Crash and Burn: This Week's UFO TV Disappoints in the Ratings

1/12/2019

Since this week I had an extra blog post reviewing Project Blue Book and sat through two hours of Ancient Aliens, and my son has an ear infection, I will make only a brief blog post today to report the results of the Nielsen ratings for this week’s premiere of Project Blue Book. The program had a disappointing debut, fumbling 1 million viewers from its Curse of Oak Island lead-in. The show had 2.2 million viewers, with a 0.43 rating in the 18-49 demo. This compares unfavorably to Curse of Oak Island in the preceding hour, which attracted 3.2 million viewers and scored a 0.8 in the demo—all while airing against Pres. Trump’s prime time address in the Eastern Time Zone. Blue Book, which did not have presidential competition, returned remarkably low numbers given its extensive promotion across television, extending even to a fake newspaper wraparound on last Sunday’s New York Times.

Blue Book’s numbers were still sufficient to earn it twelfth place in the Tuesday cable race, and it was the highest rated scripted series on Tuesday cable. At the same time, the vast majority of its 2.2 million viewers were over the age of 50, suggesting that the period drama is most attractive with firsthand memories of the period it covers. I bring this up because the show’s creators explicitly stated that they hoped to use the show as propaganda to convert viewers into UFO conspiracy believers. Since older adults are less likely to change their minds in response to media persuasion, it looks like the show’s influence will be less than its creators hoped.

All in all, it was a bad week for aliens on TV. Against competition from professional wrestling, History’s Ancient Aliens sunk to near series-low ratings for an original episode on the main History Channel. Its Monday 2-hour special brought in just 822,000 viewers, down around 40% from the 1.4 million who watched the previous 2-hour special in its regular Friday time slot. It turns out that there are limits to the audience for Ancient Aliens, and the show’s relatively and consistently high ratings are due primarily to the weaker Friday competition and the audience’s lack of better things to do.

History’s other attempts at capturing the same audience for its “History’s Mysteries” week also led to failure. Saturday’s Vanished drew just 677,000 viewers, and Sunday’s UFO Cover-Ups disappointed on TV’s most watched night, doing no better than a Friday Ancient Aliens with 1.2 million viewers and losing out to rival Discovery’s Last Alaskans by a million viewers.

While we are on the subject of bad UFO TV, it’s worth mentioning that the CW chose an unfortunate way to promote the upcoming debut of its new Roswell, New Mexico series, the second TV adaptation of the Roswell High young adult book series, which centers its teen drama on aliens and the supposed Roswell UFO crash of 1947. The CW commissioned a quasi-documentary—itself unusual for the fantasy-oriented broadcaster—“investigating” the Roswell Incident. The show aired on Thursday and featured commentary from some familiar cable and internet TV UFO talking heads, including Ryan Sprague, who was one of two lead investigators, and Ben Hansen.

According to the CW’s press materials, the special was produced by the same team that failed spectacularly in 2017 with Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, the History Channel documentary that falsely alleged that that a Japanese photograph published before Earhart crashed depicted her as a captive after her crash.

There is virtually nothing that producers can put on the air that won’t get them more work and a bigger platform. What incentive is there to tell the truth when making shit up is so profitable?

Fortunately for everyone involved, the Roswell pseudo-documentary failed spectacularly, attracting just 940,000 viewers, with a 0.2 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic. The only anomaly is that it actually built on the 780,000 viewers who tuned in for a Supernatural rerun in the preceding hour.

45 Comments

Machala

1/12/2019 09:39:02 am

While your rating reviews of HC's programming point to some viewer age demographics, what is missing, and I would find most enlightening, is the number of First Time viewers. How many NEW viewers are there watching Ancient Aliens, for example, compared to those fans who've followed the program for years.
Is History Channel gaining any new audience or are the viewers of its programs a core group, unwavering in their loyalty - no matter what spurious crap is broadcast?

Wim Van der Straeten

1/13/2019 11:28:58 am

Ratings don't mean a lot anymore because there are so many ways in which people can watch TV shows. How many people have recorded these shows to watch them at a later date or have watched them on another device than their TV?

Matt Mc

1/15/2019 11:50:09 am

When people are using a DVR that is recorded and presented to Arbitron and other ratings gathering organizations and factored into the results

Accumulated Wisdom

1/12/2019 12:12:46 pm

I have to admit to viewing the CW special. A root canal would have been preferable. No cable. I don't pay for 300 channels of infomercials, or BYU TV.

This program debunked most everything. Only to pull out an enlarged photo of the "General Ramey Memo" and declared it new evidence. Then encouraged people to seek new answers for 20 year old evidence. The memo enlargement is at least that old.

