From 1969-1972, how did

[Rezny@gmail.com]

"Bewitched"do in the Nielsens?

[Rezny@gmail.com]

Oh,I forgot to add.What were the rankings in the Nielsens for the 1969-1970,1970-1971 and 1971-1972 seasons?

[catlover79]

This website should answer this and many other questions you may have about Bewitched:

http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/declineofbewitched.htm

[TV_on_the_Porch]

Originally Posted by Harpies Bizarre

In the later years, there was considerable reuse of early scripts, to the point where not just the plots were similar, but entire lines were repeated, word-for-word. This is especially noticeable in # 254, which is a remake of # 50. The entire climax scene is almost word-for-word the same in both episodes.

Two words: dressy wessy. That a series of such previous greatness was literally reduced to a poor copy of itself is a sad decline, but between All In The Family and Emergency, there weren't many viewers left to witness it. Out with a whimper on two counts.

[Larry Tate]

Ratings for 8 years:

2,7,8,11,12,25,38,46

Actually the ratings were very good even the last two years re the demographic
aspect of it, even when it went against All in the Family, they were more like top 20 ratings in that perspective which is what the advertisers use to determine the rates they pay, so the 20 to 45 demographic is the ratings that count, and they were very good on Bewitched for all 8 years.

That is why ABC renewed the show for a 9th season & actually went begging to Liz Montgomery's home to get her to change her mind about doing a season 9, she listened politely after they offered the moon & said no thank you.

I feel this Bewitched in decline is a lot of rubbish, the show remained strong & of very high quality from season 1 thru 8 & episodes 1 thru 254.

Any comparison of seasons is a relative thing & has nothing to do with how good an actual season was in of itself.

Larry Tate

Originally Posted by rrezny@usnetizen

Oh,I forgot to add.What were the rankings in the Nielsens for the 1969-1970,1970-1971 and 1971-1972 seasons?

[TV_on_the_Porch]

You will of course be able to provide a source for the rankings you posted for the show in its last two seasons...?

[Larry Tate]

Why Nielsen themselves of course.

I read it in an article posted on Harpies about 5 or 6 years ago, i made a notation of the numbers at the time.

An interesting side note is that the number of actual people watching Bewitched was far higher in the last 2 or 3 years then it had been in the first two or three years of the show, so more people were watching at the end then at the beginning with Bewitched more popular with the general population then ever.

Larry Tate

Originally Posted by TDRyan

You will of course be able to provide a source for the rankings you posted for the show in its last two seasons...?

[TV_on_the_Porch]

That must be why ABC yanked the reruns in the middle of the summer, cuz soo many people were watching.

[Larry Tate]

They stopped showing the reruns in the summer of 1972 for the same reason all prime time programming on ABC ceased from that point on July.1st till early Sept.,1972..........the Summer Olympics in Munich that was televised by ABC pre-empted all such programming.

How that could be unknown to any Bewitched fan is beyond me, it was even in Bewitched Forever by Herbie J.

Larry Tate

Originally Posted by TDRyan

That must be why ABC yanked the reruns in the middle of the summer, cuz soo many people were watching.

[catlover79]

I can confirm that the ratings are indeed published in Herbie J. Pilato's book - I just checked, as I haven't read it in awhile.

[TV_on_the_Porch]

source







I'll leave it to readers to decide which statistic makes more sense.

[Larry Tate]

First off i assume that wapedia is the same as Wikipedia encyclopedia only for mobile users, in other words garbage in & garbage out with it being not credible as anyone can basically post anything on there as factual without backing it up making it meaningless and more a source of urban legends then anything with any factual validity.

I would never take Wikipedia as a valid source for any factual aspect re Bewitched or pretty much anything.

As well the rating means nothing in regards to the demographic aspect i already touched on nor the fact that far more viewers were watching the show in Season 8 then in the first 3 Seasons at least, so the viewership realities there in speak for themselves as to fans clearly still loving the show & wanting to see it.

As well the ratings have nothing to do in the first place with quality, so to say that the ratings declined and therefore the show did as well in quality is not credible as one has nothing to do with the other.

Any ratings decline in standing was to do with the changing of tastes to the All in the Family style of show as well as the monster competition Bewitched had the last year in AITF, to which Bewitched was moved to compete against them by ABC in a counterprograming move, put one of your best against their best, commonly done then as well as now.

Larry Tate

[catlover79]

I take everything I read on Wikipedia with a grain of salt, because anyone can edit it.

[Mr. Television]

Yea Wikipedia is not reliable. #46 sounds about right for the final year. No way would ABC want to renew a show that was ranked in the '70's.

Saying that though, there is no way that Bewitched was being watched by more people in the last few years than it was in the beginning. Not unless you are talking about the syndicated reruns or the reruns of the show that ABC reran on weekday mornings as well. I actually remember watching them in the morning. lol If you factor all of that then it was probably seen by more people but a show ranked #46 and that was going up against the #1 show in America was not seen by as many as it was in 1964-65 when it was the most popular show on ABC.

[spunkygirl]

Is it just me or does it seem like ratings start to decline once Dick York leaves the show?