| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 13.886 | 7.857 | 7.112 | 5.825 | 4.864 | 2.882 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 5.4/14 | 2.0/5 | 2.8/7 | 2.0/5 | 2.0/6 | 1.4/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 4.7/14 | 1.3/4 | 2.2/7 | 1.5/4 | 2.5/7 | 1.9/6 |
The return of the age demo monster House powered Fox to a convincing victory across the board on Tuesday averaging 13.886 million viewers (CBS second at 7.857 million), an 18-49 demo rating of 5.4 (NBC second with a 2.8), and an 18-34 demo rating of 4.7 (Univision second with a 2.5).
House was, by far the most viewed show of the night with 14.409 million viewers, an 18-49 demo rating of 5.6 and an 18-34 demo rating of 4.9. Here are last year’s show by show *final* results for House. Note that last season House was on at 9pm Tuesdays in the Fall, so the comparisons are not apples to apples.
The magic of House rubbed off on the second airing of Fox’s Fringe as it soared to an average audience of 13.363 million viewers (almost 50% above its premiere of ~9 million), an 18-49 demo rating of 5.2 and an 18-34 demo rating of 4.5.
The finale of Big Brother 10 grabbed 7.630 million viewers, third for its hour, as was its 18-49 demo rating of 2.7. Its 18-34 demo rating of 2.0 put it 4th for the hour.
NBC’s Biggest Loser premiered with 7.377 million viewers from 8-9 and 8.245 million from 9-10 and an 18-49 demo rating of 2.9 from 8-9 and 3.4 from 9-10, good enough for second in both hours.
CW’s 90210 was stable under the assault by House with 3.335 million viewers (vs. 3.314m last week) its demo ratings increased a bit, 18-49 from 1.7 to 1.8, and 18-34 from 2.1 to 2.4. But that 18-34 2.4 rating was a distant 3rd for the hour. However, CW will claim it to be second, they, and the rest of the English media ignore Univision results. Here is
CW’s Privileged didn’t fare as well with its audience falling 17% from last week to 2.429 million. Its demo ratings slipped as well, placing it in a last place tie for adults 18-34 with but a 1.4 rating. Here is some additional data on the night’s final numbers as seen from the point of view of The CW.
ABC’s UFOs: Seeing is Believing special did manage to beat repeats in the 18-49 demo from 10-11 with a 2.1, but that’s the best that can be said about it.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share | 18-34 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | House (premiere) | 14.409 | 5.6/16 | 4.9/15 |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) | 9.648 | 1.8/5 | 1.0/3 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser (premiere) | 7.377 | 2.9/8 | 2.3/7 | |
| ABC | Wipeout | 6.175 | 2.1/6 | 1.7/5 | |
| UNI | Al Diablo con los Guapos | 5.836 | 2.4/7 | 3.2/10 | |
| CW | 90210 | 3.335 | 1.8/5 | 2.4/7 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | Fringe | 13.363 | 5.2/13 | 4.5/12 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser (premiere) | 8.245 | 3.4/9 | 2.9/8 | |
| CBS | Big Brother 10 (finale) | 7.630 | 2.7/7 | 2.0/6 | |
| ABC | Wipeout | 5.539 | 1.8/5 | 1.4/4 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.378 | 2.2/6 | 2.7/7 | |
| CW | Privileged | 2.429 | 1.1/3 | 1.4/4 | |
| 9:30 | ABC | UFOs: Seeing is Believing (9:30-11p) | 4.972 | 1.7/4 | 1.2/3 |
| 10:00 | CBS | Wihtout a Trace (repeat) | 6.294 | 1.6/4 | 0.9/3 |
| ABC | UFOs: Seeing is Believing (9:30-11p) | 6.044 | 2.1/6 | 1.5/5 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (repeat) | 5.715 | 2.0/6 | 1.5/5 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 3.379 | 1.4/4 | 1.6/5 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
The half-hour results make House look even stronger, but Fringe somewhat weaker:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share | 18-34 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | House | 13.444 | 5.1/16 | 4.6/15 |
| 8:30 | FOX | House | 15.373 | 5.9/16 | 5.0/15 |
| 9:00 | FOX | Fringe | 13.948 | 5.3/14 | 4.5/13 |
| 9:30 | FOX | Fringe | 12.778 | 5.0/12 | 4.2/12 |
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
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.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Hardly a power House relative to last year when season four premiered to 18.31 million. This episode would have ranked as the next to the least viewed episode of last year’s numbers during a strike-riddled season.
