| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 10.57 | 5.39 | 5.20 | 5.10 | 1.28 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.4/7 | 1.6/5 | 1.2/4 | 1.7/5 | 0.6/2 |
CBS continues to dominate Friday nights, having the three most-watched programs on broadcast network television. Friday Night Lights made its broadcast network debut and unsurprisingly (at least to me) the numbers weren't any more impressive than Lipstick Jungle's were. Flashpoint won the hour resoundingly. I know, I know, people with DirecTV had already seen FNL, not to mention all the Internet downloading. But if you added up DTV and Internet downloading into last night's broadcast numbers, Flashpoint still crushed it.
Flashpoint doesn't have the critical praise (at least not yet) and Internet loving that FNL gets, but it succeeds where it's important. A lot of people actually watch it.
Numb3rs ran up against the premiere of the last ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica and was still the most-watched program on broadcast television for the evening. BTW, for those interested we won't see the BSG numbers until Monday or Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if BSG cracked 2 million viewers.
Of course Ghost Whisperer won the 8pm hour, but Howie Do It is performing better than I thought it would.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Ghost Whisperer | 10.52 | 2.5/8 |
| NBC | Howie Do It | 6.06 | 1.8/6 | |
| FOX | Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader | 5.64 | 1.1/4 | |
| ABC | Wife Swap | 4.78 | 1.7/5 | |
| CW | Everybody Hates Chris | 1.55 | 0.6/2 | |
| 8:30 | CW | The Game | 1.70 | 0.8/2 |
| 9:00 | CBS | Flashpoint | 10.38 | 2.3/7 |
| FOX | Don't Forget the Lyrics | 4.84 | 1.3/4 | |
| NBC | Friday Night Lights | 4.54 | 1.6/5 | |
| ABC | Supernanny | 4.36 | 1.6/5 | |
| CW | 13: Fear is Real (R) | 0.93 | 0.4/1 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Numb3rs | 10.83 | 2.5/7 |
| ABC | 20/20 | 6.17 | 1.8/5 | |
| NBC | Dateline | 5.71 | 1.5/4 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
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.
Supernanny was a repeat too.
Nice performance by Flashpoint, it actually went up slightly in the demo from last week. If it can keep up these demos, CBS will leave Friday alone next fall.
Unless Direct TV is paying nearly all the costs for Friday Night Lights and giving it to NBC for free, this is undoubtedly it’s last gasp.
Friday’s are now one of the reasons that CBS is doing relatively better this year vs. its broadcast competition. Not having a boat anchor like Ex-List (or Moonlight, or take your pick) on at 9pm now allows them to average double the competition’s viewership and significantly better in the demo for the whole night. Losing those 3 hours so badly digs the other guys a hole that’s hard to climb out of on a weekly average basis.
Too bad for Friday Night Lights, it’s such an amazing show.
FNL seems very much like a DVR-show. The problem is it won’t be noticed in the immediate Live+DVR ratings because those who DVR it on a Friday night won’t be watching it till a few days later.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a ratings increase once the people who watch on DVR within 7 days are factored in, but we’ll see.
wow i did not even know friday night lights came back i really wnated to watch it this season way to go NBC
NBC needs a critically acclaimed drama to match 30 Rock as their award-worthy comedy. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t push Friday Night Lights more at The Globes…maybe they will make some attempts at this year’s Emmy’s.
Wendell, I agree FNL will get some DVR viewing ultimately probably a bit more than a million. though figure at least 25% of that is baked into the numbers above. The live+7 numbers are not likely to increase the live+SD numbers by a million viewers
CW deserves the ratings it gets in frieday.
Why dump a show who brings in 4 million viewers and 1.5 18-49 rating? Because CW wants to become the destination for women 18-34. Too bad it’s a broadcast network, not a cable channel.
Here’s a link to a article in Forbs which buys the BS Ostroff is selling and where she claims: “We’ve had a fantastic year”. What a joke.
Link: http://www.forbes.com/media/2009/01/13/television-cw-ostroff-biz-media-cx_lr_0113thecw.html
its pathetic what the CW is trying to do if (smallville or supernatural) (dont know what one is which) gets 4-5 million vierwes shouldnt they make those shows there main demo?? or promote the crap out of them?? what idiots
NBC needs RATINGS, RATINGS and more RATINGS!
since when you can pay bills with Golden Globes?
I agree with Robert on likely FNL DVR viewing, and here’s some numbers.
FNL data from from Nov 9, 2007 for perspective on historical DVR viewing of the show:
Live: 5.13 million
Live+SD: 5.565 million
Live+7: 6.15 million (+10.5% over Live+SD, +20% over Live)
And while last night could very easily be different for a variety of factors, a 500k boost in Live+7 over Live+SD for last night seems in the historical range.
It’s quite a shame that FNL has not been able to generate a larger audience. Even if it had held 6MM viewers (“Howie Do It” numbers), it might have a ghost of a chance given the low bars set by NBC and Friday night ratings in general.
As a DirecTV viewer of FNL, I can say that I’ve seen the end of Season 3 and I won’t spoil it for anyone. One general comment about the series: it’s been a refreshing change of pace to see a story whose central characters include a still-in-love, longtime married couple. The Taylors have navigated very real marital issues, and it’s clear they are solidly devoted to each other for better or worse. Kudos to Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton for giving such life to the Taylors!
Looks like CBS has finally found a block of shows that holds the 10-million figure solidly throughout the night. Plan on a block of GW, Flashpoint, and Numb3rs for as long as humanly possible!
Ouch FNL. Unless the actors all take a pay cut and this moves to cable somewhere I think it’s done. When you’re loosing Don’t Forget the Lyrics, it’s over.
I wonder if NBC will air out the rest of the season. Might as well, they really have no replacements anyways.
Friday Night Lights is great TV. I loved last nights episode.
Chuck
While we have no knowledge of the terms of the NBC/DirectTV deal over FNL, my guess is that NBC’s costs have been reduced enough to make the removal of FNL before it finishes its run this spring very unlikely.
People talk about NBC crashing and burning, but really it’s still a long time from going off air or any crap like that. Look at the CW. I think NBC can turn around…ABC did! However, this isn’t their year.
oh and FNL, final season…I don’t think they’ll pull the DTV thing again.
johnthemon, NBC may be crashing and burning, but has anyone discussed any real likelihood of them going off the air? Because NBC seems to cover its bottom line. No possibility of it dying. (CBS on the other hand, I actually have seen real discussion of it being one of the major victims of the current economy.)
taking a $12 *billion* dollar loss will generate those kind of discussions!
Unfortunately there is no way for us to break out the economics of CBS broadcast primetime versus the vast CBS media empire (including radio, billboards, etc). There can be zero doubt that CBS’ top line for its primetime programming is larger than NBC’s top line for primetime, that’s hardly speculative. But any analysis beyond that is, sadly, purely speculative.