Just one week after its phenomenal opening, the new ABC drama “Life On Mars” took a huge plunge in ratings (only 8.2 million viewers) with its second episode losing nearly a third of its premiere episode audience.
The story, which has been adapted from the BBC series of the same name, is about a 21st century detective who, after an accident involving a hit and run, is somehow transported back to 1973 where he resumes his duties as a detective.
While the show beat the pants of the other new SF drama debuting two weeks ago on CBS, titled “Eleventh Hour,” the second episode fell way behind both the CBS show and NBC’s “ER” episode in which long-time cast member Maura Tierney, who has starred as the female lead of the series for 10 of its 15 season run, said good bye to the show that made her one of the most recognized stars of today. “ER” is currently in its 15th and finale season, making it one of America’s longest running continuing primetime dramas in TV history.
“Eleventh Hour,” is now the new champion of Thursday night with a solid 11.9 million viewers to show for its second week effort. However, as usual the overall winner of Thursdays continues to be the indomitable “C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation” logging in another impressive 19.3 million viewers. That show remains a powerhouse for the the Eye Network, even after 8 seasons.
“Eleventh Hour” edged out “ER” for the lead in 25-54 (4.2/11 to 4.1/10) and easily topped its time period in total viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings.
NBC’s “Crusoe” did fair with its two-hour premiere on Friday with a little over 7 million viewers, surpassing every other show NBC has tried in that same timeslot over the past couple of years. The new show even performed better in its second hour. The show, even though it paces slow in some parts of the telling, is surprisingly fun to watch with good production and a decent enough storyline with excellent flashbacks in Crusoe’s life that highlights the acting skills of such co-stars as Sam Neill as Robin’s adopted Uncle and the wonderful Sean Bean (“LOTR”) playing Robin’s father.
NBC may have bitten off more then they could chew by moving their hit cop show “Life” to Friday night. They had hoped the popular show would give them some exposure for that night but its first showing on Fridays only garnered them 5.9 million viewers. This could simply be that fans weren’t aware of the move yet, however, if the show is to continue NBC might reconsider and move it back to its middle of the week time period where it had gathered a good audience share.
Finally, CBS’s uber-hit series “Ghost Whisperer” continues to dominate its Friday night slot. Good news for “Moonlight” fans — the series that CBS opted to replace the highly popular vampire series, “The Ex-List,” is doing poorly and hasn’t been able to bring in the numbers that “Moonlight” did in the same time period. And, with a lead-in as powerful as “Ghost Whisperer,” this doesn’t bold well for “The Ex-List.” Perhaps CBS will wise up and bring back “Moonlight” since they still retain Alex O’Loughlin under contract for the network.
I still don’t see why they couldn’t have just bought the rebroadcast rights for the original series from the BBC. If John Simm’s performance on Doctor Who is anything to go by, I’m betting his Life on Mars is fantastic. Which raises the question of why it hasn’t been released on DVD in North America yet. BBCA ran it earlier this year and I’m really regretting that I missed it.
I’m normally one to give a show a chance for at least a few epsiodes, thank you DVR, but honestly I didn’t even make it through the first episode of the US Life on Mars. It failed to grab me on any level and I shut it off about halfway through. Now I have not seen the british version, but may still check it out based on all the positive things I have heard about it.
I haven’t watched the American Life on Mars. I’d rather watch the British one. And it’s good to see that Crusoe did well. Crusoe is a lot of fun. I hope it continues to do well.
I “flew to the UK” to see Eleventh Hour and I really enjoyed it.
I’ve watched the 4 episiode mini-series numerous times and each time I wonder what the hell is CBS trying to do this show for?
I watched the premier episode and while I really really like Rupert Sewell (dreamy eyed man that he is) I kept seeing the stuff that they cut out. And I kept missing Patrick Stewart doing that role.
Ah well, anyway….
I do hope the show is a B-I-I-I-I-I-I-G hit!!!
I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT MOONLIGHT TO COME BACK!!! It is such an amazing series. And it just can’t stop at season 1! It’s just so good, yet so original. I really wish for more seasons and I also can’t wait for the season 1 DVD to come out.
CBS knows they made a mistake by cancelling Moonlight. For God sake, Moonlight won the 2007/2008 PCA . So what does that tell you. Moonlight won the demographics, the Friday night numbers and has a fan base of over 8+ million. It”s been five months now since Moonlight was cancelled and still the fans campaign to bring it back and they won’t stop till it returns for a second season. Hey CBS if you are reading this, please bring Moonlight back as a Mid-season replacement.
My favorite of the bunch is Life. Just an excellently written and acted show.
I really enjoy Life On Mars. But the reason I happened to watch is because I have a tendency to not surf the channels very much and I had a usually had CBS on my screen. I have quit watching CBS prime time because of my fury that Moonlight was canceled. So, to sum up, I enjoy Life On Mars and absolutely adore Moonlight.
LIFE ON MARS IS FRIGGIN AWESOME!
I PUT A SIGN ON THE END OF MY STREET TELLING PEOPLE TO WATCH IT.
YEEEAAAHHH!!!