Thursdays episode of Person of Interest earned a 2.8 rating and 14.57 million viewers. Although these ratings are very good, it's kind of surprising when it turns out that Thursdays episode earned a season low rating, but it was far from a season low audience, which, for the record, occurred in episode 10, an episode that also earned a 2.9 rating
Furthermore, Thursdays episode was the sixth episode in a row that has seen a 0.1 ratings point decrease on the last episode. This trend began from the 11th episode of the season, which earned series high rating and audience numbers (3.4 rating, and 16.23 million viewers). Each episode since then has seen a 0.1 ratings point drop on the episode before it. The graph below demonstrates this:
The audiences for the last 6 episodes have also dropped from the series high 11th episode, but they haven't been so perfectly incremented, with a couple of increases on the previous episodes' audience numbers having occurred. The graph below shows this:
You can see the raw data, season averages, and quarter breakdowns of this season of Person of Interest, here
I'm picking the return of Sarah Shaw on next week's episode, with a phone call to Finch at the end of the episode sealing her tentative place on the team to make the vigilante duo a trio. Will that result in the first ratings increase in 6 weeks?? Time will tell. Nevertheless, Person of Interest isn't in any danger of being canceled, but the fact that we haven't had a ratings increase for 6 weeks is pretty surprising for a show of the quality and popularity of Person of Interest.
Cheers for reading. What are you hoping will happen in next week's episode??
Jimmy
Those numbers dont shock me much.
ReplyDeleteAs an avid fan of season 1, its been weak this season.
They have spent too much of this seasons screen time on the feds/CIA/whoever chasing Reese.
Whats worse, as soon as they seemed to wrap up that angle, they force an episode on their viewers that was not a Person of Interest episode, but I believe a backdoor pilot for a spin-off with a character no ones ever heard of & was, understandably, hated. I've seen cross-over episodes where the guest starring cast got more screen time than Reese & Finch got in that ep.
This weeks ep, I think some of the loss of viewers is because people were still mad about the non-episode they had previously & the hiatus they were on last week for some reason. I'm sure they will turn it around some, but the weakness of this season compared to the 1st has probably lost some of their viewers long term or permanantly.
I know every show has the occasional throw away episode where its going to be weaker than an average episode & doesnt do much for moving any plotlines along, but they seem to be having more of them lately than usual.
Fingers crossed the writers get back to them saving people as the majority premise of the show sooner rather than later. Carters lovelife, should get like 3 mins of screentime all season, not each episode. Show us she has one, thats as much as we need to really know. The show is about Reese & Finch & the machine, Fusco & Carter are there as information sources & occasional outsourced help & rescuers. Fans might care about Fusco & Carter, but we really dont tune in to see what drama is going on in their lives. Trying to force the development of a storyline centred around either one of them is going to kill the ratings. Kill off or dramatically cut down the dirty cops screen time. Plain & simple..... ok, I have ben ranting too long here. Thats all for now.
Well the ratings and audience average numbers this season so far are better than the numbers for last season, meaning more people are watching this season than last season, meaning the show must be better this season than last season, otherwise people wouldn't be watching
ReplyDeleteThe POI creative team are pretty daring. They know they have the world at their fingertips and that they can do pretty much anything they like because they're that good. The show is robust enough for there to be a rough patch, though a rough patch hasn't occurred yet in the series so far. There's no better example than the introduction of Sarah Shaw. How many other shows are in such a good position that they can introduce a new lead character from scratch?? Of the shows I currently watch, the answer is none.
Character development in any show is vital, and the POI team are once again excelling in this area, because they focus on the past as well as the present. It's very effective, and it is a great way to tell a story, because what happens in the past and present, determines what will happen in the future. Focusing on Carter's relationship affects all the other characters in one way or another, and this flow-on effect is definitely more obvious and impacting than any other show I watch.
