Super Bowl 42 wound up setting records for the most viewers for a Super Bowl with 97.45 million. The previous record of just over 94 million was set in 1996. Between Super Bowl XLII, the post game show, the episode of House that followed, American Idol, Moment of Truth and another episode of House, FOX took the top 7 spots. But note the gap between #1 and #7 is roughly 80 million viewers.
Despite FOX’s dominance, ABC was able to slip both the season premier of LOST and a the recap that ran before it, into the top 10. Newcomer Eli Stone came in #12 with 11.15 million viewers.
Overall for the week FOX had 9 shows in the top 20, followed by CBS and ABC with four each and NBC had 3. All four of CBS’ shows in the list were repeats.
Record breaking Super Bowls, and Moment of Truth beating LOST. What a week! Please note the Super Bowl #’s (as all numbers) represent average audience. So on average at any given time, over 97 million were tuned in. Nielsen reports that over 148 million people watched at least some portion of the game.
Top 20 shows by viewers for the week ending 02/03/08:
| RANK | PROGRAMS | ORIG | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | # OF PERSONS 2+ (LIVE+SD) (000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FOX SUPER BOWL XLII | FOX | 43.1 | 65 | 97,448 |
| 2 | FOX SUPER BOWL POST GAME(S) | FOX | 30.1 | 47 | 63,934 |
| 3 | HOUSE SP-2/3 | FOX | 15.7 | 27 | 29,045 |
| 4 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 15.7 | 24 | 28,223 |
| 5 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 14.4 | 22 | 25,573 |
| 6 | HOUSE | FOX | 12.9 | 19 | 22,561 |
| 7 | MOMENT OF TRUTH | FOX | 10.2 | 15 | 17,641 |
| 8 | LOST SEASON 4 PREMIERE | ABC | 9.4 | 14 | 16,137 |
| 9 | LOST-THU 8PM (Repeat) | ABC | 8.0 | 12 | 13,158 |
| 10 | NCIS (Repeat) | CBS | 7.7 | 12 | 11,769 |
| 11 | CSI (Repeat) | CBS | 7.6 | 11 | 11,687 |
| 12 | ELI STONE (Repeat) | ABC | 7.1 | 12 | 11,145 |
| 13 | LAW AND ORDER | NBC | 7.6 | 13 | 11,101 |
| 14 | SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER | FOX | 6.4 | 10 | 10,555 |
| 15 | WITHOUT A TRACE (Repeat) | CBS | 6.9 | 11 | 10,185 |
| 16 | DON'T FORGET THE LYRICS | FOX | 6.0 | 9 | 10,070 |
| 17 | DEAL OR NO DEAL-WED | NBC | 6.3 | 10 | 9,679 |
| 18 | TWO AND A HALF MEN (Repeat) | CBS | 6.2 | 9 | 9,601 |
| 19 | DANCE WAR:BRUNO/CARRIEANN | ABC | 6.3 | 10 | 9,451 |
| 20 | LAW AND ORDER:SVU (Repeat) | NBC | 6.2 | 11 | 9,291 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Good Lord…what a week for FOX! Could they possibly win in total viewership over CBS by the finish of the season? I think it is quite possible…
Good Lord…what a week for FOX! Could they possibly win in total viewership over CBS by the finish of the season? I think it is quite possible…
Christian, they most certainly will, they took the lead as of this week.
Christian, they most certainly will, they took the lead as of this week.
Is seems like the numbers for Idol are down. If they are, how much are they down from last season?
Is seems like the numbers for Idol are down. If they are, how much are they down from last season?
Jaemes, you have a good feel. Last year for the same week Idol did HH Ratings of 18.6 and 18.0 with viewers of 33.65 million and 31.85 million. Down over SIXTEEN % on a viewers basis vs. last year.
Update: not that we didn't know already, but it's definitely a trend. In the HH rating info for last night's (2/5) AI it was down 16% vs. last year on a ratings basis. But interestingly, for the entire night vs last year, according to Marc Berman, Fox was only down 13% ABC down 24%, NBC down 30%, CW 37% and CBS 44%. Though these comparisons are bad likely because of all the Super Tuesday coverage.
I'd rather be Fox.
Jaemes, you have a good feel. Last year for the same week Idol did HH Ratings of 18.6 and 18.0 with viewers of 33.65 million and 31.85 million. Down over SIXTEEN % on a viewers basis vs. last year.
Update: not that we didn’t know already, but it’s definitely a trend. In the HH rating info for last night’s (2/5) AI it was down 16% vs. last year on a ratings basis. But interestingly, for the entire night vs last year, according to Marc Berman, Fox was only down 13% ABC down 24%, NBC down 30%, CW 37% and CBS 44%. Though these comparisons are bad likely because of all the Super Tuesday coverage.
I’d rather be Fox.
How do I interpret American Idol's Nielsen rating of 15.7/23? I'm thinking that the 15.7 is the % of households that tuned in, but what is the 23?
How do I interpret American Idol’s Nielsen rating of 15.7/23? I’m thinking that the 15.7 is the % of households that tuned in, but what is the 23?
a 15.7/24 means 15.7% of all households (as you guessed) and 24% of all the households that had their tvs turned on at that time.
a 15.7/24 means 15.7% of all households (as you guessed) and 24% of all the households that had their tvs turned on at that time.