Futurama delivers strong ratings!

[Reply #80 on:]

The sad news is that Family Guy reruns on Adult Swim are out-performing newly premiering Futurama. Futurama's still #3 on cable for Thursday nights behind the USA behemoths, but it would still be good to be able to beat reruns, especially when they air an hour later.

[Reply #81 on:]

Yikes. Sounds rough when you put it that way.

But I think the important things to look at are: is Futurama out-performing other Comedy Central originals? Is it out-performing whatever was in the same time slot previously? Are reruns of the new episodes getting any significant ratings? And then finally, are they making mad money off of itunes/DVD sales?

It'd be nice if it were the #1 cable show, but that's not realistic. All I care about is that it's profitable enough to make more episodes. Fingers crossed!

[Reply #82 on:]

The return of Jersey Shore (10pm on MTV) didn't siphon off a half million viewers, which is a good sign (not that I expect that there's a huge overlap between Jersey Shore's audience and Futurama's).

[Reply #83 on:]

According to CC's press release following the Futurama premiere, Futurama's the second most watched show in CC history, behind South Park. That includes The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; old shows like Chapelle's Show and Reno 911; and the etc. of stand-up and other animated programs.

I haven't seen ratings on Futurama reruns. However, given that the Cable Top 25 includes cable reruns, and that July 19-25's #25 was at ~3.5mm, I don't think any of the reruns are pulling stronger than the premieres.

Also, here's the premiering program ratings for cable on last Thursday:
http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/883106113?r=520108113#520108113
Futurama was fifth on the night at 2.046mm, behind Jersey Shore (5.252mm), Burn Notice (5.378mm), Royal Pains (5.066mm), and Project Runway (2.546mm). For the timeslot, it was third behind Jersey Shore and Royal Pains. Just for reference, networks had Boston Med (4.66mm), The Mentalist (7.42mm), and Law & Order:SVU (2.88mm) (the latter two were reruns). Good news is that we beat SVU's 18-49 rating! Remember that comparing Futurama to network is automatically skewed because CC isn't shown on every TV in America.

Overall, Futurama's not doing horrible. If it was on network and/or playing an hour or two earlier, it would be probably pulling in double ratings. Considering that Futurama is now CC's #2, is getting in the Top 10 on iTunes for both individual episodes and season, is pulling in thousands downloading per episode on one specific torrent site (and probably more on others, plus streaming) (yes, this is actually considered nowadays, although not as much as cold hard sales cash), and just had an episode still rated first on CGEF and a heavy contender/favorite for next year's Emmy, I'd say Comedy Central will likely be renewing Futurama and will try to pair new episodes up with South Park in the future.

But, then again, I'm a lowly fan, so what do I know?

[Reply #84 on:]

Thanks, weiner. I haven't followed ratings news in years because there hasn't been any show that I really care enough to follow. I am really surprised at how the top cable shows like Burn Notice and Royal Pains are doing compared to network shows. Cable shows beating out networks in ratings used to be unheard of.

Also, I know this is just a pointless line of discussion, but I have to wonder how the ratings would be if Adult Swim had picked up the tab for new episodes. Somehow Futurama always felt natural to me, on Cartoon Network. Seeing it on Comedy Central is kind of weird. I don't feel like it really fits in...but maybe I am crazy.

TV is so political anyway. If the network suits hate the show, it'll be cancelled and if they like it they'll try to keep it around. It sounds like Groening and co have a pretty good relationship with the Comedy Central guys, so maybe it'll be alright.

[Reply #85 on:]

We also have to factor in just how often Futurama is repeated.  Family Guy reruns may be doing better (which might not be that surprising...a lot of people probably don't even watch it on FOX, so the episodes are "new" to them when they first air on Adult Swim), but as far as I know they don't repeat that show five times a day.  The same new episode of Futurama can reliably be expected to air something like 5-10 times over the week (including an airing the following Thursday, before the next new one), so it's a bit different.  And the thing is too: those repeats count for revenue, too.  So it's not like being back on FOX, where a lot more was riding on the initial airing.  They can make extra money on all the other timeslots when a "new" (for that week) episode is shown.  Not to mention later include them in the repeats they do like five times a day some days, which also counts for revenue.

Regarding itunes...I check every now and then, and new episodes are usually in the top ten TV sellers.  This may factor into Comedy Central's decisions somewhat too, because even though they likely don't make money from that, it's still a more reliable indicator of interest than Nielsen ratings, which are clearly a bit flimsy.