I guess it's a difference of opinion, but the statistics suggest the opposite of what you're saying and predicting, is happening, which, ultimately, is great news for the show
Kudos to you since this opinion will not be popular on this site. I agree that the non-episode last time did not do the show any favors ratings wise. While it received online praise, almost everyone I talked to in real life was puzzled by why Reese and Finch were barely in it. They felt hoodwinked and were not pleased at all. I felt that way myself. It was like I got tricked into watching the pilot for a show I never signed on to by an actress I would just as well leave behind. I'm not sure that bringing Shahi back is going to make the ratings rise, but at least it doesn't sound like another bait and switch. However I think part of the drop was the one week hiatus. My guess is that some people did not realize it was on. I missed it live myself since sweeps are over and I thought the break last week signaled a mini-hiatus. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping the ratings fall will inspire CBS to put up the latest episodes online so people can catch up. If they do, it will be the silver lining. I could see people dumping the rest of the season until the Blu-Ray comes out if they get too far behind. CBS should stop being so stingy with its shows and embrace online viewing.
Ratings and quality very rarely correlate. You can't say this season is better just because more people are watching. If that were the case, Honey Boo Boo and formerly Jersey Shore would have been genius. I would say that it is more likely that people caught up on the show over the summer. CBS is notoriously difficult for people to jump into shows midseason given their outdated views about online viewing so the word of mouth last season may have been offset by people waiting until they could find a legitimate way to view the season in order.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the correlation to a degree. but it's not "very rare" I think that correlation is quite a bit more relevant for comedy or reality than for drama though. If it's not funny or stupid enough people won't watch, but people will watch if it is funny, even in a really warped sense of humor, or really stupid and crappy. Drama requires more intelligence and thought than anything reality or comedy based, and people will watch quality drama, but not crappy drama. That's my thoughts anyway
ReplyDeleteWhile this is interesting stats, I do despise Nielsen ratings as I find them a terribly inaccurate form of determining how many people watch a show. Perhaps my dislike of them is attributed to some of my favorite shows suffering with "low ratings." And as with some of my favorite shows, and with other shows, ratings do not equal quality. Fringe, Community, Arrested Development are some of the best shows I have ever seen and yet got/get low ratings.
ReplyDeleteI can't explain the drop in the ratings because it sure hasn't been the quality. Sure, the episode with Jimmy Simpson was prone to failure as it was a stand alone episode following a long arc of truly awesome shows. But the show continues to expand on itself, creating new bad guys and recurring characters. Obviously Reese, Finch, and the machine are are the core of the show, but they aren't the only thing about the show. The world, the universe, the mythology of it all is almost if not equally important. Shaw's episode was a risk, sure even I can admit that, but I loved it and thought it was executed well.
So in summation, Person of Interest is better than ever this season, screw the ratings.
This is the problem
ReplyDelete"I do despise Nielsen ratings as I find them a terribly inaccurate form of determining how many people watch a show"
1) They are NOT intended to measure how many people watch a show.
2) They are intended to measure how many people watch a show with commercials live/same day in the USA.
This is a big difference.
Maybe they'll become more accurate in the future since Nielsen starting in fall 2013 is measuring Online cieeings as well such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon etc. on multiple platforms such ad the PS3, XBox and iPad i hope this can help save shows in the future and give us a much more accurate telling of how much people watch a show
ReplyDeleteHey Jimmy, I have a question for you. When you say that you pick Shaw to return in next week's episode, is that actually a spoiler that you've read or is it just speculation? If it was a spoiler then I must have missed it because I didn't know that it all. Also, it's really puzzling to me why CBS apparently hasn't put POI episodes online. It's very strange because they seem to do that for all their other shows. Fortunately for me, I know and have other ways to watch the episodes, but I feel bad for everyone else who isn't able to watch them.
ReplyDeleteRelevance caught me off guard as well. I had to rewind it when the opening sequence cut off. It was still a good episode though.
