Less than a week into the 2005-06 season, and there’s already a casualty.
Congratulations if you had Fox’s “Head Cases” in your office pool as the first television show to get toe-tagged. Seen by just 3 million by Nielsen’s count, the series about unstrung attorneys was axed after just two episodes.
Unlike movies, where opening weekend box-office grosses are reported as if they’re the Dow Jones Industrials Average, TV tends to be a long slog for shows lucky enough to slog on.
But the first week of the new season, like early radar images of clouds coalescing into a storm front, offers a hint of where things might be headed and how big they could be.
The folks at NBC, for example, have to be thrilled with how their much-promoted “My Name is Earl” snared more than 15 million viewers in its Tuesday debut, a couple hundred thousand more than saw CBS’ leading comedy, Monday’s “Two and a Half Men.” This was a surprise even though NBC had boasted for months that the self-consciously quirky “Earl” was its highest testing new comedy in 15 years. (Yes, including “Friends.”) TV testing is similar to EPA gas mileage estimates: A show’s actual mileage may vary once its rolls.
It’s a nice start, though. NBC can only hope those viewers come back. Better to be in that position than that of “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.” The NBC knockoff (or spin-off, if you choose) of Donald Trump’s game show got clobbered in its opener by a “Lost” clip package that was a prelude to the Emmy-winning drama’s return.
“TA:MS” drew 7 million viewers, less than half the number that tuned in to the clip show and well below the more than 23 million that wanted to see what was in the hatch on “Lost.” “Lost” helped bring an impressive 16 million to the debut of ABC’s eerie post-hurricane drama “Invasion.” Not wanting Miss Martha to get off the ground in Week 2, ABC has kept its foot on her throat by postponing the season premiere of “The George Lopez Show” and debut of Freddie Prinze Jr.’s new “Freddie” in favor of rerunning the “Lost” opener vs. “TA:MS.” The shine may be off the whole “Apprentice” thing.
Trump’s version was seen by less than 10 million, dragged down no doubt by its lead-in, “Joey,” which lived down to gloomy expectations at 7 p.m. (in Denver) Thursday with fewer than 8 million fans still bothering.
“Everybody Hates Chris,” Chris Rock’s comedy for once-negligible UPN from Chris Rock, was within 20,000 viewers of “Joey.” “Chris” also beat Fox’s “The O.C.,” though none of the series – or even ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” dance-off special – could challenge CBS’ “Survivor: Guatemala,” with more than 16 million.
CBS actually appears poised to own Thursdays this season, despite the other networks bulking up for a share of TV’s most lucrative night of the week.
Besides “Survivor,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” had a whopping 29 million viewers and “Criminal Minds,” a drama CBS introduced in its “Without a Trace” slot, had more than 19 million viewers, giving it a 5 million-viewer edge on once-dominant “ER.”
Fox’s Monday comedies, “Arrested Development” and “Kitchen Confidential,” fared poorly but probably were victims of the extra NFL coverage on ABC.
