Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	6.597	5.662	5.442	5.005	4.059	2.167
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	2.0/6	2.1/6	1.7/5	1.7/5	1.8/5	0.7/2
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	1.4/4	2.1/7	1.4/5	1.3/4	1.9/6	0.6/2

CBS pulled in the viewership win for Thursday with an average of 6.597 million viewers [over Fox with 5.662m], but Fox won the night for both demo adults 18-49 [2.1 rating/ 6 share over CBS with 2.0/6] and adults 18-34 [2.1/7]. Univision delivered the younger viewers as usual to finish 2nd among 18-34 and 3rd among 18-49.

Big Brother was the most watched show overall for the night with 7.710 million viewers and among adults 18-49 with a 2.6/8. Even the 10th installment of the show’s got some life left in it. Fox’s 9pm Moment of Truth was the winner among adults 18-34 for the night with a 2.4 rating / 7 share. Reports of Moment of Truth’s demise (some from me!) may have been premature.

While the regular season NFL rules the TV landscape, the exhibition season does not and NBC struggled with it’s Jacksonville/Washington matchup to finish 4th in overall viewers and well back in the demos. Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon (from TVbytheNumbers show favorite Pardon The Interruption) think that the NFL exhibition season will soon be a thing of the past. Looking at those numbers I agree 100%. Think of how much more money the NFL could add to its TV contract by making those exhibition games into regular season games.

As is typical for Thursdays this summer, ABC went with reruns, which still beat the NFL game and while the CW was in 6th place as usual, Thursday has been its strongest night all summer and my guess will continue into the fall.

Once again, NBC delivered the most broadcast viewers to the final night of the Democratic National Convention with 6.269 million from 10-11. They also took the age demos for the slot as well. Note that Univision delivered the second most adult 18-34 viewers to the Democrats. The national English media will ignore this.

Starting today, we will include the demo adults 18-34 data for the Overnight ratings when it’s available to us which is not every day. I think we’re the only site that currently does that online.

Full details:

Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©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.