American Idol Takes Top 2 Spots, Followed by Dancing with the Stars
Fox's American Idol took the top 2 spots for average viewers for the 2007-8 broadcast prime-time season ended May 21, 2008 followed by 4 different airings of Dancing with the Stars (two nights from Fall, two nights from Spring).
Rounding out the top 10 were Desperate Housewives, the Tuesday airing of House, CSI, and NBC Sunday Night Football.
Final 2007-8 Season Prime-time Top Shows For Average Viewers
| Rank | Programs | Network | STD Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | American Idol-TUESDAY | FOX | 27,659 |
| 2 | American Idol-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 26,838 |
| 3 | DANCING W/THE STARS-MON | ABC | 21,150 |
| 4 | Dancing with the Stars | ABC | 19,169 |
| 5 | DANCING W/STARS RESULT-TU | ABC | 19,163 |
| 6 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 17,778 |
| 7 | Desperate Housewives | ABC | 17,270 |
| 8 | HOUSE - TUE | FOX | 16,208 |
| 9 | CSI | CBS | 16,036 |
| 10 | NBC Sunday Night Football | NBC | 15,862 |
| 11 | GREY'S ANATOMY | ABC | 14,358 |
| 12 | SURVIVOR: CHINA | CBS | 14,280 |
| 13 | MOMENT OF TRUTH | FOX | 14,172 |
| 14 | NCIS | CBS | 13,843 |
| 15 | HOUSE-MON 9P | FOX | 13,536 |
| 16 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 13,117 |
| 17 | Two and a Half Men | CBS | 13,074 |
| 18 | Extreme Makeover:HOME ED. | ABC | 12,862 |
| 19 | 60 Minutes | CBS | 12,820 |
| 20 | WITHOUT A TRACE | CBS | 12,750 |
ABC and CBS both had 7 of the shows in the top 20, Fox 5 and NBC only 1.
Our chart shows the top 20 shows ranked on a season to date (STD) basis for average viewers.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Why does Dancing with the Stars have four slots? I thought they used the same schedule in the fall and the spring? Do they still count them as different time slots?
Julia, it is because the fall and spring are counted separately. #3 & #4 were the fall, 5 and 6 spring.
Are those numbers include repeats?
Robert, I have a question. I see the top 20, but will you show the entire list of all the shows from this season? That would be really cool, there are some shows that I would be interested in seeing where they fell in the total scheme of things.
caroline, we’re limited to lists of 20 by our agreement with Nielsen Media but if it was just a few shows, I’ll list them in a comment.
Thanks so much. The shows are Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, The Office, Moonlight, The Big Bang Theory, Lost, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Also, would you mind adding the total number of shows, I heard it was around 150 or so. Also, how far has NBC fallen, to not even have one of their original shows in the top 20, only football. It used to be such a powerhouse.
If you’re just talking about the top English networks [ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, Fox] there are probably 200-250 shows in the season to date list. Many shows had multiple timeslots though, and they each count as a separate show. As far as main timeslots, 150 is probably about right.
Here are the numbers you were looking for, the ranking is by average viewers [most rankings you see published are by HH rating which we rarely rank by], and the viewer number is for their primary airtime/day.
Ugly Betty, #54, 8.67m
30 Rock, #118, 5.98m
Office, #87, 7.23m
Moonlight, #89, 7.10m
Lost, #23, 11.69m
Christine, #40, 9.99m
BBT, #66, 7.95m
Ah, and to attempt, likely in vain, to pre-empt the follow up question by Moonlight fans, it was #129 for adults 18-49, that’s why it got cancelled.
Thank you so much for the information.
Hello Bill,
Thanks for the information. I recently found an interesting article written by TV News which discussed the advertisers’ obsession with the 18-49 demographic. While it explains the rationale behind it, it also shows how shortsighted and foolish advertisers and networks are. In the long term, they will lose big.
Contrary to what advertisers think, we over 50 crowd are not just interested in drugs to reverse aging or cure erectile disfunction!! We are not like the 50 year olds of 50 years ago!!!
I pasted the link to the article in TV News in case anyone is interested. Keeping shows like Moonlight would have been a good first step to develop some loyalty among the largest growing and wealthiest demographic. Alienating them is not a wise choice.
Anyone interested can check out the link:
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/02/booming_buying_power.php
Just my thoughts.
Katie, I don’t fully understand the advertiser obsession with youth entirely either. I do think it is likely overdone. The article does point out some interesting things. Thanks for the link.
I’m actually in the coveted demographic and I know that my dad, 60, has way more purchasing power than I do and he is always buying the latest, greatest things while I am saving for my future so that article makes tons of sense to me. Hopefully the networks will wake up. Thanks for posting the link. Also, I would trust a 50 yr. old’s judgment as to what constitutes quality entertainment way over an 18 yr. old’s.
Bill, could you post the final rankings for “How I Met Your Mother”? Thanks
Josh, HIMYM was #72 with 7.849m viewers
Thanks Bill
Where is Survivor: Micronesia? It had over 13,000,000 viewers….
Where is Survivor: Micronesia? It had over 13,000,000 viewers….