Yet another list where both airings of American Idol stand atop of all others. No surprises there.
Desperate Housewives, which was fourth in the overall rankings, moves up a spot in the 18-49 year old demographic to number 3. Two and a Half Men, which was #7 overall, jumps to #4, and NBC's The Office which didn't even make the overall viewing top 20 (it was #21) jumps all the way up to #5. Hell's Kitchen, the 16th ranked show in total viewing climbs to #6 in the 18-49 demo. These shows all improved from their overall ranking when it comes to the 18-49 demographic.
But then there's Dancing with the Stars, the #3 and #5 shows overall that drops to #10 and #14 on this list. That's not as bad as it was for CBS' NCIS though, which was #6 overall with over 15 million viewers and fell to number 20 on this list where it had only about 4.1 million 18-49 year olds watching. The 50+ crowd loves NCIS!
CBS can take comfort in the fact that it still placed the most shows on this list with 7, followed by NBC and ABC with five each, and FOX with only 3 three.
The most impressive two shows on this list to me were NBC's The Office and FOX's Hell's Kitchen. 58.6% of Hell's Kitchen's overall viewers were in the key demographic. The Office was even more impressive, with 65.8% of its total viewers being in the 18-49 demographic. By comparison, 48.67% of American Idol's viewers were in the demo, and but 27% of NCIS' viewers.
Nielsen Top Twenty 18-49 Shows by viewers for the week ending 04/20/08:
| Rank | Shows | Net | 18-49 RATING (LIVE+SD) | Viewers 18-49 (LIVE+SD) (000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | American Idol-TUESDAY | FOX | 8.8 | 11,509 |
| 2 | American Idol-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 8.8 | 11,498 |
| 3 | Desperate Housewives | ABC | 5.5 | 7,259 |
| 4 | Two and a Half Men | CBS | 5.3 | 6,988 |
| 5 | OFFICE | NBC | 5.0 | 6,488 |
| 6 | HELL'S KITCHEN | FOX | 4.7 | 6,190 |
| 7 | Law And Order:SVU | NBC | 4.7 | 6,173 |
| 8 | Biggest Loser 5 | NBC | 4.4 | 5,827 |
| 9 | Rules of Engagement | CBS | 4.1 | 5,372 |
| 10 | Dancing with the Stars | ABC | 4.1 | 5,339 |
| 11 | SURVIVOR: MICRONESIA | CBS | 3.9 | 5,132 |
| 12 | CSI: NY | CBS | 3.9 | 5,051 |
| 13 | SCRUBS | NBC | 3.7 | 4,792 |
| 14 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 3.6 | 4,673 |
| 15 | Criminal Minds | CBS | 3.5 | 4,560 |
| 16 | How I Met Your Mother | CBS | 3.4 | 4,504 |
| 17 | BROTHERS & Sisters | ABC | 3.4 | 4,498 |
| 18 | OPRAH'S BIG GIVE | ABC | 3.2 | 4,239 |
| 19 | MEDIUM | NBC | 3.2 | 4,219 |
| 20 | NCIS | CBS | 3.1 | 4,094 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved
