While it was slightly delayed due to President Bush’s address on the current financial crisis, ABC’s much-hyped two-hour David Blaine special still proved to be a dud with only 7.7 million viewers, according to overnight ratings. David Blaine’s Dive of Death (pictured) lost more than half of its Dancing With the Stars lead-in audience (15.6 million). The illusionist could not compete with CBS’ Criminal Minds which won the 9-10 p.m. hour with 15.1 million, up 19 percent from last year’s premiere of 12.7 million. NBC’s America’s Got Talent also dipped in viewership with 10.3 million, down from last week’s 12 million. But the biggest ratings bomb of the night would have to be Fox’s ‘Til Death which only saw about 4.1 million viewers.
At 10 p.m., CSI: NY was also up from last year’s premiere (12.7 million) with a quite impressive 15.6 million viewers, building slightly on Minds’ audience. NBC’s Lipstick Jungle season 2 premiere only earned 6.1 million viewers, down from its 7.5 million debut last February.
Earlier in the evening, CBS’ new comedy block of The New Adventures of Old Christine and rooke series Gary Unmarried were not met with much laughter, rating just 6.7 million and 6.8 million, respectively. NBC’s flashy reboot of Knight Rider also bombed with a sorry 7.3 million, a big drop from the 12.7 million people that watched the network’s February TV movie. Elsewhere, Fox’s Bones continued to perform solidly with 9.6 million while The CW’s America’s Next Top Model reached 4.1 million eyes.
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I’m surprised anybody watched this garbage. This guy is not entertaining at all and it’s an insult when he’s mentioned with anything Houdini did.
David Blaine Dive of Disappointment
I think we all felt a bit disappointed for the ABC special David Blaine Dive of Death. It was more like Dive of Disappointment. The 2 hr Special which aired on ABC Sept 24th 2008 was noting more than some card tricks and magician or endurance artist David Blaine hanging around as the build up to the Dive of Death. After 2 hrs of poorly over exaggerated reaction by those that David paid at one point to react to his card tricks, finally it was time for David to leap from a 40 ft platform into the unknown. The host of the live show claimed he did not even know the desired outcome of the dive. If you watched him jump or more like be lowered to the ground only to dangle as an awkward silence filled the air. Fans that were on site watching live waited as if the jump were to lead to something unexpected or dramatic but, no. David just dangled from a visible cable on his back only to be slowly and I mean slowly lifted into the silence of the night and the disappointed supporters left with no ending and to be honest no beginning. It is as if the last few ABC David Blaine specials have been flawed or come short of the promised delivery. Perhaps David Blaine or should I say David Bla, should focus on something he can successfully conquer or just stick to card tricks and coin magic that you can buy at your local gag shop. Is this really worthy a prime time TV special? Then again, that’s all the networks are selling us is junk so, perhaps it is a nice marriage.
If you watched David Blaine dive of Death and were less than impressed or even if you think David is a saint, you’re input is welcome.
Calling it like it is,
^V^incent Lords
who cares
the david blaine thing was incredibly stupid, and too much of a hype for nothing. a waste of the 10 minutes i watched it for
I don’t know why networks are insisting viewers like 2 hour events. It’s asking a lot to have people sit down for a movie’s length on a weeknight to watch something. Heroes couldn’t do it, and it isn’t surprising Fringe did much better the second week (with a House lead in). Who wants to put in a whole night for something they’ve never watched before and probably didn’t know what it was?
That kind of physical endurance stunt had a very short shelf life. The olympics this year was the real thing. Actual physical endurance.. The kind you train for all your life. Not this comic book, diva, commercialized stunt machine. Criss Angel is just as goony. They both used to be groundbreaking and then it just got corny.
What’s with the scheduled breaks? Is he unionized now?
Was he taking breaks during all of his other feats of daring?
I think his ego got the best of his act.
Wow, 7.7 million people thought this would be interesting?
I suppose that means we should be able to get at least 5.5 million to watch televised paint drying.
That David Blain Dive of Death special was boring and a waste. Put on some real television shows and not some overly produced, overly dramatic fluff.
Fox: Bring back “Back to You”!
It was awesome that the crowd started booing him based on the obvious wire-work.
