| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 11.795 | 9.056 | 7.125 | 4.894 | 3.438 | 1.509 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.5/7 | 3.0/8 | 2.1/6 | 1.8/5 | 1.4/4 | 0.7/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 1.6/5 | 2.1/7 | 1.6/5 | 1.3/4 | 1.3/4 | 0.9/3 |
Note that the live Presidential Address from 9:00-10:37pm Eastern time and that the fast affiliate ratings results for all networks except CW are approximate and subject to revision. See below for more information.
NCIS and Biggest Loser captured the bulk of the 8pm viewers and demo adults and they boosted CBS and NBC through the live Presidential Address on Tuesday giving CBS the most average viewers for the night with 11.795 million, but NBC the most demo adults with a 3.0 rating for 18-49s and a 2.1 rating for 18-34s.
While NCIS dominated the viewer numbers at 8pm, it was a tight race in the adult demos with Biggest Loser. Homeland Security, while still low, was up substantially from last week.
For the Presidential Address beginning at 9, CBS kept the viewership lead, but NBC was close behind for the duration. The demo adults battle was all NBC through the Address and Republican Response. It was a typical pattern for nationally covered primetime news events, CBS lost viewers from its earlier levels on the night, and ABC gained them. Here are the cable news ratings for the Presidential Address.
The season, and almost certainly series, finale of Privileged, the sole regular broadcast show on at 9pm went almost unwatched.
Here are last Tuesday's results for comparison.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (000) | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCIS | 17,115 | 3.5 | 10 | 2.5 | 8 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser 7 | 9,238 | 3.3 | 10 | 2.2 | 8 | |
| ABC | Homeland Security USA | 6,227 | 1.8 | 5 | 1.2 | 4 | |
| FOX | Bones (repeat) | 5,087 | 1.7 | 5 | 1.2 | 4 | |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 4,033 | 1.6 | 5 | 1.5 | 5 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 1,423 | 0.6 | 2 | 0.7 | 2 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | NCIS | 18,730 | 4.0 | 11 | 2.8 | 9 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser 7 | 10,063 | 3.8 | 10 | 2.5 | 8 | |
| ABC | Homeland Security USA | 6,094 | 1.9 | 5 | 1.5 | 5 | |
| FOX | Bones (repeat) | 4,975 | 1.7 | 5 | 1.2 | 4 | |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 4,277 | 1.7 | 5 | 1.7 | 5 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 1,365 | 0.6 | 2 | 0.8 | 2 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | Presidential Address | 10,875 | 2.4 | 6 | 1.3 | 4 |
| NBC | Presidential Address | 10,291 | 3.3 | 8 | 2.3 | 7 | |
| ABC | Presidential Address | 8,095 | 2.3 | 6 | 1.8 | 6 | |
| FOX | Presidential Address | 4,534 | 1.7 | 5 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| UNI | Presidential Address | 3,618 | 1.4 | 4 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| CW | Privileged (finale) | 1,656 | 0.8 | 2 | 1.1 | 3 | |
| 9:30 | CBS | Presidential Address | 10,133 | 2.3 | 6 | 1.3 | 4 |
| NBC | Presidential Address | 10,044 | 3.3 | 8 | 2.4 | 7 | |
| ABC | Presidential Address | 8,694 | 2.5 | 6 | 1.8 | 5 | |
| FOX | Presidential Address | 4,570 | 1.8 | 4 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| UNI | Presidential Address | 3,364 | 1.4 | 3 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| CW | Privileged (finale) | 1,591 | 0.7 | 2 | 1.0 | 3 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Address/ Rep. Response | 9,859 | 3.0 | 8 | 2.2 | 6 |
| CBS | Address/ Rep. Response | 8,234 | 1.8 | 5 | 1.1 | 3 | |
| ABC | Address/ Rep. Response | 7,923 | 2.4 | 6 | 1.7 | 5 | |
| FOX | Address/ Rep. Response | 5,304 | 1.9 | 5 | 1.5 | 5 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 3,102 | 1.3 | 3 | 1.3 | 4 | |
| 10:30 | ABC | Primetime: What Would You Do? | 5,717 | 1.8 | 5 | 1.2 | 4 |
| CBS | Two and a Half Men (repeat) | 5,684 | 1.3 | 4 | 0.8 | 2 | |
| NBC | Law & Order:SVU (repeat) | 4,842 | 1.6 | 5 | 1.1 | 4 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 2,235 | 0.8 | 2 | 0.8 | 2 |
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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.
