the three predecessing episodes before Onyx were Krypto, Sacred and Lucy.. so basically it´s a miracle that Onyx even had viewers at all...

People tune in for the HoYay! I tell ya! :)

Slumber had 6.9 M viewers?! Whaa? It wasn't a bad episode, but still. Memoria, one of the best episodes ever, had only 4.2 M? Come on.

I'm glad to see Transference did so well. It deserved it :)



Hahaha, so true.

Thanks for posting those numbers, queenbess.

Cannot believe Memoria had the least viewers of season 3. Was the Superbowl on or something?

Huh. I agree with PepSinger, Memoria was one of the best episodes of the series. And I seem to remember a little hoyay.

People must really like REM.

Also, worth noting, Commencement only had 5.5 million viewers. Season 4 was so bad, they couldn't even get 6 million people to tune in for friggin Batman Begins footage.

Ah, yes. The HoYay of Memoria. Good times.



That is kinda sad.

Slumber was seen by how many viewers!?

All the numbers make no sense, they make as much sense as those mysterious numbers on Lost.

Heh. Maybe the title should be, "Aqua and Slumber Were Seen By How Many Viewers?!"

I am new to Smallville. Does anybody know when ABCfamily will air Smallville from the begining.

As of right now Smallville is off of their rotation. There is no word when it will be back. If you want to catch up I would suggest buying or renting the DVD's.

Also it's being aired in syndication on the WB affiliate in my area. It's in the middle of season 3 so I have no idea when it'll go to the beginning.

The fourth episode always seems to get a bump for some reason.


I think it may have been hidden after the hiatus? As many Lex episodes are (ditto with Lexmas this season, or Asylum in season 3). If they have to have an hiatus, why not stick the embarassing episodes like Ageless there? The ones where it doesn't matter as much about people seeing them. A&M talk about inevitably getting a few bad episodes each season, so why not hide them, and promote the decent ones? Memoria was an episode where a lot of effort went into, it deserved more viewers

I remember Al talking about Witness being a bad episode, but the trailer with flaming Clark really sold that one. And I was thinking do you really want extra viewers for what you yourself acknowledge as a shitty effort?

IMO ratings for any individual episode really has little to do with how good/bad the individual episode was since going in no one has any idea if it's going to be good or not (aside from judging from the plot synopsis). It has more to do with how effective promotion was, what competition was was like, and how good the preceding episode was.

Probably the best way to glean which episodes are viewer favorites is from the drop/increase in audience during the second half hour. The best episodes would have the greatest gain while the weaker episodes would see the largest drop. Even that to a certain extent is like reading tea leaves as even those numbers are impacted by the quality of the other shows SV happened to be competing with on a particular night.

Fast National for Void.

Zap2it.com



MediaWeek.com

From Zap2it....





Little bit worse than last week. Maybe somebody should explain to the promo people that you can't have a trailer with Lana becoming a crackho and expect people to care. I mean we have to be spoiled to know that the other cool shit is going to be on. They still haven't advertised that Brainiac is back in the fold. That was a big hook for casual viewers and they have no idea he's back.

This does not bode well for Smallville, especially against the backdrop of the copyright infringement case. =(

I know most people here won't agree but maybe the end of the Clana had an effect on the ratings, after all?

Thank you for the numbers, Katie and wrighty. So gosh, these are down from last week? What's happening? People are missing some developments and "Void" - *sigh*. "Void" was good. :(

Re: trailers. The one for "Fragile" was well-done, so hopefully that will help. I know there are bits in there for "Mercy" and "Fade", which might confuse people if they expect all of that to happen in 5.18, but I'm also hoping Marketing uses this time between now and Thursday to promote Tom directing. Even more so than they have (I'm happy for the promo he has gotten though - love that picture of them behind the scenes), but I hope a lot of people tune in for the eppy. For him. It's going to be awesome; I can feel it, *g*.

And Lex/Lana. Will they have the last scene in "Fragile"? What will he say to her when she kisses him? I can just see his face. Aw. But totally, I know - we won't know until next week, and hopefully, viewers will return (even though they might expect to see Martha/Lionel and Clark saving that guy, etc., but still, Tom's directing!). We're here.

