| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 11.40 | 6.03 | 5.36 | 4.18 | 1.36 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.5/8 | 2.0/6 | 1.5/5 | 1.1/3 | 0.6/2 |
All those fans of show X allegedly boycotting CBS? It looks like some of them aren't, and CBS stood for the Cheery Bright Smile network as an encore of The Mentalist performed well at 9pm. In fact it was the most-watched hour on CBS last night, though both Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs beat it among 18-49 year olds. Ghost Whisperer had the highest demo number of the night. CBS easily won the night in both viewers and among 18-49 year olds.
Here's what we know: it's not just NCIS reruns.
Here's what we can guess: CBS isn't likely to stick Flashpoint or any other scripted series in that slot until the reruns no longer perform. That is assuming CBS takes an "if it ain't broke..." mentality.
The rest of the night? Kind of a big snooze. The only thing probably worth mentioning is ABC's 20/20 which pulled in respectable numbers (perhaps even "good" numbers for a Friday). Why? The story of how high priced hooker Ashley Dupre' took down New York Governer Eliot Spitzer (AKA "client 9").
As for the rest of the night, ABC is probably getting what it expects, which probably isn't much, out of Wife Swap and Supernanny. But Fox can't be getting as much out of its games shows as it hoped -- at least not in the demos. Or perhaps Fox is trying to establish a deliberately low bar so that when Joss Whedon's Dollhouse begins airing on Fridays in Februray it has a shot at improving performance. Ok, Fox isn't really deliberately trying to set the bar so low, it just works out that way. Thankfully for Fox, NBC is there to make its bar seem relatively high.
But soon Crusoe will finish its run in exile on Saturday nights, Lipstick Jungle will move to 9pm and Dateline will come back at 10pm. Sometime not long after that, Dateline will likely expand to two hours. Au revoir Lipstick Jungle.
Last Friday night's overnight results are available if you want to compare.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Ghost Whisperer | 11.36 | 2.7/9 |
| FOX | Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader | 6.04 | 1.3/4 | |
| NBC | Deal or No Deal | 5.72 | 1.2/4 | |
| ABC | Wife Swap | 4.78 | 1.7/5 | |
| CW | Everybody Hates Chris | 1.77 | 0.7/2 | |
| 8:30 | CW | The Game | 1.62 | 0.8/2 |
| 9:00 | CBS | The Mentalist (R) | 11.62 | 2.4/7 |
| FOX | Don't Forget the Lyrics | 5.75 | 1.6/5 | |
| ABC | Supernanny | 5.06 | 1.7/5 | |
| NBC | Crusoe | 3.50 | 0.9/3 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model (R) | 1.07 | 0.5/2 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Numb3rs | 11.23 | 2.5/8 |
| ABC | 20/20 | 8.24 | 2.5/7 | |
| NBC | Lipstick Jungle | 3.33 | 1.1/3 |
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.
Kinda disappointed to see Ghost Whiperer’s numbers stay so high after the show more or less jumped shark last week.
Fans are definitely not happy with where the show is headed right now so I’ll like to see if those numbers hold up for the rest of the season.
Incredible. A repeat of the second episode of The Mentalist drew only 4.2 million viewers less than this week’s first run episode. And it grew out of Ghost Whisperer (which is at highs not seen since the first season, despite grumbling amongst fans over the current story line).
NBC made a mistake not promoting Crusoe is a limited-run series. And probably a bigger mistake green lighting the show to begin with. It has very nice scenery but little else going for it.
I’m amazed at how drastic the numbers for NUMB3RS (pun intended) change week to week depending on its lead-in. Judging from the first three episodes of the season, it looked like the core audience had dropped to about 8.3 million viewers. Now it is adding another three million just because its on after a repeat of NCIS/The Mentalist.
If only The CW could program Monday through Thursday only, it would actually be doing somewhat “well” by its own, netlet expectations. Friday and Sunday just kill the weekly average. I wonder how well individual affiliates do on Saturday evenings and with what sort of programming…
they had to know that the weekly average would be killed when they let go of Friday Night Smackdown! Sunday hurt CW’s average last year too, and while MRC’s numbers were awful, and worse than last year, missing ~3 million viewers on Friday are hurting it more than anything else.
