The-Walking-Dead-on-AMCWinners and Losers From The Last 7 Days

WINNERS

HORROR TV: It’s been a big week for horror on TV as Halloween approaches and ratings for scary series continue to rise

First up of course is The Walking Dead. AMC’s zombie epic blasted back onto our screens on Sunday night with an amazing 7.25 million viewers and an eye popping 3.8 18-49 demo number (a further 2.17 million watched the encore showing immediately after the show). That’s the biggest 18-49 rating for a cable drama series EVER!

Meanwhile over on FX, American Horror Story is proving to be quite the hit. After a predictable week 2 decline, this week Story bounced back, up over 100,000 in viewers, and scoring 2.58 million and a 1.5 18-49 share. Plus with reviewers and audiences starting to embrace the show – and an Entertainment Weekly cover this week – look for American Horror Story to continue to grow in the weeks to come.

And finally, we’ve The Vampire Diaries over on The CW. This week the teen friendly vampire drama managed 3.03 million viewers and a 1.4 18-49 share – the ONLY show on The CW all week to climb above the 3 million mark (most of the CW shows can’t even bring in more than 2 million!) And fellow supernatural series The Secret Circle didn’t do too badly either – managing 2.12 million to emerge as the network’s number two series of the week.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: Okay, so we all knew The Walking Dead was going to come back big – but who saw this one coming?

Following the complete failure of How To Be A Gentleman in the post Big Bang Theory time slot, CBS this week brought back perennial understudy Rules Of Engagement – saving the show from a truly terrible Saturday night slot!

Well it turns out that was a pretty smart move. Rules debuted to 11.45 million and a 3.6 18-49 share, its best ratings in four years! Sure it inherited a juicy audience from The Big Bang Theory (14.93 million and a 5.1 youth share) – but that audience retention is a heck of a lot better than what Gentleman was managing. It’s also well above the show’s season 4 and 5 average. Yep, Rules Of Engagement is actually in its 6th season – can you believe that?

HOMELAND: I’m thrilled about this one! Over the last few weeks I’ve become quite a fan of Showtime’s domestic terrorism thrilled which is gradually easing my 24 withdrawal – so it’s great to see that audiences are also embracing the Claire Danes starring series.

On Sunday night Homeland managed 1.08 million viewers, equaling its series premiere (in combined viewings it actually beat the first episode) and a sure sign that audiences are sticking around. Remember Showtime is only available in a limited number of homes – so these are good figures for the network.

Now if they could somehow just work Jack Bauer into the show!

 Homeland-showtime

LOSERS

ENLIGHTENED: Homeland may be going great guns for pay cable network Showtime – but over on HBO, Laura Dern starrer Enlightened is performing terribly.

We’re only on episode 2 and already the show’s ratings are horrendous! Episode one scored 210,000 viewers, slipping to 190,000 a week later – and the 18-49 ratings are barely enough to register. By comparison, Boardwalk Empire regularly rates in the 2.5 million range and True Blood brings in more than 5 million viewers a week.

What went wrong? Are Laura Dern and Luke Wilson weak audience draws? Were audiences turned off by the subject matter? Or is there simply too much competition on our screens at the moment? I say all of the above. And while HBO doesn’t rely on ratings as much as its fellow networks – let’s just say a second season is looking increasingly unlikely at the moment.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: Those of us expecting Desperate Housewives to go out with a bang in its final season can think again!

Week after week, Season 8 of the ABC dramedy continues to hit series lows as the show drags itself to its merciful end next May. Maybe ABC should have canned the series at the end of Season 7 as show creator Marc Cherry originally planned?

This week Desperate Housewives managed just 8.27 million viewers and a 2.7 18-49 share. For a show that just a few years ago was watched by over 25 million people EVERY WEEK – that’s an alarming drop. Of course the fact that this season has sucked big time – and I’m a former Housewives’ fan – may have something to do with the fall.

Who knows at what level the ratings will be at next spring…

JERSEY SHORE: And finally… what goes up must come down!

Technically Jersey Shore doesn’t belong in our losers’ column. With 6.63 million viewers and a 3.7 18-49 share, the season 4 finale was the highest rated cable show of the night, beat pretty much everything on NBC all week and is still a massive hit.

So where’s the rub? Unfortunately Jersey Shore is a victim of its own success… those figures are impressive but they’re also down on previous highs. Season 3 ended with 7.6 million viewers and Season 4 kicked off with 8.8 million viewers.

There’s still mileage in the Jersey Shore franchise – but if I was The Situation and Snooki I’d definitely start planning my post-Shore ‘career’ – now!