Last Thursday, CBS aired its fall preview special and managed to draw 5.8 million viewers, almost double the number I expected. Tonight, from 9:16PM to 10PM, The CW will air “The CW 2011 Fall Preview Special,” hosted by Maggie Q and Kristoffer Polaha. Given the unusual start time (and the simple fact that The CW is The CW), I will be stunned if the special is seen by more than 1.5 viewers.
Still, there are those of us who enjoy watching fall preview specials, so either watch it live after “Gaga By Gaultier” or record it to watch later. Also, be sure to check your local listings; my CW affiliate aired it during the early evening this past Sunday.
Here‘s a press release with a little more information about the special.
Having watched both specials, The CW used the 14-minutes of extra time in the 44-minute broadcast version to provide slightly elongated sizzle reels for some of their new series (‘Ringer’ made more sense, and ‘Hart of Dixie’ presented a more sympathetic lead) than what was seen in the 30-minute affiliate special.
The CW also provided a brand new extended preview for ‘Re-Modeled’, a new reality series that will take over ‘America’s Next Top Model’s slot in the winter/spring, as well as elongated promos for all their returning series, neither of which do I remember being seen in the affiliate special.
You were generous on your audience estimate: ‘The CW Fall Preview’ special garnered 650,000 P2+ and 0.3 A18-49, but I consider that pretty decent given that my local affiliate had already aired the special about a half-dozen times over the past month, and I expect the same was true right across the country.
Having seen all five specials, I have to say the ‘CBS Fall Preview’ was the best because of the crossover to ‘The Big Bang Theory’ (it should really be counted as an additional episode of the series as the actors played their characters in role). And I liked the ‘NBC Primetime Preview Show’ second best for much the same reason as it was a crossover to new sitcom ‘Whitney’.