| Scoreboard |  |
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 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 5.2/14 | 2.9/8 | 2.6/7 | 1.9/5 | 1.3/4 | 1.2/3 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 4.2/12 | 1.9/6 | 2.4/7 | 2.0/6 | 1.6/5 | 0.9/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.43 | 11.02 | 6.52 | 4.46 | 2.85 | 4.86 |
FOX won the night with an hour of American Idol pulling a 7.9/20 (rating/share) with adults 18-49 and 22.44 million viewers. Earlier in the night, Lie To Me won the 8pm hour with a modest 2.5/8 adults 18-49 rating and 8.42 million viewers.
Lost pulled a record low for new episodes, at least in the 18-49 demographic where it entered the sub-4.0 range with a 3.7/9 and only 8.29 million viewers. This can't be chalked up to being hit harder by Idol than last week, because Idol was down from last week too. And it can't really be chalked up to the 8pm comedy block lead-in because that was pretty much on par with last week (even though the 18-49 numbers for both Scrubs and Better Off Ted were likely series lows for original airings).
The primary difference is that last week Criminal Minds was a repeat and this week it was new. Some will ascribe this to lower HUT/PUT levels (number of people watching TV). But I don't think so. While there were fewer 18-49 year olds watching at 9pm, it was only down ~1.2% versus last week, but Lost was down in the demo over 10%.
Speaking of the 8pm comedy blocks, CBS' fared better in terms of adults 18-49 and total viewers, while ABC's block performed better with adults 18-34.
The Unusuals looked rather usual from a ratings perspective. While it outperformed last week's Life on Mars finale (2.1), it only barely did so. The Unusuals' 2.2 adults 18-49 rating couldn't be what ABC was hoping for, especially with a premiere, since lately typically things only go down from the premiere. CSI: NY easily won the hour with a 3.3/9.
NBC wrapped the season (and surely, series) finale of Life around repeats of Law & Order and for the night the peacocks came in dead last, trailing even the CW in adults 18-49. The CW ran with America's Next Top Model at 8p, and an ANTM recap show at 9pm. ANTM won the 8-9pm hour with women 18-34 (2.7/9) and ranked second with adults 18-34 (1.9/6), just 0.1 behind Lie To Me.
Previous Wednesday overnight reports are available for comparison.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millons)2 |
| 8:00 | FOX | Lie To Me | 2.5/8 | 2.0/7 | 8.42 |
| CBS | The New Adventures of Old Christine | 2.1/7 | 1.3/5 | 7.30 | |
| ABC | Scrubs | 1.8/6 | 1.9/7 | 4.66 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model | 1.7/5 | 1.9/7 | 3.70 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: (R) | 1.2/3 | 0.8/3 | 5.41 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Gary Unmarried | 2.2/7 | 1.3/4 | 7.30 |
| ABC | Better of Ted | 1.7/5 | 1.6/5 | 4.21 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | American Idol | 7.8/20 | 6.3/17 | 22.44 |
| ABC | Lost | 3.7/9 | 3.6/10 | 8.29 | |
| CBS | Criminal Minds | 3.2/8 | 2.0/5 | 13.25 | |
| NBC | Life (season finale) | 1.3/3 | 1.0/3 | 4.50 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model (Recap) | 0.9/2 | 1.2/3 | 2.01 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI: NY | 3.3/9 | 2.3/7 | 12.52 |
| ABC | The Unusuals (season premiere) | 2.2/6 | 1.8/5 | 6.84 | |
| NBC | Law & Order (R) | 1.2/3 | 0.8/2 | 4.68 |
Shows are sorted by Adults 18-49 rating 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.
lie to me must be cancelled its awfull
Eh, poor ABC! Every new show is a flop!
Lie to Me is in trouble, but FOX will still probably pick it up for 13 episodes in the fall. But, it’s insane that a 2.5 can win an hour on a Wednesday. Something is rotten in the state of TV.
WEll, so much for ABC’s spring premieres…They better have a lot of pilots ready or we’ll be seeing 5 hours of Dancing every week.
My mother is convinced that the networks must be anti-Semitic- why else would they be starting all their new shows on Passover?
hmm, losts drop is weird. im sure it will bounce back, last night’s episode was fantastic.
better off ted was so funny last night. i dont understand why the numbers are so low. i mean theres nothing else good on at that time. i mean i think American Idol is the stupidest show ever!
LOST was still the second highest Demo behind IDOL and number one among scripted shows.
Robert, there’s a discrepancy between the prose and the chart. Was The Unusuals 2.2 or 2.3?
Why the heck would last night’s episode of LOST be the lowest ever!?!?! It was definitely the best episode of the whole season! When will people learn that TV that makes you think and gets your brain to turn is not the devil? It makes me so mad that people refuse to watch shows that might actually make you think. God forbid that would ever happen!
Predicable CHUCK fan statement: I gotta believe that Chuck would do better on Wed vs Monday. Under current programming, it would be competing against Lie to Me (which I have tried to watch and just can’t get into it), Christine and whatever ABC tries to throw out there. Am I wrong about this? The networks must run do research in this area.
2.2 — i got new data, will fix.
Julia, I completely agree. Lie To Me is really starting to slip. These are the kind of numbers I was expecting immediately when it left Idol’s shadow. Looks like it just took a few weeks.
I also agree that Wednesday’s are weak, weak, WEAK. This is still the prime night to aggressively schedule. It’s really up for grabs right now.
The Unusuals appears DOA along the lines of Cupid. It dropped from a 2.5 to a 1.9 between half-hours.
Castle’s fate looks brighter and brighter. A 13 episode renewal seems likely unless it really dips between now and upfronts.
A few things:
- Lie to Me is definitely on the bubble for Fox since I was sent a survey regarding my viewership of the show by Fox just this morning. That only happens with Fox shows right on the bubble.
- Lost is still doing fine. A 3.7 in the 18-49 is nothing to complain about in this day and age.
- I knew The Unusuals would flop by them tying it so heavily to Lost in the ads for the show leading up to its premiere. Why? Because ABC still hasn’t figured out that an enormous amount of Lost fans don’t want to watch more TV right after Lost, they want to go online to talk about what they just saw. I think that was especially true after last night’s final scene in Lost (which I won’t spoil if someone hasn’t seen it yet). Lost is NOT the show you want to launch new shows with. They might want to stick *it* at 10pm next season.
Berman provided a 1/2 hour breakdown for The Unusuals
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 7.44 million, A18-49: 2.5/ 7
10:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.25 million, A18-49: 1.9/ 5
sure, losts numbers are still relatively strong, but it dropped significantly compared to last week, which makes no sense. Oh well.
good news for castle, i honestly think if it stays at a 2.4 with over 9 million viewers, its got a decent shot at getting a mid season order
American Idol suckssssss¡¡¡is stupid¡¡Fox sucks¡¡¡¡¡LOST-CSINY-Criminal Minds THE BEST SHOWS¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
I am so happy that ABC is going down. Those losers will go downhill to failure.