via CW press release:
9/11/09; 2:05p PDT: updated the release to the release with the final national numbers.
via CW press release:
NOTE: The final national ratings for both Vampire Diaries and SUPERNATURAL increased in certain categories from this morning’s preliminary ratings, including total viewers and women 18-34. This revised release reflects those changes.
CHICKS DIG THE VAMPIRES!
Vampire Diaries Sets Record as The CW’s Most Watched Series Premiere EVER
Vampire Diaries Hits CW’s Best Ratings in the Time Period EVER with Women;
Best in Nearly 2 Years with Adults 18-34, Adults 18-49 and Viewers
Vampire Diaries Ranks as Thursday’s #1 Show with Female Teens
Vampire Diaries Improves The Time Period Versus Year Ago and
Builds in Second Half Hour Across the Board
SUPERNATURAL Improves Over Last Year’s Season Premiere with Young Women
VAMPIRE and SUPERNATURAL Combine for CW’s Best Thursday Ever with Women;
Best Thursday in 2 ½ Years with Adults 18-34
September 11, 2009 (Burbank, CA) – The debut of The CW’s THE Vampire Diaries bared its fangs last night, and scored the network’s largest audience EVER (4.91mil) for a series premiere, topping last year’s 90210, according to Live Plus Same Day Nielsen ratings for Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009.
Taking over the lead-off position on Thursday night, THE Vampire Diaries delivered The CW's highest ratings ever in the 8-9pm time period with women 18-34 (3.1/10), women 18-49 (2.8/8), teens (2.8/11) and female teens (3.5/14). It also scored the best ratings here in adults 18-34 (2.2/8), adults 18-49 (2.1/6) and viewers (4.91mil) since Oct. 2007.
Vampire Diaries was Thursday’s #1 show (broadcast & cable) among female teens (3.5/14).
Vampire Diaries out-performed last season’s Smallville debut by 121% in women 18-34, 75% in women 18-49, 22% in adults 18-34, 17% in adults 18-49 and 13% in viewers.
Vampire Diaries built in the second half hour, growing 18% with women 18-34, 10% in adults 18-34, 13% in females 12-34, 8% in persons 12-34, 12% in women 18-49, 10% in adults 18-49 and 9% in viewers.
Competitively, THE Vampire Diaries ranked first in the 8:00-9:00p.m. hour with women 18-34, teens and female teens. The CW’s new series ranked second among adults 18-34, behind only football. THE Vampire Diaries also beat ABC and Fox in adults 18-49 and total viewers.
For its 5th season premiere, SUPERNATURAL improved over its strong premiere last year by 6% in women 18-34 (1.7/5). SUPERNATURAL also scored its best women 18-34 (1.7/5) and women 18-49 (1.7/5) ratings since Jan. 2009.
The CW’s new combination of THE Vampire Diaries and SUPERNATURAL scored the network’s best Thursday ever with women 18-34 (2.4/7) and women 18-49 (2.2/6). This marks The CW's best Thursday since March 2007 with adults 18-34 (1.8/6) and the network’s largest Thursday audience (4.2mil) since Sept. 2008.
Competitively, The CW was second on Thursday night with women 18-34 and adults 18-34. The CW did also beat ABC and Fox in adults 18-49 and viewers for the night.
Versus premiere Thursday last year, The CW is up 60% with women 18-34, 29% with women 18-49 and 6% with adults 18-34.
I usually root for the heroes in shows, but the “bad guy” vampire in this show is awesome!
CW has been really smart jumping in the Vamp love !
Everybody knows right now anything with the word Vamp in , it’s a big sucess.
It was a great pilot , we all loved it at home. We used to watch Moonlight at CBS and we missed our Vamp each week at home so so much. We are absolutely happy with this , my kids are balistic about this show, I am sure we’ll get more seasons, CW will be smart enough to keep the Vamp show. CP, I liked the “bad guy” too. LOL.
Whatever happened to Moonlight? I thought the numbers were decent for a Friday night … We were told by our local (CBS) station that the “easy-on-the-eyes” main character was going to be used by CBS for a different series. Obviously, that didn’t happen …
Kay-
Wow, you have been out of the loop! “Moonlight” was axed two years ago. And Alex will now be on CBS’s “Three Rivers” Sunday night
This press release really makes the CW’s target audience stand out. Almost all the ratings are gender specific. Take Supernatural – it’s my favorite show, and I’m a 37-year-old male. I’m not reflected in one single statistic they cite for the show.
Joseph,
I hear ya. I’m a 26 year old male and sometimes I feel like the CW doesn’t know I exist. I think I could stand next to the CW executives and they would just pretend I wasn’t there.
Joseph, that’s because Supernatural was down from last year in any demo that includes males. Can’t exactly crow about that in a press release!
SUPERNATURAL and VAMP DIARIES is the best combo…better than SPN and Smallville
Hmmm, this is great news.
I watched the show and I can see it growing on me.
I thought at first it was giving too much away, but I look forward to the intriguing development(s) of the relationship between Stefan, Damon and Elena. And what Damon could be up to, to jeopardize it!