NCIS dominates the night!!!!
Alot more people watched NCIS than President Husseins speech.
I wonder how much ad revenue the networks lost?
Average Joe, Mathematics not your strong suit? The Presidential Address averaged ~37 million on broadcast alone (cable news numbers will arrive later this afternoon).
Guessing game:
What major market had the highest combined ratings for Obama’s speech on the four broadcasters?
Think about it. It’s not obvious but it does make sense.
Answer coming later.
Sigh. Do we really need political name-calling in a discussion of TELEVISION RATINGS?
Washington, DC?
I will be very interested in the cable news numbers, Bill. There’s quite the brouhaha over MSNBC’s transparently liberal “slant” and their use of commentators on straight news stories. Allegedly either Matthews or Olbermann said “oh God” as Bobby Jindal walked out to give his speech, which caused the floor staff to start laughing. So the question is, has MSNBC decided to do this stuff to get ratings or out of just a pure bias motive?
Obama needs to quick making speeches. He’s ruining my viewing pleasures.
I completely love the fact that even Univision were broadcasting the presidential adress when the CW wasn’t!
It doesnt matter how many viewers there were. How much did the networks earn from sales of advertising spots? Were there any commercials? I never watch blowhard political speeches anyway. Does the government pay for these wastes of TV space? Its just easier to look at the summary of this junk the next day in the news.
Hussein is nothing but W on steroids except he has a better sense of style and more expensive suits. Both spend our money like drunken sailors along with the cronies in Congress who pork up the bills.
That’s a required address to Congress Jimmy, FYI. He has no choice.
Privileged has terrible ratings. It’s impossible it will come back.
Name calling? Well, HUSSEIN is his middle name. We all refered to Bush as W (his middle initial).
Bill, I just want to say what a breath of fresh air tvbythenumbers is. The objectivity that you and robert apply to television statistics is awesome. For instance your overnight results comments almost always take a fair view of the night and don’t overlook or underplay any particular show’s performance. Also the renew or cancel index is a fantastically original idea. There is another website I go to sometimes for info/opinion run by someone whose name rhymes with Barc Merman, where show favoratism rules in place of rational observations. Not only does the increasingly important 18-34 year old data not get reported on that website, but you would think from reading his take on tv, that it (along with 18-49 data) barely even matters! The comments from users on this site also tend to be miles more objective than over there where a balanced argument is hard to find. Thank you so much for having a site where fans of tv and of tv statistics can come and get NEWS and INFO without having to attend a my-favorite-show cheerleading session.
Yeah, what’s up with that stupid Obama giving a State of the Union address? What other President would do something stupid like that? Doesn’t Obama know that Privileged’s series finale was on?
Ok, yeah, technically NOT a State of the Union address, but it’s the incoming version that most Presidents in the moder era have been giving.
Still, government and life more important than television programming? Get out of Dodge.
This is not a political site.. please!
Surprised that Two and a Half Men did so poorly.
NCIS remains unimpressed with American Idol to the point where it’s actually ever so slightly down without the competition.
People probably read Homeland Security and expected Obama to be on that too. I laugh if it is down to old levels next week.
TVNewser says that NBC aired a rerun of “The Office” after the news coverage.
cool, I ignored the 10:30pm+ results in the text because I think they are entirely meaningless from a comparative perspective.
Wendell, both our sources have L&O:SVU following at 10:30ish in the East. That could be wrong, or The Office may have aired in other time zones.