Breaking the trend for what has otherwise been a woeful fall season for the big English broadcasters, CBS's average viewership for the 2008-9 season is now above the level of the 2007-8 season through the first 13 weeks (12/21/08). CBS also narrowed its declines relative to last season in all the age demo categories since last week, and seems poised to go positive across the board vs. last season in early 2009.
NBC, ABC and Fox all showed some improvement as well in the advertiser important adults 18-49 demo since last week, but are all still doing much worse than CBS vs. last season.
My guess is that CBS, CW and ABC will see additional improvement vs. last season in early 2009 when prior year comparisons to the strike damaged portion of the 2007-8 season get a lot easier. NBC may be another matter, their results last season actually improved on a relative basis during the strike, but they have the Super Bowl this year, which will also lead to a huge spike in their averages making comparisons tricky.
Univision is up across the board vs. last season as is MyNetworkTV (MNT). They're up drastically over last season, thanks mainly to the addition of Friday Night Smackdown!. Note just their numbers, because their bars are truncated. The scale for the other networks would be useless if I adjusted the scale for them.
Our chart shows broadcast network prime-time season to date average prime-time viewership for the 2008-9 season compared to the 2007-8 season. Click the image for a full sized chart.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Well it did manage to gain 1.1% in total viewers, but losses across the board in the demos. I guess it goes to show all those 34 year olds, 49 year olds and 54 year olds got older…and kept watching.
poor cw
C in CW stands for: Crap almost nobody wants to watch. Ok, theres a couple of decent shows on Thursdays but thats about it. When it gets beat handily by some Spanish language channel, its time to board it up and close it down.
So I guess I can’t snark on CBS being the old people’s network :/
that means that CBS is getting even older each day/
Andrea, CBS still is the old people’s network, but they’re now the middle-aged people’s network too!
cool, as are we all.
It’s just like my dad always said: Age and treachery will always defeat youth and skill.
Yay for the old people! (I’m 33 myself, but I have to tell you, I’m sick to death of living in a youth-obsessed society.)
Age and treachery beat youth and skill because the aged resent the young. And I’m 50.
Look at the graphic !
Univision + 11% viewers
I think I should learn to speak spanish
Ay Caramba !
I know Spanish very well and I enjoy the soap operas of Univision, way better than Telemundo.