On Sunday night, FOX’s “Animation Domination” block had lots of ups and downs in the coveted demo. American Dad took a big hit on January 16th but regained most of that ground this past Sunday. The demo rating went up 35% to a 2.3 rating and 4.81 million viewers. The Simpsons was down a few percentage points and Family Guy was a repeat.
Bob’s Burgers had its second big loss in two weeks. It registered a 2.2 rating and 4.81 million viewers, a 12% loss in the demo. The Cleveland Show lost nearly 15% to a 2.3 demo rating and 5.19 million.
On Monday night, House returned with a small 6% increase. Lie to Me, on the other hand, had another big upsurge. Last week, the show was up 20% in the demo and this week it rose 39% in the demo. That’s quite impressive and may help Lie to Me get a renewal for season four. The season finale airs on Monday.
Tuesday was the State of the Union address. On Wednesday, American Idol was down 5% in the demo but still easily dominated the two hours of primetime.
On Thursday, the hour of Idol was down a little bit compared to last week but still had three times the 18-49 demo rating of any other program. Last week, Bones registered an astounding 59% increase in the demo when compared to its last original episode from December. This week, it was up another 11% in the 18-49 demo, reaching a 3.9 with 12.05 million total viewers. That’s Bones’ best rating in more than a year.
Wonder if your favorite FOX show’s been renewed or cancelled? Check out our comprehensive list. We’ll keep updating it as new info becomes available.
Below is a list of the regular FOX TV shows and their 2010-11 season average ratings to date. It only incorporates the ratings for original episodes that have aired this season, not repeats. The data is sorted by the 18-49 demographic averages, the group that advertisers will pay the most to reach. The “compared to” column reflects whether the demo average has gone up, down, or stayed the same since last week.
| Demo rank | Scripted TV Shows | Average viewers (millions) |
Average 18-49 demo |
Compared to last week |
|
| 1 | Glee (renewed) | 11.61 | 4.8 | --- | |
| 2 | House | 10.16 | 3.8 | --- | |
| 2 | The Simpsons | 8.27 | 3.8 | --- | |
| 2 | Family Guy | 7.66 | 3.8 | --- | |
| 5 | Bob's Burgers | 6.42 | 3.1 | down | |
| 6 | The Cleveland Show | 6.31 | 3.0 | --- | |
| 7 | Bones | 9.28 | 2.7 | up | |
| 8 | Raising Hope (renewed) | 6.26 | 2.6 | --- | |
| 8 | American Dad | 5.41 | 2.6 | down | |
| 10 | Lie To Me | 5.74 | 1.9 | up | |
| 10 | Fringe | 5.08 | 1.9 | --- | |
| 12 | Running Wilde (cancelled) | 3.72 | 1.6 | --- | |
| 13 | Human Target | 6.04 | 1.5 | --- | |
| 14 | Lone Star (cancelled) | 3.66 | 1.1 | --- | |
| 15 | The Good Guys (cancelled) | 2.46 | 0.7 | --- | |
| Demo rank | News or Reality TV Shows | Average viewers (millions) |
Average 18-49 demo |
Compared to last week |
|
| 1 | American Idol (Weds) | 25.78 | 9.4 | --- | |
| 2 | American Idol (Thurs) | 22.69 | 7.8 | --- | |
| 3 | Hell's Kitchen 9pm | 6.33 | 2.7 | --- | |
| 3 | Hell's Kitchen 8pm | 6.03 | 2.7 | --- | |
| 5 | Kitchen Nightmares | 4.26 | 1.9 | new | |
| 6 | Million Dollar Money Drop | 5.20 | 1.7 | --- | |
| 7 | America's Most Wanted | 4.87 | 1.6 | --- | |
| 8 | Cops | 4.48 | 1.5 | --- | |
The closer a show is to the bottom of the list, the closer it is to being cancelled (if it hasn’t been cancelled already like The Good Guys, Running Wilde, and Lone Star). If it’s closer to the top of the list, it’s more likely to be renewed. Shows that are in the middle (“on the bubble”) can be a little tougher to call. Their future typically comes down to other factors like overall costs, contracts, who produces the show, and what new shows are on the horizon.
The list has been separated into two sections. Of the two, scripted programming is the most expensive. News and reality TV shows are less expensive to produce but the networks can’t program just news/reality (though they might like to since they are less of a financial risk).
It should be noted that Friday and Saturday nights are the least watched evenings of television so ratings for shows on those nights are lower. The networks understand this and take it into account. However, regardless of when a show is aired, its production costs remain the same. Ultimately, it must still be profitable enough for the network to keep ordering more episodes.
Raw data: © The Nielsen Company via Media Week.
What do you think? Which shows do you think won’t survive to see a new season?
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