| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 8.810 | 8.357 | 7.748 | 6.576 | 4.467 | 1.742 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.7/7 | 2.3/6 | 2.3/6 | 1.8/5 | 1.7/5 | 0.8/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.0/6 | 1.5/4 | 1.6/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.9/6 | 1.0/3 |
This year's People's Choice Awards on CBS ruled the 9pm hour and was strong enough in the demos at 10pm to lead CBS to a sweep of viewership and both the adults 18-49 and 18-34 age demos on Wednesday. That is significantly better than the show did last year, but in the midst of the writer's strike the 2008 show was on tape and had no celebrities.
The Barbara Walters Special featuring Patrick Swayze talking about his fight with pancreatic cancer was the most watched show of the night and also took the 18-49 demo for the 10pm hour.
The premiere of the CW's 13: Fear is Real garnered but 2.399 million viewers and 5th/6th place demo ratings, but was likely very cheap to produce. America's Next Top Model cannot return soon enough for the net.
A new Knight Rider at 8pm was stuck in the slow lane against repeats from competitors. Law & Order was up noticeably from its typical level following Life. Perhaps commenter "Vader" has a point!
Full details plus the People's Choice Award winners below:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (000s) | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | New Adventures of Old Christine (Repeat) | 8,221 | 2.3 | 7 | 1.6 | 5 |
| FOX | Bones (Repeat) | 6,631 | 1.7 | 5 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| NBC | Knight Rider | 5,702 | 1.7 | 4 | 1.3 | 4 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Ángel | 4,754 | 1.8 | 5 | 2.1 | 6 | |
| ABC | Scrubs (Repeat) x2 | 4,501 | 1.6 | 4 | 1.4 | 5 | |
| CW | 13---Fear is Real (Premiere) | 2,399 | 1.1 | 3 | 1.3 | 4 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Gary Unmarried (Repeat) | 7,362 | 2.3 | 6 | 1.4 | 4 |
| 9:00 | CBS | People's Choice Awards | 10,212 | 3.2 | 8 | 2.3 | 8 |
| ABC | 20/20 | 7,999 | 2.3 | 6 | 1.5 | 4 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (Repeat) | 7,427 | 2.2 | 6 | 1.5 | 4 | |
| FOX | Bones (Repeat) | 6,521 | 2.0 | 5 | 1.6 | 5 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5,107 | 2.0 | 5 | 2.2 | 6 | |
| CW | 90210 (Repeat) | 1,086 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.7 | 1 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | Barbara Walters Special | 12,572 | 3.1 | 8 | 1.7 | 5 |
| NBC | Law & Order | 10,114 | 3.0 | 8 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| CBS | People's Choice Awards | 8,427 | 2.7 | 7 | 2.1 | 8 | |
| UNI | Don Francisco Presenta | 3,540 | 1.4 | 4 | 1.5 | 4 |
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Here are the People's Choice TV category winners for your perusal, and to answer the inevitable questions, it's unlikely that an award will save a show that's a ratings loser.
- TV drama: "House"
- TV comedy: "Two and a Half Men"
- TV animated comedy: "The Simpsons"
- Sci-fi/fantasy show: "Heroes"
- Reality show: "Dancing with the Stars"
- Game show: "Deal or No Deal"
- Male TV star: Hugh Laurie
- Female TV star: Christina Applegate
- Talk show host: Ellen DeGeneres
- Scene-stealing guest star: Robin Williams, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
- TV drama diva: Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Johnson, "The Closer"
- New TV comedy: "Gary Unmarried"
- New TV drama: "The Mentalist"
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.
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.
no mention of Christine and Gary doing better in repeats than when they last ran new episodes.
You’re out to get them!
well, it looks like the people’s choice awards are the only awards shows left that aren’t dominated by cable. Good to see Heroes win something, even if there was probably very little competition in the sci-fi fantasy genre.
^ so true on Christine and Gary. I plead blinders on repeats!
“Here are the People’s Choice TV category winners for your perusal, and to answer the inevitable questions, it’s unlikely that an award will save a show that’s a ratings loser.”
Tough break Mentalist. Looks like not even the PCA’s can save you now…
Matt, of course that line was for the (relatively) few Gary Unmarried fans out there
So, is 13-Fear is Real a huge flop? Or merely another new show on CW?
Julia, please define the difference?
when it comes to the CW, while you may need tweezers and a microscope to pull it apart, I come down that it can’t be a huge flop if it’s outperforming Privileged. So it’s hard to say that those numbers are as bad for the CW as say, Momma’s Boys numbers are for NBC.
That said, it’s a limited run regardless and is gone as soon as ANTM starts up again.
julia, it’s not really a flop. Remember this time last year CW debut that stupid Crowned Pageant show which pulled in a fantastic 1.5 million viewers.
anyone else laugh that Gary Unmarried and the Mentalist both won the people’s choice awards since they are both on CBS and so is the awards?
Jimmy, The Mentalist may have had some actual competition for the title, but Gary Unmarried was against Do Not Disturb and Kat&Kim… (were there any other new comedies this fall?)
I hope you guys aren’t taking The “People’s” Choice Awards seriously…
Actually, Gary Unmarried beat Worst Week and Kath & Kim for the Best New Comedy. Still, it was basically a “which show is the least terrible” category. Anyway, congrats to Christina Applegate for Best Female TV Star, as well as Hugh Laurie and the (enormous) cast of House on their wins.
Are there ANY awards left that are worth taking seriously?
It was nice and clever of CBS to do The Dark Knight tribute/award presentation at the end. You knew the programmers had something up their sleeves with only 8 minutes to go and six categories left, five of which we were reminded over and over contained The Dark Knight. Much in the same way that you know the contestant on Million Dollar Password can’t possibly win the big money in the last five minutes.
“Matt, of course that line was for the (relatively) few Gary Unmarried fans out there
”
Oh I was joking
But seriously, I see where I got confused. I weren’t aware Gary Unmarried fans existed.
How does Christine get better numbers with a repeat than a new episode?! It’s not like there’s usually competition. What Knight Rider and Pushing Daisies (RIP) were holding it back? Bones maybe a little.
Why did ABC show the same episodes of “Scrubs” only ONE Day after the new ones ran?
I would have taken Supernatural over Heroes. I still like Heroes, but Supernatural has been consistently good while Heroes has been very inconsistent. Interesting that the award show lost so many viewers at 10:00. Are they too young to stay up that late?
‘Joey’ won The People’s Choice Awards for “best new comedy” back in its first season. I wonder where that show is now?
Because, GSFABC, the networks are slowly, but surely, turning into cable channels.
13 Fear is FAKE got 2.4 million? Thats a runaway hit for CW. LOL!