| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.0/6 | 1.6/5 | 1.6/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 0.5/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 1.8/6 | 1.0/4 | 1.0/4 | 1.6/6 | 1.1/4 | 0.6/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 5.711 | 7.563 | 5.717 | 3.592 | 4.708 | 1.295 |
On a night when So You Think You Can Dance? lead Fox to a win with a overall nightly 2.0 rating in the adults 18-49 demo, the bigger story was the wall to wall tribute specials to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett which made for an extremely tight race for second place.
New episodes of the canceled Samantha Who? and In The Motherhood managed only a 1.0 and 0.7 18-49 demo rating respectively against all repeat competition.
So You Think You Can Dance? Was down 0.4 ratings points from last Thursday against 2 specials at 9pm.
In the battle of the dueling Jackson/Fawcett specials it was dead even in the 18-49 demo at 9pm between NBC and ABC. With CBS in the mix at 10pm, ABC's 20/20 special had a clear advantage with a 2.3 demo rating.
In the battle of the dueling Jackson/Fawcett specials it was a tie in the 18-49 demo at 9pm between the Michael Jackson specials on Dateline (NBC) and 20/20 (ABC). At 10pm, the ABC 20/20 special on Farrah Fawcett was the winner with a 2.3 rating, as the NBC Dateline Fawcett special, and the CBS Jackson special trailed.
Edits: Since the actual schedules diverted from the planned schedules by so much last night, I am making ongoing changes to the post during the day today as I receive corrections.
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight 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 | FOX | Bones (repeat) | 1.4 | 5 | 1.1 | 4 | 4.561 |
| NBC | 30 Rock The Office (repeat) | 1.1 | 4 | 1.0 | 4 | 3.134 | |
| CBS | Criminal Minds The Mentalist (repeat) | 1.1 | 4 | 0.7 | 3 | 6.618 | |
| ABC | Samantha Who? | 1.0 | 4 | 0.7 | 3 | 3.729 | |
| CW | Smallville (repeat) | 0.5 | 2 | 0.6 | 3 | 1.468 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | The Office (repeat) | 1.3 | 4 | 1.2 | 4 | 2.973 |
| ABC | In the Motherhood | 0.7 | 2 | 0.5 | 2 | 2.692 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | So You Think You Can Dance | 2.5 | 7 | 2.4 | 8 | 6.862 |
| NBC | Dateline: Michael Jackson & Fawcett | 1.7 | 5 | 1.3 | 4 | 5.245 | |
| ABC | 20/20: Michael Jackson & Fawcett | 1.7 | 5 | 1.1 | 4 | 5.711 | |
| CBS | CSI (repeat) | 1.6 | 5 | 1.0 | 3 | 8.505 | |
| CW | Supernatural (repeat) | 0.4 | 1 | 0.5 | 2 | 1.105 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | 20/20: Jackson & Farrah Fawcett | 2.3 | 7 | 1.3 | 4 | 8.230 |
| CBS | Special: Jackson | 2.0 | 6 | 1.3 | 4 | 7.566 | |
| NBC | Dateline: Jackson & Farrah Fawcett | 1.6 | 5 | 0.9 | 3 | 5.826 |
-
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.
