Olympic Opening Ceremony Viewed By 3.2 Million on DVRs
For the week of telecasts that included the first 2 nights of the 2008 Summer Olympics (August 4-10) the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony had the largest absolute time-shifted audience with 3.254 million DVR viewers, 10% of its Live viewing audience. The other Summer Olympics shows in that 2 day period had DVR viewing audiences of 1-2 million and % increases of about 6%, quite high for sporting events. It will be interesting to see how much future nights of the Olympics were DVR viewed.
The percentage increases from DVR viewing for the top several shows were up sharply since my last post (over a month ago), with Swingtown increasing its Live audience by 38.6% from 2.55 million to 3.52 million over 7 days of DVR viewing. Big Brother and The Mole also had large % increases over their Live viewing.
Largest Time-Shifting Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Persons Live+7 (000s) | Persons Live (000s) | Time-shifted Audience (000s) | % increase from Live to Live+7 |
| 1 | SUMMER OLYMPIC OPEN CEREMONY | NBC | 35,880 | 32,626 | 3,254 | 10.0% |
| 2 | SO YOU THINK CAN DANCE-THU | FOX | 10,355 | 8,460 | 1,895 | 22.4% |
| 3 | SUMMER OLYMPIC SUN PRIME 1 | NBC | 32,679 | 30,798 | 1,881 | 6.1% |
| 4 | SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-WED | FOX | 9,686 | 7,914 | 1,772 | 22.4% |
| 5 | SUMMER OLYMPIC SAT PRIME 1 | NBC | 24,525 | 23,037 | 1,488 | 6.5% |
| 6 | BIG BROTHER 10-THU | CBS | 6,216 | 4,729 | 1,487 | 31.4% |
| 7 | BIG BROTHER 10-TUE | CBS | 6,959 | 5,599 | 1,360 | 24.3% |
| 8 | AMERICA’S GOT TALENT | NBC | 13,288 | 12,105 | 1,183 | 9.8% |
| 9 | WIPEOUT | ABC | 7,975 | 6,844 | 1,131 | 16.5% |
| 10 | SWINGTOWN | CBS | 3,533 | 2,549 | 984 | 38.6% |
| 11 | BIG BROTHER 10-SUN | CBS | 5,739 | 4,764 | 975 | 20.5% |
| 12 | AMERICA’S GOT TALENT 8/7(S) | NBC | 8,238 | 7,264 | 974 | 13.4% |
| 13 | I SURVED-JAPANESE GM SHOW | ABC | 5,234 | 4,358 | 876 | 20.1% |
| 14 | MOLE, THE | ABC | 3,582 | 2,778 | 804 | 28.9% |
| 15 | LAST COMIC STANDING 6 | NBC | 4,963 | 4,168 | 795 | 19.1% |
| 16 | FLASHPOINT | CBS | 6,787 | 6,129 | 658 | 10.7% |
| 17 | HOPKINS | ABC | 5,332 | 4,782 | 550 | 11.5% |
| 18 | BABY BORROWERS | NBC | 3,669 | 3,124 | 545 | 17.4% |
| 19 | GREATEST AMERICAN DOG | CBS | 6,204 | 5,666 | 538 | 9.5% |
| 20 | NASHVILLE STAR | NBC | 6,474 | 5,965 | 509 | 8.5% |
The absolute time-shifting audience size table ranks which of the Top 150 broadcast shows [by Live+7 viewers] had the largest absolute number of viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs)
Greatest % Increase from Time-Shifting for Broadcast TV Shows:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Persons Live+7 (000s) | Persons Live (000s) | Time-shifted Audience (000s) | % increase from Live to Live+7 |
| 1 | SWINGTOWN | CBS | 3,533 | 2,549 | 984 | 38.6% |
| 2 | BIG BROTHER 10-THU | CBS | 6,216 | 4,729 | 1,487 | 31.4% |
| 3 | MOLE, THE | ABC | 3,582 | 2,778 | 804 | 28.9% |
| 4 | BIG BROTHER 10-TUE | CBS | 6,959 | 5,599 | 1,360 | 24.3% |
| 5 | SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-THU | FOX | 10,355 | 8,460 | 1,895 | 22.4% |
| 6 | SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-WED | FOX | 9,686 | 7,914 | 1,772 | 22.4% |
| 7 | BIG BROTHER 10-SUN | CBS | 5,739 | 4,764 | 975 | 20.5% |
| 8 | I SURVED-JAPANESE GM SHOW | ABC | 5,234 | 4,358 | 876 | 20.1% |
| 9 | LAST COMIC STANDING 6 | NBC | 4,963 | 4,168 | 795 | 19.1% |
| 10 | BABY BORROWERS | NBC | 3,669 | 3,124 | 545 | 17.4% |
