(Check out my website, www.seriesmonitor.com)
Monday nights are set to heat up again, in more ways than one from next week, with some pretty significant scheduling changes thanks to the return of ratings and audience powerhouses Dancing With The Stars and The Voice, on ABC and NBC respectively
This Monday sees ABC's Dancing With The Stars returning for season 16, while NBC holds off one week before the The Voice premieres on March 25
In addition, ABC's Castle returns this Monday from a 3 week hiatus behind Dancing With The Stars, and on the back of the season high rated 2-part episodes, airing series episode 98. But competition for Castle in the 10pm timeslot is only a week away, with the highly anticipated return of NBC's Revolution, after a mammoth 17 week break, following The Voice on March 25. Revolution bumps poorly performing Deception from the timelot. Don't forget Hawaii Five-0, on CBS, also at 10pm, which has had a pretty good run lately, despite a bad start to the season ratings wise. More on that later
FOX hasn't been mentioned yet, but its turn comes now. The 26 episode season 8 of Bones continues at 8pm, with ratings and audience slightly up over the middle part of the season compared to the first quarter. At 9pm, freshman show The Following continues in the place of a canceled The Mob Doctor. The Following had an excellent February sweeps, and has experienced very impressive viewer loyalty since its premiere in late January
Back to CBS for a brief moment. As mentioned earlier, Hawaii Five-0 continues its third season, but the last four episodes have dropped in ratings and audience since the second highest rated and viewed episode in series history back in January. CBS's other Monday night shows, How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, and Mike & Molly have all had strong ratings in February, and won't be going anywhere any time soon
With the return of The Voice and Dancing With The Stars, I'll be paying close attention to the performance of three shows on Mondays:
The Following:
Just like the title, The Following has a large following of its own. Fortunately for the fans, The Following has already been renewed for a second season by FOX, but nevertheless, it'll be interesting to see how the return of The Voice and Dancing With The Stars, impact on its ratings. Bear in mind that The Following hasn't been up against either show before, thus making any form of guesswork pretty tricky. A 2.87 average rating for the 8 episodes so far is very impressive, but whether that sort of rating is sustainable with Dancing With The Stars and The Voice returning is something we will find out in the next month or so
Castle:
in its 97 episode to date, the only time Castle has had less than 10 million viewers when it had Dancing With The Stars as a lead-in, was back in season 1 and early season 2. Since then, each and every episode, when aired after Dancing With The Stars, has had more than 10 million viewers. Only 8 episodes in the series have achieved the same number of viewers without Dancing With The Stars as its lead-in. As most Castle fans who follow the ratings closely will know, Castle was very very close to surpassing Dancing With The Stars's ratings in the first part of this season, with both shows sharing the same 2.2 rating on October 8. With a bit of luck, we may see Castle beat Dancing With The Stars's rating for the first time in series history in this latter part of the season
Revolution:
Revolution performed so well in its 10 episodes last year that NBC decided to take it off air, cut down the number of episodes, and wait for The Voice to return to be its lead-in before returning it to air. Whether those 17 weeks, and those decisions by NBC were actually worth it will no doubt be made very clear in the first couple of episodes starting Monday week. Viewers were leaving, and ratings were dropping quite quickly in the second half of the first 10 episodes last year, until the midseason finale stopped the descent dead in its tracks. The story looks to be intensifying, with the reason for the blackout to be revealed quickly according to the creative team. Don't forget the battle between Revolution, Castle, and Hawaii Five-0 for the 10pm timeslot, it'll be one to keep a close eye on
So there's a summary of what I'll be keeping an eye on over the coming 2-3 months. What are you interested in, or keeping an eye on?? Will the return of Dancing With The Stars and The Voice change your viewing habits?? Make sure you have you say in the comments below
Comprehensive statistics for most of the shows I've mentioned can be found on my website, www.seriesmonitor.com. Castle fans might also like to check out my new Castle Fan Videos website, www.castlefanvideos.com
Thanks for reading! Enjoy your Monday nights!
Jimmy
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