ChuckTV.net The CHUCK archive
Last night’s phenomenal episode of Chuck, “Chuck vs. Phase Three”, blew fans away, but how did it do in the ratings? Up against the season finale of Dancing with the Stars, the series fell to a season low with approximately 4.8 million viewers tuned in to watch the Giant Blond She-Male hit first and take names later. That translated to a 1.7 in the 18-49 demo. (The Event also garnered a 1.7 while Chase pulled a 1.4 later in the evening.)
Disappointing? Definitely, especially in the face of possibly the best episode of the series. Before the gnashing of teeth begins, however, let’s remember that NBC has already picked up an extra 11 episodes of Chuck and they are hooked into the buzz that Chuck receives from critics and fans. Don’t let this quell your enjoyment of a spectacular installment of the show. Hey, maybe this Thanksgiving is a good time to get your friends and family on board!
How does Chuck do in the reviews anyway?
Glowing across the board. Even reviewers who don’t normally like it (I’m looking at you, LA Times) gave it a thumbs up.
Was the problem then for us competeing with the season finale of DWTS? Because if so we should rebound a bit after they are done for a while right?
Hopefully. DWTS was way, way up from last week (up a full 1.0 for 8-9pm).
Chuck looks to be up against significantly weaker competition next week – Skating with the Stars bombed in it’s premiere last night and likely won’t pull near the normal DWTS numbers at 8pm, while House and HIMYM/Rules of Engagement are supposed to be re-runs next week.
it has to be DWTS causing the low viewership. im gonna have to blame Sarah Palin and her groupies. I personally dont watch DWTS but every morning on the news im forced to here about it. Shame on you North America for caring so much about “reality” tv when there is great entertainment like CHUCK on tv. IDK if that was the best Chuck episode EVER, but it was by far Yvonne’s best performance to date. I noticed that NBC never shows repeats of Chuck, but i would like to bet that if they did show a repeat of this ep. (after the whole DWTS fiasco, and before that other horrible show American Idol) the ratings would go up. NBC just doesnt promot the show enough.
this is so unfair! this was probably my favorite episode EVER and it got one of the worst ratings 🙁
One of my favorite of the series, this is so sad 🙁 We’ll get ’em next week, I’m sure of it! 😀
Unfortunately, it also ties the series low from the first hour of the S3 finale.
I definitely hope the drop was due to the DWTS finale (plausible given the 4.7 for DWTS this week, compared to 4.0 last week), but I’m going to hold off putting too much stock into that until I see the rebound next week. The (hopefully) good news is that Skating with the Stars seems to have been a ratings bomb last night, and is the new 8pm competition from ABC. Because of that ALL of the other 8pm shows might see a boost next week.
Also, looks like House and HIMYM/Rules of Engagement are all reruns next week.
Agreed, Mel…With all the confidence NBC has shown by ordering a back 11 episodes for Chuck and by keeping it as the anchor for Monday night’s programming after the hiatus, this is not cause for panic.
Having said that, we are going to have a seven week long hiatus after the Nov. 29th episode, so hopefully NBC will do some strong promotion of the show as we get closer to Jan. 17th. Meanwhile, we as fans need to do everything we can to increase awareness of the show, whether by sharing DVDs, encouraging people to download episodes through services like Microsoft Zune Marketplace, or encouraging Hulu to add Chuck to the list of shows with complete seasons under their HuluPlus service. In addition, another fan support campaign couldn’t hurt either! 🙂
Chuck Fans Unite!
1.7 rating is a bummer, but what an epic ep ! Yvonne should
win the Hiesman Trophy . Best athlete in America !
Sports Illustrated Athlete of the Year would probably be more appropriate… and everyone could buy two issues: one to read and one to send off, along with a polite note and a self-addressed, stamped envelope, asking for Yvonne’s autograph on the cover. That’s how I got autographs from a couple of national talk show hosts — in that case it was a TV Guide with them on the cover.
And it wouldn’t hurt if NBC would do some PROMOTION for the show! Geez!
