| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 10.649 | 9.416 | 8.873 | 7.492 | 4.390 | 3.217 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.5/10 | 3.5/10 | 3.1/9 | 3.0/8 | 1.8/5 | 1.3/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 3.1/10 | 3.1/10 | 2.6/8 | 2.6/8 | 1.9/6 | 1.3/4 |
On a night of strikingly close overall competition, ABC and CBS finished in a tie in both main adult demos for the night each with a 3.5 rating for adults 18-49 and a 3.1 rating for adults 18-34. Just behind, NBC and Fox tied for 3rd in adults 18-34 and nearly tied for adults 18-49. That's the most closely contested night overall we've seen in the past 2 years.
On a historical note, this year's Thursday NCAA Tournament first round results were 0.2 adults 18-49 rating points above last years fast affiliate results.
The NCAA Basketball Tournament ruled the 8pm hour, easily besting all competition in the adult demos. Against basketball, Bones was up two ticks in each adult demo from last week. Ugly Betty was near its season average. Smallville was down in both demos from last week.
Grey's Anatomy was strong enough to hold off the Hoops and triumph at 9pm, but in doing so it delivered its lowest original 18-49 demo rating ever. Hell's Kitchen, The Office and 30 Rock each slipped a bit from last week in the demos. Supernatural was close to last week's level.
Private Practice also managed to beat the NCAA Tournament, and was up a tick in the 18-49 demo from last week. Without George Clooney, ER fell back to near its season averages.
Note that because of the live NCAA Basketball on CBS, all its fast affiliate results are approximate and subject to revision, see below for more information.
For reference you can check out past Thursday night fast affiliate ratings reports here.
Full details:
| Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (000) | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share |
| FOX | Bones | 9,405 | 2.8 | 9 | 2.2 | 8 |
| CBS | NCAA Basketball | 9,360 | 3.2 | 10 | 3.1 | 11 |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 7,282 | 1.9 | 6 | 1.7 | 6 |
| NBC | My Name is Earl | 6,417 | 2.4 | 8 | 1.8 | 6 |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Ángel | 4,124 | 1.5 | 5 | 1.6 | 6 |
| CW | Smallville | 3,116 | 1.3 | 4 | 1.4 | 5 |
| FOX | Bones | 10,983 | 3.2 | 9 | 2.6 | 8 |
| CBS | NCAA Basketball | 10,193 | 3.6 | 11 | 3.2 | 11 |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 7,827 | 2.2 | 6 | 2.0 | 7 |
| NBC | The Office (repeat) | 4,644 | 2.0 | 6 | 1.8 | 6 |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Ángel | 4,627 | 1.8 | 5 | 1.9 | 6 |
| CW | Smallville | 3,462 | 1.5 | 4 | 1.6 | 5 |
| ABC | Grey's Anatomy | 14,056 | 4.8 | 12 | 4.4 | 13 |
| CBS | NCAA Basketball | 11,070 | 4.0 | 10 | 3.4 | 10 |
| NBC | The Office | 7,953 | 3.9 | 10 | 4.4 | 12 |
| FOX | Hell's Kitchen | 7,348 | 3.1 | 8 | 2.8 | 8 |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 4,951 | 2.0 | 5 | 2.2 | 6 |
| CW | Supernatural | 3,359 | 1.3 | 3 | 1.3 | 4 |
| ABC | Grey's Anatomy | 14,666 | 5.1 | 13 | 4.6 | 13 |
| CBS | NCAA Basketball | 9,441 | 3.5 | 9 | 3.1 | 9 |
| FOX | Hell's Kitchen | 7,756 | 3.5 | 9 | 3.1 | 9 |
| NBC | 30 Rock | 7,018 | 3.2 | 8 | 3.1 | 9 |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 5,058 | 2.2 | 5 | 2.3 | 6 |
| CW | Supernatural | 2,930 | 1.1 | 3 | 1.1 | 3 |
| ABC | Private Practice | 10,796 | 3.9 | 10 | 3.4 | 10 |
| NBC | E.R. | 9,276 | 3.3 | 9 | 2.3 | 7 |
| CBS | NCAA Basketball | 8,632 | 3.4 | 9 | 3.1 | 9 |
| UNI | Rosa de Guadalupe | 3,723 | 1.5 | 4 | 1.7 | 5 |
| NBC | E.R. | 9,644 | 3.3 | 9 | 2.4 | 7 |
| ABC | Private Practice | 9,268 | 3.3 | 9 | 2.8 | 9 |
| CBS | NCAA Basketball | 7,798 | 3.2 | 9 | 2.9 | 9 |
| UNI | Rosa de Guadalupe | 3,857 | 1.5 | 4 | 1.7 | 6 |
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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 and Numbers 102.
