It’s an affliction almost as insidious as the Seinfeld Curse.
Although second-season shows like Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money may seem to be improving on the surface – boasting character development and stronger writing – audiences are turning cold on the series. Frigid, even.
On ABC, Private Practice lost 44 per cent of viewers when it returned this fall (from 14.4 million to 8 million), Pushing Daisies was down 52 per cent (from 13 million to 6.3 million), Dirty Sexy Money sagged 32 per cent (from 10.4 million to 7.1 million) and Eli Stone dropped 24 per cent (from 11.6 million to 8.8 million).
Snaking over to NBC, Life dropped 47 per cent (from 18.8 million to 10 million), while Chuck lost 31 per cent (from 9.8 million to 6.8 million). As for CBS, Lipstick Jungle was down 37 per cent (from 7.6 million to 4.8 million).
And Fox? Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles nose-dived 66 per cent after its series debut was boosted by a NFL playoffs lead-in (from 18.3 million to 6.3 million). Yikes.
And it’s all the networks can do to thwart the dreaded Sophomore Slump.
The cause, most critics suspect, is the much-publicized and frustratingly drawn-out writers’ strike of 2007-08. Yup, the one in which the members of the Writers Guild of America put their pens on pause and negotiated their contracts for 100 days. The one which we in TV land hope never to speak of again. (I shall refer to it as WS, to ease my pain.)
After WS, networks opted to truncate many of the shows’ first seasons and delay their return until this fall. Most series didn’t air original episodes in six months. In the case of Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, and Chuck, it was almost a year. Turns out, if a show’s out of sight, it’s out of mind … and out of viewers.
Shows that did air new episodes before their second season, however, are grinning like clowns. CBS’s The Big Bang Theory only slipped slightly from its series debut (from 9.5 million to 9.4 million), as did CW’s Gossip Girl (from 3.5 million to 3.4 million).
Understandably, networks have been scrambling to hype and improve those shows that weren’t as generous with new episodes post-strike.
Since those dire WS blackout days, Dirty Sexy Money signed Lucy Liu to the cast and hired its third showrunner, John Feldman. In May, Private Practice hired two executive producers (Jon Cowan and Robert Rovner) to replace Marti Noxon – a boon that should allow creator Shonda Rhimes to concentrate fully on her other show, Grey’s Anatomy.
Pushing Daisies is cutting back on its annoying narration in its second season, Life chose to use its Season 2 première as a new pilot episode, and Chuck made some cast members regulars (including Ryan McPartlin and Julia Ling), as did Terminator (Brian Austin Green). Terminator has also vowed to make episodes more self-contained to lure new viewers.
For its part, Jungle is banking on star-power; the Brooke Shields dramedy has added Rosie Perez and Mary Tyler Moore as guest-stars this season.
But so far, it seems audiences still haven’t forgiven these shows for their cruel and unusual absence. Last week, Daisies, Practice and Money all sank further, pulling in 5.6 million, 7.4 million, 5.9 million viewers respectively. Lipstick held steady at 7.6 million.
Lesson learned: absence does not make viewers’ hearts grow fonder. It makes them cold, indifferent and their scorn is wreaked out in the Nielsen ratings. That, or people have found other things to do with their TV-watching time.
Thoughts? melissa@tvguide.ca
