows that "Bionic Woman" earned a 4.1 rating/6 share Wednesday night to help it finish tied for third with "Kitchen Nightmares" on Fox. While it was a busy night -- the County Music Association was handing out awards, and "Criminal Minds" was just doing its regular thing by being on CBS -- the audience is showing something quite significant: It's less than half the total audience that showed up for "Bionic Woman's" series premiere.
In the first week of the season, "Bionic Woman" pulled in an 8.4/13 in overnights, the best premiere of all the fall shows Airlock Alpha is monitoring. However, it's rating this week has already been beat by "Chuck" on Monday night, and came in about the same range as "Journeyman" -- which many consider to be on the NBC chopping block.
That says a lot "Bionic Woman," which was NBC's most hyped new show of the fall season, and one that is losing viewers rapidly. With the numbers the way they are, and no end in sight to the current Writers Guild of America strike, it looks like the days of "Bionic Woman" are numbered.
The lead-in for "Bionic Woman" isn't helping much, either. "Phenomenon" is pulling in poor ratings, and about the same amount of people who are watching "Bionic" are watching another low-rated NBC show, "Life," which airs at 10 p.m. ET.
NBC finished fourth on the night with a 3.9/6, easily beat by ABC (10.1/16), CBS (7.4/12) and Fox (4.1/6), according to Zap2it.
Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that includes both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisions turned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.
About the Author:
Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha and the entire BlipNetwork. He owns Quantum Global Media Inc., the parent corporation of the BlipNetwork. He's a print journalist by day, and lives in Tampa, Fla.
