Ratings: Schoolhouse Rock Singalong Doesn’t; Tough as Nails Goes Low
In the latest TV show ratings: With #OneChicago (and FWIW, The CW) in rerun mode, CBS’ The Price Is Right at Night led this Wednesday both in the demo and in total viewers.
CBS | TPIR at Night drew 5.2 million total viewers and a 0.6 demo rating, steady week-to-week. Lingo (2.9 mil/0.4) and Tough as Nails (1.8 mil/0.2) both dipped, with the latter slipping to its second-smallest audience ever and hitting a demo low.
ABC | The Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Special Singalong delivered just 2.5 million viewers (ranking No. 6 for the night in total audience, and trailing all three #OneChicago repeats) and a 0.3 rating. Soul of a Nation did 1.5 mil/0.2.
FOX | Name That Tune (1.8 mil/0.4) and Special Forces: Whatever (1.7 mil/0.3) were both steady.
Want scoop on any of the above shows? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
The Live+Same Day numbers reported in our ratings column do not reflect a show’s overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless denoted as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. This is only an exhibition, this is not a competition. Please, no wagering.
I wonder if and when CBS will decide to add TPIR at Night to its regular lineup?
I would rather Schoolhouse Rock played each original with maybe some back story. This was unnecessary.
I can NOT agree with you more. So many of the choices were abyssmal, and eliminated all the charm from the original singers and animations.
It’s not clear who they were trying to attract with this take.
If they were going to waste time with interviews and junk, how about talk about the educative value of them? Like: I recall in grade 6 having an assignment that we needed to memorize the preamble. When the quiz came for us to put pen to paper, the class in unison broke out humming the tune.
Felt like a wasted opportunity. Of course, I’m not sure any audience would have been wooed by something like this these days.
Omg yes, and the constitution. I still remember it 25 years later due to the song
Totally agree.
And then they interviewed Shaq about Conjunction Junction (okay then) rather than playing the whole song
So disappointing. I was surprised there was so little backstory for it and the versions were not great. 3 is the Magic Number was the only version I actually liked.
When they replaced the incredible voice of jazz singer Jack Sheldon with… Jason Biggs and his wife, for some reason? That was too much for me.
Why Jason Biggs & his wife???
I have a feeling someone asked that in the meeting, but only got the silly response “why not?”
Exactly! I hope I can forget I saw this because my childhood has been tarnished by this atrocity.
That show was a hot mess. They should write a bill to become a law about what Jason Biggs did to that song. It was a crime the way he sang it. They missed so many good ones and ruined the ones they did. Only one I slightly enjoyed was the Kermit one. I would have watched two hours of the originals with some stories. Having celebrities talk about their favorites would have been ok but this was beyond horrid. Don’t mess with my childhood like that ABC and Ryan Seacrest
I agree. Sing-along missed. If they really wanted to promote this they should show entire episodes in lieu of a single commercial break during 8 pm shows. Or better yet, revive Schoolhouse Rock on Saturday mornings.
I have really got into Special Forces, surprisingly. But Tough as Nails is still so great. I am surprised it is going so low in the ratings!!!
I think it’s the time slot. Tough As Nails previous seasons aired at earlier times. Since this one is at 10PM, I bet a lot of people are DVRing for later.
What was that?
I was looking forward to the Schoolhouse Rock special.
The renditions were not good except 3 is the magic number. They should have just showed the originals then Celebrity interviews about their memories about it growing up and also some backstory of how Schoolhouse Rock was created.
I agree. Looking at the history of how this was created would’ve been much more interesting. Instead, ABC used this for one of their awful sing-a-long specials. They cut the songs to shove in more ads. Using mostly grammar and math doesn’t give you the full scope of what School House Rock covered. Why no history and so little science? Some of the history ones are cringe worthy (Elbow Room for one) but why not “suffering for suffrage”? And who chose these singers? Why Raven Symone, Kal Penn and Jason Biggs when ABC employs people like Quinta Brunson and Sheryl Lee Ralph, who actually sing really well? Sheryl Lee Ralph doing the suffrage song would have been awesome. The noun song was awful but not as bad as “just a bill” or the unneeded dance sequence with “figure 8”. Ne-Yo was the only really good one, but I think the backing vocals were lip synched. A very unsatisfying tribute to such an enduring part of American pop culture.
I guess they’re not friends with Ryan Seacrest apparently. But we got both the Houghs, ugh.
I love Schoolhouse Rock, but the thing is that I can enjoy all the really good original tunes on YouTube anytime I want so there’s no interest in catching it here. As for Tough as Nails lower ratings, I wouldn’t worry. It’s real unlikely that it’s going to be cancelled. But I severely doubt that CBS is going to give it’s 10PM timeslot over to reality tv anytime soon. Except for Saturdays of course.
Not surprised about school house rock. Didn’t see any promotion for it until your article yesterday (what’s on tv)
ABC didn’t care about it. Should have made it feel like a Saturday morning cartoon thing and paired it with maybe an 80’s Disney Saturday morning cartoon.
I think it’s one of those things they air on ABC once then immediately put it on Disney+, put with the original Schoolhouse Rock shorts.
With all the choices they had for Schoolhouse Rock, they didn’t do “Conjunction Junction” (not to mention that abysmal cover of “I’m Just a Bill”)? That special could’ve been done so much better – more innovative takes like the Black Eyed Peas’ version of “Three Is a Magic Number” or Neyo’s “Verb,” and less dancing by the Houghs,
I tried watching the Schoolhouse Rock special – barely made it to the 20 minute mark; I kept hoping it would get better. Awful, awful, awful.
Regarding the Schoolhouse Rock! special… it helps when the network, you know, promotes stuff. If I hadn’t been scrolling through ny DVR guide, I would not have known that this thing existed.