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NCIS or Big Bang Theory: Who's #1 for the season???

J

johnnya2k6

CBS will once again remain supreme as the top network for the 2013-14 season, but one of their shows will also be #1 in all of television.

Is it NCIS, who tackled NBC's Sunday Night Football for the top spot last year? Or is it The Big Bang Theory, becoming the first comedy series since Friends in 2002 to finish first? Keep in mind that it's all determined by ratings points, not total viewers.

NBC will take runner-up, largely thanks to The Voice. But it's Dancing With The Stars that's been outranking them and American Idol, making them TV's #1 reality competition show (and of the three, the only one that's live every week). We'll see when the final figures are released.
 
It was reported just yesterday that NBC led the ratings for this past season but CBS was first in total viewers. I assume that means NBC attracted the most viewers in the desired demographic (18-54?) but CBS had the most overall. Fox was at something-something #2 having hosted the Stupid Bowl but one show does not equal a season, right?

In any case, this proves not much except that ABC is lagging and continues to lag the other three and little or no improvement is in sight. ABC would probably do much better if it could shed its Disney ownership. When shows like Funniest Home Videos and The Middle (two of the better ones) become shills for Disney's other properties they diminish the quality substantially.

As for me, I watch but one program on NBC (NHL hockey) and two on ABC (The Middle and Last Man Standing). Nothing on Fox (although I did catch the first couple of episodes of '24 Live Another Day' but doubt I will finish the series). CBS gets Survivor (guilty pleasure) and Big Bang Theory although both are not must see TV. Seems, other than live sports, there is nothing of great quality on broadcast TV any longer so I look to other sources for my TV fill.
 
I watch absolutely nothing on my local NBC (KNDO), except for Wheel of Fortune and maybe a newscast. No NBC primetime shows and maybe an SNL in a great while. Since Jay Leno left I don't care about NBC late night Mon-Fri. KNDO also shows Jeopardy! but I hate that show. Just a bunch of geeks answering questions. If I had my choice of Jeopardy and Wheel to go on, it would DEFINITELY be the latter. Pat Sajak might just be hosting for many more years.
Fox (KCYU) hardly gets any action either. NASCAR and NFL (Seahawks and Super Bowl only) get big attention and maybe the last couple games of the World Series, each year. Nothing primetime, but I do watch Two and a Half Men reruns at 7:30PM sometimes. Charlie/Alan/little Jake and the women are still hilarious!
ABC is 2nd (KAPP) on the list. For prime time it's The Middle, Modern Family, Shark Tank, Grey's Anatomy and maybe Nashville. Daytime on KAPP I watch some Rachael Ray and The Doctors.
KIMA (CBS) is #1 in the Big 4 channels here in Yakima for me. Primetime it's The Amazing Race (a guilty pleasure for me), Mike and Molly, 2 Broke Girls, NCIS/NCIS LA, Big Bang Theory, The Millers, and 60 Minutes. KIMA shows Big Bang Theory reruns at 7PM weeknights and I watch those, as well as an occasional Price is Right when I am off from work and Inside Edition. We watch the news more often on KIMA than the other Yakima stations because they are more orientated to my market.

On topic, I think BBT is #1 this year. Even at season 7 it is still hilarious and there have been some huge twists and turns in the plot. Look at the season finale! Stuart's comic book store burns down and Sheldon leaves on a train going somewhere far and away, because everyone is too busy in their own relationships. Raj is hanging out with a woman, Leonard and Penny are getting married, and Howard and Bernadette are busy helping his ailing mother.
 
Well, since moving from Fairbanks to Atlanta last fall, my viewing habits have been tinkered a bit.

WSB may have been the top dog for about 700 years, but the reason why is they attract an older audience (if you consider the 25-54 demo old). Dancing With The Stars, Entertainment Tonight (on occasion; they've had that show at the same 7:30 time slot since the very beginning), High Q, Bulldogs Game Week, and Hot Topics are the only shows I watch on that station; others? Forget them!

WAGA has been a solid second for decades, but have been #1 among younger viewers since becoming a Fox O&O almost 20 years ago. What has remained the same since their CBS days is their legacy and news product, which is why I've been watching them for that. As for programming? Access Hollywood (on the DVR) and the Cosmos reboot.

I've been watching WXIA for The Voice, NBC Nightly News, late night, some SNL, and a little bit of Jeopardy! Their news is somewhat boring at times, basically because the sports segment has only one or two stories and that's it.

Finally, WGCL. I probably watch more shows on that station than anybody else in Atlanta combined, especially CBS (too many to mention, but 60 Minutes, Survivor, Amazing Race, NCIS, and Let's Make A Deal/The Price Is Right in daytime are examples). No wonder why they're affiliated with America's #1 Network, and since the rebranding back to CBS 46, their news is watchable again. Who cares if they've been fourth?

But back to my question: I also say Big Bang Theory is the season's #1 show, followed by NCIS and Sunday Night Football.
 
johnnya2k6 said:
Well, since moving from Fairbanks to Atlanta last fall, my viewing habits have been tinkered a bit.
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You make it sound as if those stations made the decisions about what programs they air. They all simply carry whatever the network sends them.
 
Avid Listener said:
You make it sound as if those stations made the decisions about what programs they air. They all simply carry whatever the network sends them.
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Unless if you're WSB (who once a month preempts an hour of ABC primetime for one of their specials and then airs the bumped show in the wee hours)!

