| ABC | CBS | NBC | FOX | CW | |
| Adults 18-49: rating/Share | 1.4/4 | 1.1/4 | 1.0/3 | 0.7/2 | 0.5/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 5.818 | 4.390 | 4.805 | 2.009 | 1.605 |
ABC was number one in adults 18-49 and with total viewers.
On ABC, Last Man Standing was even with last week's 1.4 adults 18-49 rating. Malibu Country was also flat with last week's 1.4 rating. 20/20 notched a 1.5, up a tenth from last week's 1.4 adults 18-49 rating.
On CBS, It's a SpongeBob Christmas earned a 0.9 adults 18-49 rating.
On NBC, Dateline NBC earned a 1.0, down two tenths from last week's 1.2 rating.
CBS, FOX and The CW all re-aired classic Christmas specials last night. Check the table to see which ones fared better than others. For those interested, The Happy Elf on the CW at 9PM (Nikita's current timeslot) earned a 0.5. Your predictions were correct.
Overnight broadcast primetime ratings for Friday, November 23, 2012:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 8:00 PM | CBS | Frosty the Snowman -R | 2.0 | 7 | 6.876 |
| ABC | Last Man Standing | 1.4 | 5 | 6.708 | |
| NBC | The National Dog Show -R (8-10PM) | 1.0 | 3 | 4.849 | |
| FOX | Happiness is a Warm Blanket Charlie Brown -R | 0.5 | 2 | 1.778 | |
| CW | Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer -R | 0.5 | 2 | 1.684 | |
| tvbythenumbers.com | |||||
| 8:30PM | CBS | Frosty Returns -R | 1.6 | 5 | 5.784 |
| ABC | Malibu Country | 1.4 | 4 | 6.432 | |
| 9:00PM | ABC | Shark Tank -R | 1.3 | 4 | 5.102 |
| CBS | Hoops & Yoyo Ruin Christmas -R | 1.0 | 3 | 4.011 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons -R | 0.9 | 3 | 2.295 | |
| CW | The Happy Elf -R | 0.5 | 1 | 1.525 | |
| tvbythenumbers.com | |||||
| 9:30PM | CBS | It's a SpongeBob Christmas | 0.9 | 3 | 3.626 |
| FOX | The Simpsons -R | 0.9 | 3 | 2.184 | |
| 10:00 PM | ABC | 20/20 | 1.5 | 5 | 5.782 |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 1.0 | 3 | 4.716 | |
| CBS | Person to Person | 0.7 | 2 | 3.021 | |
-
via press note:
In late-night metered-market households Friday night:
>
> * In Nielsen's 56 metered markets, household results were: "The
> Tonight Show with Jay Leno," 2.5/6 with an encore telecast; CBS's
> "Late Show with David Letterman," 1.7/4 with an encore; and ABC's
> combo of "Nightline," 2.9/7; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 1.4/4 with an
> encore.
>
> * In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 results
> were: "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," 0.8/3 with an encore; "Late
> Show," 0.4/2 with an encore; "Nightline," 1.0/4; and "Jimmy Kimmel
> Live," 0.5/2 with an encore.
>
> * At 12:35 a.m., "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (1.4/4 in
> metered-market households with an encore) beat CBS's "Late Late Show
> with Craig Ferguson" (0.9/3 with an encore). In the 25 markets with
> Local People Meters, "Late Night" (0.5/3 in 18-49 with an encore) beat
> "Late Late Show" (0.2/1 with an encore).
>
> * At 1:35 a.m., "Last Call with Carson Daly" averaged a 0.8/3 in
> metered-market households with an encore and a 0.3/2 in adults 18-49
> in the 25 markets with local people meters.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2012 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
NOTE: All ratings are "live plus same day" from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise indicated.
Definitions:
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. More information on ratings is available here.
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.)
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.
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. 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.
The spongebob special probably would have dine better on nickelodeon but not bad
Aww, c’mon. Why such low ratings for Hoops & Yoyo? They’re awesome! <3
Looking at old ratings on this site, it appears that viewership and demo ratings took a big hit after the 2008 writers strike and never recovered. Is this a plausible factor in the ratings decline?
