Shenae Grimes (ROD Sony Alliance), Dallas Cowgirls Undercover (ROD-TV) (Channel 5)
Network Season Rankings
1. ICE - 12 wins (59 points)
2. ROD - 5 wins (36 points)
3. NBC - 3 wins (25 points)
THE CITY OF DALLAS LIFTS ROD ON MONDAY NIGHT TO A 1ST PLACE VICTORY
ROD had full control of Monday thanks to capturing over 70% of the Dallas-Ft. Worth market with their doubleheader of Dallas based programming. ROD featured of double dip of Dallas Cowgirls Undercover which aired ahead of a Dallas Cowgirls Monday Night Football for the first time ever so it was very unique to see the way this would turnout for them.
DALLAS COWGIRLS UNDERCOVER BECOMES NITRO'S NEWEST CULTURE PHENOMENON
Dallas Cowgirls Undercover is here and it's now officially NITRO's highest rated scripted program on all of NITRO Television through this point of the season. This red hot drama seals the greatness of Lucy Hale as she's turned ROD all the way around in primetime and has given them a signature scripted hit.
You couldn't find a more fitting drama to air right next a pro football game as this show exaggerates the drama that happens in the organization of the WFL's Dallas football team and how a team of undercover private detectives who play on the fictional version of the Cowgirls look to crackdown on the corruption running through the organization over the course of a run of seasons. One thing that's becoming a bit popular right now in NITRO is the female undercover detectives niche as we've seen a few new breakout hits this season dealing with this genre this season already in Dallas Cowgirls Undercover, Teen Angels, Pretty Thieves, Seattle Mysteries, The Wrong Students, and Truck Ladies which we will talk about a little later. It's clear that viewers are digging these style of police procedurals.
What made this a very unique situation on Monday night is that viewers got to watch a fictional version of the Dallas Cowgirls deal with all of this drama while the real team tries to win their first game of the season on the road in the desert of Arizona.
Dallas Cowgirls Undercover aired its second ever episode on Monday and the second episode actually topped last week's record breaking premiere and now on Monday with those 142 million viewers DCU becomes the highest rated scripted program of all-time in NITRO history and this is a huge deal because this is not an ICE scripted program so it shows how powerful DCU is right now and how much of a culture phenomenon it's becoming as it's being talked about widely on social media.
As for the game that aired behind it we had controversial QB Elle Alexandra in action with her star rookie running back Chase Carter behind her in the backfield to take on Sarah Simmons and the Arizona Desert as this was a clear offense versus defense showdown as it was all about Dallas' air raid offense against the up and coming Arizona defense. In this game unfortunately for the Desert it was all about Dallas' offense as Elle Alexandra was amazing in this game putting up 357 yards in the air and throwing for 2 touchdowns while Chase Carter scored 1 touchdown of her own the ground running for over 100 yards in this game. Receiving threats Abby Champion and Meredith Mickelson ate this defense up combining for over 250 of Elle Alexandra's yards in the air. Sarah Simmons was special in this game as she delivered with 13 tackles and 1 sack on Elle Alexandra but it wasn't enough to put Dallas away as they lost this game 25-21 as it was a thriller through the end. Kalani Hilliker and Sydney Roper did enough offensively to keep Arizona in the game but Chase Carter was too much on the ground for Dallas and Arizona couldn't get their first win of the season at home in front of their fans for their home opener at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix.
The Cowgirls will stay on in primetime next week this time on NBC's Sunday Night Football for their home opener against Malena Morgan and that high-powered passing attack from the Tampa Sol at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Desert will go on the road up north to the Pacific Northwest to take on Dasha Dereviankina and the Vancouver Grizzlies for their home opener in late night action on ICE. Next week's Monday night road show heads to Jacksonville next for their home opener against the talented Australia Kangaroos who won earlier on Monday afternoon against the Bay Area Quakes. The Stripes had their heart ripped out from underneath them after the way they lost to the Sol yesterday evening.
