The two hour LOST finale won the week against little competition, as the second place show in the weekly top 20 was a repeat of Two and a Half Men. FOX’s lineup of Hell’s Kitchen, two airings of So You Think You Can Dance and Moment of Truth all cracked the top 20 and all performed well in the 18-49 demo.
CBS led the list with thirteen shows, with ten of them being reruns. The problem CBS has is still one of skewing older. 60 Minutes was the third most watched program overall but wasn’t even among the top 30 highest rated broadcast primetime programs in the 18-49 demo. Neither were NCIS, The Price is Right Primetime or Cold Case.
On the other end of the spectrum was CBS’ foray into mixed martial arts (MMA) with the Elite XC Saturday Night Fights airing featuring Kimbo Slice which tied for 51st on a household ratings basis. It averaged 4.851 million viewers for the entire 171 minute (almost, but not quite 3 hours) event. The Kimbo Slice/James Thompson bout happened after the primetime portion but is included in these numbers. The primetime portion from 9pm-11pm averaged 4.3mm in the overnights so there’s no doubt a lot more people tuned in when Slice was on the screen.
While Saturday Night Fights didn’t make the top 20 in total viewing it outranked number three in total viewing 60 Minutes in the 18-49 demo. The fights were #18 in the 18-49 rankings based on viewers and if we had 18-34 rankings, it probably would have performed even better.
CBS also did well with Million Dollar Password it was third overall and made the 18-49 rankings at #17 (ahead of Kimbo Slice!).
It turns out LOST was ABC’s only entry in the top 20. I guess if you’re only going to have one, number one is the best one to pick. NBC had but two shows on the list and FOX had four. I’ll get the full 18-49 top 20 up soon.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 06/01/08:
| Rank | Shows | Net | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | # OF HOMES (LIVE+SD) (000) | # Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) | 18-49 Rank |
| 1 | LOST | ABC | 7.3 | 12 | 8,220 | 12,303 | 1 |
| 2 | TWO AND A HALF MEN-SPC(S) (R ) | CBS | 6.9 | 11 | 7,734 | 10,811 | 5 |
| 3 | MILLION DOLLAR PASSWORD | CBS | 6.8 | 12 | 7,656 | 10,621 | 17 |
| 4 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 6.8 | 13 | 7,635 | 10,291 | |
| 5 | NCIS ( R ) | CBS | 6.7 | 11 | 7,535 | 9,774 | |
| 6 | CRIMINAL MINDS ( R ) | CBS | 6.4 | 10 | 7,202 | 9,730 | 15 |
| 7 | CSI: NY ( R ) | CBS | 6.4 | 11 | 7,204 | 9,563 | 11 |
| 8 | SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-THU | FOX | 6.0 | 10 | 6,719 | 9,561 | 3 |
| 9 | HELL’S KITCHEN | FOX | 5.6 | 9 | 6,314 | 9,500 | 2 |
| 10 | SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-WED | FOX | 5.8 | 10 | 6,548 | 9,359 | 4 |
| 11 | CSI ( R ) | CBS | 6.0 | 10 | 6,732 | 8,799 | 19 |
| 12 | WITHOUT A TRACE ( R ) | CBS | 5.8 | 10 | 6,557 | 8,516 | 21 |
| 13 | RULES OF ENGAGEMENT-SPC(S) ( R ) | CBS | 5.3 | 8 | 5,958 | 8,469 | 7 |
| 14 | 48 HOURS MYSTERY TUESDAY ( R ) | CBS | 6.0 | 10 | 6,796 | 8,448 | 12 |
| 15 | DATELINE SUN 9PM | NBC | 5.4 | 9 | 6,045 | 8,088 | 22 |
| 16 | PRICE IS RIGHT PRIMETIME | CBS | 5.1 | 9 | 5,794 | 7,785 | |
| 17 | COLD CASE ( R ) | CBS | 5.3 | 9 | 5,937 | 7,732 | |
| 18 | MOMENT OF TRUTH | FOX | 4.6 | 8 | 5,242 | 7,403 | 6 |
| 19 | LAW AND ORDER:SVU ( R ) | NBC | 5.3 | 9 | 5,946 | 7,312 | 10 |
| 20 | CSI: MIAMI-SPC(S) ( R ) | CBS | 4.9 | 8 | 5,492 | 7,128 | 27 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved
All numbers above based on live plus same day DVR viewing.
Interesting factoid indeed. It may have also been the first time that it aired in a week with zero new scripted drama competition for the entire week from any other network.
nick is correct, Jim and Trees were both new episodes, but they are not dramas.
Perhaps they are also not to be considered “competition”
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/06/04/top-abc-pr...
Nick,
yep, true, but they were on the same network as LOST and they weren't ever power shows that LOST normally “competes” with like Idol, House, CSI, ABC's own Grey's, Desperate Housewives, DWTS, etc.