Good news: 'Five-0' up a bit; bad news: it's still No. 3
By Wayne Harada
The good news: CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0” was up a skosh in the demographics, in the Monday overnight TV ratings for Oct. 1.
The bad news: It still is No. 3 in viewership in its 9 p.m. timeslot (10 p.m. Mainland), behind ABC’s No. 1 “Castle,” and NBC’s No. 2 “Revolution.”
NBC’s “The Voice” continues to be a reliable lead-in for “Revolution,” but the post-apocalypse drama also is gliding a bit. Similarly, “Dancing With the Stars” was a powerful lead-in for “Castle,” which is helping that procedural.
“Five-0’s” two sitcoms in the preceding hour — “2 Broke Girls” (9. 02 million viewers) and “Mike and Molly” (8.507 million) — are struggling to compete with the pair of reality shows.
The snapshot for 9 p.m. is quite clear: “Five-0” has an uphill struggle ahead in the still-new 2012-13 season.
“Castle” had 10.33 million viewers, with a 1.9/adults 18 to 49 demo rating and 5 share; “Revolution” attracted 8.40 million viewers, with a 3.28 adults 18 to 49 rating and 8 share; and “Hawaii Five-0” trailed with 7.72 million viewers, with 1.9 adults 18 to 49 rating and 5 share.
The slight glimmer of hope: “Five-0” built up its demo, which was 1.8 adults last week.
The episode, “Kanalu (Doubt),” raises some doubt as “Five-0” wrestles with its third-place ranking for the second time in season three. Will it be a pattern, or will there be an eventual reversal of fortunes?
The show began with a touching paddle-out for the scattering of ashes for Chin’s late wife Malia — a scene repeated with variation from season one’s aloha to a surfing legacy — and closed with Chin still grappling over her loss but surrounded by support from his ohana. Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) was the hour’s best soul: fans could connect with his character, thanks to smart writing.
In-between the grief, there was a mix of the expected (an art heist, carguments between McGarrett and Danno, snits between Danno and guest star Ed Asner as the resurrected August March, McG showing skin as Alex O’Loughlin looked confident and refreshed), and the unexpected (the where-is-Mom McG issue, the suicide-demise of March on Pali Highway, that aforementioned memorial at sea, which was a smaller version earlier-mentioned season one spectacle lavishly filmed on the North Shore, but this is for a character not known for her surfing).
Best moments: the glorious auto-matics — the zoom-zooming cars and the quick, screeching turns, notably the aerial shots with the baddie evading Five-0 with the help of a bus. Kudos to the cinematographers.
Bonus points: the show’s pace, bookending poignancy and action-adventure; in short, among the last few shows of season two and the premier of season three’s first episode, this one was as good as it gets.
Penalty points: Drawing out, again, the Mother McG issue – where is she?; the coyingly, annoying jibberish from Max, recovering from an injury; disregard for general protocol in real life — the March character is a suspect in custody, yet he is not cuffed in the car, is not securely guarded, he gets a free pass only to wind up as roadkill; the disregard for common rule of no romance in the workplace — with Michelle Borth returning as Catherine, an investigating colleague of McG and his rekindled love interest, but no credible sizzle or chemistry; and oh, yeah, Kamekona, and his — hello? — out-of-the-box notion of peddling shrimp from a helicopter.
Overall, there’s still a lot of unnecessary clutter in the storytelling; which brings up the issue of “Doubt.”
Will “Five-0” manage to bring up the numbers?
Do you think it will post an ascent in the ratings when the November sweeps begin? Or not?
Show and Tell Hawai'i
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:20 am
At anyrate, I'm sorry to see August March get run over for good. He seemed more like a master villian than Wo Fat who seems more like a high level ninja than anything else. I don't think there's so much clutter as the writers want to have a little something for everyone(romance, comedy, action, adventure, & an on going plotline). I think that's the writer's response to critics who wrote that the show was to simple for them. Catherine brings new skills to the team besides balancing the male/female ratio that Lori did last year.
