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Nielsen Ratings Sun May 4: ABC Wins As Housewives Crush Field

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May 5th, 2008

Scoreboard for Sun. May 4, 2008 ABC CBS FOX NBC CW
Total Viewers (million) 11.56 8.71 5.26 4.59 1.19
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 4.2/12 1.8/5 2.6/8 1.2/3 0.5/1

Desperate Housewives' overnight numbers were even better than last week's overnight numbers (can you feel the love, DH fans?) and ABC won the night again in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo, which was up a couple of ticks from last week for ABC as well.

The order of finish was exactly the same as last Sunday. The most notable change was CBS aired Cold Case at 8pm instead of Big Brother. And while Cold Case had about 5 million more viewers than Big Brother did last week, it only bettered it in the 18-49 demographic by a tenth of a ratings point. I may have to rethink my Big Brother thinking (Dear Les & Julie, you were right, I was wrong...sorry).

CBS then ran two hours of Dexter, neither of which broke a 2.0 in the 18-49 demo. It's too bad really, I think this is one of the better shows in all of television though I haven't watched any of the edited for CBS versions to see what they are like.

FOX got solid performance out of its animated block, though Family Guy's dominance over The Simpsons , especially in the demo was more pronounced as last week The Simpsons had noticeably better performance in the overnights (7.69m 3.6/10 in the demo last week vs. 6.18m and a 3.0/9 this week). All of that can't be chalked up to Daylight Savings Time as last week had that too!

60 Minutes won the 7pm hour in total viewers with 10.52 million, but America's Funniest Home Videos won the 18-49 demo with a 2.4/9. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition took the 8pm crown in both total viewers and the age demographic and Desperate Housewives trounced the field at 9pm. At 10pm, ABC's Brothers & Sisters had almost 11m viewers and a 3.9/11 in the 18-49 demographic.

A good night for ABC.

Sunday Night's Details:

Time Network Show Viewers (Millons) 18-49 Rating/Share
7:00 ABC America's Funniest Home Videos 7.32 2.4/9
  NBC Dateline (7p-8p) 4.2 1.2/4
  CBS 60 Minutes 10.52 1.5/6
  FOX King of the Hill (Repeat) 2.24 1.1/4
  CW America's Next Top Model (Repeat) 1.09 0.4/1
         
7:30 FOX The Simpsons (Repeat) 3.55 1.7/6
         
8:00 ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11.46 4.1/12
  FOX The Simpsons 6.18 3.0/9
  NBC Monk (Repeat) 4.12 0.9/3
  CBS Cold Case 11.57 2.4/7
  CW Everybody Hates Chris 1.24 0.4/1
         
8:30 FOX King of the Hill 5.69 2.7/8
  CW Aliens in American 1.04 0.4/1
         
9:00 ABC Desperate Housewives 16.63 6.2/16
  FOX Family Guy 7.68 3.9/10
  CW The Game 1.44 0.6/2
  CBS Dexter 6.11 1.5/4
  NBC Psych (Repeat) 3.75 1.0/2
         
9:30 CW Girlfriends (Repeat) 1.25 0.5/1
  FOX American Dad 6.21 3.1/8
         
10:00 ABC Brothers & Sisters 10.95 3.9/11
  NBC Law & Order: SVU (Repeat) 6.28 1.8/5
  CBS Dexter 6.63 1.8/5

Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Full night's results available via Marc Berman/Mediaweek.

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(23) Comments - Add Yours!

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  1. Patty95

    Wow, DH is up again … maybe last episode will average 17 million viewers :) And I hope that finale get 18-19.

  2. Elyk988

    Fox just can’t get their animation numbers to beat CBS or ABC ever. Very disappointing.

  3. Family Guy was hilarious last night. Top 10 episode of all time!

  4. qazwsx

    I am so excited for DH and Brothers and Sisters Emmy voters Take notes

  5. Julia

    Is it just me or does 2.8 in the demo seem really high for Monk?

