Millennium Ratings

[ethsnafu]

Hi guys,

Does anyone here have access to ratings for the three Season's of Millennium? I confess to only having seen those for Season One and only as this information was printed in the Genge unauthorised handbooks of the series. I have heard quite conflicting statements with regards to the course of the ratings in the last two seasons and would love to know how our show shaped up on its initial airing. I have tried to find this information for myself but I believe Nielson ratings can only be accessed after purchasing a subscription.

I would be very appreciative if anyone knows.

Best wishes,

Eth

[Guest Laurent.]

Damn.. I search through old tiwwa topics to find a specific website, which I do, but it looks like they removed the ratings statistic from their website.

Anyway: they used to have what you're looking for.

[ethsnafu]

Hi chaps,

Whilst I never did uncover the ratings for all three seasons of the show I did happen upon an interview with Chris Carter that had a really interesting interpretation of the events of the demise of Millennium. Whilst not being as successful as the X-Files, Millennium was actually garnering higher ratings than any other show in its time slot for some time (never knew that). Apparently Fox opted to gamble on Harsh Realm being more of a success and decided to axe Millennium to make room for it the schedules. It would seem that had Harsh Realm emerged at a later date Fox may well have allowed Millennium to continue for at least another season.

I used to really like Harsh Realm lol.

Best wishes,

Eth

[Libby]

The only thing I can find here about the ratings is something I copied from another forum a long while back giving the ratings for the first two seasons. Perhaps, eth, you could compare the season 1 ratings with what you have, to see if those figures look the same:

10/25/96 1 Pilot 11.9

11/01/96 2 Gehenna 8.1

11/08/96 3 Dead Letters 8.1

11/15/96 4 The Judge 7.6

11/22/96 5 522666 7.6

11/29/96 6 Kingdom Come 7.2

12/06/96 7 Blood Relatives 7.5

12/20/96 8 The Well Worn Lock 6.8

01/03/97 9 Wide Open 6.9

01/10/97 10 The Wild and the Innocent 7.1

01/24/97 11 Weeds 7.6

01/31/97 12 Loin Like a Hunting Flame 8.0

02/07/97 13 Force Majeure 7.1

02/14/97 14 The Thin White Line 6.8

02/21/97 15 Sacrament 6.4

03/21/97 16 Covenant 6.9

03/28/97 17 Walkabout 6.3

04/18/97 18 Lamentation 6.7

04/25/97 19 Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions 6.7

05/02/97 20 Broken World 6.8

05/09/97 21 Maranatha 6.3

05/16/97 22 The Paper Dove 6.6

09/19/97 23 The Beginning and the End 7.3

09/26/97 24 Beware of the Dog 6.5

10/03/97 25 Sense and Antisense 6.7

10/17/97 26 Monster 6.0

10/24/97 27 A Single Blade of Grass 6.7

10/31/97 28 The Curse of Frank Black 5.7

11/07/97 29 19:19 6.1

11/14/97 30 The Hand of Saint Sebastion 6.7

11/21/97 31 Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense 5.6

12/19/97 32 Midnight of the Century

01/09/98 33 Goodbye Charlie 5.6

01/23/98 34 Luminary 5.7

01/30/98 35 Mikado 5.4

02/27/98 36 The Pest House 5.7

03/06/98 37 Owls 5.5

03/13/98 38 Roosters 5.4

03/20/98 39 Siren 5.8

04/03/98 40 In Arcadia Ego 5.5

04/17/98 41 Anamnesis 5.3

04/24/98 42 A Room With No View 4.8

05/01/98 43 Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me 5.7

05/08/98 44 The Fourth Horseman 4.7

05/15/98 45 The Time is Now 4.9

[ethsnafu]

Libby you are an angel I cannot thank you enough.

In 'Millennium - The Unofficial Companion - Volume One', Genge presents ratings for the first twelve episodes only and in the form of a not altogether easily discernible graph. I have compared the ratings you have given for the 'Pilot' through to 'Loin' and they appear to be exactly the same as those presented by Genge. Sadly by the second volume she has dispensed with critiquing the ratings which is a shame as some of the information with regards to its scheduling and competition is very interesting. If you are interested I can scan the graph and the pages that discuss the launch of the show (I'm guessing you have this book anyway?)

Many, many thank yous,

Mark

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Hi chaps,

Whilst I never did uncover the ratings for all three seasons of the show I did happen upon an interview with Chris Carter that had a really interesting interpretation of the events of the demise of Millennium. Whilst not being as successful as the X-Files, Millennium was actually garnering higher ratings than any other show in its time slot for some time (never knew that). Apparently Fox opted to gamble on Harsh Realm being more of a success and decided to axe Millennium to make room for it the schedules. It would seem that had Harsh Realm emerged at a later date Fox may well have allowed Millennium to continue for at least another season.

I used to really like Harsh Realm lol.

Best wishes,

Eth

I may be mistaken here, but I do believe FOX had decided to take that gamble on a new show getting better ratings on Friday nights, not Harsh Realm specifically. So, it wasn't so much that if Harsh Realm had not been in development until years later then Millennium would have been safe, it was gone regardless of what its replacement was going to be, and Harsh Realm was more of a consolation prize in inheriting its time slot.

Again though, do correct me if Carter says different.

[ethsnafu]

Hi Zeus,

I certainly appreciate your wisdom in these matters and it is a shame that, as you state, Millennium was terminal regardless of what else was being pitched at the time. I suppose I may have misread Carter's words and my dismay a little misplaced.

Best wishes,

Eth

Chris Carter: I think it was a missed opportunity. I think if FOX had to do it over again, they would have kept that show on the air. I actually knocked myself out of the box with Harsh Realm. It kind of stole away from Millennium [Harsh Realm replaced Millennium in its time slot in the fall of 1999]. Millennium's ratings were actually better than anything that appeared in that time slot for quite a while.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Oh, not at all. It's entirely possible it may have been closer to your interpretation. I guess we'd have to ask whomever was in charge at FOX at the time as to what else they had on their development slate and what other time slots Harsh Realm may have been considered for. Suffice to say though, if it hadn't been Harsh Realm that took the place of Millennium for Fall 1999, it would quite probably have been something else.

And thanks for the quote, as ever.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

How did "Loin Like a Hunting Flame" recieve a 8.0 share?

[ethsnafu]

Hi chaps,

In short Joe, simply because people do not know what they are getting till they have got it. You only know it wasn't worth your investment once you made the purchase and to be honest 'love' and 'loathe' are subjective anyway, who's to say the world and its wife formed the same opinion we did? But to acknowledge Zeus' points - regardless of who is right, not a preoccupation of mine, Lance voiced uncertainty with regards to his ability and desire to continue with the series anyway, even if Fox had not crucified it like the paschal lamb there are doubts as to whether it's lead would return. My gut is 'yes he would' and since he has displayed a few peccadilloes with regards to his statements that Millennium was due to hit the big screen 'soon' I view him as a less than reliable source but he could have been truthful when he expressed grave doubts about his ability to continue given the toll Season Three took upon him.

That said, Libby's sharing of the ratings is a real discussion generator and here's hoping that ratings for third season can be found.

Best wishes,

Eth