Ah, the weekly Top 20 most viewed shows. This list ranks shows by total viewers, though I am including total households for your amusement as well. As a result you can see for yourself that, for example, CSI: NY is more of a solo pursuit while people gather round together to watch Hell’s Kitchen together more.
#19 CSI: NY was on in almost 700,000 more homes than Hell’s Kitchen (#16), but Hell’s Kitchen had more than 400,000 viewers more viewers than CSI:NY. I’m not sure there’s really any point to that but am I so wrong for wanting to see Louross’ mohawk catch fire? Family entertainment!
OF COURSE American Idol took the top two spots and Dancing With the Stars was third, though CBS’ CSI was right behind it ahead of both Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. Though when the top 18-49 age demographic shows get published in a bit, both Grey’s and the Housewives best CSI by a fairly wide margin.
But then again, on that list, Hell’s Kitchen which had over six million fewer total viewers than CSI also beat up on it. It’s an interesting thing - that other list matters way more in the industry, but *this* is the list more people seem to care about.
The DWTS results show, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, and CSI: Miami round out the top half of this list. CBS dominated this list with 10 shows so it’s no surprise it had the most viewers of any network during primetime last week. ABC had five, FOX four and NBC but one: #15 Law & Order: SVU.
My current favorite LOST, didn’t make the list though it only missed out by six thousand viewers. Brothers & Sisters, Numb3rs, Rules of Engagement, Shark and Deal or No Deal (Monday) all had over 10 million viewers as well. Shark! But I’m especially impressed with Numb3rs as those numbers came on a Friday. Was last week Deal or No Deal’s its last best effort? If the numbers don’t change much from the overnights for last night, Deal was down almost two million to 8.36 million last night. Ouch.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 05/04/08:
| Rank | PROGRAMS | ORIG | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | # OF HOMES (LIVE+SD) (000) | Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 14.5 | 23 | 16,366 | 25,094 |
| 2 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 13.6 | 21 | 15,343 | 22,800 |
| 3 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 11.8 | 18 | 13,364 | 18,222 |
| 4 | CSI | CBS | 11.1 | 17 | 12,500 | 18,012 |
| 5 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 11.4 | 17 | 12,815 | 17,059 |
| 6 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 10.8 | 17 | 12,186 | 16,757 |
| 7 | GREY'S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 10.2 | 16 | 11,549 | 15,313 |
| 8 | NCIS | CBS | 9.4 | 15 | 10,591 | 14,763 |
| 9 | HOUSE-MON 9P | FOX | 8.8 | 13 | 9,942 | 14,641 |
| 10 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 9.2 | 15 | 10,429 | 13,880 |
| 11 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 8.3 | 13 | 9,414 | 13,030 |
| 12 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 7.9 | 12 | 8,918 | 12,915 |
| 13 | WITHOUT A TRACE | CBS | 8.7 | 15 | 9,790 | 12,834 |
| 14 | SURVIVOR: MICRONESIA | CBS | 7.6 | 13 | 8,525 | 12,320 |
| 15 | LAW AND ORDER:SVU | NBC | 8.2 | 14 | 9,298 | 12,313 |
| 16 | HELL'S KITCHEN | FOX | 6.9 | 10 | 7,805 | 11,940 |
| 17 | EXTREME MAKEOVER:HOME ED. | ABC | 7.0 | 12 | 7,855 | 11,570 |
| 18 | COLD CASE | CBS | 7.3 | 12 | 8,222 | 11,562 |
| 19 | CSI: NY | CBS | 7.6 | 12 | 8,522 | 11,508 |
| 20 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 7.1 | 14 | 7,978 | 10,732 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved
