Comments on: Nielsen Ratings May 5, 2008: Youth Still Loves FOX's House Best

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:48:44 +0000

2.11 for Gossip Girl yet it gets an extended season + massive advertising budget despite the reality that it is being beaten by basically every other primetime show on the network.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:48:44 +0000

2.11 for Gossip Girl yet it gets an extended season + massive advertising budget despite the reality that it is being beaten by basically every other primetime show on the network.

By: Jason the TVaholic

Jason the TVaholic — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:58:43 +0000

Robert, Thanks. It is interesting to see that the big cable channels, like TNT and USA, have around 85% coverage, but yet can draw bigger overall viewer numbers for their hit shows like The Closer, Monk, etc. than what it takes to be considered a hit on The CW. I know their target demographics may be different, but still.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:08:00 +0000

Jason, not sure about the various broadcast network coverage (I assume very close to 100%), but I’ve posted the Nielsen coverage estimates for the cable networks through 3/08 here:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/05/06/nielsen-cable-network-coverage-estimates/3659

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:08:00 +0000

Jason, not sure about the various broadcast network coverage (I assume very close to 100%), but I’ve posted the Nielsen coverage estimates for the cable networks through 3/08 here:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/05/06/nielsen-cable-network-coverage-estimates/3659

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:08:00 +0000

Jason, not sure about the various broadcast network coverage (I assume very close to 100%), but I’ve posted the Nielsen coverage estimates for the cable networks through 3/08 here:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/05/06/nielsen-cable-network-coverage-estimates/3659

By: Jason the TVaholic

Jason the TVaholic — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:37:52 +0000

Jackson, I believe that The CW reaches like 95% of U.S. households, although the only source I can find is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CW_affiliates.

If anyone has a good source for household coverage of the major networks and/or cable outlets, I would be interested in checking it out.

By: Rob D

Rob D — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:38:00 +0000

Robert Seidman, can you even say that Rules kicks butt in the ratings. I mean, I don’t think it counts. Any show they ever put after 2 and a Half Men does those numbers. It’s been like that for years.

By: Rob D

Rob D — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:38:00 +0000

By: Rob D

Rob D — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:38:00 +0000

By: dave

dave — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:24:00 +0000

Its tuesday. time to dl gg. check out that hip slang.
do advertisers care about buzz? It seems to have little effect on ratings. 2.5 men and rules are two of the least buzzed sitcoms ever but check out those ratings. 30 rock and gossip girl have tons of buzz. tiny ratings. house gets both buzz and ratings. bachelor gets neither. I wonder if advertisers will somewhat forgive poor ratings because they are attaching their names to buzz?

I know deal or no deal is comfortable for NBC.(cheap with middle of the road ratings) but they will never compete with the other networks until they develop some real television programs. I often think NBC just isn’t trying.

I love BBT. i hope to see it move to 9:30 where even mediocre shows(rules) pull big ratings. I don’t see why it wouldn’t; it shares a writer with 2.5 men

By: dave

dave — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:24:00 +0000

I love BBT. i hope to see it move to 9:30 where even mediocre shows(rules) pull big ratings. I don’t see why it wouldn’t; it shares a writer with 2.5 men

By: dave

dave — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:24:00 +0000

I love BBT. i hope to see it move to 9:30 where even mediocre shows(rules) pull big ratings. I don’t see why it wouldn’t; it shares a writer with 2.5 men

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:54:00 +0000

I once had my guilty little pleasure and that was the OC. I’ve seen the pilot of Gossip Girls and immediately knew I would not be coming back for the second so I can’t judge if this is the best show in television history. I’m not a betting man but I would bet my entire lifesavings this show ain’t the greatest ever. I think I’ve seen one OC episode too many, that’s why I’ll never watch another show about rich kids.

Oh, just one last thing…Summer Glau rocks!:D

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:54:00 +0000

Oh, just one last thing…Summer Glau rocks!:D

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:54:00 +0000

Oh, just one last thing…Summer Glau rocks!:D

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Jackson, you can’t use the less affiliates defense. As proven in previous posts by Bill and Robert, there are cable networks, which have even smaller coverage that do much better than CW. Besides the fact that their shows all did better last season. Did they lose affiliates? I don’t think so. (Yes, DVR accounts for some of that, but certainly not the sort of drops we’ve seen.)

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:23:00 +0000

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:23:00 +0000

By: Guess Who

Guess Who — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:27:05 +0000

I would rather eat my own eyes than watch Gossip Goil, a show about oversexed teenie boppers. Its a show that represents everything that wrong with America Yutes.

By: Jackson

Jackson — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:44:00 +0000

Yeah nothing personal but you should’nt be too hard on The CW. It’s still a new network and last I checked, they didn’t have as many affiliates as the other networks, or the same broadcast range and availability in American households. I’m not saying that The CW doesn’t have flaws because it does, such as not promoting it’s best shows (Smallville and Supernatural) enough. But I thought you should just know all the circumstances.

By: Jackson

Jackson — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:44:00 +0000

By: Jackson

Jackson — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:44:00 +0000

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:37:04 +0000

Doh! Good clarification. Then for the last week we had new data for, it was #1 in percentage terms with over 27% of its viewing occurring on DVR (553,000 total).

