| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 13.876 | 9.939 | 8.659 | 7.291 | 4.284 | 3.280 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.7/10 | 3.5/9 | 3.2/8 | 3.1/8 | 1.8/5 | 1.4/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.4/7 | 3.3/10 | 2.7/8 | 2.7/8 | 2.0/6 | 1.4/4 |
George Clooney's return to E.R. boosted the show to a 3.9 rating in the 18-49 demo, just 11% above last week's 3.5. Maybe they shouldn't have kept it a secret! Even with the assist from Clooney, NBC finished 4th on the night in the 18-49 demo. CBS, with all new episodes, topped the 18-49 demo, and ABC, taking a break from Scrubs reruns, topped the 18-34 demo.
Survivor, free of American Idol, had a commanding 18-49 demo win and tied Bones for the 18-34 demo top at 8. Bones was down a tick in each demo from its last new episode 3 weeks ago. Ugly Betty benefited even more by the Idol departure, up 0.3 rating points in each demo. Smallville returned after over a month of reruns to nearly identical numbers.
For the first time in a long while, everybody brought their A-team at 9pm, and Grey's Anatomy was the winner in both demos, while CSI and The Office traded 2nd and 3rd. That battle cost all three though, as we're told they were all at their lowest original show ratings this season. Hell's Kitchen was up 0.3 ratings points in the 18-49 demo, and 0.4 in 18-34 from its last outing without an American Idol lead in. Supernatural, also in repeats since early February, returned by falling two ticks in each demo.
The "Surprise" Clooney E.R. won the 18-49 demo, but was beaten by Private Practice in the 18-34 demo, boosted just 8% in the 18-34 by Clooney. Those secret NBC marketing geniuses! Update: After reading the initial comments, I have a new theory. Clooney and NBC wanted the appearance "secret" so that if it produced mediocre numbers, as it did, they'd have deniability! "You see, he provided little boost simply because no one knew!" They're evil geniuses!
For a little historical perspective E.R. was the #1 show on a household ratings basis for both the '95-'96 and '96-'97 seasons averaging a 22.0 and 21.2 household rating respectively. Last night's 7.1 household rating, was but a pale shadow of its pinnacle.
For reference you can check out past Thursday night fast affiliate ratings reports here.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share | 18-34 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Survivor: Tocantins | 12.887 | 4.1/12 | 2.2/7 |
| FOX | Bones | 9.553 | 2.8/8 | 2.2/7 | |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 7.210 | 2.1/6 | 1.9/6 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Ángel | 4.602 | 1.8/5 | 2.0/7 | |
| NBC | My Name is Earl (repeat) | 4.411 | 1.7/5 | 1.3/5 | |
| CW | Smallville | 3.723 | 1.6/5 | 1.6/5 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Kath & Kim | 4.001 | 1.7/5 | 1.6/5 |
| 9:00 | CBS | CSI | 16.963 | 4.2/10 | 2.5/7 |
| ABC | Grey's Anatomy | 13.537 | 5.0/12 | 4.9/13 | |
| FOX | Hell's Kitchen | 7.765 | 3.5/9 | 3.2/9 | |
| NBC | The Office | 7.513 | 4.0/10 | 4.4/13 | |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 4.835 | 2.1/5 | 2.4/7 | |
| CW | Supernatural | 2.838 | 1.1/3 | 1.2/3 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | 30 Rock | 6.406 | 3.3/8 | 3.3/9 |
| 10:00 | CBS | Eleventh Hour | 11.779 | 2.8/7 | 2.2/6 |
| NBC | E.R. | 10.708 | 3.9/11 | 2.8/8 | |
| ABC | Private Practice | 9.069 | 3.5/9 | 3.2/9 | |
| UNI | Rosa de Guadalupe | 3.414 | 1.5/4 | 1.7/5 |
-
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 and Numbers 102.
Huh? and 11th hours sucks…..opps is that mean?
Apparently the Taylor Swift fans didn’t stick around; CSI is back to the level it was before.
Well Grey’s Anatomy was new this week, so some of the female demographic likely watched that instead of CSI.
I take back what I said earlier, I guess not as many people knew about George Clooney as or thought, or else they cared less than I thought. The people at NBC really should have promoted his return.
I knew the ratings for CSI would drop this week. And Andy, 11th does not suck
They should cancel Fugly Betty.
