Ratings: “Take Me Out” and “The Choice” Lackluster in Debut
Bad news if you enjoyed Take Me Out last night, or if you somehow stuck through The Choice. Neither of Fox’s two new studio-based dating game shows did that well during their debut. To say I’m disappointed for Take Me Out is an understatement. George Lopez’s very entertaining and fun dating game scored just a 2.1/4 rating, with 3.3 million viewers. The only shows to do worse were NBC’s comedy block of The Office and Parks and Recreation, and The CW’s Breaking Pointe. The only decent news for it is that it came in second in the 18-49 demographic for the hour with a 1.3/5 rating, only losing to CBS’s block of The Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke Girls.
The night improved slightly for Fox at 9:00PM ET with The Choice. Cat Deeley’s show increased to a 2.7/4 rating and 4.2 million viewers. It came in second for the hour in total viewers, just losing to CBS’s Person of Interest. However, The Choice did score a first place 1.8/5 in the 18-49 demographic. However, despite each show’s relative affordability, I don’t think those numbers can sustain either show. If you were a fan of Take Me Out, I recommend telling people to tune in next Thursday.
Source : TV By the Numbers
Maybe this will give FOX good reason to greenlight The Chase!
This will do the opposite. If one UK import doesn’t do well, why would another?
Take Me Out just seemed very boring to me. It felt like a half-hour show that would fit better on GSN, rather than being a 1-hour long primetime game show on a major network. If FOX had decided to air The Chase or The Cube instead, I’m sure that they would have gotten much higher ratings.
FOX just picked the wrong UK show to import. Regardless of whether you import the right show and botch up the format (Million Dollar Money Drop), or you import the wrong show and keep the format the same (Take Me Out), you still end up with the same conclusion — lackluster ratings. Come on FOX. Put two and two together. Import a UK game show that’s actually exciting and entertaining to watch, but don’t botch it up.
For these ratings, I will guarantee FOX will cancel both series within 3 weeks tops. Any ratings below 5 million for a FOX show, not to even mention a Series Premiere, just doesn’t make the cut for the FOX execs. They’ll probably either shift around the time slot, or just replace both shows with repeat airings of New Girl or Bones.
To say TMO is a massive hit over here in the UK would be a bit of an overstatement (4-5m on a Saturday night is not X Factor numbers, but it’s better than what most shows get at the moment) , but it’s relatively cheap and does good demos, and actually has quite good word of mouth. Maybe this will reflect in the US numbers at some point.
FOX won’t learn their lesson on shows like this.
I taped Take Me Out and have yet to watch it, but will watch it tonight! I am not a huge fan of dating game shows (although I do love Baggage) but the one good news is that Take Me Out did better than Buried Treasure, the show that premiered in that timeslot last year! Only time will tell. Either way, I hate when networks pull shows. Let the number of episodes taped air, and then make a decision!
Just an FYI.. Take Me Out is not an original UK show – it is originally Australian and is called “Taken Out”.
Indeed, and was developed by Fremantle’s French arm, IIRC.
Surely “The Choice” is going to cause a lawsuit.