Criminal Minds

American Idolreturns to Fox in the coming week - and this leaves Fox in a great position over the other networks during the WGA strike. Idol is immenesely popular - with about 30 million viewers pers show last year - and because nothing new is on except game shows, it’s predicted to become even more huge this year.

And Fox is taking full advantage. They are charging even more for ad time during Idol. TNS Media Intelligence estimates that Idol took in $810 million in ad money last year, and it could rise as much as 20% in this new season. While ad space on original episodes of Survivor or Grey’s Anatomy cost about $250,000 to $450,000, ad space has been going for $750,000 for Idol, with the price increasing to an even million as the show gets closer to its finale.
Fox is by far faring better with the strike than any other network. Not only do they have Idol coming up, the Superbowl will also air on Fox. Ad spots for the game have all been sold, some for as high as $3 million. Idol also pushes the Fox shows that run after it to higher ratings. House was in danger of being cancelled in 2004 until it played after Idol.

The other networks have reruns and game shows to offer. Wall Street analysts say CBS is in a very weak position. It is more dependent on advertising than the other networks, and the new fall shows failed to get any big reviews or audiences. Reruns of CSI and Criminal Minds have been bright spots, pulling in viewers, and the NCAA tournament will probably increase ratings for CBS.

Check out Watching American Idol for more info on what Simon has to say about season 7.

“3rd Life” helped propel CBS to a second place finish Wednesday night. CSI:NY also had a new episode. NBC was the top network, with new episodes of Deal or No Deal, which was more popular than CBS’s Power of Ten. The New York Times reports this morning that both CM and CSI:NY were tops in their timeslots. ABC was third, but had decent numbers for Wife Swap and Supernanny.

“3rd Life” was the first new episode we’ve seen in a few weeks and was much anticipated because of the guest appearance of Gina Mantegna. It was great to see a new episode, but it was disappointing in that that was one of the last new one for a while. I thought the episode was not one of the best CM has to offer. The whole plot twist with the witness protection thing was strange to me. I know it made sense because of the way they lived, how Lindsay was able to stay alive, and why her father faces no consequences for his actions. It just seemed kind of thrown in there. The character Gina Mantegna played also was odd to me. Again, this is because they were trying to show that she had a totally different view point than your average 15 year old, but it was still very strange seeing her. I know I have repeated the words Odd, Strange, and weird a lot, but that’s what this episode was for me. One bright spot was Spenser. I haven’t been loving his character much this season. Maybe that’s because they haven’t focused much on him personally, like they did last season. But two things stuck out in “3rd Life.” Just before the team finds out that Jack is in witness protection, they see that his buddy (aka a federal marshal) has a gun. Immediately, they all draw their guns. Spenser wasn’t hesitant at all. He looked like a real FBI agent. Not shaky or scared. Go, Spencer! The other was when Spenser happened to be the one to find Lindsay, Jack, and the kidnapper in the bathroom of the high school. He tries to talk Jack down from shooting the kid who took his daughter. Jack shoots him anyway. Spenser just looks shocked afterwards. During the whole scene he is very sure of himself, but after, he is just astonished. It made his character seem a little more grown up, like he could take care of himself and didn’t need the rest of the team to protect him.
Other than that, this was not one of my favorite episodes. Next week, “Limelight” will be on. The contents of a storage unit in Philadelphia are bought at an auction. Inside, there turns out to be evidence of a serial killer. The team must look at the items to profile the killer. A local agent becomes a focus of the investigation.

Trivia: The song that Katie is singing on her weblog and at the end of the episode is “Umbrella,” by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z. Here’s a Youtube of the song.

Mandy Patinkin returned to CBS in the form of a Criminal Minds rerun. CBS reaired season two episode, “Distress.” CM won the night in total viewers, but a rerun of Law and Order: SVU won the 18-49 age group.
The only original programming CBS aired Wednesday night was the Kennedy Center Honors, whose ratings dropped by 37% from last year.

The talks between networks and writers that so optimitically began a few weeks ago have broken down. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement:

We’re puzzled and disheartened by an ongoing WGA (Writers Guild of America) negotiating strategy that seems designed to delay or derail talks rather than facilitate an end to this strike.

The WGA, of course, is turning the blame back on the studios. Reports say head Alliance negotiator, Nick Counter, presented an ultimatum to writers, didn’t allow them to respond, and then demanded they remove at least six of their demands.

The WGA is “ready and willing to negotiate, no matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too high.”

CBS’s crime dramas each have a few new episodes to air. To see how your favorite tv shows are doing, check out OMG.

