Re: CSI Ratings versus Grey's Anatomy
Not as high as I imagined. I think they did a lousy job of advertising this episode, I barely saw any promos for it. I'm unaware if Grey's will have an episode on the 4th, but if they don't that episode will probably do a lot better then this one if they advertise Grissom leaving, which I assume they will.
Yeah, agreed. Grissom is a pretty big pull on viewership.
If this teaches us anything about ratings, though, it's this - 23 million people aren't tuning in each week to see one particular character or pairing. Nor is Grey's Anatomy CSI's biggest threat. Ironically, after the past two weeks it appears that the two shows don't really share the same fans.
What I find funny about the attempt to justify ratings is this: if it works to their theory, people will both argue that previews had something to do with it, but also the episode before.
Example: Everyone 'knew' that [some character] would be heavily featured tonight, so they tuned in. The reason that no one tuned in during this case when the same character was heavily featured was because some other character, whom no one likes, was featured the week before.
Doesn't make sense.
I don't think people tune into CSI based on what characters are in the previews or spoilers.
I think the vast majority tune in when they have the time, and the cases look interesting.
And - and this is an especially big and this year - if there isn't something else on they'd rather watch.
NBC is now airing a "Comedy Block" during the Grey's/CSI hour, and the portion shown during the 9-10 time includes The Office and Scrubs. Popular shows that average a few million each. The important thing to note is that Scrubs just started its season.
Either way - ratings? Not all that important.
I mean, if 25 million people tuned into the Grey's premiere to see who Meredith would choose, yet only 20.5 or so stuck around to see when she actually DID choose (Mer and McDreamy in the tub), then clearly Grey's storylines are not holding the same interest they once did. THAT is an example of a show where people look to see, in the previews, who is working with whom. Because it's a soap opera where EVERYONE is involved with someone else.
So if you know it's going to be, say, heavy MerDer and you're a Cristina/Burke shipper, you might go, "Nah".
Or perhaps the show is just slowly losing quality.
Yes, they got 24 million, but before that, their ratings were going pretty steadily downhill. CSI, at the same time, gained about 3 or 4 million (Thanksgiving ommitted for both), and voila - when they went up against each other the last couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, CSI won.
So... if CSI was the one that had jumped the shark, if people were revolted by one storyline or one pairing, no matter WHO was shown in the previews, people wouldn't necessarily tune back in. Those who truly hated the decisions made this season wouldn't devote a full hour of their life to a show they thought sucked.
When Buffy was really hitting rock bottom, I watched the first ten minutes, shook my head, and turned the channel.
CSI - 10.0/15