[Reply #86 on:]

Family Guy currently airs Sunday-Thursday on [as], and will be expanding to Fridays mid-August. These airings break into the weekly cable #25 regularly. This is not to mention that FG repeats are airing throughout the summer in their normal Fox timeslot. Last Sunday it got 4.89mm. That was #4 for the all networks all night and #1 in its timeslot. Once again, those last figures were all on network, but FG still has visibility even if its episodes aren't new. And I'm sure Fox is happy with these numbers during the summer.

I still haven't found ratings for non-premiere showings of Futurama episodes, so I have no idea how Comedy Central's strategy of playing the same episode during every open timeslot is working out. I feel that Futurama could be pulling in even higher ratings if CC abandoned this strategy. They should be airing Futurama at the same time during the week. This is the current scheduling of Futurama:

Code: [Select]

Monday:
12:00am: Last week's episode
12:30am: random episode
1:00am: random episode
1:30am: random episode

Tuesday:
12:30am: Last week's episode
1:00am: random episode
8:00pm: random episode
8:30pm: Last week's episode

Wednesday:
1:00am: random episode
9:00pm: Last week's episode

Thursday:
1:00am: random episode
9:00pm: random episode
9:30pm: Last week's episode
10:00pm: New episode
10:30pm: random episode

Friday:
12:00am: Last night's episode
12:30am: Two weeks ago's episode
1:00am: random episode
So, overall, Futurama is being shown later than it was when on [as] and at infrequent timeslots. Their use of random episodes rather than trying for some sort of continuity is very annoying to me (and I'm sure others). On their schedule they use broadcast order (1xx-5xx for Fox run, 0xx for movies, 6xx for CC run), but they don't even at least show it in broadcast order! Sure, I hate broadcast order, but at least it's some continuity.

I think they could definitely boost ratings if they adopted a strategy like this:

Code: [Select]

Monday:
10:00pm: Production order
10:30pm: Last week's episode

Tuesday:
1:00am: Four weeks ago's episode
10:00pm: Production order
10:30pm: Last week's episode

Wednesday:
1:00am: Three weeks ago's episode
10:00pm: Production order
10:30pm: Last week's episode

Thursday
1:00am: Two weeks ago's episode
9:00pm: Production order
9:30pm: Last week's episode
10:00pm: This week's episode
10:30pm: Thursday Special

Friday:
12:00am: This week's episode encore
12:30am: Thursday Special encore
1:00am: Last week's episodeThe "Production Order" episodes would be a long run going from 1ACV01 to the last episode, including the movie episodes.
The Thursday Special would also be a long run going from 1ACV01 to the last episode, excluding the movie episodes, that would be specific to Thursdays. So this week's TS would be 3ACV10 and next week would be 3ACV11. If the TS matches with the PO episode for that Thursday, the TS would go to the next episode.


The big problem with Futurama on CC is the inconsistent time from night to night. On [as], I knew it was every night at 11pm no matter what. Look at FG: it has a consistent time slot on [as] and it's in the Cable Top 25 regularly. That used to be Futurama. Futurama used to be Top 5 every week, multiple episodes in the Top 25, when it was [as]. Sure, CC lets the staff do whatever the hell they want, and they have a lot better of a relationship with CC than they did with Fox, but Futurama killed on [as]. We got better ratings for reruns on [as] than we've been getting for new episodes on CC.

Yes, I just posted their scheduling formula, but I'm not going to be able to automatically remember that nightly. If they put it at a consistent time slot and market the hell out of it (I'm imagining buses with "Futurama! Weeknights at 10pm on CC!" painted on them hehehe...) it'll definitely boost ratings. I'm not saying that Futurama's in a critical situation, it's future is safe by all regards in my opinion. I'm saying that Futurama could be even bigger if CC played it right.

[/scheduling/marketing rant]

[Reply #87 on:]

I feel like Adult Swim and Comedy Central (as an overall network) is a little bit apples and oranges though...thing is, Adult Swim doesn't play all day.  It's at a very specific time of night, and it has a cult audience that watches it consistently every single night as such.  The rest of the day, they're in "Cartoon Network" mode and run children's programming.  So it's a bit different.  Your typical Comedy Central viewer, unless they're tuning in for a specific show, just turns the channel on when they need something to watch and to see what's on.  Your Adult Swim viewer says "hey, Adult Swim is on, let's watch that" and then turns that on specifically.  Functionally, it almost IS it's own show, or is similar to someone turning it on at that specific time.

