| Scoreboard for Fri. May 9, 2008 |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 8.52 | 6.42 | 5.38 | 4.12 | 3.39 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.0/7 | 1.7/6 | 1.4/5 | 1.3/5 | 1.1/4 |
CBS won another May sweeps Friday night, but you know when the CW is consistently beating FOX on a Friday night, that it’s a night the networks hardly care about. It will be very, very interesting to see how the CW programs Friday nights in the fall when it will no long have Friday Night Smackdown!. Now that the CW will be programming neither Saturday nor Sunday nights starting in the fall, coupled with the absence of Smackdown they have some difficult choices to make.
Will the CW stick all their worst performing programming on the vast Friday night wasteland, or will they stick those shows on Thursday against very difficult competition and move shows like Supernatural to Friday – a night with fewer viewers, but also less competition? We’ll find out next week.
The big difference between last night and the prior Friday was that ABC ran with a clips show this week TV’s All-Time Funniest and although it was by no means stellar with 6.5 million and a 1.6/6, they got a lot better performance out of it than Duel. Also, 20/20 fared a lot better at 10pm than it did last week.
CBS obviously lost a few viewers I’d speculate they went to the clips show on ABC and stuck with 20/20, but it’s but speculation. Either way all CBS shows were down over last week. And although Moonlight lost a little more than two hundred thousand viewers (the least of any CBS show week over week) with 7.68 million, it’s 1.9/6 performance is concerning for a show on the bubble. Ghost Whisperer was down about half a million viewers with 8.74m, and Numb3rs was down over a million viewers with 9.13m.
Although Moonlight still won its time slot, even in the demo. I think had this been last year, CBS would definitely cancel Moonlight, just as it did Close to Home last year. Weighing at least slightly in Moonlight’s favor is that this isn’t last year. The landscape has changed a little bit as seemingly most networks have completely thrown in the towel (can you say repeats of Most Outrageous Moments, even in May Sweeps!?) as far as Friday nights. If the margins on Moonlight are right (AKA it doesn’t cost much to make), it could be a keeper in the current Friday night landscape.
We won’t have to wait long to find out, you’ll know by the finale next Friday whether it’s the season finale or the series finale.
See Friday night’s details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | ABC | TV's All-Time Funniest (8p-10p) | 6.5 | 1.6/6 |
| CBS | Ghost Whisperer | 8.74 | 2.1/8 | |
| NBC | Most Outrageous Moments (R ) | 4.21 | 1.2/5 | |
| CW | Friday Night Smackdown! (8p-10p) | 4.12 | 1.3/5 | |
| FOX | Man of the House (8p-10p) (R ) | 3.39 | 1.1/4 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | Moonlight | 7.68 | 1.9/6 |
| NBC | Dateline (8p-10p) | 5.96 | 1.5/5 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | 20/20 | 6.26 | 1.9/6 |
| CBS | Numb3rs | 9.13 | 2.2/7 |
Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Full night’s results available via Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
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Moonlight has at best 50/50 chances. I know the picture has changed for the last year but a drop from 2.6 in demos for C2H to 1.9 for Moonlight is very very high. And C2H not only was winning in viewers and demos at 9pm, a year ago it won the night in viewers in demos.
i think moonlight should get the boot after a poor performance in the demo, and CBS should move Shark to Fridays. any thoughts?
Polly, yes, the live plus seven day DVR results for “Fated to Pretend” that aired on 4/25 will be in the Monday results.
Thanks Robert. Have a nice weekend!
Please give Moonlight a second season,,,,,,,
i heard CBS wanted to move Shark to fridays. is this true? or is it just a rumor?
Hi! How much does the HH Ratings Share factor into ratings? I was noticing that Moonlight has had a 5.09 ratings share for the past 3 episodes which is hgher than 4 of the episodes which aired last fall. Just curious. Trying to understand all the numbers. Thanks!
“Share” just represents the % of TVs that were turned on that were watching a program. I think it would only matter much if the # of TVs turned on that hour was fluctuating wildly.
Moonlight with its huge fan base in america as well as the United Kingdom and ireland deserves to be saved and have a renewed contract for a second season. This show renewed my faith in Television Drama and being a media student it is hard for me to find something i like to watch, it has a gritty storyline and great cast why on earth should it be cancelled when it has kept cbs up on ratings for many a week? if it is cancelled then it makes you as a viewer wonder what on earth does cbs think the audience wants to watch when in fact they cancel the ones you do enjoy? and accordance to my book a show with that many viewers and if you count the countries its being aired in, meaning alot why throw a perfectly good show away when it has plenty of growth left in it.
IS IT TRUE IS MOONLIGHT CANSELED