Due to live sports coverage and irregular running times, Fast Nationals for NBC are approximate. US Open Golf aired from 7:00-8:09p, Merlin aired from 8:09-9:09p and 9:09-10:09p and Law & Order: SVU aired from 10:09-11:09p.
| Scoreboard |  |
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| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 1.5/5 | 1.4/5 | 1.2/4 | 1.0/3 | 0.6/2 | 0.3/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 1.6/6 | 0.9/4 | 0.7/3 | 0.6/2 | 0.6/2 | 0.2/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 3.106 | 5.313 | 6.999 | 4.120 | 1.452 | 0.912 |
An early boost from a US Open golf overrun couldn't get NBC ahead of Fox's animated repeats for the night, as the premiere of Merlin showed little magic averaging only a 1.4 adults 18-49 demo.
In the other new programming for the night, ABC's Just for Laughs was nearly unwatched with a 0.6 demo rating, and ABC's Impact mini-series premiere did even worse than Merlin averaging just a 1.2 adults 18-49 demo from 9-11p. 60 Minutes drew just a 1.0 demo rating for the night.
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Program | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | NBC | US Open Golf | 1.7 | 7 | 1.3 | 6 | 6.420 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 1.0 | 4 | 0.5 | 2 | 7.941 | |
| FOX | King of the Hill (repeat) | 0.7 | 3 | 0.6 | 3 | 1.616 | |
| ABC | Just For Laughs | 0.6 | 2 | 0.4 | 2 | 2.788 | |
| CW | Reaper (repeat) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.779 | |
| 7:30 | NBC | US Open Golf | 1.6 | 6 | 1.2 | 5 | 6.180 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 1.0 | 4 | 0.5 | 2 | 8.243 | |
| FOX | American Dad (repeat) | 0.9 | 3 | 0.9 | 4 | 1.909 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos (repeat) | 0.9 | 3 | 0.6 | 3 | 3.464 | |
| CW | Reaper (repeat) | 0.2 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.678 | |
| 8:00 | FOX | Simpsons (repeat) | 1.8 | 6 | 2.0 | 8 | 3.861 |
| NBC | Merlin (premiere) | 1.5 | 5 | 1.0 | 4 | 5.930 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Ed. (repeat) | 0.9 | 3 | 0.7 | 3 | 3.452 | |
| CBS | Million Dollar Password (repeat) | 0.9 | 3 | 0.5 | 2 | 5.938 | |
| CW | Good Boy (movie) | 0.2 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.864 | |
| 8:30 | FOX | King of the Hill (repeat) | 1.5 | 5 | 1.5 | 6 | 3.317 |
| CBS | Million Dollar Password (repeat) | 1.3 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 | 6.943 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Ed. (repeat) | 1.2 | 4 | 1.0 | 4 | 4.324 | |
| NBC | Merlin (premiere) | 1.2 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 | 4.998 | |
| CW | Good Boy (movie) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 1.017 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | Family Guy (repeat) | 2.2 | 7 | 2.6 | 9 | 4.285 |
| NBC | Merlin | 1.3 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 | 5.250 | |
| CBS | Cold Case (repeat) | 1.1 | 3 | 0.6 | 2 | 6.638 | |
| ABC | Impact (mini-series) | 1.1 | 3 | 0.5 | 2 | 4.302 | |
| CW | Good Boy (movie) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 1.075 | |
| 9:30 | FOX | American Dad (repeat) | 1.8 | 5 | 2.1 | 7 | 3.649 |
| NBC | Merlin | 1.4 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 | 5.224 | |
| CBS | Cold Case (repeat) | 1.2 | 3 | 0.7 | 2 | 6.892 | |
| ABC | Impact (mini-series) | 1.1 | 3 | 0.5 | 2 | 4.711 | |
| CW | Good Boy (movie) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 1.060 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Without A Trace (repeat) | 1.3 | 4 | 0.9 | 3 | 6.618 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 1.2 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 | 4.286 | |
| ABC | Impact (mini-series) | 1.2 | 3 | 0.5 | 2 | 4.762 | |
| 10:30 | CBS | Without A Trace (repeat) | 1.5 | 4 | 0.9 | 3 | 6.778 |
| ABC | Impact (mini-series) | 1.3 | 4 | 0.5 | 2 | 5.157 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 1.2 | 4 | 0.9 | 3 | 4.218 |
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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.
I’m not at all surprised by Merlin’s performance. Its a bad show.
Merlin didn’t show to bad, it’s fared better than some of the other early summer programing.
NBC could just leave ya with Kings.
On the East Coast Merlin didn’t start until 8:08 or due to golf overrun. I don’t think Dateline aired at all.
