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| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.9/9 | 2.5/8 | 2.4/7 | 1.9/6 | 1.4/4 | 0.3/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.1/7 | 1.7/6 | 2.1/8 | 2.1/8 | 1.5/5 | 0.2/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 9.034 | 7.553 | 10.459 | 4.106 | 3.275 | 0.954 |
On a weak Sunday night for broadcast television, ABC topped the adults 18-49 ratings easily, but keystone Desperate Housewives drew its lowest 18-49 rating ever (4.1) for an original episode. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition also hit its lowest rating for the season, as ABC on average fell 6% in the demo vs. last week.
At 8pm, the season finale of Amazing Race topped the 18-49 demo and fell only 6% from its finale last spring. In this broadcast environment, 6% down is the new up! CBS on the whole was down 8% in the demo from last week.
While the 3 hour finale of Celebrity Apprentice was 31% lower in the demo than its spring finale last season, it helped boost NBC into second for the night and make it the only network up (14%) vs. last week.
The Simpsons was down 22% in the 18-49 demo from last week, leading the entire Fox lineup lower by 17% vs. last week.
You can see overnight reports for past Sundays to compare.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share | Viewers Live+SD (000s) |
| 7:00 | ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 1.8 | 7 | 1.2 | 5 | 6,278 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 1.4 | 6 | 0.9 | 4 | 9,788 | |
| UNI | Hora Pico | 0.8 | 3 | 0.9 | 4 | 1,900 | |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 0.8 | 3 | 0.6 | 3 | 3,675 | |
| FOX | Sit Down, Shut Up | 0.7 | 3 | 0.6 | 3 | 1,593 | |
| CW | Jericho (repeat) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.3 | 1 | 720 | |
| 7:30 | ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 2.1 | 8 | 1.4 | 6 | 7,689 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 1.5 | 5 | 0.8 | 3 | 10,157 | |
| FOX | American Dad (repeat) | 1.1 | 4 | 1.1 | 5 | 2,363 | |
| UNI | Hora Pico | 1.0 | 4 | 1.1 | 5 | 2,412 | |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 1.0 | 4 | 0.6 | 3 | 4,385 | |
| CW | The Spy Who Loved Me (movie) | 0.2 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 680 | |
| 8:00 | CBS | Amazing Race | 2.9 | 9 | 1.9 | 7 | 10,428 |
| FOX | The Simpsons | 2.5 | 8 | 2.5 | 9 | 5,157 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 2.4 | 7 | 1.6 | 6 | 7,681 | |
| NBC | Celebrity Apprentice | 2.1 | 7 | 1.4 | 5 | 6,454 | |
| UNI | Nuestra Belleza Latina | 1.0 | 3 | 1.0 | 4 | 2,525 | |
| CW | The Spy Who Loved Me (movie) | 0.2 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 992 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Amazing Race | 3.0 | 9 | 1.9 | 7 | 10,431 |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 2.8 | 8 | 2.1 | 7 | 8,691 | |
| NBC | Celebrity Apprentice | 2.4 | 7 | 1.6 | 6 | 7,058 | |
| FOX | King of the Hill | 1.8 | 5 | 1.8 | 6 | 4,105 | |
| UNI | Nuestra Belleza Latina | 1.1 | 3 | 1.2 | 4 | 2,928 | |
| CW | The Spy Who Loved Me (movie) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.1 | 0 | 1,059 | |
| 9:00 | ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.0 | 11 | 3.1 | 10 | 11,972 |
| FOX | Family Guy | 3.2 | 9 | 3.7 | 12 | 6,467 | |
| NBC | Celebrity Apprentice | 3.0 | 8 | 1.9 | 6 | 8,573 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.5 | 7 | 1.4 | 4 | 11,261 | |
| UNI | La Misma Luna | 1.5 | 4 | 1.6 | 5 | 3,548 | |
| CW | The Spy Who Loved Me (movie) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.1 | 0 | 1,035 | |
| 9:30 | ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.2 | 11 | 3.2 | 10 | 12,284 |
| NBC | Celebrity Apprentice | 3.6 | 9 | 2.4 | 7 | 9,793 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.8 | 7 | 1.7 | 5 | 12,295 | |
| FOX | American Dad | 2.4 | 6 | 2.8 | 8 | 4,951 | |
| UNI | La Misma Luna | 1.7 | 4 | 1.9 | 6 | 4,066 | |
| CW | The Spy Who Loved Me (movie) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.1 | 0 | 1,237 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Celebrity Apprentice | 3.8 | 10 | 2.8 | 8 | 10,419 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 3.2 | 8 | 2.2 | 7 | 9,136 | |
| CBS | The Unit | 2.4 | 7 | 1.7 | 5 | 9,714 | |
| UNI | La Misma Luna | 1.8 | 5 | 2.1 | 7 | 4,233 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Celebrity Apprentice | 3.6 | 10 | 2.5 | 8 | 10,066 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 2.9 | 8 | 2.0 | 6 | 8,541 | |
| CBS | The Unit | 2.4 | 7 | 1.7 | 5 | 9,601 | |
| UNI | La Misma Luna | 2.0 | 6 | 2.3 | 7 | 4,586 |
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Shows are sorted by 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.
great news for the great amazing race.