Did anyone else see where some of their metal samples, become biological when dissolved? Then they look at each other with perplexed amazement. I have seen highschool productions made with better quality.

1/13/2019 02:18:38 pm

If dissolved, would acetate produce a biological sample?

American Cool "Disco" Dan

1/15/2019 01:59:08 pm

Dissolved in what?

What is "a biological sample"?

Stick with "Everything is Orion", science is not your forte.

1/15/2019 11:49:45 pm

Sorry, Sniffles. I had left the room. I did not catch which acid solution was used to dissolve their metal samples. Some of these metal samples gave a biological result. Much of the alleged Roswell debris, sounds like sheets of acetate, and an aluminum alloy. I was curious to see if some of this recovered "metal" could actually be acetate. I've always suspected the crash was an aircraft above these men's pay grade. An aluminum fuselage with an acetate skin. Just an opinion. Take whatever issue you wish dude.

1/16/2019 02:16:05 am

Jeezus you are one tedious mental patient.

What is "a biological sample"?
What is "a biological result"?

Having actually worked in science in my misspent youth I can tell you that in bog standard biochemistry labs acid baths (e.e. phosphoric acid) are used to get rid of biological contaminants, e.g. bovine tissues.

You keep using made-up terms without defining them and expect to be treated seriously instead of like a mental patient.

You do know that you can't but a jar of "acetate" right? Because you don't even science, bro. I won't shame you by asking if you lift.

1/16/2019 10:57:29 am

YHWH dude. You didn't watch the show. No shame in that. When, I returned from a visit to the porcelain bowl, the lab testing the metal claimed, "They could not be tested for metal" because, "The sample came back biological".

Judging by your rant, you are not familiar with the rational explanations for the Roswell crash. One of which, is acetate.

So, you did not watch the show, and you are not familiar with the material...Why are you commenting? Suggests impulse control. How did you damage your frontal lobe?

American cool "Disco" dan

1/16/2019 12:02:59 pm

Oh, you fucking idiot. Sad.

"An acetate /ˈæsɪteɪt/ is a salt formed by the combination of acetic acid with an alkaline, earthy, metallic or nonmetallic and other base. "Acetate" also describes the conjugate base or ion (specifically, the negatively charged ion called an anion) typically found in aqueous solution and written with the chemical formula C2H3O−2. "

As I said, you can't buy a jar of "acetate" anymore than you can buy a tank of chorine ions. It's always "something acetate" e.g. lead acetate, hydrogen acetate.

Your argument boils down to "I got snowed, therefore you don't understand."

With regard to Roswell, you may be thinking of Mylar.

1/16/2019 06:59:52 pm

I am thinking of the clear sheets used on an overhead projector. I thought these sheets were made from acetate. I have not seen one if these devices, or the clear sheets in over twenty years.

1/19/2019 03:33:19 pm

Again, not "acetate" but likely cellulose acetate. Stop being such a mental patient.

American cool “disco” hal

1/12/2019 12:17:25 pm

According to website analysis software your domain averages almost 50 unique visitors per day. They average 1 page view. You have a small core of true believers. Those who doubt this should go to statbrain dot com.

1/12/2019 01:00:17 pm

Well, that's true in sense that "50" is the generally accepted way of writing "146". You misread the report. Sad.

Jason Colavito link

1/12/2019 02:02:47 pm

Their methodology is flawed since my internal data provided by Weebly and born out by private counting software, clocks traffic at hundreds of times the Statbrain estimate.

American cool “disco “ hal

1/12/2019 03:06:47 pm

Yep, made you look. Jason’s website counter includes the same true believers who check in 10 times a day to post their support for the jealousy and hate spewed here. I’m talking about actual individuals who look at this tripe. Not how many times they look each day. Jason might really be a bestselling author like he claims to be if his falsely portrayed data were true. He’s like a puffed up fish trying to look different than what he is and he knows it. That’s why he can’t deal with any genuine criticism.

American cool "Disco" Dan

1/12/2019 03:40:51 pm

Yet you misread the report. Sad.

1/12/2019 03:52:12 pm

I do know the difference between unique visitors and page views.

An Anonymous Nerd

1/12/2019 09:35:55 pm

[I do know the difference between unique visitors and page views. ]

Mr. Colavito, you're going about this the wrong way for that fellow. You should be going the Fringe route, like he's used to, and saying that the more-negative results are a result of The Conspiracy Against You and Your Ideas.

-An Anonymous Nerd

FRINGE WISHFUL THINKING

1/12/2019 11:50:40 pm

When is the Fringe going to go against its ideas and start producing back-up evidence to justify its BELIEFS.

Answer - Nothing can beat wishful thinking. Wishful thinking does not need evidence. Only requires belief.