It’s good to see it do well. And as a fan of the vampire genre in general, it’s even better.
That’s why I’m saddened to think that networks like LifeTime Tv couldn’t have kept that other decent vampire show “Blood Ties”.
“Blood Ties’” fan base was growing and still continues to (imagine the collective disappointment when the new fans to “BT” find out it’s no longer running)
(
And the vampire Henry, played by Kyle Schmid, wasn’t hard on the eyes either! ;o)
nkinsey – Yeah, the whole Vampire trend got started back up when Moonlight premiered in 2007, and then it got axed. Moonlight was actually pretty compatible with Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs until CBS picked up Medium. Now CBS has a good friday combo. Also yes, I agree Three Rivers will be axed after four episodes (after October 25) Its not so bad as to be axed sooner, but may have trouble in the 9:00 slot after 4 episodes.
Vampire Diaries is like vampires-lite. Sorry, but I didn’t like it. I don’t like Twilight either, though. Too much soap opera and not enough hardcore vampire realism for The CW’s target audience is girls–they really don’t care how many guys tune in, obviously, if you look at their lineup. As for Supernatural, there was a football game airing at the same time which would have drawn a certain amount of male fans (and female) away from the premiere. Up here in Canada, who isn’t even counted, by the way, those who don’t get the CW can watch a simulcast of the show on JoyTV and then next week watch it again on SpaceTV. These are only the American ratings, right? But Canadians also watch American programs, yet we’re just as invisible to the CW as you guys are. I feel your pain. I watch the premiere last night but I don’t exist. Creepy.
My message got garbled somehow. I meant ‘and not enough hardcore vampire realism for real vampire fans like myself.’ I should also add that it isn’t Supernatural’s fault that they’re stuck on the CW. They have a realism about the show that makes it seem more adult than Buffy or Angel ever did. The guys actually talk and act like guys, not romanticized versions of a guy. It’s kind of like putting a Quentin Tarantino film in the middle of a bunch of soap operas. Doesn’t work for me. I checked out VD but only because it was on before Supernatural. Honestly, there is nothing else on the CW that interests me except SPN. In Canada, on SpaceTV, SPN is kept company by shows like Fringe and Battlestar Galactica, which makes a whole heck of a lot more sense. The CW doesn’t care about the show–only the ratings it captures. Too bad.
Di, although it should make complete sense to everyone, no network cares any more about a show than for the “ratings it captures”.
The spirit of what Bill says is certainly true, but it may not be accurate to the letter. I’m sure CW cared last year for example, about Privileged. And I know for a fact that some execs at NBC were seriously bummed that LIFE performed so poorly.
So I think networks do “care” about shows, but the ratings they capture is what winds up dictacting how much they care in the future.
Why such an approach surprises anyone is mystifying to me. I mean if you hold three stocks and XYZ is the one you like and “care” about the most as a company, but the worst performing stock in your portfolio with no prospects for a turnaround, you get rid of the stock (and you certainly don’t buy more of it!). Nobody finds such an approach cold and heartless. It’s not really any different for networks and their shows. They are managing a portfolio….
Networks “care” about their shows to the extent that they want them to be financially successful, and certainly some may be “cared for” a bit more because of personal/critical/corporate reputation perceived to be at stake, but let’s not anthropomorphize TV shows (not implying that Robert did), they are not “cared” about in that way at all.
It’s kind of like the people who say that networks want to kill shows. A network wants every show to succeed, otherwise they are just hurting themselves.
last years 90210 premeire was 4.91 million for the first hour and 5.14 for the second hour? how is Vampire Diaries their highest audience ever? the bad news is, 90210 did strongly at the beginning of last season when it started kinda early, but once Tuesdays started to heat up when the other network launched their shows, i quickly began to sink. Vampire Diaries is up against an incredibly harsh night of shows this season, and it will be interesting to see how it holds up once the other shows start on the other networks. im predicting this will be the 90210 of the 2009-10 tv season.
“The CW’s target audience is girls–they really don’t care how many guys tune in, obviously, if you look at their lineup”
Obviously, quite the understatement from one word.
Nor am I surprised it would be more popular than Melrose Place and 90210. Both of the shows left the air when the CW’s target audience was still playing with Barbies. Twilight, of course, is recent.
I saw the trailer, apparently a much older uni-brow vampire is duking it out with brother for a teen girl… Yeah, creepy in another sense.
So year, I think the Wraith Diaries would be more appealing.
I can’t type either tonight…
I have to admit – I tuned into Vampire Diaries for two reasons…
1) Ian Somerhalder as Damon
2) I grew up reading the books and I wanted to see how much they changed the story.
I was very pleased with Ian Somerhalder. He portrayed Damon exactly how I pictured him in the books.
They not only changed the story – they butchered it! It was VERY loosely based on the books. That being said, I actually liked the show. Weird, right? After the first 10 minutes of screaming out the differences to the TV (and, by extension, my husband), I decided to consider it as a completely different art form. It worked. As long as it stays at this level (or better), I will continue to tune in.
Just thought I’d put my two cents in…