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The fast overnight ratings for the Chuck season 3 finale are in, and unfortunately we’ve hit a new low. The first hour averaged 4.96 million viewers and a 1.7 in the 18-49 demo. The second hour averaged 5.16 million viewers and a 1.8 in the demo. These numbers are disappointing, especially considering how amazing both episodes were, but to put it in context, we were up against the 2-hour 24 series finale, which only garnered a 2.7 in the demo.
The Live+3 ratings (factoring in those who watched via DVR within 3 days) will be released in a couple of weeks, giving us a clearer picture of Chuck‘s ratings for season 3. For now, we’re reveling in the knowledge that we’ll be seeing you all for our Tuesday morning ratings brief again in September!
In my opinion 24 final didn’t stand a chance against Chuck.
Seriously how are your priority over there? But I guess here isn’t the right place to ask that question.
How can that be? This is the best show on tv that apparently only we’re watching!! I’m very glad we are already renewed. I wish someone out there in the CHUCK-verse could come up with a effective campaign to get people interested. We’ve already tried some good ideas, but nothing seems to do the trick. Maybe graffiti? “CHUCK was here!”
We have all summer to put our collective heads together. Let’s come up with something great. Maybe we could pull in the show runners to help. They are a creative bunch!
More appealing promo perhaps. I know if I wasn’t a fan that the promos that they use in commercials would not grab my interest.
much like “Frodo lives” from back in the day. of course, it was that underground “advertising” that really brought the lord of the rings trilogy into mainstream thought.
put it in at a 9pm time slot…I think that might work.
Yeah! Now that Law and Order had it’s series finale, they can bump us down an hour. Jay Leno better stay the hell out of the way this time!
put the show in a different time slot…I think 8pm is to early for alot of people these days…I have to
dvr everyweek
I want the fansites to have a poll of the CHUCK fans, basically stating if they are a Nielsen family (participant). Everybody needs to be able to only vote once; this would not be a popularity contest. I really believe that ratings were better if the Nielsen’s were more exact.
Every single person I’ve lent out season one and two on dvd is now a chuck fanatic. As a teacher, for a rare, but occasional treat, I’ve show the pilot episode to my students on days a lesson was impossible. Always a huge hit. But most people who have only watched an episode here and there have a hard time getting hooked. It’s like reading every third chapter of a good book. NBC needs to get another network like TNT or USA to broadcast old episodes, because when people see the storyline from beginning to current, they can not help but be entirely engrossed in the show. Great acting, action, drama, humor. The most complete show on tv.Can’t wait for season 4.
I completely agree! If you haven’t watched the story develop, it would be hard to watch one episode and get hooked. In my opinion it’s almost impossible to watch from Season 1, or at least Season 2, and NOT love the show. Why aren’t there any reruns? If NBC would use the summer to air reruns, they could probably get the viewers who watched House in the spring. I bet you’d get a lot of converts! 🙂
How can this be possible, c’mon guys!!! I come from Italy so I can’t help with american TV raitings but I’m a huge fan and it break my heart to see this kind of raitings!!! It’s the best show ever, expecially this past season…can’t wait for september.
This is very disappointing. I can’t understand why more people don’t watch Chuck, it’s without a doubt the best show on TV. The writers are going to have their work cut out for them to come up with a great storyline for Season 4 that will attract new viewers and also bring back the old fans who stopped watching midway through Season 3 because of the whole Sarah/Shaw debacle. Fortunately, us diehard fans stuck with it and were rewarded with the last 6 episodes which were fantastic.
True. I think a large part of the problem was that the beginning of the season was so disappointing and depressing. After being on the bubble at the end of Season 2, the writers needed to begin Season 3 with strong, fan-pleasing episodes. Yes, they had a story arc to develop the characters, but if you want ratings, you have to start strong. The attitude which was expressed in one interview was that the writers were giving the fans what they needed, not necessarily what they wanted. From a storyline perspective, that may be true, but from a ratings perspective, that was almost suicide.
We got 1.8. That was attempted suicide
My thoughts exactly…
Friends,
Don’t be upset with the show OR its viewers for the low ratings. NBC and every other network out there goes by the antiquated Neilson ratings to see how many ppl are tuning into Chuck each week, and the truth of the matter is that Neilson is simply NOT able to show how popular Chuck really is.
Remember, that to show up on the Neilson ratings, a show has to be watched by a family that is in the Neilson survey. Most people that are into Chuck are NOT the people that Neilson chooses for its survey.
