Update: We haven't seen DVR numbers for awhile. Likely because of the craziness in the industry over the last few weeks. When we get them, we will post them.
With all the time on my hands waiting for recent ratings because of the Nielsen SNAFU, I decided to take a week of DVR data and look at the least DVR's shows by the 18-49 demo.
While it's only one week of data, for the week of April 6-12, Howie Do It was the least DVR'd show by the adults 18-49 demo, in terms of viewership increase by DVR. I wouldn't make any grand conclusions about individual shows, because I excluded all repeat and special episodes from this list, the fact that Friday and Saturday night unscripted shows take 8 of the top 10 spots is probably relatively consistent.
What's even more interesting to me is the high level of DVR usage for the shows from 10-20. Remember, these are the least DVR'd for the week. The fact that fewer than 10 regular broadcast episodes had less than 15% of their total demo viewing by DVR is very interesting to me.
Note that the first table below contains adults 18-49 demo program ratings.
To see past weeks DVR viewing lists click here.
Those of you interested in DVR viewing numbers might enjoy:
When Do DVR’d Shows Get Watched? Same Night or After?
Doing My Part To Combat DVR Misinformation.
Largest 18-49 Demo Increase From DVR Viewing for Broadcast TV Shows:
| Rank | Programs | Net | 18-49 Live (rating) | 18-49 Live+SD (rating) | 18-49 Live+7 (rating) | Increase From DVR Viewing | % of All Viewing By DVR | % of DVR Viewing On Airdate |
| 1 | HOWIE DO IT 8:30 | NBC | 1.07 | 1.13 | 1.16 | 8% | 8% | 67% |
| 2 | 48 Hours Mystery | CBS | 1.14 | 1.18 | 1.24 | 9% | 8% | 40% |
| 3 | COPS 2 | FOX | 1.54 | 1.60 | 1.68 | 9% | 8% | 43% |
| 4 | AMW: AMERICA FIGHTS BACK | FOX | 1.50 | 1.56 | 1.64 | 9% | 9% | 43% |
| 5 | Dateline FRI | NBC | 1.05 | 1.14 | 1.16 | 10% | 9% | 82% |
| 6 | 20/20-FRI | ABC | 1.75 | 1.87 | 1.97 | 13% | 11% | 55% |
| 7 | HOWIE DO IT 8P | NBC | 0.94 | 1.02 | 1.06 | 13% | 11% | 67% |
| 8 | Supernanny | ABC | 1.64 | 1.76 | 1.87 | 14% | 12% | 52% |
| 9 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 3.04 | 3.35 | 3.55 | 17% | 14% | 61% |
| 10 | FLASHPOINT | CBS | 1.83 | 1.92 | 2.15 | 17% | 15% | 28% |
| 11 | CSI: NY | CBS | 3.16 | 3.29 | 3.72 | 18% | 15% | 23% |
| 12 | Dancing with the Stars | ABC | 4.09 | 4.59 | 4.82 | 18% | 15% | 68% |
| 13 | WITHOUT A TRACE | CBS | 2.58 | 2.69 | 3.09 | 20% | 17% | 22% |
| 14 | CUPID | ABC | 1.53 | 1.63 | 1.84 | 20% | 17% | 32% |
| 15 | GARY UNMARRIED | CBS | 2.01 | 2.24 | 2.48 | 23% | 19% | 49% |
| 16 | Law And Order:SVU | NBC | 3.08 | 3.31 | 3.84 | 25% | 20% | 30% |
| 17 | American Idol-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 6.80 | 8.06 | 8.52 | 25% | 20% | 73% |
| 18 | NUMB3RS | CBS | 2.03 | 2.20 | 2.57 | 27% | 21% | 31% |
| 19 | CASTLE | ABC | 2.13 | 2.30 | 2.72 | 28% | 22% | 29% |
| 20 | OLD CHRISTINE | CBS | 1.79 | 2.06 | 2.30 | 28% | 22% | 53% |
-
The 18-49 Demo Increase From DVR Viewing ranks which of the Top 150 broadcast shows [by Live+7 viewers] had the % of increase in viewing by DVR in their adults 18-49 Live+7 audience numbers from viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs).Live+7 audience numbers from viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs).
Definitions:
DVR (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.
Same Day DVR Viewers - How many people watched the show on their DVRs prior to 3AM the day following the airdate,
DVR Viewers - How many people watched the show on their DVRs within 7 days following the airdate
% of All Viewing By DVR - Of the total viewing of that particular episode, what percentage was done via DVR.
% of DVR Viewing On Airdate - Of the DVR viewing of that particular episode, what percentage was done prior to 3AM the day following the airdate.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data:©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Wow – look at those live numbers. For ad rates, are the nets selling the live numbers or the live + SD? If they’re selling based on the live numbers only, yikes!
This is a part repeat, part new questions post, I asked you guys a couple of question in the “Josh Schwartz” thread earlier. First the new ones:
I really like the “who gets DVR’ed” least bit, percent wise. Can you make that a permanent part of your posts? Actually, looking at the list, many of these shows are Friday shows. Do you find it a little odd that TSCC and Dollhouse are routinely at the top of the most viewed DVR by percent but all their competition, save Ghost Whisperer, are at the bottom in percentages? I have an idea what that means but I’d like to hear what you have to say first (and no, it’s not about any shows being better than the others, not really).
2nd, Howie Do It and a lot of News/Reality TV programs head this list. Is it fairly typical for such programs to gain “only” 15% or less of their audience from DVR? I don’t mean the big hits, like Idol, Biggest, Loser, Survivor. I mean relatively “minor” Reality TV shows, like Howie, Wife Swap, Secret Millionaire, Cops, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, etc.
