| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 11.734 | 6.269 | 5.268 | 4.434 | 4.110 | 2.123 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 4.7/13 | 1.9/5 | 2.4/7 | 1.2/3 | 1.6/4 | 1.0/3 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 4.4/13 | 1.3/4 | 2.2/7 | 0.9/3 | 1.9/6 | 1.2/4 |
The NY Giants / Washington Redskins kickoff of the NFL season brought NBC a commanding win across the board with an average of 11.734 million viewers and a demo adults 18-49 4.7 rating / 13 share and a demo adults 18-34 4.4 rating / 13 share. Both of those averages were watered down by the convention coverage later. The prime-time portion of the game itself averaged 13.57 million viewers and a demo adults 18-49 5.4 rating / 15 share. That was the lowest rated kickoff game since 2002.
Opposite the NFL, the season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares with 5.27 million viewers and a demo adults 18-49 2.4 rating was down significantly from last season’s premiere (9/19/07) numbers of 6.61 million and demo 3.1/8 (per Berman). How it performs next week, without gridiron competition will be telling.
Football took a toll on Big Brother as well, its 6.457 million viewers and demo 18-49 2.3/7 was down about 1.25 million and 0.3 demo ratings points from last week. ABC and CW were all repeats.
The final night of the Republican National Convention drew 7.4% more average broadcast viewers than the Democrat’s final night, with 21.158 million average among NBC, ABC, CBS and Univision vs. 19.695 million for the Democrats last Thursday. Note that Univision again delivered more 18-34 adults to the convention broadcast than ABC and CBS. We should have cable news data for last night later today for comparison.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share | 18-34 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | NBC | NFL NY Giants/Washington (8-10p) | 13.57 | 5.4/15 | 4.8/16, 5.6/16 |
| CBS | Big Brother 10 | 6.457 | 2.3/7 | 1.7/5 | |
| FOX | Kitchen Nightmares | 5.27 | 2.4/7 | 2.0/7, 2.3/7 | |
| Uni | Al Diablo Con los Guapos | 4.729 | 1.8/5 | 2.3/8 | |
| ABC | Ugly Betty (repeat) | 4.152 | 1.0/3 | 0.9/3 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 2.12 | 1.0/3 | 1.2/4 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | CSI (repeat) | 7.274 | 1.9/5 | 1.2/3 |
| Uni | Fuego en la Sangre | 4.549 | 1.8/5 | 2.0/6 | |
| ABC | Grey’s Anatomy (repeat) | 4.183 | 1.2/3 | 1.0/3 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Republican National Convention | 8.064 | 3.2/8 | 2.8/8 |
| CBS | Republican National Convention | 5.076 | 1.4/4 | 0.8/2 | |
| ABC | Republican National Convention | 4.966 | 1.4/4 | 0.9/3 | |
| Uni | Gran Noche Republicana | 3.052 | 1.3/3 | 1.4/4 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Overnight Ratings: 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. While routinely used for “next day” immediate analysis, these fast affiliate ratings are by process inaccurate for programs that air live across a network since they represent affiliate time period performance. For example, last night’s 10-11pm affiliate #’s would reflect 10pm on the East Coast but also 10pm on the West Coast which for a live event would not represent the same broadcast or portion of the broadcast.
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.
Did football have any overrun into the 10pm hour?
Julia, I’m pretty sure that it did, and with all live sports events, the overnight results are liable to be adjusted materially.
Thanks. I was just wondering because even with a huge lead in, the NBC coverage of McCain’s speech seems to have way too high ratings in the demos, if not in total viewers.
Yeah, Football had an overrun of about 2-4 minutes into NBC’s coverage, so those numbers could drop some for NBC in the finals.
But as I said in the previous post, this is an overall win for political awareness, if both events could draw such high numbers. So, how high can the debates go? The first 2004 debate over 60 million, and overall this election has had even more buzz, so it could very well rank among the Top 10 televised debates ever, as shown here: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/top-ten-presidential-debates-1960-to-present/
Definitely, Jonathan. If any of the networks were really smart, they would’ve seen this coming and had some new West Wing type shows lined up for the fall season. People just seem to be enjoying politics so much that I think the right show could be huge.
Well, McCain did indeed barely beat Obama:
http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/09/mccain-rating-1.html
So in the last two weeks we probably had the three most watched convention speeches EVER. Crazy stuff.
Wow, that 90210 repeat didn’t make much of a dent, did it?
Angie, I’m not sure any conclusions can be drawn from the results of that repeat. The second new episode next week will be *much* more telling.
Berman was disappointed with Kitchen Nightmares numbers. Granted they weren’t great but the show probably doesn’t cost that much to produce and just about anything they put on Thursday nights isn’t going to do much better and would cost more to produce.
I was disappointed that FOX already went the “Revisited” route on Kitchen Nightmares meaning that about an hour worth of the 2 hour show last night was stuff we had already seen. They did it in the UK though so not a surprise that they did it on the US version….just surprised that they did it already!
I highly doubt the data. There’s no way more people watched McCain. As i read the coverage i see skewed reporting that doesn’t add up. You really expect me to believe that 49 million people watched McSame when no where near that number voted for him in the primaries? right.
Ah, b brings the whiff of conspiracy back to TV ratings.
We’ve been sorely lacking in conspiracy rantings lately and I’ve *almost* missed them