A Look at UM's TV Ratings and Did Showing Non-Crime Cases Help or Hurt The Ratings.

[NCRavensFan86]

On another thread, I saw the discussion of a higher number of Unexplained/Paranormal Cases in the later seasons of UM then in the earlier seasons of UM, so I decided to do a little research.

Here are some numbers (in Seasons 1-7 I use only the cases shown on Amazon) (in Seasons 8 & beyond I use all the cases)

Paranormal Cases are UFO's, Psychics, Miracles, Sci-Med, Legends. Pretty much anything not related to Crime, Lost-Loves, or Fraud.

Season 1

Number of Paranormal Cases: 8
Total number of Cases: 100
% of Paranormal Cases = 8%

Season 2

Number of Paranormal Cases: 11
Total number of cases: 68
% of Paranormal Cases = 16%

The percentage of Paranormal Cases doubled from Season 1 to Season 2. Yet the show's rank in the ratings increased from 17 to 11.

Season 3

Number of Paranormal Cases: 12
Total number of cases: 92
% of Paranormal Cases = 13%

Season 4

Number of Paranormal Cases: 14
Total Number of Cases: 88
% of Paranormal Cases = 16%

Season 5

Number of Paranormal Cases: 17
Total Number of Cases: 86
% of Paranormal Cases = 20%

Season 5 to date has the highest number of Paranormal Cases which leads to it's highest percentage figure to date. The Show's ratings start to drop in Season 5 and it's rank goes from 13 to 21.

Season 6

Number of Paranormal Cases: 15
Total Number of Cases: 100
% of Paranormal Cases = 15%

The frequency of Paranormal Cases drops down to Season 2-4 levels. Yet the Show's ratings continue to drop and it's place in the ratings falls from 21 to 36. I believe this drop is due more to competing TV Shows than UM itself. "Beverly Hills 90210" and to a lesser extent "The Nanny" were really pulling viewers away from UM.

Season 7

Number of Paranormal Cases: 28
Total Number of Cases: 73
% of Paranormal Cases = 38%

A classic TV Network example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. NBC moved UM from Wednesday Nights to Friday Nights for this Season and the frequency of Paranormal Cases nearly tripled from 15% in Season 6 to a WHOOPING 38% in Season 7. The show finished in 75th place in the ratings. It is a miracle that NBC didn't cancel UM after this Season!!!!

Season 8 (using UM Wiki Episode Log from this Season on)

Number of Paranormal Cases: 27
Total Number of Cases: 136
% of Paranormal Cases = 20%

Yeah! NBC looked at the ratings and decided to scale back the frequency of Paranormal Cases. The ratings stablized because of this change and the show finished in a okay spot with 59th ranking.

Season 9

Number of Paranormal Cases: 27
Total Number of Cases: 130
% of Paranormal Cases = 21%

Pretty much in line with Season 8. The show continued to climb back in the ratings and this season it started to beat the declining ABC sitcom "Family Matters" on a consistent basis. Which meant that UM was winning it's timeslot, and the show's ranking was a 53 for the 1996-1997 Season. Despite this improvement, NBC canceled UM because it wanted to do better in younger viewing demographics. (Gimme a break!)

Season 10 (CBS)

Number of Paranormal Cases: 7
Total Number of Cases: 28
% of Paranormal Cases = 25%

Friday Nights were a dumpster fire for CBS in the 90's, and UM did little to change that. However, CBS doomed UM from the beginning with more Paranormal Cases and (much) shorter crime stories. Oftentimes trying to stuff 5-6 stories into a hour, when 4 would have been fine. Also, UM had been an 8 PM show for it's first 9 Seasons, yet CBS thought it could fit at 9 PM. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!!! Ratings dropped 20% from Season 9, and oh yeah the Season didn't start until April.

Season 11 (CBS)

Number of Paranormal Cases: 12
Total Number of Cases: 31
% of Paranormal Cases = 39%

Same night, same timeslot, same lousy format, same Sorry Spring Season Premiere Date and then you nearly double the Paranormal cases from Season 10. It was as if CBS wanted UM to tank on purpose. Yet the ratings stablized as the viewing audience only dropped 2% from the previous season.

Season 12 & 13 (Lifetime)

Number of Paranormal Cases: 14
Total Number of Cases: 120
% of Paranormal Cases = 12%

THANK GOODNESS CBS canceled UM. Lifetime acquired the series to make new episodes. Which made sense because it had been airing the NBC run of UM (1987-1996) since 1992. Lifetime decided to make crime-related cases a priority again. YES YES YES!!!!! The 12% rate of Paranormal Cases is second lowest only to Season 1. Nice job on returning the show to it's true crime roots, Lifetime. YOU ROCK!!

[undertakeress]

Awesome research!!! I knew Season 7 got bogged down with paranormal cases. I was a teenager when this first aired, and I watched 90210 more because of this.

[MissFit29]

The cases that really bother me are the "cured" or "miracle" BS segments with religious overtones. What's the point? Let's solve a crime, people. I'd go to church if I wanted to hear that nonsense.

