Latest in Undercovers

UPDATED: With Christmas fast approaching,  viewers stayed largely away from TV last night with all originals posting double-digit declines. The highest-rated program of the night in 18-49 was a rerun of ABC’s hit comedy Modern Family (2.0/6). Fox (1.5/5, 5.3 million) won the night in the demo among the…

It was a tough night all around. ABC did the best with the 44th Annual Country Music Association Awards (4.7/13 in adults 18-49, 16.5 million viewers overall), winning the night in total viewers and all key demographics by a wide margin and posting its strongest Wednesday numbers in a year. Still, it was down 11% in…

UPDATES NBC Cancels New Drama ‘Undercovers’ An insider gave me this guidance about what went wrong with Undercovers, a show that NBC massively promoted and yet was still rejected by audiences: “Many things. Mostly, what was meant to be a throwback lark of a show felt trivial to people. It felt flimsy and not…

Uncovering Why ‘Undercovers’ Went Wrong It’s the end of the road for J.J. Abrams’ spy drama Undercovers as NBC today decided not to pick up additional episodes from the freshman series beyond the original 13-episode order. The Warner Bros TV-produced show is now filming Episode 12. The news comes on the heels of Under…

Why in the world did NBC put on repeats of Law & Order: SVU and especially fledging Law & Order: Los Angeles last week? After 2 consecutive 20%+ declines, LOLA rebounded big time 2 weeks ago, up 24% in the 18-49 demo to a 2.4/7 and a time slot win. SVU (2.6/7) was also up, by 13%. But instead of keeping the momentum…

Fox’s coverage of Game 1 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants (4.7 rating in 18-49) was down 25% from last year’s Phillies/Yankees matchup, but that was to be expected with the most popular baseball team, the Yankees, out this year. The game was on par with ith the opening game of…

There are four freshman series on Wednesday that are still awaiting decision on full-season orders: ABC’s Better with You and The Whole Truth, NBC’s Undercovers and CBS’ The Defenders. None of them made a case for itself one way or another last night, with the first 3 staying flat and The Defenders giving away last…

It was UMS’ pickup day at NBC yesterday when the studio’s freshman series The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced all received back-nine orders. Today is Warner Bros TV’s turn. As expected, the studio and NBC closed deals for full-season orders to freshman drama Chase and fan favorite Chuck, now in its…

All remaining freshman series on NBC got some good news today. Three, The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced, have been picked up for the rest of the season with back-nine orders. A similar pickup for Chase is said to be pending, while I hear Undercovers is close to receiving an order for additional…

There were big swings at 10 PM on a otherwise pretty uneventful Wednesday night. After declining for 2 consecutive weeks and last Wednesday logging CBS’ lowest-rated original telecast in the hour in 7 years last week, the network’s new light legal drama The Defenders (2.5/7, 9.9 million viewers overall) bounced back…

God is proving to be a ratings god this week. After a religion-themed Glee dominated Tuesday with a 4.6/13 demo rating, an episode of Modern Family tackling the same subject ruled the demo roost last night with a 4.5/12. It was mostly an uplifting night with all networks able to brag about something except for NBC…

While it hasn’t been as quick on the trigger to cancel underperforming new series as its counterparts Fox and ABC, over the past week NBC has been closely monitoring its schedule, which has not performed as well as the network’s executives had hoped. I hear that the intention is to make as fewer scheduling moves as…