Post by Forever Xena on Nov 19, 2005 6:09:51 GMT -6
'Ghost' scares up stellar ratings
There's two things to love about the Ghost Whisperer, and one of them isn't the writing
By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun
Type "Jennifer Love Hewitt" into a Google search and what do you get? Three million, five hundred and eighty thousand results.
Which might explain the supernatural success of Hewitt's spooky new drama Ghost Whisperer (tonight at 8 p.m. on CTV and CBS). Friday is nerd night and cute and curvy Hewitt is nerd nirvana.
Last Friday, Ghost Whisperer drew nearly 11.4 million U.S. viewers on CBS and 1.2 million plus on CTV in Canada -- making it the most-watched Friday night show in either country.
Friday night used to be where shows go to die -- like the show that preceded Ghost Whisperer on CBS, Joan Of Arcadia. When Ghost was first pitched to advertisers and the press last May, CBS CEO Les Moonves was asked why he was cancelling the two-year-old Joan. Moonves' flippant reply -- "I think talking to ghosts may skew younger than talking to God" -- doesn't look so flippant anymore. Moonves, perhaps more than anyone, knows television is a Godless business.
Still, his remark covered up the real reason for his switch. He probably had a pretty good idea that more young males would rather check out Jennifer Love Hewitt on a Friday night than Joan Of Arcadia's less jiggily teen, Amber Tamblyn. Type Tamblyn's name into Google and you get 477,000 results -- a fraction of Hewitt's 3,580,000.
Google is no measure of talent and both Hewitt and Tamblyn have their share. So why did Joan tank and Ghost Whisperer take off? Ghost has already been renewed for a full season.
One key difference is in the quality of the writing -- Joan was way smarter than Ghost. Tonight's heart-stopper: Babe-alicious antique store owner Melinda Gordon (Love-Hewitt) is called upon to do a little ghost whispering when a dead mom needs to get a message through to her teenage son. Mom's big idea: Reach the kid through "white noise" -- which is exactly what Moonves is doing with Ghost Whisperer.
The other difference is that Joan was a modest girl who rarely paraded around in her undies. Ghost girl Melinda, on the other hand, not so shy as this caption from a Ghost Whisperer frame grab on one of Hewitt's 3.5 million fan sites suggests: "Jennifer Love Hewitt showing some great cleavage and a bit of jiggling as she leans over and folds some laundry in a low-cut top while talking to a guy."
Anyway, dumb shows have succeeded where smart shows have failed for years. Sports Night was replaced by Dharma & Greg. The Smothers Brothers was replaced by Hee Haw. But why couldn't Fox have moved Arrested Development to Friday and simply added Jennifer Love Hewitt to the cast? Oops, forgot about that no God and TV thing.
Monday, the show Ghost Whisperer ripped off, NBC's Medium, airs a special "3-D" episode. In it, psychic sleuth Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) sees stuff pop out from works of art (viewers will see it at home if they're wearing those cardboard red- and-blue 3-D glasses).
I'm no psychic, but look for a 3-D episode of Ghost Whisperer to air in a couple of Fridays. Imagine -- Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts, leaping even further into your living room. Gentlemen, start your web engines!
There's two things to love about the Ghost Whisperer, and one of them isn't the writing
By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun
Type "Jennifer Love Hewitt" into a Google search and what do you get? Three million, five hundred and eighty thousand results.
Which might explain the supernatural success of Hewitt's spooky new drama Ghost Whisperer (tonight at 8 p.m. on CTV and CBS). Friday is nerd night and cute and curvy Hewitt is nerd nirvana.
Last Friday, Ghost Whisperer drew nearly 11.4 million U.S. viewers on CBS and 1.2 million plus on CTV in Canada -- making it the most-watched Friday night show in either country.
Friday night used to be where shows go to die -- like the show that preceded Ghost Whisperer on CBS, Joan Of Arcadia. When Ghost was first pitched to advertisers and the press last May, CBS CEO Les Moonves was asked why he was cancelling the two-year-old Joan. Moonves' flippant reply -- "I think talking to ghosts may skew younger than talking to God" -- doesn't look so flippant anymore. Moonves, perhaps more than anyone, knows television is a Godless business.
Still, his remark covered up the real reason for his switch. He probably had a pretty good idea that more young males would rather check out Jennifer Love Hewitt on a Friday night than Joan Of Arcadia's less jiggily teen, Amber Tamblyn. Type Tamblyn's name into Google and you get 477,000 results -- a fraction of Hewitt's 3,580,000.
Google is no measure of talent and both Hewitt and Tamblyn have their share. So why did Joan tank and Ghost Whisperer take off? Ghost has already been renewed for a full season.
One key difference is in the quality of the writing -- Joan was way smarter than Ghost. Tonight's heart-stopper: Babe-alicious antique store owner Melinda Gordon (Love-Hewitt) is called upon to do a little ghost whispering when a dead mom needs to get a message through to her teenage son. Mom's big idea: Reach the kid through "white noise" -- which is exactly what Moonves is doing with Ghost Whisperer.
The other difference is that Joan was a modest girl who rarely paraded around in her undies. Ghost girl Melinda, on the other hand, not so shy as this caption from a Ghost Whisperer frame grab on one of Hewitt's 3.5 million fan sites suggests: "Jennifer Love Hewitt showing some great cleavage and a bit of jiggling as she leans over and folds some laundry in a low-cut top while talking to a guy."
Anyway, dumb shows have succeeded where smart shows have failed for years. Sports Night was replaced by Dharma & Greg. The Smothers Brothers was replaced by Hee Haw. But why couldn't Fox have moved Arrested Development to Friday and simply added Jennifer Love Hewitt to the cast? Oops, forgot about that no God and TV thing.
Monday, the show Ghost Whisperer ripped off, NBC's Medium, airs a special "3-D" episode. In it, psychic sleuth Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) sees stuff pop out from works of art (viewers will see it at home if they're wearing those cardboard red- and-blue 3-D glasses).
I'm no psychic, but look for a 3-D episode of Ghost Whisperer to air in a couple of Fridays. Imagine -- Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts, leaping even further into your living room. Gentlemen, start your web engines!