Unless you follow the industry closely, you may miss just how big this next note is, so a tiny bit of background...

One of the numbers that networks follow closely is "intent to view"--surveys of potential audiences which tracks what they say they intend to watch. Shows move up and down on this list frequently, and it's one way the networks measure the success of their buzz campaigns. It's also a clue to "sleeper hits"--if nobody in the press is talking much about a show but it makes the top 15 in "intent to view," it means there's either a lot of word of mouth or a dedicated core audience.

Bionic Woman has been leading "intent to view" most of the summer. But Private Practice (the lead-in to Dirty Sexy Money) has been #2 on and off. Since they air opposite each other, people can't watch both unless they're using TiVO, but both could score big.

James Hibbard at TV Week is reporting for Sept. 13 that not only is Private Practice back in a 3 way tie for 2nd, and Dirty Sexy Money in the top 10, but ABC's entire Wednesday night lineup is on the list. That's good news for DSM because, among other things, it means ABC is likely to do a lot of combined promos, which stretch the buzz budget.

Even if Bionic Woman wins the rating wars against Private Practice, it could be good for DSM if it means more people stay home to watch something on Wednesdays. Coming in in the clean-up spot at 10, it gets one more chance to pull in some of the theoretically bigger audience.

Of course, if everybody's watching on time-delay, it only makes a difference in the buzz budgets. But it still looks like less than 15% catch a show on DVR, although those numbers keep growing.

It's competing with CSI: NY and Life, which is a new show on NBC. I'm not totally sure how the CSI:NY ratings normally do, that would be something to research. It may depend how this new show pans out for NBC. I'd say theyre in good shape right now.

So pumped for the ABC Wednesday lineup! And I'm kind of obsessed with the family's last name. It's awesome.

I don't think the time should be a problem. Private Practice is a strong lead in, and they both have a comic undertone which should appeal to similar audiences.

Being at 10 lets DSM play with a more "adult" presentation, not just in themes, but in the visuals. Dramas with "adult material" can't be aired earlier than 10 p.m. in the United States due to the FCC's broadcast standards on indecency. So 10 p.m. is the usual time for those shows. Same reason Cane will air at 10 p.m. Brothers and Sisters and Boston Legal also air at 10 for the same reasons (adult themes).

Airing the show before 10 would require significantly reworking it to bring it down to a "PG" level, or adding more "meanignful context," and either would change the aspect of the show significantly. (Grey's Anatomy gets away with its stuff, which admittedly pushes the edge, because of its context in a dramatic plot. DSM, which is played much more sardonically, is just the other side of the same line. )

It's true Wednesday night's 10 pm competition in CSI is tough, but every night is tough, really. right now ABC is pushing its full Wednesday night line up (Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, DSM) as a block, which should mean additional network buzz money for it, so that's a good thing.

I think it has to be a 10 pm show, and Wednesday night is as good a night as any, and probably better than most. We'll see.

Edited to add on Sept. 19th:

Medialife ran a long article about how ABC has planned its schedule for the new fall season.

DSM will be one of the shows available for viewing free online at the new video AOL site. Episodes will be available for about a month after broadcast airing. This is an official ABC offering. The online service does include closed captioning, a nice feature. I don't know if it's available to those outside the US or not.



These viewings will not count in a show's ratings, however.

On the Preview list for Fall, DSM was under Tuesdays at 9pm! I even set my stuff for it last week. Then today they had it on the side of the bus it starts the 26th at 10! I was pissed off! Two shows could thrive we saw that with the CSI & Greys match off. But I don't care what critics are talking about! They swore "Studio 60" was gonna be good, when it was trash at best. PP is not lasting past season 2. IF that long, I wont be watching it either way. I wish this was paired with Greys on Thursdays at 10, put "Big Shots" after Practice. I don't want that shows smell on this one. Then I could have Thursdays with two great shows, this one & Greys. This would be just like Monday, I got Prison Break & Heroes. Damn the scheduling! Please ABC move this to Thursday, I dont see it failing. Greys lead in at worst will be 20 million/best 26 million, then we could go into DSM. PP I think it might start with like 15 million then taper off until its getting under 10 & the suits will cancel it.

