Bill will post the regular top twenty most-DVR'd shows, and the top twenty shows with the highest percentage of viewing on DVR. This list focuses only on increase to the live plus same day DVR viewing adults 18-49 rating when a full week of DVR viewing is added.
Again, I don't think these percentage increases matter much any, and that the absolute gains are likely more interesting. I might switch to posting that info instead, or stop posting this information altogether. Note that House had more absolute gain (over 1 full ratings point) than any show on this list, but ranked only 15th in percentage increase.
For the week ending March 15, 2009, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse led the pack in terms of percentage increase to Live+SD 18-49 rating. CW's Supernatural was third measured this way, followed by Heroes and The Office.
Life, a fan favorite that will surely be canceled due to low numbers ranked seventh in this list, and Chuck, a show with ratings that put it on the bubble between renewal and cancellation ranked 11th. The already canceled Life on Mars ranked tenth on this list, which just goes to show ranking high on this list doesn't mean anything in terms of renewal. But we know people are interested in different slices of data, so I'm posting them anyway!
This week I've expanded things to include the top twenty shows by this slice, and also included total DVR viewing for those shows (the difference between Live+7 viewing and Live viewing. I've only listed the total number. We regularly report Live+SD viewing which already includes same day DVR viewing. You can't add the total DVR viewers listed here to previously reported Live+SD numbers because those numbers already include some DVR viewing and there would be some double counting.
Both Castle and Kings premiered in this week, but were not among the top 20 shows based on percentage increase to the adults 18-49 rating. By that slice, Castle's premiere ranked 35th and the premiere of Kings ranked 39th.
Again, Bill will post the lists for the shows with the most absolute DVR viewing and highest percentage of viewing on DVR. But here are the highest % increases to the live+SD adults 18-49 ratings due to a week's worth of DVR viewing for the week ending March 15, 2009:
| Rank | Show | Net | DVR Viewing (000) | Live+SD 18-49 rtg | Live+7 18-49 rating | 18-49 %increase vs Live+SD |
| 1 | TERMINATOR: SRH CNR CHRON | FOX | 1,413 | 1.20 | 1.68 | 40.00% |
| 2 | DOLLHOUSE | FOX | 1,524 | 1.60 | 2.14 | 33.75% |
| 3 | SUPERNATURAL | CW | 888 | 1.12 | 1.48 | 32.14% |
| 4 | HEROES | NBC | 3,161 | 3.21 | 4.21 | 31.15% |
| 5 | OFFICE | NBC | 3,729 | 4.13 | 5.20 | 25.91% |
| 6 | GREY'S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 4,255 | 5.04 | 6.34 | 25.79% |
| 7 | LIFE | NBC | 1,609 | 1.72 | 2.15 | 25.00% |
| 8 | REAPER | CW | 664 | 0.85 | 1.06 | 24.71% |
| 9 | PRIVATE PRACTICE | ABC | 2,206 | 3.37 | 4.19 | 24.33% |
| 10 | LIFE ON MARS | ABC | 1,303 | 1.43 | 1.77 | 23.78% |
| 11 | Chuck | NBC | 1,921 | 2.10 | 2.59 | 23.33% |
| 12 | Bones | FOX | 2,548 | 2.82 | 3.46 | 22.70% |
| 13 | 30 Rock | NBC | 2,332 | 3.29 | 4.00 | 21.58% |
| 14 | NUMB3RS | CBS | 1,484 | 1.86 | 2.26 | 21.51% |
| 15 | HOUSE | FOX | 4,112 | 4.84 | 5.88 | 21.49% |
| 16 | FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS | NBC | 1,086 | 1.36 | 1.65 | 21.32% |
| 17 | APPRENTICE 8 | NBC | 1,597 | 2.82 | 3.35 | 18.79% |
| 18 | Smallville | CW | 1,025 | 1.58 | 1.87 | 18.35% |
| 19 | 24 | FOX | 3,343 | 3.61 | 4.27 | 18.28% |
| 20 | MEDIUM | NBC | 1,957 | 2.47 | 2.92 | 18.22% |
Thanks! I like to see this even if it doesn’t help bubble shows like Chuck. It goes to show people do watch shows that have lower numbers just at a different time. When will companies take DVD numbers as well as live? I know you just did an article on it but I think it’s a growing trend.
Thanks! Awesome list! We need more demo DVR numbers.
wow, those are some frustrating figures, especially for bubble shows.
I said this in another topic, but remember, if DVR numbers suddenly became important, the required Live+7 demo numbers for shows to be considered safe would increase across the board. The only show that I see on this list that would probably actually be helped by it is Heroes, which would probably be boosted back into at least breaking even level if networks were able to figure out how to use these numbers to their advantage.
