Richard Drew
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Posts by Richard Drew
Ratings Roundup: 5th November 2011
Nov 5th
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS
REVENGE: Revenge is certainly proving sweet for ABC who’ve finally found a hit 10pm drama after a whole heap of misfires (The Whole Truth, Off The Map, Eastwick).
Revenge is still not a monster hit but anyone who knows anything about the TV industry can see when a phenomenon is brewing. Chat rooms and comment boards are filled with fans raving about the show, magazines are catching on (there’s a nice piece in this week’s Entertainment Weekly) and the show’s ratings are slowly inching up week by week.
This week’s episode of the Hamptons set soap opera pulled in 8.58 million viewers and a 3.0 18-49 share, Revenge’s highest demo score since the opening episode. And given that the show is getting better and better – and is fairly easy to pick up – I wouldn’t be surprised to see Revenge climbing above the 10 million mark in the very near future. Is the soap opera officially back?
The X Factor Top 12: So When Does The Judging Start?
Nov 3rd
So what did you make of last night’s X Factor – the first show of the season so far where we the audience will be voting?
Well first up I have to give some praise to stiff-as-a-board X Factor host Steve Jones, who FINALLY started to display some personality last night. Brit viewers will know that Steve can be a likable, funny presence on UK screens, but ever since he started hosting The X Factor it’s as though all vestiges of personality have been sucked out of him! Thankfully it seems that Fox took the note – and Steve was markedly looser last night – though he still has some way to go…
Meanwhile I have to be honest – pretty much every performance across the board was good, eliciting non-stop praise from the judges and making it hard for viewers at home to tell them apart. I felt a bit bombarded by last night’s episode since there were so many contestants and so much spectacle. What I needed – and wanted – was some real judgment from the ‘mentors’ which would have given the evening some much needed punctuation. But Nicole and Paula didn’t utter a single negative word all night, L.A. More >
Richard Recommends: American Horror Story
Nov 2nd
The Fall season is in full swing now – and what a season it’s been so far!
I don’t know about you but I’m feeling pretty spoiled for choice at the moment when it comes to TV shows – with a pretty stacked DVR that fills up every day. It’s quite a job keeping on top of all the great shows out there.
Best night of the TV week has to be Wednesdays – with Modern Family, Suburgatory, Revenge and The X Factor all essential viewing. And then there’s American Horror Story – the deliciously dark treat from FX that’s arguably the scariest TV show ever created!
I’ll be honest and admit that I was a little skeptical about Horror Story when I first heard about the show – mainly because of the series creator Ryan Murphy. Murphy’s Glee went off the rails alarmingly quickly and Ryan himself is a polarizing figure who doesn’t exactly do himself any favors in the PR department. I worried that American Horror Story would be too ridiculous and over the top and ultimately collapse under the weight of its own craziness.
The Walking Dead: MORE Walking, LESS Talking Please!
Nov 1st
(BE WARNED – SPOILERS ALERT)
Okay everyone – how are you all finding season 2 of The Walking Dead?
We’re only 3 episodes into the new season and already the AMC zombie series has given us some great, memorable moments. I loved the ‘herd’ scene in Episode 1, the shock ending in the same episode – and of course Episode 3’s OMG revelation of what happened on Shane’s trip to the zombie infested school (more on that scene in a moment!)
But I’m afraid I do have one pretty big criticism of the season so far – and I have a feeling quite a few of you out there are feeling the same way. Is it just me or has Season 2 been really TALKY so far?
Now I don’t mind slow paced shows. You’ve all heard me raving about Mad Men here on the site and that isn’t exactly a zippy show. And Homeland, which I’m also following at the moment, is also a pretty slow series. But for me, The Walking Dead has crossed over and actually become a tad – dare I say it – boring at times!
Do You Watch ANYTHING On CBS?
