ChuckTV.net The CHUCK archive
The fast overnights for Mondays primetime shows are in and it looks like the premiere week bloom is off the rose. Chuck is down slightly from last week, averaging 5.3 million viewers and a 1.9 in the 18-49 demo. Updated: The final numbers are out and Chuck adjusted up to a 2.0 in the demo, meaning it stayed level with last week’s demo numbers.
By comparison, timeslot competitor Dancing With the Stars was down from a 4.6 in the demo to a 4.3 , House dropped from a 4.1 in the demo to a 3.7. CBS was the only network to see increases during the hour with How I Met Your Mother rising from 3.6 to 3.8 and Rules of Engagement from 3.1 to 3.2. 90210 was flat. Elsewhere on NBC, The Event fell from a 3.7 in the demo during its premiere to a 2.9 this week while Chase fell from a 2.5 to a 2.1.
Note: NBC provided almost no promotion for Chuck, again focusing on their new series. Couple that with the expected first-to-second week drop for any series and this isn’t cause for wringing of hands or gnashing of teeth, not yet.
This is really disappointing – vs The Suitcase has to be one of the best episodes of the entire series.
GUYS, DID YOU SEE THIS: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RrObyQ3XzcY/TKNTX8ff20I/AAAAAAAA08s/K3FkWUb-aF8/s1600/Clipboard01.jpg ?
According to spoilertv Chuck is really really in danger, aka likely to be cancelled as of today (Sept. 30th).
Please say it ain’t true!!!
It ain’t true. 🙂 Their index doesn’t account for a lot of variables that NBC uses when making decisions like this. Don’t be scared.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the info, Mel!!! (Happiness dance)
What would we do without you guys? We would be just a bunch of desperate fans believing everything we read 😉
(Happiness dance continues)
I don’t get it. It was a great show last night. This season is off to an awesome start. So disapponting!
This is why Chuck is always in danger because NBC never promotes it. I’m scared now.
I have to agree… No promotion until renewing season then they let the fans do their promotion for them 😛
That’s the best way of putting things everybody couldn’t until now. I mean, it is true, NBC doesn’t promote Chuck and then Ihave to make 30,000 posts on Facebook, Twitter etc. just to save the world’s best series. 🙁
Another mixed bag for it’s timeslot. The 18-49 drop was smaller than DWTS or House (or overall), but Chuck took the biggest hit in total viewers out of everyone.
Vs other NBC shows last night, it’s slightly better news. “Chase” and “The Event” were both down more (especially “The Event”), but Chuck was still #3 on NBC for the night. It’s also got a long way to go though – last week Chuck came in 2nd last for NBC Mon-Thurs primetime shows (at 28% under the average 18-49 share for NBC), beating only “The Apprentice”. It NEEDS to improve it’s ranking on the network to survive.
But hey, it could be worse. Chuck could have numbers like Lone Star.
‘But hey, it could be worse. Chuck could have numbers like Lone Star’ Don’t say that please. I’m scared enough about the show to hear what LS had. That’s pretty miserable.
Don’t be scared. NBC knows that they’re getting OK returns on very little promotion. It’s a bottom line issue for them and, at the moment, they’re getting a decent ROI from Chuck while they focus on launching their new shows.
Good to know that they know it (awful sentence, sorry;)). And since the other NBC shows aren’t getting amazing ratings, it is also positive for Chuck, isn’t it? If NBC only has hits, then BUH-BYE Chuck, but if they have shows with moderate success, then Chuck has more of a shot at a 5th season, right?
But seriously, how come there is a supermodel catfight and there are no promos during sport/football? Come on, NBC!! Those would be guaranteed viewers!
How Chuck’s numbers compare to other NBC shows is a huge factor in renewal.
For reference, Chuck ended last season as NBC’s 5th best scripted show and was 5% below NBC’s average rating for scripted. Last week Chuck was 10th and 25% below average, though strong premieres for “The Event” and “Outsourced” will skew the average, and Chuck is easily close enough to jump over “Undercovers”, “Chase”, and “Community” (possibly this week for Undercovers and Community).
