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Five Fall TV Shows That May Be Endangered—or Not

by Joal Ryan Tue., Oct. 12, 2010 1:30 PM PDT

Joshua Jackson, Fringe, Lauren Graham, Parenthood, Jason Ritter, The Event Smallz and Raskind/FOX; Mitchell Haaseth/NBC; Joseph Viles/NBC

The Event is slipping. Fringe is living on the fringes. And Parenthood isn't exactly playing to a full house. 

But is any of this fatal?

The answers—and more questions—in the latest TV ratings quiz:

MORE: Jimmy Smits' Outlaw gets shut down

1. Endangered or not: The Event? Not. (Right now.) While it's gone in only one direction (down) since its premiere, it's regularly up over what Heroes was doing on Monday nights at 9 last fall. Also, during premiere week, no new show added more ratings points thanks to DVR playback than the Jason Ritter series.

2. …Parenthood? Not. (Right now.) It was up last week. It's not The Jay Leno Show. And it's a pretty big DVR show.

3. …Fringe? Percentage-wise, it was the Big Four network's biggest DVR hit of premiere week. So, that's good. What's not good is that DVR playback alone can't save a show. (See: Dollhouse, Sarah Connor Chronicles, etc.) When it comes to live viewing, Fringe is having trouble coming up with eyeballs in its über-tough 9 p.m., Thursday slot, and it's not holding onto its relatively solid Bones lead-in.

4. …Life Unexpected? It hit a season high last week among young women. It's the focus of a crossover tonight with One Tree Hill. The CW seems happy. (Right now.)

5. …Running Wilde? Endangered. There's a weak link on Fox's Tuesday night. And it's not (the full-season-booked)  Raising Hope. And it's sure not Glee. 

6. How big a Glee bounce did Saturday Night Live get out of Jane Lynch? None. The Lynch-hosted SNL was even with previous week's show, per overnight estimates, which isn't a bad thing—it's just not a phenom thing. 

7. How big a bounce did TVLand get out of Lisa Rinna's lips? So big it almost dwarfed Rinna's (downsized) pucker. The premiere of Harry Loves Lisa scored a better-than-TVLand-average 863,000 viewers. The network said the series was its highest-rated reality debut since 2007.

8. Which show dropped out of the Top 10; which ones moved in? The Britney-free Glee (22nd place, 11.2 million) slipped in the broadcast rankings; The Good Wife and 60 Minutes climbed.

Here's a complete rundown of the 10 most-watched broadcast network shows for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research:

  1. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), 19.9 million
  2. NCIS, 19.8 million
  3. Sunday Night Football, 16.9 million
  4. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), 16.7 million
  5. NCIS: Los Angeles, 16.1 million
  6. 60 Minutes, 15 million
  7. The Mentalist, 14.4 million
  8. Two and a Half Men, 14.37 million
  9. Criminal Minds, 13.9 million
  10. The Good Wife, 12.8 million

And, not to scare you or anything, but here are the week's lowest-rated comedy and drama series among the Big Four network's most desired viewers (adults 18-49):

  1. Outlaw (canceled)
  2. Medium
  3. The Good Guys
  4. The Whole Truth
  5. Detroit 1-8-7
  6. Undercovers
  7. CSI: NY
  8. Blue Bloods
  9. Chase
  10. The Apprentice

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