By: natasha

natasha — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:34:00 +0000

haha, yeah, i meant 400,000. i realize its significant, which is why i’m so confused. it’s just so weird. i’m guessing outside new york, no one really cares, but i’m from texas and everyone i know watches gossip girl. then again, i remember when roswell was cancelled- all my friends were shocked because that’s the show we would discuss in class every day…

By: natasha

natasha — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:34:00 +0000

By: natasha

natasha — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:34:00 +0000

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:31:00 +0000

To clarify, Gossip Girl hasn’t appeared on the top DVR’d list recently because it was in reruns until April 21.

We don’t yet have data for its “new episode” return the week of April 21-27. We will have DVR data for that week next Monday.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:31:00 +0000

To clarify, Gossip Girl hasn’t appeared on the top DVR’d list recently because it was in reruns until April 21.

We don’t yet have data for its “new episode” return the week of April 21-27. We will have DVR data for that week next Monday.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:31:00 +0000

To clarify, Gossip Girl hasn’t appeared on the top DVR’d list recently because it was in reruns until April 21.

We don’t yet have data for its “new episode” return the week of April 21-27. We will have DVR data for that week next Monday.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Natasha — since I haven’t watched I’m not remotely qualified to speculate on why people tuned out, but the drop is more like 400,000 than 40,000, so it’s very significant.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Natasha — since I haven’t watched I’m not remotely qualified to speculate on why people tuned out, but the drop is more like 400,000 than 40,000, so it’s very significant.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Natasha — since I haven’t watched I’m not remotely qualified to speculate on why people tuned out, but the drop is more like 400,000 than 40,000, so it’s very significant.

By: Polly

Polly — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:09:00 +0000

Ay! Hamlet! Yeah!

Wonder if we’ll get the answer for GG before the CW goes out of business?

Good job Medium.

By: Polly

Polly — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:09:00 +0000

Ay! Hamlet! Yeah!

Wonder if we’ll get the answer for GG before the CW goes out of business?

Good job Medium.

By: Polly

Polly — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:09:00 +0000

Ay! Hamlet! Yeah!

Wonder if we’ll get the answer for GG before the CW goes out of business?

Good job Medium.

By: natasha

natasha — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:08:00 +0000

Man, that sucks about Gossip Girl’s ratings this week. I know last week’s episode wasn’t the best ever, but how could they have lost 40,000 viewers? There were 10 people watching the ep with me last night, in a room that was def not designed to fit more than 5 n a good day. Not that I want to be forever making excuses for the low ratings, but maybe the casual viewers were like “screw this gay storyline” and didn’t tune in?

By: natasha

natasha — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:08:00 +0000

By: natasha

natasha — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:08:00 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:08:00 +0000

I’ve said it twice, I’ll say it a third time: iTunes downloads mean almost nothing. They don’t have advertising, they’re not live, and they’re not even close to a quarter of a million. Just because you type in caps doesn’t make it more true.

Not only that, there HAVE been shows with bad ratings that do well on iTunes. Before NBC yanked all of its shows and affiliates from iTunes Battlestar Galactica — a show with similar ratings to Gossip Girl — was #1 on iTunes. Didn’t mean didly squat on a donut.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:08:00 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:08:00 +0000

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:54:00 +0000

Kara,

GG is no DVR powerhouse. It didn’t make either top 20 DVR list last week so either Bill screwed up (certainly possible, but doubtful in this case) or less than 18.3% of Gossip Girl’s viewing came via DVR.

iTunes numbers are meaningless and we know this because CW never publishes them. If they were meaningful (AKA actually a big number) CW would publish them week in, week out, without fail. My best guess at this point is that 10,000 downloads gets you on that list and 50K will keep you at #1. It’s not nothing, but it’s not a big deal.

That said, Gossip Girl could still possibly be the most illegally downloaded/streamed show EVER. But CW can’t make any money on that.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:54:00 +0000

Kara,

That said, Gossip Girl could still possibly be the most illegally downloaded/streamed show EVER. But CW can’t make any money on that.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:54:00 +0000

Kara,

That said, Gossip Girl could still possibly be the most illegally downloaded/streamed show EVER. But CW can’t make any money on that.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:50:00 +0000

To Gossip Girl or not to Gossip Girl — that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or, to take arms agains a sea of trouble
And by opposing, end them…

be all my sins remembered!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:50:00 +0000

be all my sins remembered!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:50:00 +0000

be all my sins remembered!

By: Kara

Kara — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:46:00 +0000

I LOVE GOSSIP GIRL…For having pretty bad ratings its always number 1 on itunes!! In fact the last two episodes ARE STILL ON THE TOP 10!!

I don’t get it…I’ve never seen a show with such bad ratings do so well on itunes, DVR, and “illegal streaming and downloading”…

By: Kara

Kara — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:46:00 +0000

I LOVE GOSSIP GIRL…For having pretty bad ratings its always number 1 on itunes!! In fact the last two episodes ARE STILL ON THE TOP 10!!

I don’t get it…I’ve never seen a show with such bad ratings do so well on itunes, DVR, and “illegal streaming and downloading”…