Nielsen Ratings Sun May 4: ABC Wins As Housewives Crush Field

Scoreboard for Sun. May 4, 2008
Total Viewers (million)	11.56	8.71	5.26	4.59	1.19
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	4.2/12	1.8/5	2.6/8	1.2/3	0.5/1

Desperate Housewives‘ overnight numbers were even better than last week’s overnight numbers (can you feel the love, DH fans?) and ABC won the night again in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo, which was up a couple of ticks from last week for ABC as well.

The order of finish was exactly the same as last Sunday. The most notable change was CBS aired Cold Case at 8pm instead of Big Brother. And while Cold Case had about 5 million more viewers than Big Brother did last week, it only bettered it in the 18-49 demographic by a tenth of a ratings point. I may have to rethink my Big Brother thinking (Dear Les & Julie, you were right, I was wrong…sorry).

CBS then ran two hours of Dexter, neither of which broke a 2.0 in the 18-49 demo. It’s too bad really, I think this is one of the better shows in all of television though I haven’t watched any of the edited for CBS versions to see what they are like.

FOX got solid performance out of its animated block, though Family Guy’s dominance over The Simpsons , especially in the demo was more pronounced as last week The Simpsons had noticeably better performance in the overnights (7.69m 3.6/10 in the demo last week vs. 6.18m and a 3.0/9 this week). All of that can’t be chalked up to Daylight Savings Time as last week had that too!

60 Minutes won the 7pm hour in total viewers with 10.52 million, but America’s Funniest Home Videos won the 18-49 demo with a 2.4/9. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition took the 8pm crown in both total viewers and the age demographic and Desperate Housewives trounced the field at 9pm. At 10pm, ABC’s Brothers & Sisters had almost 11m viewers and a 3.9/11 in the 18-49 demographic.

A good night for ABC.

Sunday Night’s Details:

Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Full night’s results available via Marc Berman/Mediaweek.