For the week of October 6-12, ABC's female 18-49 power Grey's Anatomy had the largest audience via DVR viewing with 4.058 million viewers via DVRs. CBS's CSI was second with a DVR viewing audience of 3.598 million. Rounding out the top ten for the largest DVR audiences were Heroes, Office, Desperate Housewives, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Survivor:Gabon, Bones, and Two and a Half Men.
Yet again, the CW's 90210 had the top show for percentage increase over their Live audience increasing 43.4% in Live+7 viewing, it's top level of the season. Rounding out the top 10 for largest % increase via DVR viewing were Heroes, Office, Grey's Anatomy, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Lipstick Jungle, America's Top Model, Life, Prison Break and Chuck.
Although we know now that DVR viewing past the airdate is entirely meaningless to the show's advertising revenue and likely its ultimate success, we like seeing the trends regardless.
Largest Time-Shifting Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Persons Live+7 (000s) | Persons Live (000s) | Time-shifted Audience (000s) | % increase from Live to Live+7 |
| 1 | GREY'S ANATOMY | ABC | 17,217 | 13,159 | 4,058 | 30.8% |
| 2 | CSI | CBS | 25,450 | 21,852 | 3,598 | 16.5% |
| 3 | HEROES | NBC | 10,038 | 7,148 | 2,890 | 40.4% |
| 4 | OFFICE | NBC | 10,493 | 7,745 | 2,748 | 35.5% |
| 5 | Desperate Housewives | ABC | 16,766 | 14,074 | 2,692 | 19.1% |
| 6 | Criminal Minds | CBS | 17,675 | 15,347 | 2,328 | 15.2% |
| 7 | NCIS | CBS | 17,487 | 15,230 | 2,257 | 14.8% |
| 8 | SURVIVOR: GABON | CBS | 14,081 | 11,853 | 2,228 | 18.8% |
| 9 | Bones | FOX | 11,712 | 9,580 | 2,132 | 22.3% |
| 10 | Two and a Half Men | CBS | 15,131 | 13,079 | 2,052 | 15.7% |
| 11 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 15,359 | 13,327 | 2,032 | 15.2% |
| 12 | Private Practice | ABC | 8,550 | 6,753 | 1,797 | 26.6% |
| 13 | SNL:WEEKEND UPDATE 10/9 | NBC | 11,532 | 9,784 | 1,748 | 17.9% |
| 14 | LIFE ON MARS | ABC | 12,619 | 10,881 | 1,738 | 16.0% |
| 15 | GHOST WHISPERER | CBS | 10,696 | 9,013 | 1,683 | 18.7% |
| 16 | Amazing Race 13 | CBS | 9,632 | 7,962 | 1,670 | 21.0% |
| 17 | E.R. | NBC | 10,553 | 8,886 | 1,667 | 18.8% |
| 18 | THE UNIT | CBS | 10,121 | 8,475 | 1,646 | 19.4% |
| 19 | CSI: NY | CBS | 17,078 | 15,458 | 1,620 | 10.5% |
| 20 | Dancing with the Stars | ABC | 19,209 | 17,638 | 1,571 | 8.9% |
The absolute time-shifting audience size table ranks which of the Top 150 broadcast shows [by Live+7 viewers] had the largest absolute number of viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs)
Greatest % Increase from Time-Shifting for Broadcast TV Shows:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Persons Live+7 (000s) | Persons Live (000s) | Time-shifted Audience (000s) | % increase from Live to Live+7 |
| 1 | 90210 | CW | 3,741 | 2,608 | 1,133 | 43.4% |
| 2 | HEROES | NBC | 10,038 | 7,148 | 2,890 | 40.4% |
| 3 | OFFICE | NBC | 10,493 | 7,745 | 2,748 | 35.5% |
| 4 | GREY'S ANATOMY | ABC | 17,217 | 13,159 | 4,058 | 30.8% |
| 5 | TERMINATOR: SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES | FOX | 6,516 | 5,015 | 1,501 | 29.9% |
| 6 | LIPSTICK JUNGLE | NBC | 5,667 | 4,413 | 1,254 | 28.4% |
| 7 | AMERICA'S Top Model | CW | 4,380 | 3,415 | 965 | 28.3% |
| 8 | LIFE | NBC | 5,952 | 4,674 | 1,278 | 27.3% |
| 9 | PRISON BREAK | FOX | 6,142 | 4,841 | 1,301 | 26.9% |
| 10 | Chuck | NBC | 6,720 | 5,298 | 1,422 | 26.8% |
| 11 | Private Practice | ABC | 8,550 | 6,753 | 1,797 | 26.6% |
| 12 | SUPERNATURAL | CW | 3,604 | 2,871 | 733 | 25.5% |
| 13 | Smallville | CW | 4,706 | 3,752 | 954 | 25.4% |
| 14 | PUSHING DAISIES | ABC | 6,141 | 4,962 | 1,179 | 23.8% |
| 15 | LIFE 10/6 | NBC | 6,500 | 5,258 | 1,242 | 23.6% |