*wishes "Void" had better numbers; puts on her sandwich board*

ETA:


Aw, Epiprometheus. I hope it's just that they need time to return. And like Manddoo said, this could also be because of Clark/Lana. I'm hoping they return though and see what SV has in store. I'm so psyched for so much, especially well... :) -- but I'm also hopeful because of what was posted in the Spoilers Thread from "TV Guide". In "Ask Ausiello", they said that the show was a shoo-in for renewal, but I know, until we know for sure, I worry too.

Hard to say but I don't think crackho!Lana is what many SV viewers wanted to see and while many Clana fans probably left, I also think people were tired of the slow death of Clana horse being dragged time and time again. Quite a few people were wondering if those two were actually going to reconcile because of the whole hurt/comfort/guilt factor so probably didn't want to see that or hear Clark being blamed for her smack addiction. The continuing Lexana arc isn't exactly thrilling for quite a few people as well.

Well Clana really ended in Reckoning, and yet Cyborg did well after that.

I, for the life of me, do not understand why they aren't advertising that Brainiac is back. That is just so stupid. They could've pimped the "Jonathan Kent returns" idea in the promos. Instead, they made it all about Lana, which IMO, Void really turned out to be a more important episode for Clark and Lex.

I don't see why they can't pimp a little bit of each story. They should know by now that 1) many people HATE the whole dead pancakes garbage, 2) many people only watch for Brainiac & Super stuff and 3) Bo Kent does have people who like him.

The WB markets Smallville like just another WB show expecting skin, sex and illicit behavior to pull people in, but the fanboys who watch Smallville surprisingly aren't drawn in by that. They seem a little jaded about it. They seem to make Smallville appointment television only for the episodes that focus on Superman mythology and DC characters (Aqua, Solitude, Reckoning and Cyborg.) Those seem to be the episodes that are favorites across the different boards. That bieng the case, then instead of the relationship stuff, the focus should be on Clark as young Superman and James Marsters as Brainiac and Zod coming

Instead, the promos for the last two episodes have been really trashy. First the skank in Hypnotic and then junkie Lana. I've seen plenty of people complain that they can't comfortably watch the show with their younger siblings or their children bc of the content. Even if some fans are disappointed in Lana's storyline, if they could get the fanboys to tune in then it would probably make up for that loss. The fanboys add another 1 million viewers when they watch for the big DC guests. They need to clean things up basically and get the focus back on the hero's quest that started the show.

They should know that a lot of guys are fickle when it comes to skin/ the pretty. It's no coincidence that every month Playboy has a different centerfold but guys will watch games like football and basketball faithfully and are totally about certain players doing the dunk or the spiral throw over and over and over again. Guys really are all about guys.

Hypnotic might have put people off, as it seemed a return to the sex and skin days of season 4. Mauybe some viewers assumed season 5 was taking a turn for the worst?

It is surprising that Void didn't do better though

Not when you consider the trailer for it. The trailer after VOID was very good, so we'll see if that has an effect. It could also be that Will and Grace is winding down so they seem to be getting a little jump in their ratings. Plus Extreme Home Makeover isn't helping any.

I just don't want this ratings dip to hurt their chances for one more year. I just want the last year to be known to everyone on the show so they can seriously try and go out with a bang. I think that's what happened this year. The early episodes were very good and then they started realising that it might not be the last year so they slowed down the story arc's. If they know that next year is definitely the last then it will be No Holds Barred storytelling. It will most likely be very mythology heavy so they can set Clark on his way.

Two things they should emphasize in the promos from now on are Braniac (whether he's in the episode or not) and the season finale. They should have some killer hook like;

"Clark's most powerful enemy is back *shot of Fine* and this time even Clark may not be able to stop him and his devious plan. And don't miss the climactic season finale on May 11, with an ending so shocking when it's all over you'll be left screaming."

If you hype the season finale I think people will start watching the remaining last episodes out of curiosity.

