Those Pesky Ratings

Top41

Top41

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NY lost a whopping 3 million viewers (link)--about 20% of their audience--from season three's premiere. Obviously not good news. Luckily the show still won the hour in total viewers, but I think the news is worrying either way.

Why do you think the show was down by so many viewers? Two new shows, that had significant buzz, premiered against NY--was it just that, or do you think people are tuning out for other reasons?

And, finally, how can the show win back the viewers its lost?
 
I think it was due to a lot of factors: Lindsay, Danny/Lindsay, Lindsay/Danny, D/L, L/D, I guess that's it. :p

I guess other key factors were two new shows. People testing it out, seeing if they wanted to be dedicated to it or not. I'm sure we'll see a gain in viewers next week.
 
I think the fact that NY gained viewers in the second half-hour indicates that the other shows premiering did have a lot to do with it (maybe people checked out the other shows and then decided to fall back on NY later on ;)).

But still, three million viewers? Some of that has to be people going elsewhere, I should think. Maybe it has to do with D/L, maybe not. I don't think that's the only thing because the show has other points against it as well.

How many viewers did the season 3 finale get? Can a lot of the decrease in viewers be seen from the beginning to the end of the third season? You would think that finale would keep a lot of people around with all of the action and whatnot...

Of course, the finale didn't have much to do with science. Mac, Stella and Hawkes used a bit of science, and Danny threw acid in the guy's face, but other than that it was less CSI and more action-hero...

I'm definitely curious to see if the ratings fare better next week. 12.7 million isn't a bad audience by any means, but even if it's winning the timeslot, it must not be by very much...
 
I'm very tempted to say that people tuned in to the premiere of Season 3 because they wanted to say how Flack were doing after that explosive "Charge Of This Post" and that they didn't feel that way because of the 'romantic' way "Snow Day" headed to, as awesome as it was.

But that might be because I'm biased for Flack and against D/L. The real reason, as you've pointed out might be because of the new shows. We've seen how CSI Vegas had to fight off Grey's Anatomy, the latter being newer and had more buzz. Perhaps the audience saw the previews of Season 4 and were just not excited about it? Or they heard the rumours of upcoming storylines and were thrown off? It's honestly hard to tell.

How can the show win back the viewers? Focus on the exciting plots and cases, and less on the character dramas, unless it's actually helping the show. For example, Danny's drama in Season 1 and 2 made sense, and even with him taking the spotlight it was still within the CSIverse. Lindsay's drama in Season 3, on the other hand, were props for her character and did nothing to advance the show. I'm not going to bash her, but it must be said of the difference. I'm not saying that those people didn't watch NY because of Lindsay, but more because CSI:NY has slowly turned from a procedural crime show into a soap opera. And this is my personal opinion.

We've seen how good CSI:NY can be based on the last few episodes of Season 3, so all hope isn't lost. I just hope that the writers can focus on this instead of more new faces, more stunt casting, so that the neutral viewers switching on to CSI:NY will see intriguing cases and characters, instead of melodramatic moments.
 
I'm not sure about anywhere else but here in Canada they barely promoted CSI NY :(. I only remember seeing anything about it once on Tuesday and maybe twice the day of. It seems they were too busy getting the new shows out there. But honestly CSI LV and Miami get promoted a whole lot more.
 
I agree, with ‘Life’ and ‘Dirty Sexy Money’ NY had two new shows against it. And both had a better lead-in than NY had.

Faylinn said:
I think the fact that NY gained viewers in the second half-hour indicates that the other shows premiering did have a lot to do with it (maybe people checked out the other shows and then decided to fall back on NY later on ).
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That’s what it looks like, so I hope that they will win some of the viewers back next week. :)

How many viewers did the season 3 finale get? Can a lot of the decrease in viewers be seen from the beginning to the end of the third season?
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Snow Day had something around 13 million. So they lost about 20% of their audience during season three. The episode which had the most viewers was HOTD with 17,8 million the one the lowest numbers was Past Imperfect with 11,4 million.

I looked around for a possible reason for this drop and found this article from 1 June 2007, which says:
Nielsen Media Research said on Thursday that digital video recorders (DVRs) are a leading reason for the slide in television viewing this year. Many of the top U.S. shows, including Grey's Anatomy, American Idol and CSI saw their ratings drop off this Spring. Following questions from NBC, Nielsen began an investigation into the possible factors behind the unexpected drop.

The research is almost complete, but Nielsen left slip some of its findings so far. "DVRs appear to be the largest factor in that," said Pat McDonough, Nielsen senior VP planning policy and analysis. Other interesting factors behind the falling ratings that Nielsen has found are the difference between an Olympic year (2006) and a non-Olympic year (2007).
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So honestly I don’t think that DL or the direction, in which the show is going at the moment, has such a significant impact on the ratings, seeing that NY is by far not the only show, which lost viewers. So I’m not too concerned by the ratings yet.
 
Great topic for discussion, Top!

A 20% decline is quite significant, especially since the show lost the demographic networks care the most about - the all important 18-49. I'd attribute the decline in large part to well-hyped, potentially interesting competition. CSI:NY has enjoyed a relatively competition-free time slot, historically. It's only natural that the show would lose some of its viewers in the face of not one, but two new contenders.

None the less, 20% is a somewhat problematic number. We can only hope that over the next couple weeks, people return to CSI:NY after viewing the other shows just to see what they're all about.

