We love Alyssa Milano as much as any guy who grew up in the 80s– but the first numbers for her new ABC comedy "Romantically Challenged" are in, and it’s shaping up to be… wait for it… ratings-challenged.
Monday’s post -"Dancing with the Stars" debut of the long-delayed "RomCha" averaged a preliminary 3.1 rating/8 share in adults 18-49. That number includes the final two minutes of "DWTS," so it’s possible it’ll shrink a tad when finals arrive later today.
By itself, the "RomCha" number ain’t bad. But it’s a big drop from the 5.3/14 "DWTS" averaged in the 9 p.m. hour. And it’s barely better than the 3.0/7 ABC earned last April with a show we’d completely forgotten ever existed ("Surviving Suburbia"). The latter series lasted four weeks before being pulled for sweeps.
What’s probably most distressing to ABC is the impact "RomCha" had on its nascent 10 p.m. hit, "Castle."
"Castle" fell nearly 15 percent from last week’s timeslot winning performance, droping from a 3.2 in the demo to a 2.7. It fell to second behind CBS’s "CSI: Miami," too.
The numbers for "RomCha" were hardly disastrous, of course. But if the show doesn’t stabilize real soon, it’ll almost certainly be pulled in time for May sweeps. ABC wants to keep "Castle" as strong as possible headed into the upfronts.