I know this risks being criticized, but I doubt NBC is going to do a lot of promotion for Chuck from this point forward. NBC has bigger worries — a prime-time schedule that, in total, is a flaming pile of wreckage. They are moving shows around in an attempt (probably not successful, but they will nonetheless try) to stem the damage. Promotion money will mostly be used to try and get people to see the mid-season shows and to get viewers to follow the musical chairs, er, shows.
I do think they will put out some promotion for Chuck’s return from its hiatus but I doubt it will be a lot more than they’ve been spending now on whatever promotion they are doing. If NBC doesn’t do even that, however, then I would have to wonder if NBC is cutting Chuck loose and I would not see it as an optimistic sign for Chuck’s future. We shall see what they do.
Well, after several weeks, it looks like Chuck is firmly in a narrow ratings range that is all too familiar with Heroes fans — not a good sign. It is also heading into a lengthy hiatus, thus increasing the risk of viewers forgetting about the show. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that it does have a full fourth season to work with and it is unlikely to be shortened. If NBC gave full season runs to Chase (which caused my eyes to blink a lot before I realized I wasn’t seeing things) and The Event (see Chase note), then doing a U-turn on Chuck is not going to happen. The ratings, while dangerously low for renewal prospects even for NBC, are in a stable range and, within that range, is the hard-to-find young male demo, something all advertisers seek — and a factor that helps Chuck. NBC still seems behind the show, so boardroom influence is possible yet on its future for a 5th season.
Chuck is doing what it has done all its television life — riding the ratings bubble right to May, probably all the way to the upfronts this time. At this point, I’m going to disregard any further ratings news on this show beyond glancing at it because, honestly, unless it either goes up or down at least 0.5, it’s fate won’t be known until May. If it trends up, it’s probably a lock for season 5. If it trends down, I hope the showrunners wrap the series up without a cliffhanger.
Just follow Rick Holy’s advice. Enjoy the show. Encourage others to watch. Hope for the best.
Oh my God! This is totally insane. How could possibly the best episode ever of Chuck for now(accoding to me) have such a low rating? Even if NBC have ordered 11 more episodes of our favourite tv show how could this possibly be a relaxing thought if we(the fans) want a season 5? I mean if we want more chuck next year this time its time to MOVE people. Do everything you can, please, make your best to make it work for season 5. In my opinion, fans+NBC will mean not only season 5 but even more… to repeat myself it isnt fair to have such a low rating with such a great episode…
Television is officially dead. If a fantastic episode like that can’t score high numbers what is the world coming to??????
I thought that this time the cliffhanger shoud get the award “King of Cliffhangers”! 🙂
AAAAH! Unbelievable! It was so classic, I thought the series creators (in all tv shows) were out of this phase/age!
I feel there are 2 reasons why ratings dropped. As mentioned earlier, DWTS finale was on With all the promos that gets–and the controversary with Palin, its understandable. Also, blame NBC for the previous pre-emption to air George Bush of all things. That was just too close to election with all the negative ads. You think NBC would know better.
Am wondering the effects of the 7 week hiatus. I understand that December isn’t a good time with all Christmas & holiday parties, etc. Another relaunch?
I doubt the George Bush interview had that much to do with it, to be frank. While it may have been too close to the election, there was a book coming out and marketing a book written by a former President of the United States, be it Clinton, Carter, or either President Bush was going to merit network attention and promotion. I did not watch the interview (and, judging by the ratings, a lot of other people didn’t, either), but I am guessing it was a combination of retrospective and subjects from the book. NBC did what it thought was a good move (ratings showed otherwise) and became part of the rotation of networks doing specials and interviews about it. The effect of a one-week skip for Chuck from that were probably minimal at best.
The Dancing With The Stars theory is far more plausible, especially with the more… interesting aspects of it this year. I’ll buy into that one.
In my region, I was only able to watch half the show because the channel went off air due to “technical difficulties.” I don’t know who this affected other than me, but that could be a reason for low ratings. I was excited during the first half of the show though, but clearly bummed I missed the last half!
