Jamz said:

That's a pretty big drop. And it will go down some more in the finals because football was on in a couple markets.

I think people were not aware that it was a new episode too. Most shows are going on a winter break and with the repeat last week many might have assumed it was already done for the month.

Another factor might be TNT's debut of Men of a Certain age. That wouldn't really cause the demo drop but it might with total viewers.

it seems the forgetting was definitely the case.  i had several friends who text me throughout the day asking if it was new because they assumed it wasn't because of the rerun last week.

It's too bad this episode was treated as a throwaway episode. Even on the abc main page they did not run the usual ad for it. I found that rather disappointing. It was a good, solid episode with some really nice (not over the top) B&C moments.

Looking at all the facts we still did pretty darn good. So many people forgot to watch (because of last week's repeat), Find My Family obviously sucks (given their reviews/ratings), and I like to call out weather. Some cities were having blizzards and lost power.

As long as we all keep watching and don't "forget" about Castle, we're good.

I'm sad that the show had such low ratings.  

I am still not worried for Castle, since we are still on track to make a big ratings score starting in January.  

By the way, I really feel that we are going to have a season 3 of Castle! (I just know it)

P.S. Ashley_Slomo you are the wiz at the Avatar, you make me smile   when you put my favorite clips on your avatar. (It doesn't get boring)

haha! and me too find my family is a bit too teary for me…but i guess its not too bad due to the random airing last week but at least the 18-49 demo wasn't too bad

let's hope for more viewers in JAnuary!! (but we will totally get them)

People also were saying at TVbythenumbers, that in some areas Castle wasn't even aired, being replaced by the remembrance shows about December 7th, 1941. This also affected the ratings.

What about iTunes? Does that count? I usually buy and watch from there the morning after the show airs and watch at lunch.

This was def a throw away ep as far as ABC was concerned.  I like shows that go 12 in, take their month off, and then finish strong with 12 consecutive eps.  I hope Castle does this, but with the Olympics I have no idea how it will be scheduled.

It's funny how many (not here of course) act like this was the first episode that Castle didn't have DWTS as a lead in. Completely forgetting that the last new one drew its highest numbers. While it's possible those new viewers didn't like what they saw that's too much of a dramatic drop to say it's dependent on DWTS as a lead in.

I forgot about some people losing power due to storms and some affliates airing rememberances specials on top of the football game airing in a couple major markets.

Castle had a serious gain out of a terrible lead in and I'm sure ABC took notice.

Here's the final numbers though:

Castle
- 7.804 million viewers
- 5.1/9 HH
- 2.1/5 A18-49

I'm sad for the lower numbers but what everyone has been saying about other shows, power outages, not being aware of a new episode etc seem very plausible. The air dates schedule was a bit strange. Personally I enjoy Glee, but I don't quite understand what the full extent of the hype is about. It's a good show, but it's not as good (in my lowly opinion) as everyone seems to think that it is! The songs are catch and pretty awesome of course, but some of the plots are just plain uninteresting and kinda silly. Does anyone else think this or is it just me? In other words I'd much rather watch a new Castle than a new Glee

neodnut said:I'm sad for the lower numbers but what everyone has been saying about other shows, power outages, not being aware of a new episode etc seem very plausible. The air dates schedule was a bit strange. Personally I enjoy Glee, but I don't quite understand what the full extent of the hype is about. It's a good show, but it's not as good (in my lowly opinion) as everyone seems to think that it is! The songs are catch and pretty awesome of course, but some of the plots are just plain uninteresting and kinda silly. Does anyone else think this or is it just me? In other words I'd much rather watch a new Castle than a new Glee

Of course I'd rather watch a new Castle then a new Glee, but I enjoy the music. The plots, well yeah, they sometimes suck, but I choose to adore the music!