Ratings: Anything Can Be Spun

[l star]

Premiere ratings: 3.9 demo, 12.16 total viewers. It tied with How To Get Away with Murder for first in the demo and was second in total viewers, excluding football.

 

4.02 ratings: 3.4 demo, 10.70 total viewers. It won the night in the demo and was second in total viewers, excluding football.

 

For comparison, the S3 premiere ratings were 3.1 demo and 9.6 total. The S3 finale's were 2.6 demo and 8.45 total.

[l star]

4.03 ratings: 3.0 in the demo, 9.52 total.

[Eolivet]

Ratings are in for last night: 2.2 Adults 18-49, 7.45 million viewers. A far cry from the mid-3s of the early part of the season. I'm putting the rest here because there's no sort of "Season so far" thread and it didn't seem to be much about last night's episode as the season in general (and ratings are the one constant throughout the season in general, so...there's my reasoning):

 

As much as people complain about the love triangle, it's interesting that when they dropped it entirely, the show seemed to suffer without it. Coincidentally or not, the ratings began to fall. I think the show underestimated the appeal of its romance and romantic drama storylines. I believe they separated the show from the million and six "spy dramas" and "crime dramas" out there.

 

B613 isn't exciting or dangerous or interesting (anymore, if it ever was) -- it's omnipresent and gloomy and destructive. It's ceased to be fun spy hijinks and has basically turned into the Borg, sucking every character tangentially involved in it into its dark mass of nothingness. Olivia, Jake, Huck, Quinn -- even David Rosen -- all at least had personalities and other interests before B613, and now it seems like it's this albatross around each of their necks, preventing joy, happiness and any levity whatsoever.

 

Ironically, Papa Pope is full of personality -- vim, venom and vigor. It's like Command took all of it for himself and left nothing for his soulless husks of former underlings. Pfft, typical Command.

 

When people say Scandal has become "boring," I believe they are referring to the No-Fun Policy instituted by the B613 storyline where every character involved must be utterly miserable, every hour of every day -- always staring death in the face, going through life with a perpetual sad trombone following them. Interesting because, the last I checked, none of them still work for B613 -- so why they've basically put themselves in a (virtual) hole and cut all the love, pleasure and ability to smile out of their lives is beyond me.

 

The White House stories at least have some give and take, push and pull -- some vivacity and personality: from Mellie's Senate campaign to the infectious Susan Ross to Sally's wonderfully biting new talk show. All different angles, a different take, a different spin on things. But even then, they have become only supporting players to the main morose event.

 

If the White House is a manic cartoon character, then B613 is Eeyore, perpetually mourning his lost tail. When I look at the ratings, I'm not surprised the decline coincided with the decision to go after B613. Nobody wants to sit around and watch characters constantly complain that Command took their tail (and their personalities).

Edited May 8, 2015 by Eolivet

[jjjmoss]

Well it's interesting that it was visibly a step up from Grey's S11 for several months, but now it's doing pretty much the same (and while Grey's got a 2-week-boost for their latest shocker, it's back to its usual #s now).

 

Really shows how stable Shonda's first smash is, for its 243rd episode to be on the level of what was the top-rated network drama in the fall's 68th episode.