That's damn stiff competition. 20+ Million?? When I saw promos for that show I thought, "Boy that's going to tank! It looks so awful!" Clearly I would not be a good TV executive. Or fortune-teller.

If Promise rates lower than past episodes, would CW execs blame it on a bunch of fifth graders?

They're using the well known TV trick of adding together the viewers for all showings (the first episode was shown three times I believe) and touting that number.

I guess here's where to post it but I live in Chicago and the scroll near the end of the episode said the next new episode would be on Saturday the 24th instead of Thursday the 21st.

Well, Cyb it did have AI as a lead-in. Hard to screw that up. Of course the test is how it does w/o the AI lead-in. But since Deal or no Deal is actually popular it wouldn't surprise me if it did OK.

Ratings breakdown for Promise according to Mediaweek.com, that will later on post the fast nationals.

Is that in line with other ratings this season, or higher?

It looks like they went down. Thank God...But unfortunately I think we have the tougher competition with the 5th grade quiz show and the NCAA tourney starting up last night to blame, not Clana. And that DUKE was playing at the exact time Smallville was on on the east coast.

Trespass which was the lowest rated Sweeps episode got a 3.8/6 for comparison.

As for competition, you'll note that NBC was down a lot. The Office newpeats didn't hold up well. UB also lost people. March Madness was actually also down from last year although CBS will probably be satisfied by their purchase and make buckets of money on it anyway. Fox is the one probably gleeful this morning because the Fifth Graders did really well without American Idol as a lead-in.

If Clana got its ass whipped by basketball and a game show devoted to the stupidity of America . . . I'm not inclined to feel that sorry.

I do wonder if the fan irritation at this episode will affect ratings for the next episode which is the Lois pro-wrestling episode thing

Fast Nationals from Pifeedback.com

Pifeedback.com

While the total viewers went down substantially (possibly the season low?), the demos were normal. If the guy at pifeedback.com 's forum posts the other demos, it will give a better picture of who watched. Although these are NOT finals and just like "Freak" they may go down with Finals. I don't know if there were any preemptions last night. There might have been. No idea.

It is down, right?

Woot!

That's a loss of about 400,000 viewers from FREAK.

Sorry, not a season low. I forget the numbers without checking. Subterranean is still the lowest. And while all the numbers are important for different reasons (total viewers mostly for press reasons), the most important one to the CW will be the demos and Promise was very average in the demos. Not up, not down. Although, that may change in the finals.

Sneeze and Rage are lower too.

As I recall, though, Subterranean wasn't promoted heavily (or at all!) by the CW. In fact, I remember a few people on TwoP wondering whether TPTB were actively trying to bury the show. OTOH, "Promise" was heavily promoted, and *specifically* as a Clana episode.

Actually, no, more like I never asked her to come back.

To get back on topic, apparently that 5th Grader show whooped everything. SV's ratings really do seem, to me, dictated by what else happens to be on. Remember Aqua was up against an unexpected repeat of The OC since baseball play-offs were done, so it had less competition and voila! good ratings.

Ratings are so unpredictable though. I didn't expect Ugly Betty to be the hit that it became. And I thought SV would've gotten creamed by the competition last year.

With the exception of FREAK (before they took into account the pre-emptions) every episode since Justice is going down...They are losing viewers..And Gee, I wonder if it had anything to do with the end of LABYRINTH and the sudden return of Clana?

The number that is most important is the demos number. The whole point of ratings is to determine ad rates for shows. The biggest indicator of ad rate in the info we get weekly is the demo # in 18-49. We don't get the other demos regularly.

The total viewers number is mostly significant for press release/publicity purposes because people understand that number easily. However, to the network it all about the demos.

Because of that Subterranean was lowest rated this season and Trespass was the next lowest.

Actually, the fact that Justice is the highest-rated episode of the season should tell them a lot about what their viewers want to see and it sure ain't Lexana/Clexana/Clana.

Definitely wrong, this list is outdated. Freak got around 4.7, and it was fun to watch all the twists and turns that the ratings' analysts over here used to explain after the final and disappointing numbers, when they were so hyped about the 5 million mark.