Jeffrey Henry link

1/13/2019 10:46:06 am

As has been alluded to lately here, there is a destruct sameness to all these pseudo shows. Indeed, pseudoscience has been presented in about the same way for over a century: providing a selective background, followed by an apparent revelation without coherent debate. The movie Starship Invasions, staring Christoper Lee, was largely inspired by accounts of abductees. I love this movie, but it was honestly quite absurd, especially from a visual standpoint. It’s hilariously stupid, even without the RiffTrax commentary. My point is that throwing up overlapping shows of pseudo onto 4K res, with the century old presentation techniques, shows how stupid and boring this all becomes.

Joe Zias

1/13/2019 10:53:34 am

Some years ago I needed to see Nielsen ratings, as you do, but was told that these are not available to the public. Have times changed.? Keep up the good work. Keeps film makers honest or at least tries to.

1/13/2019 11:07:51 am

I don't know if Nielson is "public" now, but websites like Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, and other sites with entertainment news reference them all the time. Jason Colavito would certainly know how to go about getting that data.

Joe Scales

1/13/2019 10:53:49 am

"... Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, the History Channel documentary that falsely alleged that that a Japanese photograph published before Earhart crashed depicted her as a captive after her crash."

Pushed by Shawn Henry, former FBI and at the time, President and CSO Crowdstrike, the cyber security firm that linked the alleged DNC hack to Russians; who the Democratic Party personally reached out to. Make of these facts what you will, but you cannot "debunk" them.

An Over-Educated Grunt

1/14/2019 08:02:14 am

Joe, your political leanings and your need to shoehorn them into awkward places is making you illogical and sloppy.

1/14/2019 09:37:35 am

Sorry Grunt. I've never advocated for a political party. Never. Just like to point out things that partisans such as yourself care to ignore. It's called balance. Check it out some time. Unless your PTSD still has you under the covers...

1/14/2019 11:01:05 am

Sweetheart, if that's the best you can do, well... bless your heart. Given that I haven't said any more than you about my political beliefs, if you want to call me a partisan but you an independent... whatever helps you sleep. And using PTSD as a personal dog, specially when you don't actually know who you're talking to, I suspect you either need a great deal of gecko sleeping, or you're totally unaware of what comes out of your mouth.

I'd love to know what bringing up the Democrats' use of a consultant had to do with a post about the failure of UFO programming on the History Channel. You're not just shoehorning. You're stoneholing.

And remember - if you reply to me, according to you, it shows a weakness of character on your part!

1/14/2019 11:05:24 am

Oh for crying... This is why I hate posting from my phone.

1/14/2019 11:29:43 am

If I may, I believe Joe was offering counterpoint to Jason's constant beating of the drum associating Trump and "the alt-right" whatever that is with fringe ideas and their proponents.

Well played, Joe.

For my part I praise Allah every day that Obama killed....no, not Osama bin Laden! But that was cool too.

All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose…

I'm especially grateful that he killed Gaddafi. Those two killings solved MOST of the world's problems, and the invasion of Syria solved the rest of them. Truly history will look back on this as a golden age.

1/14/2019 12:44:50 pm

"If I may, I believe Joe was offering counterpoint to Jason's constant beating of the drum associating Trump and "the alt-right" whatever that is with fringe ideas and their proponents."

At least somebody gets it. Then again, you're not one of the imbeciles 'round these parts.

Millard's Disciple

1/15/2019 12:26:25 am

Over-Educated Grunt is a disciple of Catherine Millard and other biased Christian revisionists of American history who want to airbrush out the Freemasonic origins of American Independence.
LOL

Dizzy Donald

1/15/2019 01:11:23 pm

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/28/male-right-wing-nationalists-are-now-all-climate-change-deniers/

Doc Rock

1/14/2019 11:44:38 am

Well Earhart was a real person who really disappeared in a real area under a number of real plausible potential circumstances. Capture by the Japanese, who we know exist, is at least within the realm of possibility. Unless there was some juicy stuff about her being captured by the Japanese and delivered to space aliens for a nice long anal probe session (your welcome disco) then the special was just crappy history as opposed to the off the wall fringe UFO crap discussed above. It's one thing to push something that is wrong, it's another to push stuff that is flat out crazy.

But then again I am more of a splitter than a lumper when it comes to such things.

1/14/2019 12:03:09 pm

I have to say Cap'n, your fascination with anal is ... well... fascinating.

"What we have here is almost a textbook example of a planted false story. A photograph had been “discovered” in the U.S. National Archives, apparently misfiled, standing alone without any context, which one might interpret as showing Noonan and Earhart lolling around on a dock in Jaluit Harbor in the Marshall Islands. Within a couple of days, though, a mainstream left-wing publication in Britain, The Guardian, reported that a Japanese history enthusiast had discovered the identical photograph in an old Japanese travel book. One must wonder how such a travel-book photo came to be there all by its lonesome in the National Archives. The photo, as it turns out, was from a travel book published in Palau in 1935, two years before Earhart’s disappearance. "

"It's one thing to push something that is wrong, it's another to push stuff that is flat out crazy."

