First Two Weeks, Work It

WORK IT (ABC)

WEEK ONE
ABC's Work It premiered to a really underwhelming 2.0 demo, four tenths weaker than the premiere of already-canceled sitcom Man Up! in the hour earlier this season. It lost 17% from its Last Man Standing lead-in (2.4) on premiere night and was the weakest sitcom debut of the season to date. And these numbers came despite Fox not even having an original Glee in the timeslot. Not a good start.

WEEK TWO
Week two brought further collapse. Its Last Man Standing lead-in was worryingly down to a 2.1, but Work It plummeted even more; it dropped 25% to a 1.5 demo. That put it a tenth lower than the last rating before Man Up! got pulled from the schedule. Yikes.

PROGNOSIS
This looks like one of the biggest flops of the season to date. It's one of just three shows currently with zero points in the "system" linked below. The only question is how many more weeks it gets on the schedule. Everyone seems to think Cougar Town will be filling in. ABC said at the TCA press tour that Cougar Town is tentatively scheduled to return in March. But it has 15 episodes, so it could start in mid-February in a pinch and be original every week. And ABC looks to be in a pinch here. No season two for Work It!

"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."