Any idea if there's going to be a replay? My DVR didn't work, and I was watching Top Chef instead. Grrr. I'm assuming that it may show on abc.com, but I hate watching shows from their website.

I think ABC should move it also, PP is not a good lead in at all. There was an article weeks ago that stated the biggest mistake ABC is making is by having Big Shots after Grey's and not DSM.

But then DSM would have to compete against ER and Without a Trace. Right now, DSM is competing against Life (which will likely get lower ratings than ER) and CSI: New York (which will likely get lower ratings than Without a Trace). And DSM's drop from Grey's Anatomy would likely be more pronounced than its drop from Private Practice.

Also, I still watch ER (shut up). I don't have anything to watch on Wednesday at 10pm.

I think Wednesday at 10 is a great timeslot... Thursday at 10 the bar is much higher.

As for tonight... I fully expect at least 12-13 million viewers(8.0 or higher fast national). CSI: NY may beat it barely in viewers, but I'm hopeful it will come in first.

From Marc Berman:

In the 10-11 p.m. battle of the two series premieres (ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money and NBC’s Life) versus the season premiere of CBS’ now veteran CSI: NY, the Big Apple forensic crime solvers took the hour with an 8.8/14 in the overnights. But compared to its year-ago season-premiere (10.8/17 on Sept. 20, 2006), that was a loss of 19 percent. Dirty Sexy Money finished second in the hour, with a 7.9/12, followed by Life at a 6.9/11. Although Life did actually build by 15 percent from the overnight debut of year-ago occupant Kidnapped (6.0/10 on Sept. 20, 2006), retention of just 74 percent out of the second half-hour of The Bionic Woman (9.3/14) is a concern. Dirty Sexy Money had better retention out of Private Practice (83 percent), but both new dramas lost steam at 10:30 p.m. Take a look:

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)
10:00 p.m. 8.3/13
10:30 p.m. 7.4/12
Percent Change: -11

Life (NBC)
10:00 p.m. 7.4/11
10:30 p.m. 6.4/11
Percent Change: -14

Wow, nice predicitons, TVGuy88. I assume you edited in the true numbers after you wrote the first paragraph.

Also, YAY for the numbers being what they are! I know it's not astonishing or anything, but I think ABC can probably live with it for now. Hopefully. *crosses fingers*

I am not surprised by the drop after "Private Practice", as I'm not sure that the target audiences are really 100% similar, and dramatically, they are very different type shows.

BUT... I think the up side to a middling start for "Dirty Sexy Money" is that it will have "legs" on super-strong word of mouth like you wouldn't believe. We may actually start thinking, later in the season, as PP being DSM's opener, rather than the other way around.

I think DSM may surpass PP eventually, perhaps before January. This reminds me a bit of DH/Grey's(although Grey's aired after the SB and then overtook DH), and of course it ended up moving to another night. This also reminds me of Brothers and Sisters... and it's made by the same person!

If it can maintain at least a 6.5 rating I think it will stick around(remember that none of the new shows so far have done above a 9.5, and most have been in the 6's and 7's). I expect PP to drop quite a bit next week, and DSM probably will a little, but I don't think as bad. I could see PP getting around a 8 to 8.5 next week and DSM getting a low 7(in fast nationals, the premiere got a 7.4).

Tonight I discovered that ABC is putting Dirty Sexy Money up On Demand on Comcast Digital Cable - both regular and HD (I believe) . . . at least there was an HD tab which I didn't bother checking since I don't have HD. (And it's free - which is nice.)

Sumik, I got very excited, until I searched and realized that Time Warner wasn't doing the same thing. Sigh.

Thanks for the info Sumik, I really wanted to see the pilot again but wasn't in the mood to watch it online.

Thanks, ABC. I see they really are pushing the show.

It's also airing on E! Sunday at 5pm ET.