I dunno, I mean, Comedy Central has always aired stuff this way, not just Futurama.  I feel like they probably know what they're doing in terms of what works for them specifically.  Futurama repeats on Adult Swim undoubtedly got higher ratings individually, but that was also when that was the ONLY time you could catch them (well, I think they also used to air the same one like three or four hours later, but that often meant they were on at like 3 or 4 am I think).  Comedy Central airs South Park all over the place too, and that's always been pretty successful for them, so I dunno.  I suspect that they factor the constant repeats into it too.  Because honestly, they have to air something at 8pm on a Tuesday too.

[Reply #88 on:]

Thanks for the ratings info, weiner.  I'm actually happy with these numbers; we may have come in 5th for that night, but being the 2nd highest watched show on CC is a good place to be.

An intelligently written & satirical show like Futurama coming in behind the dumasses of Jersey Shore just shows there's a lot of dimwits in the world.  Futurama requires you to have a brain, unlike the fake guidos & guidettes show...

[Reply #89 on:]

it'd be nice if at the end of this broadcast season, comedy central did a marathon of these 12 new episodes.

[Reply #90 on:]

it'd be nice if at the end of this broadcast season, comedy central did a marathon of these 12 new episodes.

They are.

http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/11807

[Reply #91 on:]

good to hear about the marathon. also, last nights episode, that darn katz!, got 1.95 million viewers, so it's still staying pretty much at a steady pace (around two million).

[Reply #92 on:]

That Darn Katz! got 1.95mm viewers, down about 100k viewers. The bad news is that our 10pm competition gained viewers for the most part. It isn't the worst we've done this season (Lethal Inspection was 1.92mm and 0.9 share in the demo) but it's still not fantastic. The good news is that we've held study at around 1.0 share in the demo in the non-premiere-night episodes (that night was around 1.5). So it's good news and not so good news. Thankfully we don't need to have exceptionally high ratings to get renewed anymore. It's the 21st century!

[Reply #93 on:]

If they are going to renew Futurama for a 7th PRODUCTION series (ie episodes AFTER next years, which would air in 2012 onwards), then wouldn't they make an announcement NEXT SUMMER? During the time the 26 episodes have almost all aired? Or would they make an announcement after the first 12 have aired this year?

It really is quite confusing with all these BROADCAST seasons and PRODUCTION seasons. Personally, I go with the production seasons, ie the DVDs.

[Reply #94 on:]

Why?  Closing down a production company and opening it again costs more money than just letting them produce episodes in an endless stream.  However, they won't be done with the animation and editing until late in this Autumn.

[Reply #95 on:]

Here are the overnight ratings for Thursday's episode:

Thursday cable finals

The First 48 (9pm
- 2.036 million viewers
- 1.3/2 HH
- 0.8/3 A18-49

Real Housewives of DC
- 1.628 million viewers
- 1.2/2 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49

Bethenny Getting Married
- 1.861 million viewers
- 1.4/2 HH
- 0.9/3 A18-49

Futurama (10pm)
- 1.950 million viewers
- 1.3/2 HH
- 1.0/3 A18-49

Jaws of the Pacific
- 1.391 million viewers
- 0.9/2 HH
- 0.6/2 A18-49

River Monsters
- 2.150 million viewers
- 1.3/2 HH
- 0.9/3 A18-49

Into the Shark Bite
- 1.590 million viewers
- 1.0/2 HH
- 0.7/2 A18-49

Stan Lee’s Superhumans
- 1.335 million viewers
- 0.9/2 HH
- 0.5/2 A18-49

Project Runway (9pm, 90 minutes)
- 2.625 million viewers
- 1.8/3 HH
- 1.0/3 A18-49

On the Road with Austin & Santino
- 1.080 million viewers
- 0.8/1 HH
- 0.4/1 A18-49

Jersey Shore (9pm)
- 5.025 million viewers
- 3.1/6 HH
- 2.5/8 A18-49
- 4.6/14 W18-34

TNA: Impact (9pm, 120 minutes)
- 1.626 million viewers
- 1.0/2 HH
- 0.7/2 A18-49

Fact or Faked (10pm)
- 1.160 million viewers
- 0.7/1 HH
- 0.5/2 A18-49

Police Women of Memphis (9pm)
- 1.062 million viewers
- 0.7/1 HH
- 0.5/2 A18-49

Burn Notice
- 5.687 million viewers
- 3.5/6 HH
- 1.6/5 A18-49

Royal Pains
- 5.525 million viewers
- 3.4/6 HH
- 1.7/5 A18-49

Looks like the ratings dipped a bit.

