TV News: CBS Struggles on Most Competitive Night of the Week

CHICAGO – “Dancing with the Stars,” “The Voice,” “Castle,” “2 Broke Girls,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Bones,” “Revolution” — Monday nights have officially become the most crowded and competitive night of the week. And, as is often the case when a night gets overcrowded, ratings dropped across the board last night, the first official night of the Fall TV season.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t success stories. Reality reigned again as “Dancing with the Stars” opened with a 10.4 rating and “The Voice” notched a solid 8.2 rating. While that may seem like a decisive victory for ABC, the numbers for “Stars” in its highly-touted “All-Stars” edition were down 24% from last year. And that loss impacted “Castle,” which also fell 20% from last year. Meanwhile, NBC couldn’t be happier given the way ratings for “The Voice” smashed the meager amount of people who were watching “The Sing-Off” at this time last year.

As for the second week of “Revolution,” it eroded 20% but that’s very average for a second episode and the show held a reasonable amount of its superpowered lead-in, finishing second to “Castle” but beating “Hawaii Five-O.” It’s a hit…for now.

Yes, there’s reason for concern at CBS. Moving “Two and a Half Men” to Thursdays may not have been a bad idea on paper but they needed another strong show to fill in on Monday nights, especially now that it’s so competitive. The dismal “Partners,” which has flopped wonderously right out of the gate, is not that show. “How I Met Your Mother” and “2 Broke Girls” got solid-if-not-spectacular numbers but “Partners” was miserable, dropping to fourth place in its time slot and losing 40% of what “Broke Girls” did in this slot last year along with most of its “HIMYM” lead-in audience. It’s a disaster and is now on the clock for the race for the “First to be Cancelled” trophy.

Unless “The Mob Doctor” beats it. Week two of the FOX bomb went as expected, dropping another 27% from its already miserable opening numbers. “Bones” performed expectedly but not spectacularly.

The CW doesn’t enter this ratings death match until October 8th. They may want to reconsider airing anything on this night at all.

Source: TV Media Insights

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com