I am concerned about those ratings about Housewives as well. Especially since this season is better than last season (story-wise). However, most dramas are down from last season (most notably CSI, Grey's) and the show is still in the Top 20. Plus, it has been renewed for seventh season.

I don't particularly follow US ratings and I therefore don't understand what is wrong with it. In America, it seems if the audience goes down even a bit, it gets yanked regardless of whether it rates really well (13m nearly seems like a very good figure to me compared to other shows last night).

Normally, well here in the UK, you wait for the audience to substantially drop, then axe it. I can't imagine, for instance ITV axing Britain's Got Talent if its audience dropped 20% from the 13.36m series average in 2009 to say 10.67m in 2010. OK, they'd be concerned, but would it be axed? Probably not - its still outperforming the majority of other shows on the network. (same goes for dramas, i.e. if Doc Martin dropped 20% from 9.15m (2009 average) to say 7.32m for next series)

At most, maybe a budget cut, but not an entire axe of the show. Maybe that's just one of the many differences between America and here...

Yeah, it seems shows that were previously big-hitters have really struggled this season. Not as bankable as they once were. A strong note of caution for shows like Glee as well which I think will have a harder time of it next season.

I know all the women (DH) are contracted until next season. I think the show would bit hit massively if it lost any one of them after that but their contracts ain't gonna come cheap either...

Well it is but I guess it's about context. If it was a new show that'd be brilliant but that's way down on what it used to be getting - plus I can't imagine it's a cheap show to make. It also suggests that it's only got a few seasons left in it which means ABC has the task of finding new long-term hits that will eventually replace it.

It was actually doing pretty well up to Christmas (hitting 5.0+ ratings on a few occasions) but then it spent January/February being on and off and the weeks when it was on it was facing The Grammy's or the Golden Globes etc.

Since then, it has been hovering in the high 3's, generally the 4th highest rated scripted show on ABC (just behind Modern Family, Lost and Grey's Anatomy). I'd guess Grey's Anatomy will be down more than 17% for its finale.

Deadline reported a while back that ABC have Marc Cherry on a 3 year deal and are considering doing 2 more seasons of DH and then use his 3rd year for development. Whatever they go with, it won't be going anywhere for a while yet.

The US is more reactionary and will pull shows if they underperform, but thats just because of the long-form seasons. It's not like here where you might just let something play out because there's only 6 episodes of it.

And they're not going to pull stuff which still averages over a 2.5 in the demographic. Desperate Housewives is absolutely safe - people are just commenting that it is down substantially from previous seasons. The concern really for ABC is just that they really need to find the new generation of dramas to take over from the fading or ending Greys Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Lost. It's probably fair to assume DH and Greys will be gone in another two or three years.

Thought so. They'd surely be better off scheduling in blocks rather than this on again off again type scheduling, filling the gaps with repeats - viewers just end up losing track.

They should have taken it off from January-February this year. Next year is the same situation. In the 8 weeks from the 9th of January to the 27th of February, there's The Golden Globes, The Grammy Awards, The Academy Awards and then you've got the climax of the NFL season (Divisional & Conference playoffs) and of course, The Superbowl.

ABC have only got themselves to blame, DH has to take so many breaks, but they seemed to take breaks when there was nothing on, and then put new episodes against award shows and things?! They might be trying to get better ratings for the repeats but all abc dramas dont rate well in repeats anyway! I wouldnt look too much into it tbh, DH has got at least another 2 years imo (same for greys)

The only worrying thing is that iv heard abc have only ordered 18 episodes of Brothers and sisters next season?! meaning they might finish it around march and try something new in the slot, or save it for next year!

It may appear like that but in reality it's not quite that brutal with established shows at least - Heroes fell much further before it was axed and shows like Survivor and American Idol get nowhere near what they once did.

Desperate Housewives is as safe as houses really - it's just having a bad season - or latter part of the season, and it's probably the second or third "bad season" in it's six year history. Just like our soaps it goes through highs and lows - and I'm sure issues will be addressed next season, though scheduling is of course completely in the hands of ABC.

Without a Trace was axed when it was still very successful. Yes, I still have an axe to grind about that and it's why I don't follow the US TV market too closely anymore.

Countryfile hurt The Seasons badly and that in turn affected Lewis, which was also hurt by good competition from Over the Rainbow. Halycon River Diaries did reasonably well, as did the film for Five at 9pm.

