American Idol Takes Top 2 Spots, Followed by Dancing With The Stars
Fox’s American Idol took the top 2 spots for average viewers for the 2007-8 broadcast prime-time season ended May 21, 2008 followed by 4 different airings of Dancing With The Stars (two nights from Fall, two nights from Spring).
Rounding out the top 10 were Desperate Housewives, the Tuesday airing of House, CSI, and NBC Sunday Night Football.
Final 2007-8 Season Prime-time Top Shows For Average Viewers
| Rank | Programs | Network | STD Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 27,659 |
| 2 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 26,838 |
| 3 | DANCING W/THE STARS-MON | ABC | 21,150 |
| 4 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 19,169 |
| 5 | DANCING W/STARS RESULT-TU | ABC | 19,163 |
| 6 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 17,778 |
| 7 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 17,270 |
| 8 | HOUSE – TUE | FOX | 16,208 |
| 9 | CSI | CBS | 16,036 |
| 10 | NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL | NBC | 15,862 |
| 11 | GREY’S ANATOMY | ABC | 14,358 |
| 12 | SURVIVOR: CHINA | CBS | 14,280 |
| 13 | MOMENT OF TRUTH | FOX | 14,172 |
| 14 | NCIS | CBS | 13,843 |
| 15 | HOUSE-MON 9P | FOX | 13,536 |
| 16 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 13,117 |
| 17 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 13,074 |
| 18 | EXTREME MAKEOVER:HOME ED. | ABC | 12,862 |
| 19 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 12,820 |
| 20 | WITHOUT A TRACE | CBS | 12,750 |
ABC and CBS both had 7 of the shows in the top 20, Fox 5 and NBC only 1.
Our chart shows the top 20 shows ranked on a season to date (STD) basis for average viewers.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Why does Dancing with the Stars have four slots? I thought they used the same schedule in the fall and the spring? Do they still count them as different time slots?
Julia, it is because the fall and spring are counted separately. #3 & #4 were the fall, 5 and 6 spring.
Are those numbers include repeats?
Robert, I have a question. I see the top 20, but will you show the entire list of all the shows from this season? That would be really cool, there are some shows that I would be interested in seeing where they fell in the total scheme of things.
Thanks so much. The shows are Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, The Office, Moonlight, The Big Bang Theory, Lost, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Also, would you mind adding the total number of shows, I heard it was around 150 or so. Also, how far has NBC fallen, to not even have one of their original shows in the top 20, only football. It used to be such a powerhouse.
Thank you so much for the information.
Bill, could you post the final rankings for “How I Met Your Mother”? Thanks
Josh, HIMYM was #72 with 7.849m viewers
Thanks Bill
Where is Survivor: Micronesia? It had over 13,000,000 viewers….