| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 5.49 | 5.24 | 4.22 | 3.79 | 3.19 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 1.4/5 | 1.3/5 | 1.1/4 | 1.3/5 | 1.1/4 |
NBC took the last Friday in July, both in overall viewers and among 18-49 year olds. Bill's prediction that Swingtown would likely be cancelled as a result of the move to Fridays at 10pm speeds its way towards certainty.
The show drew only 4.5 million viewers and a 1.5/6 among 18-49 year olds. That's down significantly from the 7.1 million Flashpoint drew in the slot last Friday and also down over a million from the 5.70 million Swingtown drew last week in it's last appearance on Thursday at 10pm.
The most watched show of the evening was a two hour installment of Dateline on NBC which averaged 6.07mm and a 1.6/6 in the 18-49 demo from 9pm-11pm.
Note to Moonlight fans (but only some of you, I know there are a lot of smart Moonlight fans, too). If you want to gloat about a failing CBS show, that's fine, smile away and gloat. That, I will not hold against you. But please don't chime in with idiotic comments about how if CBS hadn't cancelled Moonlight, they'd have had a gazillion more viewers last night. If CBS hadn't cancelled Moonlight, a re-run of Moonlight would not have done 8 million viewers. And a rerun of Moonlight would not have outperformed the 7.1 million Flashpoint drew last week either.
Still, a re-run of Moonlight quite possibly would have done better than the 4.5 million Swingtown drew. 
So gloat, but please remember that none of the summer ratings really mean anything as far as Moonlight or the impact of a few hundred of you no longer watching CBS goes. If Ex-List is drawing 4.5 million on Fridays at 9pm with fresh episodes come the fall, you'll be able to say whatever you want. All you can say about last night is this: Swingtown stunk it up on Fridays at 10pm.
Still, despite fewer viewers Swingtown had the night's second highest demo performance and the best 18-49 performance of any CBS show.
Full details:
| Time | Network | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Ghost Whisperer (R ) | 5.19 | 1.3/5 |
| NBC | Most Outrageous Moments (R ) | 4.32 | 1.1/5 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Videos (R ) | 4.79 | 1.3/5 | |
| FOX | Movie: Anger Management (R ) 8p-10p | 3.19 | 1.2/5 | |
| CW | Friday Night Smackdown! 8p-10p | 3.79 | 1.3/5 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | Numb3rs | 6.02 | 1.3/5 |
| NBC | Dateline (9p-11p) | 6.07 | 1.6/6 | |
| ABC | Duel (Series Finale) | 3.21 | 0.9/3 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | 20/20 | 4.66 | 1.2/4 |
| CBS | Swingtown | 4.50 | 1.5/6 |
Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Source Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
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 [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
Oh, I’m well aware of that, Robert.
Where Swingtown’s concerned, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Loki, I should have clarified that it was only for some of the Moonlight fans and certainly not all of them. I will update the post shortly : ) I can’t argue with your Sow’s ear thinking, but hey, even Friday Night Smackdown had an off night. Swingtown was, even with fewer viewers and at 10pm, the best performing show for CBS in the demo.
Swingtown stunk it up on Fridays at 10pm.
Very nice to come to a website with instructions on what to comment.
Robert, you think CBS is doing badly now, wait until the fall lineup starts. Nina will miss the Moonlight fans then!!!!
Septbday: But I *don’t* think CBS is doing badly now. not cuz the numbers aren’t bad, but because it’s summer and it doesn’t really matter *and* because as bad as they were – way better than ABC and FOX (and of course, the CW).
We’re not likely to see many comments that FOX’s numbers blew because the wrong person won American Idol or New Amsterdam was cancelled. Fridays are bad in general for broadcast, Fridays in the summer are even worse.
Robert,
As I stated in my post, wait until fall……………………………..
CBS will miss the Moonlight fans then.
Revenge is best served cold!
Septbday
In a message dated 7/26/2008 5:39:23 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:
Actually, I was thinking that Moonlight might have done a lot better if CBS had moved it out of the Friday night slot. But getting close to 8 million on those Fridays still doesn’t seem like it was bad enough to deserve being cancelled.
If I was a betting girl I’d lay odds that “The Ex-List”, which BTW looks awful, will crash and burn in the fall in Moonlights old time slot.
I personally don’t want to watch a 30th something woman going through the ex’s in a desperate bid to find the ‘one’. The preview set my teeth on edge.
