"Desperate Housewives" Loses 17% Of Its Audience From Season Premiere

New York Times:

Season five of "Desperate Housewives" continued to see its ratings slide on Sunday, but the ABC drama remained the night's top rated program with 15.5 million viewers at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen's estimates.

One week ago, the show's premiere earned a much larger audience of 18.7 million. Although easily the night's most watched show, that tally fell a half million shy of last year's fourth season premiere, making it the series' lowest rated season debut.

ABC still eked out a ratings victory Sunday among adults 18 to 49 although the network trailed CBS in total viewers overall. CBS benefited from an overrun of afternoon football coverage into the 7 p.m. hour, which meant the network had more than 20 million viewers tuned in at the start of prime time. CBS's schedule was pushed back by roughly a half hour to accommodate with "60 Minutes" delivering 16.3 million viewers at 7:30 p.m. followed by "The Amazing Race" at 8:30 p.m. (10.8 million), "Cold Case" at 9:30 p.m. (11 million), and "The Unit" at 10:30 p.m. (9.2 million).

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[harriettubman]

Eventually, all shows must come to an end.

[Hockymom]

I have never watched this show once, and I am pretty proud of that.

[NTO08]

It was way too melodramatic and silly...didn't take an economic downturn to figure THAT out.

[Eric8869]

The first season was great - your loss

[DeeW]

I agree with what others are saying, this lurching ahead 5 years ... I don't get that. It's like we don't know these characters.

Feels a bit like a desperate stunt, I think most people see thru that. Kind of like what a failing political party does when they're falling in the polls, lol.

[NTO08]

Like so many shows, they become stale and trite...but then again, I always thought this show was stale and trite...like Sex and The City, having straight women act like flaming drag queens is none too appealing.

[DeeW]

I love Sex and the City :)

[happycat]

By fast forwarding 5 years, the show has lost its rhythm and continuity. It really is too bad, because
I really looked forward to watching it every week. Now its almost like watching a different show altogether with crazier, sadder and more pathetic characters.

[PDXTransplant]

I'm thinking they may have to call this 5 year advancement a 'dream' and go back to last season? I was disappointed in the change, because this is the only soap story I watch and it was ok most times, but now it's changed too much.

[mespace]

I used to never miss an episode. Now I never catch an episode. The writer's strike hammered this show and watered it down. The interest came from its creepy, dark intertwining plots. It's just not worth watching anymore. http://mespace.wordpress.com

[johnnygoodwud]

they just ran out of plots,,,,,,,,,,these shows have a shelf life and this one is past it's expiration date.

[Jules1]

They should never of advanced the show 5 years, how dumb, and making Gabby an unattractive mother ruined it, the fun was watching her and the others while they went through their lives, now it just humdrum and too much typical everyday crap, we have that at home, people want escape into something away from money problems etc, now we even hear Gabby having money problems and Carlos working at a job, oh hum!!!

[StacyJ]

I completely agree. They ruined the show by going ahead 5 years.