Nielsen Ratings May 5, 2008: Youth Still Loves FOX’s House Best

Scoreboard for Mon. May 5, 2008
Total Viewers (million)	13.03	11.27	10.69	8.75	2.16
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.4/9	3.8/10	3.8/10	2.6/7	1.0/3

Any day that ends in a “Y” is a good day to for Univision’s Fuego En La Sangre to put the beatdown on Gossip Girl.  Gossip  Girl pulled but 2.11 million and a 1.0/3 in the 18-49 demo.  I haven’t seen Fuego’s numbers yet but I’ve seen GG’s and they stink.  How’s that blocking streaming on the CW’s web site working out for you, Dawn Ostroff?  I know they love, love, love them some Gossip Girl in NYC.  But everywhere else?  Not so much.  Sure, they love downloading in illegal streaming sites all over the place from Soho to Singapore, but how are you going to make any money on that?  Answer: you’re not.  Even on Cinco de Mayo, I’m sure Fuego crushed Gossip Girl like a bug.

House numbers seem to be waning but even still with 13.26 million viewers (fewer than Dancing With the Stars or even Two and a Half Men), House still had the best 18-49 performance of the night with a 5.0/13.  I haven’t seen last night’s House yet but I did watch last night’s CSI crossover episode of Two and a Half Men written by the CSI folks and…I didn’t love it so much.  But CBS and the viewers didn’t care what I thought.  2.5 men pulled in 13.50 million and a 4.8/12 in the demo — the second best 18-49 demo performance of the night, trailing on House.  I’m pretty sure I’ll like this Thursday’s CSI written by the 2.5 Men creators better.

Samantha Who? gets accolades among critics, and I love Cristina Applegate from the way back, but once the final numbers are released and the DWTS overrun is factored out, she’s going to have a sub 3.0 performance in the demo, for now she has  10.53m and a 3.0/7 in the 18-49 demo .  Contrast that with her 9:30p competition Rules of Engagement which had 10.52m and a 3.9/9 in the 18-49 demo.  The same number of viewers but ~1.2 million more in the youthful 18-49 demo.  And Samantha Who?’s numbers will definitely go down in the final numbers.  Rules gets no buzz, it just kicks butt in the ratings.

DWTS won the 8pm hour overall.  9pm was split, but FOX had the best demo performance with House, and the 10pm hour was easily taken by CSI: Miami.  Notably NBC’s Medium is a consistent performer and had 9.54m viewers and a 3.2/8 in the demo.  Not as good as CSI: Miami’s 13.86 with a 4.0/11, but for those of you who buy-in to the importance of lead-in (because I actually see these numbers every day, I do not think lead-in is the big deal it was 25 years ago before everyone had a remote), Medium had the dying Deal or No Deal while CSI: Miami had Two and a Half Men.

See Monday night’s details:

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