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Sunday Ratings: Eagles/Vikings Big Early, ABC & Desperate Housewives Win Late

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January 5th, 2009

Scoreboard FOX CBS ABC NBC Uni CW
Total Viewers (million) 12.196 11.285 10.390 8.045 2.261 1.145
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 4.6/11 2.3/6 3.5/9 2.7/7 0.8/2 0.3/1
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 3.9/11 1.5/4 2.7/8 2.3/6 0.9/2 0.2/1

The NFL Wildcard Game between the Eagles and Vikings and its postgame gave Fox a huge early push that allowed it to coast to overall victory on Sunday night in viewers and both the 18-49 and 18-34 age demos. But after 8pm Eastern, ABC was the clear demo winner with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters sweeping the 18-49 demos and nearly doing so for the 18-34 demos (on a half hour basis).

Note that because of the live NFL game, all of these fast nationals numbers, but particularly Fox's, are subject to significant adjustment in the final numbers, see below for more explanation.

The debut of NBC's Superstars of Dance was credible, doing over a 3 rating for the 18-49 demo.

A variety of personal reasons have me rushed today, so no lengthy analysis, you can check out the Sunday, December 8 numbers for comparison.

Full details:

 


Time Net Show Viewers Live+SD (Millons) 18-49 Rating/ Share 18-34 Rating/ Share
7:00 FOX NFL: Eagles/Vikings 26.996 10.0/26 8.5/26
  CBS 60 Minutes 11.708 1.9/5 0.9/3
  ABC America's Funniest Home Videos 6.235 1.7/4 1.2/3
  NBC Saturday Night Live Sports Extra 4.431 1.5/4 1.3/4
  UNI Hora Pico 2.502 0.9/2 0.9/3
  CW Jericho (repeat) 0.703 0.3/1 0.2/1
           
7:30 FOX NFL: Eagles/Vikings & Postgame 22.576 8.6/22 7.6/22
  CBS 60 Minutes 12.937 2.1/5 1.2/3
  ABC America's Funniest Home Videos 7.964 2.2/6 1.5/4
  NBC Saturday Night Live Sports Extra 4.531 1.9/5 1.6/5
  UNI Hora Pico 2.627 1.0/2 1.0/3
  CW Jericho (repeat) 0.829 0.3/1 0.2/1
           
8:00 CBS Million Dollar Password 10.437 1.9/5 1.4/4
  ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 9.884 3.3/8 2.4/7
  FOX 24: Redemption (repeat) 8.285 3.1/8 2.5/7
  NBC Saturday Night Live Sports Extra 7.082 2.9/7 2.7/8
  UNI Hora Pico 2.855 1.1/3 1.2/3
  CW Trail of the Pink Panther (movie-repeat) 1.587 0.4/1 0.3/1
           
8:30 ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 12.052 4.2/10 3.3/9
  CBS Million Dollar Password 10.412 1.9/5 1.3/4
  NBC Saturday Night Live Sports Extra 6.686 2.8/7 2.5/7
  FOX 24: Redemption (repeat) 5.769 2.1/5 1.8/5
  UNI Hora Pico 2.873 1.2/3 1.3/4
  CW Trail of the Pink Panther (movie-repeat) 1.448 0.4/1 0.3/1
           
9:00 ABC Desperate Housewives 14.432 5.2/12 4.2/11
  CBS Cold Case 12.382 2.7/6 1.8/5
  NBC Superstars of Dance 10.829 3.3/8 2.8/7
  FOX 24: Redemption (repeat) 4.940 1.8/4 1.6/4
  UNI Lucero de Mexico 1.917 0.7/2 0.7/2
  CW Trail of the Pink Panther (movie-repeat) 1.241 0.3/1 0.2/1
           
9:30 ABC Desperate Housewives 14.232 5.2/12 4.2/11
  CBS Cold Case 12.940 3.0/7 1.8/5
  NBC Superstars of Dance 10.672 3.2/7 2.7/7
  FOX 24: Redemption (repeat) 4.610 1.6/4 1.4/4
  UNI Lucero de Mexico 1.665 0.6/1 0.6/1
  CW Trail of the Pink Panther (movie-repeat) 1.059 0.2/1 0.1/1
           
10:00 NBC Superstars of Dance 10.314 3.0/7 2.6/7
  ABC Brothers & Sisters 9.751 3.5/9 2.8/7
  CBS The Unit 9.640 2.4/6 1.5/4
  UNI Lucero de Mexico 1.805 0.7/2 0.6/2
           
10:30 CBS The Unit 9.821 2.6/7 1.8/5
  NBC Superstars of Dance 9.813 2.8/7 2.4/7
  ABC Brothers & Sisters 8.569 2.9/8 2.3/7
  UNI Lucero de Mexico 1.844 0.7/2 0.6/2

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.

(62) Comments - Add Yours!

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  1. Andrea

    Million Dollar Password: How can you have over 10 million viewers and only a 1.9 demo, lol.