[Kane]

THANK GOODNESS CBS canceled UM. Lifetime acquired the series to make new episodes. Which made sense because it had been airing the NBC run of UM (1987-1996) since 1992. Lifetime decided to make crime-related cases a priority again. YES YES YES!!!!! The 12% rate of Paranormal Cases is second lowest only to Season 1. Nice job on returning the show to it's true crime roots, Lifetime. YOU ROCK!!

Agreed. It was a blessing in disguise that CBS canceled UM. When it was announced in the summer of 1997 that CBS was picking up the show, it seemed to me like an ideal network for the series. It was understandable that it was being acquired as a mid-season replacement, since it was too late to add it to the fall lineup. But the fact that we had to wait until April 1998 for it to come back was frustrating. And to make matters worse, they repeated that mistake the following year. In hindsight, it seemed to me that CBS wasn't genuinely invested in UM. Otherwise, they would have handled the show differently.

According to published reports at the time of CBS's acquisition of the show, UM ended the 1996-97 season with an average of more than 12 million viewers a week. By all accounts, the show was still pulling in respectable ratings, enough to warrant another season. At the time, Robert Stack said the cancellation was a business decision and believed that ownership was an issue. The way I see it, he was correct, since UM was replaced by the short-lived NBC-produced series Players.

Since prime time had basically given up on UM by the end of the 1990s, it made sense for Lifetime to produce new episodes for the show. Given its experience in airing UM reruns, Lifetime was an appropriate alternative outlet for first-run episodes of the series.

[UMFaninMD]

I wonder if the rise of paranormal cases in the later seasons was due to the rising popularity of aliens and other sci-fi/new age themes in the 90's, and UM thought it could capture more ratings. I know those segments were not my favorites and I skipped them during the reruns on Lifetime.

[dynoguy88]

My main memory of the blah like CBS years was that I was in high school at the time and I was always out with friends on Friday night. I hated that the show was moved from Wednesdays.

On the rarer occasions I did catch the show, I never felt instantly sucked in to all the cases as I did during the earlier years, which probably came down to production issues, as we've discussed before.

And how could they get rid of the theme song? Stupid CBS.

[Awsi Dooger]

Originally Posted by MissFit29

The cases that really bother me are the "cured" or "miracle" BS segments with religious overtones. What's the point? Let's solve a crime, people. I'd go to church if I wanted to hear that nonsense.

I don't have to go to church. I have a relative who force feeds it every time I see her. If a bird lands on her lawn...it was a miracle. At least her presence helps me understand 2016.

Anyway, I think Unsolved Mysteries had a remarkable run. The research is interesting and much appreciated but I suspect the show ran out of steam and logically ran its course. They always say authors use their best stuff early, the lines and anecdotes they've always thought about. Same with song writers and their best ideas. That's why there are so many one-hit wonders. In situations like this you have a reservoir of obvious true crime cases to spotlight in early seasons and then you pick up others along the way, from word of mouth or research or simply new people joining the team with a different background and perspective. Eventually everybody gets stuck and you scramble for material. The public gets tired of you and wants to see something else, no matter your content. Very few exceptions.

[freakbook]

Originally Posted by UMFaninMD

I wonder if the rise of paranormal cases in the later seasons was due to the rising popularity of aliens and other sci-fi/new age themes in the 90's, and UM thought it could capture more ratings. I know those segments were not my favorites and I skipped them during the reruns on Lifetime.

I'm not trying to be funny, but I swore they were trying to capture the X-Files audience in the later seasons.

[ddelta]

I can only say for myself now that I am into Season 7, that Season 6 was the year that changed my viewership when i was younger. Season 6 had too many UFO, miracles, etc. cases......even now when I am watching them on Amazon Prime there are cases from season 6 and 7 that i never saw because I was not watching them probably!

[UMFaninMD]

Originally Posted by freakbook

I'm not trying to be funny, but I swore they were trying to capture the X-Files audience in the later seasons.

It wouldn't surprise me if they did, The X-Files was huge at the time.

[boechsner]

Interesting! I think it's hard to correlate the amount of paranormal cases to the ratings. UM set the tone for the paranormal almost right from the beginning. The show became known for it. Obviously viewers wanted more and they gave us more.

Most TV shows ratings go down over the years. It's rare to see a TV show in Season 6 going up and up. Historically, most TV shows hit their peak in Season 2-4 time frame. There are always exceptions however. In this case, UM peaked in Season 2. If anything, I would say the increase in paranormal cases was a ploy to try to boost the ratings plain and simple. These are the stories that got people's attention and the network could really promote them in commercials. With all do respect, from a advertising aspect, would a commercial on a missing person or a wanted fugitive grab people's attention or would ghosts on the Queen Mary???

I can't look at the ratings and say, oh, its the amount of paranormal cases that did it in! You have to look at what the series was airing against as well as what was the viewers' taste was at that time. But why would they not try to cash in with paranormal content that was popular for that time?