It’s a shame, this season is really starting to kick into high gear.
Chuck vs Season 5?
At least it seems that the sponsors are paying attention.
I have noticed that some of the commercials during Chuck are now using music that has previously been featured in Chuck episodes.
Not all of them, but enough that one might notice.
that must mean something good.
We also had last night’s episode sponsored by Jared, right before Sarah found the proposal plan.
It’s OK. Dancing with the Stars has been taken care of. We told Sarah Walker that Tom Bergeron kidnapped her boyfriend.
Let us not forget that many people, when faced with a one-off like DWTS, will TIVO / DVR “CHUCK” and rewatch. It didn’t hurt DWTS to hit the news yesterday with the white powder story to shift viewers.
This episode was the best to showcase Yvonne Strahovski’s extreme talent. She and Zachery Levi have great chemistry. Too bad NBC doesn’t send them out together for promotional tours!
Amen to the promo tour idea. But these days Zac is all over the airwaves (Fallon, Conan) promoting his voiceover work in “Tangled”. They also throw in a quick mention of “Chuck”. But I’d love to see Y&Z exploit this electricity they generate together with some joint promos. Even if a “tour” is too cumbersome for their schedules, how about some filmed promos like the ones they did for season 1? Remember the one where Chuck asks Sarah if spies really conceal weapons about their persons and she proceeds to pull an arsenal out of thin air? Yeah, more of that kind of stuff!
I’m still surprised that they have not been hosts of SNL yet. I would love to see Zac and Yvonne cohost SNL, or at the very least Zac host, and Yvonne gets a cameo maybe during the monologue.
“not now Sarah, I’m doing the monologue”
“but Gen Beckman called, we have a mission…” and make the mission something hillarious.
Don’t get down folks. Last night’s rating (1.7) was only a 15% drop from our season high (2.0, I believe), which we hit only once. Bottom line is DWTS is nearing the end, and so people are watching in greater numbers – kind of like when American Idol gets near the “winner.”
KEEP SUPPORTING THE SHOW. Re-watch on NBC.COM and HULU. It’s not a major thing, but it helps. Keep eating Subway. If Subway is happy with the Monday night “Chuck factor,” they’ll keep supporting the show. Buy the DVDs for Christmas, birthdays or whatever other holidays you celebrate.
Even with the greatest optimism, I don’t see the CHUCK story going past five seasons. That would be a great run. For now we need to make sure that we can eek out that fifth season – and we can. Last night was not a disaster – not when you consider the DWTS situation.
NBC is in a lot of trouble. Even at 1.7, Chuck’s LOWEST demo of this season, it was still tied with The Event for the highest demo number of the night for NBC. (And over the last month or so, CHUCK has been the HIGHEST rated NBC prime-time show….. and I bet a heck of a lot cheaper to produce and promote that “The Event” and “Chase.”).
So let’s keep our collective chins up – and keep doing what we’ve always done – working to keep the show on the air and showing our support with not only our voices, but also our $$. How many times has our favorite show been “down for the count?” Yet we always get back up swinging. And we’ll continue to do so.
Keep on Chuckin’ everbody. And a Blessed & Happy Thanksgiving to all. I’m looking foward to some “epic” episodes as this “original 13” order of episodes for S4 comes to an end.
One of the better shows of the season for me, can’t believe the numbers dropped by nearly 750,000 from the weeks prior. 🙁
Some of those people that dropped from the numbers that watch Chuck are probably from here in the Pacific Northwest. We had a whopper of a winter storm with power outtages and lots of snow and ice. Many people were stuck on the freeways anywhere from 4-10 hours trying to get home.
I was fortunate to see this “Sarah” centric episode and man she was nothing short of ‘AWESOME”
I thought phase 3 was the best episode of Chuck ever created. It really did have something for everyone – loads of action, lots of shiperry goodness, great humour -even from the Buy Morons, and Yvonne’s performance should be nominated for an emmy it was so phenomenal.
It is a shame that such a fantastic episode did so poorly in the ratings. If they do have to show a few weeks of reruns in the spring this would be number 1 on my list of episodes to show – followed by First Fight and Couch Lock.
