Once-Upon-A-Time-on-ABC

WINNERS

ONCE UPON A TIME: Some shows crumble after a holiday hiatus – and some come back stronger than ever…

Case in point, ABC’s Once Upon A Time, which after some serious slippage towards the end of the year bounced back strong last week.

You may recall that Time launched big in October 2011 with 12.93 millions viewers but then lost viewers every single week. By mid-December the show was below the 9 million mark and ABC had to be wondering if the show was going to crater a la Pan Am.

But last week Once Upon A Time showed a serious rebound – scoring 10.35 million viewers and a strong 3.7 18-49 share. For ABC – which this week had to put the dreadful Work It out of its misery – this is definitely a happy ending. For now at least!

ROB: What do the critics know?

I had to ask myself this question Friday morning after the ratings came in for the critically slammed Rob (which I have to admit didn’t look too hot to me either!)

Despite widespread derision Rob pulled in 13.47 million viewers and a 4.1 18-49 rating – one of the strongest numbers of the week. Many commentators jumped on the ratings, proclaiming Rob a smash hit. But while the numbers are impressive, let me sound a note of caution.

For starters Rob inherited a huge audience from lead in The Big Bang Theory (16.13 million) and airs on CBS, where pretty much every show does well. Also next week Rob is up against American Idol which is a ratings monster, especially in its early audition shows.

Finally, although Rob debuted well, it was actually BELOW the numbers clocked in by the William Shatner misfire $#*! My Dad Says – a show that ended up being cancelled after just one season on the air.

So hold off on the champagne for now at least. In TV it’s week 2 and beyond that really matters…

FACE OFF: Speaking of ‘second time around’ – there was no sophomore slump over at Syfy this week, where returning make up effects competition Face Off returned big!

Last season Face Off averaged 1.4 million viewers per episode – but this week the show shot up to 1.97 million viewers and a 0.9 18-49 share. That’s better than a lot of shows on The CW and actually far superior to the much talked about Hot In Cleveland (which has been fading since its first season)

Plus remember that often reality shows grow over the course of their season – so who knows where Face Off might be in a few weeks time. As a huge fan of the show I’m thrilled – TV needs more quality reality – and less Kardashian style fakery.

LOSER

THE FIRM: And the bad news just keeps coming for NBC!

Earlier in the month I questioned the wisdom of the Peacock network for resurrecting The Firm, the 1993 Tom Cruise movie that’s largely been forgotten as a decent enough 90’s legal thriller.

But in a move of breathtaking stupidity, the network went ahead and commissioned an entire series based around the film. And what happened? Audiences didn’t care. Gosh what a shocker!

The Firm premiered on Sunday night with a weak 6.32 million viewers and a pitiful 1.4 18-49 share. That’s almost 50% lower than the dreadful super-hero series The Cape (remember that stinker) In fact it’s NBC’s lowest rated regular season drama debut EVER!

But it gets worse. Later in the week The Firm debuted in its Thursday 10pm time slot and performed even more poorly – managing just 4.23 million and an atrocious 1.0 youth share. That Prime Suspect slot truly is cursed for NBC at the moment. So how long will it be until The Firm gets relegated to the Saturday night dead zone (NBC have 22 episodes of this turkey to burn off). And can Smash and The Voice really turn the beleaguered network around – or is it too far gone?

THE FINDER: Another Thursday night stinker – and this one belongs to Fox.

I don’t know about you but if you had to ask me what’s the one thing TV is really missing at the moment I’d have to answer ‘A Bones spin off!’ Okay, to be fair, I’m not a Bones follower and I know it does have a loyal fan based over at Fox. But clearly those fans are perfectly happy with Bones version 1.0 and have little to no interest in a sequel.

Debuting on Thursday, The Finder pulled in just 5.50 million viewers and a weak 1.7 18-49 share. That’s a sharp drop from the 8.64 million viewers (and a 2.4 youth share) who tuned in for the original Bones earlier in the evening. So over 3 million Bones fans had no interest in seeing a Bones spin off, even though it aired directly after their show. Ouch!

Still there is one sliver of hope for The Finder. A certain little show called American Idol debuts next week and will be The Finder’s new lead in. Can J.Lo and Steven Tyler do what Booth and Brennan couldn’t? We shall soon find out…