'Alcatraz' Makes Its Case To Viewers
Will 'Once Upon a Time' be able to compete?
Before the season started, it looked like genre's network frontrunners were "Terra Nova" on Fox and "Grimm" on NBC.
Amazing what happens when we stop going by the book and seeing how things shake up.
"Alcatraz" has become the new genre frontrunner after a strong debut that averaged a 6.0 rating/9 share on Monday. It knocked "Once Upon a Time" out of the top spot, which earned a 5.5/8 in its most recent outing.
"Alcatraz" is already ahead of what "Terra Nova" did on Mondays. Whether it can hold it? That's another story. If it can, that could mean the death of "Terra Nova," the very expensive dinosaur drama from Steven Spielberg that averaged a 4.6/7 in Fast National overnight ratings from The Nielen Co., in its regular timeslot, and never really seemed to capitalize on the pre-season buzz it carried in.
The good news for "Once" is that it may have finally stabilized. After starting its season with a 6.9 household rating average, it has since found a home more in the 5.5 household rating range. While that will no longer allow it to be Sunday's top-rated scripted show (that honor now belongs to "The Good Wife" and "CSI: Miami"), it does give fans hope for the future as ABC will be able to better determine what it could expect from the show in a Season 2.
"Grimm" on NBC bounced back from a dreadful 2.9 household rating last week to improve 21 percent and post its best outing since earning a 3.6/6 in its second week.
There was no bouncing in the positive direction for "The Secret Circle," however. That supernatural drama on The CW dropped to a series low 1.1/2, losing 21 percent of its audience from the previous week. Even worse, it lost 39 percent of its "Vampire Diaries" lead-in, and will really need to see some rebounding in the coming weeks if it wants to continue on beyond this season.
For complete television ratings analysis from the past week, check out our sister site Inside Blip.
Top Network Genre Shows, Week of Jan. 15 -- [Audience Loyalty Index rating]
| 1. (-) | Alcatraz (Fox) | 6.0/9 | [99.2] |
| 2. (-) | Alcatraz (Fox) | 5.9/8 | [99.2] |
| 3. (1) | Once Upon a Time (ABC) | 5.5/8 | [83.6] |
| 4. (2) | Grimm (NBC) | 3.5/6 | [82.9] |
| 5. (3) | Chuck (NBC) | 2.3/4 | [89.0] |
| 6. (4) | Fringe (Fox) | 2.0/3 | [92.6] |
| 7. (4) | Vampire Diaries (CW) | 1.8/3 | [88.5] |
| 8. (6) | The Secret Circle (CW) | 1.1/2 | [72.4] |
Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that include 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.
Data collected from The Nielsen Co., as distributed by Zap2it. GenreNexus tracks non-news, non-event programming, and figures for this story reflect airing of new episodes only. For more information on the Audience Loyalty Index, click here.
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by browncoat1984 | Sat, 01/28/2012 - 09:07 #1
I personally hope Alcatraz fails and Terra Nova is renewed and that they fix what didn't work in season 1 and improve it. Why, you ask? My mom and I watched the pilot and after two episodes we both agree that television does NOT need another violent procedural cop drama, even if it has a sci-fi theme to it. And then there IS that sci-fi theme - while my parents never watched Lost I did and frankly, its just a cheap knock-off of Lost. If you're going to rip off Lost do it and do it well, don't be like the Event.
What Terra Nova has that Alcatraz doesn't and makes it my choice between the two is that its a family drama. Its a good, clean show that the entire family can sit down and enjoy, and that's rare on TV these days. Sure, its not perfect, but the interesting revelation at the end of season 1 proves that there's interesting storytelling potential with Terra Nova. Some things I would like to see improved for season 2 - less dinosaurs. Yes, the dinosaurs are cool looking but honestly, for the most part in season 1 they just had them to have them. Save the dinosaurs where you can do something really creative and awesome with them rather than just having them to open an episode. Also, we need a villain we can really identify with and learn to hate, but one so well played that you love to watch him on screen. Someone like Scorpius from Farscape, or Baal on Stargate SG-1. They need a great actor in that role too, preferably someone that audiences of other sci-fi shows might recognize. Also, drop the teen angst. That did nothing to the show and honestly it got to the point where it was just cringe inducing when they had it. If they do these things I think that Terra Nova could really improve upon itself.
The more I think about it the less interested I am in Alcatraz. Its extremely predictable and un-interesting to me and the sci-fi elements sadly don't help.
RE: Once Upon a Time - I'm surprisingly getting addicted to this show. The scripts are consistently good, the acting is great and like Terra Nova, its a good clean family show that everyone can enjoy - and with Chuck ending we'll need more of those. Honestly, if ABC cancels this show (and with the enthusiam I've seen from fans, they'd be stupid not to) then I'll never watch another new show on ABC again, especially a sci-fi/fantasy show (which is almost all I watch on TV anyway). They fooled me once with No Ordinary Family, well, you know what they say about fooling me twice. The last thing the genre needs are another wave of cancellations. Most people I know won't even watch new shows because of last seasons wave of cancellations. If networks hope to attract and retain audiences for new sf/fantasy shows, they need to renew them, even if they don't get the world's best ratings. Not ALL shows are great (I'm not interested in the Grimm and my interest level in Alcatraz is dropping) but some are and are worth redeeming, while others show a lot of potential like Terra Nova.