WEEK TWO fast overnight ratings for Flashpoint came in at 6.75 million viewers overall for the hour, but with an uptick to 7.46 million in the second half.
That means they lost a million viewers from the premiere week. There's a couple ways to look at this. The first is that 6.75 is still about 82% of that premiere audience. That's nothing to sneeze at. And the continued growth in the second half hour means that people are tuning in, not tuning away once they find it. That's a positive sign too.
Still, you wouldn't want another drop like that for week 3.
I think the head-scratching question about Flashpoint now moves to the question I've had all along about the show:
What happens in show 18?
But there are a bunch of clever clever writers working that question right now, somewhere in Toronto, toiling away without a hiatus, in sweatshop like conditions...
Well, the last part isn't anybody's fault really -- the sweatshop like humidity has finally descended upon the Toronto summer.
Sigh.
Anyway, good news for the show and here's hoping more of those people remember to tune in from the beginning, and not halfway through next week!
EDIT: I guess the venerable Diane was right once again, the numbers reported for the hour are an average of both half hours, so they seem to be reporting them as 7.11 million. Which though my math is bad, I understand to be more than 6.75 million.
5 comments:
Are you sure it's 6.75 overall? I have that's for the half hour, but overall is 7.11. I've never seen first half hours reported as overall for the hour - isn't it usually the average?
Do you see Flashpoint as different from the average case of the week show, to ponder the what happens in show 18 question?
Here's how the fast nationals are reported:
10:00 p.m.
ABC – 20/20
Viewers: 4.41 million (#3), A18-49: 1.4/ 5 (#2t)
CBS – Flashpoint
Viewers: 6.75 million (#1), A18-49: 1.4/ 5 (#2t)
NBC – Dateline
Viewers: 5.94 million (#2), A18-49: 1.5/ 5 (#1)
Looking at it again, FP seems to have tied for demos 18-49 with Dateline edging ahead, which is a less good sign. But you know what? Two weeks who knows. Not enough to read the tea leaves yet.
I think the SWAT-like setup could be limiting. I know that in the original conception of the show where it was way more character based I could see avenues where it would go.
To pull an example from the air, oh, let's see, is there a show you might be familiar with...
...Have you ever seen HOUSE? You know, that Doctor show with Hugh Laurie?
Well, on House, obviously they get their legs from the big interactions between the characters. Interestingly enough, people I know who love CSI tell me the reason they love it is the same thing, so I guess that proves that you don't have to do MUCH to get that if the engine is solid.
But even with House's basic medical mystery of the week, my gut feeling is that there's a lot more potential medical mysteries to hang a show on than there are situations that an SWAT team (or ERT team) would respond to. The world is limiting.
See, the people doing it could be endlessly fascinating...but the more you ladle in having to walk through a procedural hoop, the less of that good stuff you can rely on and the more you have to go to the well of situations that seemed to be similar.
This is why shows like this that have been tried in the past have all kind of failed. Last year, the rom-com element ladled onto STANDOFF seemed interesting to me, but by about five eps in they were really, really repeating themselves.
They've got a great writing team, and maybe they'll find a way through it. I root for that. But i'll freely admit that I don't see it. Yet.
well what i would do is adapt the model used in that Michael Douglas move -- the one where he lost it and went on a rampage. That is to say -- boost the guest characters story and make him or her interesting each week. If you spent about 30% of the story time on the "perps" side, 40% on the action response and the other 30% on a personal line you could keep it going for years.
that way you got enuff personal stuff (he's gonna fuck her!!) the cop porn for the proceedural buffs, and a tasty guest part for whoever is demonstrating TVQ.
Those ratings are what I have for the first half hour but there's another set of data for the second half hour, and overall ratings are supposed to be the average of both. I feel like we need to synchronize our sources ;) Where are you getting that as overall data?
House. I think I've heard of it. Stars Stephen Fry? I think Numbers is probably the most limiting premise for a procedural I can think of and yet they keep chugging along. I don't think repeating cases of the week was the failing of Standoff, since not enough people tuned in long enough to tell that they did.
I've always thought the opposite - if you don't have a case of the week to hang stories off of, it's too easy to flounder with the soap and too hard to come up with a steady stream of stories - and they're obviously setting up some character stories with the ensemble. But if you're too broad with the procedural focus ("another cop show?") you get into trouble there too because you're not differentiated enough from the competition.
I was just curious what you saw about it that was different, but your objection seems pretty similar to every objection about procedurals. Anyway, like any new show, they'll be lucky to have to deal with running out of story before they run out of show.
Yeah, I actually fully stipulate the possibility that I'm wrong here on math. Is the convention to average? I didn't even know that. It involves math. You're talking to a man who tips until the waitress looks vaguely happy.
What sets it apart in this case is that I feel it has incompatible elements.
Most police procedurals have an investigative or gumshoe element -- this can't have that -- it's reactive.
The soap/character element could play and fill a role, but you have to have an action basis in all four acts, per CBS's wants. So how does that work?
Action in all four acts is expensive. And the situations are pretty potentially redundant.
Again, it's a high wire act I'm rooting for them to come up with. But I don't see it. And I haven't talked to anyone else who does what I do who does see it. But I guess the only people who know for sure at this moment if they can pull it off is the people in that room, and I'm not really in contact with any of them.
So I'm watching it with a kind of academic curiosity. I feel like I got the show it was supposed to be from the pilot, but the show that resulted when CBS signed on is a different show. I'm not sure I see the legs on that show. So I'm waiting to see.
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