Oh Boy

Prime-Time Monday Ratings:
...Studio 60 Tumbles on NBC

-Yesterday’s Losers:
...Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC)

Week three of NBC’s...Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip took another significant hit, dipping to a 7.2/11 in the overnights, 9.05 million viewers and a 3.5/ 9 among adults 18-49. Retention for Studio 60 out of Heroes was just 77 percent in the overnights, 72 percent in total viewers and 66 percent among adults 18-49. Take a look at Studio 60’s three-week track:

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – Mon. 10 p.m.
9/18/06 - Overnights: 10.3/16; Viewers: 13.41 million; A18-49: 5.0/13
9/25/06 - Overnights: 8.7/14; Viewers: 10.83 million; A18-49: 4.2/11
10/02/06 – Overnights: 7.2/11; Viewers: 9.05 million; A18-49: 3.5/ 9

And, to make matters worse, erosion in the second half of Studio 60 continued, with a loss of 8 percent in the overnights (7.5/11 to 6.9/11), 650,000 viewers (9.38 to 8.73 million) and 5 percent among adults 18-49 (3.6/ 9 to 3.4/ 9).

The irony is, I thought last night's Studio 60 was the best so far, with many laugh-out-loud lines and a skilled performance by Matthew Perry, who continues to surprise me with how good he is. And as if I didn't love it enough, last night sent me references to a few of my favorite things:

• Harriet doing an impression of Holly Hunter, one of my favorite actresses, doing lines from Broadcast News, one of my favorite films.
• D.L. Hughley quoting the title of "Beat Me Daddy (Eight To The Bar)." This is an old song that was used in (but pre-dates) Big Deal, the last new Broadway musical staged by Bob Fosse, a director I much admire.
• And a cameo appearance by Rob Reiner, whose film The American President introduced me to Sorkin's writing in the first place.

Perhaps a deeper irony is that a lot of last night's episode was about the producers of the show-within-the-show getting good news in the ratings. Of course, there were also references to how many shows many now consider classics (Hill Street Blues, All in the Family, Seinfeld) took some time to grow.

I sure hope this is one of those.