Lost in the hoopla of the Super Bowl numbers is the ratings battle that followed. CTV’s solid Super Bowl audience (an estimated 4, 093,000–great, but less than half proportionately, Fox’s massive 97.5 million draw) bailed on that fifth season opener of Nip/Tuck, which drew 623,000 viewers. Over at Global, the network stripped of the Super Bowl scored a post-game touchdown with a new episode of House, which drew over twice as many viewers, 1,294,000 (overnight estimates from BBM NMR).
Did CTV simply pick the wrong show? Easy to be a Tuesday morning quarterback, but they do have a sketchy history with Nip/Tuck, leaving it on the shelf for entire seasons. Mad Men, their U.S. cable pickup (from AMC), has more buzz and may have been a better fit. Hell, they ran enough Dexter promos during the game they might as well have handed the ball to Michael C. Hall, although Nip/Tuck was hyped to death, too.
Global clearly benefited from having Fox’s post-Super Bowl prize. House scored an astounding 29 million viewers Sunday night in the U.S.–at 11 p.m.! The episode, if you didn’t stay up to see it, will be repeated Feb. 15 and guest starred Mira Sorvino as a shrink trapped at the South Pole who gets House to make a house call via web cam.
The Super Bowl stunt pushed it to the highest rated scripted program on any network in two years among households and adults 18-49. It was also Fox’s highest rated scripted series in over 10 years.
4 Comments
That’s one of the best pictures ever.
CTV is one of the reasons I don’t watch network TV anymore. A few years ago, they moved “The Sopranos” around so much they eventually aired an episode at 7PM on a Friday!
No, better to rent a season on DVD and watch it at your leisure…
I shudder to think what they will do with “Mad Men”…
I’ll bite. What the heck is Bill snacking on in the photo?
On the last (ever?) press tour, Fox had a blue screen set up for critics where you could get “inserted” in cast shots from Fox shows. (I’ll save the Family Guy shot for later.) Next to the photo set up they had a booth where they were handing out funnel cakes. I never turn down phony photo ops or funnel cakes.