The updated final number for Sunday night's airing of The Office is 22.905 million viewers between 10:40p-11:40p (ET). 13.338 million homes were watching, and 14.463 million 18-49 year olds. The 18-49 results come in ahead of all three airings of American Idol.
via NBC press release:
'The Office' SCORES RECORD RATINGS FOLLOWING Super Bowl XLIII
THE SPECIAL ONE-HOUR EPISODE OF 'The Office' HITS NEW SERIES HIGHS IN ALL KEY MEASURES, AND DELIVERS THE TOP RESULTS FOR ANY NBC ENTERTAINMENT TELECAST SINCE MAY 2004
AN AVERAGE 22.0 MILLION PERSONS WATCHED 'The Office,' WITH AN ESTIMATED 37.7 MILLION WATCHING ALL OR PART OF THE TELECAST
Universal City, Calif. – February 2, 2009 – Last night, the special one-hour telecast of "The Office," which aired following NBC Sports' coverage of Super Bowl XLIII, set new ratings records for the award-winning comedy, according to time zone-adjusted "fast national" "live plus same day" viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.
Sunday from 10:40-11:40 p.m. ET, "The Office" averaged a 10.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 22.0 million viewers overall. This marks a new series record for "The Office" and the highest 18-49 rating and biggest overall viewership for any NBC entertainment telecast in more than four and a half years (since the May 13, 2004 telecast of "ER").
An estimated 37.7 million persons watched all or part of Sunday's telecast of "The Office" (six minutes or more).
In adults 18-34, "The Office" delivered a 12.5 rating last night, making it the top-rated entertainment telecast of the season in that valuable demographic. In adults 18-49, Sunday's telecast of "The Office" is the #3 entertainment telecast of the season on any network, behind only the Tuesday and Wednesday season premieres of "American Idol."
The 10.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 22.0 million viewers overall for Sunday's telecast of "The Office" roughly doubled the show's prior "live plus same day" record numbers (a 5.1 rating in adults 18-49, 11.2 million viewers overall).
Since its original debut on NBC in March 2005, "The Office" has established itself as one of television's most-honored comedy series, having earned such awards as the 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the 2006 Peabody Award, the 2006 and 2009 AFI Honors, the Producers Guild Award, the Writers Guild Award, the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy and the Television Critic's Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy.
Note that all national ratings are "live plus same day" unless otherwise indicated.
That’s good to see, hopefully people will want to tune into it again on Thursdays. But isn’t that one of the lowest post Super Bowl audiences in the last few years?
Wow, and those numbers are only going to continue to drop when they factor in the true viewing of Pittsburgh, etc. Still the most telling thing to me is the 15 million people who stopped watching it.
NBC is spinning here. Anyone think this Thursday will be a highly watched episode?
We’ll see the final numbers (minus the Pittsburgh viewers) tomorrow for Sunday’s Office, but it didn’t do as badly as some thought (which was below Alias’ previous low of 17 million), although far from the 25 million I guessed. This Thursday it’s against a repeat of CSI, so that could help, but I am one who thinks that Office has been around long enough so that the viewers who were going to find it have found it, and that no big long term boost is possible from that additional sampling.
My guess is The Office returns to regular numbers against a new Grey’s Amatomy. The writing there has been phenomenal lately. Still, I enjoyed last night’s episode of The Office, but I don’t think it was special enough(not alot of big laugh out loud moments compared to some reg. episodes and still a bit on the weird/quirky side) that it will hold on to any new viewers.
I watched the Office for the first time last night and was laughing so hard during the first half. Really hilarious stuff. The second half was enjoyable too, but if it was all as funny as the beginning… definitely would’ve found a new viewer in me. For now it depends on my schedule.
The begining segment was one giant laugh out loud moment. I think if the entire episode was about them trying to escape the office, that would have made for an epic episode that everyone could enjoy. But the majority of the episode was heavy on the drama, and kinda slow.
I CALLED IT! I was exactly right. 22 mil.
(For now, at least…)
ALERT!
Julia is single-handedly rigging the Nielson numbers!
Nielsen*
…
LOL, if Julia could rig Nielsen’s, Pushing Daisies would have gotten huge ratings
Bill, I thought it had a real chance of beating ALIAS in the “wow that didn’t do to well department,” but I based part of that in thinking the game wouldn’t be watched by as many people. I’m sure NBC is happy with the number because I wasn’t the only person who was thinking it had a shot of making ALIAS look better.
I think I would save my powers for 30 Rock.
Bet you guys would NEVER guess where my numbers would go!
/sarcasm
and it was beaten by THREE episodes of American Idol! good job NBC!
Honestly, we can all mock NBC for the choice to put The Office on post-Super Bowl, and it wasn’t a good choice, but i’ve racked my brain trying to think of a show that would fit in that slot better and I can’t do it. There aren’t a lot of quality, mass appeal shows on NBC. Maybe 30 Rock would’ve been better. Maybe they should’ve just thrown the 3D Chuck into that timeslot, but honestly, I think no matter what NBC threw on it would’ve been a quasi-disaster.
Alias is one of the lowest because it was a serial show in the middle of a story arc. Anybody watching that series for the first time with that episode wouldn’t have a clue what was going on (even though it was one of the best of the series). Thus, procedurals and comedies should always be given that timeslot above serials.
Jesse, you’ve got a point, NBC doesn’t have many, you know, mass appeal shows. Personally, I thought Office never needed that timeslot. I thought CHUCK needed it more. But, would it really fit? I didn’t think it would.
I think 30 Rock would have had lower numbers, although I’m not a psychic or anything. I’m just assuming that you’ve got millions of drunken, adrenaline high football fanatics who need to turn off the tv and relax. Like they could ‘get’ 30 Rock after a football game.
Jeez Superbowl go to ABC’s Ugly Betty!
Vader, that is right up there with the “it’s too smart for people,” the Super Bowl ratings had dropped due to the blowout that Tampa Bay had put on. So by the time ALIAS aired (after a longer post game show too, post game shows are shorter now to benefit the show they air after) viewing was already down under 27 million. While when THE OFFICE started I think I read it was nearly 32 million. There is your 5 million viewing difference right there.