via press release:
THE CW’S VAMPIRE DIARIES AND NIKITA BUILD
WEEK-TO-WEEK IN KEY DEMOS
VAMPIRE DIARIES Climbs to Second Largest Audience of the Season
October 8, 2010 (Burbank, CA) – The CW’s Thursday dramas bucked the competitive trend and delivered week-to-week gains in key categories, as freshman drama NIKITA in particular posted killer increases over last week, according to Live Plus Same Day Nielsen ratings for Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010.
The CW’s bloody addictive sophomore drama THE VAMPIRE DIARIES was up over last week by 8% in women 18-34 (2.6/8), 7% in adults 18-49 (1.6/5), 5% in women 18-49 (2.1/7) and 9% in total viewers (3.5mil). VAMPIRES DIARIES posted its second largest audience of the season.
NIKITA scored strong week-to-week increases of 11% in adults 18-34 (1.0/3), 18% in women 18-34 (1.3/4), 10% in adults 18-49 (1.1/3), 9% in women 18-49 (1.2/3) and 8% in total viewers (3.0mil).
Errrr… The CW, Nikita Final ratings were 2.90, NOT 3.00 :\
Nice to see them ticking up for a change. Both had good episodes. In particular, Candice Accola ROCKED in TVD last night, causing me to rescind my desire to see her staked. Which probably means she’ll get staked, of course. Becoming a vampire was the best thing that ever happened to her, apparently.
With these ratings Nikita now becomes this week’s lowest rated M-Th CW show in W18-34. I can’t help but be interested in the contrast between Nikita‘s strong A18-49 ratings and it’s weak W18-34.
I doubt Smallville or Supernatural will do better tonight. They could probably move Nikita into Smallville’s slot next season. I could see it being compatible with SN and its mostly older audience should follow it to Fridays.
Vampire Diaries should be doing way better than this. The show has avoided the dreaded sophomore slump so far and each episode just gets better and more exciting. I can’t believe The CW is screwing up the momentum by already scheduling a rerun so early in the season!
The CW is looking to self-destruct itself by scheduling a re-run already, this is crazy, I mean they are asking for the channel to fail. These ratings are getting better and better and TVD would continue to grow week-to-week due to momentum however that is now stopped. Nikita will absolutely be moved to Fridays next year for the 9pm slot with Supernatural, their ratings are extremely similar according to the demos. Come on CW pull through here and no more random breaks.
cwTVwatch, if you really do watch CW, then you realize that ordering 22 episodes of a show, and starting 1 (or 2) weeks early like the CW does in a 35 week season means 14-15 repeats for each of their scripted shows between now and the end of May.
As an avid fan of the original Nikita series I find the new series seriously lacking. I will continue to watch….for now but i am looking for the intensity in the original series to follow into the new Nikita.
Nikita is doing pretty well in a general sense compared to the other CW shows, it just isn’t doing too well with women, I agree it would be a good move to pair it with supernatural next season, it would be a waste to cancel it with those ratings probably a bit too early to be speculating on this though, there’s still a lot of the season to go.
No it isn’t doing well.
Seriously people. Its doing great in total viewers.
But out of the two primary revenue age groups 18-49 and 18-34 the show isn’t doing well.
No one thinks GG hitting a 1.1 is a great rating. And GG gets a sizable uptick in adults 18-34 (let alone the the specific female numbers).
Seriously If the general breakdown in genders is close to that of the 18-34 demo. Then it’s doing poorly in both sexes.
Look at that number.
a 1.0 in adults 18-34 (seriously)
A 1.3 in women (worse then any other show on M-Thursday, and yes Friday’ will be lower but they are held at a different standard).
That means its adults 18-34 is in the range of .7 or .8. That isn’t good in men. Not even close.
It has the best lead in available on the CW its performing down year to year versus SN in all except total viewers (and again that was considered a poor performance of an aging show). This is a new show. Where its most likely never going to get better (there are some exceptions).
