EVIL PUPPET MASTERS

THANK GOD!!! ABC prez Steve McPherson announced at the Upfronts today that LOST will be on earlier when it comes back for Season 4. That 10 o’clock time slot was KILLING ME and preventing me from being able to stay up and read the boards as long as I wanted to. It sucks to be responsible.

But anyway, according to that Zap2it article, Steve said the Tivo/DVR numbers for “live plus 7″ had DOUBLED with the timeslot shift. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that LOST just isn’t a show that you can watch at 10, then go to sleep at 11. There has to be time to Google and Wiki!!

The video recap for last night’s Lost episode is up at The Associated Press. It includes an interview with Jorge and discusses the lower ratings for the show.

I just checked last night’s numbers, which were better than the past couple of weeks. Hopefully that trend will continue.

Listen to us pontificate about the “Fall Finale” of Lost, plus some news items related to Six Degrees and What about Brian, and Listener Questions!

 EPM Podcast 1X06 [95:00m]: Download

This article from the Pop Matters website makes a brief mention of Lost’s ratings decline this season, but then goes on to discuss four ways that the show has influenced modern television shows that share the airways with it.

Discussion of LOST Episode 3.03 Further Instructions, latest episodes and news regarding Six Degrees and What about Brian, the last Alias Magazine issue, plus our first Listener Q and A!

 EPM Podcast 1x03 [83:00m]: Download

William Keck at USA Today posted an article that looks at the everchanging faces in the cast of Lost. There are tidbits from Yunjin and Foxy on there feelings about the addition, yet again, of new cast members this season. Here is an interesting bit about the cast changes possibly being responsible for the dip in audience numbers this season so far:

But is tracking the vast cast contributing to a viewership slide? (Last week’s episode drew 16.9 million viewers, compared with 21.7 million for the same week last year.) Cuse says no and attributes the dip instead to the plot’s complexities.

“Lost has a whole history behind it,” he says, “and some casual viewers think it’s daunting to come watch the show if you haven’t been. We tried to design the show this year to make the basic concept pretty simple: our characters vs. The Others.”

Last night’s episode of What about Brian beat the heavily touted freshman series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and upped its numbers from the premiere the week before!

Numbers from the October 9th premiere:
“At 10 p.m., CBS’s continued to bask in David Caruso’s reflected glory as CSI: Miami scored a 5.9, followed by NBC and Studio 60 with a 3.8, and ABC with the show that dares to ask What About Brian at 3.0.”

Numbers from October 16th episode:
“At 10 p.m., CBS leapt ahead with the 200th episode of CSI: Miami at 5.6, followed by ABC’s What About Brian at 3.5, and and NBC’s Studio 60 came in at a 3.1.”

Source: TV.com

Awesomeness.

Here is a look at how ABC is spinning the numbers for Six Degrees:

“Six Degrees” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

During the 10 o’clock hour, ABC’s freshman “Six Degrees” continued to outperform its CBS freshman drama competition (”Shark”) among Adults 18-34 (3.3/10), as well as across the key women demographics: W18-34 (4.5/13), W18-49 (5.2/13) and W25-54 (6.0/14). In Adults 18-34, “Six Degrees” outdelivered “Shark” by 18% (3.3/10 vs. 2.8/8).

* “Six Degrees” retained essentially all of its week-ago Total Viewer (9.1 million vs. 9.1 million) and Adult 18-49 audience (3.7/10 vs. 3.6/10), while growing its delivery with Men 18-49 (2.2/6 vs. 2.0/6) and Men 25-54 (2.4/6 vs. 2.0/6).

* On average over the course of its first 4 airings, “Six Degrees” has improved ABC’s performance in the hour by 73% in Total Viewers (10.2 million vs. 5.9 million) and by 121% in Adults 18-49 (4.2/11 vs. 1.9/5) over the same nights last season.

From a press release by ABC that was posted at The Futon Critic.

I don’t care how they spin it, as long as they keep it on the schedule.