Wow, impressing results for Bones. How the heck did they manage to go up 1.5 million in just half an hour?
Great numbers for Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. If ABC could find something to replace Ugly Betty they could have a great Thursday line up next season.
I have a question, I always head to Marc Berman’s column just because he has the numbers up first, but I prefer this blog. Why is it that some blogs like his, pay so much attention to retention while others, like this one, it’s all about the demo? I’m going to trust this site because you were pretty accurate last season, but I was just curious as to why such a difference between some blogs.
Dennis there were lots of unusual shifts last night. My guess is that it’s basketball audiences moving around.
Melissa, they were definitely *not* great numbers for Grey’s Anatomy.
Retentionistas that will be.
I think Berman fails to realise a show with 11million viewers and a 3.2 demo (Castle) will never be cancelled purely because it’s loseing 11 million viewers. The network will give a chance on it’s own first.
Where Berman is coming from is that generally those shows fall flat on their face. However the Numb3rs never lie.
Melissa, as for why some folks obsess about retention, my guess is that it’s a holdover from a past era with fewer choices and no remote controls, but you’d have to ask them.
As for why we care more about the demos, the industry cares more about the demos because the advertisers care more about the demos. The demo viewership is what determines the financial future of the show. Average viewership is for bragging rights only.
Out of interest, are the ratings for the NCAA basketball good or bad as the ratings are lower than the usual CBS lineup but the demo was pretty decent. I think it is say that Private Practice will be back next season.
It will be interesting how Parks and Recreations does as it looks similar in vein to the other single camera comedies on NBC like The Office and 30 Rock.
I think Berman and friends like playing around with Retention because they’re always scheming of new schedules and what the networks should do next season, ect. Here it’s very cut and dry: renew/cancel.
Demos determine what gets renewed, what gets canceled.
Retention determines where on the schedule things should fall into place.
Ouch for CBS! The numbers from a regular Thursday were way down! Fail!
Are you sure you’re getting Smallville viewers right?
Brian, how’d you figure fail? The NCAA ratings were up from last season, the 18-34 demo was *much* better than the typical CBS Thursday, and the 18-49 rating was down 0.2-0.4 ratings points. Hardly a fail.
Viewership = meaningless!
Ladiesman, those Smallville numbers are correct, and not far off their typical numbers, what do you find unusual?
And the network FOX are gonna ruin what Bones did last night, they´ll delay again the next episode 15 days.. so ratings arent gonna be solid … never.. and so you can see the BONES fans are pretty loyal, but this is just a silly joke… people can get tired, FOX .. hellooo!!.
I kind of thought B-ball would lay more of a smackdown on the competition. NBC comedies in particular held up better then I expected.
It just seemed 300,000 off it’s usual showing. It just seemed low this week, that’s all.
the rise in bones viewers was probably from fans who didn’t tune in at the start because they didn’t think fox would air 2 episodes in 2 weeks. ok so my swipe at fox is done for today for constantly messing bones around.
great numbers for bones, but yet again it wont be on next week (i really want to swear), still it shows that the show is as solid as a rock and even better when its given the chance to build up a bit of steam.
Ladiesman, in terms of total viewers, it was definitely down vs. other recent original episodes. It wasn’t too far off last week, but last week was already down because some affiliates didn’t air it in its normal time slot last week due to NCAA conference tourneys.
And Brian, CBS also got to sell high priced advertising starting at about noon. Plus online revenue from people watching games in their office. All in all a bad day for productivity but a good day for CBS.
Bones does pull in a decent sized audience with 9-10m depending on competition but FOX does treat it as disposable and prempted it due to Obama or Idol and the same is true for Lie to Me. I do wonder how Bones would fare if it was on CBS because I imagine it would be treated a lot better and potentially get bigger ratings.
AGH! Season low for The Office. I can see why, though… NCAA stealing all the 18-34 year olds. Those numbers are significantly higher than what CSI would usually get (even though 18-49 numbers were off CSI’s normal rating).