New Girl on FOX HD - Page 8

Nielsen Notes
How New Girl' on Fox Lost Its Ratings Mojo
By Bill Carter, The New York Times' 'Media Decoder' Blog - Mar. 28, 2012

What's happened to New Girl? The Fox sitcom that exploded at the start of the fall season with bona fide hit ratings has moved into a pattern that is approaching a tailspin.

The latest episode of New Girl on Tuesday night plunged to its lowest numbers yet, a 2.5 rating among the 18- to 49-year-old audience that Fox sells to most advertisers and only 4.89 million total viewers.

It was the eighth week in a row that the show has seen its audience decline. In terms of total audience, New Girl, which stars Zooey Deschanel in the title role, attracted far less than half as many viewers this week as saw its premiere in September, 10.28 million viewers.

The show opened the season with a 4.8 rating in that 18-49 audience, a spectacular debut. It stayed above a 4 rating in that group for its first three episodes, which ran consecutively from Sept. 20 to Oct. 4.

Then the decline began, and it is not hard to trace a major reason why. Just as New Girl was establishing some hit momentum with those first three episodes, Fox removed the show from the air for a month. The next New Girl episode came on Nov. 1. The show fell that week from a 4.3 rating for its Oct. 4 episode to a 3.6 in that 18-49 category and lost more than 1.2 million viewers from the previous episode.

The comedy remained relatively stable through January, but then the plunge began. Some of the decline has been related to the falloff in the shows that have preceded it from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Glee has seen its one-time hit numbers slide this year; since that show went on hiatus on Feb. 21, the lead-in to New Girl has been worse.

Fox installed two comedies Raising Hope and I Hate My Teenage Daughter from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., to substitute for Glee. But Teenage Daughter was so thoroughly rejected by audiences (and critics, who hated it much worse than the characters hated their offspring) that Fox canceled the show and now uses repeats of Raising Hope at 8:30. These draw puny ratings. That hurts New Girl at 9.

But the explanation for the comedy's disappointing ratings after those first three episodes centers on the scheduling decision that yanked the show off the air for a month, just as it was settling in with viewers. Fox made the move partly to accommodate post-season baseball, but mainly to protect another show.

For several weeks, The X-Factor the new singing competition on Fox, inherited the Tuesday slot that belonged to New Girl because Fox feared breaking the weekly pattern of the reality show during its baseball coverage. The move did preserve the ratings for X-Factor, but it may have come at the cost of New Girl, which seems never to have recovered fully from that separation from its early fans.

The hope for a turnaround for New Girl now rests with the return of Glee on April 10. The comedy is in no danger of not being ordered for a second season, but if it doesn't bounce back with a better show in front of it, the great prospects it showed in its first three episodes may dim considerably.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ref=television

Networks have been doing this hiatus crap for a few years. I can understand why people dump the shows when they are missing for months. I only watch shows that have been recorded by my dvr so it doesn't matter to me nor does it matter to me what shows are on first as I handpick shows I want to watch.

Ratings wise I can't help but think the early on lousy episodes drove away many viewers. I pretty much gave up and if I didn't have a season pass I would have never keep watching. As good as the show is now (for me) one can only hope it catches on. I think my favorite bit (there were plenty of good ones) last episode was Jess dragging herself out of the room after falling.

Probably the funniest New Girl I can recall, particularly the first half, where it was one thing after another.

Part of the show's problem is that some shows are considerably funnier than others, and if this forum is any indication, there is no consensus on which are the funny shows

Harold and Kumar can't go to White Castle tonight LOL...

I was dying when Winston was singing along to Defying Gravity and Popular. (I only know these songs because my daughter and wife like Wicked, no really).

^^ This. Winston is probably my favorite character.

Both Nick and Winston are awesome.

Schmidt and ci ci have stolen the show.

Best episode of the season tonight. I laughed the entire episode.

Tonight's show is unquestionably my favorite episode thus far. It is packed with great lines. I nearly died laughing during the entire scene where Jess dressed in winter clothing so as to look undesirable.

Prediction for next fall.
Fox will put this show up against CBS's 2 Broke Girls.
I have a 2 tuner DVR so i will catch both

And Cece! (hopefully)

TV Notes
Fox Renews Glee', New Girl' And Raising Hope'
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Apr. 9, 2012

Fox has renewed three more series for next season: freshman comedy New Girl, hourlong musical comedy Glee and family comedy Raising Hope. It will be a second season for New Girl, fourth for Glee and third for Raising Hope. Over the past season, New Girl has become the hottest new appointment series for young adults; Raising Hope has established itself as one of the smartest and most unique offbeat comedies on television; and Glee has continued its success as a genre-defying, global cultural phenomenon, said Fox's entertainment president Kevin Reilly. All three of these comedies add a fresh and distinctive flavor to our Tuesday nights, and I'm really happy to bring them back to our air next season.

The pickup comes after Raising Hope delivered solid numbers when moved to the anchor 8 PM position in the two-hour comedy block Fox tried out while Glee is on hiatus, earning a spot on the renewal list alongside shoe-ins Glee and New Girl. Fox's Tuesday lineup returns to normal tomorrow with new episodes of all three newly-picked up series, Glee, followed by New Girl and Raising Hope. The three comedies join recently renewed Fox dramedy Bones.

As for Fox's other comedy series, I Hate My Teenage Daughter has been practically canceled, while Breaking Ins chances for another comeback after surviving last year's cancellation appear slim. On the drama side, another, probably shortened season of Fringe still looks like a possibility if the economics are worked out.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/fox-...-raising-hope/

Good news. I really enjoy New Girl and Raising Hope. And end up watching Glee also (not MY idea)

+1
Just watched it last night. By far the most consistently funny episode of the season. Rewound a few times to catch some of the better lines.
Nick w/the two dumb girls at the race... awesome

So no one in this thread is going to mention her drifting eyes? It's gets really distracting sometimes.

Another fantastic episode. True American is an awesome game.

Another hilarious episode. Right now, this is the best comedy on tv.

I agree with that. I really hated him at first.