[hr]
Don’t forget to check out Bryan Thao Worra’s witty and wacky poetical look at Southeast Asian folklore in his new book Demonstra.
[hr]
This week, we have more news and spoilers about Once Upon a Time, Doctor Who, sci-fi series, and Supernatural. You can access previous spoilers columns here.
[hr]
Once Upon a Time (Sunday nights, 8pm, ABC)
By Heather S. Vina
[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ot much out for the show out this week – again – but Matt Mitovitch over at TV Line has a minor spoiler (and I do mean minor!) on who Christopher Gorman is NOT playing on the show!
[hr]
Doctor Who (Saturday nights, 9pm, BBC America)
By Heather S. Vina
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Christmas Special’s AI was released: It received an 83. It’s in the “good” category, but was one of the lowest of the Matt Smith era.
Tom Baker released a newsletter on his site, talking about his filming his guest appearance for the 50th Anniversary special.
The BBC America ratings were released and the Christmas special was the #1 show on the network ever, at 2.47 million, beating the 50th Anniversary’s 2.4 million viewers.
[hr]
Sci-fi Spoilerpalooza
By Heather S. Vina
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he two minutes of the return episode of the show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D are up.
E!Online has up a set of photos for Stevie Nicks’ appearance of American Horror Story: Coven.
For those interested in the new show, Helix, (which premieres January 10 ), Spoiler TV has up a behind-the-scenes featurette for it! They also have up the press release for the first episode.
The Walking Dead has released a new promotional poster for the coming season and TV Line has it up.
Teen Wolf fans, Blastr has up an interview with Tyler Posey, discussing the coming season.
For those interested in another new show, Canadian import Bitten, Spoiler TV has up synopses for the first three episodes.
For Sleepy Hollow fans, Spoiler TV has up the synopses for episode 1.12 and episode 1.13.
And finally, for those wondering when their favorite shows will return, E!Online has up a calendar with a list of dates for you!
[hr]
Supernatural (Tuesday nights, 9pm, CW)
By Paula R. Stiles
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he show is still on its Christmas hiatus until January 14. This week’s repeat is “Heaven Can’t Wait.” Our review of 9.03, “I’m No Angel,” is coming soon (yes, really).
The synopsis for 9.11 (“First Born”) is up:
“First Born” – (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET) (Content Rating TBD) (HDTV)
TIM OMUNDSON (“PSYCH”) GUEST STARS AS CAIN – Looking to reclaim his place as King of Hell, Crowley (Mark Sheppard) asks Dean (Jensen Ackles) for help finding “The First Blade,” the only blade that can kill Abbadon (guest star Alaina Huffman). Knowing he owes Crowley a favor for helping Sam (Jared Padalecki), and also wanting Abaddon dead himself, Dean reluctantly agrees and the two set off on a road trip. However, Dean and Crowley are completely unprepared when they find out who has the blade – Cain (guest star Omundson), the first son. Meanwhile, Sam is back at the bunker with Castiel (Misha Collins) who notices there is some leftover grace inside Sam. If they can extract it, they can use the grace to track Gadreel. The only problem is the procedure may do permanent damage to Sam. John Badham directed the episode written by Robbie Thompson (911).
It’s curious that spec about this synopsis seems to center around things that are not actually in the synopsis and that tend to contradict how the show usually does its midseason storylines. For example, some seem to believe that Abaddon will be dispatched forthwith by said “First Blade” and that Crowley will go back to being King of Hell. Why the show would take such a giant step backward, to keep on a character being played by an actor with very limited availability this season, is not explained by this theory. Generally, in midseason episodes (as the 11th, not the 9th, traditionally is), something dramatic and gamechanging occurs, and an enemy is dispatched. What with there being no love lost between Dean and Crowley, I can easily see Dean “testing” the First Blade out on Crowley, just for giggles. Or Abaddon showing up and killing Crowley once and for all.
There are also hints that Cain will be recurring and Tim Omundson’s tweets indicated some bonding between Dean and Cain. So, I can see Cain replacing Crowley as Dean’s demonic ally, someone with far less ugly history to overcome with Dean, and who is apparently an ancestor to Dean, as well. Not to mention that Abel may not have been such a nice kid, after all, giving Cain and Dean some common ground in the “You have to kill your brother” category.