Good news is that I have finally got HBO on my TV in preparation for the new vampire show “True Blood”. It looks like the mainstream TV networks just arn’t cutting it for this TV viewer so now Im onto Showtime, HBO etc.
BTW I haven’t watched CBS since it was cancelled and that aint changing anytime soon. If Moonlight’s numbers were bad of course I’d understand but the truth is they weren’t. I miss my romantic Friday nights. Im not coming back to CBS anytime soon.
I’m not in the coveted 18-49 demo that CBS likes, so it really doesn’t matter if I watch The Ex List or not. But I am a woman of intelligence, and this show’s premise insults me. I won’t be a part of anything that belittles women and makes them feel incomplete without a man by their side.
Fortunately there’s cable and I plan on watching a lot of higher quality shows on those channels instead.
A&E recently starting airing The Cleaner and it looks promising. They’ve also greenlighted another show called The Beast, with Patrick Swayze and Travis Fimmel. Come early next year I also plan on tuning in to watch that.
USA has already renewed In Plain Sight for a second season. Their network is a lot more forgiving than the regular networks. I understand that cable has a lower viewership, but the quality is a lot better. These cable networks know what viewers want because they listen to them. Seems to me CBS could do the same instead of alienating their viewers.
Im in that coverted 18 – 49 demo but my comments or my preferences don’t mean a hill of beans to CBS
Maleta, USA (which is owned by NBC) makes its calls based on ratings, too. I watch and enjoy both Burn Notice and In Plain Sight, but realistically even though both are on NBC’s cable outlet, they are both much more mainstream shows than a show involving vampires.
Seriously, I can’t imagine a scenario where CBS could ever miss the Moonlight fans. Who would want a pack of people who keep harassing company employees, calling, emailing, and slandering on the internet? (and it doesn’t matter whether these are the minority or majority. Perception is everything, and when one group of fans is making a big stink, they reflect on the rest)
If I were Nina, I’d be relieved right now, regardless of how the Ex-List does in the fall (and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for its success). I also do not think that Moonlight would have done better than Swingtown. It IS summertime, it would have been a rerun, and the real Moonlight fanbase is even smaller than everyone thinks.
I fully intend to gloat, because I stopped watching Ghost Whisperer and Numbers when they removed Moonlight, and I would have watched the Moonlight reruns, since I have downloaded them and am watching them over and over.
Its interesting that you can’t watch Moonlight Episodes on the CBS web site.
Dear Susan
Nina should be relieved— she should be relieved of her job for making the worst programming error in the history of television!
Hi Amy!
You are so right about CBS moving Moonlight to a better timeslot: there are so many people out on the town on Friday nights!
Notice how Scha-wing Town’s ratings dropped when it moved to Fridays? That’s because the kind of person who would watch such a show would be out hitting the bars and picking up other alcoholics on Friday nights!
angelscrest,
See, bashing fans of other shows (or TV execs) is exactly what “won” you guys such a bad rep.
I absolutely enjoy Swingtown. I think it’s definitely better written and acted than Moonlight, but I wouldn’t claim all those who watch Moonlight are necessarily psychopaths out on a town for a fresh kill.
If you and your friends had some respect to others, including Nina, perhaps you wouldn’t have found yourselves so mocked in the media.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that a ML re-run would have faired much worse during a summer period like this. It’s reruns weren’t doing that grand even during the fall/winter. I’m a fan of the show but it’s ratings behavior wasn’t hard to understand.
I like Swingtown, but I think it’s toast, as well. Though, I do think it’s worth noting it pretty much retained it’s 18-49 demo from 8 days ago and produced the best numbers for CBS in the demo for the evening. So the idea that young people are “missing” on a Friday is flawed.
…and you are correct, Susan, no one at CBS is going to miss a Moonlight fan unless they have a Nielsen box. Because of the sad behavior of a vocal but ill behaved minority, it’s almost embarrassing to say you ARE a fan these days.
Susan
I don’t recall bashing you, but if you want me to, I will.
Scha-wing Town does not interest me because I lived through the ’70s and can guarantee you that there was a very good reason why most people did not participate in swinging.
Mostly because the people who did it were so homely, that was the only way they could get a date!
It seems to me that the people who are insulting the Moonlight fans are the rude ones. Most of the Moonlight fans are very positive, and I think that everyone else is jealous because there are so many of us who are dedicated to bringing back the show.