I disagree i think of a paticular show's quality goes down so do the ratings just look at the CW as an example nearly all there shows have gone down in ratings and there quality has gone down as well also look at shows such as Homeland and see how there ratings have gone up do u can't say ratings have nothing to do with quality cause they absolutly do it's not everything but they do play a factor in ratings i think there are 4 factors in a show's ratings buzz, network, quality of writing, popularity, cast/crew
ReplyDeleteRight, thank you for the correction. Sometimes it's just easier to generalize it as "how many people watch a show."
ReplyDeleteAs I've been learning in my grad school marketing class, people are becoming desynthesized and more resistant to ads/promotions/commercials because we're bombarded by it constantly. It's late now, so I kind of forgot where I was going with this. I guess the people whose commercials are showing need to realize that people just do not watch commercials anymore. With the internet, DVRs, it's just not as profitable. They need to measure internet views for both exposure to ads on the internet and count those, which could help both the show and the promoters. Think that makes sense, I apologize if it didn't.
Oh don't get me wrong. I totally agree.
ReplyDeleteThe whole TV Ratings/Commericial/Nielsen System is broken.
However, they have still not found a good alternative so we're stuck with it :) Several companies like Netflix, Amazon etc are dipping their toes into alternative mechanisms for producing, financing and making money from shows, but it's still too early to tell if this will work long term.
At the end of the day TV shows need to make a sufficient profit. If they don't they get cancelled (with the very rare exception). How they make that profit is still largely dictated by the marketing/advertisers.
My picking Shaw's return is purely a guess, but the main reason I believe this will be the case is because there hasn't been a press release for this episode yet. Normally, if there's something big happening in an episode, the press release is held back until nearer the time so as not to spoil the next move by the creative team
ReplyDeleteNo, please tell me that's wrong. I don't want a trio. I watch because of the duo. They have people who can help them and so dont need another person.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how would it work? Would they have two numbers each week or both deal with one.
Well said @darkufo:disqus, I share those exact opinions :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm quite looking forward to this "trio". There will be no trio like them in existence. I am also of the belief that it'll be a "duo and a half" for a wee while, probably until the end of the season, while Shaw gets herself sorted and begins trusting Reese and Finch. She's got a lot of catching up to do!
ReplyDeleteMaybe if CBS didn't keep having strange breaks in between every episode, ratings would be higher!! I don't understand why CBS seems to constantly work against one of its strongest shows, by giving it very little advertisement and frequent hiatuses instead of the opposite.
ReplyDeleteTrue. And with the increasing numbers of folk who watch on line, or on DVR, or who just wait for the DVD/BluRay/download release (or who--tsk tsk!--stream illegally), commercials shown during live broadcast will become less and less the driving force for profit. Hence the general increase in product placement deals, or in developing ancillary revenue streams (e.g. merchandise, tie-in novels and comics, webisodes, etc). Of course, those ancillary streams don't necessarily generate revenue for the networks, unless it's actually the network that produces the show.
ReplyDeleteAnyway,I usually watch shows on DVR so skip the commercials, but a few times when I've missed a show and watched it on the network's site, there have still been commercials, just fewer of them. That actually struck me as a bit odd because, as far as I know, there's no regulation of how many minutes of ad time are permitted for on line broadcast (in contrast to television broadcast, where there is--which is why you now often get some sor tof mini-ad running over a small portion of the screen during the actual show broadcast, usually advertising other stuff on the network). Maybe the networks actually are sensible enough to realize that people won't stand for eight or nine commercials in a row during an online broadcast.
Exactly.
ReplyDeleteSince January, Person of Interest has been on hiatus for a total of five weeks (three weeks between episodes 12 and 13, and another two weeks between episodes 16 and 17).
After the week of March 14th, Person of Interest is going on another hiatus until April 4th, after which will bring about ANOTHER hiatus until April 25th. During that period, only one episode will have aired, totaling another six weeks worth of hiatuses. Season two of Person of Interest has been riddled with breaks, and coupled with a lack of promotion and repeat broadcasts by CBS, it's no wonder it isn't doing better than it should.