| 16 | PRIVILEGED | CW | 2,597 | 2,124 | 473 | 22.3% |
| 17 | Bones | FOX | 11,712 | 9,580 | 2,132 | 22.3% |
| 18 | DIRTY SEXY MONEY | ABC | 6,735 | 5,515 | 1,220 | 22.1% |
| 19 | Amazing Race | CBS | 9,632 | 7,962 | 1,670 | 21.0% |
| 20 | NUMB3RS | CBS | 9,168 | 7,640 | 1,528 | 20.0% |
The % Time-shifting table ranks which of the Top 150 broadcast shows [by Live+7 viewers] had the largest % increase in viewing between Live audience and Live+7 audience numbers from viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs).
Definitions:
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.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data:©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
any info on how boston legal did? i know it’s dead show walking and all… just curious.
I don’t understand the ratings for CSI and Grey’s Anatomy
CSI Persons live is 21,852 ???? And Grey’s only 13.159 ??
But the ratings last thursday were near 15 million for Grey’s and about 18 millions for CSI…
I’m a little confused :-/
Christy, first of all, this is from the week of CSI’s premiere episode. Second, the numbers you are comparing it to are Live + Same Day, rather than just live.
christy… these numbers are for wee three i think of the season which was the first csi this year.
Here are the Boston Legal DVR viewing numbers for the week from the post above:
BOSTON LEGAL ABC 9,873 8,387 1,486 17.7%
Bill, just curious, how many shows were there that had a million or more DVR viewers but didn’t make the top 20?
This is the first week I can recall not seeing One Tree Hill in the top 20 for % increase. Do you have their DVR numbers?
41 shows had DVR viewership of 1 million or more viewers.
53 shows increased their Live viewership by 10% or more over the Live+7 period.
Bec, One Tree Hill was not on my list of shows for that week, Oct 6-12. Might it not have been broadcast that week?
A Privileged rerun ran in its spot that week…
You’re right. I forgot about that it did not air that week. Thanks!
i know boston legal skews very old but it warranted a least a full final season. 10 million after dvr is nice to see.
btw: legal is the only show that i can think of that’s not available online. since fox produces it abc has never screened it on their website and fox’s hulu won’t show it because it’s an abc show (but they do show the practice). sort of a streaming catch 22.
Is it just me, or have DVR viewings of Sarah Connor Chronicles been increasing by app. 100K viewers week over week?
Tom, Boston Legal is on ABC.com for Full Episode viewing just like most (if not all) of ABC’s primetime series. In fact, since the feature started Boston Legal has been on the ABC.com website. Not sure where you got your information from.
So the numbers in the ”Persons Live+7 (000s)” column is the TOTAL numbers of viewers each show gets, with DVR included?
Sorry, Im bad at these.
Anil, Yes.
Thank you so much, Holly!
NBC reaches it’s lowest point…
if you pay atention to the list of the new shows to mid-season, they are so bad… the stories are just new intrepertations of old stories: merlim (from bbc), kings (remembers me jericho)and the listener (a few shows and movies), knight rider (other show from the past), crusoe…
the only shpwsthat brings something new are The Philanthropist, My Own Worst Enemy and kath and kim (a remake from a australian sitcom). very little…
however this is a mirror of this season, the worst season in the past 4 years.
40% of Heroes viewers are time-shifted? Um…this may be a dumb question, but what happens if a show clears 50%?
It wins the prize, Frank.
But really, nothing since evidence suggests that commercial viewing doesn’t increase by very much during DVR viewing.