April Bowlby The Help Premiere

The Season 1 finale of Bates Motel last night on A&E got 2.7 million viewers with 1.5 million among adults 18-49 and 1.4 million among adults 25-54. That’s up 15% in the 18-49 demo from last week’s show and up 8% in total viewers and among Adults 25-54. The finale was down from the show’s March 18 premiere that was the most-watched original drama in the demos in A&E’s history. The debut of the Psycho prequel garnered 3 million total viewers and 1.599 million viewers among adults 18-49 and 1.633 million viewers among adults 25-54. Those numbers made it a no-brainer that A&E announced on April 8 that it had renewed Bates Motel for a 10-episode second season to air in 2014. Overall, Bates Motel averaged 2.7 million viewers in its first season with 1.5 million in both the 18-49 and 25-54 demos. Those results are the best any A&E drama has performed in the demos. The numbers place Bates Motel as the No. 2 top new cable drama of the season behind History’s Vikings. Related: Carlton Cuse On ‘Bates Motel’s’ ‘Twin Peaks’ & ‘Psycho’ Heritage The series, whose first season ran for 10-espisodes, details the dark backstory of Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and how deeply intricate his relationship is with his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga). Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (Friday Night Lights) executive produce.

Monday saw a mix of live, encores, finales, premieres and prayers for those in the path of the tornado in Oklahoma in the primetime schedule. Over on ABC, the last performance show of Dancing With The Stars (2.5/7) before tonight’s results season 16 finale saw the final four couples strut their stuff once last time. DWTS certainly flexed some muscle as the show was up 25% from its series performance low tie of May 13. The most watched show of the night with 14.73 million viewers, the two-hour show was down 14% from its one-hour May 21, 2012 performance finale and dipped 7% from its last performance show of last season on November 26, 2012. Though the show was up from last week, for a bit last night it looked like the total votes might be down. Online “technical difficulties” saw voting on ABC’s website temporarily suspended leaving viewers the chance to cast their ballots via text, Facebook and phone. The online voting was restored before the show was over and viewers were encouraged to hit the website to decided who gets the Mirrorball trophy this year. Imported from Canada for the summer, crime procedural Motive (1.4/4) did not benefit from its lead-in. The new show was down sharply from the 2.2/6 of Castle’s season finale last week and down 30% from Scandal’s April 5, 2012 debut.  ABC won the night in ... Read More »