First a huge disclaimer: I LOVE LOST! There, I said it. But the numbers are the numbers. ABC has the good fortune of being able to mask some of the ratings attrition in seasonal averages and effectively the bleed off of viewers when looked at that way hasn’t been so bad, dropping from around 16m average viewers for season one to around 13 million this year for season 4.
In the comments section of the overnight results for Thursday, commenter Peter L had a specific request the numbers for the season 2 and season 3 premieres. Commenter Jack_Shephard (hey, if you’re going to be anonymous on the Internet, and are a LOST-lover, might as well show the colors) jumped right in and provided them. But I thought I’d take a more in-depth look and dug up as much information as I could for each season’s premiere and finale.
The largest drop occurred between the season 3 premiere and finale. I’m not surprised, other than the finale itself, season 3 was my least favorite. Some folks caught up and came back for the season four premiere, and DVR is a much bigger factor this year than last so it could well be that this season’s finale actually did better than last years. We won’t really be able to say that for sure, but lost has generally had over 3 million DVR viewers (though keep in mind that 30%-50% of those viewers are counted in the live plus same day numbers, more DVR viewers watched the same night when the show aired at 9pm than when it aired at 10pm). I wouldn’t be surprised at all if LOST’s live plus seven day DVR viewing #’s for the finale are in the 14 million range.
While LOST is still a hit in the 18-49 demographic by today’s standards, it’s lost about half its 18-49 viewers from its apex. Here are the numbers:
| Date | Season | Episode | HH Rating/Share | Viewers (Millions) LIVE+SD | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Viewers (Millions) |
| 9/22/2004 | S1 Premiere | Pilot: Part 1 | 18.6 | |||
| 5/25/2005 | S1 Finale | Exodus: Part 2 | 12.0/18 | 20.71 | 7.8 | 10.15 |
| 9/21/2005 | S2 Premiere | Man of Science, Man of Faith | 13.8/20 | 23.47 | 10.2 | 13.23 |
| 5/24/2006 | S2 Finale | Live Together, Die Alone | 10.3/16 | 17.84 | 7.6 | 9.84 |
| 10/4/2006 | S3 Premiere | A Tale of Two Cities | 11.1/17 | 18.82 | 7.7 | 10.09 |
| 5/23/2007 | S3 Finale | Through The Looking Glass | 8.0/13 | 13.86 | 5.9 | 7.69 |
| 1/31/2008 | S4 Premiere | The Begnning of the End | 9.4/14 | 16.14 | 6.7 | 8.83 |
| 5/29/2008 | S4 Finale* | There’s No Place Like Home (parts 2 and 3) | 7.1/11 | 12.2 | 4.9 | 6.41 |
All numbers are either LIVE or LIVE plus same day DVR viewing (which Nielsen didn’t measure going back a few years). 5/29/08 numbers are preliminary overnight estimates.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
the public has the attention span of a dustmite….what was i saying
I agree completely with you Jack — and they did submit The Constant (and one other, I forget which) for emmy consideration. That was an awesome episode. I can only think of one episode of TV I felt similarly about (for SciFi-ish shows). And episode of Star Trek: TNG called “The Inner Light”. I think it was season 5. A great hour of television.
you have some over lining factors:
1. s2 premiere had new viewers due to buzz/emmy win. it didnt take long for those new viewers to go away since this is not the kind of show you can jump into late.
2. serialized shows are only going to lose viewers. this is commonplace, its impossible for every viewer to catch every show. they miss a few episodes here and there, things get too confusing, they bail. its gonna happen.
3. the s2 and s3 episode scheduling was terrible. s2 especially. they went new episode, repeat, repeat, new episode, repeat too often. s3 had the absurd break after 6 episodes, which was just an awful idea by abc.
4. the s4 finale was 2 weeks after the latest episode, and on a very late day of may 29. i know it faced no competition, but its tough to ask viewers to come back to tv for one night after essentially a week of nothing new.
5. adding in dvr for viewing for s3 and s4 would give a better sense for viewership. lost viewers are generally young and fairly wealthy. they record the show and watch it whenever. also factored in are internet downloads (well over 100k on eztv torrent site) and legal watching of the show online. i know its not much, but its there.
the best news about analyzing any kind of lost ratings info is that without a doubt, the final 2 seasons of the show will made. those declining numbers right there really on hurt the bank accounts of disney, which im not really losing any sleep over.
I COULD WAIT 2 YEARS FOR THIS SHOW. THE BEST DRAMA ON TV. FITTING FINALE !!! GREAT CLIFFHANGER !!! ARGH !!! I LOVE THIS SHOW !!! IF I HAD ONLY ONE SHOW TO CHOOSE FROM OUT OF THE SPECTRUM THE ONLY SHOW I WOULD CHOOSE IS LOST !!!
I SHOULD PROBABLY MENTION THAT WHEN I DISCUSS LOST AROUND NON-LOST VIEWERS I SOUND SLIGHTLY BREATHLESS AND CRAZY !!! NO THAT IS DAMN GOOD ENTERTAINMENT (MOVIE/SPORTS) OR OTHERWISE…
watching LOST is the ultimate distraction
Tim periods and DVR usage must considered in these comparisons. Season 1, Lost aired in the 8pm timeslot; moved to 9pm for season two and the season premiere of season three, however, when it returned in mid-season for season 3, it became a 10pm show and that's when the audience drop started. It was that point LOST DVR numbers also increased. I believe ABC basically taught viewers that there was another way to enjoy the show once they moved it into the 10pm time slot. In addition, by airing the show in that late hour, a drop off occured with younger viewers.