Therefore, Promise managed to keep the ratings a constant, even though it aired after a long hiatus and facing new competition.

Massena, you are right of course..But if that's the case then why aren't the network execs demanding more episodes like JUSTICE that pulled in the highest demo ratings? I would think if they wanted to make money off of advertising rates then they would demand a much more Superman like show. Just a thought.




I'm not an expert but the 5.07 was what it would have been without the pre-emptions...When they took the markets out that they usually average in, it went down...The numbers weren't dissapointing because the show was pre-empted in some major markets.

Manddoo said:




Oh, how I would have liked a Justice League or Green Arrow spin-off. Though with the latter, they probably would have had two women in his life, too, to keep the soap aspect going. I still think it would've been fun, though.

Now we won't even get Green Arrow in the season finale. Boo. :(

Katie - NOT FINAL means that they might change and they did. The list obviously wasn't updated because it didn't have Promise listed. Now Promise is listed and it says NOT FINAL NUMBERS. As for twists and turns, reading ratings *is* complicated. Maybe people find that boring, but all the numbers means something that why they are all reported. And if everyone got it then they wouldn't have media analysts. Like right now, people are looking at the total viewers number, which while significant for publicity purposes, is not as important as the demos which I pointed out are average.






Freak numbers also weren't disappointing because ratings are looked at by week-to-week comparisons. Did the episode go up from the last new episode or go down? Freak went up from it's lead in Trespass dramatically in the overnights, but even with the preemptions, it still did better in the finals. So Freak did well any way you look at it. Expectations for Promise are harder to know. They did pimp the HECK out of it. And it went against some repeats. But, it aired after a break and it had a unknown factor against it which was Fifth Grader which did really well even without the AI lead in and was stronger competition from FOX than those tired comedies. So, I have no idea what the CW expected the ratings to be. They may be elated that SV wasn't killed or they may be disappointed that the ratings didn't improve despite factors in its favor. I'm imagining they're mostly satisfied that nothing dramatic happened and the ratings were somewhat typical.

I don't know about the competition that Promise faced, but does it airing after an hiatus really count for that much considering all the promotion? Weren't there more Promise ads than Justice got even?

The ratings for Promise are lower than Freak, but not enough to say, "Ha! Ha! Clana lowers the ratings!"

Hmm. Interesting. I wonder how Combat will do next week? I get the feeling it'll go lower in ratings, since people are most likely not tuning in after the crapfest that was "Promise"

For a valid comparison, I think we should compare overnight ratings to overnight ratings. By that standard, about 500,000 people watched "Freak," an episode that was not heavily promoted, but left for "Promise," an episode that was heavily promoted. Is it possible that "Promise" won't go down as much in the final ratings as "Freak" did? Yes, it's even highly likely, since it wasn't preempted in a large number of markets, at least as far as I know. And yes, I think that caveat should always be considered when evaluating the ratings for "Freak," and for other episodes that faced similar hurdles.

Considering how forcefully this episode was promoted, those are not very impressive ratings. "Justice" did far better with much less promotion and strong word of mouth.

Exactly. After hearing all the Clanarchists yell at the top of their collective lungs about how Clana is the heart of this show and that Clana returning would bring in big ratings and how much pimping this episode got the ratings were pretty fucking far from impressive IMO. They should have been a lot better if the Clana faction has as much pull as they claim they do. This simply prooves to me that Clana fans are simply more vocal and fanatical and thats about it.

You're right. I was just hoping the ratings would be Subterranean bad.

I wonder what's going to happen to the next week's ratings. People are really pissed off and it's not the usual "Clana is like watching paint dry," it's more like "Those jackasses have basically made me eat shit laced with Drano" angry.

I heard they really did a number on Chloe's character. Now let's see how many will come back.

I doubt many people are gonna tune in next week, especially if there are new episodes on shows like "The Office" next week.

