Nielsen Ratings Thursday June 26: 10 O'Clock Carnage

Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	7.74	6.55	5.00	4.22	1.58
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	2.4/8	1.7/6	1.9/6	1.1/4	0.5/2

Fox notched wins in both viewers [7.74m] and demo adults 18-49 [2.4 rating/ 8 share] for the night with its reality duo Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and So You Think You Can Dance [top viewers 8.56m and demo 3.0/9 for the night]. NBC was second in the demo on the "strength" of Last Comic Standing [5.26m, 2.1/7]. CBS managed second in viewers, but as usual under delivered demo adults for a third place finish.

The real news from last night was the carnage at 10pm for all three shows. I'm not sure how I got myself on the Swingtown bandwagon [it's those damn season to date numbers!], but I am off it now. Even though it won the demo at 10pm, it is descending and accelerating towards a messy crash. It still compares well, however, with Fear Itself, which is stabilizing at a low, but pitiful, level. Comparisons below.

Interestingly, Berman describes the premiere of Hopkins at what seem to me as dreadful numbers [5.84m, 1.6/4] as "promising" seemingly based only on it's increase over the weak numbers delivered by the Grey's Anatomy rerun. That seems silly. That 1.6 demo rating is a ticket to Doomsville.

Full details:

Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Via Marc Berman/Mediaweek.

Weekly trends courtesy of Marc Berman/Mediaweek.

Swingtown (CBS)
6/06/08 – Viewers: 8.57 million (#1), A18-49: 2.8/ 8 (#1)
6/13/08 – Viewers: 7.00 million (#2), A18-49: 2.3/ 7 (#1)
6/20/08 - Viewers: 6.01 million (#1), A18-49: 2.1/ 6 (#1)
6/27/08 - Viewers: 5.65 million (#2), A18-49: 1.9/ 6 (#1)

Fear Itself (NBC)
6/06/08 – Viewers: 5.26 million (#3), A18-49: 2.0/ 6 (#3)
6/13/08 – Viewers: 4.87 million (#3), A18-49: 1.5/ 4 (#3)
6/20/08 – Viewers: 4.65 million (#2), A18-49: 1.5/ 6 (#2)
6/27/08 – Viewers: 4.47 million (#3), A18-49: 1.5/ 4 (#3)

Definitions:

Overnights: Local metered-market ratings service of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) in which household ratings and shares are provided to clients the morning following the day or evening of telecast.

Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.

Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)

LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day the program was broadcast.

For more information see Numbers 101.