ChuckTV.net The CHUCK archive
There were so many things I loved about last night’s episode, Chuck vs. the Family Volkoff. Casey and Morgan mirroring each other at breakfast, Sarah’s confusion when Chuck was acting so ‘cool’ about the pre-nup, and UNO, to name a few. It was funny and sweet and exciting, and it’s launching us forward to the epic-ness to come.
Sadly, with a 13% drop in viewers since the last episode aired, it wasn’t appreciated by the masses. Chuck slid to a 1.3 rating in adults 18 – 49 demo. House and DWTS were also down (6% and 9%, respectively), so it just looks to me like since spring has sprung, no one is watching TV in the prime time slots. Chuck was pre-empted in Detroit and that may have had an impact.
Reminder: Head over to RewardTV.com and complete the Chuck game/survey to be counted by Nielsen as a viewer last night. Also check out the renewal campaign activities here and help get a season 5!
Those are horrible numbers and probably mean the end to Chuck, but man oh man has NBC Monday died – even L&O LA got a 1.3 – nothing on Monady can survive currently
It’s season 4. I’m sick of waiting for the “epicness to come.” Show just needs to end now.
whats with the gripe man
I’m with JW. There’s nothing left for these characters to do.
Let’s all move on.
Damn, with those ratings, its not looking good at all. I honestly thought we would get a Season 5, I thought Season 5 would be it quite honestly, but damn if it stops at 4, I guess it wont be so bad…
I don’t even want to think about it.. But it seems like we’ll have to say goodbye to our favorite show :(.. Who knows NBC might surprise us… Well we had a good run anyways…
Oh Chuck nooooo
but still I have hope, that NBC renew Chuck, why not?? this is still great show, and they renew community, which has silly ratings too,
so still hope….
Please NBC give us one more season
If Chuck was preempted in Detroit, then these ratings numbers might… *might*… drop even more (potentially bad news since it could set an even lower series low mark).
IIRC, overnight ratings do not take into account the preempted areas. They just assume everyone is running the same show at the same time on the same network. When the review and adjustments are done for the finalized ratings, preemptions are noted and factored out of the ratings for a finalized result. So, if Chuck didn’t air in Detroit that night, then whatever numbers drawn during that time would be factored out, possibly lowering the ratings further (not a good scenario if Detroit did not air Chuck).
As to the numbers themselves… barely 4 million viewers and a 1.3 demo… this close to renewal up-fronts… I apologize to the optimists in advance, but I think a Chuck renewal will be a miracle at this point. The ratings are sliding, these numbers are firmly in cancellation territory, both for season averages and current trends.
At this point, just enjoy the rest of the ride and brace for the worst. Miracles can happen, but I’m not expecting one here.
Close, but not quite.
You’re right about the fast overnights not accounting for preemptions, and the finals taking them into account. But the key 18-49 demo can go up as well as down.
Remember that the demo number – 1.3 in this case – is a percentage of all possible TV viewers (have TV in the household, have access to channel showing that show) within that demographic. So if there were no preemptions, it would have been 1.3% of all 18-49 year olds that have a TV in the household and receive NBC.
When a preemption happens, the viewers in the preempted area get taken out of the number, but the potential viewers get taken out of the base. If whatever aired instead was watched by fewer viewers than Chuck, the result is a shift up in the demo. If it was watched by more, it results in a shift down. Of course, the shift also needs to be significant enough show up in the number – a 0.005% increase isn’t going to cut it unless the number was already right on the edge of rounding up instead of down.
It’s not looking good right now. Going to enjoy the heck out of the next three episodes!
I’m starting to get teary-eyed looking at the ratings. I know it’s not over until it’s over so will try to be positive.
The fans are watching the show, it’s Nielsen that’s messed up.
Rick, that is probably the most sensible thing to do at this point. Enjoy the episodes and hope for a miracle.
