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The Vampire Diaries: With Decent Ratings; Cancel It or Keep It?

Published:September 29, 2009

The Vampire DiariesThe CW’s small-screen answer to the Twilight phenomena, The Vampire Diaries, has been on the air for three weeks. So, will the vampire series have a long life or will its life be cut short, staked to the heart like The Beautiful Life?

The Vampire Diaries story begins with teens Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) adjusting to life after the sudden death of their parents. Elena manages to find some comfort with friends like Bonnie (Katerina Graham), Caroline (Candice Accola), and former boyfriend Matt (Zach Roerig). Jeremy is on a more dangerous path, hanging out with stoners and using drugs.

As the new school year begins, Elena becomes drawn to a handsome and mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), who is secretly a vampire. Later, Elena almost dies from a savage bite to the neck. It comes courtesy of Stefan’s evil and estranged brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder), who’s also in love with the mortal girl.

Is Vampire Diaries worth watching?

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The supernatural drama debuted on September 10th to 4.91 million viewers and a 2.1/7 rating/share among adults 18-49. What’s more, viewership grew between the first and second half hours, a good indication that people liked what they saw and would return the following week.

Though those numbers still put the show in third place for its timeslot, Vampire Diaries outperformed Smallville’s season opener a year earlier. For the struggling CW network, the premiere looked very good.

Unfortunately, a week later, the news wasn’t as rosy. With tougher competition from other networks, Vampire Diaries fell to fifth place in the ratings. Viewership dropped to 3.76 million and a 1.6/5 in the key demo. That’s a drop of 23% from the prior week’s audience. Still, considering the numbers from other CW shows, they’re considered respectable.

Last week, the numbers seemed to level off and even grow a little. An average of 3.81 million watched with a 1.7/5. The show was in fifth place in the timeslot and fourth place in the demo, tied with NBC’s struggling SNL Weekend Update Thursday and Parks and Recreation.

While the series isn’t a failure for the struggling CW network, it’s surely not as big a hit as they were hoping for, especially considering the popularity of the Twilight movie and books. The network’s already given the show a full season order and will certainly stick with it in hopes of growing its audience even further.

What do you think? Considering the subject matter, why aren’t more people tuning in? Is the show worth watching or would you cancel it?


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{ 112 comments… read them below or add one }

peter October 7, 2009 at 3:08 pm

Graham is a horrible actress.

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angela danner October 7, 2009 at 11:08 pm

I absolutley love the vampire diaries!I hope they keep it. its awesome.! my friends , family, and I watch every week since it started.we want to know how Stefan and Damon became vampires, and how they met Katherine.

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Teena Cataldi October 7, 2009 at 11:18 pm

Please, keep the vampire diaries. its the coolest show on tv! I never miss it!

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angie October 7, 2009 at 11:23 pm

i hope they keep the vampire diaries. my friends, my family, and i have watched since the first episode . its awesome! we want to know how damon and stephan became vampires, and met katherine.i also hope someone can help jeremy.

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Nan October 8, 2009 at 11:15 am

The Vampire Diaries is a wonderful new series, but honestly, pitting it against Bones and Flashforward was a mistake. Move to a better night/timeslot, and it should do great. It’s a perfect time for this series to be on the air, the cast is marvelous, and I DVR two other shows, but watch The Vampire Diaries when it comes on. CW – please give it a good chance.

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Libby October 8, 2009 at 9:05 pm

I think it is too early to decide whether it should be cancelled or not. The networks don’t give new shows a chance any more. Does anyone remember that Cheers finished in last place their first season, and then went on to be one of the most popular shows on TV.

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Lily's Mom October 8, 2009 at 9:58 pm

I really like The Vampire Diaries. I really hate it when networks don’t give a new series a chance to develop a following. Just like a good book, it takes time for some shows to develop back stories and characters and then get into the meat of the story. Word-of-mouth takes time too! It’s really getting interesting, especially after tonight’s episode (October 8th). I do think the time slot is a difficult one as it is up against some pretty heavy hitters, but if the CW does decide to move it, I hope they give us lots of notice and then stick with their decision. It the death nell for shows that get moved around several times.

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jen October 8, 2009 at 10:55 pm

i like this show, but they should move it on different day. Thursday is the most toughest night. especially if they go against show like Flash Forward. they could move it on Wednesday since beautiful life is canceled.

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Lo October 9, 2009 at 1:56 pm

The show is okay. I just think demean or whoever his name is has done enough blood sucking. seriously they need a better story line. Give us stefan’s manly yet soft side. He needs to kick some ass. This show is dragging. The more you drag the more you lose viewers. It needs to get good fast. But i like.

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shannon October 10, 2009 at 2:49 pm

I love the vampire diaries! stefan is so hot! i love the whole cast, and its abetter story than twilight!

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Peter October 11, 2009 at 6:13 pm

Horrible show !!!

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Sandy October 13, 2009 at 12:18 pm

I just love the show, havne’t missed it yet. I really hope that it stays because there hasn’t been any vampire romany since the early years of Buffy with Angel. I was a real fan of Moonlight and when that went I thought that there would never be another vampire show, but when I found out about Vamprie Diaires I was blown away. Please let the CW keep this show, it just rocks!!!

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Powerofthewrighter October 15, 2009 at 7:18 am

I’ve seen it every week. Granted maybe Vampire Diaries is losing ratings, but I don’t think that’s fair. Twilight is still hot and new and fresh and already on its New Moon Premiere ride. If Twilight gets a chance, it is the hottest thing with vampires, maybe that might be why the fans believe Vampire Diaries might suffer because it would just be considered another show in the shadow of Twilight. First of all, when it comes to vampires, I think I am a lesser fan. I love Smallville and Vampire Diaries got put in at eight on Thursday. However, one of the characters actually is very enticing. Ian Somerhalder was on Smallville before as Adam Knight, and I think he was okay as Adam, but now, he’s on the Vampire Diaries as Daman Salvator, and he is playing a dangerously, enticing vampire. As far as villains go, he does so well at the whole vampire villain thing. And Stefan Salvator is a wonderful heroic, but tortured soul. They stay true to the vampire legends and put their own twist on it. Or the writer does, L.J. Smith. I think it’s a great show. And Nina Dobrev is a fresh face to have on the show. Steven McQueen is a great Jeremy, he plays tortured well. And Michael Trevino, all of them are dynamic and interesting. Bonnie happens to be someone I pay close attention to. More so than any of them. Paul Wesley is actually also a Smallville familiar, he played Lucas Luthor. I saw him in a small set of episodes called the Fallen on ABC family and it was absolutely amazing. He is the perfect lead role for Vampire Diaries. So I do hope it succeeds.

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Dave October 15, 2009 at 5:34 pm

I think this show is horrible, I can’t believe CW moved Smallville to Friday and replaced it with this. It lacks any originality, just a horrible show.

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Dave October 15, 2009 at 5:38 pm

I guess the books were published quite a bit before Twilight but still a bad show.

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