Ratings: “Robot Combat League” Debuts to 1.38 Million
Good news for fans of ass-kicking robots. Syfy’s Robot Combat League started strong out of the gate. The robot boxing game scored 1.38 million viewers total. This was a drop of just 25% from its lead-in of Face Off. It also got a two-year-unscripted high viewership of 748,000 in the target demographic. No Syfy series has debuted that high in over two years. Robot Combat League retained 68% of its target demographic rating. As always the next week or so will be the interesting ones. Will interest fade or can it stay relatively strong? I’m hoping for the best.
Scanning through cable ratings, Robot Combat League only lost to MTV’s Snooki & JWOWW in the target demographic and only to that and Hardcore Pawn in total viewers. Pretty good results for a niche show. Congratulations to the crew. Future episodes will have two fights per show so those pacing issues we were discussing will, hopefully, be resolved.
Syndicated game shows didn’t have such a great report for the second week of Sweeps. Only two shows managed to stay even or grow. This season’s most talked about game show, Family Feud, stayed even at 5.2. Shockingly, though, Baggage somehow grew 9% to a 1.2 rating. It’s had some issues all season so it’s nice to see the fun dating game receive some love. The rest of the syndicated games fell. Wheel of Fortune lost 5% to a 7.3, Jeopardy! fell 4% to 6.6, and Millionaire dropped 8% to a 2.4. Still, though, not bad results for anyone.
Sources :
The Futon Critic: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2013/02/27/robot-combat-league-kicks-bot-as-syfys-best-premiere-for-a-new-unscripted-series-among-adults-18-49-in-over-two-years-47213/20130227syfy01/
Broadcasting Cable: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/492076-Syndication_Ratings_Syndies_Slow_in_Sweeps_Second_Week.php
Think it’s possible that the first week’s ratings are lower than they perhaps could be due to it being posted early on Xbox, or would they take that into account?
Anyway, I love the show and can’t wait for next week. Jericho is a good fit for the host, and the action is living up to expectations, at least thus far. For me, it will be interesting to see if in the later rounds the bots are showing battle scars from their previous encounters. Also how they will fill the two open spots in the quarters (wild cards?).