Btw, it looks like Detroit’s lack of Chuck did not affect the ratings. Good news. The 1.3, though… bad news. Still, at least the pre-emption in Detroit didn’t make matters worse than they already are.
show has been effectively cancelled
really disappointing for such a good episode (and series). now very pessimistic for 5th season. feel helpless to help!
Pretty much NOTHING NBC throws out on Monday can survive against DWTS, House, and HIMYM. Pretty much everything’s going to pull 1.3-1.5.. unless they air a brand new show every single week. They need to shift stuff around. I know the idea of moving ‘Chuck’ to maybe Friday nights has been tossed around by fans.. but it’d be a much better idea instead of letting it get destroyed, like everything else, by DWTS.
The 1.3 rating is *not* good. I love ‘Chuck’ just as much as everyone else.. but even though it was pre-empted by whatever Detroit aired in it’s place (some FORD advertisement that’s an hour long? really?).. it doesn’t really change the fact that the cancellation bear is right on it’s trail. 🙁
I had been thinking the same thing about NBC and Monday’s. It’s almost looking like a lost cause for NBC to even perform anything respectable on Monday’s no matter how they slice it.
You can simply look at the ratings for Chuck yesterday and think “well thats the end of that”, but you can also look at a general, potential *bigger* picture.
1) If hypothetically NBC were to put their “better” rated shows on the Monday slot (SVU, Office, Biggest Loser), would it perform as well as it has been or suffer a big drop as well?
2) If they were to do a clean sweep of their Monday schedule and replace it with their new shows (which they have a buttload in the works), would it even survive on Mondays? It seems to me a reality or a live show may be the only way to stand up to this competition (like the Sing-Off), but the Sing-Off pulled good ratings without any of the heavy competition Chuck faces every damn time, so they have yet to test the waters on real competition.
3) Historically Chuck does well the first part of the season, but drops off big after DST, which is whats happening again this year (although never this low). With this in mind, maybe Chuck does earn a Season 5 just for the first half of the year to reach syndication, then its done.
I personally have shifted my views on this whole situation from “go-go season 5!” to “if it ends on season 4, so be it”. But really, shifting it to a new timeslot would probably be the best idea if Chuck were to survive any longer, because everything is dead on Monday’s when it comes to NBC.
They should probably just replace everything with spanish shows since Univision is doing better than NBC on Mondays >.>.
I agree with that. The only way Chuck is going to get better ratings (since anything to do with Nielsen is all but a lost cause) is if NBC finally realizes and corrects the one huge mistake they’ve made with Chuck all 4 seasons: the timeslot. It has plagued the show from the start. Everyone in the TV industry (except NBC) knows that Chuck shouldn’t be in that timeslot, but NBC just keeps it there to be destroyed every week. Everyone, make dang sure you get over to Reward TV and take the survey since that’s the closest any of us without one of those dastardly Nielsen boxes can get to being officially counted.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ): I don’t understand?!?! What are people doing? There neeeds to be a quote that says, “Once a loyal Chuck fan, ALWAYS a loyal Chuck fan!” People say that they have stopped watching because this season is not as good as season 1 or season 2. Well the show needs to grow and expand! I think that Chuck would do REALLY well with a 5th season. But because some Chuck “fans” have given up on the show…well they could have ruined it for the rest of us! Yes, these ratings are not great…at all…BUT we can never give up hope! We are the Chuck fans and we can save Chuck! There are no better fans then us(: We’ve done it before…lets do it again!<3
LONG LIVE CHUCK(:
It kills me to say it but it is done. : ( If we haven’t seen a jump now after two weeks of 1.7, it’s going down. Even for NBC standards this is bad… I have never loved a show like Chuck before and absolutely feel sick after seeing the ratings this morning. I hate Nielsen Ratings for not being up to date with capturing viewers on other mediums!!!!