Look at GG this week. Nearly a million fewer viewers. But an identical adults 18-49. It scored a massive adults 18-34 (thats nearly a full point more then Nikita), and of course a w 18-34 of 2.8 (more then double what Nikita managed), its male audience in that same demo was probably 5 to .6 (not that much worse then what Nikita did).
@mark wood, so why does Bill have NIKITA likely to be renewed in the renewal/cancel index if it wasn’t doing well. I mean if the show was getting ratings like the CW stalemate Life Unexpected or struggling 90210, I wouldn’t really argue.
I get what you’re saying about they key demos and all but you’re saying as if NIKITA is a total failure or something.
Also, do you guys really think CW will move the show to Friday next year??
What do you think Bill???
On the renew/ Cancel index its an average of the shows performance. It also only considers the 18-49 demo group. Which is important (and more so for any other network), but it is not even the primary general demo for the CW. That is the adult 18-34.
Bill (or Robert I can’t remember) have admitted that its possible they might need to eventually adjust for the other demos for the CW, but it hasn’t yet needed to occur.
The Renew Cancel index also doesn’t factor in retention, and that does have some impact on networks.
If you eliminated the early showings of Nikita (and for that matter all shows on the CW) before the season actually started and the numbers between the the rest of the CW (again just in the 18-49 demo are much closer. The demos in the others aren’t closer they gap is even further apart (well except LUX, which is toast, toast, toast).
While I am critical of the shows performance (this has nothing to do with how I feel about the quality of the show), it should easily get a full back order. And it probably will get renewed by the CW.
Not in my opinion due to the strength of its ratings but from the fact that the CW hasn’t been able to field many new shows previously.
As for 90210 (A show I hate) its ratings aren’t that much different. And its also dealt with having two weeks of getting preempted (which does lower its performance a bit).
Lets look at Nikita and next on the chopping block (as LUX is currently on the chopping block), and that would be 90210. And I am going to look at only episodes that have occurred during the official season. The reasons are three fold. Nikita started earlier (thus should have stronger numbers), I want to compare against the normal range of competition, and new shows typical have their strongest performance when they start and have larger drop offs then returning shows. In other words those early episode don’t generally reflect a shows typical performance.
Nikita’s average is greatly helped by starting pre season with a 1.4 and a 1.3. After the season started its been 1.1, 1.0 and 1.1.
90210 started with one pre season episode that was a .9. After the season started its had a .9, 1.0 and .9 (and remember both episode that were point 9 happen to be episodes where it was preempted for local Monday Night football Coverage. So it will have lost a little from that, not much but a little.
So clearly Nikita does perform stronger in the general adult 18-49 demo (and that absolutely includes any modest lose 90210 suffered from preemptions). But its also an 8pm show with smaller HUT levels, and Nikita also follows the CW’s most popular show (in the old days of retention Nikita would seriously, seriously be hurting).
But lets look at adults 18-34 (not female just adults). And does Nikita still show a lead.
Again lets look after the season started Nikita pre season start featured a 1.3 and a 1.2. Once the season started its been a 1.1, a .9 and a 1.0. For an average of 1.0 in general adults 18-34.
90210 (next on the Bears dinner menu) started early with a 1.2, and once the season started had a 1.2, a 1.3, and a 1.2 (and again was preempted on two of those days in a few markets for Monday Night Football). Clearly in that demographic, one that the CW has made no secret is more important to them then the general 18-49, 90210 is doing stronger then Nikita. In fact last week in adults 18-34 Nikita didn’t manage to score a higher number then any show on the CW (including Friday’s shows and LUX, it tied Lux). Tied Lux. Lux is dead.
And several posters have said that while its not doing well in females its doing better in men. Based on every press release and data point I have seen, this is not the case. At least not in the age demos that the CW cares about. Robert (or Bill) did report one week that it’s adults 50 plus was 5 times stronger then SN from the year earlier. But even they will say the CW (and for that matter most networks) don’t care one iota about that age group. Not unless it comes in with over 10 million viewers (yeah 60 minutes and Blue Bloods I’m talking about you).
