I can't say there's a theme to this week's list though I did take this opportunity to assess the state of VH1's Thursday night lineup.

1. The Haves and the Have Nots (3.490 million 1.0)- OWN should be really proud of this show primarily because they don’t have too much to be proud of. This show is the textbook definition of a sleeper hit show and it is probably at the point in its run now where it can be tested to try to launch some newcomers.

2. Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta (2.158 million 1.1)- This came very close to reaching series low ratings but this is one of those rare opportunities where it was the fault of the network and not the show for making that happen. I expected dramatically lower numbers for this Thursday episode. I wasn’t betting on the show going this low and with only one of the 3 Thursday shows posting remarkable gains with this one-time deal, I think this was a gamble VH1 lost.

3. Beyond Scared Straight (1.606 million 0.7)- The last few weeks of this show have done pretty well and have gotten back to where I’m used to seeing this show. A&E know they hurt the show early in the season with their Friday stunt but now the show has recovered and it is time to regroup and probably come back with a new batch of episodes in a few months.

4. Longmire (3.677 million 0.6)- I don’t talk about this show very much because it follows the same formula every season. It has a high number of total viewers for the network it airs on but the demo is pretty low which means it’s an older skewing show. Things like this make for pretty boring ratings discussion but it does create happy networks.

5. Rich Kids of Beverly Hills (Premiere: 1.068 million 0.5; Episode 2: 910,000 0.5)- I think these numbers are similar to the beginning of last season. I have never really been sold on this show being a hit. With the Kardashians they pull acceptable but not exemplary numbers for the network. Without the Kardashians the show struggles a little bit more than it probably should and it appears E! is setting the stage for that same formula to occur this season.

6. Dating Naked (1.042 million 0.5)- Normally 50% retention out of the network’s best show being called upon to help a struggling lineup wouldn’t be a promising result. However, if Mob Wives doesn’t come back before the end of the year, this will likely be the last time this year that a non-Monday show gets numbers this high. This show did the best it could with the opportunity and it is beginning to mount a pretty solid case for renewal. With that said, I do expect the ratings to slump again on Thursday and VH1's announced plans for a wedding special next month are highly premature.

7. Switched at Birth (1.290 million 0.6)- ABC Family has been slumping this summer with all of their returning scripted shows experiencing down ratings and all of their new shows aren’t getting traction at all. It’s easy to create a strategy when one show is suffering but it is a much more difficult task when every show is experiencing a decline. That’s something the network will have to seriously address.

8. Candidly Nicole (580,000 0.2)- This show is still on the bad side of the bubble in my opinion. With an inflated Dating Naked, this show really needed to take the opportunity to get sampled yet these numbers really don’t show any sort of substantial improvement (They are up about 30k from the premiere and 70k from last week). These numbers will probably slip further away from renewal as the season moves on.

9. Celebrity Wife Swap (3.07 million 1.1)- This was just a ridiculously low rated show the entire season and ABC pretty much behaved as if they didn’t care. They had some higher profile late spring/early summer shows and most of them have been a disappointment so if ABC is fine with filler they may find a way to bring this back next year but they really shouldn’t bother.

10. Leann & Eddie (459,000 0.2)- In my eyes this show is dead. I understand how it is hard being the third show in line on a low visibility night but the two leads have names for themselves. I wouldn’t necessarily say they have fans and I suppose that is showing here because it is clear that nobody cares about them or this show.