‘Saturday Night Live’s ‘Studio 60’ MomentFor comedy professionals in particular, Aaron Sorkin’s hilariously self-righteous camp classic Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip has to be one of […]
Things Finally Looking Up for ‘Studio 60’
We don’t know yet how NBC flacks will spin the last night’s ratings for Studio 60 (with which — the ratings, not the show — we’re a little bit obsessed). So we’ll do it for them: According to our calculations, Monday marks the first-ever time that an episode of NBC’s embattled skit-show-within-hectoring-dramedy pulled in more viewers than the previous one. That’s right: For its entire ten-episode run to date, Studio 60 was on an unbroken slide. After the original catastrophic plummet from the pilot’s 13.14 million viewers to the second episode’s 10.82 to the third one’s 8.85, it has been steadily losing 20,000 to 50,000 viewers each week. Critical accolades didn’t help (not that any, it should be noted, came from this magazine). But lo! Monday’s audience numbered 7.45 million versus last week’s 7.31, reversing the season-long death spiral. The lesson? Sanctimony sells!
Update: Now we know: “STUDIO 60 SCORES HIGHEST RATINGS IN SEVEN WEEKS ACROSS ALL KEY ADULTS,” proclaims the NBC release.
Earlier: Early-Adopter Fans Kill ‘Studio 60’! (Maybe.)
The Aaron Sorkin Show [NYM]
cultural capital
Early-Adopter Fans Kill ‘Studio 60’! (Maybe.)
On last night’s episode of Studio 60, the fictional president of the fictional network explains the ultra-desirable demographic of “alpha consumers,” by way of an extended Vanity Fair plug. That magazine’s readers, says Jordan McDeere, are ideal viewers for her show: “The first to know, the first to try, and the first to buy. They are influencers and pleasure-seekers.” Given the real Studio 60’s Nielsens performance, we can’t help wondering if these moneyed early adopters are precisely the problem.
