'Reaper' returns low; 'Bachelor' special wins hour

Welcome to ratings hell, Sammy

UPDATED: The return of the CW's "Reaper" matched its series low Tuesday night, marking an unsurprisingly meager second season debut.

"Reaper" (2.3 million viewers, 0.9 adults 18-49 rating and 2 share) has been off the air nearly a year and was averaging about a 1.0 when it concluded its first season. Reviews of last night's episode have been unenthusiastic. Plus the show was stacked against reality titans "American Idol" (24.3 million, 9.0/23) and "Biggest Loser" (9.0 million, 3.5/9), both of which delivered on-par performances. Compared with its first season premiere (and still its highest-rated episode) "Reaper" was down 40%.

Meanwhile: ABC's The Bachelor" after-the-"After the Final Rose" special (10.9 million, 4.1/11), which kept recapping the dramatic events in Monday's finale like a police detective interrogating a suspect, won the 10 p.m. hour with a terrific number.

Fox won the night in all measures with "Idol," followed by NBC with "Loser" and a repeat. CBS was third with repeats. ABC was fourth with "Homeland Security" (5.7 million, 1.6/4), repeats and "Bachelor." Then the CW.

RELATED: Second-night Jimmy Fallon ratings here.

Comments

[Blue Sunflower]

Maybe *your* review was unenthusiastic, but a great many of them weren't. And a show that not only kept its audience after 10 months, but kept it despite being up against American Idol, a new time change, and a bumped-up premiere date, really isn't doing all THAT bad IMO.

[Muserrr]

I thought Reaper was great, as usual. Those that don't watch are missing a real gem.

[jake]

I still don't get why they don't give it a Thursday shot after smallville or supernatural and then they can open up another night with supernatural and reaper. I think it did well given it's competition, but it seems the CW is just throwing it to the wolves and it's unfortunate because it truly is a great great show on a terrible network.

[Kati]

They already tried it. They paired up Reaper and Smallville last spring. It didn't work out all that well. Even Supernatural's meager S3 ratings were better, especially in the CW's target demo. So, they returned it back to Tuesday and gave SPN back its Thursday slot.

[Blue Sunflower]

Actually, Reaper did just fine in the Thursday slot with Smallville. They did just as well, and in some cases IIRC even better, than Supernatural did.