Terrible TV Ratings News Comes in Threes

Although the new winter schedule has already had one well-deserved casualty so far, the news is not so great for people who get upset when bad shows receive good ratings while better shows toil in obscurity (a.k.a., Greendalies). First off, if you haven’t heard yet, last week’s debut of the Rob Schneider show, “Rob” — also known as televised prostate cancer — received stunningly great ratings, as 13.5 million of “Big Bang Theory’s” 15 million viewers stuck around to watch Rob make fun of Hispanics while a woman with large breasts spoke in an accent. That actually doesn’t speak very well of the “Big Bang” audience, either. If you’re one of the 1.5 million “Big Bang” viewers that changed the channel, you might want to take a moment and dissociate yourself from the rest of your fake nerd brethren (real nerds watch “Community,” bitches)

If that wasn’t distressing enough, thanks to the overrun of the Packers/Giants game, Fox’s “Napoleon Dynamite” fetched 9.5 million viewers and a whopping 4.6 million viewers among the 18-49 demo (that’s how many viewers the most watched comedy on TV, “Two and a Half Men” received in that demo last night). There was a slight drop-off for the second show, but the numbers are still encouraging for Fox.

Also encouraging for Fox was the debut of “Alcatraz” last night, which received 10 million viewers, up 3 percent over the debut of “Terra Nova” last fall. I don’t know how many of you watched it, but I only made it through the first hour before I gave up. Interesting premise, but it immediately falls into the formulaic procedural format, and as much as I like Sam Neill, the miscast hot blonde totally tanks it while Hurley is left to deliver painfully banal lines. That said, it’s not as bad as “Terra Nova.”

(Hurley’s Title Card via Bob Canada’s Blogworld)

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