| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 1.3/4 | 1.3/4 | 1.0/3 | 0.7/2 | 0.3/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 4.28 | 3.81 | 4.51 | 2.52 | .92 |
NBC and ABC locked horns on Christmas night with adults 18-49, while CBS had the most total viewers. Four episodes of 'Til Death on FOX was the only original programming of the night (according to my program guide, The Jay Leno Show was a repeat) and still hardly anyone watched it. In the press releases you will never see department you can add "'Til Death Steadily climbs in last hour," even though it is true.
Update: As "Joss's Biggest Fan" notes below, indeed two hours of 'Til Death did outperform two hours of Dollhouse last week in total viewers. By more than 400,000 in the overnights (2.52 million last night vs. 2.10 million last week).
*Note, looks like there was a bit of overrun with the Cavaliers vs. Lakers NBA game on ABC which would've impacted ABC's numbers below, especially from 8p-8:30p.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millions) |
| 8:00 | ABC | Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (R) | 1.6/6 | 5.10 |
| NBC | SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas (R) | 1.2/4 | 4.61 | |
| CBS | Ghost Whisperer (R) | 0.9/3 | 3.62 | |
| FOX | Til Death | 0.7/2 | 2.51 | |
| CW | Smallville (R) | 0.4/1 | 1.06 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas (R) | 1.5/5 | 4.75 |
| ABC | Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (R) | 1.2/4 | 3.68 | |
| CBS | Ghost Whisperer (R) | 1.0/3 | 3.93 | |
| FOX | Til Death | 0.6/2 | 2.40 | |
| CW | Smallville (R) | 0.4/1 | 0.937 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas (R) | 1.4/5 | 4.61 |
| ABC | Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (R) | 1.2/4 | 3.64 | |
| CBS | Medium (R) | 1.0/3 | 4.15 | |
| FOX | Til Death | 0.7/2 | 2.43 | |
| CW | Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (R) | 0.3/1 | 0.81 | |
| 9:30 | CBS | Medium (R) | 1.2/4 | 4.81 |
| NBC | SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas (R) | 1.1/4 | 4.32 | |
| ABC | Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (R) | 1.1/4 | 3.25 | |
| FOX | Til Death | 0.8/3 | 2.74 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (R) | 1.3/4 | 3.49 |
| NBC | The Jay Leno Show (R) | 1.1/3 | 3.61 | |
| CBS | Numb3rs (R) | 1.0/3 | 5.31 | |
| 10:30 | ABC | Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (R) | 1.4/5 | 3.69 |
| CBS | Numb3rs (R) | 1.0/3 | 5.20 | |
| NBC | The Jay Leno Show (R) | 1.0/3 | 3.76 |
=
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
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 and Numbers 102.
Should have held off on the ‘Til Death marathon until Independence Day. Fools.
I was expecting 0.3 or 0.4, like so many CW repeats.
J.R., wow it doubled your expectations.
Bill, I think they still have enough episodes to do another mini-marathon on Flag Day AND have a 12 hour marathon on July 4. If FOX is as buoyed by the ratings as J.R., who knows?
Not that it matters very much, but I think you left CW out of 9:30. I’m sure there’s someone out there desperate to know how Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer did in its second half!
‘Til Death hit season highs in total viewers last night, so it turned out better than I thought it would have!
oops, sorry “Grandma” got 872K and a 0.2/1A18-49 between 9:30-10p. I guess my internal scanners are set to ignore anything below a 0.3.
Basketball had an overrun here in the Midwest. Could that be why the first half hour of Pirates is a lot higher than the subsequent half hours?
Gosh, running a movie you own can’t cost too much for Disney and they had a promotion for the third Pirates’ movie’s “NETWORK Premiere” on Monday. How many people either own that movie or have watched it 20 to 30 times on cable. It has run on at least three cable networks that I know of multiple times. Just love the hype.
How did the NBA Christmas Day games do?
Lynn, NBA overrun in the eastern and central time zones would definitely explain it. AtCat, I don’t know, we only saw the primetime results.
According to my crackshot mathematical tally, on a night not known for its great ratings, “Til Death” managed to draw an average of 19 percent more viewers than Dollhouse did last Friday!!!!!! What in the name of Joss is going on???!!
After careful consideration, I have realized the truth: this is all the work of what I call the Scrooge Effect! You see, all over the country, on Joss-mas Eve, surly old misers were visited by a series of ghosts who helped them to see the true meaning of Joss-mas! Then, the next day, after the newly happy no-longer-misers had finished their happy, happy day of Joss-mas celebrations, they settled down to watch television! And, as they now knew the true meaning of Joss-mas, they were feeling charitable and decided to watch the only new show on!
Shame on FOX for not realizing this would happen! According to the trusted voices in my head, had FOX ran with new episodes of Dollhouse, the ratings would surely have grown by 190 percent! The show would have been saved! It would have been a true Joss-mas miracle!
Dollhouse! Dollhouse! Dollhouse! Dollhouse rules! “Til Death” drools! Dollhouse! Joss bless us every one!
Plus there was an NFL game between the Chargers and Titans. I think that game did better than anything on broadcast TV on that night.
Plus why would anyone broadcast POTC 2? That movie was so confusing.
Oh and Robert if you could find ratings for the NBA Christmas games you should post them, I’m very interested in seeing those ratings.
From the homepage: “FOX had the only original programming on the broadcast networks on Christmas night with four episodes of ‘Til Death and still managed a fourth-place finish[...]”
Hilarious.
Plus why would anyone broadcast POTC 2? That movie was so confusing. -AtCat
At least Dead Man’s Chest was semi-entertaining (mostly thanks to drunk!Norrington). The third installment, on the other hand, was an abomination. That was two and a half hours of my life that I will never get back.
Do you have the soap opera ratings for the week of Dec. 14th – Dec. 18th yet?? Thanks!
i’m wondering if fox will keep death till it hits a decent number of eps. i didn’t realize it was already up to something like 50-60. it’s prob worth it. the way abc squeezed out according to jims and currently scrubs.
Tom, Fox doesn’t own Til Death. Sony has basically been giving it to them for free so it can reach syndication. It should be at close to 80 by the end of this season, I believe. Nothing has suggested that Sony will offer a similar deal again or that Fox would be willing to take it if they did.
thats not even fair for til death. dont get me wrong, i never watch it, cuz its not funny, but putting 4 episodes back to back to back to back on a friday on Christmas! NOT FAIR FOR ANY SHOW, NO MATTER HOW BAD! Fox, u have lost some respect from me, im defending a show i dont even like, and thats bad… BAD JOB BY FOX, I DO NOT APROVE!
Leno finally beat a CBS repeat!
Leno beat that stupid CBS show Numbers last night and the great thing was Leno’s show was ALSO a repeat!!
Last night’s show was so good it was worth seeing again! Jenna Bush was on and she interviewed Laura Bush! Plus they had a great standup comedian on.
And of course Leno’s monologue is always world class.
Its not hard for Leno to beat a CBS repeat on Friday but Leno will never beat a CBS repeat during the week except possibly Tuesday.