TV Ratings: CBS Wins; The Big Bang Theory Hits Highs Fringe Pummels Heroes

Scoreboard
Adults 18-49: Rating/Share	4.2/11	3.7/9	3.3/9	2.1/5	1.5/4	0.4/1
Adults 18-34: Rating/Share	3.3/9	3.1/9	2.9/8	1.8/5	1.6/5	0.5/1
Total Viewers (million)	13.13	10.01	10.17	5.61	4.09	.98

Led by its comedies (well, at least three out of four of them) CBS won the night with adults 18-49, and easily with total viewers.  The Big Bang Theory hit series highs both with adults 18-49 and total viewers, and the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother pulled its best numbers since last spring.

Two and a Half Men had its best 18-49 performance since last February and its best average audience numbers since December 2008.

FOX came in second topped by House and a special airing of Fringe that destroyed Heroes in head-to-head competition.  It was Heroes lowest-rated telecast ever.

The special Monday episode of Fringe performed about the same out of House as the typical episode of Lie To Me has done.  Though it's not necessarily an either or situation, odds seem long that both shows will come back and so it will be interesting to continue keeping an eye on how Fringe is doing on Thursdays.  Lie To Me is off the schedule for a while due to the return of 24.

With a strong lead-in from The Bachelor (which was up over 9% with adults 18-49) Castle improved its 18-49 average versus its last original airing by 24%.

Here's what NBC PR had to say about Chuck:

• At 8 p.m. ET, the regular-slot season premiere of “Chuck” (2.6 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall) scored the show's highest regular-slot results in 18-49 and total viewers since the special 3-D telecast on February 2, 2009, the night after the Super Bowl. It was also the biggest total-viewer average for NBC in this time period with regular programming since that February 2 "Chuck."  In a time slot that last night included competition from Fox's "House," ABC's "The Bachelor" and CBS's comedies, "Chuck" generated growth from its first half-hour to its second of 8 percent in adults 18-49 (to a 2.7 from a 2.5) and 16 percent in adults 18-34 (2.2 vs. 1.9).

• Compared with NBC's average in the time-period last season, last night's "Chuck" is up 18 percent in 18-49 rating (2.6 vs. 2.2, live plus same day) and up 14% in total viewers (7.322 million vs. 6.409 million).

Chuck got a 2.5 A18-49 rating the first half hour and a 2.7 the last half hour.

The Jay Leno Show had its best Monday in 13 weeks.  Considering its Heroes lead-in, all the PR doesn't seem bad for NBC!  Indeed, Conan edged Dave out in the late night wars with a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating vs a 1.0 for Letterman in local People Meter Markets.

Full details:

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

All numbers are Live+SD.

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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.