I was only going to relegate this to my weekly blurbs (and it will still have a spot for a reason that I’ll tell you about later in the post), but this deserves more than that after I’ve noticed something that has come up over the last couple of days.

It seems evident to me that VH1 is not all too sure about what they are going to do with Hollywood Exes. Last Monday’s preview episode delivered 1.998 million viewers and a 1.0 in the 18-49 demo which most likely surpassed VH1’s expectations for it. However no press release was issued because it was not the official premiere for the show.

Some of you might have noticed that there was also no press release (combined numbers and all) issued for Wednesday’s premiere of Hollywood Exes even though VH1 aired 2 episodes. Wednesday’s official premiere of Hollywood Exes brought in 770,000 viewers and a 0.4 in the demo. This number could have been expected to be a little depressed since the episode was aired on Monday however episode 2 (which aired right after) delivered a slightly better 840,000 viewers and the same 0.4 in the demo.

To the unsuspecting eye those Wednesday ratings probably seem downright disappointing or even floppish but they aren’t. They are the best Wednesday numbers VH1 has seen in quite a long time (Not since Celebrity Rehab 4 that I can recall) and VH1 still seems determined in trying to make Wednesdays happen for them since (at this moment because things are subject to change) they still have Mama Drama (a show that was originally supposed to premiere in January only to get pushed back because VH1 wanted to try to save Baseball Wives. I've also discovered that while VH1 hasn't changed the premiere date of Mama Drama, they have changed the time to 11pm so in other words have no hope for that show. VH1 is just burning it off) slated to premiere later this month on the 18th.

What throws a wrench in those plans is that VH1 has scheduled another “preview” episode of Hollywood Exes tomorrow night at 10pm and after doing research all signs point to this being a new episode so it would be the 3rd episode in 1 week to air. Though it’s a very last minute schedule change (didn’t show up on the schedule until Friday) it would be understandable if VH1 was planning to air the episode here instead of on Wednesday, July 4th because of the holiday but this isn’t the plan. VH1 still plans on airing this same episode on Wednesday and touting it as a new episode (but it isn’t. It’s still episode 3 and that’s when all the reruns will start too which means Monday’s episode is another preview and not indicative of a permanent move just yet).

That leaves me to wonder what the hell VH1 intends to do with this show. It seems as if VH1 is seriously pondering a move but they aren’t quite sure where. They have 3 options for this show which are to…

1. Leave it on Wednesdays- This could happen if they don’t push back Mama Drama. The Wednesday numbers are a bit encouraging but it may not be encouraging to critics and advertisers who will look at the 2 Monday numbers and feel that either VH1 sucks at promoting (very true), the viewers are just turned off (because of how well it has been sampled and that the audience isn’t carrying over to Wednesdays), that they are trying to kill the show by leaving it on a dead night (this has truth to it) or that VH1 is still a mess in that they would renew a high-profile show delivering under a million viewers (For Wednesdays they will take anything above 600k).


2. Move it to Mondays- If VH1 wanted to shepherd this show to a season 2 and grab all the ratings they can they would leave it here. Of course the show would have higher expectations (meaning below 1.2 million would be unacceptable especially if Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and Single Ladies stay well over 2 million viewers) but while it would help the overall average of the network, having another show to create a 3 hour block is excessive and unnecessary seeing as they have problems elsewhere. That leads me to…

3. Move it to Sundays- This would be a bold move because a move here would force VH1 to admit that Mob Wives: Chicago is a flop (My formal prediction for that show's chances is here). However this option has to be in the back of their minds because Big Ang’s show could flop too next week meaning there would be no successful spinoffs to Mob Wives and that looks really bad considering that they have made Mob Wives their flagship show (even though the original and spinoff versions of Basketball Wives and Love & Hip Hop deliver much better ratings). There’s also a risk in moving Hollywood Exes here and that dies too (again bringing out critics when VH1 has been able to avoid the glare of the media towards their ratings woes on Sundays).

So what does VH1 do in the end? I don’t know. I’m less sure of this than I was 3 days ago though I’m still leaning towards a move off Wednesdays. Where is anyone’s guess but I don’t think VH1 will wait a long time to make this decision because Hollywood Exes only has an order for 10 episodes and burning through 3 of those episodes in a week doesn’t work in VH1’s favor.

Update (7/11/12): I suppose it wouldn't be an extra hassle so from here I'll post the ratings for Hollywood Exes every week until the show is done (expect updates to come the next day, particularly in the evening, after the new episiode airs).

Update (8/30/12): The full season of ratings appears in the list below. At the present moment there is no reunion show scheduled to air so I have updated the end month for this show. If there is a last-minute reunion scheduled I will add those numbers and update the list. Please know that word of a renewal may not come from VH1 right away however I will say that if VH1 remains silent on the fate of this show for more than 8 months then I will consider it to be cancelled.

Update (9/12/12): There are no plans to do a reunion show but VH1 has officially renewed the show for a season 2 which will debut in 2013.


Hollywood Exes
(6/2012-8/2012)

Premiere Preview: 1.998 million (Aired 6/25)
Premiere: 770,000 (Aired 6/27)
Episode 2: 840,000 (Aired 6/27)
Episode 3 Preview: 1.803 million (Aired 7/2)
Episode 3: 440,000 (Aired 7/4)
Episode 4: 663,000 (Aired 7/11)
Episode 5: 667,000 (Aired 7/18)
Episode 6: 977,000 (Aired 7/25)
Episode 7: 812,000 (Aired 8/1)
Episode 8: 968,000 (Aired 8/8)
Episode 9: 979,000 (Aired 8/15)
Episode 10: 792,000 (Aired 8/23)
Finale: 966,000 (Aired 8/29)