Stats Spotlight - Sunday Night - Once Upon A Time / Revenge / 666 Park Avenue, with The Mentalist on the side

(Check out my website, www.seriesmonitor.com)

Sunday night saw the fourth episodes of ABC's dramas, Once Upon A Time, Revenge, and 666 Park Avenue come our way, and interestingly, all three shows managed to eclipse the 18-49 ratings figures that they managed the previous week

To recap, a week ago, Once Upon A Time earned a 3.0 rating and 9.45 million viewers, Revenge earned a 2.6 rating and 8.28 million viewers, and 666 Park Avenue earned a 1.5 rating and 4.82 million viewers.

On Sunday, Once Upon A Time earned a 3.3 rating and 9.89 million viewers, Revenge earned a 2.8 rating and 8.71 million viewers, and 666 Park Avenue earned a 1.7 rating and 4.81 million viewers.

So with a little math, we can see that Once Upon A Time was up 0.3, Revenge was up 0.2, and likewise for 666 Park Avenue, in the 18/49 ratings. In the audience numbers, Once Upon A Time and Revenge were up around a ballpark figure of 400,000 viewers each, but there was a reduction of about 10,000 viewers for 666 Park Avenue.

It's probably safe enough to say that all three shows have about reached the bottom of their downward slide from their premiere ratings, but there's certainly a long way to go in the season for things to change, especially once the shows start to take a few weeks off over Christmas and New Year, then begin stretching their remaining episodes out until late May.

Of course, both Once Upon A Time and Revenge are second year shows, so how are they faring when compared to last year?? Here are the ratings season comparison graphs for both shows. To see the audience season comparison graph for Once Upon A Time, click here, and for the Revenge graph, click here

Once Upon A Time

What we can see in the Once Upon A Time graph is that it took the show seven episodes, or a third of the season, to make a gain in ratings, but when that gain finally came in the second third of the season, ratings were reasonably consistent, and higher than the final third of the season, which, though finishing well, was where the majority of low rating episodes were situated. 


Compare that initial drop from the yellow line in season 1, to the orange line showing season 2. It's pretty clear that a low point has been established a lot more quickly than last season, but the first ratings gain has come three weeks earlier. Time will tell whether a Himalayan style mountain range appears in the middle third of this season, like last season, or whether it's more or less a plateau with the odd bump

Revenge

It's a different story in the Revenge camp, where the initial drop off from the premiere is almost identical for both seasons to date, only this season, like Once Upon A Time above, the show appears to have hit bottom this season a little higher up than last season, but the first rise in ratings came at the same time this season as it did last season, though don't forget that a 2.8 rating was achieved for both the second and third episodes of this season, creating a flat line in orange

It must be acknowledged that Revenge owned a different timeslot last season - the 10|9c Wednesdays timeslot to be exact, so true comparisons cannot be made because of this all-important variable. The good news for the moment though, is that Revenge is performing better in its current 9|8c Sundays timeslot, and is benefiting from better lead-ins compared to last season - see the season 1 graphs on this page to get the full picture

For now, things are touch-and-go with 666 Park Avenue. For a show that has two hours of very good lead-ins, ratings could definitely be better, but the 0.2 rise on last weeks rating with no additional audience is a good sign, though it was most likely caused by CBS's The Mentalist being temporarily pushed back an hour to the 11|10c timeslot, where it managed a series low 1.5 rating. ABC is showing some confidence in 666 Park Avenue though, ordering additional scripts a week or so ago, so again it's a case of time telling us what will happen

Back to The Mentalist just for a moment. Next week, according to the CBS schedule, it will return at 10|9c instead of 11|10c like last week. It is also the 99th episode of the series, with the centenary episode airing November 4. Let's hope CBS don't decide to move it to 11|10c - I for one would not be happy

Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and predictions below, and check out my website, www.seriesmonitor.com for much more statistics and analysis on many more shows
Jimmy