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TV News: Syfy Renews ‘Alphas’ + Chris Harrison & ESPN MNF

by Bruce Simmons on September 8, 2011

In this chunk of TV news from Cinema Static, we touch on the renewal of the Syfy channel TV show, Alphas; what pageant Chris Harrison of The Bachelor franchise fame, has been tapped to host, and for just how long will ESPN hang on to Monday Night Football (MNF)!

Syfy’s Alphas

It was announced that the Syfy network has gone and renewed their new scripted sci-fi drama, Alphas. Syfy has ordered 13 new episodes of the TV show.

When Alphas premiered, it was their best performing scripted series in the last two years, up to that premiere date. (The power of curiosity and hope for a good show will kick butt every time with any TV viewer!)

Though numbers are not quoted in today’s press release, or whether they were up against new or rerun episodes, the press release noted that…

“in both key demos, Alphas has outperformed other new and returning scripted series this season including Teen Wolf, Rescue Me, Hawthorne and The Killing. Alphas also tops Memphis Beat in Adults 18-49.”

They also go on to chat about the on demand numbers are pretty good also, averaging over 240,000 episode plays within the first 7 days of an episode airing.

(Yes, that’s all capturable data, much like then TiVo let it out of the bag when someone had a nip-slip!)

I do watch Alphas, but it is on Monday nights and that’s not my best night for catching the TV show. I’m one of those on demand viewers. The TV show is not bad, if I must say so myself.

More press release snippets:

{Alphas, airing Monday nights at 10PM ET/PT on Syfy, follows a clandestine group of ordinary people whose unique neurological condition equips them with extraordinary physical abilities. Led by preeminent neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Lee Rosen (Emmy Award-winner and Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn (Temple Grandin, Good Night, and Good Luck) and operating within the Defense Department, the team investigates cases involving other Alpha activity. The ensemble cast also stars Malik Yoba (New York Undercover, Why Did I Get Married?), Warren Christie (October Road), Azita Ghanizada (Castle), Ryan Cartwright (Bones) and Laura Mennell (Watchmen). Valerie Cruz is a recurring guest star.

Notable guest stars this season include Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Garret Dillahunt (Raising Hope), Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman), Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Rebecca Mader (Lost) on September 12th and John Pyper Ferguson (Caprica) on September 26th.

Created by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow, Alphas is a production of Universal Cable Productions and BermanBraun Television.}

[Syfy press release]

After break is Chris Harrison and Monday Night Football TV news:

TV Ratings for Sun 11-14 to Tues 11-16 [DWTS, NCIS, The Walking Dead]

by Bruce Simmons on November 23, 2010

I’m a bit late on this report! But since I’ve made a promise about racking ratings to somebody, here are the TV Ratings for the 3 days, from Sun Nov 14th to Tues, Nov 16th:

Broadcast TV

The huge TV Ratings winner was Sunday night Football which pulled in over 26M viewers. In fact that Sunday (Nov 14th) football dominated 4 of the top 5 spots, but The OT squeaked into the fray that night.

Monday night was conquered by the reality TV series Dancing with the Stars and NCIS dominated it’s Tuesday slot, beating out the DWTS results show.

CABLE TV

Football again. Monday Night Football dominated on its night but The Walking Dead showed it’s superior story telling as a draw to the next most watched show on Cable with just over 5M viewers, followed by some Alaska show giving it a run for its money.

TV Ratings – Sun 11-7 to Tue 11-9 [NFL, MNF, DWTS, NCIS]

by Bruce Simmons on November 10, 2010

TV Ratings for Sun through Tues saw the NFL (27.8) dominate prime time Sunday, DWTS (20.0) won Monday but NCIS trounced it on Tuesday with 19.8 m viewers.

On the cable side of things, Hannah Montana Forever (7.1) won Sunday, MNF (15.0) won Monday and Sons of Anarchy pulled in 3.2 million viewers.

Stargate Universe viewers are down to nearly one million flat, with maybe folks bailing on the show/network with its partner show Caprica having been canned. And as the ship’s crew finally discovered that Rush had been running the ship and no one is happy. The Col gave him an ass-whooping for it, to boot. Yea… the crew has finally taken their seats on the bridge. Now we’re going somewhere as they decide: Try to go home, or continue the quest of the ship and that’s discover what was in the middle of the big bang that started it all. Meanwhile, Syfy’s WWE Raw pulled a strong 4.6 million viewers in for the network.

TV Ratings For Oct 27 – Nov 2 [DWTS, The Mentalist, The OT, CSI]

by Bruce Simmons on November 4, 2010

TV Ratings

Last week on the broadcast networks Sunday Night Football dominated the charts with twenty-five million viewers, followed by Dancing with the Stars with just under 20 million viewers. In fact these two shows dominated the top four spots, followed by the World Series in the next three spots on the charts. Then finally, The Mentalist, a scripted drama showed up in the top-10, at eighth with 14 million viewers. It was an odd week with the huge sporting events that took place. Woo hoo, congrats to the SF Giants!

