| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 4.6/13 | 3.4/9 | 2.9/8 | 2.3/6 | 1.4/4 | 1.3/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 4.2/13 | 2.0/6 | 2.3/6 | 2.2/7 | 1.6/5 | 1.4/4 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 13.179 | 13.098 | 8.061 | 5.118 | 3.595 | 3.029 |
With 12 broadcast show season finales on Thursday, ABC lead by Grey's Anatomy swept the night averaging a 4.6 rating in the 18-49 demo. However, the series and season lows for many shows continued, and NBC's Thursday woes intensified.
Fox was the only network up Thursday on a year to year basis, increasing its demo rating 22% vs. last season. The season finales of both Bones and Hell's Kitchen were up from last week.
With it rumored to be renewing several low rated comedies, ABC seems to be pursuing a ratings suicidal strategy just to try and keep comedies in its line up. Ugly Betty's coming back, but do you really want shows that can only pull a 2.0 demo rating? While the Grey's Anatomy final was up from last week, and at its season average, it was the lowest rated season finale episode ever, down 18% from last season.
More season finale declines at CBS where CSI posted its lowest original show rating ever, in a season finale. That's got to hurt. A lot.
NBC's Thursday pain continues to get worse. Even with 4 season finales out of 5 shows they were down 4% in the demo from last week. The Office had its lowest original rating in two years, and that for a season finale. Their new, and newly renewed shows, continued to be problems. Parks & Recreation stabilized (at least for a second week) at a pitiful 2.0 rating, while Southland continued to fall, hitting a series low 1.7 rating last night.
For reference you can check out past Thursday night fast affiliate ratings reports here.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) |
| 8:00 | CBS | Survivor: Tocantins | 3.8 | 11 | 2.1 | 8 | 12.033 |
| FOX | Bones (finale) | 2.5 | 8 | 2.2 | 8 | 8.704 | |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 2.0 | 6 | 1.7 | 6 | 6.833 | |
| NBC | My Name is Earl (finale) | 2.0 | 6 | 1.3 | 5 | 4.795 | |
| CW | Smallville (finale) | 1.4 | 4 | 1.4 | 5 | 3.156 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 1.1 | 3 | 1.3 | 5 | 3.198 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Parks And Recreation (finale) | 2.0 | 6 | 1.9 | 7 | 4.249 |
| 9:00 | ABC | Grey's Anatomy (finale) | 5.5 | 15 | 5.1 | 15 | 15.581 |
| NBC | The Office (finale) | 3.5 | 9 | 3.9 | 12 | 6.722 | |
| CBS | CSI (finale) | 3.4 | 9 | 1.9 | 5 | 14.425 | |
| FOX | Hell's Kitchen (finale) | 3.2 | 8 | 2.5 | 7 | 7.419 | |
| UNI | Mañana Es Para Siempre | 1.6 | 4 | 1.8 | 5 | 4.115 | |
| CW | Supernatural (finale) | 1.3 | 3 | 1.4 | 4 | 2.902 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | 30 Rock (finale) | 2.8 | 7 | 2.8 | 8 | 5.664 |
| 10:00 | ABC | Grey's Anatomy (finale) | 6.2 | 17 | 5.6 | 17 | 17.124 |
| CBS | CSI: NY (finale) | 3.1 | 8 | 1.8 | 5 | 12.836 | |
| NBC | Southland | 1.7 | 5 | 1.5 | 5 | 4.640 | |
| UNI | Mujeres Asesinas | 1.6 | 4 | 1.7 | 5 | 3.473 |
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Shows are sorted from highest 18-49 rating to lowest 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 and Numbers 102.
And southland continue to go down… 1.7 is horrible
OMG! Southland noooooooo!
Damn, Grey’s reminds me of Friends.. the show has a lot of buzz right know.
And how low is CSI compared to the last season finale? didn’t hit 20 million last year?
Looks like ABC and NBC really made a lot of money with their winning of the 18-49′s demos. They will be able to charge a lot next season for commercials. I think CBS can appeal to businesses that sell things for older people. When it comes to a business like this it is clear that ABC and NBC are the winners on Thursdays.
You know…I watched Southland last night and I loved the episode and the finale looks good next week! I haven’t liked any episodes since the pilot, but this one really showed what it can do to be GREAT! I loved it…too bad the ratings are so TERRIBLE…It will probably wins awards though…which is probably why NBC hasn’t axed it. It’s a quality program. Parks and Rec still sucks though…IMO…
How many episodes of Southland and Parks&Rec has NBC committed to for next season? Any chance they’re trying to reduce those commitments?
Good for Bones to come in second. Smallville is starting to get on my nerves. NBC continues to look stupid for renewing Southland so soon.
gmyers, NBC was 4th in the 18-49 demo last night, or are you connecting to our site from an alternate universe today?
12 finales !!
Wow, Southland’s doing as bad as Knight Rider- is there any way NBC can change its mind about renewing it?
The Office and 30 Rock were great last night. Too bad more people didn’t tune in. I’m sure their Live +7 numbers will go up.
Southland wasn’t the season finale? Did NBC order eight episodes? What will the lead-in be next week? A rerun of 30 Rock? That could hurt even worse (but it won’t be opposite Grey’s).
What is going on with Bones’ renewal. Still no deal with upfront on Monday. Is this just posturing by the network or do I need to worry?
I don’t know how low the CSI numbers were last year, but I can certainly comment about how far they are going to slide next year. That is, if the absolutely, totally unbelieveable sloppy writing on this show continues.
Spoiler alerts if you didn’t watch.
I have been a long time fanatic for CSI, but I found last nights episode surrounding the re-surfacing of a closed casinos chips pretty much insulting to the intelligence.
Let’s see, A casino is going to close forever and must destroy its chips. What is the best way to do that.
We know, lets send a couple of blue collar guys out to a remote facility in the desert and trust them to destroy the chips. Never mind they have millions of dollars of value if re-circulated. That’s OK, we won’t have any one from the gaming commission, police, or any other state agency witness and doucment the destruction, we won’t ask for any residual proof of destruction, we’ll just take these workmen guys word for it. I won’t go on it detail about the circumstances surrounding the chips re-surfacing 28 years later but that is almost as improbable as the circumatances surrounding the “destruction”
No wonder William Peterson took off. He probably got a peak at some of these scripts. I find the ghosts over on Greys more beleiveable than this CSI finale.
Oh, and although Lawrence Fishburne is a fine actor. He is not working in this role. Sorry.
What is going on with Bones’ renewal? Still no deal with upfronts on Monday. Is this just posturing by the network or do I need to worry?
Lucifer being released from hell didn’t even help the CW. Damn.
OMG, Grey’s Anatomy hit the 17 million mark at the end!
Talking about cliffhangers, last night’s episode was AMAZING!
supernatural was up! season finale: awesome!!!
It probably didn’t help that I seriously had no idea this week was the season finale week for NBC. When I saw on the Guide it was the season-finale of The Office I was flummoxed. Usually they go for an hour-long, and it gets more hype. Most people probably didn’t realize.
Southland’s demo was pathetic last night, and Park & Rec wasn’t much better. NBC execs must be banging their heads against a wall today! What were they thinking by jumping the gun and renewing these shows before tracking the rating for a couple more weeks?? If the final decision didn’t need to be made until May 19th, what exactly did they accomplish by announcing them early?? If I were an advertiser, I definitely would NOT want to advertise my product or business during a commercial break of these two shows!