CBS has over 20% more total viewers, ABC wins 18-49 Demo Anyway
| Scoreboard for Thursday Oct 11 |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.75 | 12.75 | 8.17 | 6.88 | 3.99 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 5.0/13 | 4.7/12 | 3.7/10 | 2.1/5 | 1.5/4 |
The good news for CBS is that lots of people love its shows, the bad news is many of them are 55 and over and the advertisers don’t want to pay for those folks. Thursday continues to be “TV Night in America” with Grey’s Anatomy reeling in 18.65m viewers and a very impressive 7.7/18 in the 18-49 demo. CBS’ CSI had more viewers, 19.63m, and a nice, but not as nice as Grey’s 6.0/14 in the demo.
Also in the 9pm slot, a one hour edition of The Office scored 8.91m and a 4.7/11 in the 18-49 demo. Fox ran with Don’t Forget the Lyrics and came in 4th with 5.6m and a 1.8/4. Fan Favorite (if you believe the “Hey Nielsen“) Supernatural came in last with 3.23m and a 1.2/3.
In the 8pm slot, Survivor: China roped in 14m viewers and a 4.5/13 in the demo. Ugly Betty is hanging in with 10.35 and a 3.5/10 but is off of last year’s numbers for the same time considerably (13.95m viewers and 4.3/12 in the 18-49 demo). It will be interesting to see if Ugly Betty is a DVR favorite. Survivor is also down, just not as much (last year: 15.84m, 5.5/15).
Fox’s Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader is performing admirably with 8.16m viewers and a 2.3/7, besting NBC’s duo of My Name is Earl (7.74m viewers, 3.1/9) and one of my favorites, 30 Rock at 8:30 which only had 6.61m viewers and a 3.0/8 (3rd) in the demo. Since I’ve been accused of not showing the CW enough love, Smallville pulled in 4.75m and a 1.9/5.
At 10pm Marc Berman declares ABC’s Big Shots a loser even though it actually won the 18-49 demo (9.26m viewers, 3.9/11). While it’s true Without a Trace whopped Big Shots in viewers with 13.63m, it could only muster 3.6/10 in the demo. I am not as dead set as Berman that the show is a loser (I don’t watch it so I don’t know),but it isn’t holding a large percentage of Grey’s viewers, and the 10pm half hour included a few minutes of Grey’s which bolstered Big Shots’ performance. The drop off in the second half hour does not bode well. But it could be worse, as it is for ER which had 8.41m viewers and a 3.4/9 in the demo.
Here’s the weekly “Grey’s crushed the old people watching CBS blurb via ABC press release:
“Grey’s Anatomy” (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
Thursday’s No. 1 TV program in Adults 18-49 for the third week running, ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” outdelivered CBS’ “C.S.I.” by 28% (7.7/18 vs. 6.0/14), its biggest winning advantage yet this season. In addition to leading with Adults 18-49, “Grey’s” also stood as Thursday’s No. 1 TV show in both Adults 25-54 (8.1/18) and Adults 18-34 (7.9/20).
* “Grey’s Anatomy” increased from the prior week in Total Viewers (18.6 million vs. 18.5 million) and Adults 18-49 (7.7/18 vs. 7.6/19).
Source: Nielsen Media Research. Full night’s results available via Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
