In last week's chart tallying the top TV shows on entertainment check-in service GetGlue, The CW's "Nikita" made a surprise leap into second place. This week, it extends its momentum. A few notes:
- You know how Justin Bieber "Beliebers" routinely organize campaigns to get their boy to trend on Twitter? It seems that fans of The CW's "Nikita" may be similarly rallying to get their favorite show to surge on GetGlue. The drama, which doesn't even win its 8 p.m. Eastern time slot on Friday nights, bumps up a notch from the No. 2 spot last week to dethrone CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," which until now has had a death grip on the No. 1 spot throughout the fall.
- What's extra remarkable about the "Nikita" triumph is that it took the top spot with a rerun. But The CW did a smart thing: Capitalizing on the fan excitement surrounding the last fresh episode (which aired on Dec. 2), it rebroadcast the Season 2 premiere, titled "Game Change," this past Friday, so "Nikita" superfans could do a start-from-the-beginning rewind without having to wait for the "Nikita" DVD/Blu-ray box sets (which aren't scheduled to get released until next summer). It also helps that the 8 p.m. competition on Friday nights -- including NBC's "Chuck" and ABCs "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" -- appeals to demos that are considerably less social-media savvy than The CW's audience.
- Have you ever watched "Nikita"? Wondering what its fans see in it? Basically, it fits right into network television's penchant for putting dark, conspiracy-centric dramas on Friday nights, from "The X Files" in the '90s to "Fringe" today. ("Fringe" airs on Fox in the time slot following "Nikita," so they're not head-to-head competitors.) "Nikita" is an extension of the franchise that began with the 1990 French film of the same name that also spawned a 96-episode run of the Canadian drama "La Femme Nikita," which ran on USA Network from 1997 to 2001. To give you a taste of what the current incarnation of "Nikita" has going on, here's The CW's summary of "Game Change": "Nikita and Michael plan to take down Division and Oversight, using the contents of the black box to help them with their mission. Amanda is now leading Division, but Oversight has assigned one of their agents, Sean, to keep a close watch on her. Amanda's first mission is to retrieve the black box from Nikita. ..." It goes on, but I'll stop now. You get the idea.
- Elsewhere on our chart, Stephen King's "Bag of Bones," an A&E original miniseries, takes our No. 3 spot with check-ins from just Part 1. (Part 2 aired last night so watch for it in next week's charticle.) And "Grimm" is back in the Top 10 for the first time since its premiere on Oct. 28.