  6. Not to go all Seinfeld-ian on you, but it’s not you, it’s me!

    Fixed.

  7. dave

    wow dateline doesn’t even put up a fight against 60 minutes.

    Fox’s cartoons are popular online too. Family Guy is HULU’s 3rd most popular program for the past week. Simpsons 4th; American Dad 7th; and King of the Hill 17th.

    I think Dexters rating would be a lot higher if it wasn’t the censored version of the show. I know thats why I don’t watch.

    Monk and Pysch pull in better numbers on cable.

  8. Guess Who

    Why is ALIENS IN AMERICA still on? Its awful and the ratings show it. Then again CW is a network thats gone down the tubes so they probably dont care about low ratings. They cancelled Veronica Mars for junk like that?

  9. AIA is only still on to use up its available new episodes. It won’t be coming back.

  10. Is that cancellation official (as it is for Life is Wild?) if so, please provide a link! I think it’s definitely cancelled though as one of the actors on AIA (Adhir Kalyan who plays Raja) signed on for a recurring role on Nip/Tuck a week or two ago…

  11. Andrea

    I just read that NBC is pulling Psych and Monk from the schedule and replacing them with reruns of The Office.

  12. dave

    Reruns of the office aren’t likely to do well against Fox’s cartoon block. Oh, NBC how little you try.

  13. dave

    Reruns of the office aren’t likely to do well against Fox’s cartoon block. Oh, NBC how little you try.

  14. Family Guy gets 1.5 million more viewers, but what does it mean when it gets 3.9/10 compared to The Simpsons 3.0/9? Is it that 3.9 million viewers are between 18-49 of the 10 million available in that age group? I’ve been to Nielson’s home page, but still don’t get it… OH and HAPPY CINCO de MAYO to you guys… yeah I’m a lil’ buzzzzzzzed…

  15. Family Guy gets 1.5 million more viewers, but what does it mean when it gets 3.9/10 compared to The Simpsons 3.0/9? Is it that 3.9 million viewers are between 18-49 of the 10 million available in that age group? I’ve been to Nielson’s home page, but still don’t get it… OH and HAPPY CINCO de MAYO to you guys… yeah I’m a lil’ buzzzzzzzed…

  16. Family Guy gets 1.5 million more viewers, but what does it mean when it gets 3.9/10 compared to The Simpsons 3.0/9? Is it that 3.9 million viewers are between 18-49 of the 10 million available in that age group? I’ve been to Nielson’s home page, but still don’t get it… OH and HAPPY CINCO de MAYO to you guys… yeah I’m a lil’ buzzzzzzzed…

  17. Doug

    An adults 18-49 ratings point = 1.34 million viewers. So, with a 3.0 rating, The Simpsons had 4.02 million viewers in the 18-49 bracket. With a 3.0/10, 3.0 represents the total % of 18-49 households in the country watching The Simpsons, while the 10 represents the % of 18-49ers watching tv in that timeslot tuned into the show.

    Say, for instance, that there are 100 18-49 households in a given sample. A 3.0/10 means that 3 of those households were watching The Simpsons. But since there were only 30 households with their televisions turned on at the time, TS won 10% of the total available audience.

  18. Doug is correct more or less though I have a slightly different number and a different explanation.

    An 18-49 ratings point = 1 % of the Nielsen Universe Estimate for that population (which I have at 131.5 million, so one percent = 1.315 million) . In this case each 1/10th of a point equals roughly 131,500. FG had roughly 1.2 million more 18-49 viewers than The Simpsons. I say roughly because Nielsen uses rounding too, so there's no way to get exactly to viewers from the ratings points but it's close enough.

    The second number, share, represents the share of people in that demographic with their TVs turned on who were watching that program. The Simpsons had 9% of all 18-49 year olds who were watching TV at that time. Family Guy had 10% of all 18-49 year olds who were watching TV when it was on.

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