| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: Rating/Share | 5.7/16 | 3.4/10 | 3.1/9 | 2.6/7 | 1.7/5 | 0.3/1 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 4.9/16 | 2.7/9 | 2.1/7 | 1.7/5 | 2.0/6 | 0.3/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.545 | 8.603 | 15.239 | 13.205 | 3.850 | 0.676 |
With preliminary ratings identical to last week, American Idol and Glee topped the adults 18-49 ratings on Tuesday, but their margin of victory shrunk as season finales boosted much of the competition vs. last week.
On Fox, American Idol's 6.6 adults 18-49 rating was identical to last week's fast affiliate rating, as was Glee's 4.8 rating. The two shows topped every half hour from 8-10pm. Update: That 6.6 adults 18-49 rating for Idol was down 20% from last season's comparable final performance show (8.3 rating).
On ABC, the Dancing with the Stars season finale scored a 3.8 rating, that's up 52% from last week's standard results show, but down 27% from last spring's finale, and the show's lowest rated finale ever.
On CBS, the numbers were all down. The NCIS finale fell 3% from last week to a 3.2 rating, that's also down 9% from last season's finale. The NCIS:LA finale was down 13% vs. last week, to a 2.7 rating, a series low. The Good Wife finale was down 9% vs. last week to a 2.0 rating which was also a series low.
On NBC, The Biggest Loser finale was up 23% from last week to a 3.8 adults 18-49 rating, but that's 19% below last season's finale. The finale of Parenthood was even with last week's 2.6 adults 18-49 rating.
via NBC press note:
In Late-Night Metered Markets Tuesday night:
- In Nielsen's 56 metered markets, household results were: "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," 2.9/7; CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," 2.7/7; and ABC's "Nightline," 5.1/12; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 2.4/7.
- In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 results were: “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” 1.1/5; "Late Show," 0.8/3; "Nightline," 1.7/7; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 0.9/5.
- At 12:35 a.m., "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (1.3/5 in metered-market households) tied CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (1.3/5). In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Late Night" (0.6/4 in 18-49) topped "Late Late Show" (0.5/3).
- At 1:35 a.m., "Last Call with Carson Daly" averaged a 0.9/4 in metered-market households and a 0.5/4 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with local people meters.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 6.0 | 18 | 17.895 |
| CBS | NCIS (finale) | 3.2 | 10 | 15.467 | |
| NBC | The Biggest Loser (finale) | 3.1 | 10 | 8.199 | |
| ABC | Dancing with the Stars (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 9.033 | |
| CW | Life Unexpected (repeat) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.884 | |
| 8:30 | FOX | American Idol | 7.2 | 20 | 21.313 |
| NBC | The Biggest Loser (finale) | 3.5 | 10 | 8.997 | |
| CBS | NCIS (finale) | 3.3 | 9 | 16.372 | |
| ABC | Dancing with the Stars (repeat) | 1.7 | 5 | 9.663 | |
| CW | Life Unexpected (repeat) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.729 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | Glee | 4.9 | 13 | 11.915 |
| NBC | The Biggest Loser (finale) | 4.2 | 11 | 10.935 | |
| ABC | Dancing with the Stars (finale) | 3.4 | 9 | 17.295 | |
| CBS | NCIS:LA (Finale) | 2.7 | 7 | 13.120 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 0.2 | 1 | 0.573 | |
| 9:30 | FOX | Glee | 4.7 | 12 | 11.058 |
| NBC | The Biggest Loser (finale) | 4.5 | 12 | 11.408 | |
| ABC | Dancing with the Stars (finale) | 3.5 | 9 | 17.480 | |
| CBS | NCIS:LA (Finale) | 2.6 | 7 | 13.120 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 0.2 | 1 | 0.518 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | Dancing with the Stars (finale) | 4.0 | 11 | 18.398 |
| NBC | Parenthood (finale) | 2.7 | 7 | 6.321 | |
| CBS | The Good Wife (finale) | 2.0 | 6 | 10.805 | |
| 10:30 | ABC | Dancing with the Stars (finale) | 4.4 | 12 | 19.566 |
| NBC | Parenthood (finale) | 2.5 | 7 | 5.757 | |
| CBS | The Good Wife (finale) | 2.0 | 6 | 10.345 |
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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
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.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Looks like TGW will be crushed next season.
oh man the good wife
that suuuuuuuucks! why would CBS air their finales against idol and TBL and DWTS? silly people. they got crushed.
at least idol went up a little, although those are VERY weak numbers for a finale.. GO CRYSTAL BOWERSOX! although i'm sure lee will win and it'll be the perfect and proper ending to the worst season ever.
wish parenthood was higher, but 2.6 is fine too
why would CBS air their finales against Idol and TBL and DWTS
Because sweeps ends this week, and reruns would've really gotten crushed.
