Monday Night Wrapup
September 25th, 2007
How I Met Your Mother – “Wait for it…”
What: The 3rd Season Premiere of my new favourite multi-camera sitcom on television. And yes, that’s still a positive thing even when it’s also the only one.
The Highlights: Ted’s “Tramp Stamp,” Ted’s various mid-shave beards, Enrique Iglesias and Mandy Moore in unobtrusive guest appearances, Barney in general, the Slap Bet Countdown, and the hint that we’ll finally start some progress on the titular story.
The Lowlights: A little light on Barney, and while Ted had some great moments this episode the narrative is better when he’s not at its center.
Monday Night’s Ratings – Old Defeats New
What: The Fast National Nielsen Ratings for the first night of TV’s new season from PIFeedback.
Winners: Dancing with the Stars, Two and a Half Men, and CSI: Miami all dominated the night, proving that new programming isn’t going to suddenly take over from reality, cheesy comedies and procedural drama on the night. Heroes makes this list as well, although I must admit that I wonder how long it can sustain those numbers with such a weak premiere.
The New Shows: Chuck, Journeyman and The Big Bang Theory all passed the initial test with passable numbers (All averaging almost the same rating), so next week will be their big challenge. Journeyman, however, is in trouble thanks to dropping its Heroes lead-in, while The Big Bang Theory built from How I Met Your Mother.
The Losers: K-Ville dropped considerably from its premiere when faced with Heroes, so it’s in some trouble. And, How I Met Your Mother dropped considerably from its performance last year, and needs to hope for improvement or else it might get the boot at midseason for New Adventures of Old Christine.
Weeds – “He Taught Me How to Drive-By”
What: Weeds’ seventh episode of the season, and the first since Mary-Kate Olsen’s debut last week, which I didn’t blog about due to its innocuous nature: she wasn’t terrible, she wasn’t noteworthy, she’s just there.
Late last week, I was invited to take part in a private beta for a new website called Hey! Nielsen. And yes, it is that Nielsen company, the same one that has been attacked from all sides for its misrepresentation of a show’s true popularity. But, impressively, Nielsen is stepping outside of their boxes and notepads, instead turning to the social networking craze of the internet to find a new way of measuring popularity.
Normally, I would be remiss to place an unmarked spoiler directly within my thread title; I count myself amongst those who universally despise spoilers, and would love to attempt to keep this a secret. However, the producers of 24 and FOX don’t want to keep a secret: they want the whole world to know that they’re bringing beloved Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard, pictured with still dead Michelle) back from near-certain death for the show’s seventh season in January.
Cultural Learnings 