Hopefully it can pick up some new viewers.

My TV guide thing says this one is a behind the scenes/promo show. And the ABC site doesn't have the full episode pilot up yet...well, I can't find it, doesn't mean it isn't there.

Though it says at E! it's a behind the scenes show it says here that E! will rerun DSM episodes.

YumYum, I haven't been able to find it on the website, either.

Though, PoiPounder, when you click on the 'more info' it just shows a synopsis of the first episode, so maybe it is that, just poorly named.

Really, it is ridiculous that I spent this much time thinking about scheduling and finding shows to watch. :)

I've been able to watch DSM online twice so far. When you launch the player DSM is sandwiched between Private Practice and Lost. Hope that helps.

PoiPounder, you rock! I swear, it wasn't there yesterday! Really!

Hah! I found it, too. Something our computer didn't have had to load first. It's still tricky getting the right show....they sort of zip along there...

Off to watch it. Thanks.

Wow, I finally watched the pilot at ABC.com and I was very impressed and entertained. I hope the ratings get more promising. The demos last week were not as good as the household ratings, and demos are 1000 times more important to advertisers. (Sad but true: If you're age 50+, advertisers believe you are worthless. Yes, advertisers are scum.)

From Media Life:So let's see. "DSM" held 71% of its demo lead-in, and "Life" held 75%. So, both could've been better and could've been worse. "DSM" is competitive so far, but ABC might've been expecting more.

The upside is that prime-time soaps are sometimes known to increase in the ratings as they progress. But does this count as a prime-time soap? Also, DVR usage has reportedly impacted the 10 p.m. very heavily this season. I wonder if more people DVRed "DSM" than "Life." Anyway, the ratings for the second and third episodes are crucial.

From Berman:

Second was week two of ABC's Dirty Sexy Money at a 6.7/11, followed by week two of NBC's Life at a 6.4/11. Comparably, both shows declined by typical levels from their week-ago debuts, with Dirty Sexy Money off by 15 percent (7.9/12 to 6.7/11) and Life down by seven percent (6.9/11 to 6.4/11). What concerns me about both dramas, however, is another week off losses at 10:30 p.m. Take a look:

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)
10:00 p.m. 7.1/11
10:30 p.m. 6.2/10
Percent Change: -13

Not good... especially the half-hour drop. It should be noted that both PP and BW were down 14% from last week.

But despite what Marc Berman would have you believe, household numbers don't matter to most advertisers. Only demo numbers matter (it's not morally defensible, but it's true). And the numbers among adults 18-49 tell a very different story. This show is starting to look promising because -- get this -- it did not decline among adults 18-49 from last week -- which is very very unusual. Most shows decline by 15 to 25 percent in their second week. If a show declines by only 10 percent, that's considered good. The downside is that, again, it lost some of those adults 18-49 in its second half-hour, but this happens to a lot of 10 p.m. shows.

From Media Life (a much more unbiased and demo-oriented source than Berman):This time "DSM" pounded "Life" and showed better retention (80%) out of "Practice." "Life" again only held about 75% out its lead-in. Staying this close to established hit "CSI: NY" in the ratings would keep ABC very competitive in this slot -- and very happy.

ETA: Ooops, I forgot this show started at 10:02 p.m., not 10 p.m. So we will see a small drop in the final nationals, because fast nationals apparently measure timeslots, not shows. Right now, we've still got 2 minutes of "Practice" ratings mucking up the averages. Oh and TVGuy, I wouldn't say "Chuck" is in FAR worse shape... its head is above water... so far. "DSM" is looking more promising though, with no drop in its second week.

Yep, I will say these numbers look better. It also got a 6.7/11 in the fast nationals, an entire point above Life and only a minimal drop from last week. The half-hour drop does concern me, but there are a lot of new shows in FAR worse shape(I'm looking at you Chuck, Journeyman, Cane, Back to You, Kid Nation, Big Shots).

These numbers are actually quite promising. The drop in the half-hours is caused by the 10:02pm start, so the ratings didn't drop, because people tuned out, really.

