Fox continued to dominate the adult demo groups, but CBS again edged Fox for the most average viewers in the week of March 9-15, 2009, the 25th week of the 2008-9 season.
CBS's average viewership of 11.13 million edged second place Fox by 200,000 average viewers, but in the demos it was a different story. For demo adults 18-49 it was Fox way over CBS by 5.26 million to 3.64 million. It is noteworthy that CBS, which some see as entirely viewed by geriatrics, has been far more competitive in the 18-49 demo this season.
Fox won demo adults 25-54 over CBS by 5.79 million to 4.56 million viewers. In adults 18-34, is was Fox with 2.35 million, way above second place ABC with 1.36 million. Univision again came close to beating both CBS and NBC in the 18-34 demo.
Tiny Network Smackdown Update! With America’s Next Top Model back, the CW had no problem with its tiny rival MyNet, leaving it in the dust across the board this week.
You can see past week's broadcast network primetime weekly ratings results here.
(click chart for full sized image)
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
I wonder why the CBS vs FOX demo numbers are not closer… does that mean that more 54+ folks are watching CBS?
djm, CBS skews older than the other broadcasters, look at their weekly averages.
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/17/fox-towers-over-weekly-demos-cbs-again-edges-out-viewership-win/14673
abc really is not a whole lot healthier than nbc. considering that this week was the return week for an improved DWTS, these numbers are not terribly impressive.
128boy, depends on how you look at it. ABC did 17% better than NBC in adults 18-49. That’s twice the % lead that CBS had over ABC in 18-49.
bill, that’s certainly true, i had noticed that. i guess success is all relative, however i think abc’s shows fluxuate more than cbs. so even though abc came fairly close to cbs this week, i wouldnt be surprised if in the coming weeks, after DWTS dips a little, which i’m confident it will, that ABC will again be closer to nbc numbers than to cbs numbers. long-term i just dont see abc drastically better off than the peacock… that is unless they can get the vast majority of their midseasoners off the ground.
128boy, while I haven’t run any numbers, CBS is quite likely the most consistent of the broadcast networks if you take consistency to be the least variation of week to week averages over the entire season.