Parenthood held its numbers against the DWTS finale, the good wife did not
Another amazing show like the Good Wife which is gonna get scrapped because Americans continue to tune in their droves to watch reality crap and brainless drivel.
I don't think there was an Idol overrun last night so Glee going down in its second half hour seems curious. Poor Parenthood. It also dropped in its second half. Guess too many finales in one night.
I don't know… to me… The Good Wife is a very, very good show! I'm sad about it's ratings, but I'm happy that CBS believes in it and didn't move it to friday night!
What's going with all these season/series finales with low ratings? Has this always been the case (and the high-rated finales of famed shows like 'Friends,' etc. are just outliers)?
Only if you assume Detroit 1-8-7 will average 4.0. Which I find unlikely.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely think TGW should have been moved, as its ratings are entirely dependent on the cruddiness of the competition – but there is little reason to think TGW will have overpowering competition in Fall.
Craig, and yet Parenthood held up against “reality drivel”. Perhaps the problem is with The Good Wife, and not reality drivel.
TGW suffered a bit it seems. If they didn't put it behind the NCIS's it mightve had a better lead-in. Those shows all have tons of viewers and low ratings. Put it behind something stupid, but highly-rated, like Survivor or something, and it'll do better.
Good result for parenthood, against dancing stays steady. With competion or not, Parenthood this year was a success for NBC… i'm happy they left it at tuesday
I wonder how Dancing overall compares to previous seasons. Lowest finale, but I seem to recall that Kate Gosselin episodes were higher than usual performance eps from seasons past…
Funny how Dancing started out really high, too.
It seems like the day where NCIS beats Idol in viewers is no longer realistic.
Parenthood held up better against high-rated reality drivel because it had high-rated reality drivel as a lead-in, and Good Wife had a (relatively) poorly-rated scripted NCIS spinoff.
In retrospect TGW getting crushed last night shouldn't be a surprise. It was already a very old skewing show (I'm sure a lot of it's 18-49 were in the 40-49 range) so it stands to reason that when it goes up against the oldest skewing “hit” on TV it would suffer as a result. Parenthood on the other hand is probably a “younger” 18-49 performer (as most NBC shows are) so it stood up to DWtS much better than its competition.
It's great to see CBS in 4th place for the night. Hopefully, they'll continue to get crushed on Tuesday next season.
If they really want to boost The Good Wife's ratings, they should have done a sweeps stunt where they introduce Alicia's evil double, The Bad Wife.
Is the 3.8 DWTS' lowest finale rating, or are both the demo and overall viewership the lowest-rated finale? The finale averaged 18.2 million viewers- that would be a pretty decent “low” for the show, s it never had the overall peak viewership of, say, “Idol.”
Speaking of “Idol,” that's quite an increase for 8:30-9, over 8-8:30. Wonder why 3.5m people would not watch the first half, as it was the performance finale and all.
If only “V” would have seen half the overall viewership from 10-11. haha Yah, it averaged half that demo rating, but still would like to see a larger overall number.
Many posters during the week are quick to point out how a certain show loses lots of viewers from its lead in. I noticed, though, that not many point out this phenomenon with respect to Glee.
I've commented in past weeks and posts that Glee is perfectly slotted behind Idol,. It has a hugh lead in from a related type genre show.
Despite that, it loses around 10 million viewers and usually over 2.2 or so in 18-49 ratings.
I don't watch either Idol or Glee, but from an academic point of view I am very interested to see how Glee does in the fall without its hugh Idol lead in. Fox did make a good move by having it lead off the night.
Now, no more Glee comments from me until it premieres in the fall.
Careful, the one thing many of the regulars here hate more than Chuck discussion is retention discussion.
That said, you make a valid point. Glee's first half hour had 68% retention out of Idol's last half hour. Were it any other show, or were it not such a large number (4.9) it would be very worrying. It also does call into question just how strong it will be without AI next fall. I still anticipate it'll be in the high 3s or low 4s but won't be nearly as strong as it is now.