This show is simply brilliant and I want to stick around for a long time!

Marc Berman's take on the numbers

I wish it hadn't dropped again... because it's lead-in was the same as last week. Ugh.

I hate that it dropped to below 9 million viewers but as always I prefer Media Life take on the rating since they go for the demo and they remember DVR ratings.

Media Life

Numbers for October 17th episode.






http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/pr...sider/index.jsp


I've seen the show's ratings called "disappointing" more than once now. Given the presence of PK, DS, and JC - and the sheer size of the cast oveall - this show can't be cheap to produce. I wonder what level of ratings the network was hoping to achieve with this show. What's the minimum rating it needs to give it some longevity? I'm beginning to fear we won't get a full season... which would be a criminal shame since it's all so bloody brilliant.

Fast Nationals were higher than last week(6.4 vs. 6.1) and it was taken off the disappointing list when the update came out, with competitor Life on the loser list.

It's going to be around for awhile.

It's not a hit, but I agree with TVGuy88, I don't think it will stay in a "disappointing" category, either.

There are a couple of things going for it. First, 10 o'clock shows are the ones most likely to be DVRd, and 10 o'clock shows with lots of competition even moreso. Live plus 7 won't matter, but for a Wednesday show, live plus 3 will definitely help a bit with advertisers.

Second, like West Wing, this show has the potential to pull in a wealthier demographic, which could help keep it on the air. Add an absolutely amazing opportunity for product placement for the wealthy (since these people are definitely the kind who mention labels frequently), and I think there's a good potential match between sponsor and demo, always a good sign.

With almost no special effects required, costs except for cast are going to be quite adjustable from episode to episode.

Finally, it gets excellent media coverage and has very media-friendly stars in Sutherland and Krause. That's another plus.

We'll see what happens, and it would be nice to see it do a little better, but I don't think it's in any particular danger yet.

TVGuy88 and marty118 - Thank you both for your helpful info and comments. Beyond being able to make the simple ovbservation that number A is bigger (or smaller) than number B, the ins and outs of TV ratings continue to elude me. I'm very glad the situation isn't as negative as I was beginning to fear.

Not as high as one wants, but compare to the ratings of shows like Boston Legal and this whole ABC Wednesday line up is doing well. It doesn't have the high drop in ratings like the NBC shows (Bionic Woman, Life). I hope ABC will be patient with the show. I agree the potential for high-income viewers has to be a draw as well as potential critical awards/acclaim. Besides, it's holding 3/4 of the Private Practice audience. I just wish ABC would put this show after Grey's Anatomy instead to broaden its audience. Word has it though that the McPherson is a bigger fan of Big Shots than DSM. Ugh.

If you just look at the Fall schedule, there are several ABC shows that could potentially swap in to the 10 o'clock Wednesday or 10 o'clock Thursday slots. Men in Trees is available. Miss/Guided is still scheduled as a midseason replacement, right? Cashmere Mafia comes in in late November. Eli Stone, maybe, although I don't know how it fits with Private Practice. But even Samantha Who? could fit if they want to move it off of Mondays. Womens Murder Club could also move if it does well. They could also try swapping DSM and Brothers and Sisters, although that's a risky move.

But this year is different, because Lost is returning in January. If they put it back on Wednesday, who follows it and where does Private Practice go?

I'm sure ABC is considering some schedule juggling when Lost returns, but for just that reason, and the potential writers strike, I think we may see some of the fall starts hanging on a little longer than usual while everyone waits to see who their audiences are. But they could always put Lost on Tuesdays at 9, too, and leave Wednesdays alone if it's working. So we'll see.

It's definitely an unusual season because you have a known hit (even if the numbers are down) coming in midseason.

"Dirty Sexy Money" is obviously not a blockbuster, but I wouldn't say its ratings are bad at all.

Over the past 4 weeks the show has averaged well over 9 million viewers and I'm not counting DVR numbers. It's lead-in "Private Practice" pulls in about 12 million. That means the show retains 70-80% of its lead-in. For comparison, last year DSM's predecessor "The Nine" averaged 7.5 million out of "LOST's" 16-18 million (about 45% retention).