Jayseyfield, those promo monkeys really don't have a clue what they are doing, do they? It's amazing that any fan can do a better job than those idiots do. It's so simple, just pimp Brainiac, focus on the Superman stuff, tone down on the relationship/Lana bullshit, and you have a good to excelent promo. It's not that dificult, the numbers show what people really want to see, and it's not crackwhore Lana. Hopefully, the promos improve now that we are on the way to the season finale, when Smallville usually does very well.

The weird thing is, Supernatural, which is going after the same demo as Smallville, has a promo fairly similar to the one you described, jayseyfield.

Remember the promo "The boy becomes a man:" and "the friend becomes a foe:" and then something "becomes legend" with dramatic music and clips of Clex.

They should get back to that and show Clex scenes, and Clark doing Superman-y stuff like fighting Brainiac.

And I agree, they should already start pimping the finale as some crisis that is far beyond anything Clark has ever encountered before. They teased the "big Death" for about 3 months. They should definitely be promoting the Brainiac show down as much. Get some excitement going. It's their job.

Well, what can you expect from people who put out those lousy promo posters? Seriously, I've seen way better manips from fans than that! As I said in the Seasons thread, I can't forget that horrible Aliens!Lana for Spell or the scary Lana in that weird poster where she's holding a baby and Clark looks scared. Or the whole good sex, bad Lex poster. Seriously, there should be mass firings of the promotion department.

That Ageless poster looks like Lana is gonna eat the baby. Hee.



There really should be. I think of the Vengeance promo poster. Ehhh.

I don't know why but it's worth noting that 7th Heaven and Gilmore Girls also had lower than usual ratings this week. It looks like all round the WB has lost some of it's viewers.

Well, I heard there was a major stink about a major upcoming plot development in GG, so . . .

I just think the WB as a network is not being managed well at all. Fox wasn't always as big as it was but it now has American Idol (cap on it all you like but it gets ratings), House and other things that actually get droves of viewers. I can't help but wonder if the merger will actually help any.

I think the WB deserves some credit for airing some very unique shows like Dawson's Creek, Buffy, Gilmore Girls or Supernatural. I would say their one weakness has been comedies but they've always been cutting edge when it comes to dramas that skewer to the younger demo.

Personally I think the WB should get some sports. I would kill to see an NBA announcer pimping the latest episode of Smallville while calling a game.

"Cavs have the ball. On today's Smallville Lana is forced to tell Clark how she feels about Lex, OH LEBRON MAKES THE SHOT AND ONE!"

Or when the make the cast go to a game. I think Kristin would read a book the whole game.

The fact that the WB will cease to exist come the end of this season certainly supports the notion that it's management has failed to build a sustainable network. However, for all that Smallville this week was even with FOX for the time period as far as ratings and according to preliminary numbers had more actual viewers.

I agree with Jayseyfield that the WB deserve credit for what it has achieved in the last 10 years.

ETA Abcmedianet now have the final nationals.

Smallville had 4.24 million viewers making it the WBs third most watched show of the week behind "7th Heaven" with 4.61 million viewers and "Gilmore Girls" with 4.47 million viewers.

How did Fragile do?

I'm interested in seeing these numbers too since Void was the lowest rated episode of the season for them (So, how's that Lana-focused Clexana working out for you AlMiles?). This ep did get a tad more publicity b/c TW was directing it, so we'll see.

It didn't exactly do great.

From Mediaweek:



And from Zap2it:



For comparisons, "Void" garnered a 3.4/5 in the MediaWeek ratings and a 2.6/4 in the Zap2it ones.

What we have to remember is the the first number isn't as important to Smallville as the second number. 5 million viewers is about their average.

But "Void" didn't garner anywhere near five million viewers. The final number was closer to four million. "Fragile" will be similar, I'm guessing. Either way none of the episodes since "Cyborg" have done very well. Pretty precipitous drop.

Of course, the finale numbers will be at least decent, because they always are.

But lately the number sunk below 5 million. Last week, they got 3.50 million and I guess that this week, it's even lower.

Part of me is sad about that, since this was the one TW directed, but part of me isn't too unhappy since they promoted this heavily on the Lex/Lana kiss. Like I said, how's that Clexana triangle working for ya AlMiles?