Wow all shows have suffered lately.
Is it because of all the sport playoffs or something else?
Are ABC just not promoting Desperate Housewives enough?
Maybe Grey’s will start beating Desperate again. Sad that no network got a 3 average for the night.
Cold Case topped DH in viewers at 9:30! Wow.
“Sit Down” has been pulled from the schedule indefinitely. My condolences to the “Arrested Development” fangirls. We know how much you thought it was “SMART!”
What has happened to sundays? Especially you, Fox.
Two questions.comments:
1. When people watch shows on the digital HDTV feed of a network, is it still not counted? Because The Simpsons recently went HD, and ratings have been down.
Also with The Simpsons, seems like it has been suffering ever since it was made available on Hulu, Fox.com, and iTunes.
I’m glad that The Amazing Race can still pull in strong numbers as it really is one of the only reality shows worth watching. On the other hand, I have no idea how Celebrity Apprentice continues to thrive. I watched the premiere for probably 15 minutes and that was far too much (I really should have known better).
King of the Hill is now pulling the same numbers Sit Down, Shut Up had a few weeks ago. The Cleveland Show can’t start soon enough for Fox.
Ed, what gave you the idea that HDTV viewing wasn’t counted?
LOL. SDSU is dead and gone…
I still really cant feel sorry for DH
ABC has to be worried about DH’s fall this season. I think people are loosing interest in the show as the story line is becoming too over the top and doesn’t have the same quirkiness that made it a hit in the first place.
NBC has to be happy with Celeb Apprentice. There was a lot of outrageousness in last night episode that is already creating good buzz on the internet.
Celebrity Apprentice did a great job for NBC
I think it’s really tough to get a younger audience to sit and watch live TV when the weather starts to get nicer. I know myself (who falls into this demo) was doing Mothers Day things, I had a softball game and yard work. I think the network season should probably run through April. This will produce less reruns in between new episodes (something that has hurt DH this season as well). With this, I think the networks need to promote a more agressive summer schedule (may-aug) with shows that can score lower ratings and still be successful (reality shows, combined cost shows such as Flashpoint, FNL and specials). With that said, network tv must find a way to get this demo to watch more live TV. If that is how they are going to continue to monitor ratings for advertisers. I’m not sure what the answer here is.
I don’t think the low rating says as much about the show as it does about the show not being must see tv when you are in that demo and the weather is nice and you are in the 22nd week of the season.
I think DH is slipping a bit because the show is getting BORING. As a DIE HARD fan of the show (the only program I watch every week, without exception), even I can admit that the show is getting a little lazy. However, last night’s show did set up some interesting storylines so it should be interesting to see how they’re resolved in next week’s 2-hr finale.
Brothers & Sisters is definitely hurting, and I have the feeling next year will probably be its last — not sure why ABC is wasting such a strong timeslot on such a weak performer.
As for the ratings in general, I think Mothers’ Day + nice weather + general spring/summer viewership erosion hurt Sunday’s numbers big time.
I thought someone said it wasn’t counted back a few years ago. Didn’t know.
Riff, where did you hear SDSU was pulled? Fox.com shows you are right.
Looks like Sit Down, King Of The Hill, and the American Dad repeat pulled FOX down a LOT, especially the 7-8PM hour (averaged a 0.9 in the 18-49 demo). FOX averaged a 2.4/2.5 the rest of the way, so they’d still be in 3rd or 4th, but just barely. I guess that will be an hour free that FOX has next Spring. Do you think they might put ‘Til Death and another comedy show there? I think Cleveland will be left in King Of The Hill’s spot unless it completely bombs in the fall.
I think Ed is right that a few years ago that the separate HD channels on broadcast and satellite networks were not counted (not sure about OTA). Nielsen had a small SNAFU with this as recently as the Super Bowl, when its early reports were short by ~5 million viewers because the HD was apparently not counted on some cable systems.
NBC doesn’t need any of their bubble shows, just show 3 hour episodes of Celebrity Apprentice next season!
For jeesus sake!!!!!!
Abc need to start making desperate housewives on their promos more often!!!
It’s nor good enough that it sinks to such lows because of it’s stupidity
It just annoys me that such a good show gets low ratings when it is the same greatness as greys
But that seems to be getting better because it is getting more adverts
Sort it out now or the shoe will fade away even more and become invisible ax it had this season really