If you’re going to call it a “dive of death” … you can’t postpone it because it’s too dangerous. The whole point is that it’s supposed to be dangerous .. why else would anyone watch? this is retarded …
They pulled in nearly 8 million viewers to watch a clip show composed of old stunts and not much else until the last few minutes of the program, and it beat out a host of new shows over the night. I imagine that network is thrilled rather than disappointed over those numbers.
Too bad all of you have to jump on the “Bash Blaine” bandwagon….its obvious your all closet Blaine lovers….you’re all just retarded…or democrat
I’m lucky to have recorded the ending to the so-called “Dive of Death” on my HD DVD Recorder. That could go down in tv history as the most anti-climactic overproduced tv garbage and I have an HD recording! Embarrassing! Who could have ever thought that stunt even conceptually was worthy of a live tv show? Someday I’ll show my kids how bad tv got in 2008.
People who hate Blaine must be Democrats? Actually, okay – I’ll accept that logic. Because Blaine-haters are skeptics and intellectuals – smart people use their brains and question things! Republicans will obviously believe anything – Tax cuts during massive spending won’t hurt the economy, Iraq was a threat to the US, Evolution is fake, David Blaine stunts are amazing, blah, blah, blah. Sheeple.
The only surprise is that anyone watched this at all. I can’t imagine having so little going on in my life that I would tune in to see some idiot hanging upside down for no apparent reason. Perhaps next we can watch paint dry. What’s most amazing is that it was a 2 hour special – two hours!!!
…and you MUST be republican to believe in magic. I wonder if McCain postponed the debate because his mind has been so vexed with Blane’s latest feat that he can’t possibly talk about the economy until next week.
Blame David Blaine
I am most disappointed by the fact that David has always and continues to use “stooges” or “plants” in most of his televised street magic routines. For example, the lottery ticket routine shown last night is accomplished by simply using 6 people planted in the crowd who have been given the number ahead of time. It is a well know fact that David used enhanced/fake photography in his first street magic special when performaing his “Personal Levitation” a.k.a. The Balducci Levitation. That fake photography got David in some legal problems with IBM, Corp who hired him for a trade show shortly after his first TV show aired but were sadly disappointed when he could only levitate 4 or 5 inches (like we all do when performing the Balducci Levitation) as opposed to the 16 to 18 inches Daivd faked on television. Bottom line… I still like him and will always watch!
What a waste; read the comments and good thing I didn’t watch nor record the show.
it was awesome. this is the best magician to have ever lived on this earth. better than the late great myrlin
Thank goodness we DVRd the David Blaine show to watch America’s Got Talent. My sister and I watched the show that actually had talent, then went back to see what Blaine was up to. The entire time we kept wondering … “What is this dive of death? What is going to happen?” So, like everyone else, we kept watching. The end finally comes and he is lowered from a cable to dangle and then be lifted up … what the CRAP!!!??? I was seriously mad at the end. I mean i really wanted to give him another chance after his HUGE disappointment with his last attempt to hold his breath for 9 min (which also didn’t work!). But I will never watch another David Blaine ANYTHING. What was he thinking? “Where did he go?” HE’S AT THE TOP OF THE CRAIN!!!
This is how the trick was supposed to go:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxsfhFmW71JZPr4OA8yqHI_v2GQwD93DT3602
I still don’t get how he is classified as a magician
That absolutely sucked donkeyass! Blaine should stick to card tricks and doing 11 year olds birthday parties!
I think Barack Obama wants to make this assclown Secretary of State.
That absolutely sucked donkeyass! Blaine should stick to card tricks and doing 11 year olds birthday parties!
I think Barack Obama wants to make this assclown Secretary of State.
“Donald Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 04:33 PM EST
Fox: Bring back “Back to You”!”
Please, Kelsey, find a job and get off EW.com
Thank you, Laura. I’m happy to know how the trick was supposed to work, but even the intended trick would have been equally disappointing!
why does anyone tune into this JUNK at all? What a waste of time and energy. Hole in the Wall is Oscar-worthy compared to anything David Blaine does.
PS CRANE not CRAIN. sigh. American schools fail again.
CRISS ANGEL ROCKS!