Its NBC’s own fault Ive seen dozens of commercials for every show on NBC but Chuck there is no promotion anywhere. This makes me a kind of mad. Great episode last night. I hope the cliff hanger isn’t to bad. This really sucks. Im sorry but Its impossible for Chuck to survive this time. I don’t see anyway. People aren’t watching the show anymore. Actually people aren’t watching NBC that much anymore on Monday.
I agree. NBC has been (IMO) trying to doom Chuck from the beginning with little or no promotion. We saw no promos for last night’s episode except for a 15 second promo during the 10:30 airing of Outsourced on Thursday night. With no promotion, people don’t know when it’s on and what it will be about. I really still hope for a Season 5, but I just don’t know.
Well at least we can all agree on one thing. If Chuck is canceled and more than likely now it will be then we do not have to worry about the ratings no more. I mean it this was all the time. The day of Chuck it all great but then Bam the next day the rating come in and we all back into being worried and sad.
It’s not just a lack of promotion that has caused the slide but also the many interruptions with the extended 11 episodes. Even the faithful Chuck supporters who grace this site have been confused as to when or if new episodes or reruns will air. While an extended season 4 seemed like a good thing the way it has been managed has been anything but stellar. It seems the most we can hope for now is a mid-season return of Chuck when all the new NBC shows tank after the first couple of weeks in the fall. At least NBC knows what they have with Chuck fans which is more than can said of the many shows that have come and gone over the past 4 years.
I don’t see a mid season pick up. NBC is going to can pretty much all their new line up. S2 numbers were more then enough for Chuck to be considered renewal material. But S3 for more on the bubble and it did well for mid season show. However; Chuck’s fall numbers were ok, its mid season is what did it and lack of promotion from NBC not the Chuck staff, they were every where even Yvonne appeared in a video for college humor. My question what are you guys going to be about this community, leave the site up in memorial or try to help the show get syndicated with one of Warner’s companies. Why this show wasn’t on the WB or CW to begin with is beyond me NBC was a bad choice for a show as good as Chuck.
If the last episode of season 4 is named chuck vs. the cliffhanger that means that we will never know what wis goint to happen or what? That is lame, really..
If Season 4 is the last season I would like them to do a two hour movie to tie things up like the did for Farscape.
Rod
I agree with that. Getting a tv movie would be the best thing to shoot for at this point. Maybe that would be enough for another network to consider Chuck. I think maybe even it would be better for a Chuck WB movie, Get Smart made a few movies in the 80s long after the series.
Without having looked at spoilers (and not going to!) – the name doesn’t necessarily mean that it will end with a cliffhanger. It could just be a play on words, and Chuck or one of the other team members ends up (literally) hanging off a cliff.
For people who have looked at spoilers – if I’m wrong, please keep quiet 🙂
I think what doesn’t help is all the breaks. I know it’s annoyed me. I wouldn’t be surprised if the breaks have caused some fans to just give up because they hate having “You gotta wait!!” dangled in their faces.
So I know that Xfinity and nbc.com numbers get contemplated, but when do those no longer count towards viewership? I can watch the episode every hour for 6 days straight, but it won’t matter if it only counts for Tuesday.
They don’t count in the Nielsen numbers at all. They would be tallied separately, and would count for far less as they lack the demographic information that makes Neilsen more useful.
I live outside of Detroit, and yes Chuck did not air at it’s regular time. I did stay up to watch it at 1:30AM though! Too bad I am not a Nielsen viewer.
Well lets enjoy those final eps…
I think that 1.3 was a the nail in the coffin.
Looking at Season 4. The back 11 have not been as good as chuck normally is. The stories seem like they are after thoughts. There no real story.. almost like they are wasting time until the wedding.
I can see why the rating are sliding… I think this show had a good run.
Although ratings are terrible, I believe in miracle, everything may happen yet, so let’s everybody to cheer up and watch Chuck, it’s some hope…. Maybe NBC will move Chuck to Fridays for one more season…, with that I can live coz it only matters for me that my favorite show survive. It will survive, because It’s still good drama, action comedy and romance , I believe it:))))))
Ugh I watched, but I don’t have a frickin Nielson box thingy, w/e it is. I was semi hopeful for a fifth, but it’s looking really really bad right now. All this internet support and competions it’s winning are not in correlation with the ratings right now. People are giving up on it =/ Goodbye, Chuck. You had a great run.
