Photo Copyright 2009 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)
Because of the live NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup telecasts all ABC and NBC fast affiliate overnight results are approximate and extremely subject to revision. See below for more information.*
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.9/11 | 2.2/6 | 2.0/6 | 1.4/4 | 1.4/4 | 0.5/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 4.2/13 | 1.9/6 | 1.1/3 | 1.5/5 | 1.1/3 | 0.6/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 9.594 | 5.451 | 10.451 | 3.677 | 4.419 | 1.351 |
ABC continued its winning ways boosted by Game 3 of the NBA Finals, averaging a 3.9 18-49 demo rating for the night. NBC's telecast of the Stanley Cup Finals Game 6 lifted it into second place with a 2.2 18-49 demo rating.
Game 3 of the NBA Finals delivered a 4.2 demo rating from 9-11p, down from Sunday’s Game 2 which delivered a 4.7 demo rating from 8-11p in the Fast Nationals before rising to a 5.8 rating from 8:00-11:12p in the final ratings.
The Stanley Cup Finals Game 6 posted a 2.3 demo rating from 830-11p, up from Saturday’s Game 5 which delivered a 1.6 demo rating from 8-11p in the Fast Nationals before rising to a 1.8 demo rating from 8:21-10:45p in the final ratings.
Against two live sporting events, CW's Hitched or Ditched was down 0.2 ratings points in the adults 18-34 demo from last Tuesday's ratings. Likewise, Fox's Mental was down 0.2 rating points in the adults 18-49 demo from last Tuesday.
You can see TV ratings from past Tuesday overnight reports here.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 8:00 | ABC | Jimmy Kimmel Live | 2.9 | 10 | 2.7 | 10 | 7.832 |
| NBC | NHL Stanley Cup Finals: Game 6 | 1.9 | 6 | 1.7 | 6 | 4.697 | |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) | 1.8 | 6 | 1.0 | 4 | 10.949 | |
| FOX | House (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 1.2 | 4 | 4.011 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 0.5 | 1 | 0.5 | 2 | 1.189 | |
| 8:30 | ABC | NBA Countdown | 3.7 | 11 | 3.7 | 12 | 9.452 |
| 9:00 | ABC | NBA Finals: Game 3 | 4.0 | 11 | 4.5 | 14 | 9.493 |
| NBC | NHL Stanley Cup Finals: Game 6 | 2.3 | 6 | 1.9 | 6 | 5.511 | |
| CBS | The Mentalist (repeat) | 2.1 | 6 | 1.1 | 3 | 11.555 | |
| FOX | Mental | 1.4 | 4 | 1.1 | 3 | 4.828 | |
| CW | Hitched or Ditched | 1.1 | 2 | 0.6 | 2 | 1.514 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | NBA Finals: Game 3 | 4.5 | 12 | 4.9 | 16 | 10.647 |
| NBC | NHL Stanley Cup Finals: Game 6 | 2.5 | 7 | 2.1 | 6 | 6.145 | |
| CBS | 48 Hours Mystery (repeat) | 1.9 | 5 | 1.2 | 4 | 8.850 |
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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.
Incredible how good CBS procedurals do in reruns! Also, not bad for the NHL to average over 5 mil, especially against the NBA.
boring
Mental = DOA
Mentalist really appears to be growing in reruns if I am not mistaken.
I’m glad that Mental’s numbers fell from last week. Serves Fox right for having the audacity to air the Carradine episode less than a week after his death. They really should have shelved it for at least a week or two.
Fox already has declared Mental DOA simply by sticking it on in the summer to burn off episodes. Considering the competition, Fox probably can’t complain. But David Carradine’s last new appearance on the TV screen did nothing for the ratings. It was down from last week.
Chief, my guess is that karma had a lot less to do with Mental’s drop than going against 2 live sports final series (and for hockey, potentially final game).
Robert,
you are wrong about Mental. This is a cheap coproduction with Bogota, which FOX bought at 13 eps (which had already been shot).
The 1.4 demo increases its lead-out of once-popular House reruns, and the show competes with both NBA and Stanley Cup finals.
I bet the numbers increase once the sports finals are done; also due to its cheap cost, I can see FOX bringing this back whenever they need to fill a hole in the schedule.
Chief…why should FOX shelve the episode?
Andrea, it’s too bad you’re not a Dollhouse fan. You continue to love on shows on FOX that are lowly-rated that they don’t bring back. The one exception is Dollhouse!
I don’t think Mental’s ratings were all that bad (but still, bad), and it’s possible FOX would bring it back for the summer if it’s cheap enough. But under all the same circumstances you cite, it got crushed by a repeat of The Mentalist.
I am sure the NHL is pleased as punch to average 2 in the demo and 5 in the total for the game last night. I am glad it was a good game. The NBA game was also a good game.
The NHL (and NBC) has to be pinching themselves. The series looked to be a Red Wings sweep, which would have kept numbers down and lost them both 3 highly rated games, now it’s a big game 7 finale. That’s good karma, baby.
Robert:
I’m not a Whedon fan, generally. I watched some eps of DH and they just confirmed why I’m not a Whedon fan. Props to the fans of the show for getting more of it.
Also, why wouldn’t Mental get crushed by TM–I expect that to happen. TM is rapidly becoming the new House, or for CBS, the new CSI.
^ I should add, for any episode of TM, rerun or otherwise.
Question to TV by the Numbers, how come you dont report the overall total numbers? I would like to see the overall numbers and not just the 18-34, and 18-49 ratings.
Andrea, there was no disparagement meant towards The Mentalist. But, no matter how cheap Mental is, with the numbers its pulling, Fox is probably thinking, “We can do “So You Think You Can Karaoke!” for less.
E, we do — it’s the column in the far right of the table. In the prose we don’t write about it as much, but in the table it’s all there in easy-to-read fashion.
Answer to E, average viewership is in the tables, look at the bottom of the scoreboard and the right side of the show table.
As to the copy, since 18-49 age demo viewing is the closest thing to an indication of financial success for a show/broadcast network, that’s all I write about.
Many TV industry press sites don’t mention average viewership at all in their press.
Robert,
But you could make that same (even better) argument for Dollhouse
But as you know, enough eps of the scripted shows means money through syndication, DVD sales, etc.
More reality means less money in the longterm and more alienation of viewers from the networks.
Plus, FOX has enough new reality in the pipeline–like the show where strangers get married…even though they actually did that show before!
Andrea. “More reality means less money in the longterm and more alienation of viewers from the networks.”
Facts to support those two contentions have not yet been admitted into evidence, at least in to my knowledge.
Andrea, I believe I did make that argument for Dollhouse (only about 100 times).
Apparently they made Dollhouse really cheap. I’m not sure if I buy the viewer alienation angle wrt to reality programming, though I do buy the DVD/licensing argument. I don’t think Mental gets picked up for 13 more eps without some kind of rebound. But, I was wrong about Dollhouse.