Ratings Five-Spot, WE 11/21/10: Conan, Glory Daze, Human Target, AMAs, The Walking Dead

Here's your Ratings Five-Spot for the week ending November 21, 2010:

Conan - Last week, we looked at Conan's week one ratings track, which started at pretty huge numbers and ended with a 1.0 demo on Thursday. The good news for week 2 of Conan is that it stayed right around that number, which (as I said last week) makes it quite competitive with the biggest broadcast late night shows. His week two adults 18-49 rating track was 1.0 -> 1.1 -> 1.0 -> 0.9. I still think it might ultimately settle at a lower number, but so far his performance has been pretty impressive for TBS.

Glory Daze - Let's continue talkin' TBS, as Conan's Tuesday night lead-in, new comedy Glory Daze, kicked off with 1.8 million total viewers and a 1.0 demo. A 1.0 demo is a pretty reasonable number for a TBS original comedy; Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns has typically been wavering between a 0.9 and 1.0 demo in recent weeks. But that 1.0 was down almost 40% from its lead-in, a rerun of Family Guy, which did a 1.6. When there's that kind of drop out of the gate, it doesn't bode particularly well for future weeks.

Human Target - The third member of Fox's trio of perennial bubble dramas (along with Fringe and Lie to Me) returned to a pretty weak 1.8 demo. That's just a premiere, and it could well get worse, but for now it seems those three (which I doubt will all be renewed) are getting about the same ratings. That means it comes down to the situations they're in, and out of the three, you have to like Human Target's situation (a brief post-Idol run early in 2011) the best. Especially compared to Fringe Fridays.

American Music Awards - I am not an expert on this particular awards show, though I've heard some rumblings that the acts in this year's incarnation were significantly weaker than last year's. It showed in the ratings, as the "kudocast" dropped 22% year-to-year from a 5.5 to a 4.3. Track down someone who watched it for more ratings analysis, but I thought it was worth a mention!

The Walking Dead - I typically don't think staying about the same is newsworthy, but it's kind of a slow week ratings-wise, and this show's ratings have been so astronomical by its network's standards that it's just worth reiterating. Four-week The Walking Dead A18-49 track: 2.7 -> 2.5 -> 2.5 -> 2.4. Just one new broadcast drama this season to date (Hawaii Five-0) had a higher-rated third episode than week three of TWD. If the show gathers steam the next two weeks, it could end up approaching Five-0 demos.

More Five-Spots can be found in the Index.