Later the network averaged 5-6 million in the timeslot while airing newsmagazines out of lackluster "Daybreak." Only the return of "LOST" (a global TV phenomenon) improved ABC's performance in the timeslot to 11-12 million. DSM's task this year is to improve ABC's performance in the timeslot. Although ABC may have expected DSM to do better, it is still fulfilling that task.

Also, last year "Brothers & Sisters" (also a Greg Berlanti production) normally retained only about 60% of "Desperate Housewives" audience and it was only a drop in DH numbers come spring that the retention improved. "Brothers & Sisters" is now considered a hit, but mainly because it remained stable despite a strong decline in DH numbers.

Then, if you look at this Top-100 chart for season thus far through October 14 (that would include the first 3 episodes) DSM's average numbers were higher than those of "Big Shots." That means the only 10pm shows doing better on ABC than DSM are "Brothers & Sisters" and "Boston Legal" (the latter only slightly better) and they have blockbuster lead-ins in "Desperate Housewives" and "Dancing with the Stars." If DSM aired after one of those shows, I'm sure it would do better.

Also, over the past 4 weeks, DSM fell only 15% since the pilot episode. Most new shows drop at least 10-15% immediately in the second week. For comparison, NBC's "The Bionic Woman" which premiered on a par with "Private Practice" and was one of this season's biggest new hits has now cooled down 37% and this week it did worse than DSM.

Now, if you look at the above-linked top-100 shows, you'll see that the only new shows on other networks which did better than DSM were "Bionic Woman" on NBC and "Cane" on CBS. This week, both shows did worse than DSM. That means that as of this week DSM has higher ratings than any other non-ABC freshman series.

The show also ranks #1 in the timeslot among adults 18-34 and women 18-34 beating "CSI: NY" in those demos.

I could go on and on. The conclusion is - DSM is no blockbuster, but its ratings are not as bad as they may seem. Of course, if the show continues to decline and goes below 8 million, I'll get worried.

Since Private Practice is scheduled until 2 minutes past the hour (until 10:02 on the US East coast), it runs over into DSM's 10 o'clock hour ratings.

Can someone with more insight into network scheduling strategy/ratings shed some light on a couple of things for me?

• What the strategy is for doing this? Is it just to get an extra 2 minutes of PP? Or is ABC trying to pull viewers straight from PP into DSM, without giving viewers a chance to network hop off to reruns of the PBS news hour, America's Next Top Extreme Supernanny or CSI:NY or something.
  
• Also, what effect does that have on ratings, and how ratings are perceived?. Say PP had 10M viewers, and those 10M viewers were still tuned in at 10pm - do those viewers count in DSM's #'s, or is another snapshot taken at 10:03 to get 'top of the hour' #'s for DSM. And depending on how that's handled, how are changes in the 2nd half hour calculated and perceived?
  It seems that 2nd half-hour viewership could be seen as +/- PP (retention from DSM's lead-in) or +/- it's own first half hour viewers. Losing viewers in either case is bad - but one would be losing viewers from a lead-in, and the other would be losing viewers who turned in , sampled the show, and turned it off. I'm curious which it is, and which is worse.

[ The ratings may not be horrible, I'm hoping they improve a bit, partly so others can enjoy it too, but mostly so I can just relax and enjoy the show...]

Ugh is right. I had a fear that the ratings were less than ABC desired the minute they started with the voice-over recap.

ABC started running extra minutes 3 seasons ago when DH and Lost became smash hits overnight. I believe it is for two reasons. I know during Grey's it is to get more ad time(which means more money, because commericals during Grey's obviously cost more than other lower-rated shows). I would assume the same is true for PP. It is NOT two extra minutes of actual show. I also think that it is to try and help the show that follows it, so people won't change the channel, but I don't think that really works in most cases(as evidenced by the failure of shows after Grey's).

