Site Logo

'

Tuesday Ratings: Biggest Loser Finale Goes Large; Fox Still Wins

Categories: '

Written By

May 13th, 2009

biggest-loser

Scoreboard FOX NBC CBS ABC Uni CW
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 6.1/16 4.7/12 3.1/8 1.9/5 1.7/5 1.0/3
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 4.8/14 4.0/12 1.9/6 1.1/3 1.8/5 1.3/4
Total Viewers (million) 16.502 11.758 15.107 7.725 4.415 2.021

NBC's Biggest Loser season finale broke up the boredom of recent Tuesday ratings. Loser was up 0.1 ratings points from its 2008 finale and boosted NBC 31% in the 18-49 demo vs. last week. Elsewhere it was still the same old Tuesday ratings, Fox, as usual won with American Idol and the season finale of FringeCBS was a credible third, and ABC was crushed.

Fox's numbers again for the night were nearly identical to the previous Tuesday's TV ratings, but American Idol was down a bit, while the Fringe finale gained about 10% in the 18-49 demo.

Everybody else was very close to last Tuesday's numbers as well. CBS lost a tick in the 18-49 demo and two in the 18-34. ABC was down a tick in the 18-49 demo and a clunking 0.4 points in the 18-34 demo. Yikes. The CW was up a tick in 18-49 and two ticks in18-34 vs. last Tuesday.

The season finale of Cupid was close to its season average and 90210 had it's best Tuesday 9pm outing since its September 2008 premiere.

As usual, it's likely that the numbers for the first half hours of both Fringe and Cupid have a few minutes of viewership from Idol and Dancing in them. Those will be removed in the final numbers.

You can see past Tuesday overnight TV ratings reports here.

Full details:


Time Net Show 18-49 Rating 18-49 Share 18-34 Rating 18-34 Share Viewers Live+SD (000)
8:00 FOX American Idol 7.2 22 5.6 19  20,579
  NBC Biggest Loser: Couples (finale) 3.1 10 2.7 9  8,618
  CBS NCIS 3.0 9 1.9 7  15,133
  UNI Cuidado con el Ángel 1.3 4 1.5 5  3,767
  ABC According to Jim 1.0 3 0.5 2  3,942
  CW Reaper 0.9 3 0.9 3  1,987
               
8:30 FOX American Idol 8.2 22 6.2 19  22,994
  NBC Biggest Loser: Couples (finale) 3.8 10 3.3 10  10,134
  CBS NCIS 3.4 9 2.1 7  16,432
  UNI Cuidado con el Ángel 1.5 4 1.7 5  4,049
  ABC According to Jim 1.1 3 0.7 2  3,899
  CW Reaper 0.9 2 1.0 3  1,990
               
9:00 FOX Fringe (finale) 5.3 14 4.3 12  13,537
  NBC Biggest Loser: Couples (finale) 5.0 13 4.3 12  12,510
  CBS The Mentalist 3.2 8 1.9 5  15,946
  ABC Dancing with the Stars: Results 2.9 7 1.7 5  12,949
  UNI Mañana Es Para Siempre 1.7 4 1.8 5  4,470
  CW 90210 1.1 3 1.6 5  2,004
               
9:30 NBC Biggest Loser: Couples (finale) 5.3 13 4.6 13  12,911
  FOX Fringe (finale) 3.8 9 3.0 8  8,897
  CBS The Mentalist 3.4 8 2.1 6  16,275
  ABC Dancing with the Stars: Results 3.3 8 1.9 5  14,552
  UNI Mañana Es Para Siempre 1.8 5 1.9 5  4,644
  CW 90210 1.1 3 1.7 5  2,102
               
10:00 NBC Biggest Loser: Couples (finale) 5.2 13 4.5 13  12,964
  CBS Without A Trace 2.8 7 1.7 5  13,614
  UNI Aqui y Ahora 2.0 5 1.9 5  4,890
  ABC Cupid (finale) 1.8 5 1.2 3  6,442
               
10:30 NBC Biggest Loser: Couples (finale) 5.6 15 4.7 14  13,411
  CBS Without A Trace 2.7 7 1.7 5  13,241
  UNI Aqui y Ahora 1.9 5 1.8 5  4,670
  ABC Cupid (finale) 1.4 4 0.9 3  4,568

 -

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.

(120) Comments - Add Yours!

If you'd like to personalize your comments left on TVbytheNumbers with your picture or other avatar, please visit www.gravatar.com. Just use the same e-mail address here that you used when registering your gravatar.com account and the picture you selected will show up next to your comments.
  1. test comment

  2. Rick

    Interesting how Fringe lost viewers in the second half hour while The Biggest Loser did the opposite at the same time!

