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Friday, November 23, 2007
11/23: Bones big in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The power of the local Fox affiliate WAGA-TV helped fuel a mid-level show nationally like “Bones” into the tpo 10 locally last week. Ranked 38th nationwide with 9.1 million viewers, the Nov. 13 telecast ranked 8th in Atlanta for the week of Nov. 12.
The Nielsen gal who emails the local viewer figures was on vacation this week so I don’t have specific numbers but I do get household figures. It appears “Bones” got about 300,000 viewers.
As usual, “House” was tops locally while ABC’s “American Music Awards” outperformed the rest of the nation, fueled no doubt by all the Atlanta-related appearances such as Ne-Yo and Sugarland. The show ranked 6th with 13 percent of TVs on that show Nov. 18 while nationally, it ranked 10th wit ha 10 percent share.
Given that CBS drama “NCIS” skews so much older and Atlanta is a younger town, the show pulled in only 11 percent of TVs on locally but 15 percent nationally. “NCIS” ranked 5th nationally; 20th locally.
In Atlanta, NBC didn’t have a single show in the top 20. “Law & Order: SVU” ranked 23rd.
Here’s the top 10 out of Atlanta for the week of November 12:
House
Dancing With the Stars
Grey’s Anatomy
CSI
Dancing With the Stars (results)
American Music Awards
Samantha Who?
Bones
Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
60 Minutes
SOURCE: Nielsen Media Research
WINNERS
Showtime’s “Dexter” — Showtime got its biggest ratings ever for an original series as dark drama “Dexter” pulled in 1.23 million viewers. Given that only 13 mllion households out of about 120 million even receive Showtime, that’s not bad. In addition, “Brotherhood” brought in a series record 651K.
MTV’s “Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” — This train wreck of a dating show features a MySpace gal trying to find love among both men and women. The twist: she’s bisexual! When she eliminated two women last week, one attacked the other in a moment worthy of “Jerry Springer.” The show has nearly doubled its audience over five weeks, opening at 1.9 million Oct. 9 and drawing 3.6 million Nov. 13. That’s buzz!
ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” — The series hit a season high of 23.1 million this past Monday as the final four duked it out. Jennie Garth was ousted the next night.
ABC’s “The Bachelor” — The show’s post-finale talk Tuesday between Brad Womack and Newnan’s DeAanna Pappas and Phoenix’s Jenni Frost after he dumped both of them drew 12.8 million viewers, more than the actual finale Monday of 11.6 million. Despite the fact none of these bachelors in 11 incarnations have ever found a true love to marry, the show itself keeps going on.
CBS’s “CSI Miami”/”CSI:NY” — Both shows are down year over year but both also hit their season highs this week despite the fact it’s a holiday week.
CBS’s “Criminal Minds” — And CBS fans of this show are adjusting well with Joe Montegna replacing Mandy Patinkin because it hit a season high Wednesday of 16 million viewers.
The CW’s “America’s Next Top Model” — This Tyra Banks reality show hit a season high at 5.3 million viewers Nov. 14 when Enrique Iglesias visited.
LOSERS
CW’s Monday night lineup — ”Everybody Hates Chris” hit a series low this past Monday with just 2.1 million viewers while “Aliens in America,” despite good critical viewers, is doing even worse. The only sign of life is “The Game,” which is doing better than the others.
NBC’s “Bionic Woman”“ — Easily the biggest disappoinment this year, this bionic bomb has lost more than half its first-episode audience, dropping every week since its debut. It drew nearly 14 million viewers week one but just 6.3 million Nov. 14.
NBC’s “Las Vegas” — Boy, the Montecito really misses James Caan. Or at least viewers do because the show (with Tom Selleck as Caan’s replacement) has hit series lows two weeks in a row, dropping to 6.7 million viewers on Nov. 16.
NBC’s “The Office”/CBS’s ‘Big Bang Theory” — The only reason they are losers is because they are the first two scripted shows to run out of fresh episodes due to the writers’ strike and will be on repeats until further notice. Sniff.
11/23: Bull goes all Christmas
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With the legacy of being the all Christmas station as Lite 94.9 for six years, 94.9 The Bull has decided to do it, too. In this case, though, the Christmas music is almost all country artists.
As you may recall, a week before Christmas last year, Clear Channel shocked Atlanta radio by abruptly cutting off all-Christmas music on Lite a week early and switching the station format to country music.
Program Director Clay Hunnicutt said he has no regrets doing that a year ago. But he knows the legacy Lite has with Christmas so he decided to go the Yuletide route with 80 to 90 percent country artists and a bit of Burl Ives and Nat King Cole thrown in, too. While hundreds of soft rock stations and Christian stations go all Christmas between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Hunnicutt said only a couple of other country stations do this nationwide.
“The format as far as country is fairly religious in tone and music such as Brooks & Dunn’s ‘Believe’ and Carrie Underwood’s ‘Jesus, Take the Wheel,’ ” he said. It helps that virtually every major artists does a Christmas album or contributes to some Christmas compilation at some point. He was able to compile a relatively deep playlist of 400 to 450 songs compared to just 150 or so B98.5 used last year. And to pay homage to Lite 94.9, the station is using the on-air line “The tradition continues.”
The year-old Bull, which has done almost as well as its predecessor in the key 25 to 54 demographic but still lags far behind mainstay Kicks 101.5, started all Christmas at the same time as B98.5 at 7 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. (Christian soft rock station 104.7/The Fish started a bit earlier. And the south-side leaning soft rock station Lite 96.7 launched Christmas earlier this week.).
So Atlanta has three Christmas stations and four if you count Lite 96.7 (which I really don’t because it isn’t a metro-wide signal and doesn’t have enough listening to qualify to show up on the Arbitron ratings.).
The first hour last night featured Alan Jackson’s “Holly Jolly Christmas,” Taylor Swift’s “Silent Night” (wow, she already has recorded a Christmas song!), Bing Crosby’s “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” Toby Keith’s “Joy to the World,” Alabama’s “Christmas in Dixie,” Martina McBride’s “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” Garth Brooks’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Santa Claus,” Trisha Yearwood’s “Away In a Manger,” George Strait’s “Christmas Cookies,” the Eagles “Please Come Home For Christmas,” Brad Paisley’s “Winter Wonderland,” Carrie Underwood’s “Do You Hear What I Hear,” Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper,” Tracy Lawrence’s “All Wrapped Up In Christmas,” and Johnny Mathis’ “The First Noel.”
