Lookin' bad for Julia L-D

'Watching Ellie' Turns Oxymoronic in 4th Week Wed Mar 20, 6:17 PM ET By Steve Gorman

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=579&u=/nm/20020320/en_nm/leisure_ellie_dc_2

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In its fourth week on air, "Watching Ellie," the new NBC sitcom starring "Seinfeld" alumna Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is looking more and more like a contradiction in terms.

Fewer people are watching "Ellie," and if its weekly ratings slide continues, Louis-Dreyfus could join other "Seinfeld" veterans whose returns to prime time flopped.

In its fourth outing on Tuesday night, the show's average audience dipped to 9.5 million viewers, down 43 percent from last month's premiere, according to figures released on Wednesday from Nielsen Media Research

Among viewers aged 18-49, the demographic most prized by advertisers, its rating dropped nearly 50 percent from a debut 7.1 to 3.6 in its fourth week.

If "Ellie" slips much more next week, "that would be a bad sign," said one network source, when asked about the show's future on NBC.

Expectations for "Ellie," starring Louis-Dreyfus as a Los Angeles lounge singer, have run high given the success of its heavily promoted mid-season debut and the star power of its lead character.

The show also employs a "real-time" format that is similar to the one used in the popular Fox series "24." It has received mixed reviews from critics.

"Watching Ellie" is being closely watched as the third attempt by a former "Seinfeld" co-star to transform stardom from NBC's smash 1990s "show about nothing" into a new hit series.

Michael Richards, who played Kramer, was the first out of the box, with his disastrous "The Michael Richards Show," canceled by NBC midway through last season. Jason Alexander, who played George, flopped one year later playing the title role in ABC's "Bob Patterson," a sitcom about a motivational speaker, in the current season.

Jerry Seinfeld has yet to announce any plans for a new show.

In total viewers on Tuesday, "Watching Ellie" ranked third in its 8:30 p.m. time slot behind a rerun of the military drama "JAG" on CBS and the Fox network premiere of "Andy Richter Controls the Universe," the new show starring the former sidekick from NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien (news - Y! TV)."

Richter's debut, however, topped the time period among viewers 18- to 49-year-old and most other key demographics.

Indeed, the NBC official said the strong opening of "Richter" appeared to have been a leading factor in the disappointing showing for "Ellie."

One positive note, "Ellie" retained about 90 percent of the 18-49 audience from its "Frasier" lead-in, which bodes well for the show because networks want to retain audience share.

Elsewhere on the mid-season premiere front, the new CBS talking-infant comedy "Baby Bob" debuted at the top of its Monday night time slot with 15.6 million viewers and ranked second among 18-49 viewers behind NBC's Fear Factor.

Meanwhile, week No. 2 of NBC's "The Colin Quinn Show," starring the "Saturday Night Live (news - Y! TV)" alumnus in his own sketch comedy series, averaged an anemic 7.2 million viewers Monday night, the same as its debut. Fox's latest drama series, "American Embassy," also posted modest second-week numbers.

Next week, ABC debuts its working-class family sitcom "George Lopez," network television's first predominantly Latino-cast comedy in prime time since the short-lived "a.k.a. Pablo" in 1984.

NBC is a unit of General Electric Co., CBS is a unit of Viacom Inc., ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Co. and Fox is a unit of News Corp. Ltd.

So the real questions are is the decline in viewership leveling off and is 9.5 million enough to keep the show going?

Dave (I'll keep watching till the end.)

Dave wrote:

NBC's 'Ellie' Exiting, UPN Comedies Canned Fri Mar 22, 5:36 AM ET By Josef Adalian

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020322/en_nm/leisure_ellie_dc_6&cid=579

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Viewers won't be "Watching Ellie" for much longer -- while the few who had been tuning in UPN's new midseason comedies will have to find something else to do on Tuesday nights.

Former "Seinfeld" sidekick Julia Louis-Dreyfus' new NBC sitcom will wrap up its spring run on April 2, six weeks after its premiere, the network confirmed Thursday. It'll be replaced by repeats of "Will & Grace (news - Y! TV)" and, eventually, new episodes of "Three Sisters."

