CSI Offed by Housewives
by Joal Ryan

Monty Brinton/CBS
The odds have caught up with CSI.

For the first time in five years, the Vegas-set crime show will not finish a season as TV's most-watched scripted show.

The 2007-08 season ends Wednesday night.

Desperate Housewives, much maligned for its own ratings slippage over the past couple of years, should finish the season on top among scripted shows, with 18.2 million viewers.

CSI, which currently holds a slight edge for second place over House, ends its eighth season averaging 16.89 million viewers, its least amount ever. The show's previous "low" was 17.8 million, posted during its first season.

The last time CSI didn't wind up as TV's top scripted show was 2001-02, when the departing Friends ruled.

CSI enjoyed its best season to date in 2002-03, when the CBS series averaged 26.2 million, and bested everything on TV, scripted or no.

Since 2003-04, CSI has been trumped by American Idol for the overall No. 1—and sometimes the overall No. 2—spot. But up until this season, it was the standard-bearer for scripted shows.

Ratings-wise, CSI has been in decline for more than a year. From the 2005-06 season to the 2006-07 season, the show lost 5.3 million viewers.

CSI opened this past season big and through November was TV's No. 1 show. Then came the writers' strike—and there went 21 percent of its audience. By comparison, Desperate Housewives only lost about 7 percent of its viewers from the start of the strike through the end of the season.

In addition to the strike, CSI went through cast upheaval, with the early season departure of Jorja Fox and the late season word that Gary Dourdan would not be back in the fall.

Desperate Housewives' win, meanwhile, is its first. It takes the scripted crown the old-fashioned way—it actually had more viewers this season than last, adding more than 1 million fans to its ranks.

Overall, Housewives looks to finish sixth, behind various editions of Dancing With the Stars and American Idol, which despite all the hand-wringing over what's wrong with it, should finish the season as TV's No. 1 and No. 2 shows.

Again.

Elsewhere, here are the ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday:

In the battle of season finales, at least, CSI (fourth place, 18.1 million) killed Desperate Housewives (sixth place, 16.8 million), Grey's Anatomy (seventh place, 15.5 million) and every other scripted show.

Of course, Housewives did hold the demographic edge over all scripted series. Among young adults, CSI finished behind Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, House and Two and a Half Men.

Judging by the Idol numbers, it's not that people don't want to hear this season's contestants sing, it's that they don't care as much what fate befalls them. Tuesday's performance show (second place, 24.8 million) was in line with last year's Top Three episode. Wednesday's results show (first place, 24.9 million) wasn't—it was off by more than 3 million.

CBS' Moonlight (41st place, 7.5 million) went out the way it went in, losing about 1 viewers from Ghost Whisperer (31st place, 8.4 million).
The Office's season closer was good for Angela and Dwight, but the NBC show has seen bigger climaxes than 8.2 million viewers (35th place).

Right about now, the canceled Women's Murder Club (36th place, 7.9 million) must be wondering what dirt the renewed According to Jim (80th place, 4.2 million for its first episode; 74th place, 4.5 million for its second) has on ABC execs.

The win for a "full-figured" gal fattened up CW's America's Next Top Model (69th place, 4.8 million).

To summarize cable's top prime-time shows: Basketball, basketball, wrestling.
Sci Fi Channel's Saturday-night offering of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (3.9 million), and Disney Channel's Friday-night revisit to High School Musical 2 (3.8 million) represented for nonprofessional athletes.
In daytime, Snoop Dogg romanced viewers of One Life to Live, fo' shizzle. A cameo by the gentleman rapper helped the ABC soap pad its young adult women numbers by 4 percent for the week of May 5.

Overall, CBS won the week in viewers (10.3 million), and preemptively declared itself the like winner of the May sweeps. Fox won the week in 18-to-49-year-olds (4.6 million), and did CBS one better, declaring itself the demo winner of sweeps—and the season.

Make that, Fox did CBS two better. It also said it would best CBS as the most watched network of 2007-08, the first such victory for Fox.

In cable, basketball-powered TNT averaged the most prime-time viewers (3.1 million), followed by wrestling-powered USA (2.4 million) and basketball-powered ESPN (2.1 million).

Here's a look at the 10 most-watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 24.9 million viewers
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 24.8 million viewers
3. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 18.5 million viewers
4. CSI, CBS, 18.1 million viewers
5. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17 million viewers
6. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 16.8 million viewers
7. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 15.5 million viewers
8. House, Fox, 15 million viewers
9. NCIS, CBS, 14.9 million viewers
10. Without a Trace, CBS, 14.5 million viewers

LINK

G'Day,
I know that most here will disagree but I don't like this news.

CSI: is a much better show than Desperate Housewives and is having a great season, it is one of the only innovative procedural dramas on the air, along with the Closer and House, which isn't afraid to try new things by experimenting with the format.