Not just "wrong" but easily and quickly shown to be wrong, two days before the airing of the History Channel show.

1/14/2019 12:23:36 pm

So in other words they pushed bad history. Where have I seen that statement before? Oh, it was me about fifteen minutes ago.

Sorry Bouki, gonna have to call strikes one, two, and three on this one.

Sorry, but you are now running a deficit with your attention ration. So you are banished to the kiddie table for one week.

Earhart always strikes me as someone who may have appreciated good gin. So I think I will do a couple martinis for liquid lunch today

1/14/2019 12:52:01 pm

"Not just "wrong" but easily and quickly shown to be wrong, two days before the airing of the History Channel show. "

Not only that, but they reversed an image of Earhart's navigator changing the side he parted his hair to better fit the picture in question. That would be doctored evidence.

1/14/2019 01:05:22 pm

So in other words bad history as opposed to wild claims about alien abductions, time warps, black holes, etc. Sounds familiar. Deja vu all over again.

Sorry Joe, but this is the only shot I could give you. That's because the the ruling by the umpire (a waitress named Brandi whom I show a lot of this stuff ) is that Disco Chomo had to be awarded the majority of your attention ration to try to dig out of his deficit. By the ways she thinks you are dumb, but in a cute sort of way. On the other hand she said that Disco would be at the bottom of the list of potential babysitters for her four year old.

At least five days at the kiddie table for both of you, sorry.

1/14/2019 01:58:05 pm

Weak as water, Captain Peacock. And your twin themes, anal and children, make for a troubling pairing.

1/14/2019 03:00:16 pm

"So in other words bad history as opposed to wild claims about alien abductions, time warps, black holes, etc. Sounds familiar. Deja vu all over again."

Wasn't addressing you Professor Bad Faith. But as for why Jason chose to bring up the Earhart debacle, you'll have to take it up with him. And why he didn't throw in a gratuitous politically inspired snipe which would be more apropos given the facts... well, that's rather obvious in this case; even for the likes of you.

Best be off with you now. Perhaps back to rubbing the Anonymous Pretention's nose in his own imbecility. He's more your match.

1/14/2019 03:38:02 pm

It bears (I hope bears are not another of the Cap'n's fixations) mentioning that "fringe" (A) and "bad history" (B) are not mutually contradictory. In fact there are things that are:

Both A and B
Neither A nor B
A but not B
B but not A

1/14/2019 07:37:26 pm

How not to pick up a waitress:

Show her examples of your presumed stealth in arguing with strangers online.

How to get better tips while waitressing:

Pretend to be interested in the stuff the creepy customer shows you on his tablet...

American Cool "disco" dan

1/14/2019 09:31:16 pm

On the other hand she might throw him a Cap'n quickie if it means being able to buy meth AND mac and cheese.

You know I've called you out when I disagree with you and vicey versey, but I have to say again, well played.

1/21/2019 05:46:55 pm

[ Make of these facts what you will, but you cannot "debunk" them. ]

Of course not, but elsewhere you have embraced a wild conspiracy fantasy based on those facts. And that I successfully have debunked on multiple occasions.

It's like this: Mr. Colavito can't debunk the existence of King Pakal's sarcophagus lid, or the imagery on it. It is what it is. But he can debunk the wild fantasy about space travel that Ancient Aliens and those of their ilk have hitched to the lid.

-An Anonymous Nerd

1/21/2019 08:29:52 pm

You are an imbecile. The only wild conspiracy was the imagining of your stilted intellect. Now go away. Imbecile. Even Professor Bad Faith has abandoned you. Why? Because you are an IMBECILE.

Got it? Imbecile.

Blah

1/16/2019 01:40:00 am

Blue Book has three problems:

1) Tuesday night as the final show of the day (uh some of us work)
2) "Familiar" style of past period pieces. (Dark Skies, Man in the High Castle, Madmen...but not as good)
3) UFO stories are the attraction, but the characters are too busy establishing themselves. X-Files sold the story first and built the characters as they reacted to the stories, this seems to be the opposite where the UFO is the side story.

The show needs to move to Friday and stick with the Ancient Aliens crowd, and maybe grab the old X-Files watchers. I'm not a fan of AA, it wore out its welcome 2 years ago, but Tuesday night is a terrible time slot. I feel like I'm watching a show from 10-15 years ago that NBC would have tacked on after Heroes or some other show. It needs to up its game.