I mentioned this a few days ago in the Zach Levi interview column, but I think the show started sliding when the whole love trapezoid thing came into being mid season three. The ratings I have looked up support this theory.
Before then, the viewers were in 7m’s and 6m’s. Since then , they have only topped 6 twice.
It IS looking like the end, but here’s something I don’t quite get. Why would NBC order 24 episodes of CHUCK this season? That’s the biggest season order. Usually 22 is tops – so why 24? They had to have SOME notion that remaining in that Monday time slot that CHUCK would either struggle to hold or even decline in its ratings (which is exactly what happened).
I’m not trying to grasp at straws here – because I think a S5 is less and less likely, but by ordering a 24 episode S4 (a total suprirse), that leaves you with 22 episodes left to hit the “magic 100,” which may or may not matter in terms of syndication.
Maybe something is going on that we don’t know about. PURE speculation on my part. But all the “downer” talk about looking like cancellation is imminent – to then come out and announce renewal is FANTASTIC P.R. {Can anybody say “FRINGE?”} As others have said – IF you renew it – move it to another time slot – not as a lead in but as a “follow up” show to SOMETHING (is there anything on NBC) that gets decent ratings – and see what happens.
Cancellation won’t surprise me. In fact, I’m expecting it. But I also wouldn’t go into “CHUCK SHOCK” if the show got renewed (again).
Rick,
I think part of the answer lies in the timing of the order for the additional 11 (not the normal 9) episodes. Chuck (as you of course know 🙂 ) was renewed for 13 episodes with an option for the back 9 in May 2010. Then fall came and, along with it, NBC’s shiny new shows — Undercovers, Chase, The Event, and Outlaws (among others) — arrived. These shiny new shows set sail — and immediately slammed into icebergs.
When October arrived, most of the new shows were in major trouble. NBC was, I am guessing at this point, trying to find ways to implement something approaching damage control. That included the October 2010 order to Warner Brothers to spin up 11 — not 9 — more Chuck episodes. It’s supposition from me at this point, but I think NBC was looking at Chuck and thinking “well, it’s low — 2.0 to 1.8 range — but it’s stable and has a solid, passionate fan base. Chase is sinking to the low 1s, Undercovers is below the waterline, and Outlaw is already a memory at the bottom of the ratings ocean. Let’s give Chuck the back 9 PLUS 2 more episodes because, wow, we have big problems in the schedule and the Chuck fans have shown they are a strong, loyal bunch!”
At the time, Chuck was pretty steady — low, but steady. Giving it 11 episodes looked like a smart move. I think it still was. I admit the move can be read as faith in a reliable, passionate Chuck fan base, desperation because of the ratings disaster unfolding all over the network, or a combination of both. Draw your own conclusions on that one. 🙂
Then the bottom started to fall out of Chuck’s ratings, especially in recent weeks. Broadcasting breaks, lack of promotion, people who have given up (many of my friends did that in Season 3 thanks to Shaw, Hannah, and the story arc involved), fewer Nielsen viewers who are inclined to watch Chuck… again, draw your own conclusions.
As to syndication, I don’t think NBC cares much about that. Warner Brothers makes the show so they likely have the syndication stake in this situation. However, Chuck probably has enough episodes that it could go into syndication if this is the last year. Some shows are landing there with fewer than 100 episodes now. They may not make as much money (fewer episodes = fewer dollars in reruns, after all), but it can work.
The “Fringe” factor could also come into play and Chuck could get a short-order season for Fridays to wrap up the series. Not very likely (I’m not expecting it to happen), but not impossible. Ratings would have to start turning around, though, for NBC to consider it — 1.3, 1.5 numbers just won’t do it. Warner Brothers would have to practically give the licensing away and probably absorb some budgetary cuts as well to make it financially viable, also — something I cringe to consider given some of the cut-rate sets and effects I’ve seen since season 2.