I think the emergence of copycat shows has made it seem less original and hurt its critical and awards prospects.

quote:

Originally posted by Noble:
I think the emergence of copycat shows has made it seem less original and hurt its critical and awards prospects.

If anything, I think that applies to CSI:.

I'm really glad DH is the most watched scripted TV show this season. It had a terrific season and along with Lost have really improved from their previous seasons. I hope with the whole "5 year flash forward" next season will still be as good.

quote:

Originally posted by Noble:
G'Day,
I know that most here will disagree but I don't like this news.

CSI: is a much better show than Desperate Housewives and is having a great season, it is one of the only innovative procedural dramas on the air, along with the Closer and House, which isn't afraid to try new things by experimenting with the format.

I think the emergence of copycat shows has made it seem less original and hurt its critical and awards prospects.

You mentioned trying new things....let me remind you that DH had a tornado episode which included destroying the set of universal studios(expenisve)...if this is not original then what is?...However shows have indeed copied CSI but these are NCIS or Las Vegas....not DH...I wouldnt worry about CSI if i were u because ratings dont show how good a show is...For example "Prison Break" (which i dont watch but anyway) is number 70 or smt and still is concidered a good show...also when a show goes from 1st to 2nd it doesent mean it is threatened...

This is not fully true because CSI's 16.89 includes reruns, while Desperate Housewives did not air any reruns and its average was not brought down.

Desperate Houswives deserves the title because for me it was the best show this year, and it had it's best season since it's first IMO.

For as much as the average american television viewer is constantly looked down upon for their choice in bad television (not watching "Pushing Daisies" but tuning into reality shows ad nauseum), they tend to make the right decision with shows that are popular.

Desperate Housewives had an outstanding season, and the ratings went up. Viewers know how to pick what's good and what's bad and this is kind of proof that viewers do like watching good television.

I think another example that fits this trend is friends. The highest rated seasons of the show (2nd, 5th and 8th) are their best seasons whereas some of their lower rated ones (7th) are their worst.

I just think it's interesting that the better season a show has, the better its ratings are.

quote:

Originally posted by G.Penn:
I just think it's interesting that the better season a show has, the better its ratings are.

That is not always true.

It does show somehow it has improved

G'Day,

quote:

Originally posted by Neurotic21:

quote:

Originally posted by Noble:
I think the emergence of copycat shows has made it seem less original and hurt its critical and awards prospects.

If anything, I think that applies to CSI:.

To an extent you are right, all procedurals to an extent are using conventions and tell stories similar to series past. However when most procedurals were detective/cop based CSI emerged in 2000 as one that focused on the science of solving crimes using 21st centuray comuter technology (both in the crime solving and the graphics used by the series to tell the story) and for that it was highly innovative, original and groundbreaking. The only earlier example I can think of is Quincy M.E. (1976-83). It has been the many copycate shows (most notably csi: miami and csi: new york) that have made CSI: seem less original than it actually is.

quote:

Originally posted by potsiiscool:
You mentioned trying new things....let me remind you that DH had a tornado episode which included destroying the set of universal studios(expenisve)...if this is not original then what is?...However shows have indeed copied CSI but these are NCIS or Las Vegas....not DH...I wouldnt worry about CSI if i were u because ratings dont show how good a show is...For example "Prison Break" (which i dont watch but anyway) is number 70 or smt and still is concidered a good show...also when a show goes from 1st to 2nd it doesent mean it is threatened...

I'm not denying that DH didn't also try original things this year and am also not trying to blame DH for ruining CSI. I also don't think CSI is threatened of getting canned or anything. I am disappointed because CSI: gets looked pver by critics, the emmys and posters on this forum - and in my opinion undeservingly so- the top rating show is the only thing it has going for it as far as citations go nowadays. I'm not that disappointed I just think that CSI is a better show than DH.

quote:

Originally posted by thedemonhog:
This is not fully true because CSI's 16.89 includes reruns, while Desperate Housewives did not air any reruns and its average was not brought down.

Interesting that such a lengthy article would not include that vital contributing factor to the figures presented. Anyone know CSI:'s ratings excluding reruns?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Noble,

quote:

Originally posted by Noble:
Anyone know CSI:'s ratings excluding reruns?

I will pull them up tomorrow (PST) in the next few days.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thedemonhog,

I think this news is great and I think it's indicative of how wonderful season 4 was. It truly deserves this title.

It was a great season and I really hope this news can help throw "Desperate Housewives" back into the race as a real Emmy contender, especially in that Comedy Lead Actress lineup where I think no less than 2 spots should go to actresses from the show.

quote:

Originally posted by thedemonhog:
This is not fully true because CSI's 16.89 includes reruns, while Desperate Housewives did not air any reruns and its average was not brought down.

I was wondering. Because all the original episodes of "CSI" had good ratings.