David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. What's (sorta) hot; what's (sorta) not
We’ve discussed ad nauseum the lower ratings beleaguering the networks in this young TV season, and part of the trend has been attributed to the burgeoning portion of the population who find the notion of sitting down and watching a TV show on the broadcasters’ terms rather quaint and instead either TiVo their favorites or catch them online.
So we finally have some stats: The most DVR’d and watched programs from the week before the season officially began, when a few new shows trickled out ahead of the pack. Which means, essentially, these stats don’t mean much, because these programs were competing against repeats and summer reality fare.
But they’re numbers nonetheless, and now the question will soon be, do these added viewers help even out the depressed ratings? And will struggling shows be aided by the new numbers, or are they still doomed?
From the week of Sept. 17-23, the Top 10 shows that gained viewers thanks to folks watching via DVR (within seven days of the initial recording of the program):
1) “Survivor: China” 2,116,000 more viewers
2) “Family Guy” 1,843,000
3) “Prison Break” 1,546,000
4) “Back To You” 1,456,000
5) “Come Rain or Come Shine” (a promotional thing for “Private Practice”) 1,256,000
6) “Big Brother” 1,249,000
7) “The Simpsons” 1,089,000
8) “Kid Nation” 1,006,000
9) “K-Ville” 993,000
10) “Shark” 982,000
Expect none of these except “Private Practice” and maybe “Survivor” to be on this list next week, and that the number of additional viewers will go up – and, the networks hope, significantly.
Meanwhile, Yahoo has compiled a list of TV shows whose online searches have plummeted most precipitously since their premieres (meaning, basically, people have already lost interest:
1) “Cavemen” (quite the shocker)
2) “Viva Laughlin” (actually, it hasn’t even premiered yet, but buzz on the show is already cooling off)
3) “Journeyman” (maybe the guy can go back in time to last week and help his own cause out by Googling his show a lot)
4) “Back To You” (as reflected in its drop in the ratings)
5) “K-Ville” (ditto)
Other shows people are investigating less online: “The Big Bang Theory,” “Kid Nation” and “Gossip Girl.” Most popular new show in online searches: “Bionic Woman.”