The Seasons will be back up next week no doubt with a BGT lead-out.

Five have another movie premiere lined up this week in The Invasion, Thursday at 9pm. From the trailer I saw during FlashForward, looks good!

WHAT?!?!?!? Only 18 episodes next season for B&S next season? I hope that's not true!

Poor Doctor Who.

http://charts.netweather.tv/gfsimage.../ukmaxtemp.png

Just looking at the advance listings, and Five is putting the final episode of FlashForward out at 10:05pm on Monday 31st May. At first glance it would seem to be to keep it out of the way of Britain's Got Talent, however don't BGT's live shows run to 90 minutes, or as rumoured the live shows will be split into separate performance and results shows, and with a BGT start time of no earlier than 9:00pm possible due to the soap block, it'll get caught by it anyway won't it?

I assume the later slot is also so they can run some kind of accompanying show about the series at 9pm. And as you say probably to try and avoid BGT.

You're right, it could become a problem. But looking at how well FlashForward is performing in the officials, people know it's there and will record it. They won't want to miss the finale.

Well I started the rumour, but that was a tongue in cheek comment by myself to wrap it round News at Ten.

Interestingly the TBA before FlashForward is 20:00 to 22:05 - that strongly suggests a film will go there. Do Five have the rights to any terrestrial premiers that would rate well?

I hope the scheduler of ABC schedules better next season, or get a new scheduler! I would say season 5 was having a bad season (in terms of ratings) and season 6 was the one where it got hit halfway. I truly thought season 6 had the potential to out-rate season 5, before all this happened. The 11th or 12th episode (before the award season begun) reached just over 15 million viewers. I think it was also closing the gap between season 5 and 6 averages, IIRC. Then the Award shows and Winter Olympics came. Of course, it took a hit on Housewives' ratings and furthering the gap.

Despite the hit though, at least it never went under 10 million viewers (where Grey's did, just) and is still in the Top 20. Also, I think season 4 had a higher average than season 3 (season 4 was the writers' strike season, but still impressive that the season average improved). So, I think Housewives has potential to improve their ratings next season, should they schedule right (especially the second half). They seemed to do fine against football during autumn, but against awards shows is a different story.

It could be a film but I doubt it. They will want to give FlashForward a send-off of sorts somewhat akin to Sky1's 5.5 hour homeage to Lost a week Friday.

The Gadget Show ends its mammoth 17 week run the Monday before so that explains why 8pm to 10pm is TBA rather than just 9pm.

BGT has to finish before 10pm because no children are allowed in a TV studio after 10pm. Unless the semi final has no children in it of course

The Monday show at least (and sometimes Fridays) has run 9-10.30pm in the past, and they get around the kid issue by putting them in the Tuesday - Thursday shows.

I guess that'll boost the final 15 minutes, but not sure whether that'll effect the whole hour much.

Interesting Five are airing movie premieres on Thursday but it makes sense; nice filler before the Europa League starts again in August.

Och, it doesn't matter, people will watch it on timeshift/iplayer/BBC3, and that's as important to the beeb as the overnight rating.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.58m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.38m
19:00 Home and Away 1.06m
19:30 The Zoo 0.92m
20:00 Find My Family 0.86m
20:30 Desperate Housewives (14/23) 0.89m
21:30 Brothers & Sisters (20/24) 0.83m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.48m
18:30 A Current Affair 1.36m
19:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 1.16m
19:30 Two and a Half Men (20/22) 1.34m
20:00 The Big Bang Theory (18/23) 1.18m
20:30 The Mentalist (20/23) 1.16m
21:30 CSI: Miami (6/24) 0.85m

Ten
18:00 The Simpsons (R) 0.69m
18:30 Neighbours 0.72m
19:00 The 7pm Project 0.96m
19:30 MasterChef Australia 1.74m
20:30 Good News Week 0.91m

ABC1
19:00 ABC News 1.06m
19:30 The 7.30 Report 0.79m
20:00 Australian Story 0.90m

SBS One
19:30 Mythbusters (R) 0.33m
20:35 Man vs. Wild (7/12) 0.58m

Shares
Nine - 25.6%
Seven - 21.9%
Ten - 21.4%
ABC1 - 15.0%
SBS One - 6.1%

A poor night indeed for Seven. Desperate Housewives is becoming a bit of a turkey in Australia - beaten even by Good News Week on Ten which ran for 90 minutes.