[Reply #96 on:]

The ratings did slip a little bit from last week, yes, but not significantly.  Futurama's ratings are hovering a little bit above the 2 million mark with a standard deviation of 320 thousand viewers.  Any changes from week to week of less than ~320 thousand viewers really don't mean much from a statistical standpoint.  Here are the stats for all of the shows I could find info on that aired on at least five out of the seven nights that there has been a new Futurama episode.  Even though some of the other shows aired earlier in the evening than Futurama, Futurama still has the highest number of average viewers on a cable network for a Thursday evening.    

[Reply #97 on:]

This is an article about "Tosh.0," but it's worth posting for one reason: it seems to indicate that "Futurama" is the number two show on the network right now, ahead of "Tosh.0," "The Daily Show," and "The Colbert Report."  (I'm sort of assuming from the article's wording as well as Wikipedia's ratings info that "South Park" is the number one show.)


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38642464/ns/today-entertainment/

“Tosh.0” is finishing ahead of Stewart and Colbert, and currently is Comedy Central’s No. 3 rated show, behind only “South Park” and “Futurama.”

[Reply #98 on:]

last night's episode "a clockwork origin" had 1.926 million viewers.

[Reply #99 on:]

...Wait, Tosh.0 is beating Stewart and Colbert? What the hell! I get more news from those two than I do anywhere else!

[Reply #100 on:]

...Stewart and Colbert? What the hell! I get more news from those two than I do anywhere else!

That is a serious problem...

[Reply #101 on:]

I was a bit shocked by that too.  The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are probably the sharpest and funniest shows of the last ten years or so.  My guess though is that shows like Tosh.0 (or Futurama for that matter) might have an advantage given that they air once a week and in limited seasons.  Viewers are more sure to tune into each episode.

[Reply #102 on:]

Does anyone have the ratings for the last episode?

[Reply #103 on:]

it got 1.774 million viewers

[Reply #104 on:]

That's really sad, considering it was the best episode of the season.

[Reply #105 on:]

That's really sad, considering it was the best episode of the season.

That's generally hard to know before something airs.

[Reply #106 on:]

i hope one episode doesn't kill this shows chances for renewal.

[Reply #107 on:]

Here are the new ratings numbers for Thursday's ep:

Project Runway rose over 350,000 viewers to 3.44 million and was up 0.2 ratings points to a 1.4 rating with adults 18-49.

Posted earlier about Jersey Shore beating everything on cable and the broadcast nets (including the NFL, in preseason) with adults 18-49, and also about viewing for Burn Notice and Royal Pains being down a little.

Royal Pains was also down 0.1 with adults 18-49, though Burn Notice was flat week over week with adults 18-49.

Futurama was off more  noticeably, down about 150,000 viewers to 1.77 million and down 0.2 points to a 0.8 rating with adults 18-49.   Real Housewives of D.C. was steady with viewers but down 0.1 to a 0.6 rating with adults 18-49.

Those details and more of Thursday’s cable ratings via Travis Yanan:

    Thursday cable finals

    The First 48 (9pm)
    - 1.963 million viewers
    - 1.2/2 HH
    - 0.7/2 A18-49

    Squad Prison Police (10pm)
    - 1.472 million viewers
    - 0.9/2 HH
    - 0.6/2 A18-49

    Squad Prison Police (10:30pm)
    - 1.322 million viewers
    - 0.9/2 HH
    - 0.6/2 A18-49

    Real Housewives of DC (9pm)
    - 1.373 million viewers
    - 1.0/2 HH
    - 0.6/2 A18-49

    Futurama (10pm)
    - 1.774 million viewers
    - 1.2/2 HH
    - 0.8/2 A18-49

    Stan Lee’s Superhumans (10pm)
    - 1.360 million viewers
    - 0.9/2 HH
    - 0.6/2 A18-49

    Project Runway (9pm, 90 minutes)
    - 3.439 million viewers
    - 2.4/4 HH
    - 1.4/4 A18-49

    On the Road with Austin & Santino
    - 1.677 million viewers
    - 1.2/2 HH
    - 0.7/2 A18-49

    Jersey Shore (10pm, 61 minutes)
    - 5.504 million viewers
    - 3.5/6 HH
    - 2.8/9 A18-49
    - 5.3/17 W18-34

    TNA: Impact (9pm, 120 minutes)
    - 1.350 million viewers
    - 0.8/1 HH
    - 0.4/1 A18-49