More ppl are watching the show than is being reported by Neilson. Blame THEM!
Unfortunately theres a lot of choice out their. Most of it mindless reality drek. Which says it all really about the general vapidness of the average viewer which seems harsh but its the only explanation I can come up with when season finales of shows like House and 24 get bombed in the ratings too (relatively for them)
its the line up…CBS does real well on Mondays and they also had finales (I DVR HIMYM and Big Bang). Also, Dancing with the Stars had their Finals (yes, I DVR that…Mondays remind me how great DVR is). with 24’s finale…it was the perfect strom for Chuck to have lower rating. i vote for a 9PM slot on Mondays also.
An important point here is that definitely BBT and I think HIMYM aren’t posted online, so if you want to watch them, you have to do it live. OTOH, Chuck is up the next day… I have a feeling a lot of casual viewers would just wait to watch it online and view the other shows instead.
And going up against 24’s season finale wasn’t good either.
I live in the Midwest and Chuck comes on at 7. That is the hour when I am putting the kids to bed. Running it at 8 would work better for me. As it is, watching it online Tuesday mornings (which I have done religiously) is the best solution for me. Thanks to NBC for providing that service.
Also, my wife sees the promos and they do not appeal to her, as they emphasize a lot of the intrigue, sex, action, and “spy stuff”. I wish the promos would show the core of the show which I think is about family, loyalty, duty, love, and friendship. Unfortunately, those do not come across very well in a 30-second spot.
I have an old college friend on my facebook page who said exactly the same thing. She’s putting her kids to bed so she watches it the next day. If Chuck is going to stick with the darker tone next season they need to move the time up to nine pm for us moms and dads.
And it pains me to say that because my ten year old is Casey’s biggest fan.
8pm is too early for those of us with kids! My husband and I love the show but have to watch it later at night each week because we have to get the kids to bed first.
I’m surprised by the drop. I expected the ratings to go up slightly since 24 has been weaker competition than House. Maybe Chuck and 24 share a substantial portion of their audiences? Or were viewers tuning out because of the return of Shaw? I was a little annoyed that they chose to resurrect him like Bryce, but not annoyed enough that I skipped the finale!
This does not bode well for Season 4…
Let’s not forget also that the NBA eastern conference finals and NHL eastern finals were both on in their markets and the season finale of other shows and series finale of 24. Either way though, we have season 4 to look forward to.
i watched! i was happy/sad/glad for the finale and the direction they are heading… now i will have to wait until season 4…
i think we start pushing the dvd sales up and make the buzz happen.
Well this is a bumber. Than again we were against 24 finales as well as others so I guess we didnt do to bad. At least it went up in the second hr. Im sure the ratings will go back to its norm of being around 2.3-2.5 in the demo and hopefully higher this September.
Have no idea why I said “bumber.” MAJOR typo. lol
Chuck Me! Low ratings – how can that be? Best season and finale ever! Love me some Chuck! Congrat’s to the cast, crew and writers on a great season. Can’t wait for the next one.
Monday night is too crowded. I’d rather see Chuck move to Wednesday, when there’s nothing on, or join the Thursday night crowd of Community, 30 Rock and The Office. (Just not Friday! That is the place shows go to die…)
Or a 9pm time slot would be fine with me for Monday. (Not 10pm because Castle is on then!) USA Network airs most of their first run programs between 9 and 11pm, like Burn Notice and Psych, and they do just fine. Same for FX and TNT. More people watch at 9 or 10pm. NBC should also air Chuck repeats on Saturday night when there’s nothing on. ABC has done this with Castle all season and I started watching mainly because of the Sat. nite timeslot.
I totally agree with you! I wish NBC would wise up about promoting Chuck.
This drop doesn’t really surprise me. Even though the episode may be one of the best, it was up against the 24 finale, and the Flyers vs. Canadiens hockey game. Maybe a new time slot would help Chuck get better ratings, but considering that so much was going on Monday, the ratings were still okay.
Disapionting big time. As I recall last year the ratings faded
down the stretch. We chuck fans need to come up with a battle
plan for next season. We have four months. Let’s work together
– IT CAN BE DONE !
Don’t forget Chuck was also against a really important Hockey game in the playoff (Montreal vs Philadelphia)
Ouch! I wasn’t expecting the ratings to go down for the finale. I thought they would at least stay where they’ve been the last couple of weeks. We are in uncharted waters being on so late in May. And to go up against DWTS and 24, didn’t help. Hopefully we will trend upwards in the fall. The finale was great and it’s a shame more viewers didn’t tune in.
