Because of the live Presidential press conference, the fast affiliate results for ABC, NBC and CBS are all approximate and subject to more than typical revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.8/9 | 1.8/6 | 1.7/5 | 1.3/4 | 1.2/4 | 0.5/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.9/10 | 1.4/5 | 1.1/4 | 1.5/5 | 0.7/3 | 0.6/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 7.32 | 5.29 | 7.39 | 3.18 | 5.95 | 1.17 |
As ABC, NBC and CBS covered the Presidential Press Conference, Fox's regular So You Think You Can Dance cruised to an easy win in the adults 18-49 demo, far ahead of the competition.
Comparing the fast affiliate numbers for a live event is a bit tricky, but last night's press conference drew 16.487 million on ABC, CBS and NBC compared to 18.81 million for the same 3 networks on April 29. Univision didn't carry last night's press conference, while they did carry the one on April 29.
In a continued push for congressional support of health care reform President Obama held his fourth prime time press conference on Wednesday July 22, 2009. The conference was carried live from 8:00PM to approximately 9:00PM on 11 networks. The sum of average audience for those networks was 24,682,519 viewers and had a combined household rating of 16.3. The networks carrying the press conference were ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision*, Telemundo*, BBC-A, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.
via Nielsen Wire.
Fox and So You Think You Can Dance was up 0.2 rating points in the adults 18-49 demo (2.8 vs. 2.6) from last week, likely getting a benefit from viewers shifting away from the press conference.
With the live press conference and because of how these fast affiliate ratings are gathered, I hesitate to comment on the ratings of any of the ABC, NBC and CBS shows that followed the press conference because their results are likely to be adjusted to the point where my comments would be silly (not that they aren't liable to be that anyway!).
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
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Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 8:00 | FOX | So You Think You Can Dance? | 2.8 | 10 | 2.8 | 11 | 7.293 |
| ABC | Presidential Press Conference | 1.5 | 5 | 1.1 | 4 | 5.834 | |
| NBC | Presidential Press Conference | 1.4 | 5 | 1.0 | 4 | 6.375 | |
| CBS | Presidential Press Conference | 0.9 | 3 | 0.4 | 2 | 4.278 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model (repeat) | 0.5 | 2 | 0.5 | 2 | 1.226 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | So You Think You Can Dance? | 2.9 | 8 | 3.0 | 10 | 7.340 |
| NBC | America's Got Talent | 2.5 | 7 | 1.6 | 5 | 11.051 | |
| ABC | Wipeout | 2.4 | 7 | 2.0 | 7 | 6.181 | |
| CBS | Criminal Minds (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 | 6.387 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model (repeat) | 0.5 | 1 | 0.6 | 2 | 1.111 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | I Survived A Japanese Game Show | 1.4 | 4 | 1.0 | 4 | 3.843 |
| CBS | CSI: NY (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 0.9 | 3 | 7.200 | |
| NBC | The Philanthropist | 1.1 | 3 | 0.7 | 3 | 4.737 |
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Here is the 8pm portion of the Overnight Ratings Table for April 29 (last Presidential press conference) for comparison:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millons) |
| 8:00 | FOX | Lie To Me | 2.4/7 | 2.1/7 | 7.88 |
| CW | America's Next Top Model | 1.8/6 | 2.1/7 | 4.00 | |
| ABC | President Obama Press Conference | 1.6/5 | 1.4/5 | 6.12 | |
| CBS | President Obama Press Conference | 1.5/5 | 0.9/3 | 6.01 | |
| NBC | President Obama Press Conference | 1.6/5 | 1.1/4 | 6.68 | |
| UNI | Conferencia de Prensa: Barack Obama | 1.3/4 | 1.3/4 | 3.224 | |
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For reference here are the final combined average viewerships (broadcast+cable) for the previous Presidential Press conferences:
Feb: 9: 49.5 million
March 24: 40.4 million
April 29: 28.8 million
We will likely see cable network and combined viewership numbers for last night's press conference later today.
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Shows are sorted by Adults 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 guess it isnt surprising that FOX won the night, the combined viewers for the Obama press conference was high but dont go by combined results and each individual network’s ratings were generally low. America’s Got Talent looks good, too bad NBC doesnt have room for it in the fall.
The NBC should have used AGT at 8. Summer numbers are so depressing. Btw Bill, I saw the quote you had in a CNN article.
It will be interesting to see the final numbers for America’s Got Talent, which featured an interview with Britain’s Susan Boyle.
They gave her 20 minutes!
By the way, it’s great to see The Philanthropist at the bottom. What crap of a show.
CNN? I haven’t talked to anyone from CNN lately. Did it originally come from a NY Post article?
“After Elton”
Ah yes, that makes sense. I didn’t have time to look at the log this morning
Those repeat numbers for Lie to Me seem pretty good. Any idea if Fox is happy with this?
Looks like no one gave a crap about what Susan Boyle had to say, they should’ve made her sing, but they probably will in one of the final episodes.
Misleading title…
More PEOPLE watched the president than MORONS watched So you think you can Dance…
Kathy, those Lie To Me numbers are from April 29. I have made some changes to the post/table to make things less confusing.
@Eric:
Misleading comment…
FOX won the night. Period.
Thanks, Bill. I watched last week’s Rescue Me on DVR so I wasn’t exactly aware of what was on TV last night. Didn’t even realize that the President was making yet another press conference.
Not airing the president’s press conference works for Fox because they’re the only ones doing it. If other networks started not airing the press conference, then it would concentrate the people who want to view it on the remaining networks.
Regardless, they don’t even sell advertising during the press conference anyway, do they? I’ve never seen the president pause for a commercial break, at least.
TSA, no TV advertising is sold during press conferences.
Hardly surprising really.
I like I Survived/Japanese Games Show, so I’m sad to see it going down the hill! I also watched Wipeout last night with my mom, she is a big fan of the show. I am not so much.
Its weird becuase ABC puts promos for their fall shows during like BOT and Scrubs, but not as many during WIPEOUT. You’d think they would since more people watch it.
ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!
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IT WAS PITCHED TO ABC STUDIOS AS “GREY’S ANATOMY IN SPACE”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I think I’m done with The Philanthropist. During last week’s promo they made it seem like Jesse L. Martin’s character was going to die, but he didn’t. What a crock. Do they really think audiences in this day and age are going to stand for that crap? I’ve also come to the realization that Neve Campbell’s character is a bitch.
Bill, I was wondering if you’ve seen any press releases about the numbers the british open got this past weekend.
Thanks
Does anyone have numbers for TNT”s shows Leverage and Dark blue?