So much for “Prime Suspect Week.”
After three days of airing “Prime Suspect” re-runs to build interest in the drama, the series could only muster a series-low 1.2 adults 18-49 rating Thursday. New fans are simply not being created.
It’s officially time for NBC to pull the plug on “Prime Suspect.” It has never been clear why NBC felt so compelled to protect this show when it had no trouble yanking its heavily-hyped “The Playboy Club,” but now that all of the effort proved worthless, NBC should have all the evidence it needs to stop trying to make “Prime Suspect” happen. It just isn’t going to.
And that was not the only bad news for NBC. True, the network’s series were up against a classic World Series game, but this year’s World Series is far from a ratings juggernaut–and the “Halloween bonus” that has sometimes been afforded to comedies should have provided some counter-balance, especially for the earlier shows that aired when it was unclear how dramatic the game would be.
Yet “Community” was down to a mere 1.4 rating with 3.5 million viewers, which means it embarrassingly tied The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” in the demo (1.4 rating, 3.2 million viewers). “Parks and Recreation” mustered only a 1.8 with 3.9 million viewers, while “The Office” is really starting to suffer from the loss of Steve Carell–it was down to a 2.8 with 5.5 million. “Office” fans are simply not accepting the one-two replacement punch of Ed Helms and James Spader the way “Men” fans are welcoming Ashton Kutcher.
“Whitney” was in what has become its usual range with a 2.1 and 4.3 million.