Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for FOX (NASCAR racing) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: Rating/Share | 2.5/8 | 1.2/4 | 1.1/3 | 1.0/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 7.51 | 3.75 | 5.83 | 4.17 |
FOX easily won Saturday night with two hours of NASCAR racing, more than doubling its nearest competition with adults 18-49.
via Marc Berman:
NASCAR 2010
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.74 million (#1), A18-49: 2.1/ 7 (#1)
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 7.89 million (#1), A18-49: 2.6/ 8 (#1)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 7.48 million (#1), A18-49: 2.4/ 7 (#1)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 7.93 million (#1), A18-49: 2.6/ 8 (#1)
Movie: Front of the Class (R)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 4.91 million (#2), A18-49: 0.9/ 3 (#2t)
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 5.27 million (#2), A18-49: 1.0/ 3 (#3)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.01 million (#2), A18-49: 1.2/ 4 (#2t)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.42 million (#2), A18-49: 1.3/ 4 (#2t)
Details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Sh | Viewers (Millons) |
| 8:00 | FOX | NASCAR Budweiser Shootout (8p-10p) | 2.5/8 | 7.51 |
| ABC | Movie: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (R) 8p-11p | 1.2/4 | 3.75 | |
| CBS | Movie: Front of the Class (R) 8p-10p | 1.1/4 | 5.65 | |
| NBC | Mercy (R) | 0.5/2 | 2.52 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | Law & Order (R) | 0.9/3 | 4.28 |
| 10:00 | CBS | 48 Hours Mystery | 1.2/4 | 6.18 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (R) | 1.4/4 | 5.71 |
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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source: Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
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.
“Front Of The Class” was the best TV Movie I have seen in a long time.
well it is true no one cares about nascar. i wish they had americas most wanted
Patrice, I agree. I had missed FRONT OF THE CLASS the first time, and was glad CBS re-aired it. Really fine movie. CBS clearly knew it would appeal to an older crowd, so kudos to them for re-showing it.
While I hate Nascar, I have to acknowledge it’s extremely popular. People just lap it up. And more women like it than what I ever expected. Go figure.
So much for the “snowed-in = higher ratings” theory.
NASCAR and the NFL are probably the two most popular sports in the US right now. With the Daytona 500 (NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl, if you will) coming up on Valentine’s Day, I’m guessing the ratings for that particular event will be a fair bit higher than the Bud Shootout, especially since it will be a day-time broadcast (mostly, depends on how late the race runs and how many wrecks it has, especially red flags, where the racing is stopped to clean up the track). Sports fans for these sports have to be going bonkers right now with the Super Bowl today and NASCAR’s Crown Jewel next week AND Valentine’s Day dates for couples who love car races quite probably involved.
Out of curiosity, JR Herbaugh, the snowed-in = higher ratings theory, did you have a specific show in mind or just the ratings in general for the night?
J.R.,
The numbers actually do bear out the theory. A couple of big caveats though:
1.) I haven’t seen the HUT/PUT levels (gives the big picture of viewing across broadcast and cable — the broadcast gains could have been at the expense of cable).
2.) I didn’t weight based on FOX having one fewer hour. But if I add up the four networks above 18-49 rating they are 26% greater than last Saturday (5.8 vs. 4.6). Friday night ~17% (7.7 vs. 6.6).
3.) FOX alone counted for half the Saturday increase (2.5 vs. 1.9). Some of that is surely NASCAR rather than snow related.
Nightstar, in general. The broadcast viewership and ratings are barely higher this week than last week, which didn’t have Harry Potter or nascar.
how is 26 percent barely higher (even if it is more like 21% if you weight it).
Pathetic either way? Sure. But more than barely higher (edit: at least w/18-49).
Wow, saturdays are a wasteland…but you knew that.
FOX Inches Ahead of CBS in February Sweep A18-49s
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
With NAScar powering it along, FOX slipped ahead of CBS last night in A18-49 leadership after three nights of the February Sweep, although CBS has retained its lead in P2+ viewership.
Comparables are to last years February Sweep which was conducted in March 2009 due to the nationwide conversion to DTV.