I wouldn’t worry about Chuck having a Lone Star-like ratings crash. That can pretty much only happen with new shows or shows returning with a MAJOR shift in premise (only example of that I can think of is “Battlestar 1980”). Far more of a shift than what Chuck has had this season.
The real worst-case scenario for Chuck is a slow bleed in the ratings. But 2 weeks isn’t enough to establish that as what is happening.
When the management change at NBC is complete, I hope they clean house in the promotional department. They don’t need to waste time cancelling shows. NBC has a small handful of gems that nobody watches because nobody seems to know how to effectively promote. The same 2 or 3 shows get hyped to death on NBC. Hell, they even run ads for these same shows on SyFy and USA. But you have to watch all day to catch a single mention of “Chuck”, and even then it’s really an ad for “The Event” with a brief mention that it’s on after “Chuck” accompanied by a brief glimpse of Zac or Yvonne. Makes me want to scream.
I have to agree, Chase gets promoted every other commercial, and The Event get’s half as much. Chuck get’s at least 1 1/2 percent of promotion it’s disgusting.
We all know if you do not advertise you get squat chuck needs better backing from the network if they trusted it enough to be the opener for Monday nights why they don’t package it as a trio of shows thats what eludes me.
love watching Chuck can’t get my wife to get on the train though(she doesn’t get most of the “nerdisms” that are on the show)
When do the Live+3day results come out? There is just too much happening Monday nights at 8 when you factor in the new shows plus Monday night Football (which had a good matchup last night). I bet Chuck does well when the DVR numbers are factored in. It’s do better live if NBC would get it out of the slaughterhouse of a timeslot.
When the whole time slot is down (18-49 viewership dropped 7% this week), “what else is on” likely isn’t the issue. DWTS and House both had huge drops in 18-49 numbers, with HIMYM posting only modest gains. With that much of a drop, if time slot was an issue we should have seen a pickup in the Chuck numbers.
No clue about the Live+3, but same-day DVR numbers are included in the overnights.
There was a football game on.
There was a football game on the week before, too.
Dang. That’s discouraging. 🙁
I’m scared now. And we’re only two episodes in! <3
I think nbc should count the views on hulu
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one that bailed on The Event. Borrrrrrring. As long as Chuck holds realtively steady I’m not going to worry too much. It’s made it this far without a huge spike or drop. Just gotta keep eating those nasty Subs. 😉
Yes you are not the only one unimpressed by The Event. I don’t care for that style of flashing back and forth in time – to me its very annoying. Not to mention the thing in the premiere of the plane disappearing. I’m sure some found that very cool, but not me.
Damn them Reality TV shows, they’re really pissing me off when everything else is compared to them and losing audience in this fantasy worship of celebrities. I have faith in Chuck. I’m done with TV if they cancel it with all that the show has endured.
Hi chuck is the best show but all the awensom explosion of the first two season was lost, ok reduced budget can cause this but why, in order to contain the costs, the show give up at the guest star? ie what is the plus value of 2 minuts of Olivia Munn or Lou Ferigno? aniway in Italy Chuck is transmitted in summer (when the peaple, usually does not watch TV) at 12.00 PM (24:00) and twice episode without advisory (promo) before
I can live getting beaten by DTWS, but when the Bachelor comes back, if it does a 4.5 every week and Chuck struggles with a 2.0, I will give up on the human race as a whole.
Unless they get an order for a back 6 or 9, Chuck’s season will be over before the Bachelor is back on the air.
I’m convinced that Mel is absolutely right. NBC knows that any show in Chuck’s slot with such little promotion would get these numbers or worse. NBC also knows that no matter what, they can count on between 5-6 million people watching Chuck, come rain or come shine, and while those are relatively low numbers, they’re steady and that obviously has mattered for 3 previous season to NBC. It is a known quantity. I would LOVE to see the viewership grow, but scripted TV that’s not a procedural crime drama is a hard genre to grow in the TV world right now (Glee obviously excluded). I really like the tone of this new season of Chuck, and I hope that NBC likes it too. Don’t stop believing!