Oct 31st
In the year and a half that I’ve been writing Remote Patrolled we’ve covered a whole heap of shows on a range of networks from ABC to Fox to AMC to FX and many more. But as I was writing a piece last week a sudden thought hit me. There isn’t a single show on CBS that I regularly watch!
Now of course there are many other networks out there that I barely glance at. I can’t say I’m tuning into HGTV religiously, or BET, or any sports related channel. But CBS is a MAJOR network – in fact in terms of overall ratings it’s the biggest network of all. No other channel has a slate where virtually everything that airs attracts over 10 million viewers. And yet in our household CBS barely registers.
Ratings Roundup: 30th October 2011
Oct 30th
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS
FAIRYTALE TV: Looks like there might be a couple of happy ever afters for the broadcast networks this week!
After a mixed season with several successes but no major out of the box smashes, both ABC and NBC received some good news this week from some rather unexpected sources.
For ABC the pleasant surprise was Once Upon A Time, the fairy tale series that’s been tasked with launching their whole Sunday night line-up. Given that that line-up includes Desperate Housewives and Pan Am, two shows that define the phrase ‘fading fast’ that’s quite a tall order. But Once Upon A Time more than stepped up to the challenge, pulling in a terrific 12.93 million viewers and a 4.0 18-49 share. That’s ABC’s best drama premiere this Fall and LAST Fall! Now of course the question becomes – how will the ratings hold up in week 2? Remember Pan Am…
Richard Recommends: Suburgatory
Oct 28th
Time for a little comedy here at Remote Patrolled – and one of the most unexpected surprises of the Fall TV Season.
Let’s be honest – did anyone have high expectations for the new ABC sitcom Suburgatory? Aside from a dubious title and a complete lack of buzz there was also the fact that Suburgatory hailed from the producer of Emily’s Reasons Why Not – one of the biggest sitcom misfires of the last few years (remember how the Heather Graham starrer only aired ONE episode!)
But that’s the thing with the TV industry – you just never know where the next big hit might hail. Suburgatory isn’t a smash hit quite yet, but it’s doing a very good job as part of ABC’s terrific Wednesday night line-up and is gradually winning over an army of fans. For me the show is delivering at least 5 proper laughs an episode – which is 5 more than Two And A Half Men has ever given us – total!
In case you haven’t caught Suburgatory yet here’s the basic story. The show follows George and Tessa, a father and daughter who relocate from Manhattan to the suburbs. Tessa is the snarky teen who hates her new More >
101 Ways To Make TV Better: Enough With The 50’s / 60’s Set Series!
Oct 25th
We all know that TV sometimes isn’t a hive of originality – hello CBS – but sometimes the lack of imagination in the industry does leave me scratching my head!
Take the latest craze – for show’s set in the 50’s / 60’s!
A couple of days ago I posted the trailer for the new Starz series, Magic City, a show based in the hotel industry in Miami Beach in the late 50’s. Now I don’t want to be mean to Magic City and it may turn out to be an amazing show – but it’s hard not to look at the series and make comparisons with a certain iconic 60’s series set on Madison Avenue.
Yep, Mad Men has cast a large shadow on the TV industry and spawned more than its fair share of imitators. Of course we all know about The Playboy Club, the ill-fated NBC series that lasted just 3 episodes before being unceremoniously yanked in favor of Prime Suspect repeats (which are also stinking up the joint!)
2011 Fall TV Preview: Grimm
Oct 24th
When Does It Start: Friday 28th October at 9pm EST on NBC
In A Nutshell: Crime fighting gets a fairytale spin…
What’s It About: Nick Burkhardt is an ordinary homicide detective who’s about to make a startling discovery. Turns out Nick is descended from a long line of ‘Grimms’, crime fighters with the ability to see supernatural monsters hidden to the normal human eye. But Nick is also the last of his kind and must now devote his life to fighting fairytale killers who have infiltrated the real world…
Ratings Roundup: 23rd October 2011
Oct 23rd
Winners 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 More >