I guess the silver lining in all of this is although Chuck fell by 0.1, many other shows up against the DWTS finale fell significantly lower.
I’m still riding a Chuck high frow watching Phase 3 (already 4 times) so the ratings are not gonna get me down.
WHAT :O?! A 7 week hiatus ?! Nooo :(. I hope next weeks episode will be awsome too, because I’m gonna miss chuck those 2 months. Can’t wait for the last part of this season
You know when you over overindulge on Thanksgiving and you get that wicked heartburn? That’s how I feel after seeing the ratings. Seriously, I feel like I opened a jar of olives and drank the juice. Last nights episode was the best of all the seasons. So disappointed we didn’t do better in the ratings. Because I hate having heartburn without the fun of overindulging. 🙂
I totally agree this was the best episode of the season. Maybe NBC could do an encore presentation of the two-parter before the next half of the season begins in January to get more people to watch. This show is too good to have such low numbers…so glad they got the 11 show pick up already!
Come oooon..why such bad ratings?imo they should also consider how many people from other countries love chuck and can’t watch it live.we must be millions…it was far the best episode in season 4..
Say you include Canadians (we get most of the same progamming anyway) you have to adjust all the shows that way and it may not change anything or it is as likely to be a good thing as it is to be a bad one.
Ratings did not adjust. They are what they are — 1.7
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/11/23/monday-finals-lie-to-me-adjusted-down-hawaii-five-0-up-no-change-for-chuck/73278
After such an awesome episode like that which i agree with many other is by far the best episode of the season and i thin k will be difficult to top, as we finally get to see the emotion we all love from season 1 and 2 back. i think after such a great episode this week viewings have got to be up next week. we need to urge all chuck fans to keep tuned in as i really want to see a season 5 and its us loyal fans that can keep it coming back. roll on chuck.
As someone who finally got into Chuck and finally got caught up, I thought last nights ep was one of the best. I know we got picked up for a back 11 and will have a full season (longest yet). But I’ve been so out of it when it comes to TV because I’m military, what time of year do shows usually get renewed? I’ve also made it a point to watch Chuck live vs. on DVR, even though I do DVR it. Does it make a difference in the ratings if it’s watched live or on DVR? Just curious and sorry for all the questions. I just realllllly love this show and would like to help it out any way i can. Thanks for reading.
As far as when shows get renewed, it depends on the show and it’s success. For shows like the CSIs, they get renewed easily every season. For a show like Chuck, it’s a bit different. In the past, Chuck’s basically gotten renewed at the last minute (especially after season 2). It’s a constant fight for Chuck fans because it never gets renewed for more than 13 episodes, so we have to fight to get NBC to order a back 9 or 11. After that, we have to fight again to get the next season. And all of this is caused by NBC being their own worst enemy. In short summary, the more successful the show is, the earlier and more easily it gets renewed every season. Also, since you’re a newer fan, I think I should explain what I mean by NBC is their own worst enemy. This is also the reason why a great show like Chuck gets bad ratings. NBC is smart enough to keep renewing Chuck. But, they’re not smart enough to air the show in a time slot in which it can actually survive, nor to promote it as a lead in this season. The competition on Monday nights is nothing short of insane, which is why it’s so hard for the show to get good ratings. It airs against Monday Night Football, DWTS (mainstream reality trash), HIMYM, and House. Plus there’s more stuff on the CW.
For the live vs. DVR question, it’s better to watch it live. That’s where the primary rating comes from. NBC does look at the DVR ratings, but you have to watch the episode pretty much the same night as it airs (Monday) for it to count. I think you also have to have a Nielsen box to have your live view count (don’t quote me on that, I’m not totally sure about it). Something you’ll learn quite fast is that Chuck fans hate Nielsen boxes because the Nielsen system is flawed and broken and it pretty much never favors Chuck.
