First Two Weeks, The Playboy Club

THE PLAYBOY CLUB (NBC)

WEEK ONE
NBC's premiere of The Playboy Club on premiere Monday marked the lowest-rated premiere for a new show on the big four networks thus far this season. Its 1.6 demo and 5.02 million overall viewers were both half or less of the ratings of timeslot competitors Castle and Hawaii Five-0. It didn't exactly have the best situation; in addition to strong broadcast competitors, there were also Monday Night Football (4.8 demo) and the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen (3.8 demo) on cable. And its lead-in, a regular season edition of reality show The Sing-Off (1.9 demo) wasn't much help either. Still, the show didn't exactly make the best of its situation.

WEEK TWO
Even with #SheenRoast out of the way in week two, The Playboy Club still tumbled 19% to a 1.3 demo, putting it pretty close to immediate cancellation territory already. Again, the lead-in was no help (Sing-Off dropped to a 1.7), but The Playboy Club's retention out of that lead-in also worsened.

PROGNOSIS
The prospects weren't too good for this show from the get-go, as NBC had seemingly scheduled it and The Sing-Off as fall filler while they wait for The Voice and Smash to take over NBC Mondays at midseason. And The Playboy Club has done nothing to transcend its situation. There's not going to be an extension or a season two, and the only question of interest is how much longer it'll stay on the schedule. I don't have a confident answer, but I don't think it's out of the question it could be pulled next week should it take another big drop.

"First Two Weeks" is my look at... the first two weeks of a new scripted broadcast show's ratings. I also line all of these numbers up to do an objective analysis in what I call "the system."