The live plus seven day DVR viewing list looks a bit different than the overall top 20 for that week. American Idol was still on top, and the return of Grey’s Anatomy placed second by less than 100,000 DVR viewers. LOST, American Idol’s Wednesday airing, Desperate Housewives, The Office, CSI, Survivor: Micronesia, and Two and a Half Men rounded out the top ten for the week of April 21-27, 2008.
While from an advertising perspective we understand the networks don’t love the DVR viewing so much, there’s a benefit and it would be apparent if we made the table wider and indicated the day and time the show’s aired. I can’t make that table fit sadly, but note that Grey’s, CSI, and The Office are all on at the same time, and they are all in the top 10 of weekly DVR viewing.
The trend of reality show DVR viewing mostly being for time-shifting and avoiding commercials and fast forwarding through the boring parts holds up. Over 70% of American Idol’s DVR viewing came the same nights the shows aired. Both Survivor and Dancing with the Stars were well over 60% same night viewing.
If we make “over 50% same night viewing” the “water cooler” shows that must be talked about the next day, it’s a weird mix where only The Office, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother and My Name is Earl make that cut among DVR viewers. Hell’s Kitchen was close at 49.5%. NBC’s Law & Order: SVU was nowhere close with only 23.3% watching the same night.
Moonlight, while not on the list was 33rd with 1.11m DVR viewers and 14.9% of its viewing coming via DVR. Gossip Girl’s first new episode was 44th with 743,000 DVR viewers, but that represented almost 35% of its overall viewing, but trailed both The Office and Reaper (yes, Reaper!) in terms of % of the shows audience coming via DVR.
The esteemed Travis Yanan chimes in via comments with:
Most interesting to me Live+7, Grey’s is still beat by CSI in viewers… but only by 178K. Versus the 642K from Live+SD. Can’t say that I’m shocked, what with younger people using DVRs more, etc…
I’d like to believe I’d have caught that myself but was distracted by “upfront madness!” Thanks, Travis!
Top 20 DVR Broadcast Shows for the week ending April 27, 2008:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Persons Live+7 (000s) | Persons Live (000s) | Time-shifted Audience (000s) | % increase from Live to Live+7 | Persons Live+SD (000s) | % SD Viewers of DVR total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 25,897 | 21,921 | 3,976 | 18.1% | 24,740 | 70.9% |
| 2 | GREY'S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 18,601 | 14,708 | 3,893 | 26.5% | 16,373 | 42.8% |
| 3 | LOST | ABC | 14,067 | 10,867 | 3,200 | 29.4% | 12,075 | 37.8% |
| 4 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 24,094 | 21,057 | 3,037 | 14.4% | 23,196 | 70.4% |
| 5 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 17,601 | 14,730 | 2,871 | 19.5% | 16,346 | 56.3% |
| 6 | OFFICE | NBC | 8,972 | 6,256 | 2,716 | 43.4% | 7,692 | 52.9% |
| 7 | CSI | CBS | 18,769 | 16,106 | 2,663 | 16.5% | 17,015 | 34.1% |
| 8 | SURVIVOR: MICRONESIA | CBS | 13,745 | 11,337 | 2,408 | 21.2% | 12,896 | 64.7% |
| 9 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 14,546 | 12,306 | 2,240 | 18.2% | 13,360 | 47.1% |
| 10 | NCIS | CBS | 15,375 | 13,266 | 2,109 | 15.9% | 14,242 | 46.3% |
| 11 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 15,875 | 13,854 | 2,021 | 14.6% | 14,380 | 26.0% |
| 12 | MEDIUM | NBC | 11,162 | 9,242 | 1,920 | 20.8% | 9,794 | 28.8% |
| 13 | BONES-MON 8P | FOX | 9,863 | 7,957 | 1,906 | 24.0% | 8,758 | 42.0% |
| 14 | HELL'S KITCHEN | FOX | 11,837 | 10,138 | 1,699 | 16.8% | 10,979 | 49.5% |
| 15 | LAW AND ORDER:SVU | NBC | 12,941 | 11,248 | 1,693 | 15.1% | 11,642 | 23.3% |
| 16 | LAW AND ORDER | NBC | 13,827 | 12,200 | 1,627 | 13.3% | 12,746 | 33.6% |
| 17 | NUMB3RS | CBS | 10,745 | 9,150 | 1,595 | 17.4% | 9,638 | 30.6% |
| 18 | HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER | CBS | 9,148 | 7,561 | 1,587 | 21.0% | 8,453 | 56.2% |
| 19 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 18,545 | 17,040 | 1,505 | 8.8% | 18,044 | 66.7% |
| 20 | MY NAME IS EARL | NBC | 6,863 | 5,398 | 1,465 | 27.1% | 6,160 | 52.0% |
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Andrea, neither Eli or NA aired during the week of 4/21-4/27…
Boston Legal did 1.25m via DVR. L+7 total was 10.77m
thanks
Hi Robert,
Can you please list the final numbers for GhostW, Moonlight, and Numbers. I think Moonlight would be at 9.04 if I understand the system. I was wondering how that stacked up with the rest of CBS Friday.
Many thanks,
Sue, here are the Live+7, Live, DVR viewers, and % increase for April 21-27 for them:
GHOST WHISPERER CBS 9,687 8,327 1,360 16.3%
MOONLIGHT CBS 8,564 7,451 1,113 14.9%
NUMB3RS CBS 10,745 9,150 1,595 17.4%
Edit: Robert beat me to it!
Thanks to both of you. I was curious how the Moonlight DVR numbers stacked up to the other CBS Friday shows.
Robert, do you have the timeshifted numbers for Supernatural?