"I know every show has the occasional throw away episode where its going to be weaker than an average episode & doesnt do much for moving any plotlines along, but they seem to be having more of them lately than usual"
ReplyDelete'Fingers crossed the writers get back to them saving people as the majority premise of the show sooner rather than later'
That doesnt make sense. Your saying that they;ve had they've had more filler episodes then usual lately. Even though they just wrapped up a major storyline just 4 episodes ago in the man in the suit arc which had started basically since the show began(almost). On top of that, Booked Solid and Relevance, Episode 15 and 16 both had the on-going plots advanced in each episode. So what exactly are you talking about? The only episodes that were completely filler and didnt advance anything was Episode 14, One Percent and Last Thursday episode, Proteus and even then for One Percent, We got important developments on the Nathan/Finch story arc as we get closer to seeing how Nathan died.
And the strange thing thing about your statement is that Season 2 has been far more serialized then Season 1. Especially considering the first 7-8 episodes of the first Season was essentially a procedural drama and it wasnt until the midpoint of the season when they started to become more serialized.
And, then you continue to say that you want the writers to get back to the original premise which was saving people. Your implying that you want the show to go back to being primarily a case of the week show where the stories are done by the end of each episode. Basically where they get a number, save them and the end. Yet, you talk about how they've had a lot more filler episodes lately which seems to be a problem for you.
If I misunderstood something here, if you dont mind explaining that would be good cause you sort of contradicted yourself there in my opinion. If you prefer procedural shows only I dont really have a problem with that. But when you complain about how they've had more filler episodes then usual then proceed to say how they should go back to primarily case of the week stories. I find that kind of odd.
That said, I agree with what you said on the episode that was not a regular POI episode. I see what your saying on Fusco & Carter and I can see why that might annoy some however Jimmy has a point about character development.
I'm confused about the complaints about Relevance. What other possibilities were there to finally show us what was happening with the Relevant numbers that would have been better than what we got? This episode was never meant to offer the possibility of a spinoff or be a backdoor pilot; it just introduced the world of the Relevant numbers in the only way that made sense.
ReplyDeleteNice collection of information, but I don't quite know what to do with it. Can you give us some insights about this? Is this normal for shows at this time of the season? Is it specific to Person of Interest or has the ratings of other shows have been on the decline as well?
ReplyDeleteFYI: You can see the Ratings/Charts of All shows, and seasons and networks in the Ratings Database http://www.stvplus.com You should be able to see the answer to all your questions there :)
ReplyDeletePOI is very solid, it's one of CBS's best rating shows. All I really wanted to point out was the 0.1 ratings point drop for 6 weeks running. I've never seen that before, If ratings are going down they usually drop far faster than that, with larger increments. It's just an unusual trend
ReplyDeleteCW does a full TV length commercial break. All other websites I've seen 2-3 commercials norm. I think CBS is the second longest with 3 or 4 I think.
ReplyDeleteA lot of shows lose viewers the second season along with ratings. It's weird it's dropping like that with ratings. I guess the crowd/ages they're aiming for may not pay attention to when a show's coming back as much as older or younger viewers?
ReplyDeleteI never like how the second half of seasons are run on most channels. Way too much breaks and no pattern to them. And some are way too long, like Grimm and Revolution. I forgot to watch Grimm Friday, had to see it online because though I was quite pumped up about seeing the new episode, I was getting used to my Grimm free Friday schedule.
I'm sorry, but this chart doesn't mean or show anything.
ReplyDeleteIf at all, it shows that the show benefited from a ratings increase caused by the 4 episodes arc,
because that's when the ratings were higher than usual. Now that the episodes are more self contained
the ratings are more like BEFORE the ratings increase again. Nothing to see here.
And the less said about Canadagraphs' post, the better.