While I agree with you it’s like saying: if only CW could program Mondays and Thursdays for two hours and one hour Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And with ANTM off for a while, Wednesdays are about to go down the tube for a while with two hours of Stylista. This Wednesday is a repeat of Stylista and then a Stylista clip show with “never before seen footage” Arguably, on a relative basis even the seen footage has never been seen!
I still have no idea how nobody has ever won the million on 5th grader. I mean come on, Harvard graduates, scientists, teachers, no one can get the 5th grade questions and I can get them WITHOUT the knowledge of going on the show and practicing that early school work. I mean seriously, either they are lying about the people on the show, or America is just getting dumber.
I have this feeling that The Mentalist will grow into the biggest show on TV (in total viewers, #1 in demo on its night) around its 2nd season.
sad to see that only ABC and CBS (with a repeat!) can only crack a 2.0 for the night.
“Arguably, on a relative basis even the seen footage has never been seen!”
ROTFLMAO!
Most of the shows I watched on the CW (Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Jack and Bobby, Reba, Aliens In America) have gone the way of the Dodo. The only things left are Reaper and Supernatural.
At some point as the CW cuts back, or thinks of cutting back, they’re going to hit problems with their fixed costs. All those folks back at CW HQ and whatever other corporate overhead they have is likely pretty much the same whether they program 9, 12 or 15 hours a week. The network profitability has to suffer as they cut back (or consider it).
“Arguably, on a relative basis even the seen footage has never been seen!”
Indeed. Best line written on the site in recent memory!
Awesome for the entire CBS lineup. You know, I too wonder about the repeats. Surely, there are people sitting there watching it for a second time, but I actually think these are shows that a lot of people may not have watched before but have seen the show in the past, and they are easy to plug right in to. It’s the benefit of structuring shows like that.
As for Ghost Whisperer, I watch it, and am perfectly pleased. Fans of shows on the net are like a little slice of a demographic of the larger whole that watches tv. I’ve always noticed most people don’t say anything if they don’t have anything to complain about, so you end up with the people who are upset about something chatting amongst themselves. Which is cool, I just think it is a mistake to think they represent the entirety of a shows fan base. I find fan discussions exhausting personally, because people on the net are so overly critical, so I typically avoid it with most of the shows I watch.
The Mentalist numbers are kind of suprising. It seems like no matter what CBS airs, they get good ratings. I didn’t think it was possible for network television to have dedicated fanboys. CBS is proving me wrong.
Sorry Andrea, it has a ways to go before it catches NCIS and CSI. If House or American Idol is on on the same night as it is, it won’t win the demo either.
“still have no idea how nobody has ever won the million on 5th grader.”
Somebody did win the million dollar prize on Smarter than a 5th grader.
It was a few weeks back in I believe this season’s opener.
Her name was Kathy Cox and she is reportedly donating all her winnings to the public school in Georgia.
http://gameshows.about.com/od/photogalleries/ig/5th-Grader-Season-3/Kathy-Cox-large.htm
foxs averages at the top seem low
Kyle: There was one winner on 5th Grader in September – and Ken Jennings would’ve been the second, as he knew the million-dollar answer after having already stopped at 500K.
My bad, Alex.
sean, agreed, but i just took the numbers from Berman and didn’t see the data report as we do mon-fri. if the show data is correct the avg is 5.9 million.
So are people watching CBS on Friday’s because the line-up (repeats and all) is great or because the alternatives are horrible? I mean, if Ghost Whisperer were up against some kind of competition at 8 would it still be pulling the numbers it is? Same goes for the entire CBS line-up on Friday’s surely anything could draw comparatively brilliant numbers up against the sinking ships of everyone else’s Friday Night line-up?
im so happy for ghost whisperer. I love Jennifer Love Hewitt and David Conrad.
that show is in its 4th season and its bigger than ever! (or at least bigger than last season)
Alex,
I think CBS does well with the geriatric crew no matter what night a procedural in airing.
The TV demo is not in on the weekends, so the other networks suffer as a result.