LOST Continues To Struggle

Admin1 · LOST Continues To Struggle

By Toni Fitzgerald
Feb 15, 2007

In its second week back from a midseason hiatus, ABC hit “Lost” continued to show ratings declines. The question now is what is causing them and whether they can be reversed.

Last night’s episode averaged a 5.6 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, down 14 percent from the previous week’s 6.5 and 23 percent from its season-to-date average of 7.3.

It also lost 2 million total viewers from the previous week, down to 12.7 million, nearly 2 million behind competing “CSI: NY” on CBS. But “Lost” was first in the timeslot in 18-49s.

There are certainly a myriad of possible reasons for the falloff, and one is that “Lost” has moved into a new, later 10 p.m. timeslot, an hour when TV usage in general falls off.

Thus it could be that “Lost” will see an uptick in digital video recorder ratings when they are released, explaining some of the decline though nowhere near all of it.

Another reason for “Lost’s” decline since last fall is that it no longer has strong lead-in “Dancing with the Stars.” Last night its lead-in, a repeat of “Lost,” averaged a 2.1, less than half “Stars’” average last fall.

But the most likely reason is that fans are dissatisfied with the drama’s dragging plotlines. Message boards are full of complaints about producers’ failure to tie up almost any of the mysteries on the show, instead adding new ones as well as new characters.

While last week’s premiere won praise from critics, this week focused on a completely different group of survivors, a fractioning also unpopular with fans. Some may have decided that they’re sick of waiting.

If that’s the case, then the ratings declines may not be reversible unless more answers are given.

Also last night, CW’s third season of “Beauty and the Geek” had its highest-rated finale ever in adults 18-34 (2.4), adults 18-49 (1.9), and viewers (4.2 million).

Fox was first for the night among 18-49s with an 8.1 average rating and a 21 share. CBS was second at 3.5/9, ABC third at 3.3/8, NBC fourth at 2.7/7, Univision fifth at 1.6/4 and CW sixth at 1.5/4.

At 8 p.m. Fox began the night in the lead with a 4.1 rating for “Bones.” NBC was second that hour with a 2.5 for “Friday Night Lights” and ABC third with a 2.2 average for “George Lopez” (2.6) and “Knights of Prosperity” (1.9). Univision and CBS tied for fourth that hour at 2.1, Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella” and CBS for “Return to Jericho,” with CW sixth with a 1.9 for “Beauty and the Geek.”

At 9 p.m. Fox extended its lead with a 12.1 rating for “American Idol.” CBS moved to second with a 4.0 for “Criminal Minds,” with NBC third with a 2.6 for “Deal or No Deal” and ABC fourth with a 2.1 for a repeat of “Lost.” That left Univision fifth with a 1.5 for “Mundo de Fieras” and CW sixth with a 1.1 for “One Tree Hill.”

ABC took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 5.6 rating for “Lost,” followed by CBS with a 4.4 for “CSI: NY.” NBC was third with a 3.0 for “Medium” and Univision fourth with a 1.3 for “Don Francisco Presenta.”

Fox was first for the night among households, coming away with an 11.8 average rating and an 18 share. CBS finished second at 8.0/13, NBC third at 5.6/9, ABC fourth at 4.9/8 and Univision and CW tied for fifth at 2.1/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com

hit by a bus

This doesnt look good. They can't cancel lost.

Admin1

Yeh, its starting to get bad. . . I dont see the point in people watching the first 2 seasons, then dropping out now - they might as well watch the rest!
Its just annoying because they're all complaining about not getting answers, then we we're starting to get some pretty good ones, they keep dropping out! Surprised

I hope it picks up next week Sad

redwinegoblin

Don't much like the sound of that. I don't reckon they'd cancel it though, it still has a huge following and gets large media coverage. But the article was right about there needing to be some closure , if they answered a couple of the really big mysteries it might persuade more people to stick with it until the end.

Admin1

I think they've answered enough - I prefered it in season 1, when we didn't know anything - there's not much left really to reveal in terms of the big mysteries. . .
I like it how they're answering them now - answering some, but leaving them open for others.
If they answer the big mysteries, there'd be no point in more seasons.

Jenny*

yeah they have 2 keep some things a mystery still - otherwise more people will stop watching as they will know whats going to happen

hit by a bus

In the preview for next week i think they said that two big mysteries will be solved or something along those lines.

