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Sunday Ratings: Kings Premiere Beheaded, Desperate Housewives Keeps Crown

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March 16th, 2009

Scoreboard CBS ABC NBC FOX Uni CW
Total Viewers (million) 11.724 10.484 5.748 4.776 2.704 1.000
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 2.7/7 3.5/9 1.8/5 2.2/6 1.1/3 0.2/1
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 1.7/5 2.7/8 1.4/4 2.6/8 1.2/4 0.1/1

The series premiere of NBC's Kings didn't even come close to the throne on Sunday. It finished 4th or lower in both adult demos from 8-10pm. It did significantly worse than the premiere of Celebrity Apprentice two weeks ago, and was NBC's second worst premiere this season, besting only the lowly Chopping Block. Update: NY Magazine says Kings is a mini-series. I don't see that confirmed anywhere else though. Will keep checking.

On a night when everyone brought new episodes, it was ABC, lead by Desperate Housewives, winning the adult demos for the night, but Fox's animated lineup weighed down by an hour of Hole in the Wall was only a tick behind for adults 18-34.

ABC was up on the night vs. last Sunday. Desperate Housewives was the top demo performer for the night, although down a bit from its season averages for new episodes. The CBS lineup was near its season averages and nearly identical to last weeks numbers.

The Fox animated line up was close to last weeks numbers, but American Dad gained 0.2 ratings points in each demo.  Weighed down by royalty (both fictional and self-imagined), NBC plunged vs. even its modest numbers from last week, as Kings flopped and The Donald's Celebrity Apprentice slid 20% in the 18-49 demo from last week.

You can see overnight reports for past Sundays to compare.

Full details:


Time Net Show Viewers Live+SD (000s) 18-49 Rating 18-49 Share 18-34 Rating 18-34 Share
7:00 CBS 60 Minutes 11,926 2.1 7 1.3 5
  ABC America's Funniest Home Videos 6,920 1.9 6 1.3 5
  NBC Dateline NBC 3,954 1.0 3 0.8 3
  FOX Hole in the Wall 1,864 0.7 2 0.7 3
  UNI Fútbol Mexicano:Santos vs. Toluca 1,377 0.6 2 0.6 2
  CW Jericho (repeat) 761 0.2 1 0.2 1
               
7:30 CBS 60 Minutes 13,326 2.3 7 1.4 5
  ABC America's Funniest Home Videos 8,044 2.3 7 1.6 6
  NBC Dateline NBC 4,598 1.2 4 0.9 3
  FOX Hole in the Wall 2,406 0.9 3 1.0 4
  UNI Fútbol Mexicano:Santos vs. Toluca 1,759 0.8 2 0.9 3
  CW Jericho 590 0.2 1 0.2 1
               
8:00 CBS Amazing Race 14 10,510 2.9 8 1.9 6
  ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 8,781 2.7 8 1.8 6
  NBC Kings (premiere) 6,471 1.6 5 1.4 4
  FOX Simpsons 5,972 2.8 8 3.1 10
  UNI Nuestra Belleza Latina 2,597 1.0 3 1.0 3
  CW Moonstruck (movie) 1,088 0.3 1 0.2 1
               
8:30 CBS Amazing Race 14 10,358 3.1 8 2.2 7
  ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 10,113 3.3 9 2.3 7
  NBC Kings (premiere) 6,334 1.6 4 1.4 4
  FOX King of the Hill 5,377 2.4 6 2.8 9
  UNI Nuestra Belleza Latina 3,239 1.3 3 1.3 4
  CW Moonstruck (movie) 1,135 0.3 1 0.2 1
               
9:00 ABC Desperate Housewives 14,187 4.9 12 4.0 11
  CBS Cold Case 12,588 2.9 7 1.8 5
  FOX Family Guy 7,213 3.6 9 4.4 12
  NBC Kings (premiere) 5,713 1.6 4 1.3 4
  UNI Nuestra Belleza Latina 3,591 1.5 4 1.5 4
  CW Moonstruck (movie) 1,218 0.2 1 0.2 1
               