What would be interesting would be the number of online views. Dollhouse has averaged well over 250,000 views per episode on Hulu alone. I imagine the number of views per episode is significantly higher on Fox On Demand since it still has more unique viewers than Hulu does and is limited to Fox shows.
By the way, DirectTV was advertising on TSCC during Friday night’s broadcast and also on Hulu this week. (Unlike DVR, online broadcasts do generate advertising income although I have no idea how much).
Mike, I’ve never actually seen Fox online data that broke out pure Fox.com access from Myspace. Because of the Myspace counting, it’s numbers look very big (even relative to Hulu) but that’s only meaningful if lots of people are watching FOX shows via MySpace pages. I’d guess FOX gets more views from Hulu, but it is just a guess.
Well this shows that TSCC will likely hit 4 million by the finale, and maybe crawl past 2.0 in the demo (both including DVR numbers). It seems like those who abandoned the show are now starting to show an interest but the majority are DVRing it in favour of live viewing. TSCC is slowly getting its audience back, maybe not fast enough to matter, but it might (and I say *might*) make FOX stop and say “Hmm…” before killing the show with one stroke of a pen.
Medium did beter then chuck in the all important 18-49 rating. CHUCK fans watch out. OOOOOoooo NNNNOOoo.
Tyler, Medium always does better than Chuck in the Live+SD as well. How is that news?
I really hope Heroes makes a turn for the better…I know that live even if it gets amazing again it probably won’t get over 3.5 rating but I SO badly want it to get in touch with the great first season it had.
Glad to see FNL got picked up. I love that show too. NBC has a lot of great television, but it’s always underrated (literally) lol.
Idiot, how could DVR numbers not matter when TSCC and Dollhouse’s core demographic is most likely to be out on a Friday night? Why do you think crap like Ghost Pissers does so well, their core demographic is sitting at home sipping tea.
Sycore, 1. Ghost Whisperer always gets more DVR viewers than TSCC or Dollhouse.
2. It doesn’t matter because advertisers aren’t willing to pay for those viewers. They pay based on C3 ratings, which as far as we have seen, is generally around the Live+SD ratings we get here daily.
nice to see the office that high. this list is awesome. i hope it is a weekly thing
holly, yes definitely GW has more live and dvr viewers. However, although some will say it doesnot matter, TSSC and DH has absolutely more viewers on hulu, fod, amazon, itunes, dvd sales (i have checked on amazon GW’s dvd rank is somewhere 3000th in all categories in tv whereas tssc’s something 1000, #436 in Movies & TV and 17th in #17 in Movies & TV > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Series & Sequels ), torrents, etc…
In my opinion, this fact suggests that both shows airs in wrong day, and they definitely have more potential viewers than their Friday numbers.
holly, yes definitely GW has more live and dvr viewers. However, although some will say it doesnot matter, TSSC and DH has absolutely more viewers on hulu, fod, amazon, itunes, dvd sales (i have checked on amazon GW’s dvd rank is somewhere 3000th in all categories in tv whereas tssc’s something 1000, #436 in Movies & TV and 17th in #17 in Movies & TV > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Series & Sequels ), torrents, etc…
In my opinion, this fact suggests that both shows airs in wrong day, and they definitely have more potential viewers than their Friday numbers.
I must agree with Veran and Sycore…
DVR should matter… IT’s on a friday, very few people stay home on Friday, especially 18-30 audience which is a MAJORITY of TSCC / Dollhouse watchers.
Compared to Ghost Whisperer that appeals to 30-49, usually women who stay at home on Fridays. Trust me, I watched Ghost Whisperer quite a number of times, I’m not just judging by the cover.
And I will repeat again, even if there are those that disagree completely, because we know they are wrong and have not looked at the numbers: TSCC was performing well on Mondays BEFORE the 3 week break in the middle of the season.
sorry for posting twice the same comment
Jonathan: “because we know they are wrong and have not looked at the numbers: TSCC was performing well on Mondays BEFORE the 3 week break in the middle of the season.”
This site looked at the numbers in the fall and predicted cancellation by May. It was NOT performing well on Mondays and more importantly kept bleeding viewers all season. And there was no “three week break” – it was two weeks and then one week later on, and most shows have that sort of problem.
You want to know why the DVR numbers keep going up? Because all the TSCC fans keep telling each other the DVR numbers matter and therefore many of them watch the show live AND on DVR in order to try to push the numbers up.
Unfortunately the DVR numbers do NOT matter, and thus the fans once again are killing the show they want to save by not realizing that fact.
I believe it’s also been established that GW viewers span the demographics, although they trend to the older demo.
The bottom line is: TSCC is not compelling enough to have large numbers of viewers view it live.
Good News for our Great Show !!! Not Surprise !!!
hope it help get season 3 !!!!