Small Glass Screen: Ratings, Pickups, and Drop-offs

Now that the premiere week has come to an end, it's a good time to decide which shows I'll be sticking with throughout the season, and which I'll be kicking aside. It may be a while before I am able to get AMC on my television, but even so, I have no problem purchasing those Mad Men episodes on iTunes. Fringe, which opened to a rating of about 5.9 million viewers, has fought long and hard for it's place on my schedule, and I'm not about to abandon it like many have mistakenly done in the past. If there's a show that I recommend catching up on, it's that. The season premiere does a superb job of catching new viewers up on the events of previous seasons, so it's not a problem if you just start from there.

There are a few shows that I plan on sticking with for now, but that don't offer quite enough to comment on weekly. So don't expect many reviews on the events of How I Met Your Mother (8.8 million viewers), Cougar Town (8.3), 30 Rock (5.8), or Glee (12.5) any time soon. J.J. Abrams' new show, Undercovers (8.6), looks like the sort of casual action series that I could get into every week just to cool off from everything else. Only time will tell if it offers enough to report on weekly. Capping things off, I think I'll stick with The Event (11.2) throughout the entirety of this season. Word has it that the two episodes that follow up the pilot deliver answers and action in an interesting way.

I'm completely dropping Running Wilde and Raising Hope, because they just didn't deliver anything of value. So in summation, I'll be reporting to you every Friday on Fringe, Mad Men, Undercovers, and The Event. Mad Men will filter out once it finishes it's season run in a few more weeks, and I may take up AMC's The Walking Dead once it premieres. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope to have you here again next Friday. And in case I wasn't clear enough, please pick up watching Fringe. If you're watching Grey's Anatomy, there's probably nothing I can do to change your mind, but please just take it into consideration.