CSI, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods and a repeat of NCIS made the top-20 shows. I had 81 shows total in the broadcast list. Smallville almost made 3 million viewers, which is up from the previous week. Supernatural stayed with around with 2.5 million viewers from the week before.

At the bottom of the list is Life Unexpected… they’re not getting the numbers and The CW has decided against picking up the final 9 episodes of the series… so fans are only going to get 13 episodes this season and there’s no word on the potential for renewal yet… though the signs aren’t looking great.

On the cable side of things, Monday Night Football on ESPN trounced everything with just under 12 million viewers and election coverage netted spots two through four. After that, the premiere of The Walking Dead trounced any other scripted cable drama with just over 5 million viewers. Check out my review of The Walking Dead to see what I thought of it.

Sons of Anarchy landed the 12th spot & HBO’s Boardwalk Empire netted 21st. Stargate Universe barely drew in a million people this last week.

I had 116 shows in my cable list.

Below are the top-25 spots on each and some select series that BruSimm enjoys during the week.

TV Ratings from 10-20 to 10-27 [DWTS, NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds]

by Bruce Simmons on October 29, 2010

TV ratings for the 7-day week starting on October 20th didn’t see any real huge surprises as DWTS, NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds and other Brusimm favorites that dominated the Nielsen TV ratings charts.

I think her name is Caprica, and she’s dead Jim!

The top TV broadcast of the week was Sunday Night Football, followed by CBS NFL Football! This week reality TV crawled up past scripted drama as Dancing with the Stars was the 3rd most watched show last week, even though NCIS had a 4 percent increase in viewers from the week before. (I am not tracking the % change in DWTS.)

CSI & Criminal Minds saw 3% more viewers and the huge viewer jump was with the Rocky Horror Glee episode which saw a 52% increase from the previous week’s repeat episode.

Blue Bloods & $#*! My Dad Says saw a 7% increase while Hawaii Five-0 had a 7% drop in viewers.

Other favorites that had good weeks was The Vampire Diaries which saw a huge 46% increase from the week before in viewers. While Supernatural’s story is getting pretty good in its sixth season, 15% fewer viewers got to enjoy it. Smallville’s final season episode last week saw a 23% drop in viewers.

TV Ratings for 10-13 to 10-19 [NCIS, The Mentalist, CSI, Criminal Minds]

by Bruce Simmons on October 21, 2010

NCIS with Michael Weatherly and Mark Harmon and Sean Murray

(L-R) Michael Weatherly, Mark Harmon and Sean Murray in NCIS

This last week saw the scripted crime drama NCIS actually beat out all the reality TV shows execpt one, if you can call the NFL a reality program, though luckily, it’s a sport so we don’t need to label it that! NCIS had a small boost in viewership from the previous week…

The big jump in viewers was CSI, with an increase of almost 14% from the week before and CSI: Miami, heartily surviving Sunday night and having a 13% increase in viewers. Detroit 187 also saw a great increase in traffic, at around 12%.

Though I seem to like Law & Order: Los Angeles, almost 14% fewer viewers did.

Smallville did well for The CW with just over 3 M viewers, and a huge 27% increase in viewers, as Supernatural also pulled in over 23% more viewers than the previous Friday night airing.

Of the top 15 shows, 6 of them are on Sundays, while Thursday & Tues each have 3 slots in that top-15.

The Prisoner on AMC Takes A Dump! [Cinema Static]

by Bruce Simmons on November 19, 2009

The Prisoner on AMC had a strong premiere showing. The show pulled in over 2 million viewers for its premiere. Yet the subsequent night, it barely pulled in a million pairs of eyeballs.

I think I know how AMC snagged in over 2 millions viewers. I happened to have watched their Matrix trilogy airings. Yes, I used plural. I’ve been sick and watching a lot of TV, much to my chagrin in some cases.

I think AMC plotted this premiere of The Prisoner very carefully. They aired a popular movie series and with every single commercial break, they pummeled you with at least 2 ads for The Prisoner. At least. And in EVERY COMMERCIAL BREAK. Or at least by the end of the weekend, that’s what it felt like.

I had seen so many ads that I recorded The Prisoner, looking to take a break from the show before it even started. If you like brain-teaser with a message, I’m sure you’re doing well with the show. But it gave me the feeling of LOST, but not. If that even makes sense.

Maybe Monday Night Football dinged the viewer numbers. There’s always the 7-day delayed viewer numbers that might prove otherwise to the lack of interest… even if the series is getting flogged by some reviews out. Any SoB readers catch the show? What did you think of it if you did?

I’d love a guest review!

reference: TV By The Numbers