Now for the old questions:
When are you guys going to post the latest round of DVR data, or if not, where can I find the same information you guys use?
Actually, I’ve got a humdinger of a question for Bill and Rob (hope you guys are listening). I’m still trying to work out the whole bit with Sweeps vs. People Meter viewing. I understand how People meters work, those are the little black boxes Nielsen uses to track family viewing night to night. Sweeps are really month long surveys conducted using diaries, correct? Well, they have to collect and collate that data before it’s sent off right? If so, then are the Sweeps survey data NOT actually a part of the Overnight ratings we see? And if that is the case, where could I find such data?
it means nothing, Godfather and Dollhouse still had less DVR viewing overall than Ghost Whisperer.
[edit: I'm not really sure how you would find the data for any sweeps data adjusted by the diaries]
Just so I am really clear here, we are still ONLY talking about Neilsen families, right?
Godfather, Unlikely this becomes a regular feature. 3 tables of DVR data’s likely enough for me considering the overall interest in the topic is relatively low.
I haven’t looked backwards at the bottom of my previous weeks lists, but I think that the low rent unscripted shows being the least DVR’d is likely fairly typical, and those % are probably pretty typical. Edit: Actually, repeats are even less DVR’d, but as I noted I excluded them from the list above.
We will post the new DVR data when we get it. It may very well be delayed with the rest of the recent Nielsen data.
My understanding is that the sweeps period diaries are primarily used for local market ratings and local market advertising rates. The diary data is definitely not part of the fast affiliate overnight numbers that we publish (usually!) daily.
Edit: And to chime in with Robert, the percentage increases or shares are interesting to me (and others), but advertisers don’t buy percentages, they buy absolute numbers of eyeballs. That’s what matters.
dovepage, only Nielsen families.
Godfather, I can explain the bit about sweeps vs People Meters. Sweeps are not included in the national ratings. Sweeps are used to set the ad rates for each individual market, of which only the top 56 (I think) are metered. There are currently 21 markets with Local People Meters, which give all the same info as People Meters but on a local market basis. Outside of those metered markets, sweeps are the only numbers the rest of the country ever sees. The way sweeps info is published is in a book for each market. They are rather big books, with a month full of details for every program.
I’ve decided I’m just amused people DVR Howie Do It, period.
Ah, ok, thanks for the replies. I thought sweeps were actually factored into the National ratings. My mistake. And as for reality shows/news shows in general have smaller % viewing, that’s something I’ve always supposed but never had confirmation on. Thank you.
As for the percentages, yeah, I know, Dollhouse’s percents are so high because the raw numbers are low to begin with. However, there are shows on the same night that get smaller percents AND a smaller ratings “bump” live + SD vs. live + 7 raw numbers. I’m wondering if that reveals a split in the 18-49 demo, i.e. the FOX show’s “audience” is in general out on Fridays and watching the show later, while the CBS/ABC show audiences are staying in. The only possibility I can come up with is a demographic breakdown of the FOX audience being single or married w/o children, and the CBS/ABC audience being married with children (I’m sure there are other ways to split the data but that’s the best I can come up with).
Basically I’m suggesting that you can use this data to provide an idea of what kind of viewers are watching TV on Fridays by network. Am I off the mark? I know it’s one piece of data, but given the postings you’ve made about how FOX is catching CBS in key demos, it seems like it’s another piece of evidence that CBS is increasingly becoming the “old people’s network” and FOX is the network that appeals most to 18-49 year olds. I’m wondering if there’s a substantial difference in the 18-49 year olds that watch CBS vs. FOX.
Godfather, the networks and other paying customers get ratings data broken down in many more ways than we see (one being income level), and perhaps it allows them to differentiate between one group of 18-49 viewers and another. We cannot.
As for CBS becoming the “old people’s network”, that’s not a recent phenomenon, it’s been that way for quite a while. Somewhat reversing that trend, this season, CBS has done relatively better than recent years among the 18-49 demo.
…. Chuck!
Could you give the live, lice+SD live+7 18-49 demo number of TSSC? Thank you.
hagi, that data for the week has already been posted in the previous post.
Bill, so would I be remiss in assuming that you think I could be right, there’s a substantial difference in the 18-49 breakdowns between the shows? Hmmm. I wonder what 18-49 groups are most appealing to a network then?
Godfather, we do see gender breakdowns, and different advertisers and networks are more or less interested in men and women. We do not see income breakdowns. We don’t publish gender breakdowns on a regular basis, but I agree that some special posts on gender breakdowns would be interesting. Maybe during the *next* Nielsen ratings SNAFU!
The fact that there are people who DVR Howie Do It is just… Scary? Funny? Sad? I don’t know how to label all these feelings.
The male 18-49 demo is more important than the female because males tend to watch less tv, and only certain tv shows garner big male demos. Which is why football can charge so much for commercials.
Can you imagine someone uttering this sentence: “Oh crap, I missed Howie Do It this week!”
It’s like unfathomable.
Seriously for the few people who did DVR Howie Do It, it must have been an accident and they were trying to DVR Ghost Whisperer or Prison Break or something. It has to be. Because God help us if there are people out there who need to see the show that badly.
I’m guessing that the majority of the DVR’s that recorded Howie Do It was done by something like Tivo Suggestions that will record what it thinks the user will like.
Neilsen/Nielsen families…Rick, Brigitte?
How many useful, real numbers of DVR users can be correlated to broadcast viewing and timeshifting versus cable/satellite/internet? Has a meaningful percentage converted to DVR from VCR or have they moved on?
Thre are still folks actualy trying to figure out better antenna setups and some of them won’t have much reception for a whille after all due to signal gaps.
Even when based on a hard drive these things are not as adoptable as the VCR was.