But it's not the stations; it's the markets (Fairbanks is #202, Atlanta is #9) that I had to adapt to. For one thing, neither KTVF or KXD have news at noon; their attempts at a 5:00 news bombed some years ago; KXD's 11:00 news is basically a repeat of the 6:00 while KTVF's late news is taped (they done away with the "(name of reporter), NewsCenter 11" signoff anymore after many decades); and KTVF has the only weekend newscast on Saturdays while all of Atlanta's newscasts are live and seven days a week, morning, noon, and night. Also, there is not that much locally-produced content as opposed to Atlanta. And lastly, the six over-the air stations in Fairbanks are pretty boring compared to the dozens Atlanta has.

Those, in addition to their rising energy costs and the military downsizing, are the reasons why I decided to move out of that frozen hellhole called Fairbanks, Alaska.
 
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johnnya2k6 said:
Unless if you're WSB (who once a month preempts an hour of ABC primetime for one of their specials and then airs the bumped show in the wee hours)!

But it's not the stations; it's the markets (Fairbanks is #202, Atlanta is #9) that I had to adapt to. For one thing, neither KTVF or KXD have news at noon; their attempts at a 5:00 news bombed some years ago; KXD's 11:00 news is basically a repeat of the 6:00 while KTVF's late news is taped (they done away with the "(name of reporter), NewsCenter 11" signoff anymore after many decades); and KTVF has the only weekend newscast on Saturdays while all of Atlanta's newscasts are live and seven days a week, morning, noon, and night. Also, there is not that much locally-produced content as opposed to Atlanta. And lastly, the six over-the air stations in Fairbanks are pretty boring compared to the dozens Atlanta has.

Those, in addition to their rising energy costs and the military downsizing, are the reasons why I decided to move out of that frozen hellhole called Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Interesting observation. I moved to Atlanta about 6 years ago, from the #25 market, and I don't see much difference. All of the OTA TV I've seen down here is either the major networks, throwaway filler programming for subchannels like RTV or MeTV, or foreign language broadcasts. I'll admit that there were some really interesting shows on the Korean network, since that network at least uses English subtitles so that Americans can watch the shows. Telemundo, Univision, and the other Spanish language channels apparently don't want Gringos watching their shows. I'm bilingual, but there are no French language programs on any channels I was able to pick up.

You're right that there are a lot of live newscasts. Too bad there's not much live news to cover other than the usual fires and mayhem. I can't bear to sit through the meaningless stories in hopes that they might report on something that actually had any impact on peoples' lives. I mean, I'm sure such stories are covered, I just can't manage to sit through the dreck in case there might be some good stuff.
 
The final numbers are in, and...

For the third year in a row, Sunday Night Football remains the champion...in both viewership and ratings points, reclaiming the latter from NCIS.
 
Is there anything more meaningless than a "competition" between two totally different types of shows that do not air opposite each other?
 
Well, the final final numbers are in, and...it IS The Big Bang Theory that was #1 for the season with 23.1 million viewers, followed by NCIS (22.4 million) and Sunday Night Football (21.7 million)! BBT was also #1 in ratings points, which haven't been released yet.
 
Told ya! Love Sheldon and the gang. Can't wait to see what happens now to the cast. I wonder if Sheldon will find another scientist to stay with. And we'll see how Penny and Leonard's marriage is.

-crainbebo
 
This whole relationship thing has almost completely overtaken the original nerds vs the world that was originally the main topic. As a result the show has become rather stale and repetitive (unless you are in love with the various characters). For me, I have almost lost interest in BBT but still watch the first few seasons in syndication.

Sheldon has gotten very irritating in his "little boy" antics and Penny is almost invisible since her real-life marriage last December.
 
My favorite thing about this show is that the characters are, for the most part, growing and developing they way real people do in real life. One of the most boring things in the world are sitcoms that slavishly stick to their original premise long after it's gotten old and stale.
 
And Bart is still 10 or 11 and Lisa is still 8 years old after 25 years of the Simpsons...

Why can't Homer be 60, Marge 58, Bart in college and Lisa in high school?

-crainbebo
 
Well...Big Bang Theory was #1 for the season in total viewers; but when it came to ratings points (and it is official), the winner and still champion: NBC's Sunday Night Football!!!
 
crainbebo said:
And Bart is still 10 or 11 and Lisa is still 8 years old after 25 years of the Simpsons...

Why can't Homer be 60, Marge 58, Bart in college and Lisa in high school?

-crainbebo
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That's one of the benefits of animation. A sitcom can remain frozen in time, or it can track the lives of the characters as they grow and develop. When your show is cast with live actors who age in reality, that tends to lend itself to a show about people growing in their lives. When the characters are cartoons, you don't have to allow them to grow.

There is no rule that says that the characters in a sitcom must grow and develop. Most don't, which is why most sitcoms get old and get cancelled after around five years. There are aways exceptions, but generally, sitcoms where the characters grow and develop tend to last longer.

Then there are shows like M*A*S*H, where a story of two and a half elapsed years is told over the span of a decade. However, most episodes only covered the passage of a day or two. One episode covered only a half-hour of elapsed time. So, they stretched out the passage of a few years over the entire run of the show. Hell, the show 24 stretches a single 24-hour day over 24 episodes, each at least a week apart.
 
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