THEY'RE ALL COMING BACK
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Why is Rules of Engagement getting such good ratings?
I've watched all five episodes of CBS' new comedy Rules of Engagement, mainly because I'm already watching Two and a Half Men at 9. I also watch because Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price are two sitcom actors that I like, and I'm always hoping they'll land in a successful show. But I've got to tell you, the show is barely above average. I chuckle once or twice per episode, mostly in reaction to Warburton's droll line readings. And don't even get me started on the bland "young" couple played by Oliver Hudson and Bianca Kajlich and the sight of David Spade aging before our eyes as yet another version of Dennis Finch.But for some reason, the show is attracting a pretty good audience. In the LA Times article Bob linked to yesterday, it was noted that Rules is holding on to much of Men's lead-in audience, averaging 13.5 million viewers per week.
This is the exact same thing that happened when Old Christine took over the 9:30 slot last year, earning the show a renewal and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss an Emmy. But at least that show was marginally funny at the start, and got better as the season went along. Rules? I'm not seeing much of an improvement. Which makes me wonder why people are continuing to watch.
Maybe the Nielsen folks are like me; since there's not much on that starts at 9:30, they just leave their TVs on after Men and watch Rules. Maybe people genuinely like the show. I don't know. What I do know is that Rules is likely going to get a second season, and it may all be the product of the timeslot it's in.
I wonder how bad this makes the producers of Out of Practice and Courting Alex feel. Those two shows "bombed" in the same timeslot last year, before Old Christine came along to stabilize things. But, in reality, they both got good numbers; their performance just wasn't satisfactory enough for CBS to keep them going. That's what happens when you follow a hit show; if you're not retaining the audience, you are given the heave-ho pretty quickly. However mediocre it is, Rules is holding the audience. So I guess that means another year of counting the bags under Spade's eyes.
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