ER approaches the finish line – tired and out of breath. Though it was nice seeing the original cast again. I wonder how it will end? Will there be a heart monitor at the end of the final scene that goes Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee as it fades to black? Will a giant sinkhole swallow up County General Hospital as doctors and patients flee just in the nick of time?
Top 3 weirdest endings:
1- St. Elsewhere had the whole show being in the mind of an autistic child.
2- Sporanos just cut to black.
3- Newhart ended up with Bob/Dick ending up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette.
after being hit on the head with a golf ball.
How would you end it?
Wow, even with keeping Clooney a secret, I would have thought all the other returning members would have boosted it more than that! Oh, NBC, what’s happened to you?
Its good to see FOX get their two procedurals get good ratings at 8pm with Lie to Me and Bones. They’ve become the only smart network when it comes to programming against CBS procedurals. ABC should’ve been doing the same thing with Castle and The Unusuals.
What’s really good to see ER dominate like that. This series deserves to go out on a good note as that finale in three weeks is setting up to be the biggest since Friends back in 2004. It probably won’t get 51 million viewers but I see 20 million viewers or higher for sure.
George Clooney = Ratings!
I hadn’t noticed, but isn’t it great comeback for Bones?
People knew that Clooney was back, what the numbers say is that the 18-34 couldn’t careless… The oldest where 24 when Clooney was last on ER, and the youngest where 8 and listening to whatever clone on Hanson was in the charts at the moment, and not watching ER.
Hot Pocket, ER “dominate”? Hardly.
Bad Robot, The “Newhart” ending is still my all time favorite.
Lourdes, did you read the post? Bones was down from its last new episode.
Keeping Clooney’s return a secret had nothing to do with the disappointing ratings. It’s more like, “Who cares?” People had their fill of this blowhard a long time ago; he’s a drone. Name the last thing he did where he starred — alone — and put asses in the seats? And throwing Sarandon into the mix, too? Snooze.
Go ER!!!!
ER is one of the last remaining shows on that network when it was #1 before The Tiffany Network tookover (CBS). If Southland or Kings does not hit for the network after ER leaves then this network is in some serious trouble.
All four of the current NBC Thursday comedies need to be either canceled or moved. Bring back the multi-cams for goodness sakes like Friends, Will & Grace, Fraiser, and Seinfeld.
CSI: did just about what I expected against a new Grey’s and I’m glad Private Practice took a backseat to ER as its not their time right now.
After reading these comments (and never having been an ER viewer) I have a new theory on the “secret”. NBC and Clooney didn’t want the return promoted so they’d have deniability if it flopped!
E.R., it just keeps on winning its time period in the demo every week. Pretty amazing after all these years, no matter how much it’s dropped from its glory days.
As for Clooney, it makes perfect sense that he only agreed to return if they didn’t hype the hell out of it. That is a very Clooney thing to do. The man is a master of his image, and he has every right not to want it diluted by doing a favor for his old producers.
Aside from that, what’s one episode of slightly better ratings going to do for NBC and E.R. at this point? Zippo. The word was out that old cast members, including Clooney, were going to be appearing, and the article I saw in TV Guide this week or last said that they were spreading them out, not saving them all for the finale. So they did let people know you had to watch the last handful to see all the old players.
I don’t think this was NBC not paying attention to ratings. It was George Clooney not wanting there to be a week of non-stop ads centered all around him, which would have been cheesy and slightly disingenuous.
Look at that demo growth for Hell’s Kitchen.
CSI had the lowest 18-49 numbers on Thursdays, maybe even ever.
The perfect ending for ER:
Screen goes all fuzzy and George Clooney wakes up after falling off a step ladder with Tootie, Natalie, Jo and Blair standing over him on the old “Facts of Life” set (where he was in 17 episodes as a handy man George Burnett 1985-87). George says “I had this wild dream about being a doctor in hospital in Chicago. Then I just faded out but the dream kept going on..for a really really really long time.. “. Blair says “Sorry George, youve been nothing but a handy man for the last 25 years, keep dreaming. Lets get you to the ER for an X-ray on your hard head.” The doctor he sees is Noah Wyle. George says “Dont I know you from somewhere?”
Anyone know the Daily Show ratings for last night?
Miki, we may see them in a press release, but nothing yet.