NBC officials said the schedule shift has nothing to do with "Ellie's" ratings, which have been heading south since the show's impressive Feb. 26 premiere. The plan all along, they say, has been to save seven of the 13 episodes from the show's original order for next season since Louis-Dreyfus has agreed to produce just 15 episodes of her show each year.

NBC execs never made that plan public, however. And Wednesday, a network spokesman conceded to the New York Daily News -- which first reported the "Ellie" move -- that the series' most recent numbers were a disappointment.

Meanwhile, UPN didn't mince any words regarding the fate of Tuesday comedies "As If" and "Random Years": They're history. The duo failed to crack a one rating in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic -- awful stats, even by UPN's modest standards.

This makes sense. Hold 7 over, plus 15 more and they have a complete 22 episode season.

It sounds like NBC is committed.

Or they're lying.

It's also quite possible that the programming execs at NBC realize that last Tuesday's drop-off from it's Frazier lead-in was likely due to curiosity over Andy Richter's new show. The real test will be what happens NEXT week, now that people have seen both shows.

<<<The real test will be what happens NEXT week, now that people have seen both shows.>>>

Love ya, J-Lou, but I'm watching Andy. (Truth be told, I'm watching the Gilmore Girls and taping Andy.)

^^^^^^ "Art is often hailed as the grandest expression of human spirit, but we know now ... that the grandest expression of human spirit is whatever it takes for a man or woman to rush back into a burning building to save more people."

LOL, same here, but I didn't want to admit how much I enjoy "chick shows" like Gilmore Girls. :-)

Andy MacAskill wrote in message news:...

As I told you all weeks ago- it's being shelved.

And as I responded, you never provided proof for this (or any other) claim. Given your history of making wild, unsubstantiated claims, I'm pretty hesitant to believe your rumors. Who's your source for this latest one?

It appears he is partially right. Shelved is not the word I would use to describe what is happening with Ellie though I thought I read another article that did use that term to describe this. After trying to convey what I read decided to go find what I read instead. Here it is from E!:

                       Sure, fewer people are actually Watching
                       Ellie these days, but the new NBC comedy is
                       not--we repeat, not--getting canned because of poor
ratings.

                       Or so the Peacock network tells us, after it confirmed
it's yanking the
                       new Julia Louis-Dreyfus series from its schedule. NBC
reps
                       announced this week that Ellie will wrap up its run on
April 2, to be
                       replaced on Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m. by reruns of
Will & Grace
                       and original episodes of Three Sisters.

                       Despite a promising February 26 debut--averaging 17
million
                       viewers--the Seinfeld alum's quirky real-time show has
taken a dive.
                       Tuesday's turnout was down some 40 percent from its
premiere,
                       nabbing 9.5 million viewers and marking the show's third
week in
                       decline.

                       But NBC--ever wary of that dreaded "Seinfeld curse"
talk--insists it
                       had always planned to wrap Ellie early, shelving seven
episodes from
                       its original 13-episode order. Dreyfus has only agreed
to produce 15
                       shows per year, and execs were supposedly hoping to save
the extra
                       episodes and add them to next season's 15-episode order,
thereby
                       making a full season.

Man that came out like crap!

On Sat, 23 Mar 2002 10:14:51 -0500, Jp wrote:

I always am wary of government or corporate announcements that put conditions on the facts.

So the show might be canned for other reasons.

Notice they did not unequivocally say the show was not being canned.

<<<....... But NBC--ever wary of that dreaded "Seinfeld curse" talk--insists it had always planned to wrap Ellie early, shelving seven episodes from its original 13-episode order.....>>>

The corporate equivelant of PeeWee Herman crashing his bike, getting up, dusting himself off and saying, "I meant to do that."

^^^^^^ "Art is often hailed as the grandest expression of human spirit, but we know now ... that the grandest expression of human spirit is whatever it takes for a man or woman to rush back into a burning building to save more people."