| 11 | WIPEOUT | ABC | 7,975 | 6,844 | 1,131 | 16.5% |
| 12 | AMERICA’S GOT TALENT 8/7(S) | NBC | 8,238 | 7,264 | 974 | 13.4% |
| 13 | HOPKINS | ABC | 5,332 | 4,782 | 550 | 11.5% |
| 14 | GOSSIP GIRL-MON | CW | 1,196 | 1,076 | 120 | 11.2% |
| 15 | GAME, THE-SUN | CW | 887 | 799 | 88 | 11.0% |
| 16 | FLASHPOINT | CBS | 6,787 | 6,129 | 658 | 10.7% |
| 17 | SMALLVILLE | CW | 1,782 | 1,612 | 170 | 10.5% |
| 18 | SUM OLYM OPEN CEREM(S) | NBC | 35,880 | 32,626 | 3,254 | 10.0% |
| 19 | AMERICA’S GOT TALENT | NBC | 13,288 | 12,105 | 1,183 | 9.8% |
| 20 | GREATEST AMERICAN DOG | CBS | 6,204 | 5,666 | 538 | 9.5% |
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).
Definitions:
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: The number that watched a program while it was broadcast.
LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day the program was broadcast.
LIVE+7: The number watched while a program was broadcast or via DVR within 7 days of original broadcast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Yay, DVR posts! Wow, The Mole looks like it could have been a hit…on the CW.
will we see the charts for the weeks missed?
BTW, Welcome Back Bill !
TVa, No, I don't think I can motivate myself to go back and do those with everything else I have going on, sorry
I hate to say I told you so – but I told you so. If there EVER was any better statistical evidence of a loyal and largely unaccounted for fan base using traditional measuring methods for this show, given how many people DVRed the show during the Olympics and watched it later, I haven't seen it. Amazing how they ACTUALLY know how to use their technology and were SMART enough to watch it later. I also said that many had plans for Friday night, and probably DVRed it and watch it later. Here's the proof. So, do you think these viewers might have a few bucks in their pocket to spend CBS? I've also said all along that this show is a hidden gem, a diamond in the rough, and a potential break out hit given a chance to find and build its audience. If CBS doesn't give it a chance, they are utter and complete fools.
Xerxes, no offense, but that number needs to be much bigger in the absolute to matter. Percentage means nothing, ask Gossip Girl.
Yes Robert. I know. I bow to your expertise and knowledge. Numbers don't lie. The math doesn't add up. The square root of four is not three and nothing I say will change that. Will it be back on CBS? Don't know. I just hope it has an after life like a lot of us are hoping for on nothing but blind faith, because that's all we fans have.
YEA!!!! Swingtown!!! Among all the reality shows you are the one and only scripted show on top!!!!
You do realize that Swingtown is one of only two scripted shows airing on the broadcast nets right now, right? So, yay! Swingtown had more DVR viewers than the reruns.
The other scripted show (Flashpoint) got 300,000 fewer DVR viewers, but more than twice as many viewers overall (which makes the percentage increase much lower). Swingtown getting increasing 38% from Live to Live+7 isn't very impressive considering where it started out.
I do realize and I could have been more clear in my comment regarding Swingtown. I did note a bit of sarcasm in your comment. However it was just a comment…you could have responded without the jest. I did not provoke you in anyway to deserve your remarks. I thank you in educating me in the results but would have appreciate it much more if it would have been a little friendlier. And not too worry this is my last post and last time in this site.