| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 14.91 | 11.00 | 10.31 | 7.50 | 4.61 | 3.74 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 4.4/11 | 3.3/8 | 3.6/9 | 3.2/8 | 1.9/5 | 1.5/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.7/7 | 2.6/7 | 3.3/9 | 3.0/8 | 2.1/6 | 1.6/4 |
A good night for CBS, winning the most viewers and the 18-49 demographic, and rather handily at that.
Please keep in mind that our World Series data is only for the 8pm-10pm portion and last night's game ran well towards midnight. Triangulating based on limited data isn't easy, but the early indications are it was down - significantly so versus last year's game two (Colorado Rockies vs. Boston Red Sox - also airing on a Thursday night) which garnered 16.95 million, and even down from this year's game one on Wednesday night that drew 14.6 million. But guessing from early data for live events is sometimes fraught with peril. Either way, I'll post the information once we've seen the results for the entire game. I've watched both games, and they've been enjoyable. It must be frustrating for Phillies fans to see so many runners stranded on base!
Update: According to FOX and the preliminary numbers for the full game (8:26pm to 11:36pm) it drew 12.777 million. Additional detail on last night's game ratings can be found here. Through two games, the World Series is down 19% vs. last year's first two games.
I know it's day old news, but our friends at Watch With Kristen let us know early yesterday that Lindsay Lohan had been unceremoniously dumped from Ugly Betty. She won't be back, and the stuff they've already shot with her is being cut out. I was so completely devastated by this news that I needed a day to come to grips with it. Perhaps LiLo will fare better with My Name is Earl and Kath & Kim. Those shows are doing worse than Ugly Betty. Still, the peacocks must be fairly happy with the performance of The Office (at least in the demos), the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update special (though this has a limited lifespan) and especially ER which is holding up very well. ER had fewer viewers than Eleventh Hour, but tied it among 18-49 year olds and beat it by a wide margin among 18-34 year olds. Still I believe across the board these are season lows for NBC if the numbers hold up.
Life on Mars dropped almost another 500,000 versus last week's overnight numbers and dipped a little among 18-49 year olds. Plus, since on minute of Grey's Anatomy ran into the 10pm hour, it probably will look a little worse in the finals. Yes, it's doing better than Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone, but I don't know if that will be enough -- I doubt it will be enough to keep it on Thursdays at 10pm, but, we'll see.
CSI took the night, and with significantly more viewers than Grey's Anatomy but Grey's almost tied CSI among 18-49 year olds and, as is always the case, completely stomped it among 18-34 year olds.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Survivor: Gabon | 13.40 | 4.4/12 | 2.8/8 |
| FOX | World Series Pregame/Game | 10.37 | 3.0/8 | 2.4/7 | |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 8.66 | 2.8/8 | 2.4/7 | |
| NBC | My Name is Earl | 6.33 | 2.4/7 | 1.9/6 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.70 | 1.9/5 | 2.2/6 | |
| CW | Smallville | 4.22 | 1.7/5 | 1.9/5 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Kath & Kim | 4.97 | 2.2/6 | 1.8/5 |
| 9:00 | CBS | CSI | 19.17 | 5.5/13 | 3.4/8 |
| ABC | Grey's Anatomy | 14.21 | 5.4/13 | 5.4/14 | |
| FOX | World Series Game 2 | 11.64 | 3.6/8 | 2.8/7 | |
| NBC | The Office | 7.74 | 4.0/10 | 4.6/12 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.11 | 2.1/5 | 2.3/6 | |
| CW | Supernatural | 3.25 | 1.3/3 | 1.3/3 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | SNL: Weekend Update | 8.55 | 3.9/9 | 4.2/11 |
| 10:00 | CBS | Eleventh Hour | 12.16 | 3.2/8 | 2.0/6 |
| NBC | ER | 8.69 | 3.2/8 | 2.6/7 | |
| ABC | Life on Mars | 8.06 | 2.5/7 | 2.1/6 | |
| UNI | Noche de 10 con El Gody y La Flaca | 4.40 | 1.8/5 | 2.0/6 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot. Timeslot demo winners are in bold.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
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.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
Kath and Kim is destroying the office lead-in. What a DISASTER. After the first week (where K&K actually did decently in the demos 3.2, and 3.2) the office ratings have taken a hit. This show needs to be cancelled NOW. the problem is, with what?
Survivor is so steady this season. It’s number vary rarely, and it’s demo has been a 4.4 for three weeks running, i believe.
Grey’s can’t even hold on to the number one spot for 18-49s anymore? At the beginning of last season who would have thought? This show has lost like 20+ percent in it’s area of stregnth from one season ago. NBC will soon have some company as ABCs ratings are going through the floor.
