'Motherhood' debuts average; medical dramas rise

Thursday was a strong night overall for broadcast programming, though ABC continues to have trouble getting new comedies off the ground.

First there was NBC transplant "Scrubs," then "Better Off Ted" and now last night's premiere of "In the Motherhood" (6.7 million viewers, 2.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating). All pull roughly the same low 2s adult demo rating. Nothing disastrous, yet not really breaking through either, at least not yet.

Competition was extremely steep last night, though. "Motherhood" went up against Fox's "American Idol" results show (22.4 million, 7.4), which was in the neighborhood of its previous Thursday airings, as well as CBS' coverage of NCAA basketball (10.1 million, 3.5), which posted a 13% gain in the early numbers over last week, though was down a bit compared to its comparable game last year.  

"Motherhood" did manage to edge out "My Name Is Earl" (5.9 million, 2.0) head to head, which NBC followed by a repeat. After "Motherhood," ABC aired "Samantha Who" (6.5 million, 2.1) in its new time period, which matched its lead-in. ABC's plan here is to try and give its medical soaps a better push than what "Betty" provides. And though last night's new 8 p.m. comedy hour rated the same as what "Betty" pulled last week, "Grey's" did jump 10% (15.8 million, 5.5) last night -- either on its own accord, or due to the comedies offering more compatible viewers.

Placing second in the 9 p.m. hour was "Idol"-boosted "Hell's Kitchen" (10.9 million, 4.7), up 12% to its best rating since its season premiere. While NBC's comedies "The Office" (8.4 million, 4.3) and "30 Rock" (7.2 million, 3.4) were both up this week too.

At 10 p.m., ABC's "Private Practice" (10.5 million, 3.8) was up 9% and "ER" (10.2 million, 3.5) climbed slightly as well.

The CW aired "Smallville" (3.7 million, 1.5) and "Supernatural" (3.2 million, 1.2) with the former unchanged from last week and the latter down a bit.

Comments

[jake]

Grey's increased because of the promos over Katherine Heigl's illness.

I thought in the motherhood was awful and not funny.

Why can't they move Reaper to Thursdays! It's such a great show.

[John W Peterson]

In the Motherhood was not very good. Maybe ABC should try Scrubs and Sam Who together? As for moving Reaper to Thursday, let us count the ways that would be a mistake. First, Reaper would get trounced by Survivor and every other show that airs against it. Secondly, Smallville does its average numbers week in week out so why mess with something that supposedly works, granted Supernatural and Reaper have similar genres but that is where the similarities end. I could go on about why moving Reaper to Thursday would be a horrible mistake, keep it on Tuesday or move it to Wednesday at 8/7 c., so it could go up against some of the weakest TV out there (Scrubs, Bettor off Ted and the replacement for Chopping Block).

[PL]

"In the Motherhood" was better than expecting considering it was the first show. Networks need to give us viewers time to get to know the characters. With These 3 women are great actresses. My only quarm is that they need to focus alittle more on their relationship with their kids.

[James Sims]

The characters are just quirky enough on "In the Motherhood" to make this half-hour show work. Audiences just need some time to become familiar with them, as PL points out. Megan Mullally was delivered another perfectly sarcastic performance, ala her "Will and Grace" days, minus the nasal voice. I'm willing to give it a few more episodes to hit its stride. Hopefully the ABC execs will do the same.

[matt]

i like to think samantha who got that extra little bit of audience because smart audiences flipped to it in between new eps of Earl and The Office. I know I did, and it made for a tasty in bewteen snack. A much much much better tasting in between snack then Kath and Kim ever was.

I think the real question here is Is Abc Going to Keep Beatty in this timeslot come the fall? or are they going to try to move it to another night and time? (i hate to say it but Mondaya at 9 after Dancing with The Stars would work as would Tuesdays at 8 and Wednesdays at 8 for that matter.---it might die a little---but lord knows they have options in those timeslots.

I really really hope SAM WHO gets another season. Its a good little show that's really deserving of a full season---where on the sked it should land tho is a good question tho. (I really really wish they had kept that Miss/Guided show and paired the 2 of them up---those would've been a good pairing----as it is who knows what pilots they have in the hopper but given that Scrubs is pretty much finishing---maybe they could pair BETTER OFF TED with SAM WHO???)