One the reasons the ratings win probably seesawed between Castle and H50 in the past was that H50 had something more in the action/adventure mode than Castle some weeks while other weeks the romantic stories in Castle drew more viewers in. Revolution trumps both shows by giving us a involving action/adventure story levels above what H50 or Castle can deliver.
Unless H50 gets a better lead in, I expect the show to be battling for 2nd place this season with Castle.
October 2nd, 2012 at 11:40 am
Update:
“Revolution” is on a roll; NBC today (Oct. 2) ordered up a full season of 22 episodes for the new show, which so far has aired three episodes.
It finished second to ABC’s “Castle” and bettered the third-place following for CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0.”
Plus, said NBC, episode three maintained better than 90 per cent of its demographic rating based on the Nielsen TV ratings — hence the full-blown season vote of confidence.
The pilot had the most viewers of any NBC drama launch in five seasons.
October 2nd, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Intro to last night's episode was "chicken skin." Loved it. Overall I thought this show was much better than the season premiere last week. Not keen on "August March" being run over--I thought he could have developed into a great recurring character. What is it anyway, with the writers/producers who keep killing "prominent" people off (albeit I wasn't sorry to see some of them go...)? Does it really improve the ratings?
October 2nd, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Well, I thought the show would come up with a solid episode to bounce the ratings, but while the ratings could still bounce, the show was not what I was hoping for. We are obviously still in the “…let’s bring in big name guest stars, cause that draws lots of viewers…” mindset. Yes, I realize that may have worked for “I Love Lucy” but that was a long time ago.
Ed Asner was brought in to play his role of August March, and was subsequently killed off (…or is he just faking his own death? Since he got mashed by that truck, his remains were probably unrecognizable, who knows, maybe he slipped in an imposter in that split second…). Anyway, I agree with Wayne, the beginning of the show was appropriate, the ocean farewell, and the so was the end where the lantern drifts out to sea as Chinn Ho watches. It was the parts in-between that were a problem for me. Now, if you are the type that likes the ubiquitous car chases/crashes, things that go boom, and goes for dead bodies lying scattered on the ground like gum wrappers, then there was lots in this episode for you. If you are like me, and expect something more, well, it was tough.
In particular, I have to discuss that the scene where the dying kidnapping brothers are playing their death scene with Kono badgering one of them to answer where the girl is, and the bad guy can’t quite cough it out before taking his last dying breath (…if Kono was wearing a bikini, he just might have perked up a bit to ask for her phone number...). You know, scenes like that are constructed to give local actors/people a chance to be on the tube, it’s their big moment and you don’t want to rain on their parade, BUT, that shot was clumsy from the get-go. Really bad dialogue, melodramatic, and it served no purpose. Speaking of melodramatic, that re-unification of mother and daughter at the end I thought was overdone. Not enough character time to have a scene like that with people who you barely knew. I thought the mother was going to be the secret mastermind behind the whole caper (now that would have been a good twist).
I actually enjoy the car banter between Steve and Danno, that dialogue is usually well-written and crisp, and it usually fits the scene to some degree. What is not fitting in is any scene with Steve’s new girl. Yeah, I hope Michelle Borth hasn’t unpacked her bags yet.
Trying to have many different things in the show for everyone has gotten the show to where it is now, struggling in the ratings. They need to figure out what it is they want to do with this show, and who their audience is going to be. If there audience is going to be 14 year old boys and the show is all about car chases and bullets flying everywhere, then they are going to lose me as viewer. If the audience is going to be adult females and they want to focus on everybody’s love life, then once again, they will lose me as a viewer. If it is going to be about solving crimes, which is what I think it should be, they probably need a new set of writers, and new chief writer at the top, nothing less than that.
October 2nd, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Actually, adjusted finales have H50 in 2nd place in the 18-49 demo(2.0 to Castle's 1.9).