The Spring Dance Begins Anew
The month begins with us already in sweep territory and hopefully your April schedule set the stage for a successful ratings period. The NPS delivers a handful of potentially strong titles throughout the month, but also quite a few repeats to make the month all the more challenging. The return of the new set of “Sherlock Holmes” will be a welcome addition to the Sunday schedule, particularly coming out of Finding Your Roots (which unbelievably stretches across the entire sweep). American Masters debuts “Johnny Carson” and we can expect that our core older audience will easily find it in the schedule after a new episode of Antiques Roadshow. Wednesday night in the NPS has a good mix of new and repeat titles that make for decent, if not strong pairings. As is key in any sweep, frontloading should be your initial main focus – this is especially important for getting the most out of your acquisition and local inventory of shows.
May 2012 NPS – A Week by Week Walkthrough
Week 1 (5/1 – 5/5) / Title (Common Carriage in bold) / Proj. RatingTuesday, 5/1 / Jesse Owens: American Experience / 1.2
Frontline “Economy Series” / 1.0
Wednesday, 5/2 / Nature “Born Wild: The First Days of Life” (r) / 1.2
NOVA “Smartest Machine on Earth” (r) / 1.1
America Revealed “Made in the USA” / 0.9
Thursday, 5/3 / The This Old House Hour / 1.0
Jesse Owens: American Experience (r) / 0.8
Independent Lens “Circo” / 0.6
Friday, 5/4 / Washington Week / 0.6
Need to Know / 0.5
Art in the 21st Century “Balance” / 0.4
Wallace Stegner (r) / 0.3
· The first week of the month is relatively quite on the NPS, which is not a good thing in a sweep. It’s nice to have a new AMEX in the schedule and because Frontline is 2 hours it is still possible to do a split after “Jesse Owens” and get full Common Carriage credit for the night. Wednesday is a tad disappointing with the first 2 hours serving up series repeats. By now we’ll know whether or not America Revealed captured an audience, but regardless it is the final episode.
Week 2 (5/6-5/12) / Title (Common Carriage in bold) / Proj. RatingSunday, 5/6 / Finding Your Roots / 1.2
Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock, Series II “A Scandal in…” / 1.8
America in Primetime “Man of the House” (r) / 1.0
Monday, 5/7 / Antiques Roadshow “Minneapolis, MN” / 2.2
Antiques Roadshow “Fame and Fortune” (r) / 1.6
America Revealed “Made in the USA” (r) / 0.6
Tuesday, 5/8 / Clinton: American Experience (r) / 1.2
Frontline TBA / 1.0
Wednesday, 5/9 / Nature “The White Lions” / 1.4
NOVA “Deadliest Tornados” (r) / 1.2
NOVA “Hunt for the Supertwister” (r) / 1.2
Thursday, 5/10 / The This Old House Hour / 1.0
Frontline (r) / 0.7
Independent Lens “Summer Pasture” / 0.6
Friday, 5/11 / Craft in America / 0.6
One Voice / 0.4
· Sunday continues with Finding Your Roots, but picks up the GRP pace with the premiere of a new episode of MAST “Sherlock Holmes.” It’s worth noting that “Sherlock” makes for great repeat bait in movie timeslots or Thursday prime. For whatever reason the NPS repeats AMEX “Clinton” over the next two Tuesdays – here’s to hoping it does phenomenally well in February! Wednesday looks promising with a new Nature followed by two strong NOVA repeats. A new Craft in America on Friday is Common Carriage. Why?
Week 3 (5/13-5/19) / Title (Common Carriage in bold) / Proj. RatingSunday, 5/13 / Finding Your Roots / 1.2
Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock, Series II “Hounds…” / 1.7
America in Primetime “The Misfit” (r) / 1.0
Monday, 5/14 / Antiques Roadshow “Minneapolis, MN” / 2.2
Johnny Carson: American Masters / 1.7
Tuesday, 5/15 / Clinton: American Experience (r) / 1.1
Frontline TBA / 0.9
Wednesday, 5/16 / Nature “Breaking the Koala Code” / 1.3
NOVA “The Great Inca Rebellion” (r) / 1.1
Bones at Turkana / 1.0
Thursday, 5/17 / The This Old House Hour / 1.0
Frontline (r) / 0.7
Independent Lens “Precious Knowledge” / 0.6
Friday, 5/18 / Great Performances at the Met “The Enchanted Island” / 0.4
· More new “Sherlock” = more GRPs. AMEX “Johnny Carson” on Monday stands a pretty good chance of doing well with our core audience. We’re also thinking it could repeat well as a special coming out of your weekly play of Lawrence Welk. Koala Bears on Nature seems like a safe bet for decent audience on Wednesday – unfortunately the last 2 hours of prime seem to be a weakness.
Week 4 (5/20-5/26) / Title (Common Carriage in bold) / Proj. RatingSunday, 5/20 / Finding Your Roots / 1.2
Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock, Series II “Reichenbach…” / 1.7
America in Primetime “The Crusader” (r) / 1.0
Monday, 5/21 / Antiques Roadshow “Minneapolis, MN” / 2.2
Antiques Roadshow “Roadshow Remembers” (r) / 1.5
Bones at Turkana (r) / 0.8
Tuesday, 5/22 / Civilization: The West and the Rest with Niall Ferguson / 1.1
Frontline TBA / 0.8
Wednesday, 5/23 /
Nature “Salmon: Running the Gauntlet” (r)
/ 1.1NOVA “Killer Subs in Pearl Harbor” (r) / 1.0
NOVA “Missing in MIG Alley” (r) / 1.0
Thursday, 5/24 / The This Old House Hour / 1.0
Frontline (r) / 0.7
Independent Lens “Hell and Back Again” / 0.6
Friday, 5/25 / Goat Rodeo Session LIVE / 0.5
PBS Arts from the Blue Ridge Mountains “…Me the Banjo” (r) / 0.4
· The last of the new “Sherlock” episodes hopefully gives Sunday night a boost, while Monday follows the usual pattern of new ARS and a repeat ARS. It’s hard to whine about the combo considering it’s working. Tuesday brings the untested Civilization series – it’s a lot of real estate over two weeks so we have to keep our fingers crossed that it does well. Wednesday is all repeats and all Common Carriage – no wiggle room without it costing you hours. Friday looks dismal with Goat Rodeo Sessions (what?) followed by a repeat of “Give Me the Banjo.” The upside (minor) is that “…Banjo” was one of the highest rated PBS Arts titles in the fall.
Week 5 (5/27-5/31) / Title (Common Carriage in bold) / Proj. RatingSunday, 5/27 / National Memorial Day Concert (2012) / 2.1
National Memorial Day Concert (2012) (r) / 1.2
Monday, 5/28 / Antiques Roadshow “Jackpot” (r) / 2.2
Antiques Roadshow “Raleigh, NC” (r) / 1.5
Independent Lens “Hell and Back Again” (r) / 0.4
Tuesday, 5/29 / Civilization: The West and the Rest with Niall Ferguson / 1.0
Frontline / 0.6
Wednesday, 5/30 / Nature “Black Mamba” (r) / 1.0
NOVA “Venom: Nature’s Killer” (r) / 1.0
Inside Nature’s Giants “Monster Python” (r) / 0.9
Thursday, 5/31 / The This Old House Hour / 1.0
Frontline (r) / 0.6
Independent Lens “Left By the Ship” / 0.4
· The National Memorial Day Concert makes its annual appearance, times two. And, both are Common Carriage. Fortunately, the music extravaganza usually produces decent numbers for stations. With the exception of Civilization the balance of the week is repeat-ville.
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