    Looks like NBC found its Dancing with the Stars…

  2. Joleen

    Superstars of Dance dropped each half….will wait to see how it does tonight for yet another two hours. It will do worse I think.

  3. cool

    Expecting worse numbers fo Superstars of Dance but I think this is not the numbers NBC was expecting.
    good numbers for DH even NODBY was watching ABC the last month and is the first series to comeback.

  4. Andrea

    I expected a drop in the 10pm hour for SOD. Isn’t the highest HUT at 9pm?

  5. Good point, ‘cool’, ABC took a few weeks off, I think its best-rated program of the last two or three weeks might have been the Celtics vs. Lakers game on Christmas Day. ABC’s prime-time numbers for late December were off the charts, but not in a good way :-)

  6. DenverDean

    Is this season low for DH? Cold Case certainly does better when it doesn’t start at 9:45! So The Unit wins the 10:30 half hour? Hmmm.

  7. jay

    Where to begin? Mea culpa. I hadn’t watched DH all year. Saw it last night and now I see why its defenders are so … defensive. Also why the demo stayed riveted while a few over 50′s switched apparently to Cold Case, which seems like a tired show. I thought Superstars of Dance would be such a transparent, NBCish copy of other shows it would do maybe 33% less than it did. I’m sort of miffed because when DH came out in 2004, I was bowled over. The women, the way the show was filmed, the writing … in my own head I thought, this could be Shirley Jackson or John Cheever lite. I should have known better. But I think Eva L. still has great comic chops, and who can not like Marcia Cross, also with good comic talent and intellectually brilliant.

  8. johnthemon

    I’m surprised how well Superstars of Dance did in the demo. I expected a worse ratio of viewers/18-49 year olds, like Dancing with the Stars.

  9. cool

    10 million and 3.0 is not exactly ‘young’

  10. Jill

    Okay, I have to say, Superstars of Dance is way way, waaaaaay better than Dancing with the [Fake] Stars.

  11. cool, it’s young compared to 10 million and a 1.9 (see Million Dollar Password).

    Andrea, last night the highest HUT/PUT was between 8:30-10 (67, 67.8, and 67.2 for the half hours). At 10pm it was 63.2 (at 7pm it was 63.1) and at 10:30p it dropped to a 59.

    it is an interesting metric but it requires more analysis than we’re probably willing to take on as an ongoing thing. it’s also somewhat deceptive to look at the aggregate H/P. The H/P among 18-49 year olds was just as high at 10pm as it was at 8pm and just as high at 10:30p as it was at 7p. in the aggregate 7p was noticeably bigger than 10:30p.

  12. matt2

    Thank you to everyone invovled in the production of the daily tv chart infomation. They are fun to dissect and it’s very interesting to take a peek into America’s viewing habits. You certainly can tell which shows were engaging and which shows were unable to hold the viewers interest. All night long CBS’ new shows held steady or gained viewers during their hours. Over at ABC, their lineup came back as potent as ever despite the network being in repeats all of December and Home Makeovers had an extreme increase in viewers from 8 to 8:30. NBC’s Superstars of Dance got off to a good start. Yeah! Then, it proceeded to shed a million viewers over the course of the rest of the night. It make you wonder what was so unappealing that that many people ran away from the show.

  13. JT

    Damn! I was hoping superstars of dance would bomb!! Do we need another stupid dance competition on the air?

  14. Mike

    You said it JT! I too had those hopes!!

  15. Doug

    Wow, series lows for both DH and especially B&S. I do *still* like B&S, but I can see why viewers are abandoning it this season – it’s become utterly predictable and drippy. Sally Field cries every episode between 10:40 and 10:45. It’s the main reason why I watch.

    a little puzzling for DH, considering how good the series is this season.

  16. Doug, next Sunday is likely more telling. For many, last night was the very tail end of the holidays and people aren’t back in their regular patterns yet. If DH is back around 15.5 million next Sunday I’ll consider last night just a weird scheduling anomaly.

  17. jp

    is it just me or was michael flatley a little out of his comfort zone as host of superstars of dance.

    will see the results for sunday and monday for this show, Problem is they put the show up against Texas vs Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl monday. Tuesday would’ve been better.

  18. Desperate Housewives had to be lower due to a lack of promotion. ABC has been spending all their money/ad spots promoting the return of Scrubs. It’ll be interesting to see how that does in the ratings!

    Superstars of Dance (I guess calling it Dancing Superstars would have been a little too infringing) did pretty well for itself. Especially those demos. I would have expected lower.

    Of course it could get half those numbers and still be a success for NBC…

  19. Gerry

    Privileged gets no love from the CW during the Pink Panther movie. Multiple promos for new episodes of 90210 and just one for Privileged that was cut short by an ad.

  20. Ben

    Why don’t the networks hold off their big shows until at least the middle-to-end of january? Wouldn’t having 2-3 fewer repeats during mid-season be better?

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