TV Ratings Tuesday: Biggest Loser Finale Wins Large; Leno Bulks Up; Ted Premiere Weak

Scoreboard
Adults 18-49: Rating/Share	4.3/12	2.4/6	2.4/6	2.4/6	1.4/4	0.8/2
Adults 18-34: Rating/Share	3.5/10	2.4/7	2.0/6	1.4/4	1.5/4	1.0/3
Total Viewers (million)	11.754	6.227	6.888	12.115	3.750	1.603

The season finale of The Biggest Loser crushed the competition early, and The Jay Leno Show had its biggest night in months (since Wednesday, September 16), as NBC won Tuesday easily. The premiere of ABC's Better Off Ted was (predictably) weak with just a 1.5 rating.
One interesting observation, this weeks repeat of the forgotten did better than last week's new episode.

And what exactly did ABC expect with Better Off Ted? It did badly last spring, it did terribly (even adjusting for the season) this summer. It's a ratings dog.

The Biggest Loser finale was up 9% from its fall 2008 finale (up 6% from its spring 2009 finale) to an overall 5.0 adults 18-49 rating. That was the show's best 18-49 rating in 4 years.

The Jay Leno Show's two half hours were a 3.2 rating and a 2.6 rating. Even that last half hour is above his best rating in months. There was a one minute overrun from Biggest Loser in the Leno ratings, a drop in the final ratings should be expected.

NBC's nightly 18-49 average was the best for any network on a Tuesday this season.

Fox's So You Think You Can Dance was up 9% from last week to a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating.

ABC's Charlie Brown Christmas special's 3.7 adults 18-49 rating was the same as its telecast last year, and ABC has to be pleases with the 4.1 rating for its new Disney's Prep & Landing. Scrubs rose 15% from last week to a 2.3 rating. Better Off Ted was down 12% from its last new episode in April.

CW's 90210 was down 13% to a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating, and Melrose Place was flat vs. last week with a 0.7 adults 18-49 rating.

While we have gotten away from reporting individual Univision show ratings because of relative lack of reader interest, here's a little PR blurb from them today:

Univision beat the CW in both 18-49 and 18-34 all night!

Some other highlights:
· 9:00pm (whole hour) – Sortilegio beat CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles (repeat) in 18-34
· 9:30pm – Univision’s Sortilegio beat ABC’s premiere of Better Off Ted in both 18-49 and 18-34
· 10:00pm – Univision’s Aqui y Ahora tied ABC’s Forgotten (repeat) in both 18-49 and 18-34

In Late-Night Local People Meters Tuesday night:

• Conan O'Brien (1.0 rating/4 share in 18-49 in local people meters) tied CBS's Late Show (1.0/4) in Nielsen's 24 local markets with People Meters.
• At 12:35 a.m., Jimmy Fallon (0.6/4 in 18-49 in local people meters) tied CBS's original Late Late Show (0.6/4).

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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.

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.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.