On the last episode of the CBS math-inclined procedural
Numb3rs, a freight truck and a commuter train collided resulting to understandably a lot of casualty. Don and his team needed to race against time to get the passengers out safely. Now in old
Numb3rs fashion, they needed to find out whether the collision was an accident or was something intentional. The episode finished first in its timeslot, reeling in 11.3 million viewers, ahead of
20/20 featuring Diane Sawyer's interview of the New York Gov. Spitzer escort Ashley Dupre and NBC's endangered species
Lipstick Jungle.
In other news, Broadcasting and Cable reports exclusively that procedurals
Numb3rs and
Criminal Minds both from CBS will start airing in syndication in 2010, when
CSI: New York and
CSI: Miami goes off-air, two shows that have proven to be hot performers in syndication.
CSI: New York currently airs at 11:30pm, while
CSI: Miami, at 12:30am on Saturday and Sunday nights in most markets.
“What appealed to stations—and this goes all the way back to 2004, starting with
CSI—is that these shows will fit right into the late-fringe weekend time period,” says Joe DiSalvo, CBS Television Distribution's president of domestic television sales.
When the two CSI shows exit broadcast syndication completely by 2010, that's when
Numb3rs and
Criminal Minds enter the picture. “We've developed this block that people have become accustomed to watching,” DiSalvo adds.
According to DiSalvo,
Numb3rs is hardly seen on its current timeslot – if 11.3 million viewers can be called hardly seen – yet he is confident that “it has the ability to find a new audience” when put into syndication. The series is currently ranked 30th among all viewers, and it is currently experiencing a slight decline year-on-year.
On the next episode of
Numb3rs next week, the headquarters of a popular charity organization is bombed. Like usual, Don, Charlie, and the team must find out whether it was an act of terror or something else.
-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source:
Broadcasting and Cable
(Image Courtesy of CBS)