The other thing is that some are assuming Sam will become an angel. I just want to point out that these synopses are usually very misleading. This one is very coy about whether Sam will even be conscious, let alone making an choices or doing any powerups. It’s the episode’s B-story, after all. So, don’t assume that Sam will be doing much of anything, since the synopsis makes it sound as though the storyline will belong to Castiel, instead.
TV Line did what was basically a summary of the recent Jeremy Carver interview, nothing really new.
It’s being reported that no one from Supernatural has been invited to the PCAs, whereas Ian Somerhalder, one of the contenders for a best actor role with Ackles and Padalecki, has been invited. I could say something snarky here about how Somerhalder’s acting doesn’t impress me much with the whole eye-widening thing to express incessant archness and that The Vampire Diaries seems to require a lot more promotion and the best time slot on the network to do barely better than Supernatural … but I already did.
Anyhoo, it’s too early to say what any of this all means, so there’s no need to get all in an uproar. So, naturally, Twitter and Tumblr have.
The Official Supernatural Souvenir Magazine Special #2 is now out. Reportedly, this will be the last publication of Supernatural Magazine. Also out are Tim Waggoner’s pick-your-own-adventure Supernatural: The Television Series: The Roads Not Taken, as well as Supernatural and Philosophy: Metaphysics and Monsters … for Idjits and Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls.
This week, the show did not appear on Tuesday night (it being New Year’s Eve), but did fill in for the recently departed Nikita at 9pm on Friday. The repeat of “Rock and a Hard Place” got a 0.2/1 and 770 thousand viewers in the overnights, the same demo as, and only 50 thousand less than, the Nikita series finale the previous week.
Also, Supernatural topped the GetGlue media activity charts twice this fall.
Let’s look at the Live+7 numbers so far this season. An interesting “consequence” of the show’s increase in same-night numbers is that it hasn’t appeared in these rankings as much as in the past. Even so, it’s popped up four times this season. For 9.01 (“I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here”), the demo rose from 1.2 to 1.63 in A18-49, from 2.59 million to 3.5 million in audience, from 1.04 to 1.44 for A18-34, and from 1.24 to 1.73 for W18-34.
For 9.05 (“Dog Dean Afternoon), a same-night 0.9 rose to 1.5 Live+7. The same thing happened for 9.07 (“Bad Boys”), with a 0.9 also rising to a 1.5. The very next week, 9.08 (“Rock and a Hard Place”) rose from a very healthy 1.1 to a 1.6. We also have an audience number increase for this week from 2.392 million to 3.393 million, which is a rise of 1.001 million.
Now, with only four out of nine data points (and only two audience numbers), we have to be careful about extrapolating. However, from what we’ve got, it does appear to be from the above that the average Live+7 A18-49 demo is around 1.5 and the audience average is above three million, with same-night audience increasing over the first seven days by about a million.
In addition, we have a rare Live+3 rating for the season nine premiere, “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here.” The episode’s already-healthy 1.2 rose to a 1.56, while its audience of 2.59 million rose to 3.29 million. In addition, its A18-34 rating rose from 1.04 to 1.39 and its W18-34 rose from 1.24 to 1.67.
Live+7 increases do not help a show’s chances. Networks generally use Live+3 data (or, more accurately, C3 ratings, for watching commercials up to three days later, which we almost never get) for renewal purposes.
However, the above indicates that a large portion of the increase we see in the Live+7 ratings already occurs within the first three days for the show. And considering their past response to such numbers, the CW would probably like to grab some more of those million viewers/0.5ish demo earlier than the first seven days. These numbers aren’t appreciably different from past seasons (though the same-night and Live+3s have increased over the past season and a half). It’s more that the show has regained some same-night viewers out of those who watch within a week. It makes sense that the network would see trying to woo in the rest as a viable strategy. Whether they can is a different story. Either way, Supernatural is in no current or immediate danger and a season ten is practically a lock.
[hr]
We’ll be back next week with more news, spoilers and blatantly unabashed self-promotion. Stay tuned and check out our reviews of Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Event, Once Upon a Time, Grimm and Supernatural.
[hr]
If you like these spoilers, please help continue our site by making a donation, buying one of our fiction issues, or buying one of our books: Fraterfamilias, Historical Lovecraft, Future Lovecraft, and our Gothic horror anthology, Candle in the Attic Window. You can also buy Paula’s non-fiction book on medieval Spanish history, Templar Convivencia.
[hr]