{alltv} 'Glee' spin-off bombs in ratings

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

{alltv} 'Glee' spin-off bombs in ratings

LOS ANGELES - The premiere of Oxygen's talent competition "The Glee Project" drew just 455,000 viewers Sunday, of whom just 80,000 were in the cable channel's core demographic of women aged 18-34.

Granted the show faced the final game of a riveting NBA championship as well as the Tony Awards. But the ratings data left Oxygen executives surprised and disappointed.

Jason Klarman, president of Oxygen Media, sent his staff a memo to buck them up and to reiterate the network's commitment to the show, in which contestants compete to appear on "Glee," the musical smash on Fox.

"The Glee Project" was supposed to open big, coming with a built-in fan base that devours everything "Glee"-related, from music downloads, to concert tickets, to blog posts about the characters' summer vacation plans.

Oxygen spent millions promoting "The Glee Project." The show received overwhelmingly positive reviews and social media tracker Tumblrr ranked it the No. 4 cable TV show on Sunday. Digital traffic was healthy; a music video of the cast performing Katy Perry's "Firework" generated half-a-million views on YouTube.

"We couldn't be more proud of this critically acclaimed, first of its kind series that I — and this company — believe in 200 percent," wrote Klarman.

After listing all the positives, he added, "Which is why, the 719,000 total viewers for the 9 and 10 p.m. premiere and encore presentation was not the start that we had hoped for."

In a subsequent staff meeting, Klarman said that the show would get more cross-promotional help from corporate siblings within NBC Universal. And he noted that the premiere of Bravo's "Project Runway" in December 2004 averaged just 219,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic. By that measure, "The Glee Project" averaged 211,000 viewers.