Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for FOX (AllState Sugar Bowl) and ABC (Rose Bowl) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 4.6/12 | 2.1/6 | 1.0/3 | 0.9/3 | 0.5/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 14.35 | 7.16 | 4.70 | 3.37 | 1.24 |
FOX easily won the night with the All-State Sugar Bowl even though Florida won in a blowout. But 2.5 hours of New Years Bowl Game was still the best thing going on primetime. Earlier, the last half hour of the Rose Bowl on ABC was the most-watched half hour of the night.
But people changed over to the Sugar Bowl quickly and even with the big Rose Bowl lead-in of 19.95 million viewers and a 5.8/16 rating/share with adults 18-49 , Better Off Ted could manage no better than 5.62 million and a 1.7/5 with adults 18-49. By the time a new episode of Scrubs rolled around it was down to 3.53 million and a 1.2/3 with adults 18-49. Due to the start-times for Better Off Ted (and Scrubs) being at least a few minutes past the half hour, the numbers will likely be adjusted down.
On the plus side for ABC, an encore airing of 20/20 that focused on the true story behind the movie "The Blind Side" performed very well at 10pm for a repeat.
The preliminary 5.1/14 adults 18-49 rating and 16.05 million viewers for the Sugar Bowl were a significant improvement versus last year's Sugar Bowl (Utah vs. Alabama on 1/2/09) which averaged a 4.0/11 and 12.57 million
Details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millons) |
| 8:00 | ABC | Rose Bowl: Ohio St. vs. Oregon | 5.8/16 | 19.95 |
| FOX | Sugar Bowl Pregame | 1.8/5 | 5.86 | |
| CBS | Ghost Whisperer (R) | 1.0/3 | 4.51 | |
| NBC | The Biggest Loser (R) 8p-10p | 0.9/3 | 3.38 | |
| CW | Smallville x2 8p-10p (R) | 0.5/1 | 1.24 | |
| 8:30 | FOX | Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Florida | 5.1/14 | 15.95 |
| ABC | Better Off Ted | 1.7/5 | 5.62 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Florida | 5.8/16 | 18.46 |
| ABC | Scrubs | 1.2/3 | 3.53 | |
| CBS | Medium (R) | 1.0/3 | 4.68 | |
| 9:30 | FOX | Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Florida | 5.5/14 | 17.38 |
| ABC | Better Off Ted (R) | 0.9/2 | 2.74 | |
| 10:00 | FOX | Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Florida | 5.2/14 | 16.16 |
| ABC | 20/20 (R) | 1.6/5 | 5.57 | |
| NBC | The Jay Leno Show (R) | 1.0/3 | 3.36 | |
| CBS | Numb3rs (R) | 0.9/2 | 4.91 | |
| 10:30 | FOX | Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Florida | 4.1/11 | 12.29 |
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Ratings data via Marc Berman's PI forums.
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.
Ugh… Ghost Whisperer is the worst performing show on CBS last night…
Yay FOX wins =) Finally
David: 1.) it was a repeat against the end of the Rose Bowl and the start of the Sugar Bowl. also, 2.) Numb3rs performed worse where it mattered (adults 18-49).
Excuse the pun but it’s true… Ted would be better off dead. People just flee it whenever they smell it. Scrubs too!
Repeat after me, David: Total viewers do not matter. (And neither do repeats, really.)
I can’t believe BOT couldn’t keep anymore of its lead-in than that. The 15 min break down will be fascinating if Travis Yanan posts it.
I knew Better Off Ted wouldnt do well because after the game ended there were 5 minutes of commercials before it started and after the game viewers would switch over to watch the other game on FOX. also the fact ABC barely promoted them being on.
smallville had higher repeat #’s than any other cw show this weak even with extremely harsh competition from the rose and sugar bowls, plus it had 2 hrs. to keep that rating while other cw shows had an hour and could only keep a .3-.4 even vampire diaries got a .4 yesterday.
GO SMALLVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Series high for Better Off Ted
If I recall correctly, the new episode of Better Off Ted didn’t start until roughly 8:40PM or so on the East Coast.
So, Mr. Seidman, you made a big deal out of the fact that Leno beat Eastwick earlier in the week, declaring that it was a tough morning for “Leno Ragers.” But now that he lost to a repeat of 20/20, and also to a Numbers repeat (in terms of overall viewers, and barely beat it in the demo), why don’t you say, “Boo-hoo, it must be a tough morning for the Leno Lovers.” Fair is fair, after all. You and Gorman keep mocking “Leno Ragers,” but you both seem intent on shamelessly kissing Leno’s rear end.
I would have thought that BOT would have done better than it did. Last night’s episode was probably one of the best of the series. But a 1.7 after a 5.8 leadin is just pathetic, and I bet it goes down in the finals. Looks like ABC made a good call to burn off the episodes in January.
Stacy, Leno was a repeat, too. It’s remarkable for a Leno repeat to beat a new episode of something, but it’s completely unremarkable for a Leno repeat to lose to anything.
@ Stacy, Leno DID beat Numb3rs not by much but a win is a win. And the fact that it beat anything on CBS when it’s a repeat itself is a good thing for NBC. Sounds to me that you’re just bitter over a repeat of Leno beating a new Eastwick.
Stacy, a Leno REPEAT beat a NEW Eastwick episode. That a Leno repeat lost to a 20/20 repeat(and BEAT a Numb3rs repeat where it mattered) isn’t interesting.
That said, I should’ve heaped more praise on the 20/20 “The Blind Side” episode repeating so well.
really it makes sense that the rose bowl wouldn’t help much. I imagine most of its audience would tune into the sugar bowl right afterwards, not stick around for a doomed comedy.
That is a good point johnthemon.
Another thing is that Better Off Ted didnt air on the west coast after the game.
ABC’s lineup last night is reminiscent of typical fall Sundays on CBS with football overrun messing up the entire schedule:
8:30 – Rose Bowl/Better off Ted
9:00 – Better off Ted/Scrubs
9:30 – Scrubs/Better off Ted (R)
10:00 – Better off Ted (R)/ 20/20(R)
I’m not surprised the 8:30 episode of BOT did lousy with 5 minutes of post-game coverage + 5 minutes of commercials. I imagine it will get around a 1.1-1.4 in the finals when those 10 minutes are taken away.
Wow Nicki, that makes me wonder why you visit his website since you seem to dislike him so much.
“Nicki” is also “Joe”, but that was his/her first post as “Nicki”. He/She is a frequent commenter about how wrong we are. I’m happy to let his/her comments stand on their own and to let folks judge who’s wrong.