Lindsay Roberts stars in DJ Becky (Paramount Television)
FIRST PLACE FINISHES 2013-14 SEASON1. ICE (19)
2. ROD (3)
3. SBC (1)
4. PINK (0)
5. TSN (0)
They've only just begun over there at King ICE as their comedies were taped live on Thursday from the world famous Chicago Theatre in Chicago.
Obviously the whole television scene on Thursday was overshadowed by the crime that was committed by Bella Thorne. You can read that story below this post.
Among those comedies being taped over at Chicago Theatre was the huge premiere of one of the three Toronto's Friends spin-offs "DJ Becky" with the last one being Rainy Days and Mondays which will premiere later this season. DJ Becky got off to one hell of a start grabbing 67 million viewers keeping up with the record setting premieres for the ICE sitcoms that have premiered in that 10pm timeslot this season on Thursdays during this opening month. DJ Becky premiered as the 17th most watched program of all-time just behind Angry Landlords and One Day at a Time weeks earlier. DJ Becky was a major vehicle for their #1 draft pick Lindsay Roberts who stars in the show. Lindsay is a busy lady during the week as she works in 4 different projects during the season.
JESSICA LOWNDES HUGE RATINGS WEEKAlso setting a new record on Thursday was Actors in that 11:30pm timeslot as Actors captured over 71.4 million viewers which made it the 5th most watched program of all-time and the most watched episode in the series history. This completes a huge week for ICE's head bitch in charge Jessica Lowndes who already a huge week coming into Thursday with her two huge performances for "Chicago's Most Dangerous Bitch" which is on track to beat out Janit O'Day as the most watched drama of this season if it keeps it up. One Day at a Time's reboot has been really successful thanks to the growing star power of its star Ciara Bravo as One Day at a Time for the first time since its historic series premiere 2 weeks ago returned to the night that gave it a record setting performance and One Day at a Time grew out of DJ Becky to nearly 70 million viewers way up from its previous two Monday performances. One Day at a Time will air a string of special episodes starting in late night on Saturday and returns home to Indianapolis this Monday.
ALLISON SHIELDS = RATINGS!Earlier in the night the continued to success of Ally stayed over 60 million viewers. You can attribute ICE's early success on Thursday to Ally which gave the lineup the boost it needed leading off after some stellar performances behind Teen Angels. Teen Angels at the moment is the highest rated 8pm drama in NITRO. Bastard Kids probably has the most comfortable weekly timeslot for any new comedy getting Ally viewers to watch the show as the show continues to provide huge lead-ins for new ICE comedies at 10pm. Catch Allison Shields and the rest of the NITRO stars in Battle of the Network Stars next Thursday for the first time this season.
Over on SBC which captured second place huge changes were made to their lineup after failing with comedies earlier in the season. Drama's Place came out of the 2012 season as the most watched drama on the network and was a huge competitor to the other nets but somehow it got lost in that 10pm timeslot against ICE comedy premieres so SBC made a smart move by moving it up to 8pm where it led off and actually matched the network's other successful 8pm drama Jaws getting over 40 million viewers its highest ratings of the season so the move worked avoiding those ICE comedies but it does have to go against Teen Angels and ROD's two promising comedies High School Dropouts and Uncle Charlie & Jenny which did very well again this week but ROD needs to find more comedies around them.
In the 9pm hour, Seattle Mysteries was the other change as Seattle Mysteries already premiered on the network successfully earlier in the week and held a good percentage of Drama's Place audience against Ally and Bastard Kids. Seattle Mysteries also beat Super Crews so this is a good sign that Seattle Mysteries is working for them out of the gate but can it hold on? Super Crews has struggled this season but its been able to hang in that 30-35 million viewer range showing consistency so ROD might be content with its numbers for now.
Michaels & Leary has been a huge struggle for SBC but just like CSI: Los Angeles which successfully moved over to TSN this week might give the show the change of scenery it needs. We've seen a lot of shows that were successful in the past struggle this season. Michaels & Leary lost to Melissa Rycroft's new show on ROD which showed some promise for ROD which is looking to compete with ICE on Thursdays and part of that transition was cancelling loser comedies like Wild Taxi which officially ended tonight.
SBC's porn tandem of Tammi Brooks and Blake Lively in the 11pm hour had a so-so start but Tammy did grow out of Michaels & Leary. One Day at a Time and Actors were just too much for both shows and that's the problem ROD and SBC are going to have all year long finding anything successful against these must see comedies.
Over in the Federal Division nothing much was going on as football took over PINK but they did make an interesting scheduling decision by airing Women's Sports Club which could use a boost on ICE before Thursday Night Football so we'll see in TNF can help the show the next time TNF airs in a couple of weeks. On October 17th, TSN will be airing Thursday Night Football while PINK will air Monday Night Football for the first time this season so on October 10th is Women's Sports Club only chance within the next month to get a boost there. Speaking of October 17th that will be a big night for both ICE and PINK as both Fugitive at 17 and Youth of Life both launch that night. That's a full three weeks from now.
The Sing War was down from the night before but since the show airs on TSN these numbers aren't a total failure and we'll have to see if the show can grow as the competition moves forward. The Hour has really put a hurtin' on the rest of these singing competitions. What should be interesting next week is that American Juniors debuts next week and if it outrates The Sing War that will be embarrassing. Reboot soap Chicago beat out The Sing War as it aired in that tough 10pm timeslot.
Overall Thursday is true must see television and will be hard to defeat the rest of the season.
The dominance displayed here by ICE is shown here in the most watched program chart (October 12, 2009-September 26, 2013):