Oh the days when a scripted drama could beat football and the lowest demo rating in the top 20 was a 3.9. (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2007/10/09/greys-anatomy-takes-weekly-18-49-demo-honors/1164/)
So, Nikita’s low ratings are because 9pm is a death slot for any show not named “Supernatural”? Apparently, not if you’re an elf!
@Melissa
I think people stopped watching broadcast tv due to the strike and they never return. They were “forced” to find other options and maybe realized they weren’t so bad compared to their network shows, if not better.
Last night’s “Malibu Country” was good. Lily Tomlin and Sara Rue add a lot to the show. Producers would be wise to further exploit the relationship, letting the Lillie Mae character become a mother figure to Kim and grandmother figure to Sage.
Well CW has another season and a Half of Nikita. Than its done. 1.4 isn’t bad for ABCs comedies, I expect both to get full seasons. It’s funny that both are doing better than ABCs tuesday comedies but thats what happens when there’s a three way comedy collision.
I’m kind of surprised Spongebob didn’t do better, figured it would at least get a 1.5….I did watch and thought it was a little weird it was in Stop Motion
did that many adults really watch spongebob? or were there just kids in the house, but Nielsen counts it as adults since they can’t really tell who in the house is watching?
Not surprising that the Happy Elf special on the CW did good. Last year the holiday specials did pretty good for them too. Good to see the ABC commedies steady last night. As for the Sponge bob special i am sure they will show it on Nick pretty soon. I thought it was kind of weird that showed it on CBS in the first place.
Glad to see MC stabilize. Its a really good family show. With such a huge premiere, and last week with the new Twilight premiere, and this week falling on Black Friday, and still getting almost 7 million viewers is a good sign. Its beating or holding its own against other comedies on ABC especially on Tuesdays. I hope ABC picks this up for a whole season. Cant wait to see how these characters evolve.
@Melissa
I’ve had that theory for some time. The writers strike killed the 2005-2007 momentum. (dramas would beat football, reality, and sitoms).
Broadcast ratings took another hit in 2009-2010, when that generation of dramas was getting older (aging accelerated by the Strike), and no new blockbusters would emerge.
Who knows, Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory could be getting 7.0s-10.s if it weren’t for the strike.
They’re Christmas specials dummies, ofcourse people will watch and there was no competion last night…
No NoOO NooooOooO….!!!
Horrible Elf!
I thought there would be more for the Spongebob special. A shame too, cause it was surprisingly pretty good.
@Justin121
I’ve had that theory for some time. The writers strike killed the 2005-2007 momentum. (dramas would beat football, reality, and sitoms).
Broadcast ratings took another hit in 2009-2010, when that generation of dramas was getting older (aging accelerated by the Strike), and no new blockbusters would emerge.
Who knows, Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory could be getting 7.0s-10.s if it weren’t for the strike.
That’s so annoying. Writers sacrificed their shows’ ratings for a few more bucks. Grey’s Anatomy lost almost 2 full demo points after the writers strike.
“Looking at old ratings on this site, it appears that viewership and demo ratings took a big hit after the 2008 writers strike and never recovered. Is this a plausible factor in the ratings decline?”
As we note, BROADCAST primetime ratings have been declining for 30 years as viewers shifted to ad supported cable:
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/04/12/where-did-the-primetime-broadcast-tv-audience-go/47976/
The writers strike definitely drove ratings down more than the long term decline trend for that season, but since then the trend has continued with some years better than the trend (like last season) and some years worse (like this season).
“did that many adults really watch spongebob? or were there just kids in the house, but Nielsen counts it as adults since they can’t really tell who in the house is watching?”
Choose your answer:
Nielsen “believers”: Each household member 2 and older has a unique button they must occasionally push to indicate they’re viewing.
Nielsen “doubters”: Nielsen doesn’t know anything, they just make it all up, who cares?
Spongebob did terribly. Good for the CW. Nikita needs the 8:00 timeslot, not post-ANTM.
@Bill Gorman: the Nielsen believers would have us believe adult parents actually watch television with their children?!