LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — “Lost” crashed in the ratings this week, hitting an all-time low for a new episode.
ABC’s drama about plane crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island drew an estimated 12.8 million viewers Wednesday, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research. That’s well off the peak of more than 20 million for the drama that became an instant sensation when it debuted in September 2004.
ABC has worked hard to try to protect a show that helped turn the network’s fortunes around, moving it to 10 p.m. EST Wednesday this year to steer clear of Fox’s blockbuster “American Idol” and CBS’s increasingly strong “Criminal Minds.”
After “Lost” fans complained about reruns interrupting the show’s serial flow last season, the network tried an experiment: It split the current season in two, airing six episodes before an extended break and then resuming with 16 additional episodes.
The show’s February 7 return was heavily promoted and drew nearly 14.5 million viewers. But the bounce didn’t last, with the show slumping this week.
Although protected from top-rated “American Idol” in its new time 10 p.m. time slot, “Lost” now has the disadvantage of trying to draw viewers at an hour when fewer people are watching television. This Wednesday, Valentine’s Day put a 7 percent dent in overall TV viewership.
In the show’s defense, ABC noted that it beat the competition among the advertiser-favored young adult crowd, drawing 7.3 million viewers age 18 to 49 compared to the 5.8 million that tuned in to CBS’ “CSI: New York.”
“Lost” also handed ABC nearly 4 million more viewers in the time slot compared to last year, when short-lived drama “Invasion” aired, the network said.
But there’s no question that “Lost,” once riding big ratings, buzz and cachet, has lost significant ground.
Some fans and critics complain that the story has gotten confusing and unsatisfying. The show, named best drama at the 2005 Emmy Awards, was shut out at the 2006 ceremony.
I’m not sure why so many people have stopped watching it. I think it’s as good now as it was a year ago.
It’s a shame that last seasons constant non-answering cliff hangers turned so many people off from the show, especially since this season started off so strong.
How do I know this? it’s the reason why a lot of my friends stopped watching the show.
If they answered everything all at once, there wouldn’t be much of a show left. The mystery of what’s happening is what keeps me watching it.
Let’s see, it’s in a very late slot (being in Mountain Time, it’s 11:00 here)/on a night where all the couples are…um, “not watching TV” 😉
That’s like saying. “Hey, our new show premiered with crappy ratings!” when it was up against superbowl…
Ratings will hopefully be up again next week.
Wasn’t this last week’s show a double-header? I could have sworn that they showed the week before’s and then this week’s right after. When my tivo started getting the first one, I was annoyed because it was a show I’d already seen. But then I was happy to discover that a new episode followed.
I was just wondering if maybe leading off with a repeat was a poor choice?
I thought the show comes on earlier as you go west. I’m on central time, so for me it’s at 9PM. Eastern time is 10PM, so wouldn’t mountain time be 8PM and pacific be 7PM? Or am I missing something?
I didn’t think about the fact that the new episode of “Lost” aired on Valentine’s Day. Maybe that had something to do with the ratings drop.
Even with the drop it still won its timeslot and did better than “Invasion” which occupied that slot one year ago. Also, I know some producers who would kill to get 12.8 million viewers to watch their weekly show. That’s still alot of butts sittin’ in those chairs watching in the mid-week at that late an hour.
The ratings were at an all-time low for “Lost” — not your typical run-of-the-mill sitcom or drama program. For a show that has been use to getting around 14 million viewers a night, that came as quite a shock…but my feeling is “Lost” has found its faithful audience and there are nearly 13 million of them….more than enough to keep it afloat for two more seasons.
Kyle,
Regarding the timezones. The Networks run off 2 feeds: Eastern and Pacific. Central gets the Eastern feed and Mountain gets Pacific.
So, when I’m watching “Lost” at 9PM, people on eastern time are watching it at the exact same time (only it’s 10PM there, because they’re one hour later than me).
But people on mountain and pacific time have to wait another two hours after me? I guess I’m just not understanding this.
That’s pretty much it.
Which is why I love my digital cable package. Lots of east coast feeds, so I can watch all my favourite shows 2 hours early! 😀
The show is the same as it has always been indeed and the slump in ratings (and interest on my part) is purely the fault of the network in my opinion. These loooong breaks in between cliffhangers have simply pissed me off.
Thanksgiving, sweeps, Christmas…whatever damn holiday they assume people won’t be watching serves the opposite. I’ve basically said a big “SCREW YOU” to Aussie networks and foxtel ages ago and rely completely on usenet for my fix of TV now. That’s the way it’ll stay unless they do what I want. 😉
I guess I’m used to long breaks by now. I think almost every show I watch does it because most of them are on cable networks
i think the ratings drop had to do with valentines day… people were probably doin the v day thing… but i could be wrong, lets see what happens this week.
Damn shame. That last episode was the best one yet.
Actually after last weeks ep, I decided not to watch anymore. Last weeks ep was just terrible IMO.
however I had to legally aquire it today, as friends said this weeks was good. And I have to agree. It was a good ep. If they could just answer most of hte other questions, and concentrate on the new stuff it may get old viewers back.
I just thing people have given up on the show. Season 3 was not hgood up to that point, and only the Eko ep being any good at all.
I find myself not caring about Jack and co…. and I actually like Sawyer, but I just can’t care about the situation they are in. I never liked the tail section stuff either though. They could kill off that whole other island, and I couldn’t care; as long at the main island had a good story.
So I’ll keep watching, for now.
But…the other island, the tail section and Jack & Co are all part of the same story. Without them, we’d have Locke & Co meandering around a jungle avoiding boars, polar bears and mysterious black smoke ..and that would be Lost.
What a shame that the ratings took a dive when the last ep. was so good. If they did more eps. like that one, I think the ratings would go up. And give us more Desmond! 🙂
I bailed out on Lost last season. I couldn’t escape the feeling that they had no idea where they were taking the show. There are only so many unanswered questions you can hand your audience before it gets old. I like shows that stretch out a mystery too, but they had no answers to any of it. Those writers are the ones who are lost.
Like a bad slot machine, the show is just not paying off enough to keep people around. Every once and awhile you have to give people a free hit off the crack pipe.