As for spreading the word, since you’re a new fan you probably didn’t get a chance to help us fight to hopefully get the TV Guide cover. What I suggest about how to spread the word, just bring it up when you’re chatting with someone. Ask them if they ever liked the show 24. If they did like it, ask them if they saw seasons 7 and 8. If they say yes to that, then tell them that Chuck is very similar to what Jack and Renee should have been throughout season 8, especially for the last 3rd of it. Emphasize the last 3rd. The 24 writers made an incredibly huge mistake when they killed off Renee to start the last 3rd of the season. So if you tell a 24 fan that Chuck is what Jack and Renee should have been during that time, they should pay good attention. If they haven’t seen seasons 7 and 8 or 24 at all, just ask them if they saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith. and if they did, if they like it. If they liked it, there you go. If that fails, just ask them if they like comedy combined with action, romance, etc. This is the way I promote the show. I’m sure Mel could give you plenty more options.
What was really frustrating about this ratings news is that Phase 3 was without a doubt the best episode of this season and quite possibly the best episode of the series to date. But because of the stupid DWTS season finale, the ratings slipped. Anyway, welcome to the fight.
Thanks for the info Tyler. Much appreciated!
Well, do the dvr watchers count too? I know a lot of people who don’t watch it live…
People who watched it on the DVR before 3am Monday counted in those numbers.
DWTS will always win out over its competition and putting politics aside it will win because most people in that audience category go bonkers for that sort of thing. So when you have its finale involved and someone as red button hot as Sarah Palin’s daughter – it becomes a popularity contest versus what’s good on tv. Still I’ll be POed if Palin’s publicity stunt to get attention for her mom’s coming campaign is one of the reasons S4 becomes the final Chuck season.
hi everybody.
from here(portugal)this episode was well promoted by nbc. a lot of pictures from episode 9 and 2 trailers for the same episode.
quite different from the others, once again, seeing from here.
but was a bad coincidence with “dancing with the star”?
they should know this episode it will be epic and instead stop for 2 weeks, they should break the show for 3. this episode will never had to fight against “DWTS”.
4.09 was the one with more people around(thailand, buy more and all cast).extra budget, some nice publicity and turn into a “kamikaze” episode with only 4.7 millions viewers.
well…what i know is spirit is renewed after this excellent episode 🙂
Be sure to watch Chuck vs Phase Three today on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/watch/194494/chuck-chuck-vs-phase-three) or NBC.com (www.nbc.com/chuck). ONLY watch from these sites–otherwise it probably will not count.
We’re trying to get the total number of viewers up for this episode to help cancel out some of the DWTS damage.
Lets see how many hits we can get guys!
it will nice to know nbc reaction to this episode or found out some more numbers to increase the ratings…
Great episode, and the ratings were skewed by the DWTS final. But what are we going to do. We love this show and the ratings are probably not going to get any better now that we into the fourth season. So what can we do? Continue to promote Chuck in our own way, write to NBC and let them know that we are loyal to this show, and just plain keep watching. Watch the show live if you can and multiple times on the Internet. Let’s get a fifth season and hope for the best.
Agreed–watch the past episode on NBC.com as many times as you can (preferably with ad-block disabled as they may take advertisement exposure into account).
I think it’s absolutely important to show NBC that while live viewership may have been down it certainly does not mean that /total/ viewership is down. The holiday season is always tough on TV shows because people are busy doing things. Wouldn’t it be cool for Chuck to actually /gain/ ratings / viewers in a time like this? Let’s get watching!
Good blog! I definitely love how it’s uncomplicated on my eyes and the details are well written. I am wondering how I may be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which ought to do the trick! Have a nice day!
is there a way to push nbc to place chuck in a more favorable day/time slot where it can succeed? i’m sure on a different night when it’s not competing against dwts or american idol (if it shall be moved), chuck can do very well…maybe the writers/creators can talk it out with nbc…if all fails, how about going cable?
The thing is that Chuck is the best performer NBC has for this timeslot. They’ve tried other shows without success, so they’re choosing to keep the show there that brings in the best ratings possible.
I never watch live TV– everything’s been recorded, so how do they know if I’m watching it or not?