| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 11.17 | 6.07 | 5.67 | 4.34 | 1.63 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.6/8 | 1.9/6 | 1.6/5 | 1.1/3 | 0.7/2 |
I have to tip the cap to CBS. It pulled off something fairly remarkable on a Friday night. Every show in the CBS lineup crossed the eleven million mark. with the NCIS rerun marginally beating out Numb3rs as the night's most-watched program, while Ghost Whisperer at 8pm had the best demo performance of the night (not just for CBS, but all of broadcast).
What's remarkable about this to me is that in total viewers these numbers are better across the board than the same night a year ago (Friday November 9, 2007). There is no real bad news here for CBS, unless you're very focused on year over year results. By that view while CBS averaged nearly two million more viewers for the night than a year ago, but it was slightly down among 18-49 year olds (2.7/8 last year vs. 2.6/8 last night). But compared to last spring after the writer's strike, or even earlier in the current season, CBS must be pleased.
Things were better for everyone across the board than last Friday, but that was Halloween so I don't read too much into the week over week results.
Things may look bad for everyone else, but Fox also improved its performance over a year ago by more than a million viewers on average. ABC was down about a million and a half viewers vs. a year ago, but NBC and the CW were both down on average by more than three million.
It may be the most interesting thing about Friday night ratings to report until a few months from now, when Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles moves to Friday, and is joined by Fox's new show Dollhouse. On a Friday the 13th, no less.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Ghost Whisperer | 11.05 | 2.8/9 |
| FOX | Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader | 6.42 | 1.6/5 | |
| NBC | Deal or No Deal | 5.53 | 1.1/4 | |
| ABC | Wife Swap | 4.61 | 1.7/6 | |
| CW | Everybody Hates Chris | 1.72 | 0.7/2 | |
| 8:30 | CW | The Game | 1.6/8 | 0.8/2 |
| 9:00 | CBS | NCIS (R) | 11.26 | 2.4/7 |
| ABC | Supernanny | 5.43 | 1.9/6 | |
| FOX | Don't Forget the Lyrics | 4.93 | 1.6/5 | |
| NBC | Crusoe | 4.16 | 1.0/3 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model (R) | 1.55 | 0.6/2 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Numb3rs | 11.21 | 2.6/8 |
| ABC | 20/20 | 8.19 | 2.2/7 | |
| NBC | Lipstick Jungle | 3.34 | 1.2/4 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
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.
Ghost whisperer is on fire, has it ever pulled as much viewers as this?
Who said fridays were dead??
CBS is doing really well! and Numbers beat GW for the first time in a while!
Paul, yes, probably several times. For the Friday night *two* years ago (11/10/06) CBS did a bit better with Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home and Numb3rs than it did last night. All shows had more viewers than last night, though none had more than 11.8 million. GW had 11.46 million, CTH had 11.38 and Numb3rs 11.76
wow great for CBS.
How much of the problems that these are having are self-inflicted.
To think you guys, in a country of over 500 million are getting broadcast ratings of 5/6 million for your middling shows, when we, in a country of 70 million, can get these numbers also.
In fact, we’re getting 2.5 million each week watching Heroes, which almost a third of what you guys get, with a ninth of the population, and as an import.
But I do wonder, with the amount of shows axed from Fridays, Moonlight, Las Vegas, etc, were these problems not avoidable, and how long will it be before we see, House + Bones repeats on Fox Fridays, and Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy repears on ABC Fridays, just to bump the numbers up.
Well Ghost Whisperer had a special potentially plot-pivotal episode last night, so I’m not surprised with the numbers.
Although the buzz on the net is that fans of the show are not pleased with the outcome of last night’s show…
this is definely one of the most watched episodes of ghost whisperer EVER!
Tony, US population is somewhat over 300 million, not 500 million. So it’s about 4.5x the UK’s population. And US prime-time television viewing/household overall has been pretty consistent for quite some time, flat or slightly up, it’s broadcast viewing that’s down in favor of non-broadcast networks.
I am not at all qualified to comment on the variety of TV options available to UK residents vs. US residents, which could be a significant factor. If someone can comment with authority, I’d love to hear about it.
WOW for CBS, that just shows how badly GW and Numb3rs were affected by Moonlight and Ex-list. CBS should’ve sticked with C2H
We don’t have enough data for last night to tell you what % were watching cable, but among 18-49 year olds between 8p-11p, ~75% who were watching TV, were not watching any of the programs/networks listed above. There is definitely still a ton of television viewing in the US, even on a Friday night — it’s just very spread out. Nielsen has the US television viewing population age 2 and up at just under 300 million.
Bob, While I love Robert’s headline, I think “Freed from Moonlight and Ex-List, CBS Rules Friday” would have been fun too.
CBS needs to find a solution for their rather poor sunday numbers. Cold Case would be perfect for Fridays, but what you put on sundays?
Bill, do you think CBS finally got the message? I doubt they’ll try “original” shows next time around
Bob, I don’t know if there’s a general lesson to be learned here or a specific (show) one. You could claim the lesson is “program shows like all your other shows” and you’ll do well. But then you never increase your audience beyond that (in CBS’s case, aging) demo. Or the lesson might be a specific one “don’t program shows that will be unpopular”. If it were only that easy.
““don’t program shows that will be unpopular”. If it were only that easy.”
I think it is that easy Bill. That ability to do so isn’t easy, but the lesson is easy.
Almost everyone knew VL or Ex-List would bomb.
Nick, that’s what I meant. Easier said than done.
Moonlight Reruns beginning on SCIFI channel on Jan 23rd 2009! WOW! Guess forum begging works after all
Well I’m happy for Mark Harmon and his show. And nothing against CBS. But it does upset me that another timeslot that hsa proven worthy to a great show is loosing out to reruns. Also, I’m guessing that CBS might be loosing out on the female audience, the one they are trying to attract? Is that true?
I’m sorry that ratings is everything in america. Compared to places like England where they focus more on building a Fanbase. That is why a remake of DR. Who is so popular, aside from Knight Rider, and so heavily syndicated as well.
Oh ok. Thanks for reclarifying my points. The other point I was thinking was why don’t CW try and buy re-run rights to Spongebob and Hannah Montana (that is a joke, but look at their Sunday numbers. It cant get any worse!)
Oy! NBC’s numbers look horrible! I love Lipstick Jungle, so I’m pleased to see that it actually won the night in the demo for NBC. Not much of a distinction, but that’s something, especially since it got 2 million less viewers than Deal or No Deal.
Also, did you hear that LIFE got picked up for the full season? Yeah! Is Lipstick really on the chopping block with the numbers for NBC looking so crappy?