| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 19.54 | 8.61 | 7.62 | 7.15 | 4.68 | 1.02 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 7.3/18 | 2.0/5 | 3.0/7 | 2.1/5 | 1.9/5 | 0.4/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 6.5/17 | 1.3/3 | 2.5/7 | 1.6/4 | 2.1/6 | 0.5/1 |
Of course the curse of posting about delays worked! Two minutes after I posted the delay message, I received the data.
Katie Couric: not on fire. The CBS News with Katie Couric was not a hit in prime time. While it did have more viewers from 8pm-8:30 than Knight Rider (6.45 million for Katie vs. 5.852 million for KITT), the car resoundingly thrashed Couric in the age demos. From 8p-8:30 Couric drew a 1.2/3 (rating share) among 18-49 year olds and an 0.8/2 share among 18-34 year olds. Knight Rider had a 1.8/5, and 1.4/4 in those demos for the half hour. CBS said this was a one-off, one time experiment, and I'm guessing they'll definitely stand by that now.
The good news for LOST is that the people who watched the premiere stuck around. It averaged 11.067 million. FOX's new Lie To Me averaged 12.113 million, but LOST had the better 18-49 demo - 4.8/11 for LOST vs. 4.4/10 for Lie To Me. Lie To Me has a little bit of Idol overrun which will be stripped out in the finals and lower its number some.
Life on Mars was back and the hoped for synergy with LOST, sadly didn't happen. LOM dropped to 6.506 million and only had a 2.3/6 among 18-49 year olds, it's lowest rating to date. 
I really enjoyed last night's episode, but these numbers aren't pretty.
Update: American Idol naturally won the night and it has to be a bit dispiriting for the competition, as American Idol is holding its ground. It had more viewers than it did the same night a year ago (26.97M vs. 25.6M) and its performance in the 18-49 year old demographic was the same as last year's 10.1. 25% of all 18-49 year olds watching TV last night from 8pm-9pm were watching American Idol. Impressive.
Please note all of the numbers above are preliminary, not time-zone adjusted and will change in the final numbers...
Full night's data:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 26.97 | 10.1/25 | 8.8/24 |
| CBS | CBS Evening News with Katie Couric | 6.45 | 1.2/3 | 0.8/2 | |
| NBC | Knight Rider | 6.13 | 1.9/5 | 1.5/4 | |
| ABC | LOST (R) | 5.28 | 1.8/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.84 | 1.9/5 | 2.1/6 | |
| CW | Privileged (R) | 1.07 | 0.4/1 | 0.4/1 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | The New Adventures of Old Christine (R) | 4.97 | 1.1/3 | 0.7/2 |
| 9:00 | FOX | Lie To Me | 12.11 | 4.4/10 | 4.1/11 |
| ABC | LOST | 11.07 | 4.8/11 | 4.5/12 | |
| CBS | Criminal Minds (R) | 10.63 | 2.5/6 | 1.5/4 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (R) | 6.44 | 1.9/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.18 | 2.2/5 | 2.4/6 | |
| CW | 90210 (R) | 0.98 | 0.4/1 | 0.5/1 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI: NY (R) | 9.49 | 2.4/6 | 1.5/4 |
| NBC | Law & Order | 8.89 | 2.6/7 | 2.0/6 | |
| ABC | Life on Mars | 6.51 | 2.3/6 | 1.6/5 | |
| UNI | Don Francisco Presenta | 4.03 | 1.5/4 | 1.6/5 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 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.
Disappointing about “Mars”. I wonder if not picking up the story where it left off in the basement hurt it?
Poor Lie to Me. It’s still doing decently, like Fringe, but I was hoping it would really break out. Maybe I’m not the only one who finds Monica Raymund to be nearly unwatchable. It’s only a matter of time before yet another actress drives me away from a show.
oh im so glad for LOST. I’ve been telling my friends that the only reason S4 premiere was so high because the causal viewers gave it one more shot… but by S4E4, it went back to 12 mil and 5.0 18-49 rating. Which is close to what it’s getting now. And of course the causal viewers are no longer even trying to get into the show, which is why there was no dropoff from the premier to the 2nd(3rd) episode.
You know, I really thought LOST would dip below 10 million viewers this week because they’re really using time travel every episode now, which usually does not lead to great ratings, but it surprisingly went up from its second hour last week.
That’s a shame with Life on Mars though, that demo isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great either. Maybe if it can stay there it can surivive, but that’s a big maybe, and I think it’ll be close.
I think the whole cast of LTM works mesh well together. Much better than TM.
That’s Knight Rider’s best viewership in 8 episodes. Before that it had a 2m droppoff after the Obama by week. With being up against Idol and Lost, that’s pretty good. Will have to see if it holds post Katie.
http://knightrideronline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=164791#p164791
Agreed, Monica Raymond is the weak link among the main four, but otherwise I thought yesterday’s epsiode was more likely to endear the show to random Idol viewers with a lazy remote finger.
Vader, LTM will be moving to 8pm.
Every once in a while I am shocked to remember that we live in a world where 2.3 in the demo is NOT considered terrible.
And to whoever was saying yesterday that Idol is slowly dying, this rating is up in the overnights from the same evening last year in total viewers (24.14 vs 26.97) and the demo (9.7 vs 10.1).
I think what we’re seeing is the die hard LOST viewers staying with the show. It probably won’t go below 10m this season.
Time Travel on this show is DIFFERENT then how other shows tried to introduce. Everything that’s happened, HAPPENED in the past! They were always there in the past.
Was that a new CSI: NY? If it was, those have to be series lows for sure, and a baffling decision by CBS to air it all by itself last night.
I’m beginning to think House is the last big scripted hit for FOX. Those who watch American Idol only stay for that show then go back to watching MTV or some other cable network.
Vader, my bad. CSI: NY was a repeat.
Lie to Me, held up stronger than I thought.
LOM is toast. Those LOSTies who did give the show a chance won’t be back, since the ep they aired had practically none of the sci-fi elements that made it a good idea for a lead-out in the first place!
Good news for LOST, looks like only viewers who are with it until the end are watching now, so no steep dropoff from the premiere. Stinks for Mars fans, it really didn’t even hang on to 50% of the 18-49 audience?? I would have thought it would be able to keep at least 60% or so. ABC has never been able to find anything to stick after LOST and IMO they have had shows that are similarly themed so it isn’t like they haven’t tried. Now I just hope that LOST can withstand Idol when it moves to 9 next month, it has before so I don’t think it will impact it much but there will be some effect I’m sure.
How much Idol overrun was there for Lie to Me, according to the DVR guide it was scheduled to start right at 9? Be interesting to see how the show does at 8, if it can perform close to or better than Bones did, FOX should be satisfied I would think.
half hourly stats for Lie to Me (sorry for the formatting):
Lie to Me 9:00-9:30p: 12.914M, 4.7/11
Lie to Me 9:30-10:00p: 11.312 4.1/10
I expected L&O to reach 10 million without a new CSI:NY, but still it did good and I don’t see a reason why NBC won’t renew it for next season.
when bones aired before idol on wednesdays it scored numbers similar to what lie to me did last night so i doubt lie to me will score bones esque numbers at 8.
i think lie to me will probably hover around 9-10m in the 8pm hour
I don’t even think ANY Losties did stick around. The numbers are lower than what LOM got on Thursdays and the retention rate is horrible. Lost’s value as a lead in is zero and always has been.
If ABC was really expecting it to do anything for Life on Mars, they were obviously expecting too much from Lost. Between Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy there isn’t a single hit ABC could establish out of them and only Brothers & Sisters that fairs moderately well.