Well, only 4 months to go. This should be interesting to see how I get by with no GOOD tv for this long…..
Nobody “new” ever really tunes into a season finale. The only way these numbers could have jumped back up is if all the people who stopped watching during the dramatic darkness of the first 13 episodes decided to watch Chuck live. That wasn’t going to happen, this late in the game. I too, am frustrated that more people don’t watch Chuck, and I’m hoping that the writers find a way to focus on the more fun and funny tone next season, as well as create a new entry point for people who’ve never watched before. That did not happen with the start of season 3…if you didn’t already know a lot about Chuck, you would’ve been lost from 3.1 onward. I think that having Chuck hiding a new secret, no longer working for the government, but working against all kinds of evil in the world, offers a kind of new start, so I have hope that more people will be able to step in around 4.1 and have a good time. Searching for his Mom is also a much more light and compelling journey than Chuck losing Sarah only to try and win her back again, and again, and again. 🙂
Another problem is that you can’t watch an episode just once and if I’m going to DVR for the repeat watch this is the show i will DVR
I think Ellie and Awesome are going to bring Papa B back to life in the Rings secret base that Chuck and Papa B found, just like Shaw!
This show just can’t seem to flash up any good ratings even if Shaw has a gun to its head!!
Well, those were the two best episodes in the entire season and ratings still tanked?? Get ready for a season 4 series finale; or worse, getting pushed to a mid-season replacement status or canceled altogether and not return…
That what i scared of they end it without us getting a proper ending. I still think the 24 finale is what hurt us maybe. Also Chuck dont get the proper promotion I think. Also Chuck not talked about that much anymore really. It has no hype anymore. Or maybe people just do not like it. Their so many factors to why it not getting big ratings. Chuck really has a lot going against it.
Agreed 1000% Chuck finale is the best two episodes of the Season 3. Not deserve the low rating. None tv series have combinations of comedy, actions, romance, families, good and evil in one show. Personally, the show is more entertaining then today’s James Bond. Majority of the American viewer do not value the quality of the show. They love reality show more than non-reality show. In the beginning I also love to watch reality show like “Do u think u can dance”, American Idol..etc.. . After watching several series (season 2.. 3.. 4.. etc) of the reality shows I intend to get bored. Maybe (my own opinion) to me it seems more or less the same (stereotype) throughout the seasons. The diffrences (my peronal opinion) are .the.players .. musics and comments by the judges (some make the same comments). Go go Chuck and Mrs Chuck Bartowski…… Can’t wait for season 4 . WISH IT IS TOMORROW…….
The rating might have been low because the fans might feel a little at ease knowing there will be a 4th season and decided to watch it on DVR!
The drop in viewers is really a disappointment, but not totally unexpected for the end of May with so much going on. NBC’s early fall Monday schedule calls for Chuck to be followed by “The Event”, a thriller about cover-ups and “Chase” about a team of U.S. marshals. Hopefully NBC will promote Chuck like never before over the summer but it probably won’t be the family, loyalty, duty, love, and friendship angle that many of us enjoy. Still summer reruns, appearances by the cast, a firm date for the beginning of season 4 and promotion by us fans could really help get new viewers on board.
NBC runs next to no promotions for Chuck
I think not promoting the finale at the end of the episode the week before really hurt the numbers. My husband watches with me every week, and he made the comment, “Is there no episode next week?” I’m pretty sure this probably caused some people to not tune in.
I dont get something… How can 1.5 millions of people decide not to watch the final of a show they watch the whole year? Isnt odd?
I get that some people dont watch Chuck religiously (Even though it impossible lol) but what the hell they were approxiametly 5.5 millions this year… where were the 0.5 missing at the final 500 000 people is a whole punch of folks
I think it because what Tina says. They know it coming back so they feel they dont need to watch it live.
problem is there are TOO MANY DAMN PEOPLE WITH DVR…watch it live people!!
I couldn’t agree more!
DVR’s is whats killing CHUCK not the intersect in his brain.
My husband and I are nielsen’s viewers and we make sure to watch it live because we want our vote to be heard. Anyone who chose to watch any other show but Chuck live on the 24th was the reason for the low ratings. We’re part of the solution, but we’re also part of the problem. 🙁
All that said, we are Canadian Chuck viewers and we got completely shafted on the season finale. Thankfully we could watch it on NBC, but they haven’t even aired the finale up here yet. We have to wait until june 6th…which means we can’t purchase it on itunes until then and we can’t see it online until after that either.