Probably A Drop.

The Blue Jays are over on the West Coast at the moment.  They just won the first of 4 games against the Los Angeles Angels, and then will head to Seattle to take on the Mariners.  It would be interesting to see the ratings for the evening games during this road trip.  I suspect they probably drop some.  After all it's after 1:30 AM in Toronto as I write this, and even later further east.  Some eastern viewers probably skip the games entirely, knowing they can't stay up to watch the whole thing.  Others probably watch the first few innings before going to bed.  Even here in Saskatchewan the late innings of these games probably get skipped by a few viewers, since they take place around 11 PM.

I wonder if TV ratings might be an issue for anyone considering a MLB team for Vancouver.  Regular viewership for evening games might be pretty low for such a team in much of the country, compared to the Blue Jays.  Of course the lack of a suitable stadium, and potential opposition from the Mariners, are probably bigger concerns before the issue of TV broadcast revenue comes up.

What We're Watching.

Alex Strachan of Postmedia has written an article on the state of the current TV season.  This includes what Canadians are watching, and the current winners are all veterans.  For example The Big Bang Theory is pulling 3.5 million viewers an episode.  Strachan notes those are Stanley Cup finals viewing numbers, and given that Canada has a market roughly one tenth of the US would be like a show on a US network getting 35 million viewers an episode.  Any US network or show runner would kill for numbers like that.  And The Amazing Race is more popular in Canada than the US, drawing the equivalent of 20 million viewers per episode, while in the US it draws 10 million or less per episode.  (Presumably that's why CTV aired The Amazing Race Canada over the Summer, and it will be back for a second season.)

I doubt anyone will be surprised that NHL hockey is a major ratings winner in Canada.  But some Americans will be surprised that Arrow is a top 25 show in Canada.  That's because Arrow is on CTV, one of the main broadcast networks in Canada, versus its originating US network The CW, which doesn't reach all US viewers. 

Of new shows Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Blacklist made the top 30 in Canada.  I haven't watched Agents, despite being a comic book fan as a kid.  I watched the first couple of episodes of The Blacklist, and should go watch a couple more online.  But frankly my initial impression is that it's trying to be too clever for its own good, and some of the dialogue was cliché and predictable.  At least James Spader seems to be having fun.

One thing that has changed for Saskatchewan viewers this year was the provincial educational TV network becoming an outlet of Toronto based City.  As a result some shows acquired by City now have a chance at higher Canadian ratings.  Interestingly one of City's 2013 acquisitions, Super Fun Night, has surprised me by being granted a full season.  I haven't seen it, but the promo ad City aired pre-season looked awful.

I personally don't watch much scripted TV anymore.  At the moment the only scripted show  I'm sure I'll watch is Total Drama All Stars, which Teletoon has stupidly not aired yet, even though Cartoon Network has been.  As a result it's been partly spoiled for me, as no doubt it has been for other Canadian viewers.

They Love You J.R. Maybe.

Wednesday saw the premiere of a new version of the classic nighttime soap Dallas on the US cable network TNT.(It also debuted in Canada on Bravo.)  The ratings have come in, and TNT is calling it a success.  It drew almost 7 million viewers, which TNT is claiming is the number one series premiere for a scripted series on cable this year.  But if you were suspecting a lot of folks tuned in to see what a 21st Century version of an old favourite looks like, you may be right.  Only 1.9 million of those viewers came from the coveted 18-49 demographic, the rest skewing largely older, with the 25-54 grouping accounting for 2.5 million viewers, and the rest older viewers.

So, will Dallas keep up these ratings?  Or will it quickly slump as, curiosity satisfied, viewers go elsewhere?  I won't be surprised at all if it's 13 episodes(or less) and out for the series.  And as the L.A. Times article notes these ratings are tiny compared to what even the final episode of the show generated, demonstrating how much the TV market has changed.

The original was hugely influential, spawning various imitators of varying quality and success.  "Who shot J.R?" was a major pop culture concern for many when the series ended its 1979-80 season on that cliffhanger.  The series also became the butt of jokes for its notorious return from the dead of Bobby Ewing. He had been killed in a car accident at the end of the 1984-85 season when actor Patrick Duffy wanted to do other things.  But when there was general discontent with the following season Larry Hagman convinced Duffy to come back,   The season ended with his wife Pam, played by Victoria Principal, finding him taking a shower.  The opening episode of the next season explained that the events of the previous season were all a bad dream, and that Bobby had never died.

Larry Hagman reprising his role as J.R. Ewing in the new series could be considered a minor miracle.  He had a long term alcohol problem, and as a result in 1995 had a liver transplant.  Yet here he is, at 80, still with us, and still acting.  But it's pretty obvious that, whatever happens, this is likely his last hurrah.

Count Me Out.

As I write this millions of people will be watching the Superbowl. I'm not one of them. You frequently see the ratings for the Superbowl, how many millions watched, but I wonder how many potential viewers won't watch this year's edition. You can bet the networks and advertisers have a pretty good idea what that figure is.