Rough Night in the Zip

When I did my CW Demo post a little over a month ago, I reported these averages from this season to date:

Gossip Girl: 2.7 W18-34, average of 12 originals
90210: 2.3 W18-34, average of 12 originals
Melrose Place: 1.5 W18-34, average of 12 originals

Those three shows have all returned with original #13 in the last two nights.

Gossip Girl: 2.0 W18-34, 26% off its fall average, 20% off its last original (2.5)
90210: 1.3 W18-34, 43% off its fall average, 24% off its last original (1.7)
Melrose Place: 0.7 W18-34, 53% off its fall average, 30% off its last original (1.0)

Listen, I know that when you start earlier in the season, that makes the season longer, and so there are more weeks when you can't air originals. But 90210/Melrose went from December 8 to March 9 with zero originals. That is almost as long as the summer hiatus. Should serialized shows really go dark for that long in the middle of a TV season? These results don't bode well for the philosophy.