As you’ve said… just enjoy the heck out of the rest of the Chuck season 4 episodes. 🙂 Let the Chuck cards fall where they may.
To all Chucksters in the U.S. – for those of us who live outside of the U.S. there is very little we can do to help, I had purchased Sleep Sheep, mailed postcards and ordered the whole season Season 4 on itunes. You can do so much more, e.g. watch live, rewatch on nbc.com or hulu (just leave your computer on while you do your errands). I just watched next week’s preview on nbc.com and it was awesome, we need a season 5 to properly wrap up the story.
What a fun, suspenseful, entertaining episode last night–it’s ashame that the ratings don’t reflect that.
But where is the love, people?? I know it looks bad, but this is not the time for defeatism. I refuse to give up until it is absolutely necessary. I still love CHUCK, watch it live every week, watch it again on NBC.com, & still eat at Subway. Now I’m off to send a few postcards to advertisers….and a few prayers won’t hurt either.
Negativity? More like realism. Chuck had a good run. I only caught wind of the show last yr and did all I could to rally my YT audience. That wasn’t enough. The best campaign to save Chuck was to get people to watch it. But with only a few episodes left, S4 has had the lowest ratings of the series. I don’t want to see Chuck end, but I would really like to see Warner get a Tv movie out of this to close the series and appease the fans. That would be cool, who knows maybe Chuck getting let go by NBC will open in doors for the series.
Chuck Me! A 1.3 in the demo is terrible. 🙁 I want it to be at least a 1.9. At least that way there could be a chance for S5. Oh! Damn you day light savings time. *Angry Face*
Guys
lets not give up get 10 of your friends watching email facebook message tweet links to your friends get them watching season 1 then tell tehm to watch season 4 live on nbc mondays at 8/7c
I was still hopefully when it dipped to the low of 1.7-1.9 and held steady for long periods, but now with a drop all the way down to 1.3 I’m sad to say the party is over unless NBC pulls a Fox moving it to a Friday slot and accepting much lower ratings. With Smallville dying it might actually be more successful if these ratings stick until the final episode with little uplift.
It’s a damn shame because some of the BEST episodes this season always seemed to be the record lows in viewership and ratings. I fear for all scripted TV from here on out. Can anything slay the monster that has become reality tv? From being a bothersome mosquito 10 years ago, Reality TV has evolved into this inescapable dragon swallowing up everything in its path. I have that feeling the party is over, but we should be happy we got a 24 episoder outta this one and I don’t think the 2 one month plus hiatuses helped the series at all to be honest. When Chuck dies so too does my faith in television and actually giving a crap about turning on the boob-tube.
I agree with you Chris, this is a little bleak for such a rich and textured episode. Reality TV has sucked up all the air on Network TV. I will miss Chuck because it is my favorite show and I love the mythology and having watched these characters evolve over the past 4 seasons. That said, I’m still keeping hope alive for Chuck’s renewal (and the triumphant return of Stephen Bartowski–whom I hoping is the real Agent X). At least there are still some great scripted TV shows on networks who don’t care so much about ratings and just want to entertain…namely USA and SyFY where most of the other TV shows I love to watch reside. Long Live Chuck!
Do we have any idea when they’ll announce if it’s canceled or if we get a season 5??
Well according to Wikipedia following previous season and given Chucks constant cancellation fear history it seems Chuck is one of those shows that is a last-minute wait. Meaning we probably wont know until right before the last episode or anytime thereafter. Given how things tanked recently I’m guessing they are already hashing things out at the table with NBC on where things stood and where things might be going and what to do if anything. I’m not seeing a way they can introduce Mr. X and wrap it up as a story in 4 episodes but it could happen and I’m sure the directors have already taken that into account with the final four. They probably also have a very good idea at the chances of a renewal or not by this point I’m assuming.
