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Swingtown Season Finale Clocks 3.6M Viewers

4 Comments
Sep 6, 2008

By Swingtown Fan
Filed in Season 1 News

According to TV by the Numbers, Swingtown’s season one finale clocked an estimated 3.62 million viewers in the initial overnight ratings from Neilson.

“The season (and perhaps series) finale of CBS’s Swingtown limped home with but 3.62 million viewers and a demo 1.2 rating / 4 share. There has been no announcement yet about renewal or cancellation, but I cannot imagine it coming back with the kind of numbers it has produced,” the site’s Bill Gorman wrote.

Given the summer run and mid-season timeshift/day move, it isn’t all that shocking that the show dropped from the initial 6.0 rating and nearly 9 million viewers that tuned in for the pilot in June. But if the numbers stay put, it does place as one of the lowest rated episodes of the series, but not quite the under 3 million that tuned in for Episode 10, the aptly named “Running on Empty.” 

Of course, the lead-in wasn’t exactly thrilling either — it was a one hour preview of the CBS Fall line-up.

An article on BroadcastingandCable.com last month discussing the show’s possible move to cable also mentioned the ratings impact of the timeslot move in July: 

“CBS demoted the show at the end of July from its Thursday 10 p.m. time period to Fridays at 10 p.m. Prior to the move, the show averaged 6.7 million viewers and a 2.3 rating in adult 18-49 demo. Following the time-period relegation, the show predictably fell to an average of just 3.9 million viewers and a 1.3 average rating in the demo.”

Here’s hoping that move to cable happens — premium or even basic. Just like Criminal Intent reclaimed some glory moving from NBC to USA, perhaps the same can be said for Swingtown. Those numbers, however, on basic cable (TNT, USA, etc) wouldn’t have placed the show in the Top 15 last week.

Blogs are pretty much filled with comments that either love it or hate it … the latter mostly being religious folks who perhaps think its a reality show where everyone sleeps around, apparantly.

If it does end, it will certainly leave open so many season-ending plot possibilities that we might have to wait until the 80’s to find out what happens. :)

At least it still beat Dateline. 

Here’s the full post of Friday night’s ratings from TVbytheNumbers.com: Click Here.

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  1. 4 Comment(s)

  2. By xerxes on Sep 6, 2008 | Reply

    I think this site is an excellent idea Cooldavej. You’ve obviously put a lot of work into it and deserve a big pat on the back. I was concerned about what would happen to all the fans should the CBS site go down because the show is no longer being broadcast. Don’t know what their plans are with the forum even if it is renewed as a possible mid-season replacement. Anyway, my take on the numbers is that they are holding steady, indicating a solid core of fan support that CBS can build from. I was hoping for a better showing, but logically, being a series finale with 12 episodes of history when most people were occupied doing holiday stuff with family or friends, the finale might have been confusing to a lot of people. So they just tuned it out. A fresh Season Two start with a new scenario for all the main characters would definitely bring additional viewers.

  3. By Delphinium on Sep 7, 2008 | Reply

    Wow! Thanks Cooldavej! You really do live up to your name! I will definitely be passing along the link for this site to other Swingtown fans.

    Let’s hope we can get some positive news…and soon!

  4. By Heidi on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply

    I can’t believe it!! I have watched Swingtown from the beginning and had no idea about the plans not to renew it. I don’t think that starting a show mid-summer and expecting people to stay inside and watch is a relistic expectation on CBS’ part. A second season, in my opinion, would be a good idea on their part. Starting the show in summer and then switching the nights that it is on was a bad move for CBS and maybe the only season the show will ever get. I don’t think the public will have any say in what happens with the show but it’s worth a try.

  5. By Mad Cow Milner on Sep 25, 2008 | Reply

    Hi there, SUCH a fan of this show. THANKS for the site! Best thing on CBS since, well, in the history of CBS!! So sick of those mindless, cookie cutter crime shows, PUH LEASE. This was obviously an experimentation in television for them to have launched it in the summer time as they did. Perhaps for summer numbers, it did FAIR? I am so glad this show has a love it/hate it fan base, because the ones that LOVE it REALLY LOVE it (like me) and the ones that hate it, hate it cuz they secretly WANT to love it (who doesn’t get turned on deep down inside regarding the idea of sleeping with your hot neighbor in bell bottoms?) Hopefully someone, anyone will pick it up, I hope for a racier version on HBO frankly, this is a Six Feet Under/Entourage caliber show. I can’t believe how pent up this country has become, it seems we have DIGRESSED as a society, to accept the disgusting amount of violence that is on TV now vs a little healthy sexual exploration is sad. Keep up the good work and PLEASE post as soon as you know anything on a renewal! PEACE OUT.

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