Ringer: Discussion Thread

[Days22]

Damn ratings for it look awful last night. The first 3 episodes were a little iffy. But last nights packed a punch. Perhaps it waited too long to do so.

[Juliajms]

My hope is that other CW shows do worse, so that this one survives.

[DRW50]

How is SMG at dual roles?

[Juliajms]

I think the answer depends on how much you like SMG, which I do. Let's just say she won't be getting any emmy noms, but she doesn't completely suck.

[Chris B]

I continue to really enjoy this show, but it needs a new timeslot to have any shot at surviving. It's lead in has always been a loser and it's always built from that, but I wish it had a stronger lead in. I know Top Model is fading, but even that would be better. There isn't much to play around with unfortunately.

I hope that Gemma finding out about the switch means she'll be an exciting death during November sweeps. I'm not too fond of that actress. Wasn't she on Boston Legal after it got bad?

[JackPeyton]

So in the much needed, only cared about demp ratings for the CW, Ringer is down .1 from its lead in, and down .2 from what hart of Dixie gets? That can not be good.

But i also wouldnt worry. They are not axing this anytime soon, at least not this season.

[Gray Bunny]

I'm likin' this show!! It's the only CW show I watch. It definitely seems like a one-season-only show, though. Once the big story arc wraps, where do you go from there?

[Skin]

There is nothing on The CW that gets great ratings. The best performing show on the network is TVD's (2.7) and even their viewership is down from last season.

Most recent ratings:

Hart Of Dixie - 1.8

Gossip Girl - 1.3

90210 - 1.3

The Secret Circle- 2.1

Nikita- 1.8

Supernatural- 1.8

H8ter- 1.1 (cancelled)

It's obvious that the network is behind it. They are going to air repeats of The Ringer on Wednesday's now to try and get viewers to start watching it on Tuesday's (wrong choice IMO, they should move on of their better performing shows in that spot, one of the 1.8 shows). They want this so badly to be a Buffy hit for their network because they have no new programming to push to their audience. Looking at it's performance I go back and forth. It obviously has potential to reach a big audience but it also just doesn't seem to be hitting consistently at this point. We won't really know until mid season anyway I guess. By the time episode 10 or 11 roles around we should know the fate of the show. As of the moment the show is "safe" considering it's not performing as poorly as H8ter or Hellcats were with barely 1 million people tuning in (although Hellcats did well out of the gate too). That however doesn't mean the network itself is, the demo numbers they are getting are only getting weaker and weaker along with the full viewers number. So it's only a matter of time before The CW starts worrying across the board about all of their shows performing poorly. I can't imagine how much longer this network can last with numbers as paltry as the above are despite having an above .5 women demo rating. It comes to the point where the demo is to low regardless and they hit a floor where they can't lower the bar any lower and they have to start cutting. There is no way the network can hang on as they are if things don't start turning around for them.

If I were the CW at this point I would keep all the shows averaging 1.8 million viewers or more and scrap the rest. Promote the shows that are doing reasonably well and try to comeback next season with some hard hitting shows in the vein of what the viewership wants and that seems to be action packed, fantasy drama's (TVD, TSC, SPN, Nikita). It makes no sense to me why their better performing shows (SPN, Nikita) are being shown on Friday (the least watched day of the week), when it is entirely possible that they could be reaching more people during the middle of the week or beginning of it (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). I'm not saying there would be a dramatic increase but I don't think it's off the mark to say that Nikita and SPN could be averaging around a 2.1 mark which would be about the same size as TSC. It's obvious that 90210, H8ter and Gossip Girl aren't doing a thing for the network. I think losing Smallville really hurt the CW more then previously thought. They lost one of their flagship shows and it shows baldly. It's really bad that the CW only has one show verging on 3 million viewers. TVD's is the only thing keeping this network a float.

My opinion:

2012-2013

Monday- The Secret Circle, Supernatural

Tuesday- Ringer, Nikita

Wednesday- Hart Of Dixie, Top Model

Thursday- New series, The Vampire Diaries

Friday- give to affiliates The CW isn't healthy enough to have an "off day"

Try out mid-season replacements Jan-May on Wednesdays at 9 and Thursdays at 8 time slots. The CW could definitely benefit from doing half seasons. I don't get why they don't do that more often.

[Juliajms]

I was hoping CW would move Nikita into the Tuesday spot. If they did, I wonder if SPN would fail? Not because it's the weaker show, I'm just wondering if leaving either show on it's own on Friday's would lead the other to falter. It might be worth the risk at this point though. SPN is on it's seventh season. I have to wonder how much longer it can go on.

I'm sure TPTB will think of something, if they are lucky enough to face this problem. Like any soap, one arc leads into the next.

[Skin]

SPN itself is pretty strong. It's one of the CW's better performing shows so I definitely think they should keep it and push it to go as far as it can. I think both Jensen and Jared are interested in doing a season 8 so it's obvious that there is commitment there. I don't think The CW can afford to end one of their top shows especially when so much of their programming is under performing.

[EricMontreal22]

I got tired of SPRN--as did my friends who watched. I think it should have ended two years back when Kripke said his story was over, and he left the show as showrunner. It just feels tired now to me, but I still tune in. I did read on Ent Weekly's website that it actually, oddly, stands a much bigger chance of lasting o the CW as a Friday show--just because expetations are so very low that night. I wonder though if any of its audience will bleed when Grimm premiers--which would seem to attract some similar viewers (of course some said that would happen being opposite Fringe too, but I see Grimm picking up more of the same audience).

Depending on how CIrcle does (I think it's improving every episode just like VD, which had a weak start ceatively, did, but I don't know what VD's ratings were in its first months), I think it would be wise to keep it paired with Vampire Diaries for another year.

[alexisfan07]

To quote Nikki Fernandez from LOST, "I'm only a guest star and you know what happens to guest stars." wink wink

[EricMontreal22]

What I'm more curious of is if we'll ever find out who Sean is and what happened--was he Shiv's boyfriend? A baby?

[Juliajms]

Her son. We saw a picture. I'm pretty sure Bridget killed him while high.

[EricMontreal22]

Right! I couldn't remember for sure. I suspect too--in an accident or something.