Ratings Five-Spot, WE 1/9/11 - The Bachelor, Pretty Little Liars, Live to Dance, Wipeout, Jersey Shore

Since some interesting things actually happened in TV this week (unlike the last two), the Five-Spots return! But there's a catch; I'm at the airport as this post goes up and will be in Las Vegas (mostly away from technology) till Friday night. So I can't exactly cover the whole week, and these are all kind of quickly cobbled together. Ratings and Scheduling this morning, Opinion tomorrow. Should get back to normal starting next week!

The Bachelor - I never really bought that the return of Brad Womack to the Bachelor franchise would be guaranteed ratings gold. His first season was one of the lowest-rated Bachelor seasons, and the show's resurgence didn't begin until the Jason Mesnick season when Brad was pretty much out of the narrative. The new season started in fairly underwhelming fashion with a 2.9 demo, but I still think some media descriptions of that rating were overblown. "Bomb"? Really? The highest premiere in the last three years was just a 3.3...

Pretty Little Liars - Back in 2008, The Secret Life of the American Teenager was one of those shows that redefined its network on the ratings spectrum. But in the 2.5 years since, ABC Family has struggled to find anything comparable - until now. The Liars season 1.5 premiere got 4.2 million viewers and a 1.5 A18-49, both top-5 ABC Family series performances all-time, while the 3.5 W18-34 was the second highest in the net's history. Only a handful of Secret Life outings have done this well, and the net finally has its second hit.

Live to Dance - The return of Paula Abdul to network primetime confused me with its "From the network that brings you Survivor" promos, and apparently that was about the best thing going for it. The 2.4 demo for the two-hour Tuesday premiere was passable, but it took a big dip to a 1.8 on Wednesday, and American Idol hasn't even entered the picture yet. That means the worst days are likely still to come.

Wipeout - Should summer shows stay in the summer? In the case of Wipeout, the answer is a resounding "no" out of the gate. The amazing 3.8 demo for the Winter Wipeout premiere was the show's second best ever, and the show hasn't really rated in this area since its first couple months on the air in summer 2008. Holding this number is unlikely with Idol joining the hour, and Wipeout has a tendency to decline over the course of the season anyway, but this is still an admirable achievement.

Jersey Shore - A couple weeks removed from my Top 10 TV Ratings Moments of 2010 posts, if there's one thing I regret, it's probably not acknowledging the Jersey Shore phenomenon. Whatever you think about the show, that was a huge ratings story of 2010. It's looking like an even huger one in 2011. 8.45 million viewers and a 4.2 A18-49 for Thursday's premiere are unbelievable by cable standards. They crushed their 10/9c broadcast competition and everything else that's aired at 10/9c on broadcast all season.

More Five-Spots in the Index.