April_Rose

We'll get a few things answered in the next few weeks, but if people are annoyed about stuff not being resolved, they can't be that interested as otherwise they'd keep watching, desperate for the answers!

I don't think it's in danger of being cancelled, and even if it were to be, I think another network would pick it up - it's too big a show to just be allowed to disappear. I think anyway....hopefully enough people agree.

xanderwayne

no way will it be cancelled but i think its a good thing for the writers to have an end in sight otherwise it could get annoying

hit by a bus

I didn't know where to post this but i wanted to post it somewhere:

Here we go again. There is a huge contingent of writers in the media that keep a fork and knife ready just waiting for LOST to slip up... so naturally the two-million viewer drop this Wednesday was ample fodder for the naysayers to come out with their coy 'Is LOST 'Losing' it' lingo, and their twisted world-view of a fan-base backing away from the show in droves, pissed off at its inability to solve the mysteries.

First of all, they are not going to solve the damn mysteries until its over. They ARE giving us answers to some of the smaller (and even bigger) individual mysteries of the show. The fact that they continue to release episodes that provide provocative and compelling additions to the overall mystery of the show is an absolute blessing, not a source of frustration. Anybody who thinks it is simply does not possess the attention span for this.

Maybe it's just my point of view. See, I look at LOST as a novel. No novelist in their right mind would give you enough information to solve their mystery by the first or second third of the book. Why would they? The 'lie' that LOST hasn't given us answers is just poorly informed reporting... an all time low amongst these supposed journalists integrity. The amount of information on the people and the island that has been released since season one ended is outstanding. The monster for instance. People kvetched incessantly that we would never see the monster, but we saw it. We know what Kate did. We know what was in the hatch. We're getting a fairly good idea of why the others kidnap children, and indications are we will soon know just exactly who the others are. I'm not even going to go into the tomes of minutiae we have learned about our beloved characters' pasts.

As for where is the island, what is the source of its power, and who - if anyone - controls it, those are things we are just going to have to wait to find out. If the writers are good enough to continue to feed us representations of the islands power that are as perplexing as they are cool, I'm in till the end!

I was not a fan of the mini-season idea, yet some of my favorite episodes evolved from that set. My biggest complain is they did in four episodes what they could have done in two, and by stretching the Hydra island story as far as they did all they succeeded in doing was producing some terribly sticky taffy that no-body wants to eat. Part of what keeps me from completely condemning the mini-season is that I'm almost certain the gang was not given any additional time to prepare for this than they would have any other group of episodes. If I'm right about that they the crew had a unique and particularly daunting challenge on their hands. That being so, they can be forgiven enough to cover the slight indiscretion, as long as the serious continues down the path it has been on.

Maybe the drop-off was valentines day, maybe it was the time change (hey I hate the time change, ridiculous move, total disservice to the fans.) Maybe it is people just watching it for the wrong reason, which brings me to my point.

This smear, uses us to back its point. And that is wrong. Any article that cites 'Message boards overflowing with frustrated fans' is an article the LOST web community brought into being. It's time to ask ourselves, are we fans of LOST or not? And if we are, why aren't we acting like it? Why are we the catalyst for countless articles bashing our show into the ground... and what can we do to turn the tide. It's easy... get a grip...

LOST fans went through a lot since the end of season two. The summer hiatus was longer than normal, the mini-season was a bit of a turn-off, the second hiatus was way too long. It was a breeding ground for emotions. But now we need to pull up our socks, dry our eyes, and get behind this show. No, it isn't going to get canceled no matter what, but do you want your favorite show constantly put down in the press? Because unless we get the positive energy flowing, its going to continue on. And not only is it going to make us feel a little bad, its going to put more stress on the people backing, producing, acting, and writing this show.

Maybe you think I'm babbling here. Maybe you think 'LOST' really has LOST it. But what I would encourage everyone to do right now in the face of this media smear campaign of gloating nay-sayers is go to every board that is lost centric, post this message or the spirit of it at least, and get the satisfied fans to speak up, NOW. If the LOST bashing is going to stop, it's going to stop with us. So please, go out and say something positive about this show, and if you don't like it... please, stop watching it, and don't bother to contribute hate and discontent to the community. The only way to help the show continue to improve is to support it.
Doc Arzt, thetailsection.com

April_Rose

Cool! Yeah I wonder where these so-called message boards filled with frustration are - any sites I'm on are full of generally delighted fans- we might all have a few gripes occasioanlly, but in general we love the show and want it to keep going in the same way it has been!