    Fact or Faked (10pm)
    - 0.822 million viewers
    - 0.6/1 HH
    - 0.3/1 A18-49

    American Chopper: Senior vs Junior (9pm)
    - 2.558 million viewers
    - 1.6/3 HH
    - 1.3/4 A18-49

    Burn Notice
    - 5.503 million viewers
    - 3.4/6 HH
    - 1.5/5 A18-49

    Royal Pains (61 minutes)
    - 5.271 million viewers
    - 3.4/6 HH
    - 1.5/5 A18-49

   Bummer, Futurama took a dip. Hopefully it's just a glitch, but I have to say, with great reluctance, that I can't help but wonder if some of the eps have preached a bit too much, as did last week's, and as did Prop Infinity. Actually, after last week's, I was myself beginning to lose patience. This week's episode restored my faith in the series. Hopefully this is just a ratings anomaly, and Futurama will do better next week.

[Reply #108 on:]

A Clockwork Origin was preachy? I must have seen the wrong episode.

[Reply #109 on:]

I doubt that Comedy Central would make a firm decision to cease ordering new Futurama episodes based on the initial run of 13 shows.  For a new series, sure, but not for a show with which they have a long history.  At the very least they'd wait until all 26 have aired (which would mean waiting until 2013 for season 7).

[Reply #110 on:]

People.  Calm down.  Comedy Central is going to renew the show.  Something would be required to explode in order for Comedy Central to perhaps change its mind.  It's all in the cards.

How do I know this?  Look at advertisement from Comedy Central.  To them, Futurama is among their five core shows.  The five shows that define the channel, along with The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park and Tosh.0.  If they are willing to sacrifice that much advertisement and attention to a show they are not going to renew, then yes, Comedy Central are complete idiots.

But I have my sincere doubts that they are complete idiots.  I could of course be wrong.  I expect the show to be renewed by Autumn 2010.  It would cost too much to wait for after the 26 episodes have aired.  Waiting until 2013 for a new season (i.e. a year without new episodes)?  That's money out the window.

Closing down the production costs money.  Starting it up again costs money.  Ever heard that a light bulb uses more energy when being turned on and off?  The same counts for production of television shows.  This is why you want to keep hammering while the iron is hot.

[Reply #111 on:]

Shows of this nature always seem to drop in ratings as the season progresses anyway. South Park certainly drops considerably as they get towards the end of each run.

I doubt this episode (and most likely the next 2 episodes) having lower ratings than the first few episodes is going to upset Comedy Central too much. Especially as The Prisoner of Benda still got higher rating figures than some of South Park's last season.


I can't speak about the show's distant future, but I think at least one more season is pretty much guarenteed at this point.

[Reply #112 on:]

At least it's still in the top 5.  Don't see what you're all worried about. 

[Reply #113 on:]

Yeah I know people are afraid to be optimistic considering the history of the show with these things, but I'd be very very suprised if this isn't renewed. It's not like CC can just pull another show that's certain to get ratings as good as from this out of nowhere. Shows have to be really bad to not even be given a 2nd season, and it would sort of be a 2nd season for comedy central.

[Reply #114 on:]

Where can you go to see the offical ratings after the week is up? Or do they only show Futurama when it had high ratings that week.

[Reply #115 on:]

it'll be posted in this forum here (http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/63310451) usually a day after the episode airs. they only show the numbers for the original airing, so no idea on if there's any numbers on reruns anywhere else.

and...

That's really sad, considering it was the best episode of the season.

That's generally hard to know before something airs.

do the better episodes get higher rerun numbers, or is it still pretty unpredictable?

[Reply #116 on:]

That's really sad, considering it was the best episode of the season.

That's generally hard to know before something airs.

do the better episodes get higher rerun numbers, or is it still pretty unpredictable?

I do not have any data.  But my assumption is that after a good episode (one that gets a fair degree of talk in the press) will not only lead to better watching of reruns, but will also influence the following episode.  A bad episode would have the opposite effect.

[Reply #117 on:]

If it continues like this (top 5 or so), I'd be surprised if they wouldn't renew. But I'm still not getting my hopes up, especially considering the show's history. What if they used all awesome episodes for this broadcast season (Late Philip, Origin, Lethal, Benda) and leave none for the second? Stupid, yes, but still possible.

[Reply #118 on:]

I am not hoping.  I know it.

[Reply #119 on:]

If the shows continue like this, it will make it. Problem is that there's always the possibility that it does not.