They're promoting "Combat" as an ED-wears-a-red-leather-bikini kind of episode. I expect the ratings to be hurt by "Promise," but I also expect the episode to fair poorly all on its own. But if the ratings are down a lot, then I suspect that will be due to "Promise."

And next weeks Ugly Betty looks funny.

Smallville
8:00 p.m. - V: 4.17 million, A18-49: 1.8/ 5
8:30 p.m. - V: 5.00 million, A18-49: 2.1/ 6

Supernatural
9:00 p.m. - V: 3.60 million, A18-49: 1.5/ 4
9:30 p.m. - V: 3.47 million, A18-49: 1.4/ 3

5 million in the 2nd half hour, I think you guys just got owned, again.

I agree with Old Juan.

And I agree with another poster that there's really NO incentive to watch the rest of the season if you're NOT a Clana fan since the big story is all about Lana's womb and its contents and the two men playing pissing games over her. So even if they get it into their heads that Clana isn't the ratings hoohah that they thought it would be, it takes a long time to turn the ship around. I'd say skip to S7 and skip the poison candy.

"Combat" doesn't even have anything for a Clana fan, really.

But mobiusklein - I do strongly recommend everyone still tune in for "Progeny," for the guest star alone. And the fact that she has nothing to do with Lana, or Lois for that matter.

Unfortunately, I think stuff like Promise makes people wary and think what does it matter anyway. I like guest stars but guest stars do not a season make. I liked the guest star last night on SPN but she's not the reason I make the choice to skip Grey's anatomy and CSI (both which I'd watch instead if SPN ever got vile/boring/stupid). Especially considering concerns about Chloe's freak status.

SasukeUchiha, if the episode had averaged five million viewers for the whole hour, that would still only have been pretty good. About as good as "Zod" and "Fallout," but not nearly as good as "Justice," nor quite so good as "Freak," especially considering, again, the very heavy promotion of "Promise." The fact is, though, this episode, taken as a whole, had one of the lower viewership totals for the season. Again, considering how heavily it was promoted, and considering that much of its competition was in reruns like The Office, that's bad for this episode, and further evidence that Lana and Clana are not only not good, but positively bad, for the ratings.

Wasn't Freak preempted in a couple of markets too? I can't remember why though.

As do I.

They've already taken step 1 and had Chloe (and every other character) do a 180 and guilt Clark to crash the wedding to save Wana/Blahna/Satana (take your pick). I'm not looking forward to what they'll do to Chloe's character in "Progeny".

It just says a lot to me when even some hardcore Clark fans I usually argue with and totally have his back express extreme disappointment with him in this episode. And unlike most Clana fans, most viewers aren't going to watch if they lose their ability to like CLARK.

And SasukeUchiha, I wonder how the other higher rated episodes compared in the last half hour. It might be that they also rise in the last half hour (thereby still whipping Promise). Don't compare apples and oranges.

How come it's higher in the last half hour?

I honestly didn't see all this heavy promotion some of you are talking about, sure, it had those 4-5 trailers but that's to be expected after a 4 week hiatus, still, it averaged 4.6 millions viewers overall, that's pretty good considering everything.

But honestly the way Clana fans were going on and about it, it was like if Clana magically appeared again that the ratings would go through the roof. Not so much. There have been episodes where Lana isn't even IN the episode that do just fine.

To answer Verses' question, I can suppose they watch something else for the half hour then switch. In any case it doesn't say a GOOD thing that many people feel they can just skip the entire first half hour of SV.

4.54 is not 4.6, SasukeUchiha, but why quibble? How is being one of the least-watched episodes of the season pretty good? Only "Sneeze" (4.52 million), "Rage" (4.47 million), and "Subterranean" (4.31 million), had fewer viewers. And only "Subterranean" was substantially lower, and that episode was barely promoted at all. As for how heavily "Promise" was promoted, I don't have documentation on this, so maybe someone else can provide more concrete evidence than I can, but my recollection is that you couldn't watch the CW for more than fifteen minutes without catching an advert for "Promise" for at least a week prior; that's pretty heavy promotion.