NBC can argue all it wants that if we sorted, as Nielsen does by default, by “household ratings” that Law & Order: SVU would have made this list. But we sort by total viewers, and by that slice of the world NBC was completely shut out of the weekly top 20. I’ve ever seen that happen before, even sorting by viewers. That it happened during May Sweeps? OUCH!
It was a fairly typical week with American Idol and Dancing with the Stars at the top of the list followed by CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Without a Trace, CSI: Miami and NCIS rounding out the top 10.
As is usually the case, the 18-49 year old version of this will look a bit different, but here CBS was dominant with nine shows, ABC had seven and FOX had but four (including the top two shows).
I included the number of homes that the HH Rating drives so that you could see that LOST for example was actually on in fewer homes than its ABC brother, Brothers & Sisters, but had more viewers. All this means is that even though LOST was on in fewer households, it had more viewers per household.
NBC’s Law & Order: SVU was on in more homes than either Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Hell’s Kitchen and LOST, with 7.931m homes tuned in, but it only generated 10.53m viewers and so it didn’t make the list.
It’s bad times for NBC, as it was also almost completely shut out of the 18-49 top 20 as well. But more on that in a bit.
(Jeff Zucker image via Silicon Alley Insider)
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 05/11/08:
| Rank | Show | Net | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | # OF HOMES (LIVE+SD) (000) | Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 13.9 | 21 | 15,709 | 22,867 |
| 2 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 12.6 | 20 | 14,231 | 21,755 |
| 3 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 12.0 | 18 | 13,575 | 18,379 |
| 4 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 11.7 | 18 | 13,230 | 18,105 |
| 5 | CSI | CBS | 11.4 | 18 | 12,808 | 18,071 |
| 6 | GREYS ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 10.5 | 16 | 11,890 | 16,027 |
| 7 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 9.7 | 15 | 10,987 | 15,427 |
| 8 | WITHOUT A TRACE | CBS | 9.8 | 16 | 11,005 | 14,666 |
| 9 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 9.5 | 16 | 10,684 | 14,109 |
| 10 | NCIS | CBS | 8.9 | 14 | 10,005 | 14,042 |
| 11 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 8.5 | 13 | 9,609 | 13,610 |
| 12 | HOUSE-MON 9P | FOX | 8.3 | 12 | 9,355 | 13,484 |
| 13 | SURVIVOR:MICRONESIA FINAL(S) | CBS | 7.2 | 12 | 8,107 | 12,978 |
| 14 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 8.2 | 13 | 9,283 | 12,881 |
| 15 | CSI: NY | CBS | 8.3 | 14 | 9,372 | 12,732 |
| 16 | SURVIVOR: MICRONESIA | CBS | 7.5 | 13 | 8,516 | 12,624 |
| 17 | EXTREME MAKEOVER:HOME ED. | ABC | 6.8 | 12 | 7,659 | 11,975 |
| 18 | HELLS KITCHEN | FOX | 6.5 | 10 | 7,281 | 11,004 |
| 19 | LOST | ABC | 6.6 | 11 | 7,453 | 10,782 |
| 20 | BROTHERS & SISTERS | ABC | 7.2 | 12 | 8,116 | 10,693 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved
May 13th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
NBC completely shut out of the top 20 and during May sweeps?? I can only say that I am not surprised because it seems like NBC has thrown in the towel. All repeats on a Sunday night again during sweeps? Their few successes like “The Biggest Loser” ended too early I guess. It just makes no sense to me.