| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 6.32 | 6.02 | 5.02 | 4.76 | 4.18 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 1.7/6 | 1.5/5 | 1.3/4 | 1.4/5 | 1.3/4 |
Fox’s relocated (for the 2008-9 season) reality duo of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and Don’t Forget the Lyrics cruised to the Friday viewership title with 6.32 million and the demo adults 18-49 title with a 1.7 rating / 6 share. It’s an interesting strategy by Fox to move these two reality shows over from Thursday, where they had only mediocre success against heavyweight competition last year, to Friday where they might be the big shows on the night. We’ll know if that worked or not after the rest of the competition really moves in on Friday in a few weeks. While Fifth Grader was the most watched show and demo winner for 8-9, Lyrics won the demo from 9-10, but lost the viewership race to a Ghost Whisperer repeat.
One of the last Friday Night Smackdown’s on the CW (CW finale is 9/26, MyNetworkTV premiere on 10/3) finished with an unusually weak (for it) 4.18 million and only a 1.3/4 in the 18-49 demo. The CW is not worried about losing their #2 show from last season, they’ve got the 18-34 female demo locked up! Or do they?
ABC’s 2008 Alma Awards special drew only 3.57 million viewers and hobbled ABC for the night, but 20/20 came back strong from 10-11 with 7.93 million viewers and a demo 2.1/7, tops for the night in both categories. Dateline NBC, the only other new show for the night finished with only 5.42 million viewers and a demo 1.6/5.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? | 6.92 | 1.8/6 |
| CBS | Ghost Whisperer (repeat) | 5.68 | 1.5/5 | |
| CW | Friday Night Smackdown! (8p-10p) | 4.18 | 1.3/4 | |
| ABC | 2008 Alma Awards (8-10p) | 3.57 | 1.0/3 | |
| NBC | America’s Toughest Jobs (repeat) | 3.43 | 1.1/4 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | Ghost Whisperer (repeat) | 6.16 | 1.6/5 |
| FOX | Don’t Forget the Lyrics | 5.72 | 1.7/6 | |
| NBC | Dateline NBC (9-11p) | 5.42 | 1.6/5 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | 20/20 | 7.93 | 2.1/7 |
| CBS | Numb3rs (repeat) | 6.22 | 1.5/5 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot. Note that we don’t get 18-34 demo data for Friday and Saturday until Monday AM and often choose not to update these older posts with it.
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.
In a few weeks i think Fox will regret the move because if a rerun of Ghost Whisperer bet Don’t forget the lyrics in terms of viewers then i’m certain CBS will be the no 1 network on Fridays but NBC has a bit of a dark horse with Dateline, some weeks it has modest viewership and others it has really good viewership. I am curious to see if Moonlight fans boycott the CBS 9pm hour (Vacated by the Ex-list i think)
Fox, and ABC, NBC and CBS (Moonves protests notwithstanding), really care about adults 18-49 and profits. Viewers are more a bragging rights token than a programming objective.
If Fox can post competitive 18-49 results on Fridays with those two shows they’ll be very happy. They had to go somewhere and their slots on Thursday were taken by the much stronger Kitchen Nightmares and the (at one point stonger, but now questionable) Moment of Truth.
I think those shifts by Fox were a reasonable strategy for maximizing their weekly 18-49 audience which is what matters.
I find it hard to believe that a TV executive would think that the same audience that would watch a genre show like Moonlight would also find the Ex-List appealing. I realize part of the issue is that I’m not sure who the target is for the Ex-List. But if the contention is that Moonlight didn’t draw the coveted demo in high enough numbers to go for season two then wouldn’t they want new blood (sorry, pun intended) for the new show? At this point if they really wanted to keep the same Moonlight viewers for the Ex-List then they should have put that show on in another time slot / night. Why poke a stick into a bee hive? Or have I got this all wrong?
Fridays in the fall will be interesting
FOX has a powerful duo with their gameshows.
CBS with their usual dramas and the DOA Ex-List
NBC has Crusoe and DOND
ABC has Supernanny/Wifeswap who I think will challenge CBS for #1.
The numbers for Lyrics and 5th Grader are going to have to get better for them to be the big shows of the night. Their numbers right now aren’t beating repeats by much, even in the demo, and won’t beat what first run shows will get.
Miss Swingtown.
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@Em I think CBS are trying to get a bunch of new viewers to watch The Ex List as everything else they’ve tried doesnt work; The Sci-Fi/Fantasy viewers of Ghost Whisperer don’t continue watching similary themed shows like Moonlight or Threshold, similary the procedural viewers of Numb3rs also don’t watch a legal show like Close to Home there. The Ex-List does seem like an odd fit (not really aimed at a cult audience or a procedural viewer), and I doubt if it will succeed. I wouldn’t be surprised seeing either newcomer Harper’s Island or the remaining episodes of Flashpoint in this slot come mid-season.
Here in L.A., ABC aired a breaking news coverage of the really horrible train collision. How would that affect the numbers in the finals?
Christian, these fast affiliate overnight ratings simply measure the viewership for the network affiliates during those time periods on that night in their particular time zones.
So I believe the way it will work is that the LA viewers that in the overnights were attributed to the various shows during primetime will end up being removed from the final show numbers we see on a weekly basis on Tuesdays (but paying customers may see much earlier, so they can show up in the press earlier as well).