Glad to see Smallville’s viewers going up, It went up 70,000 viewers.
I don’t know why I’m so surprised, but after 9 seasons and down from what it once was in the ratings, CSI is still a viewers and a demo powerhouse. It’s 5 million viewers higher than Grey’s, it’s nearest competator. And it beat the World Series (even if it is a weak matchup) by 8 millon viewers and substantially in the demo (it beat Grey’s in the demo as well). It’s always been successful, and I found the episode last night great. I just really find it astounding it’s held up so well after almost a decade.
You know, with the moderate success of SNL on Thursdays, NBC might want to keep it and dump Kath & Kim.
“Life on Mars” (2.5) might be doing better than “Eli Stone” (2.1) or “Dirty Sexy Money” (2.0), but that’s because it has a much stronger lead-in than those 2 shows. But its retention out of “Grey’s Anatomy” was less than 50% among adults 18-49 last night. It’s doing as badly as “Big Shots” last year. I still think “Private Practice” or even “Brothers & Sisters” would be a better fit out of “Grey’s”.
Julia, I bet NBC’s thinking about keeping that Thursday SNL show, but I can’t believe it will see these numbers after the election.
Vader,
I don’t consider CSI a demo powerhouse. It has almost 5 million more viewers and virtually ties GA in the demo. Like all the dramas on CBS, it is old skewing.
the shows based from abroad shows did not work so well, like Life on Mars and Kath & Kim, Eleventh Hour is better.
wow! greys anatomy has sunk! last year if anyone had told me greys anatomy wouldnt hit 15 million anymore and lose in the demo to CSI, I would think they were nuts! Apperently not though. Heres an interesting point though, yes CSI beat greys in the demo 5.5 to 5.4, however greys was still able to hit 5.4 with only 14 million viewers, while CSI needed 19 million viewers to just squeak by greys with a 5.5.
You have to give credit to CSI though, 9 seasons and it is still a powehouse.
As for Greys, I predict by the end of the season veiwers will be down to 11-12 million. So yes expect a season 6, but it is so definite for a greys season 7.
Eleventh Hour is also based on a British show, ya know.
SNL would be running on fumes if they had to come up with 20 minutes on Thursday + Saturday nights with no election to report on.
sorry, i meant to say it is not definite for a greys season 7
I agree, Bill, but it will probably still do better than Kath & Kim.
I expect CBS to announce a full season pickup for EH any day now, and to think that the word this should would not last. Yay Rufus!
Tim, I think you are off by a great deal for Greys. The lowest it will go is probably in the 13 mil range. And with the way everything is down, and continuing to fall, I expect that even at that it will be one of the biggest shows next season.
The only thing that would stop next season for Grey’s is some weird contractual blow up that’s hard to even imagine. It’s still among the most valuable shows on television.
Bill, I think he was saying that the season after next is in question. But really, who’s to say that the season after next of CSI isn’t in question. Or American Idol. Or any other huge show. No one knows what might happen in the next season and a half.
I also think “Grey’s” might go down to 11-12 million viewers by April. ABC shows seem to shed a few million viewers as the days get longer and warmer. Just look at the spring drops on the Alphabet in the past couple of seasons.
By the way, isn’t it funny how some shows that get 7-8 million viewers these days are already considered moderate successes?
Back in 1985 “The Cosby Show” used to average 28 million households, while “Dallas” and “Dynasty” used to get 20-21 million households the year before (that’s households, not viewers).
I think day will come when anything that gets 5 million live viewers will be considered a #1 blockbuster.
Good for Ugly Betty, its viewers is higher than the last 2 weeks.
Great for Survivor, I watched all the seasons even though this is the first time I actually don’t have a time watching it because I missed the last ep.
I think Grey’s Anatomy is not that good anymore thats why it only has 14million. If the story is good it would get more viewers but if its not it will go down to 13 million.
And poor for Life on Mars I thought this show will be a hit since its the only new scripted show in ABC (so far).
WOW! CSI beat Grey’s in the demo! Yes, it was just barely, but considering Grey’s used to win by a considerable margin, this is huge!
The World Series may be down from last year, but since last Thursday FOX beat out the CW for the lowest rated network, they have to be happy about last night’s numbers.
11th Hour is remarkably steady from week to week. CBS may not be thrilled that it’s not a major hit, but they can’t be too upset about its numbers either. I expect to read about an order for more scripts soon.
Life on Mars is not faring so well. Part of that might be lead-in. I think ABC would have been better off holding this until midseason and pairing it with Lost. Though, there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t have fallen just as quickly anyway.
Holly, indeed. According to Fox it was its best Thursday night performance in total viewers and 18-49 viewers since April 10, 2008.