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Updated Thursday Ratings: CBS wins night of mostly reruns

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December 19th, 2008

Scoreboard CBS FOX ABC NBC Uni CW
Total Viewers (million) 10.30 6.69 4.83 4.38 3.90 2.09
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 2.2/7 1.9/6 1.5/4 1.8/5 1.5./4 0.8/2
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 1.4/5 1.6/5 1.4/5 1.5/5 1.6/5 0.7/2

On a night of almost all reruns, CBS won the most-watched award, and also won among 18-49 year olds. Fox took the 18-34 year old demographic (actually, it tied with Univision). The only original programming outside Univision for the night was Fox's Secret Millionaire (6.43 million, and a 2.1/7 among 18-49 year olds), Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader (6.95 million and a 1.7/5 among 18-49 year olds) and CBS' Million Dollar Password (8.27 million, 1.6/5 among 18-49 year olds).

I will update this post with a complete show data table (even the repeats) later this morning (on the west coast). Now updated.

Last Thursday's overnight report.

Full details:

 

Time Net Show Viewers (Millons) 18-49 Rating/Share 18-34 Rating/Share
8:00 CBS Million Dollar Password 8.27 1.6/5 1.0/3
  FOX Secret Millionaire (Finale) 6.43 2.1/7 1.8/6
  NBC My Name is Earl (R) 4.67 1.7/5 1.1/4
  ABC Ugly Betty (R) 4.57 1.3/4 1.1/4
  UNI Cuidado con el Angel 4.44 1.6/5 1.8/6
  CW Smallville (R) 2.12 0.8/2 0.7/3
           
8:30 NBC Kath & Kim (R) 3.84 1.6/5 1.2/4
           
9:00 CBS CSI (R) 12.57 2.9/8 1.9/6
FOX Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? 6.95 1.7/5 1.4/4
  ABC Grey's Anatomy (R) 5.52 1.8/5 1.4/4
  NBC The Office (R) 4.99 2.3/7 2.1/7
  UNI Fuego en la Sangre 4.32 1.7/5 1.8/6
  CW Supernatural (R) 2.07 0.8/2 0.8/2
           
9:30 NBC 30 Rock (R) 4.66 2.0/5 1.7/5
           
10:00 CBS Eleventh Hour (R) 10.07 2.4/7 1.5/5
  ABC Private Practice (R) 4.40 1.5/4 1.3/4
  NBC 30 Rock (R) 4.32 1.7/5 1.5/5
  UNI Rosa de Guadalupe 2.95 1.2/3 1.2/4
           
10:30 NBC The Office (R) 3.78 1.6/5 1.3/4

Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

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.

(65) Comments - Add Yours!

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  1. cool

    It looks like Private Practice will retain ~80% of Grey’s Anatomy audience, good news for them.

    Why CBS keeps bringing back ‘Password’? it was last in 18-34, talk about older skewing.

    btw, you have 30 Rock twice

  2. 30 Rock aired twice last night, but, apparently i added the same data for both half hours. will fix. actually i didn’t. I do need caffeine, but the 30 Rock data is correct

  3. cool

    Eleventh Hour was new? according to thefutoncritic.com, it was a repeat.

    http://thefutoncritic.com/listings.aspx?date=12/18/08&filter=repeats

  4. it wasn’t new. everything besides what was highlighted in the text above and Univision programming was repeats.

  5. Johnthemon

    Late december is just *yawn* boring isn’t it?

  6. BIG DADDY

    I bet univision has great numbers in North Dakota & Minnesota. :)

  7. Rachel P

    I’m confused. Is Secret Millionaire over now already? o_O

  8. pru

    A repeat of Private Practice gets roughly the same ratings as an original, new episode of Pushing Daisies. Proof indeed that Private Practice was the only ABC show off-air for 10 months worth saving.

    If it can retain anything near the 80% of it’s lead-in’s figures in it’s new Thursday night slot (as the repeats have so far done), then it will rise up through the renew/cancel index. B&S only manages to hold onto 65% of it’s DH lead-in.

  9. Rachel, for now,it’s already over. Whether Fox does another run of it remains to be seen. With the numbers it pulled, as low cost programming, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it have another run.

  10. Pru, if Private Practice only keeps 65% of the lead-in it will be an improvement both over its Wednesday numbers and Life On Mars.

  11. Joe Cool

    I dont watch Private Practice, but caught the last 5 minutes. It looks more like something that should be on HBO or Showtime. They sure dont leave much to the imagination.

  12. Joe Cool

    Secret Millionaire is over? If so, Im glad. I reminds me of Oprahs Big Give. Though Oprah was worse because she just did it to boost her already overinflated ego – to go along with her inflating waist line.

  13. WED

    ^ Oprah has an ego nooo. lol :)

  14. Lisa

    Compared to True Blood, Private Practice is tame! Some of the stuff on TB makes me glad the major networks have a certain amount of censorship. Less can definitely be more, and probably should be in an awful lot of cases.

    I think Practice is a badly written show with a fine cast that makes the most of what they’re given. I’ll keep up with it, most likely, especially after ER is gone.

  15. Jesse

    *looks at ratings for Million Dollar Password*
    I know the other networks would kill for those kinds of numbers, but i’m guessing CBS is eagerly counting the days until Survivor: Tocantins starts up. And I am too. Feb 12 can’t come soon enough.

  16. April's First Post

    Well, at the risk of being accused of “trolling” (whatever that is, wish you had a glossary)…

    this week’s Pushing Daisies had twice the ratings as this week’s Smallville.

    Pushing Daisies would be considered a hit on CW

    Pushing Daisies would fit into the announced goals of the head of CW

    A show about some boy with supper powers belongs on nickelodian, not on a grown up0 person’s channel.

    Just my opinion, not worth spit as you all know

  17. Chris the TV Sage

    AFP: A show about some boy with supper powers belongs on nickelodian, not on a grown up0 person’s channel.

    Super powers like…… raising the dead with a single touch?

  18. April's First Post

    touche’…although, to be fair, I said SUPPER Powers, not Super powers. Since the pie man makes his pies with rotten fruit, touching the fruit and bringing it back to glorious fruition…maybe he does have supper powers.

  19. definition of trolling: someone who can spell glossary and daisies correctly who would then compare a repeat (yes, I repeat, a REPEAT) of Smallville on the CW with a new airing of a show on ABC. Then deliberately misspell “super” and Nickelodeon while saying that a boy with super powers on the CW doesn’t belong on a grown up’s channel while a man with special powers does.

  20. April's First Post

    I can spell biased, testosterone and misogynist.

    I think your testosterone level combined with your misogynist attitude has left you blindly biased against the announced goals of the CW.

    As my southern gentile aunt taught me to say… “Well, God bless him.”

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