As far as the ratings go, the fast nationals include the final 2 minutes of PP, when the finals come out later and DSM and all the other shows that have a hit overrun into them drop(B&S, Bachelor, BL, DSM, BS etc.), then you get the number of how many actually watched the 10pm show. This also makes the half-hour drop look worse than it actually is(and you'll normally see on the finals not as big of a drop, because part of the drop is people at 10:02 leaving, not leaving the show halfway through).

I hope this helped explain it.

FWIW... I don't think ABC Wednesday is changing much. I do think it's possible DSM could get a try after Grey's however(and then depending on that it would either stay there with something else airing after PP or come back to Wednesday). Big Shots is likely gonna get pulled before sweeps. Lost will probably go to Tuesday IMO(or possibly Thursday at 10, but I seriously doubt that one for other reasons).

Yes it did. Thanks TVGuy88!

In a Broadcasting & Cable article about "Pushing Daisies" being picked up for a full season:

Second behind The World Series in the 10 p.m. hour was CBS’ still potent CSI: NY, at 13.64 million viewers and a 3.8/10 among adults 18-49. Next was Dirty Sexy Money on ABC (Viewers: #3, 8.56 million; A18-49: #3, 3.2/ 6), followed by Life on NBC (Viewers: #4, 6.85 million; A18-49: #4, 2.5/ 6). Take a look at the retention for both freshman dramas out of their lead-ins:

Dirty Sexy Money out of Private Practice
Viewers: 73 percent, A18-49: 71 percent

Life out of Bionic Woman
Viewers: 88 percent, A18-49: 76 percent

At 10 p.m., the World Series dipped a bit to 10.3/17 as the Sox routed the Colorado Rockies, 13-1. "CSI: NY" posted an 8.8/14 to put CBS in second. "Dirty Sexy Money" averaged 6.0/10 for ABC, topping "Life" on NBC.

Held up pretty well despite the World Series. It should be noted that Bionic Woman fell into the 4's while PP was in the low 8's, so these numbers are not bad at all. Retention is actually better than B&S out of DH on Sunday and CONSIDERABLY better than everything out of Grey's.

Several sources are reporting that DSM has been given an order for 3 more scripts, which should at least get it through until Big Shots is gone. With both Bionic Woman and Life fading somewhat, ABC may decide it's happy with its Wednesday and leave it alone while it works on other issues. (Big Shots, Carpoolers, Cavemen, and what to do about Cashmere Mafia.)

Fellow Canadian (and anybody else watching CTV):

The Amazing Race will start playing on 4 November and I can't find DSM anytime on CTV that week. Does that mean that CTV drops DSM?

It's apparently moving to A-Channel and will air in the same timeslot ABC airs it, Wednesday at 10!

http://www.channelcanada.com/Article2038.html

That sucks for me! I always counted on CTV Sunday to watch the show if I happened to miss it on Wednesday. Good think I taped it last Wed "just in case". I would have hated to have missed the chocolate aristocrats.

Do script orders really mean anything right now? I've followed quite a few cancelled shows with scripts ordered but never produced. And it seems like all the new shows are getting script orders, due to the impending writer's strike.

Some promising news: according to this article from Mediaweek, it looks like DSM will be sticking around, since right now ABC isn't planning on changing anything on Wednesday nights (in the US).

It seems to be stabilizing nicely in its Wednesday slot vs. CSI: NY (8.38 million viewers and a 2.9/8 in the 18-49 demo according to the overnight ratings).

{snip}

Does anyone know if the pilot is available to be legally watched online anywhere? I checked abc.com, but the seem to only have the most recent 2 episodes, and the shows not on i-tunes. Are there any plans to re-run it?

I'm thinking if I want to try to hook people on this show, although the pilot might not be the strongest episode, it does give a set up of the characters and situation (with a little more depth than the 20 second Nick VO every episode)

ETA: News of the WGA strike from pifeedback.com
some general news on the strike....

and a response from another poster who claims to work on DSM describing the situation on the show:


Uh-oh