The holiday weekend meant a slow week, even by summer standards. The interesting stories come from how well ‘Falling Skies’ is holding up, and the possibility that ‘Rookie Blue’ has already earned a third season.
The big story for the week was the return of ‘True Blood’ on HBO, which remains the biggest hit the network has where ratings are concerned. On the broadcast networks, NBC unscripted continues to hold the lead.
Most of the excitement was on cable last week, with premieres from ‘Wilfred’, ‘Louie’, ‘Suits’, ‘Burn Notice’, and ‘Futurama’. There were also finales for ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘The Killing’, ‘Nurse Jackie’, and ‘United States of Tara.’
The week that was brought a host of finales to each of the networks. That was overwhelmingly good news. Even those that were off the year ago pace saw a boost over the previous tougher spring weeks. Over on cable, keep an eye on those ‘Game of Thrones’ numbers.
Dancing with quasi-stars is still wildly popular, and able to boost cop shows that follow it, as ‘Castle’ and ‘Body of Proof’ will attest. There was music in the air for ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ as well, with the show seeing its best numbers since the season premiere.
The big news this week was a 22 episode renewal for ‘Fringe’. If you follow the ratings, that probably comes as a bit of a shock. What could FOX have up its sleeve? My best guess, they are going to finally actually try on Friday, and move ‘Bones’ to join ‘Fringe’.
As has become the norm, when the weather gets nice and the clocks spring forward, television ratings take a hit. We saw it again this week as ‘Idol’ hit a surprising low, and the newly renewed NBC comedies took a ratings boot to the crotch.
