Network executives (those at NBC notwithstanding) will have been, if not grinning, at least quietly smiling as the results of the ratings for the first week of the new US fall television season begin to come in. Old favourites returned with a bang, and several new shows began with a momentum that, if they can maintain them, could see them live long enough to fall into the “old favourite” bracket as well.
On Fox, the new – sixth – season of “House” kicked off with a two hour opener that drew in an impressive sixteen million, while the biggest result was undeniably that of the seventh season return of “NCIS” over on CBS pulled in a simply stunning twenty million viewers. The quietly successful “The Big Bang Theory” has now been moved to after the popular “Two and a Half Men” and looks like benefiting hugely from the shift.
In terms of new series, the “NCIS: Los Angeles” spin off did huge numbers (eighteen million) on its premiere, while ABC looks like it may have cracked the comedy drought of recent years with big numbers for two of its new efforts, “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” (with “Friends” star Courtney Cox Arquette). It’s not all good news, of course: The much vaunted prime time chat show experiment “The Jay Leno Show” came crashing down to Earth for NBC last week, from an eighteen million premiere to a low of around five or six, and they will no doubt be praying that the numbers don’t continue to slip.
Returning reality series such as “Survivor” and “Dancing With The Stars” are also starting to noticeably slip, prompting concerns that the reality TV craze may be coming to an end. All things being equal, however, the results will be giving hope that the rumours of the impending death of prime time free to air television may have been rather premature.
