Tonight, one of the new season’s highly anticipated shows, Pushing Daisies, will make its debut on ABC. The show have been receiving rave reviews and is being considered a front-running for being the most successful new shows of the 2007-2008 season. But the latest numbers show that the freshman class has not been making the grade so far.
According to the New York Post, no new show has hit the loft numbers mega-hit Heroes did last year. Right now the front running rookie shows are ABC’s Private Practice (with 13.4M viewers) and NBC’s Bionic Woman(13M viewers). But these are shows that are not necessarily “new.” After all, Private is a spin off of the insanely (and baffling) successful show Grey’s Anatomy, and Bionic Woman is a revival of a well-know sci-fi brand that can attract older and younger fans.
There is a wrinkle to this new season though. The majority of the new shows have pretty much the same amount of viewers, which means no one is really getting blown out of the water. Right now the difference between the #3 and #10 new shows (CBS’ Cane and Moonlight, respectively) is only about 3 million viewers. Even ABC’s Cavemen, which has been getting KILLED by critics, scored 9 million viewers, which puts it right in the middle of the pack of new shows.
So what does this mean? It means that when it comes time to evaluate shows mid-season, shows that normally would be allowed to grow may end up getting cut. More shows will end up on the ratings bubble, and a “feel good” good underdog story, like 30 Rock going from low-rated sitcom in Aaron Sorkin’s shadow to Emmy-winning critical darling, probably won’t happen. So as much as you like your new favorite show, you might not want to set a Season Pass for it just yet.
