Andy Cohen, Cyndi Lauper & Sherri Shepherd
On the Set of WWHL 9/19/2012
Photo courtesy of BravoTV ©
For Bravo & their food advertisers no doubt Top Chef Seattle, can’t come soon enough, as the ratings for the Curtis Stone hosted shows continue in the doldrums. Last night’s 9th episode of this season’s Top Chef Masters was its second worst for this season AND the series as a whole, as just 803,000 viewers tuned in. Even more depressing is that it only scored 0.30 in the 18-49 demo. Season-to-date this 4th season is now trending down almost 20% in total audience versus last season and a massive -26.92 in the 18-49 demo. (And that’s approaching this seasons RHoNY demo drop of -28.19%.) In our weekly forecast we had thought that this episode of TCM would hold steady with last week’s 883,000, and gave a range of 850-900k, but sadly it didn’t even reach the bottom of our range.
With the previous three nights of WWHL scoring ratings high enough to earn Andy Cohen a placement in the Nightly Top 100 Cable Ratings, he surely would have been hoping for a fourth. However, as we stated in our weekly projections article, the fact that Andy’s guests were neither foodies nor from the cast of its lead-in, meant it was unlikely that a WWHL episode with Cyndi Lauper & Sherri Shepherd would rate. So it was to be, as they weren’t able to get Cohen a fourth consecutive Top 100 placement.
Unless Cohen’s guests are stars from a Bravo show that has just aired, he’s just not able to attract an audience that rates high enough, and it’s surprising that he and his production team at Embassy Row, are still able to attract guests. Although as his low ratings continue (when featuring non Bravolebrities) that will likely get harder.
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My take on why the ratings have dropped…
Nothing bad about Curtis, but it has lost it’s class after Kelly left. Suser Lee lost, format changed and then I just lost interest.
I felt the same with last season of Top Chef, format has changed, but not for the better.
i think what is happening is that people are not watching the first run of these shows when you know you can watch it many times after the first one. i know i record a lot of bravo shows
has andy had a top shelf celebrity guest since Meryl Streep? I bet bookings for the upper tiers are getting much more difficult for his team. I caught some of the dance moms reunion show and it was very similar in format to a rh reunion – except the host (who I haven’t heard of) actually did a much better job than Andy. I like Andy ok, but he’s still rather awkward in front of the camera.
I think had Takashi, Thierry, Art and/or Patricia made it to the finals then it would have been able to attract more viewers I think everyone expects Chris to win. Not a whole lot of personality with the chefs that are still there.