Season To Date Ratings
While it didn't get a gift of a seventh game, Fox can certainly be happy with the boost it got from the World Series. The final games provided another youth demo winning week for Fox (through November 8, 2009) and stretched Fox's lead in adults 18-49 and 18-34 for the season, and put it ahead of ABC, at least briefly for average viewership. CBS is well ahead average viewership and is likely to stay there for the rest of the season. CBS' lead in adults 25-54 will certainly continue until the spring, when American Idol fueled Fox will challenge it.
You can see past week's broadcast network primetime season to date average TV ratings results here.
Ratings Increase / Decrease: 2009-10 Season vs. 2008-9 Season
Fox continues to be the only English broadcast network up in all categories vs. last season. While they were certainly helped by a big improvement in the World Series numbers, they were well ahead before the baseball playoffs began. The CW is ahead vs. last season in adults 18-34, but they should be well ahead of last season across the board considering their automatic boost to their seasonal ratings averages just by dumping Sunday nights. Compared to last season, the CW's current situation is a disappointment.
ABC and NBC continue to have about the same relative declines vs. last season, but the Leno rage at NBC keeps the press focused on them. It's like a "Get Out Of Ratings Jail Free" card for ABC!
Each rating point is a percentage of the US TV population in that demographic group and equals: 2.90 million viewers, 1.32 million adults 18-49, 0.68 million adults 18-34 and 1.24 million adults 25-54.
Sadly, we will no longer be having a Tiny Network Showdown! since MyNetworkTV ratings averages are no longer being reported by Nielsen, since they are no longer classed as a network but are now a “programming service”. And we are no longer seeing Univision season to date averages for last season, so I cannot do a comparison.
Note that the chart includes RATINGS not VIEWERSHIP as was typical in our weekly network ratings posts prior to July, 2009.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Wow, the CW didn’t fall much, and even got a boost in the 18-34. I guess it’s good for them.
I’ve seen three excuses for ABC so far: the decline of the three hours of “Dancing,” a lack of sports, and a 1% decline in coverage. ABC has an incoherent schedule, too many shows, and no replacement for “Lost.” Factor out Leno, and ABC’s numbers may look worse that NBC’s.
J.R. Dancing is a big reason, when 3/22 of your schedule gets hit, its hard to recover from it. I’m not so sure what’s going on with the 1% coverage drop (it’s still being looked at), but that smacks of ABC blame shifting.