Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for CBS (NCAA Basketball) 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 | 3.4/11 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.0/3 | 0.5/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 9.60 | 6.79 | 4.05 | 5.08 | 1.16 |
No surprises, the NCAA men's college basketball tournament led the night. NBC and FOX tied for second with adults 18-49 though NBC had the edge in viewers. NBC continues to get good ratings performance from Who Do You Think You Are? How long before they think, "Hey, you know, even on a Friday it performs better than Trauma or Mercy. Hmmmmm."
Or perhaps NBC is too scared off by Hollywood zealots who demand more scripted programming in primetime -- even if its for shows whose ratings suck -- to swap out an hour of scripted content for unscripted content between Monday and Thursday. But for a Friday, and considering its NBC, Who Do You Think You Are? look pretty good.
The recently renewed Kitchen Nightmares is cooking for FOX. Its 1.9 rating with adults 18-49 was the best rating for the night outside of the college basketball.
Details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Shr | Viewers (Millions) |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament | 3.0/11 | 8.75 |
| NBC | Who Do You Think You Are | 1.7/7 | 7.14 | |
| FOX | House (R) | 1.2/4 | 3.73 | |
| ABC | Thin Ice (Part 1) | 0.6/2 | 4.06 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model (R) 8p-9:30p | 0.5/2 | 1.33 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament | 3.9/13 | 11.09 |
| FOX | Kitchen Nightmares | 1.9/6 | 4.38 | |
| NBC | Dateline | 1.3/4 | 6.26 | |
| ABC | 20/20 | 0.9/3 | 4.88 | |
| CW | High Society (R) | 0.3/1 | 0.63 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament | 3.2/10 | 8.96 |
| NBC | Dateline | 1.6/5 | 6.98 | |
| ABC | 20/20 | 1.5/5 | 6.32 |
=
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.
I could see NBC putting Who… and/or Ref on Monday-Thursday next season, but I could also see them using them with Dateline to cover Fridays so they could concentrate on the rest of the week. Either way though, those two are coming back (leaving NBC with only 6 hours to fill)
I watched “Who do You Think You Are.” It isn't a huge thing, but it's a nice program about family, history and connections. Whether this series survives long in the scheme of things, it's kinder than some of the darker crime dramas and news magazine shows that I have had to endure, recently.
Holly, my guess is that no broadcast network has the stones to put unscripted shows at 10pm Mon-Thu next fall fearing the cries of the creatives, but that Friday will be completely unscripted for ABC, Fox and NBC.
they should move Who do you think you are to Mondays or wed — if it can pull in those ratings on a friday, it certainly can do great numbers on a better night.
I agree. The question is, will Ref or Who.. get an 8:00 or 9:00 slot somewhere with a new “unscripted” show (or Minute to Win It) making an appearance on Friday. If I were NBC, I'd probably avoid premiering any new unscripted shows next fall just for PR reasons, but I'm not NBC, so…
@jake23r,
Maybe, maybe not. L&O was getting those ratings on Fridays, but is doing worse on Monday…M-Th may have higher HUT levels, but they also have stronger competition.
Who do You Think You Are will be canceled eventually.
I am VERY happy with the picture you chose to accompany this story! GO BEARS!!!
I agree. It's not a slam dunk that it would do better, or even as well on another night.
Who Do You Think You Are? is very consistent.
Wow, I knew men's basketball was gonna be better than the usual CBS Friday night line-up, but double?! Wow!
NBC should keep these reality shows where they are. They're the only network that only has four days of scripted programming, they should at least leave Monday-Thursday for scripted stuff, plus TBL and Marriage Ref.
leaving NBC with only 6 hours to fill
Would that be with Heroes, Mercy and Trauma canceled?
If so, they could pick up 5 new dramas and 2 new comedies for a comedy block Jr.
That's not counting Heroes, Trauma, Parenthood, Mercy, or Chuck. And not counting Saturdays as hours to fill.
I keep thinking NBC is not going to do much this season because of comcast and might just wait until they actually take control which means some of these shows might be back.
Rather than have WDYTYA? And Marriage Ref on Friday, I think NBC would be much more willing to keep Who? At 8, and possibly move Minute to 9, keeping Marriage on Thursdays. They have GOT to be wondering wether to try a new show there or keep Marriage Ref where it is and not mess with mild success.
I agree, Marriage Ref is doing decent where it is, I doubt NBC wants to mess with it unless it shows signs of significant decline by the end of the season. And with everything else that needs fixing Monday-Thursday they'd probably be better off leaving it there.
NBC isn't going to mess with their schedule too much. I think they need a bit of stability. The Marriage Ref will stay put on Thurs with the comedy block. Chuck will stay on Mon I'd guess. Now they might move Parenthood because it's not really a 10:00 PM show but that's it for anything I'd venture to guess.New shows on Mon, maybe Tues, and Wed.
Who Do You Think You Are? has become a nice quiet success for NBC which doesn't particularly surprise me as the same thing happened with the format for the BBC where it slowly but surely grew into a much bigger success. The format is a surprisingly good one because on paper it sounds pretty horrible. It'll be interesting to see if this is where it tops out or whether it can mirror the success in the UK and grow into something bigger. I'm also keen to see whether NBC thinks this is a format that can sustain a full 20+ season order or whether they keep it with relatively short season orders. When it comes to the subject of where to put, its working very well for them on Friday so let it stay there and see what happens.
I'm also wondering where Holly is getting NBC's six-hour of spots from. Right now I have them with four or five hours in the fall and I think they might also have the entire Sunday night block to play with depending on how they're planning to play out this Apprentice relaunch.
It seems like Friday nights are NBC's only real success story this season. It would be ideal for them next season to do this:
8pm: Who Do You Think You Are?/The Marriage Ref
9pm: Law & Order
10pm: Dateline
I'm also wondering where Holly is getting NBC's six-hour of spots from.
They have 19 hours overall, not counting Saturdays.
4 taken by football
2 by Biggest Loser
2 by the Thursday comedies
2 by the L&Os (which are likely renewals based on statements from Bromstad)
1 each by Dateline, Who…, and Ref
That makes 13 hours taken, 6 left.
I was figuring Apprentice as midseason as it has been for the last couple of years.