For the week of May 12-18, NBC’s The Office stays atop our list of audience % gain by time-shifting (DVR viewing). Its audience increased by 41.2% over the 6.743 million that watched it Live giving it a Live+7 audience of 9.520 million. That’s quite high, but not the highest we’ve seen.
CW’s Reaper was a close second with an increase of 39.1% increasing its tiny Live audience of 738,000 to 1.887 million after time-shifting. Rounding out the top 10 were Beauty and the Geek, Gossip Girl, Lost, Smallville, Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, America’s Top Model and House.
And while it may sound like a broken record, not many people watch the CW, but a large portion of the watch via their DVRs as the CW lead all networks with 7 shows in the top 20 and an impressive 6 of the top 10. Second was ABC with 4 shows out of the top 20.
Top 20 Most % Time-shifted Broadcast TV Shows:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Persons Live+7 (000s) | Persons Live (000s) | Time-shifted Audience (000s) | % increase from Live to Live+7 |
| 1 | OFFICE | NBC | 9,520 | 6,743 | 2,777 | 41.2% |
| 2 | REAPER | CW | 2,625 | 1,887 | 738 | 39.1% |
| 3 | BEAUTY AND THE GEEK | CW | 1,901 | 1,388 | 513 | 37.0% |
| 4 | GOSSIP GIRL | CW | 3,158 | 2,319 | 839 | 36.2% |
| 5 | LOST | ABC | 13,102 | 9,764 | 3,338 | 34.2% |
| 6 | SMALLVILLE | CW | 4,521 | 3,471 | 1,050 | 30.3% |
| 7 | GREY’S ANATOMY | ABC | 17,744 | 13,688 | 4,056 | 29.6% |
| 8 | ONE TREE HILL | CW | 3,127 | 2,418 | 709 | 29.3% |
| 9 | AMERICA’S TOP MODEL | CW | 5,170 | 4,056 | 1,114 | 27.5% |
| 10 | HOUSE | FOX | 16,997 | 13,443 | 3,554 | 26.4% |
| 11 | BONES | FOX | 10,741 | 8,645 | 2,096 | 24.2% |
| 12 | GHOST WHISPERER | CBS | 9,462 | 7,756 | 1,706 | 22.0% |
| 13 | SUPERNATURAL | CW | 3,428 | 2,814 | 614 | 21.8% |
| 14 | UGLY BETTY | ABC | 9,369 | 7,719 | 1,650 | 21.4% |
| 15 | MEDIUM | NBC | 9,811 | 8,092 | 1,719 | 21.2% |
| 16 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUE | FOX | 26,029 | 21,520 | 4,509 | 21.0% |
| 17 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 18,349 | 15,314 | 3,035 | 19.8% |
| 18 | NUMB3RS | CBS | 11,054 | 9,231 | 1,823 | 19.7% |
| 19 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 14,535 | 12,174 | 2,361 | 19.4% |
| 20 | MY NAME IS EARL | NBC | 7,853 | 6,584 | 1,269 | 19.3% |
The % Time-shifting table ranks which of the Top 150 broadcast shows [by Live+7 viewers] had the largest % increase in viewing between Live audience and Live+7 audience numbers from viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs).
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Bob, Do the Live and same day and Live plus 3 days mirror this? Don't the advertisers like it better the closer to air date the show is watched?
Melanie,
Nielsen reports no LIVE+3 data for shows. There are C+3 reports for commercial ratings but we don't pay for them so we don't see them. We only got a whiff of the numbers for one C+3 report and in the aggregate they mirrored the LIVE+SD results fairly closely. We know for many shows that same day DVR viewing represents a significant chunk. I'm guessing by three days out from the show's airing, 75% of its weekly DVR viewing (LIVE+7) has occurred. It's an educated guess based on other data I have seen, but, still merely a guess.
Robert
Thanks, Robert. I'm sure you're right. Judging by my own DVRing — if I don't watch it within a couple of days, the chances of me ever watching dwindles quickly over time . I guess if we wanted to do the math between the 'finals' for live + same day and live + seven we could. Not that I'm in a rush to tackle it! LOL
I must have been reading about the comercials