Probably won’t know anything till the night of the Finale, I think it is also the day that NBC announces it’s 2011/2012 lineups. If we don’t see a Chuck, it’s gone.
I’m still hoping that we can get at least one more season on a cable station, like USA network. But that is up to WB I think.
I think Monk used to be on network Tv show and it got moved to cable and lasted a while. Same could be said for Chuck, but it depends how WB feels about it.
Monk started on USA Network and NBC reran some episodes during a summer. It was always a cable show, though.
Come on guys, lets be positive… look at Fringe… that got renewed even though it had really low ratings… so lets not give up (just yet)!!
OK, excuse me but if stupid How I Met Your Mother (that’s just my opinion) can run for over six seasons and each episode it’s the same topic I think they can (laid back) give Chuck once again a chance.
The people in our days are looking more for tv shows like Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries (which I both also like: Guilty pleasure) but then there are these awful sitcoms like the previously mentioned HIMYM and Two and a half men!
Yeah, that’s what the people love.
And then actual great shows like Chuck or Community (which is simply divine) get low ratings? What’s wrong? 🙂
Here’s a question, do the networks take into consideration On Demand viewing after the show has originally aired? I watch Chuck live on Mondays, but I’m not a Nielsen family so it isn’t helping anything, but I’ve noticed Chuck has been listed On Demand for the last 3 new episodes so I’ve also rewatched those episodes that way, but not sure if networks even look into that kind of stuff or not.
You try to help by watching on NBC.com and doing the RewardsTV game/survey, but it seems like without a Nielson rating/box there is nothing helpful to do.
I’m not completely given up on a 5th season, but I’m realistic enough to know it’s not looking great. Chuck is my favorite show on TV right now, so I’m going to enjoy it no matter how long it runs.
I used to really like this show it was one of my favorites, but recently it has been quite bad. I kind of hope it ends, I really just think it has over stayed it’s welcome. Most people I know that like the show agree that it has become way too much about relationships and boring stuff you could just watch on any regular TV show. There is almost nothing that sets Chuck apart now.
I think it’s time to give up. I know if it gets renewed I probably won’t be watching.
tis a sad sad day when people start to belive that there is nothing that sets chuck apart…
I think part of the reason (not all of it) that this episode’s ratings dropped more, is because people thought it was a 4 week hiatus instead of a 3 week one. I saw some youtube comments and some other places that said that Chuck was returning April 18, instead of April 12. And there really is no way to tell unless you happened to be watching that random show at 10:30 at night that gave a small Chuck promotion, or check daily on these types of sites if the Chuck returning episode date has changed…
Chuck fans have been so dedicated these past 3 seasons, but now with the 4th season, for some reason, some people have lost interest. These ratings are bad, I admit, and some think it may be time to throw in the towel… and if you have given up already… you can’t call yourself a chuck fan anymore!
something they could have tried doing to keep some fans was breaking up chuck and sarah early/mid 4th season. i remember that deep, deep passion i had in wanting them together in season 1 and 2. fedak and schwartz said something like this in an interview “we care too much about our show to break up chuck and sarah”. i disagree with them, if they broke them up, people would keep on watching until the episode they get back together again.
Respectfully, season 3, with Shaw-Sarah and Hannah-Chuck, traveled down that road already. The ratings took a major hit. A significant percentage (not a majority, but a noticeable minority) of Chuck fans became former Chuck fans — including Nielsen viewers, given the ratings drop since those episodes aired.
If Fedek and Schwartz did say something in an interview about not breaking Chuck and Sarah up, I suspect they were implying that any break-up would be temporary. Not knowing what interview that was — or the timing of it in relation to season 3 — I can’t really speculate about whether it was about the show in general or if it was in specific reference to the calamity that season 3 stories created and the interview was a response to calm the ruffled feathers regarding the Shaw-Hannah situation.
Just my 2 cents