9:30 ABC Desperate Housewives 14,671 5.1 12 4.1 11
  CBS Cold Case 13,241 3.0 7 1.7 5
  FOX Amerian Dad 5,823 2.9 7 3.4 9
  NBC Kings (premiere) 5,490 1.7 4 1.4 4
  UNI Nuestra Belleza Latina 3,809 1.6 4 1.6 4
  CW Moonstruck (movie) 1,205 0.2 1 0.2 0
               
10:00 CBS The Unit 11,067 2.7 7 1.7 5
  ABC Brothers & Sisters 11,015 3.8 10 3.2 9
  NBC Celebrity Apprentice 6,487 2.7 7 1.8 5
  UNI ¿Quién Tiene la Razón? 2,675 1.0 3 1.1 3
               
10:30 CBS The Unit 10,774 2.7 7 1.7 5
  ABC Brothers & Sisters 10,143 3.5 9 3.0 9
  NBC Celebrity Apprentice 6,935 2.8 7 2.0 6
  UNI ¿Quién Tiene la Razón? 2,585 1.0 3 1.1 3

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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.

(741) Comments - Add Yours!

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  1. Jack

    And CHUCK fans rejoice!

  2. Alan

    Yay!! Amazing Race beat Extreme Makeover again!! So glad about that. That made my Monday.

  3. Alan

    Didn’t Desperate Housewives used to get in the range of 20 million viewers back in the day? Or is that just me?

  4. Jon K.

    Go Unit, I know its pretty much dead in the water, but thats a nice improvement from last week and with CBS airing 4 weeks worth of the Unit in a row maybe its got enough in it to keep moving up and give CBS a reason to at least give it a chance to end the series on a high not that will not leave the fans hanging with a cliffhanger ending.

  5. Melissa

    I guess I can go ahead and delete Kings from my TiVo, ouch!

  6. Well, Kings held on to its demo the entire two hours. Too bad the demo was so pathetic to begin with.

  7. Chuck fans rejoice. I watched Kings and liked it (not great, but good). It will be very interesting to see how Southland does now.

  8. johnthemon

    oh wow. That’s terrible. I’ll bet NBC execs are throwing themselves from bridges right now…too bad really.

  9. geekily

    Muahaha, yesssss, 2 new shows down, 2 new shows to go! Chuckster LIVES! Now I just hope we can survive tonight’s repeat. Chuck took such a hit last week with a new episode that I’m just hoping against all hope that the demo doesn’t drop below 2… even though it probably will.

  10. T

    i hope Kings grows every week amazing show very unique style

  11. Jack

    Well, that’s a shame. Kings had one of the best pilots of the season IMO. Ian McShane is great.

  12. Jack

    Robert, is Southland the only other potential enemy for Chuck?

  13. clutz

    Bummer for “Kings.” Too bad it didn’t score these numbers on a Friday ;)

  14. Danny

    It’s a shame, I was really impressed with Kings. Too bad NBC can’t catch a break.

  15. melbye

    Yikes at Kings. Seems like a expensive show, and it’s more or less DOA

  16. the128boy

    Nice bounce for the unit, particularly noteworthy in the demo. As for kings,that was pathetic. And has for fox, why do they continue to air hole in the wall in front of new simpsons episodes. Save that for reruns, and burn off til death before new eps.

  17. Jack, I don’t know that new shows should be thought of as Chuck’s enemies! I’m more interested in how Southland does to figure out if NBC is simply unable to successfully launch new shows.

  18. Jenna

    Ouch. That sucks for Kings. I watched the first half of it. I thought it was OK…but it didn’t really pull me in. There were some solid performances but overall it’s not something I care to watch again…

  19. Jocor

    So maybe if CBS aired the Unit more than once a month, it would be doing much much better.

  20. Hmm, where’d all the comments go? Did they get deleted when the site got all screwy?

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