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TV Ratings: CBS Repeats Win Slow Tuesday; Scrubs, Ted Ratings Keep Falling

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December 23rd, 2009

Scoreboard CBS NBC Uni ABC FOX CW
Adults 18-49: Rating/Share 2.4/7 1.5/4 1.2/4 1.2/3 1.1/3 0.4/1
Adults 18-34: Rating/Share 1.3/4 1.2/4 1.3/4 1.1/4 1.0/3 0.4/1
Total Viewers (million) 12.236 4.589 3.444 4.057 4.081 0.856


On a slow Tuesday, it was the relatively strong CBS repeats that carried the night. Scrubs and Better Off Ted, the only new scripted shows on broadcast TV, were almost unwatched.

Scrubs' 1.3 adults 18-49 rating was down 28% from last week to its lowest original rating ever. Better Off Ted's 1.0 rating was down 23% from last week, also its lowest original non-summer airing ever.

The Jay Leno Show's 1.5 rating was down 17% from last week to its lowest Tuesday rating ever. Last night was probably its best chance yet to beat a CBS repeat of The Good Wife, but no dice. Maybe next week Jay!

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 rating /4 share) in Nielsen's 24 local markets with People Meters.
  • At 12:35 a.m., Jimmy Fallon (0.5/3 in 18-49 in local people meters) trailed CBS's original Late Late Show (0.6/3).
Time Net Show 18-49 Rating 18-49 Share Viewers Live+SD (million)
8:00 CBS NCIS (repeat) 2.8 9 14.882
ABC America's Funniest Home Videos (repeat) 1.4 4 5.526
NBC The Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now? (repeat) 1.3 4 4.373
FOX Carrie Underwood: Holiday Special (repeat) 1.1 4 3.964
CW 90210 (repeat) 0.5 2 1.145
8:30 CBS NCIS (repeat) 3.0 9 15.875
ABC America's Funniest Home Videos (repeat) 1.5 5 5.806
NBC The Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now? (repeat) 1.4 4 3.959
FOX Carrie Underwood: Holiday Special (repeat) 1.1 3 3.654
CW 90210 (repeat) 0.4 1 0.977
9:00 CBS NCIS:Los Angeles (repeat) 2.5 7 12.520
NBC The Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now? (repeat) 1.6 5 4.449
ABC Scrubs 1.3 4 3.548
FOX Carrie Underwood: Holiday Special (repeat) 1.2 3 4.343
CW Melrose Place (repeat) 0.3 1 0.710
9:30 CBS NCIS:Los Angeles (repeat) 2.4 7 12.139
NBC The Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now? (repeat) 1.6 5 4.408
FOX Carrie Underwood: Holiday Special (repeat) 1.2 3 4.364
ABC Better Off Ted 1.0 3 2.876
CW Melrose Place (repeat) 0.3 1 0.594
10:00 CBS The Good Wife (repeat) 1.7 5 9.271
NBC The Jay Leno Show 1.4 4 5.119
ABC Christimas At The White House: Oprah Special (repeat) 0.9 3 3.241
10:30 CBS The Good Wife (repeat) 1.7 5 8.727
NBC The Jay Leno Show 1.5 5 5.227
ABC Christimas At The White House: Oprah Special (repeat) 0.9 3 3.348

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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 ViewingProgram 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.

(225) Comments - Add Yours!

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  1. Anonymous

    Wow.
    When you DROP from an “America’s Funniest Home Video” lead-in…you really know you’re in trouble.

  2. ron

    The Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now? was a repeat

  3. Ali

    ABC, it’s time to SCRUB off, clearly you’re BETTER OFF!

  4. DuMont

    I had a fear that an encore of ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ wouldn’t provide a goodly lead-in for ‘Scrubs’/'Better Off Ted’. ABC should have used another holiday special (‘Charlie Brown’?) instead from 8-9 pm last night.

  5. ron, thanks, repeat designation added to BL special.

  6. DuMont

    That 0.3 in A18-49 for ‘Melrose Place’ ties the all-time network low currently held by original episodes of ‘Valentine’, ‘Easy Money’ and ‘CW Now’ and encores of ‘Easy Money’.

    The CW might want to consider calling their friends at MGM and reviving ‘The CW Movie’ on Tuesday and Wednesday nights until new episodes of the series are available again. ‘The CW Sunday Night Movie’ got them good numbers during last winter, spring and summer seasons.

  7. I’m surprised Leno didn’t do better. I wonder why NBC didn’t keep something up it’s sleeve… considering how well SNL Gilly Christmas did you’d think any type of non-repeat special would have won its time slot.

  8. DuMont

    Ooops.

    Retract my previous post. I was comparing the ‘Melrose Place’ A18-49 number to Household numbers for Valentine’, ‘Easy Money’ and ‘CW Now’. ‘Melrose Place’ did not tie the record last night (which is actually 0.1 in A18-49).

    My bad.

  9. rob

    DuMont, Melrose Place was a repeat and did just as bad as a repeat of One Tree Hill and Gossip girl did yesterday.

  10. timotey

    NCIS repeats extremely well – 2.9 demo and 15+ mil. viewers? Wow. NCIS:LA didn’t do bad either.

  11. Why don’t CW ever air any half hour programs? I think I remember reading at the Futon Critic that they don’t have any comedies in development.

    Is it part of their mission statement that they will only make dramas and America’s Next Top Model?

  12. battye, the conventional wisdom is that the CW scrapped its half hour comedies (The Game, Everybody Hates Chris) last season to go all one hour dramas and reality, although that’s obviously something they could reverse in any future season.

  13. Chuck Tranberg

    Leno will have to be content to beat ABC repeats since I think CBS repeats will continue to dominate.

  14. I was paying attention to hockey.

  15. Bill, thanks for explaining that :)

  16. DuMont

    The CW got rid of their comedy development department, so I’m not sure how they would go about developing a new sitcom. They could, however, pick-up an unbought comedy pilot, especially one that was already developed for and passed on by another network by either CBS-Paramount or Warner Television studios.

  17. Ron

    Wow. Those are really good numbers for a 90210 repeat.

  18. ABCHasProblems

    Those numbers for ABC are depressing when you consider that an AFV repeat is their highest-rated show of the night. Scrubs can’t even build on its repeat lead-in and Ted only got 77% retention out of Scrubs. This is my suggestion for ABC’s Tuesday night schedule for December 2010:

    8:00 – Holiday Specials
    9:00 – Holiday-themed Wipeout
    10:00 – Super Millionaire

    The holiday specials, which are mostly repeats, work fine for ABC and are usually #1 or #2 in the 8pm hour; Wipeout could be #1 or #2 in the 9pm hour depending on the competition; it’s almost a given that Super Millionaire would beat Jay Leno in the 10pm hour.

  19. S.

    Better off Ted does 1.0 and nobody says the Tuesday is a wasteland?

  20. rob

    90210 repeats pretty well for the CW.

    I will miss Better Off Ted. ABC gave it plenty of chances, more than it deserved and now that it has The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougar Town and 3 comedies for next season, ABC is definitely going to cancel it. At least we got 2 seasons of the show.

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