For the week of May 19-25, 2008, CW’s Reaper topped all broadcast shows in audience % gain by time-shifting (DVR viewing). Its audience increased by 34.9% over the 2.301 million that watched it Live giving it a Live+7 audience of 3.105 million. Note that May 21, was the “official” end of the broadcast prime-time ratings season.
Media darling Gossip Girl was second with an increase of 31.3% over its Live viewing of 2.540 million giving it a Live+7 audience of 3.334 million.
Rounding out the top 10 were House, Bones, Grey’s Anatomy, Thursday’s So You Think You Can Dance, Boston Legal, One Tree Hill, How I Met Your Mother and Tuesday’s American Idol.
Recently strong, CW had only 3 shows in the top 20 this week which was lead by CBS with seven shows.
I’d be terribly amiss if I didn’t note the appearance of Friday’s Fuego En La Sangre to the % time-shifting gain list at #20. Not only is it Robert’s favorite Spanish language show, but if my memory serves me correctly, this is the very first time we have seen a Spanish show in our % time-shifted top 20. Bravo!
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 | REAPER | CW | 3,105 | 2,301 | 804 | 34.9% |
| 2 | GOSSIP GIRL | CW | 3,334 | 2,540 | 794 | 31.3% |
| 3 | HOUSE | FOX | 18,695 | 14,677 | 4,018 | 27.4% |
| 4 | BONES | FOX | 11,368 | 9,075 | 2,293 | 25.3% |
| 5 | GREY’S ANATOMY | ABC | 20,259 | 16,195 | 4,064 | 25.1% |
| 6 | SO YOU THINK CAN DANCE-THU | FOX | 9,697 | 7,935 | 1,762 | 22.2% |
| 7 | BOSTON LEGAL | ABC | 7,231 | 5,984 | 1,247 | 20.8% |
| 8 | ONE TREE HILL | CW | 3,561 | 2,949 | 612 | 20.8% |
| 9 | HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER | CBS | 8,678 | 7,188 | 1,490 | 20.7% |
| 10 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUE | FOX | 28,109 | 23,364 | 4,745 | 20.3% |
| 11 | UGLY BETTY | ABC | 9,622 | 8,054 | 1,568 | 19.5% |
| 12 | HELL’S KITCHEN | FOX | 12,246 | 10,326 | 1,920 | 18.6% |
| 13 | BIG BANG THEORY | CBS | 8,007 | 6,759 | 1,248 | 18.5% |
| 14 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 14,521 | 12,264 | 2,257 | 18.4% |
| 15 | SHARK | CBS | 11,374 | 9,858 | 1,516 | 15.4% |
| 16 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 18,050 | 15,655 | 2,395 | 15.3% |
| 17 | NCIS | CBS | 17,836 | 15,491 | 2,345 | 15.1% |
| 18 | LAW AND ORDER | NBC | 9,531 | 8,291 | 1,240 | 15.0% |
| 19 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 15,630 | 13,619 | 2,011 | 14.8% |
| 20 | FUEGO EN LA SANGRE FRI | UNI | 3,052 | 2,664 | 388 | 14.6% |
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.
This time-shifting gain comparison bothers me. It's a false notion of success. Why not just add up the time-shifted audiences for all shows, and THEN compare them. That is the comparison that really counts!
Angie, generally I agree with you, but we do the absolute time-shifted chart too. That's on me for not updating it yet (my job, not Bill's) but we do also provide the top 20 of the MOST time-shifted (as opposed to % shows) yet. we do those comparisons as well. We do both because we think it's interesting to see even for some of the lower rated shows what the % of DVR viewing is. We don't rank DVR viewing for all broadcast shows because Nielsen limits us to list of 20.
angie, My point here is to answer the question “Which broadcast shows added the most to their viewership on a % basis from time-shifting”? I don't mean to imply “success” or “failure”.
As Robert wrote, we post countless lists of absolute ratings that you can imply success or failure from, this is one of the few that shows a relative change.