We don't have the viewer numbers yet. I'm not sure the share (the second number) is that important for the SV people, I think the most important part for the network is the demo breakdown which we only tend to get when they issue a press release. The ratings do seem to be on a determined slide though, with each week since the hiatus getting a lower rating but I've no idea how it's holding up or not among the youth demos especially the young male viewers it did so well with earlier in the season. I also suspect the WB are pretty happy to see it coming in 4th for the time slot (ie beating the UPN and FOX) which isn't something that happens for the network that often.



No, last week they got 4.2 million viewers according to the final ratings.

Agreed, BadToad. I wish it would have done better for Tom's sake, but that's about it.

I really don't think very many people want to see Lex/Lana in any sort of romance. I could never say that for sure before, but now I'm pretty damned sure. As a Clana, I don't want to see it. Many diehard Lex fans don't want to see it. We all have different reasons, but we agree that we don't want to fucking see it.

Kingbess, who is an offline viewer, said last night while watching the kiss, "Ew. It's Lex friggin' Luthor. That's just wrong." And he's usually pretty neutral on the romance front. He either wants Clark and Lana together and relatively angst-free like they were in the first three episodes of the season so the show can focus the conflict on the important stuff, or he wants everyone to just leave each other alone on the romance front.

A show like Smallville can never take a 6 week break. It killed the momentum they were building . And when they come back they have to market something else besides Lana or Lexana. Lest they forget this is a show about Superman's early years. Not Lana Langs.

It would seem that Smallville needs to do something radical. When will TPTB realize that Lana is the problem? It's time for them to move past Clark's teenaged romance.

Actually, there's absolutely no evidence that the Clark/Lana romance is the problem. I think the redundant hamster wheel of angst is the problem. The highest ratings of the season, after all, which were also the highest ratings in quite some time, occurred during the first part of the season when Clark and Lana were together. Now, do I think that was the sole reason for the better ratings? Of course not. I just think the show was better period in the first part of the season. It had to be, because the ratings for the last half of season four were truly wretched. But I do think it shows without a doubt that people aren't put off in the least by Lana or Clark/Lana as long as it's not the same old shit.

After all, since the Clark/Lana breakup, the ratings have gone down. So I don't see how the Clark/Lana romance could be blamed for the bad ratings. I think it's the fact that we've seen all this shit about four squillion times before.

But the problem, queenbess is that a ton of people equate Lana+any man with pointless & boring as hell angst that circles on how SHE feels. Jason, Adam, Whitney, Clark, we know the score.

I seriously think that overall throughout all five season, the overemphasis on Clana (all right, how about hamster!wheel Clana since I know even Clana fans are very tired of that type as well) has hurt this show overall by driving away people who wanted emphasis on other type of stuff. Threatening to pull another triangle just keeps them away. A lot of people come for the Fine stuff and giving them filler and Lana macking ANOTHER guy is a pisser.

I'm with you, mobiusklein. It's because that's how they've written her with every single person ever. The exception was the first part of this season, and lo and behold, the ratings were just peachy. Trust me. No one is more tired of the Clark/Lana bullshit than Clana fans. I actually said during the final scene of last week's episode, "JESUS H. CAVIEZEL EITHER FUCK EACH OTHER OR LEAVE EACH OTHER THE HELL ALONE." I don't want any more in-between stuff. Been there. Done it. Have the spork scars to prove it.

It's the repetitive angst that people hate, not the romance itself.

I think people are really turned off on the romantic angst. I think many viewers would be just fine with no Lexana, and no Clana, and definitely NO Clark angsting over Lexana. I don't think viewers would mind romance on the show in general. I just think it needs to stop taking over the damned show. And when you have a triangle with the 3 principles, it doesn't take a genius to know that its already taking up too much damned time. And if they can't think of anything more for KK to do then ping-pong between men, then its time to have Lana go off into the sunset. And I don't mean to advocate for KK to lose her job, b/c that sucks. But you can't keep twisting and turning Clark and Lex to find a way to accomodate her into the stories.