Rebecca Herbst (The ICE Phederation), Overnight Nurses (ICE-TV) (Channel 7)
ICE HANGS IN THERE IN 2ND PLACE HANGING AROUND 100 MILLION VIEWERS
It's looking like for the rest of the fall that ROD will own Monday nights but ICE is not going down without a fight from the looks of it so far as got a strong 2nd place lineup and once Monday Night Football's season is done the night could be theirs. Truck Ladies as predicted slipped some this week because Dallas Cowgirls Undercover grew this week by 15 million viewers compared to last week and they lost the key Cowgirls viewers from cities all across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and other Cowgirls hot spots in that part of the United States. Truck Ladies still held up very well and managed to stay over 80 million viewers as this is still looking like a promising hit for ICE.
The Carpenters Hour headed to Kyla Ray's old stopping grounds in Philadelphia aka Janit O'Day territory to find the next breed of soul singers from that region. Last season The Hour was able to find the Terrible Twins also known as the Moe sisters Jesalyn and Vanessa. Jesalyn spent the previous two season in the competition as she was known as a troublemaker and got herself kicked out of the competition. This season Maddie Zeigler who competes as a dancer is expected to be one of the top stars in the competition this season.
Overnight Nurses slipped below 100 million viewers but just like Secret Auntie the night before it held up extremely well behind its huge lead-in against the 4th quarter and conclusion of the WFL game.
ICE has a working formula on Mondays that they can run without doing any real changes to it.
The same can't be said for NBC who had a disaster of a Monday night but it's not surprising that they ran into these results as Jaws and CSI: LA have completely run out of steam. We reported it back on Friday that CSI: LA is probably going to be airing its last episode on Monday and this looks like it will be the last one as it dropped to an embarrassing 15 million viewers which is okay for daytime but super dreadful for primetime. CSI: LA leaves NITRO as one of the OGs in NITRO as it originally premiered on ROD before moving to NBC later on. ICE used to have a CSI of their own called CSI: Toronto during that first season of NITRO and they cancelled it during that first season. Law & Order: LA also ended after last week's disaster ratings as it looks like CSI: LA will follow it. ICE did say that they may attempt to bring the CSI franchise back in the future and this time the right way.
Jaws was no better leading off at 8pm as for the former hit series dropped to a new series-low in the ratings getting under 30 million viewers. Ever since Mackenzie Rosman left the series back in the summer, Jaws has lost considerable steam and now seems dead. It's not known if Jaws has aired its last episode or not but we do know it will not be airing going into November Sweeps which starts on Wednesday October 31, 2018 that's for sure.
Part of the problem with these shows is that there's no star power and they're airing in tough timeslots against tough competition. We just talked earlier about how the crime dramas have really changed over the years in NITRO and have really centered around female undercover detectives featuring NITRO's star players in the lead roles. NBC will need to find more dramas like that as they've actually done that with Seattle Mysteries which suffered badly on Monday having to grow 30 million viewers out of its lead-in and deal with lowered ratings this week because of its pathetic lead-ins.
Escape the Night is another show which looks done as well at 11pm for NBC. It's gonna be hard for NBC to retool this night the right way because ROD and ICE are way too powerful at the top on this night. Mondays might be a throwaway night for them as every network has at least one throwaway night on their schedule but ROD might've actually found a way to compete on all 7 days of the week.
Tomorrow will be the first Tuesday without Team ICE so tomorrow might actually be interested to see who gets first place as ICE has turned their entire Tuesday lineup into a Psycho Bitch Night with the Janit O'Day franchise shows all airing together in front of Chicago's Most Dangerous Bitch. Janit O'Day and Fugitive at 17 will replace Team ICE from 8-10pm tomorrow night. ROD rolls out its country lineup which has had mixed results so far and NBC has been the standout they might have a chance at winning with their Comedy Night Done Right lineup and Allison Shields is hosting. Tuesday's episode of Rachel will be the last one before Terri Shields joins the lineup for its 2nd episode of the week on Thursday night.