Merlin was terrible but i was kinda surprised at the number of viewers. I guessed around 3 million. In my opinion, no matter what NBC does, majority of new shows will always suffer. And its not about quality of shows, its just no one cares to watch NBC now. If the Mentalist premiered on NBC, it would have bombed and if LIFE premiered on CBS, it would have survived. As simple as that.
I have a question for the moderators. Why was Surviving Suburbia canceled when it pulled very good numbers in terms of viewers?
Doghouse, isn’t that exactly what the post says?
Good for Merlin I was expecting something lower. ABC shame shame on you.
Mikey, Suburbia suffered a huge drop when they moved it away from Dancing With The Stars, down to numbers that weren’t even close to “very good”. Likely that ABC decided it couldn’t air every single one of their shows following DWTS, so they had to cut out some
Yes it is! In my defense, I didn’t read that part.
However, I am not sure that SVU actually aired from 10:08-11:08; I think it was joined in progress after the second episode of Merlin.
Nothing on but repeats and Merlin and Impact.
Merlin was unwatchable – moved over the Impact – ok as far as those type of miniseries goes – plodding and full of relationship melodrama. The only good thing about Impact was it was watchable while Merlin was not – it did better ratings wise but I couldnt stand it. Ratings for impact did climb throughout the 2 hours. It really doesnt mean much anyway since its a one time miniseries. Ok, so how do you put the Moon back its right orbit? Somebody call Bruce Willis.
Reaper reruns did a bit better than Jericho – not that it matters since CW is abandoning the Sunday Night Ship as of this fall.
Merlin gets much better after the first few episodes, not that I ever thought it was a bad show. But it is one of those shows where if you don’t like Sam Raimi-type fantasy shows (Hercules, Xena, Legend of the Seeker) or fantasy in general, you’re not going to like it.
And I’m sure the low ratings had something to do with 1) I saw almost no promos for this anywhere and 2) almost thought it wasn’t on because golf ran late.
I actually liked Merlin (but then I like fantasy). It was similar to the beginning of Smallville where there is a young hero trying to make his way through his youth. I actually think if the show had been on the CW and paired with Smallville, it would have been a hit in CW numbers.
During Merlin Harry Potter ads were promised and I only saw one! Merlin wasn’t that bad though. I would say it was C+ which is not that bad.
the kids just watched merlin last night because they were bribed with the new harry potter trailer thingy
SLP has a point – Merlin is not a good fit for NBC or any other broadcast network. I think it would’ve been much better off on Scifi or BBC America.
It seems like a Smallville villain-of-the-week show for now, but it does get much more complex and interesting and they do have a couple of story arcs in there from Camelot canon. Like any other show, it needs a few episodes to set up the story and characters which is why the pilot and 2nd episode aren’t as strong as the rest of the season.
Yes, I think “Merlin” did pretty well for its first two showings. It is getting higher numbers than “I’m A Celebrity…”, but then again, that doesn’t take much. People, we have to remember that this is summer and this is the time when nets put out their “less-than-par” programming. 5.3 million viewers on a Sunday night is high for a summer showing, albeit, low, but I think “Merlin” will do just fine on Sundays, that is until NBC decides to move it to Saturdays a la “Kings”.
Truthfully Im surprised Merlin pulled in as much as it did. What I expected is what next weeks will probably turn out to be.
I’m actually a fan of Merlin after watching the first 2 episodes. I’m not sure if it was the case for anyone else, but NBC basically froze for about 10-15 minutes in my area and I missed some of the second episode. NBC just continues to make things interesting.
I didn’t watch Merlin, so I can’t comment about it – but in general, it seems like ANYTHING new that NBC has put out just bombs! How many shows this past season went down the tubes? It just seems odd that one MAJOR network in particular can’t seem to come up with good new shows.
Have studios stopped presenting their “good stuff” to NBC? Have producers shyed away from NBC because it seems like they’re in an extended rut and people are tuning them out??
Robert and Bill – any possible explanation(s) for NBC being in such miserable shape? I mean, can you blame it all on the guy(s) at the top? Or are the a number of factors that have just seemed to converge on NBC at the same time that have resulted in their present situation. I seem to recall that it wasn’t too long ago that NBC dominated (or at least led) the major networks in ratings.
If NBC’s new fall lineup has a number of shows that tank, what do they do then? Let them run their course with crappy ratings – move up midseason shows to earlier “start dates,” have Leno on 2 HOURS a night??
Thanks!
Rick, there is plenty of blame to spread around, but NBC has been unable to develop a new successful show in years. With the Leno at 10 move, they’ve admitted they’re happy to reduce their opportunities to do so in the future! Note today’s CBS vs. NBC post.
From what I hear, Merlin was aired on the BBC, so in terms of costs for NBC it probably wasn’t much. It wasn’t a great show, but it wasn’t horrible either. I was disappointed with only one Harry Potter Trailer too, should have been 1 per episode.