First Two Weeks, Missing

MISSING (ABC)

WEEK ONE
The Missing premiere found well over 10 million total viewers, but only about a fourth of those were in the key 18-49 demo. The 2.1 A18-49 rating was pretty weak by drama standards this season, and it tied ABC's Charlie's Angels premiere in the same timeslot earlier this season. As with Awake, the show faces the reality that no weeknight drama on the big four has premiered this low and gotten renewed. The one good thing you can say is that it aired in a traditionally very difficult timeslot: the lowest-viewed hour of the lowest-viewed weeknight. 2.1's not anything special, but it's still probably a number ABC would take in this timeslot long-term. So there's that.

WEEK TWO
The second week brought a 24% drop to just a 1.6 demo. That's similar to the week two Charlie's Angels performance as well; it dropped 29% to a 1.5. For the second straight week, it faced NCAA basketball on CBS, comedies on NBC and American Idol on Fox, but Idol and the comedies were both weaker than last week.

PROGNOSIS
"Meh" premiere and big drop make for a pretty easy one. I don't think this will be back for a season two. Even if the timeslot is Truly as tough as it appears to be, and even if ABC decision-makers give the kind of leniency to the timeslot that my TRUE numbers do, the show is still only on the fringes of the bubble after week two. And it hasn't even faced full-fledged competition yet; this Thursday, CBS will be back with The Big Bang Theory and Rules of Engagement, much stronger demo options than March Madness. Comedies and a thriller drama may not have a whole lot of crossover audience, but at this point Missing is hoping for a rebound, and that seems unlikely.

"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."