| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 25.39 | 6.29 | 3.64 | 2.79 | 2.59 | 1.13 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 8.3/23 | 2.0/5 | 1.6/4 | 0.8/2 | 0.9/2 | 0.5/1 |
You didn’t think you’d ever see Two and a Half Men under eight million viewers? Now you have, albeit just barely. You can blame the poor lead-in coming out of How I Met Your Mother, or surely it would’ve pole-vaulted over the eight million mark. OK, so I can’t believe anyone would actually analyze it to that level, but it warms my heart that a few of you do. It doesn’t make it as warm as watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh winning over Brazil in a beach volleyball match, but still…
The Olympics continue to dominate, High School Musical: Get in the Picture continues to be the dumbest thing ABC did all summer and I know the fan boys will denounce FOX for showing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles up against the Olympics, but I’m guessing that boils down to mattering about as much as How I Met Your Mother’s performance in the 18-49 demo was last night, which is to say, not much at all.
The CBS Monday night repeat lineup of comedies capped off with CSI: Miami was a very distant second place both among total viewers and 18-49 year olds, Univision took the third spot coming in ahead of ABC and FOX (and of course, the CW, though Gossip Girl’s numbers weren’t bad at all last night for a rerun, though we’re sure the numbers were well behind the season premiere of The Hills over on MTV) both in total viewers and among 18-49 year olds. UNI was second among 18-34 year olds, well ahead of all networks that weren’t showing the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
Full Details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | ABC | HSM: Get in the Picture | 2.12 | 0.5/2 |
| CBS | Big Bang Theory (R ) | 5.70 | 2.0/6 | |
| NBC | Olympics, Gymnastics, Track, Beach V.. | 19.24 | 5.7/18 | |
| FOX | Prison Break (R) | 2.70 | 1.0/3 | |
| UNI | Al Diablo con los Guapos | 4.04 | 1.8/5 | |
| CW | Gossip Girl (R ) | 1.29 | 0.6/2 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | How I Met Your Mother (R ) | 5.58 | 2.0/6 |
| 9:00 | CBS | Two and a Half Men (R ) | 7.96 | 2.5/7 |
| FOX | Terminator: TSCC (R) | 2.47 | 0.8/2 | |
| NBC | Olympics, Gymnastics, Track, Beach V.. | 26.69 | 8.8/23 | |
| CW | One Tree Hill (R ) | 0.97 | 0.5/1 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 4.15 | 1.9/5 | |
| ABC | Movie: Bewitched | 3.11 | 0.9/2 | |
| 9:30 | CBS | New Adventures of Old Christine (R ) | 5.68 | 1.8/5 |
| 10:00 | NBC | Olympics, Gymnastics, Track, Beach V.. | 27.75 | 9.6/25 |
| UNI | Cristina | 2.74 | 1.1/3 | |
| ABC | Movie: Bewitched | 3.15 | 1.0/3 | |
| CBS | CSI: Miami (R ) | 6.41 | 1.7/4 |
Nielsen Ratings Source: (C)2008 The Nielsen Company, All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Overnights: Local metered-market ratings service of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) in which household ratings and shares are provided to clients the morning following the day or evening of telecast.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
The huge audience for the Olympics shows that there is a huge audience out there that is willing to watch television if there is something worth watching. People are leaving their regular shows in droves, glad that there is something on other than the garbage that they have resigned themselves to watch.<br><br>Olympic competition is fresh and positive, and when our guys win we get to feel that swell of pride as our athlete stands on the platform and wells up with tears as the National Anthem plays. We even enjoy seeing the patriotism of the other athletes!<br><br>But the networks have failed to get this concept, even though shows like America's Got Talent also gets unbeatable numbers. They still are endlessly chasing the "edgy," as if that were new, as if they hadn't been trying to do "edgy" for the last 20+ years!<br><br>Hey, here's a concept! Why not try something fresh and positive as a regular show, instead of doing your d@mndest to find the most scandalous and degrading possible things to put on the air?<br><br>Of course, I am a Moonlight fan, but the only reason why we are hanging onto that show so tenatiously is because there hasn't been anything else worth watching for so long we feel desperate to keep that one shining light in the morass.