In the event that the numbers don't return, CBS needs to explore why viewers might leave. One potential cause might be the high priority that has been placed on the romantic lives of the characters. When literally everyone (well, not everyone - poor Hawkes continues to get stiffed) is getting laid, the show teeters into the daytime soap arena. Viewers wanting to see romance, can see better written romance elsewhere and those preferring straight crime dramas can get that need filled elsewhere as well.

I think the strong character development is necessary in order to carve out a niche for NY within the CSI franchise - LV has the science covered and Miami's got the action. The focus on character driven storylines is a strength for CSI:NY and is what keeps me watching. We care more about the characters on NY than we do on the other CSI shows because we know more about them. But not all development need be romantic. When everyone is hooking up, it closes out the richer, more varied storylines -- Mac's issues with his deceased wife (in Mac's case a romantic storyline makes sense because it shows he's moving forward - but the others are unnecessary), Stella's struggles with her early upbringing, Danny's family issues. There is depth and variety with those stories. Having everyone simply drop their pants isn't all that entertaining.

My advice to CBS would be to move away from the romance and develop the characters in more varied ways.
 
The question is though, what have TV ratings been like overall. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that a lot of hit shows were losing viewers overall, but still winning their timeslots. How did CSI LV and Miami fare?
 
I'm pretty sure CSI LV won their time slot and also had a higher rating than they had for their premiere last year. Well that's what I heard them say on ET on Friday. Miami I have no clue.
 
I agree completely with MrsG. I think a large reason for the decline in ratings has to do with the subject-matter NY has brought to the forefront last season as well as this season. The romanticism of the show seems to turn a lot of viewers off of watching--as most would expect the science and drama aspect, rather than everyone shacking up. It's one of the reasons I don't watch Grey's Anatomy and the like, though that is my own preference.

I would rather see some indepth storytelling that leads to interesting revelations about the characters and their pre-defined histories/lives as well as a good solid investigation that makes me think. Or at least raise the IQ in the room by ten points. :rolleyes:

It's interesting that the Nielsen Ratings site has determined that DVRs are responsible for much of the loss in viewers. Things like taping and TiVo allow the viewers to make their own schedules, so I can definitely see how that would impact the shows.

Also like was stated, two new shows premiering the same time will most definitely detract the audience from the already-established CSI:NY. It's tough to gain new viewers to a show that isn't as new as other programs. Although I enjoy NY a lot more than anything else on Wednesday nights. :p
 
Has there been much promotion for the new series? Surely any promotion, or conspicuous lack of it, would make a huge difference to ratings?
 
I've actually seen more promotion for this season than I have any of the previous ones. Granted it wasn't like any of the promotion for Life or Dirty Sexy Money, but CSI: NY packed in quite a few commercials over the week leading up to the premiere.

I wouldn’t blame the drop in ratings mainly on the romance, but rather the writing in general. Yes, there have been some great episodes last year, but I found myself trudging through glaring plot holes, disregard for canon, lack of range concerning the cases, crappy and inane character storylines, character propping, etc.

Though mainly, aside from writing, I’d agree with MrsG, CSI: NY hasn’t really faced any sort of competition. I wound up checking out Life instead of CSI: NY myself and was slightly disappointed with the series, so I’ll probably flip back to the old show next week. I would think some other viewers might switch back as well. If not, then hopefully it’ll be a wakeup call for CBS and the other TPTB to figure out why.
 
I think there are several reasons for the 20% decline.

The main reason is probably the fact that there was no cliffhanger at the end of 'Snow Day' everyone was safe. Mac went to London, but it was already made clear that his trip would only last a couple of weeks. There was no real need to check out the season opener and find out more about a character's fate. That probably made it easier for the audience to go and check out the two new shows in the same time slot.

And it's hard for me to judge from the other side of the ocean, but based on what I read on this board I still think that the network needs to invest more in this show. You need to spend money, to make money. Why was that 'lunch on a skyscraper'-pic released just a few days before the première. They took the time to put 'hints' in it, but imo they could have done so much more; I think it would've been a great promotion campaign if they had used that pic, put in more hints (the 3:33, the Big Ben) and had done something with it like they did with the Vegas' 'diner'-pic a couple of seasons back. And of course release it weeks before the season starts - make people curious.

That Mac-Stella-3:33 pic was obviously meant to put on bill-boards, but has anybody actually seen it?

I can understand that there are people who don't like the amount of romance that has been put in the show, but I don't think it's the reason for the sudden 20% drop. The romance was there before 'Snow Day' and that didn't make those 3 million people leave, and that ep itself had enough (other) action and drama to keep them around.
 
With the neilson ratings, what appears to be a drop in audience doesn't neccessarily mean less people are watching the show. Those numbers don't account for watching the shows the next day, like people often do now. There really isn't anyway to prove that total viewership is down that much. And don't forget in the spring, Lost airs most of its new eppys, and lost fans are crazy loyal. As long as other shows are losing ratings, it isn't too bad.

It is possible that the relationships are turning people off...thanks to GSR, it has opened up the flood gates for romance on the other CSI shows, which is kind of dumb on a crime drama.

It's kind of funny on here everyone is blaming D/L for the ratings drop, where on the vegas forum everyone is blaming everything but GSR for their drop last season...uh huh, considering vegas dropped quite a lot in canada, where greys airs at a different time...right...
 
xfcanadian said:
It is possible that the relationships are turning people off...thanks to GSR, it has opened up the flood gates for romance on the other CSI shows, which is kind of dumb on a crime drama.
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LMAO!! For a moment there I was thinking "GSR? Gun shot residue???"

I'm definitely watching too much CSI these days... :lol:
 
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