Why Brian???

Looking at last week's ratings, INVASION was a full point higher.

David...

Just a point higher, with a much stronger lead-in. ABC even had "Lost"
run until 10:05 and it still didn't help any.

Is this just some way for ABC to keep JJ Abrams happy? And isn't it

David...

Partly yes. Partly because "Invasion" has been given a full season and
failed to catch on so there's almost no chance of it rebounding, while
"Brian" has only been on for five weeks and still has a chance. Then
there's the question of demos that we don't see. "Brian" may have done
okay with the young women ABC is trying to reach on Mondays.

David...

You can't count the first episode since it aired after "Housewives."
Looking at Monday airings only, it held steady.

4/17: 4.9/8
4/24: 4.1/6
5/1: 4.4/7
5/8: 4.4/7

What's more telling are the 18-49 numbers

"Brian": 3.2/8, 2.6/7, NA, 3.2/8
"Invasion" (last four episodes): 2.5/7, 2.8/7, 3.0/8, 3.4/9

"Lost" is usually 2nd for the night in 18-49s and yet "Brian"s and
"Invasion"s averages are identical.

going to be stretching him very thin to have so many shows on the air
at the same time?

Just remember what happened to David Kelley...

Pidge...

It's the 18-49 rating.....apparently, ABC was happy with it. 3.3 or something
close to that.

Milhouse Van Houten...

Except Kelley was actually working on those shows (writing most of them).

David...

I'm not really sure that anything "happened" to Kelley anyway. Wacky
shows such as "Ally McBeal" have a short natural lifespan and don't
usually last more than 5 years, "The Practice" was still going strong
before ABC moved it to Monday, and the same with "Boston Public"
before it was dumped on Friday.

Milhouse Van Houten...

Yes, I agree, but always felt that it was cruel and unusual (not to mention
nearly impossible) to be writing three hour-long shows simultaneously, which
he was doing for a while there circa '00. The scripts probably would have
been even better if he hadn't tried that juggling act -- not that this
relates to Abrams at all, who is busy not working on any of his shows to my
knowledge.

Abrams stepped away from "Lost" pretty early in the first season and really
hasn't had much to do with it since. The other shows seem like ceremonial
credits. He's into movies now.

Rob Jensen...

My guess is that since it's not an FX-heavy show, WAB is much cheaper
to produce than Invasion, so that's why ABC renewed WAB and passed on
Invasion. WAB's simply a cheaper show with a lower break-even point.

shawn...

Heck they almost never had any special effects in Invasion so I can't
see that it would have been that expensive.

-- Rob