As I was watching season two, it caught me curiosity about the changes and ratings of Bewitched. After a little research, noticed something interesting. Bewitched had its biggest drop in ratings from season 1 to season 2, and I always wondered why. Was it the production changes? Audiences did like Tabitha? But after some review, it became more apparent the the drop was mostly like due to the show still being filmed in black and white. 1965-66 was THE year for the switch to color, and only a few shows were in B&W. The switch created a renewed interest in TV, and audiences tuned in to see Lucy in color, and Red Skelton, et al. Color TV sales jumped from 1.5 million to over 5 million sets that year.
Also, I noticed during research that Bewitched did not plummet in the ratings in the 1969-70 season as many suggest. The difference between Bewitched viewers from 1967 to 1970 was a mere 400,000 viewers. Also, Bewitched regained audience in the fourth and fifth seasons even though the show's rank dropped out of the Top Ten. Bewitched fell 5 ratings points from season 1 and 2, but only 2 ratings points from season 5 to 6. Also, I noticed that season 7's drop was not about the show at all, but about a new, fresh program called The Flip Wilson Show which pulled a Bewitched trick of its own, ranking #2 its first season. Obviously, Geraldine was a witch
Just catching up on Harpies today; that's some significant research, Greg. Sounds like they were smart to move to color when they did. Was that an overall rating for the seasons (specifically thinking of the difference between seasons 1 and 2)?"Witches are good! Witches are dear!"
The show had a 30 rating (17.1 million viewers) in the lst season, and dropped to 26. rating (13.9million viewers) in the second season, which accounted for a drop in over 3.2 million viewers.
Had Bewitched lost as many viewers for season 3, the show would not have even ranked in the top 30!
And even though season 4 and 5 dropped out of the top ten, its weekly viewers climbed about a million viewers, which shows how rank is not always show how popular or not a show is.
Season 6 (1970), which many say the show plummeted in the ratings to 24th place, the show only lost 400,000 viewers from its 1968 numbers and #7 rank. So while it appears to have taken a dive by rank to number 24, it lost far less viewers than the show did between season 1 and 2. Make sense.
Big Question is: why did ABC not demand its #2 show, its all time big hit, switch to color for its second season? Gidget was in color that season. Gidget! So was Barefoot in the Park and That Girl. And BatMan! And Peyton Place... just not Bewitched and Combat. Those were the only two ABC shows not in color in 1965-66. There was some speculation that Bewitched producers claimed it needed more time to prepare for the switch to color due to the special effects.
That's crazy that only two shows were in B/W, and one of the them was Bewitched! Wonder if that's true about the special effects...."Witches are good! Witches are dear!"
Re: Misnomer About Ratings
Posted by Arfies on September 29, 2021, 7:34 am, in reply to "Re: Misnomer About Ratings" Montogomery Fontographer
Obviously I'm late to the party here, but in William Asher's Emmys interview, he badly wanted to switch to color for season 2, but ABC would just not do it. He even broke down the costs showing color wouldn't be that much more expensive, but they wouldn't listen.
Wasn't the Addams Family also not in color for 1965-66 on ABC? I find it hard to believe that only two shows WOULDN'T be in color.The largest collection of Bewitched fan fiction on the Net!