I figure the reason Chuck is still on the air is because in spite of the low ratings it is still profitable. As long as they are makeing money – do they care what the ratings are all that much?
Yes, they absolutely do. The lower the ratings go, the less profitable it is and the more likely something else would be more profitable. Making money isn’t enough, it needs to make more money than the alternative would.
I, too, will not stop believing that Chuck can survive for another season. But I just do not understand why NBC does not promote this show. I have read many comments and items about the show not being promoted, but I have not seen any reasons mentioned anywhere on why they do not promote it. Does anyone know what NBC’s explanation is for its lack of promotion for ‘Chuck’?
Liz, I’ve mentioned a few times that this is basically how networks roll: pour massive ad money into launching the new shows and hope the audience for the established shows will be there. ABC and CBS follow the same pattern. FOX and the CW seem to be more even with their spending, but the original Big 3 stick to the traditional method of selling a fall schedule. We lucked out in season 3 because NBC didn’t have much else to promote in January, so Chuck got most of the ad budget.
Thanks for explaining all of that, Mel. I must have missed your explanations before. I suppose if people aren’t watching NBC much in general, the promotions for “Chuck” wouldn’t get noticed anyway.
I was not really surprised by the ratings since there was no promotion. I think that it is a little hard to get the casual viewer to watch every week if there is little to no promotion for the show. Even though the numbers are low, the chances of getting a big ratings drop is very low since there will always be a core fan base that will watch the show every week. I think that there is a greater chance for the show to be moved to a different day and time slot than being canceled.
Reading some of the comments on the ratings forums just makes me want to smash something. Most of the people on there are blaming The Event’s big drop on Chuck because it is “under-performing” and a “horrible lead-in” which is a pathetic excuse considering NBC is promoting the heck out of it. Maybe if they actually watched both shows and realize how underrated Chuck is (barely any promotion for the show) and how confusing The Event has been so far than they wouldn’t be making comments like that. I am giving The Event one more chance before I stop watching it because right now the show is way too confusing for me to follow and understand. I am expecting another big drop for The Event if things don’t improve. It seems like The Event will just be another disappointment like Flashforward.
Sorry guys just venting. I love Chuck! It is the best show on TV!
Don’t apoligize(Sp?) you aren’t the only one venting. We all love Chuck and it angers and frustrates everyone of us that this is happening. It’s perfectly natural.
Exactly. NBC hasn’t given us a reason not to throw a $!&^ storm every time the ratings dip based off their actions or lack thereof since the beginning. I went on TVBTN to voice my opinion about The Event which is complete crap. Even comparing The Event to a piss poor FlashForward is blasphemy to FlashForward. FF was far superior to Event in so many ways it makes me angry to see such a horrible show even being promoted. I gave it until last nights episode and can honestly say I’m not watching that show ever again because it is so dysfunctional.
It’s lack of creativity of new shows and those god awful reality tv that is destroying good shows with decent to well written storylines and actors. I can only blame NBC for half of chucks failure, the other half that it’s competing on a Monday night against NFL and Dancing With The Stars. It still rages me when I see 21+ million people watching DWTS every single episode every single year. God help humanity as good television is being raped by celebrity worshiping reality tv.
Why has no one mentioned that Chuck was actually at a 2.0 at 8:30 according to TVBTN. That means a slight gain in viewers which certainly isn’t a bad thing.
Chuck’s final rating is 2.0 up from the 1.9.
Chuck was actually even from last week! It went up in the final numbers according to tvbythenumbers.com
Woohoo! TVByTheNumbers finalized their report and while we still lost nearly 600,000 viewers it’s still in the 2.0 rating :D.
Yep. ‘Chuck’ is the little show that could.
Chuck’s storytelling has improved, but the ratings are already in a bad neighborhood. These numbers are running in Heroes cancellation territory (they ranged from 2.2 to 1.7 in the final episodes). Don’t take this as a flame, simply an observation.
I don’t really know what can be done to get these numbers up. Wish I did. Season 3, with its… difficulties… caused some people to leave the show, and, judging by the numbers, many have chosen not to return. The season episodes ended in series lows, including the season finale, and the new season’s numbers are little improved over that unfortunate situation.