Yeah which is why I wouldn't read too much into it. I do agree six straight episodes of a .1 drop is very unusual, but I don't think it means the audience is slowly going away. There are so many factors that play into rises and declines in viewership that it's often hard to pinpoint the exact reasons. Personally though I would tend to link it to the fact that there have been so many hiatuses. I mean it's early March now, but you actually go back to the beginning of that six episode trend, and we're back in November of last year. Really that tells me that if there is one thing that can be blamed it's all the hiatuses. Short hiatuses almost always hurt ratings because they throw people off, especially when they're so frequent.
ReplyDeleteWell regardless it's still doing great so there's no reason to worry about renewal prospects, but I do agree that if not for all these dumb hiatuses the shows would be doing better. I really think it would be smart to just air the rest straight through after March Madness is over. A long off season is better than endless breaks within the season.
ReplyDeleteSorry but that's pretty naive. Yes there may be some cases where a decline in ratings followed a decline in story quality, but more often than not there's no clear correlation. Hell some shows do better when they're just generic television, and then actually lose viewers around the time they start really getting good. There are so many variables you're not considering, like how well a show is promoted, scheduling, lead ins, competing shows in the same time slot, etc. In many cases as well ratings go down simply because the average viewer has trouble following the story when it becomes more complex. That in no way means the story is bad though. A complex story takes following the series consistently and paying close attention, but it typically is also of higher quality. Sadly the average viewer tends to go for things that require very little time investment to appreciate.
ReplyDeleteBut either way, the fact is equating a drop in ratings to a drop in story quality is usually incorrect. Really, IMO this show has been better than ever this season and especially since episode 10. Dead Reckoning is IMO the best of the series. There's no logical reason to say the ratings are slowly dropping because the story is slowly getting worse.
I don't even think that poster knows what he's saying. I just read that post as well and I can't make heads or tails. As best as I can tell though, he has no idea what filler even means. He seems to think the stuff about the FBI chasing Reese and any character development given to anyone besides Reese and Finch should be left out. I get the sense that he just prefers generic procedural shows where every week it's more or less the exact same formula and the case is solved in 60 minutes with virtually nothing carrying over into the next week, save a few very minor character struggles or something
ReplyDeleteNot sorry, but there are more than enough generic procedural shows on television right now that you can leave and go watch one if you only want that. POI definitely has some procedural elements of the team helping the people who come up on the machine's list (and those elements should never be entirely abandoned, that is still the basic premise of the show), but they're now accompanied by various continuous stories at the same time. That's what's so great about a show like POI. It doesn't try to just be all one or the other with procedural vs. serialized. Instead it has developed a very great system where we have our fun weekly cases for the procedural side of things, but the writers also find creative ways to advance the serialized story arcs amongst those weekly cases, giving us something to come back for week after week.
Good to know Person of Interest is not on the verge of cancellation. Thanks for the reply. :)
ReplyDeleteI think the problem with PoI is that it is produced by Warner Bros. Since a different studio produces it than distributes they wind up arguing over rights. It's annoying.
ReplyDeleteHere in Canada, we can't watch stuff on the CW website.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to what CBS does during the spring half of the season. As someone who has watched all the CSI's for many years, I'm used to this now. CBS is usually pretty good about airing episodes on consecutive weeks and not messing around during the fall half of the season. But during the spring half, it's a whole different story. During the spring half, they air episodes all over the place with frequent breaks in between new ones. Because CBS is the #1 network, they can afford to do this every year and unfortunately it's us fans that suffer. Also, in POI's case, it's a really strong show right now that's doing very well in the ratings so it can definitely handle some schedule adversity. My advice is to just get used to it and make sure you know when the next episode is going to air because CBS does this every spring.
ReplyDeleteI stopped watching because I HATE Shaw. I simply can not stand her. I may not be alone. She is the one glaring difference between the two wonderful seasons, and now.
ReplyDelete