Here's the Ratings Five-Spot for the week ending April 8, 2012:
- One Tree Hill - The nine-season, two-network run of One Tree Hill finally came to an end on Wednesday, and it was seen by 1.43 million viewers and a 0.8 demo rating. It's a little disappointing that the show wasn't able to bring back more old fans for the finale, as these numbers were only barely higher than what the show was pulling week-to-week. Still, the show had a decent final season, averaging a 0.76 demo and down just 12% from last year despite never getting a chance to air in the high-rated fall. For much of its run this winter, it was the second-biggest show on the CW despite going up against American Idol and other tough competition.
- Best Friends Forever - Another week, another NBC flop. Best Friends Forever kicked off with just 3.94 million viewers and a 1.2 demo on Wednesday. That's actually better than their debut of Bent a couple weeks prior (just a 1.0 for the pilot). But, also consider that this show had something resembling a lead-in, as 8/7c occupant Betty White's Off Their Rockers posted a 1.8 demo and over 7 million viewers. Ultimately, the story is the same: NBC is pretty much going to have to redo Wednesday in the fall, and BFFs is not going to be a part of it.
- Scandal - ABC seems to be accumulating quite a collection of dramas that are not quite flops but are not quite successes either. Thursday drama Scandal looks to have a chance to join that group. Its 7.33 million viewers and 2.0 demo put it on the low end of ABC's midseason drama premieres, but it also aired on a somewhat viewing-depressed pre-Easter Thursday. If it can hold in the upper 1's, it can finish right there in that collection of marginal ABC dramas along with GCB, Missing and maybe even Body of Proof.
- The Finder - Fox has been shuffling its dramas around all spring, and the final piece of that equation was The Finder's arrival on Friday night last week. And, well, it did what shows are supposed to do when they move from a timeslot after American Idol into the leadoff spot on the lowest-viewed night of the week: it lost more than half its 18-49 audience. Its final post-Idol airing in early March pulled over 7 million viewers and a 2.3 demo; last week's Friday debut managed just 4.03 million viewers and a 1.1 demo. Not good, but the silver lining is that was still a little better than Fringe, which appears to have at least a chance at a final season renewal. That said, I don't think Fringe would really be getting renewed because of its first-run ratings, so I kinda doubt that comparison will save it.
- The Client List - The big cable premiere of the week was Lifetime's The Client List, which scored 2.79 million viewers and a 0.9 demo for Lifetime and retained almost all of its Army Wives lead-in. I actually expected a little better than this, because Lifetime's TV movie version back in July 2010 scored 3.9 million viewers. But when you stack it up against some of Lifetime's other recent scripted efforts, like Against the Wall (premiered to 1.78 million viewers/0.5 demo) and The Protector (1.90m/0.4), it looks downright great. It's about on par with the Drop Dead Diva premiere (which also scored 2.8 million viewers) back in 2009, and that show's still on the air. So unless The Client List completely collapses, this scripted-starved network will want to keep it around.
