The Olympics were over, but NBC still took the gold, silver and bronze for the week of August 25-31, 2008. Deal or No Deal was sandwiched in between both episodes of America's God Talent, though "Deal" had the highest household rating of the week. Despite there not seeming to be any Olympic halo effect for the premiere of America's Toughest Jobs, it still took the number 7 spot in this week's top 20.
CBS, as usual dominated taking 10 spots on the list with repeats and all three airings of Big Brother 10. Even Greatest American Dog made the list at number 20 . Fox placed but two shows, repeats of House and Bones, and ABC had place only Thursday night's Democratic National Convention coverage and Wipeout.
As usual CBS was last when it comes to nightly news, even when it's in primetime. Although both NBC and ABC placed convention coverage from Thursday night in the top 20, CBS coverage for Thursday night was number 45 by viewers, with even its Crimetime Saturday reruns (#40) beating out the CBS convention coverage. Of course had CNN's coverage Thursday night coverage of Barack Obama's acceptance speech, with 8.06 million viewers, been included in this list, it would have been the number five show in the list for the week.
This week all we saw were the top 25 shows among 18-49 year olds, so if you don't see any 18-49 ranking it just means the show did not rank among the top 25.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 08/31/08:
| Rank | Shows | Net | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | # OF HOMES (LIVE+SD) (000) | # Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) | 18-49 Rank |
| 1 | AMERICA'S GOT TALENT | NBC | 6.9 | 11 | 7,798 | 11,118 | 1 |
| 2 | DEAL OR NO DEAL-MON | NBC | 7.3 | 12 | 8,184 | 10,999 | 3 |
| 3 | AMERICA'S GOT TALENT-WED | NBC | 6.5 | 11 | 7,358 | 10,344 | 4 |
| 4 | TWO AND A HALF MEN (R) | CBS | 5.8 | 9 | 6,553 | 9,030 | 2 |
| 5 | 60 Minutes (R) | CBS | 5.4 | 12 | 6,063 | 8,030 | |
| 6 | NCIS (R) | CBS | 5.1 | 8 | 5,741 | 7,453 | |
| 7 | AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS | NBC | 4.6 | 7 | 5,211 | 7,298 | 5 |
| 8 | Criminal Minds (R) | CBS | 4.6 | 7 | 5,196 | 6,930 | |
| 9 | HOUSE (R) | FOX | 4.6 | 7 | 5,153 | 6,808 | 8 |
| 10 | OLD CHRISTINE (R) | CBS | 4.4 | 7 | 4,910 | 6,631 | 13 |
| 11 | DEM NAT CONV-THU(S) | ABC | 4.5 | 7 | 5,066 | 6,584 | 22 |
| 12 | Wipeout | ABC | 3.8 | 6 | 4,292 | 6,325 | 7 |
| 13 | BIG BROTHER 10-TUE | CBS | 4.1 | 6 | 4,627 | 6,284 | 6 |
| 14 | DEM CONV THU(S) | NBC | 3.9 | 6 | 4,423 | 6,100 | 16 |
| 15 | Bones SP-8/27 9P (R) | FOX | 4.1 | 6 | 4,639 | 6,056 | |
| 16 | DEM CONV TUE(S) | NBC | 4.1 | 7 | 4,604 | 5,976 | |
| 17 | BIG BROTHER 10-THU | CBS | 3.8 | 6 | 4,277 | 5,969 | 17 |
| 18 | CSI: NY SUNDAY (R) | CBS | 3.9 | 7 | 4,397 | 5,893 | |
| 19 | BIG BROTHER 10-SUN | CBS | 3.7 | 7 | 4,118 | 5,702 | 24 |
| 20 | GREATEST AMERICAN DOG | CBS | 3.7 | 6 | 4,172 | 5,683 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
All numbers above based on live plus same day DVR viewing.
I have really been enjoying Greatest American Dog! Animal lover here. Somebody give Travis his own show. Hubba hubba! Also I am enjoying Big Brother. Dan=Snake, but clever. Memphis=Hot, needs to wise up. Keesha=Blonde stories hold true. Rene=We will see you on Bravo (hair salon reality show) Jerry=Enjoy retirement,PLEASE!