Canada, our awesome neighbor to the north, loves Criminal Minds. The Canadian Press released ratings numbers for November 26-December 2. Here’s their top ten:
1. Dancing with the Stars - Mon
2. Dancing with the Stars - Tues
3. Criminal Minds
4. CSI:NY
5. House
6. CSI:Miami
7. Desperate Housewives
8. Survivor: China
9. The Amazing Race
10. CTV Evening News

Criminal Minds, as well as a lot of other US shows, is made in Vancouver, Canada. Other Vancouver-produced shows include Bionic Woman and Men in Trees.

Criminal Minds repeat “Scared to Death” loss in the Wednesday night ratings war. A new episode of Private Practice won the nine o’clock time slot. Private Practice helped ABC win the 18-49 year old group. NBC led in total viewers. CBS rebounded with a rerun of CSI:NY at ten.
That’s to be expected. “Scared to Death” originally aired not very long ago, and Practice was new. CM does have a few more new episodes to offer, so I’m sure the ratings will be back up for those.

And speaking of new episodes, Joe Mantegna’s daughter, Gina, will be making a guest appearance on her dad’s show. Gina Mantegna plays a teenage girl, who is missing and whose best friend is brutally murdered in “3rd Life.”

Miss Mantegna is most well known for her role in the 2006 movie, Unaccompanied Minors.

Some info on upcoming episodes:
CBS will air an original episode of Criminal Minds next week. “Birthright” takes the BAU to Fredericksburg, VA to track down a killer who victimizes young women. He makes them pretend they’re at a party.

That would be too simple. The murders resemble ones that occured 25 years before. If you want to be surprised DON’T READ ANYMORE!! It turns out that 25 years ago, in similar circumstances, one of the kidnapped women escapes. But she has a child as a product of rape by her captor. The killer’s wife is also pregnant. She figures out what’s going on and kills him so he can’t hurt anymore people.
Anyway, now is the son taking after his father? That’s pretty twisted.

In “3rd Life,” the BAU visits the west coast. This is the episode Gina Mantegna plays in. The case involves two missing teenage girls. One of the girls is murdered, and the team has to race to save the other girl (the still-missing girl is Gina).

“Birthright” airs next week, December 12, and “3rd Life” is scheduled for December 19.

The Futon Critic reports today that Criminal Minds delivered its highest ratings since the post-Super Bowl show in February (”The Big Game”). CM was first among overall viewers, 18-49, and 25-54 age groups. The numbers were up from last week, and for the past three weeks, CM’s ratings have won their time slot.
The last three shows have been great - I especially liked “True Night,” with Frankie Muniz. Apparently a lot of other people did as well. He helped them attain their best ratings in almost a year.
This week, CBS will re-air “Scared to Death.” This was not one of my favorites, but maybe the second time around will be better. This is the one with the psycho psychiatrist who uses his patients’ biggest fears to kill them. Take a look on Wednesday night at nine on CBS.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, CM won the Wednesday nine o’clock rating race, beating Pushing Daisies and Bionic Woman. This pushed CBS to a second place finish in the 18-49 group and a victory in overall viewers. Good news for Pushing Daisies though. They rebounded from last week’s poor numbers and had higher than average ratings. Bionic Woman didn’t have the same luck - the show had its lowest 18-49 score of the season. CM had its highest ratings since February 7. Whether it’s Joe Mantegna or the dramatic “Penelope” episode, more viewers are tuning in to Criminal Minds.
The big winner of the night was “Shrek the Halls,” on ABC. The half-hour special had the highest 18-49 rating of the night.

P.S. If you’re a devoted CM fan but want to check out Private Practice or Pushing Daisies, ABC has the full episodes available online. You can also see Bionic Woman online at NBC.com.

AJ Cook spoke with LA’s Daily News about the strike and Mandy Patinkin’s departure from the show.

In the beginning, it was very stressful because nobody really knew what was going on, but it’s been such a great transition. If ever there could be a great transition, this was it. Joe’s fabulous, he really does feel like he’s been there from the very beginning. He fits in so perfectly.

AJ seems like the type of person who is as nice as she appears. Hopefully, the writers and networks will reach a decision soon so we can see more of JJ’s evolution.
Ratings for the new season are just as high as they were for the previous two seasons with Patinkin. Another thing that AJ likes is the way her character, JJ, is changing.

I like that J.J. has seriously evolved. She went from being a couple of lines per episode to really coming into her own. I love it whenever she gets to pull her gun out - that’s exciting for me. Or when I get to put the FBI vest on and storm a building with everyone else. It’s a lot of fun. She’s badass now, I like it.

She’s also an important part of the team - Hotch takes her advice very seriously. There are cases that he agrees to investigate based on JJ’s say-so.