A18-49 net- A18-49 A18-49 % nights won
Rank work 2010 2009 chg 2010 2009
1 FOX 2.33 3.07 -24% 1 2
2 CBS 2.07 2.67 -23% 1 1
3 ABC 1.97 1.40 40% 1 0
4 UNI# 1.80 1.43 26% 0 0
5 NBC 1.53 1.83 -16% 0 0
6 CW 1.35 0.80 69% 0 0
nr MNT& nr 0.60 na 0 0
T total 11.05 11.80 -6% 3 3
P2+ net- P2+ P2+ % nights won
rank work 2010 2009 chg 2010 2009
1 CBS 9.125 11.187 -18% 2 2
2 FOX 7.116 8.230 -14% 1 1
3 ABC 6.316 5.130 23% 0 0
4 NBC 4.970 5.117 -3% 0 0
5 UNI# 4.317 3.511 23% 0 0
6 CW 2.976 1.910 56% 0 0
nr MNT& nr 2.000 na 0 0
T total 34.82 37.08 -6% 3 3
# – Univision numbers reported for first night only.
& – MyNetworkTV numbers will be reported on a week-delay basis.
Beyond the universal sense, 1.2 is “barely” when tens of millions of people have nowhere to go and still don’t watch, and 24 hours later, one program will be getting a rating higher than 40.2.
your estimate about 10s of millions of people not having anywhere to go seems way too high. If you add up DC, Baltimore and Philly markets that’s only around 7 million homes.
I’d agree, in an absolute sense 1.2 adults 18-49 is a blip, but it’s not like 30 million people who normally would’ve been out were stuck at home either.
Should I be disturbed about the fact that a REPEAT of L&O on *SATURDAY* does better than Jay Leno most of the week….?
CBS got another good number from its ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’ encore presentation of FRONT OF THE CLASS last night.
I’m pretty sure Hallmark agreed to four-wall CBS over the past two Saturdays in an effort to juice their sale of greeting cards for St. Valentine’s Day, however, CBS must be pleased that ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’ encores have outrated every Crimetime encore series this season:
CBS Saturday Night Encores
Series A18-49 avg. P2+ avg.
Ranking on A18-49 Demographic
*****************************
1. Criminal Minds 1.25 5,998,000 (4 airings)
2. Hallmark Hall of Fame 1.05 6,505,000 (2 airings)
2. NCIS 1.05 5,780,000 (2 airings)
4. The Mentalist 1.00 5,230,000 (1 airing)
5. CSI: Miami 0.95 4,935,000 (2 airings)
6. NCIS: Los Angeles 0.90 4,120,000 (1 airing)
7. CSI: New York 0.85 5,080,000 (2 airings)
7. Medium 0.85 3,400,000 (2 airings)
9. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation 0.83 4,400,000 (3 airings)
10. The Good Wife 0.75 4,435,000 (2 airings)
11. Three Rivers 0.70 3,460,000 (1 airing)
12. Numbers 0.50 2,810,000 (1 airing)
13. Ghost Whisperer 0.50 2,810,000 (1 airing)
Given ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’s stellar performance versus CBS’s highly recognizable crime procedural franchises, the programmers at the Eye might be tempted to conserve their crimetime encores to fill other holes during the week and give Saturdays 8-10 pm over to ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’ for their top-notch, wonderfully produced telemovies.
Over time, this could help CBS anchor its dominance of Saturday nights in P2+ viewers, and make it a solid number two in A18-49s to the FOX crime reality skeins.
Addendum to post above:
End of sentence of paragraph 2 should read “CBS must be pleased that ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’ encores have outrated every Crimetime encore series this season save for the suddenly hot ‘Criminal Minds’”.
In addition how many of the “snowed in” had no electricity? Wouldn’t do anybody any good if the TV didn’t work.
If that was 26% of the audience watching the networks 74% should have been watching something else, right?
At our house we watched a DVD and then the end of Harry Potter.
Lynn, no the 26% was increase to 18-49 rating for the four networks above last night versus a week ago.
At least with adults 18-49, in round numbers those four networks combined for an 18 share in prime time, so 82% of the 18-49 year olds who were watching TV were watching something besides those networks (Cable, Spanish language broadcasters like Univision, local independts and/or MNT/ION affiliates, PBS, etc).
How about that Kevin Harvick!!!! Way to go Kevin!! Huge Harvick fan here. When he gets a Top Ten (at least), I put in this piece of music and make my cats dance to it. I also have my cats dance to “On Iowa” after a big Iowa win or “Chargers Fight Song” after a Bolt win.
Entertaining race.
I was a little surprised there was not some Super Bowl special on CBS or NBC having some Olympic related sports special. Last night would have been a good night perhaps for NBC to have a two hour special previewing the Olympics, the venues, and who is on the U.S. team and our chances. Would have been pretty good. Now, if only Dick Ebersol (my TV hero) or Jeff Zucker would have thought of that.