Um, Did You Watch The Good Guys Last Night?

By Robert Wilonsky Thu., May 20 2010 at 12:24 PM

Categories: From the RTF Dept., Things We Like

Phil McCarten/PictureGroup for FOX

Good Guys Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford with their sweet ride at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Entertainment Weekly has taken a look at the early numbers for last night's sneak peek at FOX's shooting-here series about mismatched Dallas police detectives (Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks) and concluded that so far, so so when it comes to eyeballs. "An inauspicious start" is how Lynette Rice characterizes the ratings, which put The Good Guys No. 4 among The Big Four networks in the 7 p.m. time slot -- after CBS's I Get That A Lot (which drew an inexplicable 7.1 million viewers), two episodes of ABC's The Middle (6.4 million) and NBC's double bill of a Minute to Win It rerun and the first 30 minutes of a Law & Order special (5.4 million). The Good Guys pulled in 5 million viewers.

To which Rice adds:

In the adults 18-49 demographic, Guys tied for third place with Minute with a mere 1.5 rating/3 share -- only a tenth of a point improvement over Fox's week-ago performance with a Lie to Me repeat. Guys also was flat half-hour to half-hour -- not a great sign when folks typically begin to tune in for the results show of American Idol.

FOX execs, though, are clearly true believers as evidenced by the fact they ordered seven more episodes even before they've wrapped shooting on the initial order of 13. (One side note: Production's been based at Fair Park since January, but the extended shooting schedule now means they'll have to find a new home in order to accommodate set-up for the State Fair of Texas when cast and crew return from a month-long break sometime in July.) If you somehow missed The Good Guys last night, well, the entire pilot is after the jump. Me, I like the pilot -- it's appropriately shaggy and retro and wholly without irony. But like I said earlier this week, it's awfully hard to gauge a series by its first episode. And word is the episodes set to air upon its return June 7 are better than last night's Premiere Event.

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