On the WGA strike:

We are entering into the great unknown here and I really feel for our crew. Many of them live paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to have a five- or six-month strike. I support the writers and I understand; I just want it to be over quickly.

The Canadian Press lists Criminal Minds as #4 for the week of October 29-November 4. AJ Cook’s homeland had House at #1.

Here’s the top ten:

1 “House”

2 “C.S.I. New York”

3 “Grey’s Anatomy”

4 “Criminal Minds”

5. “C.S.I.”

6 “C.S.I. Miami”

7 “Survivor: China”

8 “Amazing Race 12″

9 “Desperate Housewives”

10 “Dancing with the Stars”

Yesterday I wrote about Wednesday night ratings. Today, Contact Music.com is saying that Criminal Minds was the top rated show of Wednesday night, beating out Private Practice. Hmmmm….guess it depends on the ratings area? In Australia, Private Practice won out over CM by 9%.
Media Week.com also reports CM as having won the night. So congratulations, Criminal Minds. It’s a solid show, consistently in the top twenty for the week.

On the potential writers strike: The New York Times reported this morning that union leaders will inform members whether or not they are striking by Friday afternoon. As an entertainment lawyer said yesterday, the Writers Guild has two weapons. A strike and the threat of a strike, so this could very well continue to be unsettled for days. We’ll see by this afternoon what they decide to do.

A lot of people must have been celebrating Halloween last night. TV ratings for everyone fell. Private Practice was the evening’s top show among the 18-49 crowd, but it had its lowest ratings ever. Criminal Minds tied its lowest ratings of the season last night.
CSI:NY had a better night, winning the ten o’clock timeslot. CBS had the highest ratings of the networks.

And speaking of last night’s Criminal Minds, Film.com has a review of “About Face” and Joe Mantegna’s long-anticipated arrival. This excerpt is taken from Film.com:

Last night’s case — which was about a man who leaves “Have You Seen Me?” flyers and then kidnaps the woman shown on them — wasn’t especially involving. The main purpose of the episode was setting up Rossi’s relationship to the rest of the crew. While technically serving underneath Thomas Gibson’s Hotchner, Rossi primarily followed his own hunches and seemed uncomfortable with the collegial nature of the BAU. Right now it seems like an ill fit, especially the disconnect between Mantegna’s new role as the show’s titular star and his subordinate role on the team.

What do you think - Is David Rossi - or Joe Mantegna - an ill fit for Criminal Minds?
For this week anyway, the ratings aren’t really an indication. They were low for everyone, so we’ll see what next week brings.
Scroll down for a poll on David Rossi and cast your vote. So far it looks like we miss Gideon.

Variety writer, John Dempsey, has an interesting article today about networks selling shows to cable so they can play the reruns. Shows that typically do well in the ratings for the networks are getting only small prices per episode compared to a few years ago.

Lost and Heroes are big ratings boosters during the week with new episodes but were sold for only $200,000 per episode. This is compared to at least a million similar shows would have gotten even last year.
One reason for this is that Lost and Heroes are serialized. You have to know what’s going on to like the new episodes…you can’t jump right in. These shows typically don’t do well in reruns. Big shows like Alias, 24, and The Shield are not pulling in big numbers of viewers on cable.

CBS pushed back the cable release of Criminal Minds from 2009 to 2010because they can’t get the price they want, which is mid-to-high six figures.
Dempsey writes, “Scott Koondel, exec VP of CBS TV Distribution, says, however if a cable network showed up with a solid offer for 2009, he wouldn’t hesitate to make the accommodation.”

The reason for the lackluster price for popular shows: too much competition. Dempsey writes:

The cable-network grids are so clogged with these shows that they end up cannibalizing one another.

The Red Sox and Rockies played the first game in the World Series last night. The game aired on Fox, which won the night in viewers. Though the final score was 13-1 (Go Sox), the game was competetive until at least ten o’clock. The Hollywood Reporter says that it was the best first game performance since 2004, when the Red Sox were also playing.
Anyway, this boosted Fox’s ratings last night. Criminal Minds was second, followed by Private Practice. Bionic Woman came in fourth, though quite a bit down from its premiere.
CSI:NY, immediately following CM, was second in the ten o’clock timeslot behind the World Series.

In Wednesday’s competetive nine o’clock timeslot, Criminal Minds held its own against Private Practice. While ABC’s new show won the hour, it lost viewers during the second half. Criminal Minds seems to be running strong. CBS was second overall - behind ABC. Kid Nation picked up some viewers and CSI:NY won the ten o’clock slot.

Pictured below are Agent Morgan (Shemar Moore) and Agent Prentiss (Paget Brewster) in “Children of the Dark.” (image courtesy of Stacy at criminalmindsonline.net)