Is Nikita a total failure. Nope, I even point out (in almost every post I make about the show) that its total viewer numbers for the CW are very strong (typically only VD is beating it). And that apparently its older demos are really good for the CW.
But I don’t think thats what the CW planned on. I think they were trying to get a new success on their hands, and one that they felt wasn’t wasting Vampire Diaries lead in (last year that would be SN wasting VD lead in). I seriously don’t think they expected Nikita to be doing worse year to year in adults 18-49, adults 18-34, w 18-34 (and m 18-34) then the show they moved.
Again I think the show will get a pickup, and probably get a renewal as well. But based on 5 episodes I don’t see a healthy show.
Well it’s pretty much doing what was expected.
Even Dawn said at the upfronts that the show would appeal to both men and women.
Going up against the #1 show for females is tough in Grey’s Anatomy.
What did Supernatural do last year?
Thank you Mark Wood for pointing out something that I’ve felt all along! If Nikita was doing so well, why has OTH and Hellcats got additional scripts but not Nikita? I actually like the show more than Hellcats (I watch all shows on CW, except 90210, hilarious right?). But whether I like it or not is not the point. The viewers (which certainly don’t count on CW) and the 18-49 (Which barely count) are good, but looking at those demo numbers you see the real problem. As Mark Wood pointed out, GG is doing way better, heck even LUX got the same numbers and its airing after a much weaker show! I predict that all will get additional episodes, with this new mid-season show airing after VD or OTH.
V
Supernatural at this stage of the game (regular season first three episodes) with very similar lead in did. And with the exception of 16 episodes after Gilmore Girls and a season after VD SN had a fairly even mix of men and women (at least among adults 18-34 and 18-49, I’ve never seen a gender breakdown for SN for any age group older).
In adults 18-49: 1.2, 1.2, and 1.2
in adults 18-34: 1.2, 1.4, and 1.4
in w 18-34: 1.5, 1.6 and 1.3
Nikita in w 18 – 34: 1.2, 1.1 and 1.3 (using the base of adults 18-34 versus women 18-34 you can get a rough estimate of men 18-34 and SN also performed stronger among that demo).
Though in fairness most shows do see year to year declines, so I am not saying that SN would have maintained those numbers this year.
But clearly the CW can’t be happy about these numbers.
Oh and I think Dawn absolutely was hoping that the show would appeal to not just one gender but both. But I assume she expected numbers far stronger. A 1.1 and a 1.0 aren’t strong.
@mark wood,
1. The only decision being made at the CW right now is which shows get a full season order, and I’d be startled if all shows except Life Unexpected didn’t get a full season. I wouldn’t be startled if Life Unexpected got more episodes too, that says more about how they feel about their mid-season shows this year, but I would be very surprised if it came back next season.
2. Except for TVD and Life Unexpected the rest of the Mon-Thurs shows have 18-49 ratings way too close together for me to guess any others besides Life Unexpected would be cancelled before next season.
3. All their public press to the contrary, there is no evidence that the CW cancels shows with average (for them) 18-49 ratings but below average (for them) W18-34 ratings.
I want a 2nd season of Nikita.
I want a 4th season of 90210.
I want no more episodes of LUX, so that the CW realizes that should have renewed Melrose Place instead.And don’t reply this comment if your gonna say “LUX as better ratings than MP”. I honestly do not care.
Nikita and Life Unexpected deserve to be renewed 90210 is a rubbish show too many gay characters.
Sorry but 90210 is one of the few shows on TV right now that get better in later seasons…they had a rubbish start but Season 3 so far is a very good teen drama, in quality of writing, diversity of characters, acting, storylines…even camera work and the whole look of the show is very appealing now. And to put a bit of credibility into my argument, I’m saying this as a Film and TV student, who wrote a whole essay on teen drama.
Bill: “3. All their public press to the contrary, there is no evidence that the CW cancels shows with average (for them) 18-49 ratings but below average (for them) W18-34 ratings.”
Wouldn’t you consider Reaper to fall into that category though? Articles written here described part of the reason for its cancellation as being “doesn’t fit network target demo”.