Promotion of the show, as Mel has already stated, is going to be minimal at best by the network (and she gave a good explanation above this post as to why so I won’t repeat it here). Previous network promos have been erratic at best and, unfortunately, effective only in a temporary, limited sense. Even the Super Bowl push didn’t bring about a permanent change although, to be fair, the choice of the 3-D episode for that promo was… curious… and may have hurt the effort.
I doubt Chuck will be moved at this point — where can it be moved to, to be blunt, that would improve the situation? The soon-to-be-vacated Outlaws slot? That’s a Friday death-slot, not a helpful situation. Thursdays are comedy night for most networks (including NBC) and, while Chuck has comedic elements, it is not a good fit for the rest of the shows on that night. Tuesdays is another steamroller of high-rated shows that would probably run over Chuck. Wednesday? Possibly, if Undercovers crashes out (it’s ratings are very similar to Chucks — 2.0 w/6 million viewers), but with Survivor, The Middle, and He**’s Kitchen there, would that be an improvement or a suicide mission?
So, what to do? I plan to enjoy the shows (which I will do if the quality remains as good as it has so far), wait about 6 more episodes, and see what the average ratings are over those 8 episodes. If they are still running in Heroes cancellation territory (average 2.0 or less), and the rest of NBC’s schedule has stabilized at higher ratings numbers, then it is time to be concerned.
I admit I “like” the fact that Undercovers’ ratings are dropping. I have watched the premiere and found it to be a pale imitation of Chuck in all aspects, the male and female leads are good looking and likable enough but totally no comparison to Zach and Yvonne, in looks, chemistry and especially acting skills. Even the opening scene of the premiere looked a lot like the opening scene of Season 1 of Chuck but less believable and much less excitement. All in all it was an ok show with “disappointing” ratings considering it has the better time slot, the obviously bigger production budget, JJ’s name and the huge promotions. As for The Event, it’s a totally different type of show so I wish it well.
If I was an advertiser, I would highly value a fanatical demo btw 18-49 that was very nerdy and purchased gadgets more than the majority of the population. There are a hardcore number of geeks (myself included) that LOVE Chuck and would buy an advertisers product over a competitor.
With the Thursday ratings out, I can say that Chuck looks a whole lot better after week 2 than it did after week 1. For Mon-Thurs prime time shows on NBC, Chuck went from 11th of 12 and 27% below average to a tie (with Parenthood) for 8th/9th of 13 and 18% below average. With “Chase” and “Parenthood” seeing drops like they did this week, Chuck could well end up ahead of them next week, and in a few weeks could pass “The Event” and “Outsourced” if they fail to stabilize.
It was also one of three NBC shows to not drop in 18-49 share from last week (30 Rock and The Apprentice were the others).
To be clear, Chuck’s numbers still put it in the danger zone. But the trending is a positive that shows there is a chance.
Does watching episodes of Chuck on NBC’s site help the ratings in any way? I have been encouraging people who missed Chuck to watch it on the site. I also pass around Season One to friends. I’ve never had anyone not get hooked. I too am baffled that more people don’t watch this show. I am a marketing specialist, however, and this season I was astonished at the total vacuum of nothingness as far as any promotion for Chuck. Why have a season 4 and not even try to sell it?? And it is not to early to work to promote this show!
Yes, it does help to stream episodes from NBC.com. I’ll have a report on that next week.
As far as promotion, as I’ve explained before, the networks traditionally pour their ad dollars into launching new shows, trusting that returning shows have an established fanbase that will return with minimal promotion. So far, Chuck is proving that to be true.
Personally, I’ve been appauled at the lack of advertising for Chuck. It’s like NBC WANTS Chuck to get cacelled, while attempting to brain wash anyone with an IQ below 10 to watch all their new garbage. I’ve even seen a promo with Zach and Yvonne promoting The Event! And they can barely make any mention of Chuck? WTF is that crap!?
Because of all this I swore to not watch any of NBC’s new shows, and so far I haven’t. Judging by what I’ve read and the ratings it seems I’ve not only done Chuck a favor but myself as well.