  3. Okay, the season finale of Fringe completely rocked, imo. I think this was the best episode of the season. I enjoy this show much more when it’s delving into it’s own mythology and not just on these Monster Of The Week episodes that make it feel like an X-Files remix.

  4. Weird, I posted my first post talking about Fringe well after the other comments here and it showed up as being posted at 9:32PM and the 3rd post on this page….

  5. MNIS

    FRINGE!

  6. Michael C.

    I absolutely love Fringe but and am glad that it was picked up for a second season. But at the same time look how much viewers it lost within the hour. That is an incredible amount of viewers that left.

  7. So Cal

    Holy crap…the site is back up! It’s a miracle!

  8. Indeed, FRINGE! What a season finale and omg what an ending to last week’s cliffhanger. Finally, we saw Leonard Nimoy as William Bell and as for that “final vista image”, wow, stunning and heartbreaking at the same time.

  9. Hudson

    Michael, I’m pretty sure Idol went about 5 minutes over yesterday, which may be the reason for the big decrease in viewers.

  10. Catherine

    Of course Fringe was up. It had Leonard Nimoy, didn’t it? The fact that he was everywhere and interviewed numerous times in the past week or so for the new Star Trek movie didn’t hurt Fringe. Nice free publicity.

    What amazes me about Tuesdays is how many people actually watch the networks. It is probably one of the reasons restaurants give discounts on Tuesdays in my town.

  11. Jenna

    The Biggest Loser is one of the few reality shows that I actually enjoy. At least it has heart and a positive message behind it. What they’re doing and what they’re promoting is really inspiring! I watched the finale last night and was SO excited to see Jerry, a 64 year old (the OLDEST competitor ever) who was only on the show for 2 weeks, win the at home contest for $100,000. That’s pretty awesome!

  12. MB

    I was excited to see Jerry win too but decidedly depressed to see Helen take it. I still can’t believe she let her daughter go home in her place.

  13. Alex

    Holy hell NBC had a fantastic night last night, how much do they wish every night could be Biggest Loser finale night? Elsewhere pretty much the same story although it continues to amaze me how low the Dancing with the Stars results show is.

  14. Joe

    Yea you guys might want to fix your website issues especially during sweeps…

    Also, nice to see good numbers for Fringe.

  15. Couldn’t the Fringe drop off be because of Idol viewers before they turned over? Making the second half a more realistic figure.

  16. Yeah, apparently the AI overrun “does a number” on Fringe’s first half hour numbers.

    The Fringe finale was excellent. Among other things, it relieved my concerns that Abrams would do something ridiculous about the “other dimension”. It turns out the other dimension is exactly the same as ours – except where it differs!

    I suspect next season Fringe will be dealing with duplicate persons from the other dimension. Clearly Peter is from there, as his tombstone makes clear. And the question now is, WHICH William Bell is Oliva talking to? Ours – or theirs? And what happens when the OTHER Walter Bishop wants HIS son back?

    If you thought Lost was complicated, I suspect Abrams is just getting started with Fringe. I just hope that doesn’t alienate the viewers. I think he probably won’t go overboard on that, though. He knows Lost has its problems with that issue and he explicitly said he wants to walk a more balanced path with Fringe.

    Only thing I didn’t like about the finale was offing David Robert Jones -he was a cool villain. But presumably Abrams has better ones in the wings.

  17. the128boy

    Without SVU on (but still with huge competition) Without A Trace scored much better numbers in relation to NCIS and The Mentalist than it has most of this season.

    I firmly believe that WAT will stay put with Leno arriving in fall. At the least, it’s chances have to be better than Cold Case, whose timeslot will not benefit from Leno-competition this fall.

  18. BigKeyChain

    Fringe numbers went from 13.5 mill to 8.8 mill in an HOUR on the finale with Spock!! That’s unreal. The fact is that viewers (in the demo or not) are leaving.

  19. Evil

    The finale was alright. One of the best episodes of the season, and even though I still think that Fringe is ‘just’ above average (And the second best new show of this season after Castle) I am happy that they are taking the direction they’ve taken. I just hope we’ll see Nimoy in a lot of epsiodes next season.

  20. BigKeyChain, as always, that’s due to four minutes of the first half hour being Idol. Skews the numbers. Also why the final numbers dropped to 3.9 in the demo and 9.28 mil.

© 2009 TVbytheNumbers, all rights reserved. Zap2it Partner