dajafi wrote:I'd never seen Entourage until the beach house we rented last summer with another couple had HBO On Demand. The husband was a huge fan, and we sat up one night watching about eight of them in a row.

I really enjoyed it, in that sort of guilty, I-know-this-isn't-real-substantial way. Another friend offered the best explanation for its appeal that I've heard: it's sort of a "Sex in the City" for guys.

It's no manchild

I just watched the pilot to Drive. It sucked.

This from the man who liked any episode of the black donnellys

IF YOU GUYS DON'T LEARN TO LIVE TOGETHER, YOU'RE GOING TO DIE ALONE

jemagee wrote:This from the man who liked any episode of the black donnellys

I praised the pilot, kid. I really, really liked that. The rest of the series was pretty bad. We both loved Studio 60's pilot and parts of the season, but do admit now that it pretty much sucks.

Anyway...Monday May 14 the fun starts with NBC. ABC is next on the tuesday, CBS on wednesday and fox/the cw on thursday.

Should be interesting to see what each network does. NBC, aside from Heroes, anything could be moved around. Same goes for ABC outside of Greys. CBS could make some minor moves here and there. Fox also has a lot of question marks, seeing as they most successful new show for them was that horrid game 5th grader game show.

A rarity on House last night: the patient died

Nielsen released it's top "time-shifted" shows, meaning the shows the gain the most viewership from DVR playback after the numbers are official for that broadcast.

This is for the week of April 2-8

Total viewership:
1. House- 2.7 mil
2. Lost- 2.4 mil (puts numbers in line with fall)
3. Idol Tuesday- 2.4 mil
4. CSI- 2.1 mil
5. 24- 1.9 mil
6. Survivor- 1.9
7. Office- 1.8 mil
8. Desperate Housewives- 1.6 mil
9. Idol Wednesday- 1.4 mil
10. Prison Break- 1.3 mil

Percentage Increase
1. Office- 31.5%
2. Lost- 23%
3. 24- 19%
4. Prison Break- 18%
5. 30 Rock- 17.5%
6. Scrubs- 17%
7. Friday Night Lights- 16.5%
8. Survivor- 15.5%
9. 7th Heaven- 15%
10. House- 14.5%

They also estimate that almost 20% of the country as some kind of Tivo/DVR device, up for less than 10% last year. With that number bound to continue growing, it seems that daily and even weekly numbers won't mean all that much. It also means that advertisers are going to have to alter their game to reach the biggest audiences, seeing as they don't really trust DVR numbers.

Drive yanked after '4' episodes...when it was only going to air six before a scheduled hiatus anyway...

in this day and age shows like seinfeld, cheers, cosby, would never last...

Hell the x-files took a while to build its audience and the damn show started on friday nights

I guess it's OK that I missed this week's episode.

This episode of office is great.

This show has becme one of my all time fave sitcoms. Right up there with Cheers, News Radio and Arrested Development

You know, Survivor is pretty good this season. Yeah, I never stopped watching.

Did I hear them say this is the 1st of the last four episodes of scurbs? When did this happen? I thought they had another season

30 Rock has pretty much lifted Arrested Development's entire structure.

How do you figure?

jemagee wrote:Drive yanked after '4' episodes...when it was only going to air six before a scheduled hiatus anyway...

in this day and age shows like seinfeld, cheers, cosby, would never last...

Hell the x-files took a while to build its audience and the damn show started on friday nights

If Drive was good, yeah. But it's pretty dumb

Houshphandzadeh wrote:How do you figure?

When the show started, every episode was essentially a one-off and was about the making of a late night show.

It has now become a serial that carries plot lines from show to show, it focuses on the wackiness of the characters as opposed to the show itself (with Tina Fey playing the straight character that holds everything together like Jason Bateman did), and it has also added in the "inside" jokes that AD did so well.

I don't mind it, but it has really jumped out at me the last few episodes how the each episode plays out like AD. They even added a "Previously on 30 Rock".

dsp wrote:They also estimate that almost 20% of the country as some kind of Tivo/DVR device, up for less than 10% last year. With that number bound to continue growing, it seems that daily and even weekly numbers won't mean all that much. It also means that advertisers are going to have to alter their game to reach the biggest audiences, seeing as they don't really trust DVR numbers.

I haven't been thinking much about DVRs, since I've been doing Hispanic for the last year and a half. The penetration isn't great there. Now that I'm working on a general market car account, I need to get up to speed. My instinctive problem with DVRs is that people fast forward through the commercials. I'll talk to the buyers and the network sales people to see what they are thinking. You've given me something to find out. Thanks dsp.

Your welcome? I know that Nielsen only counts Live plus same day DVR recordings, which I think counts for anything viewed around 6 or so hours after the program aired. The advertisers largely ignore the plus 7 numbers, think that people are skipping the commercials, even though Nielsen said that DVR users watch around 40% of the commercials that they could be skipping through, and also get a sense for what the commercial is even if they skip through it.

The fact is, advertisers, and networks, should take complete viewership into account when making the decisions next month. That means increased numbers to Friday Night Lights, a show that deserves a second season like Philadelphia deserves a championship.

But it appears that advertisers simply don't trust the DVR's. But they will have to. This is the new way people watch TV. They get the DVD's, download of itunes, download off the interwebs, tivo. "Appointment programing" is almost a thing of the past.

Also, really solid night from NBC. Shame not enough people are watching it. Considering in their hay-day of comedy they never had a solid 2 hour block, this might be the best two hours of comedy they've ever had.

Earl was kind of funny, which is step up in this stale and repetitive second season. Some quick funny lines here and there, but overall, it's most certainly the red-headed step child of this lineup.

The Office was again on the money, some great lines and cold open/closes. Only problem was Creed had a central role in this episode and didn't make me laugh out loud the same way he does in quick gags of other episodes. But that was just me.

30 Rock season finale was simply terrific. Arguably their best episode yet, starting off at such a randomly hilarious "previously on" with Kenneth (fucking amazing Jack McBryer, I lost it with "by the hammer of Thor" and the look on his face when he was talking to Sean Hayes) and ending with a touching moment as Jack admitted that Liz wasn't as terrible as she was before. Just a great, great show that elevated from uneven yet funny to (as mentioned) Arrested Development-esque levels. Even though The Office has been great, this is the pick for best comedy of the year. Hands down.

Scrubs also had a great episode. I think Eustin said something about the final four ever. Well, no. It's the final four of the season, technically five since the 1 hour finale is 2 episodes back to back (fyi next week all 3 are supersized, the week after earl finale and all supersized, the week after 1 hour office and scrubs finales). It did get picked up for a 7th and final season by Touchstone, though it's once again a toss up if NBC will pick it up. If not, ABC will. But who knows when it'll air. Anyway, Keri Russell looked hot as hell.

Slow down there. I have my ideas how I'd evaluate DVR viewership and I'll see the ideas others have. People who do what I do are the gate keepers. We recommend to the clients how the numbers should be looked at. The networks can try to bully, but the people with the money make the rules.

The market has changed a lot since I started doing this. Viewership has become fragmented, making it harder to accumulate impressions. The good news is that there are a lot more ways to reach people and the further it is spread the easier it is to segment. And we like to segment.