Reason to smile
“Dallas’s” audience grew a little this week: “D.T.R.,” the latest episode, debuted to 1.79 million viewers on March 24, or about 8,000 more viewers than the previous entry, “Lifting the Veil,” drew one week earlier.
The show lost viewers in one important category, however. “D.T.R.” grabbed 577,000 adults between 18 and 49, a demographic many advertisers pay top dollar to reach. On March 17, “Lifting the Veil” drew 595,000 viewers in the demo.
“Dallas” is averaging a little more than 2 million viewers on Mondays at 9 p.m. this year, down from 2.7 million viewers on Mondays last season.
“The numbers could be better, but they could also be a lot worse,” said Marc Berman, editor in chief of TV Media Insights, a top industry news site.
“Dallas” is one of three original dramas on TNT’s winter schedule. The other two are “Rizzoli & Isles,” which averages 3.85 million viewers on Tuesdays at 9 p.m., and “Perception,” which averages 1.96 million viewers on Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
“Dallas” gets a nice lift from DVR users who record each episode and watch it a few days later. For example, by the end of last week, DVR users had boosted “Lifting the Veil’s” audience to 2.6 million viewers — an increase of almost 1 million people. This audience included 1.5 million adults between ages 18 and 49 and 1.7 million adults between 25 and 54, a demographic TNT targets.
There’s also this: Since March 10, TNT has been running each new “Dallas” episode twice in prime time on Mondays — once at 9 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. The 10 p.m. replays have averaged 751,000 viewers.
If you combine the audiences for the two telecasts, “Dallas” has averaged roughly 2.6 million viewers during the past three Monday nights. Berman said there probably isn’t a lot of overlap between the two showings, although he hung around after this week’s 9 p.m. telecast of “D.T.R.” to catch the first few minutes of the 10 p.m. replay.
“It was such a fantastic opening with Sue Ellen. I had to see it again,” he said.
Look Who’s Talking
Fresh off her dynamo performance in this week’s episode, Linda Gray is scheduled to drop by “The Talk” on Thursday, March 27. CBS airs the show weekdays at 2 p.m.
“Drill Bits,” a roundup of news about TNT’s “Dallas,” is published regularly. Share your comments below.
Dallas Decoder 
I’m glad to see some positive news about Dallas. All I see elsewhere on the other Dallas website is doom and gloom.
Many seniors who were fans of the old show don’t buy anything & they r dying off leavinga fractured demographic set of audiences 4 DALLAS & other shows 2 fight over!
I think everyone should write to TNT head of programming Michael Wright and give our support and ask to give the show 1 more season, It is just now beginning to improve a lot and finding itself.
michael.wright@turner.com
i imagine that Dallas will do better in the late summer and if so then maybe TNT will decide to renew it for another season. i kind of like the season being broken up into 2 parts because i wont have to wait an entire year between seasons. this season, people ive spoken to have loved Sue Ellen and been put off by Judith. i know alot of viewers like the crazy direction that Judith going in but some of us are not so sure….a friend of mine who watches with her family said that her parents quit watching after the coke snorting episode… it seems that the Dallas writers want to shock people so that everyone will be talking about the show but good storylines and believable characters can bring viewers in also…example – Downton Abbey.