Ratings Review: THE SECRET CIRCLE

Yea, it is another CW teen drama. THE SECRET CIRCLE served a very niche audience, just like the CW. Its ratings were neither bad or strong, but the expensive cost of producing the series may have been the ultimate demise of THE SECRET CIRCLE.

TSC did start out well for the CW. 3 million viewers for the premiere and settled into a range above two million through the November sweeps. On any other network, these would be horrible numbers and it would never have aired a third episode. But the CW has ratings more like your average cable network and its target demographic are very young females.

When the New Year arrived, the ratings began to fall. It lost about 700K to one million viewers and the demo ratings fell about 40%. What made matters worse is that THE SECRET CIRCLE had the best time slot available on the CW, behind its the hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. The retention levels word bad. 50% or more at times.

At some point, the CW will need admit that programming 80% of its schedule to the same demographic is not wise. There is not anything to fall back on.

Thursdays, 9:00pm (CW)

Date       Viewers(M)    A18-49
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09.15.11     3.05         1.3    (Series Premiere)
09.22.11     2.12         0.9  
09.29.11     2.12         1.0
10.06.11     1.96         0.8
10.13.11     1.89         0.8
10.20.11     2.12         0.9
10.27.11     2.31         0.9
11.03.11     2.26         0.9
11.10.11     2.17         0.8
11.17.11     Preempted for Movie
11.24.11     0.77         0.2 (R)
12.01.11     0.85         0.3 (R)
12.08.11     0.90         0.3 (R)
12.15.11     0.88         0.3 (R)
12.22.11     0.58         0.2 (R)
12.29.11     0.85         0.3 (R)
01.05.12     2.05         0.8
01.12.12     1.93         0.8
01.19.12     1.63         0.7
01.26.12     Preempted for Movie
02.02.12     1.74         0.7
02.09.12     1.71         0.7
03.15.12     1.62         0.7
03.22.12     1.72         0.7
03.29.12     1.33         0.6
04.05.12     0.84         0.4 (R)
04.12.12     0.86         0.3 (R)
04.19.12     1.14         0.5
04.26.12     1.15         0.5
05.03.12     1.23         0.5
05.10.12     1.28         0.6 (Series Finale)