You can see all of last year’s data for House.
Still the halo for Fringe was quite impressive
September 17th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Goes to show Wipeout is a summer program. Decent numbers for Biggest Loser – NBC will be happy with the continued quiet success of this low cost option (especially as they get 2 hours for much less than 1 hour of scripted television). Also good 18-34 number in the 9pm-10pm hour. Good job for 90210 – it seems Secret Life of the American Teenager was more of a drain on its viewers than House. CW will be very happy with these numbers. Privileged fell which was to be expected. Though it may still get 22 (depends what happens in the coming weeks and ultimately what happens with Stylista).
September 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
the half hourly data for House is interesting. The 8pm effect still seems in play daylight savings time wise, so it seems likely House may build on these numbers.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Power-House? Really?
September 17th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I am also confused about Biggest Loser – did it average those numbers in the article or was that a typo and the average was not listed (the numbers stated as the average are stated later at the 8-9pm hour ratings).
September 17th, 2008 at 9:22 am
It’s interesting but last week a few more 18-49 viewer age group watched Sarah Connor than Fringe…last weeks 15 of the top 20 had less than 4 million viewers in the so called demographic(18-49)…making Sarah & friends in the top 20 for the genre…I wonder how networks are going to look to cater to the 50+ demographics; seems how they now bring in 2/3 of the viewership…???
September 17th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Raymond, my bad on the Biggest Loser average, will correct when able.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:28 am
House also seemed to run a minute or two over which was annoying since I was recording it for someone who could not watch. I was watching the show but recording another show for the next hour. So I had to tell my husband about the final conversation between Wilson and House. Not the same as watching, is it? I wish the networks would either warn us or stop doing this. I could have made other recording arrangements. And, yes I know USA will run the episode in a couple of weeks. It is still a pain.
Were they using those extra minutes of ad time removed from Fringe to plant more advertising during House? Thus moving the House ending a little later?
September 17th, 2008 at 9:29 am
As long as I was already “in there” I updated the prose re: The Biggest Loser, it’s fixed.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Catherine, 50% of TVbytheNumbers was impacted by the DVR snafu. Fortunately, the other half also recorded Fringe and saw Wilson’s last words (of the episode) to Dr. House. I always play it safe anyway with season passes and have my DVR set to record 5 minutes longer to avoid this kind of stuff which seems to happen regularly. I’m not sure if the overrun was due to extra ads, though it does seem at least a little likely.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Yeah, it’s tough to compare this season to last season of House, due to the 8pm premiere. I don’t recall, but is FOX planning on switching it to 9pm after baseball is over like they did a couple of years ago?
Much better for Fringe than I expected. It’ll be interesting to see if it can keep these numbers.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I think Fringe will be cancelled soon people are into now because of the hype then the desire to watch will fade.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Pata, you can’t start making predictions of cancelation when it’s retaining over 90% of its lead-in. Personally, I was not too fond of the show, but it appears that the House audience was, or there would have been a much bigger drop off at the half hour.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I agree Julia, it’s inaccurate to compare any shows this year from last just cause the writer’s strike effected everything. People didn’t know if they were gonna watch a new episode or a repeat.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I like Fringe but wouldn’t say I loved it yet (I do love House and Abram’s other focus, a little show we like to call “LOST”). But I am surprised with the retention as well. Next week will be very interesting. But sticking w/the theme of instant-anlysis, I give some credit to Fox. I didn’t really see these shows running well together. But, I have to admit they are both “dark” and cynical shows that often show the human anatomy in somewhat creepy form, perhaps its a perfect fit.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I believe in UFOs as much as fairies on toadstools, but for tens of millions they are modern mythology. I’ve started watching X-files for the first time in syndication on Scifi, loved the original Outer Limits ( best scifi by a parsec ever ) and though am fatigued with House, once the best drama on TV, I am very glad it has boosted Fringe to hit status. Even early to bed types should be thanking Art Bell and his late night radio show for reinvigorating at the very least a terrific metaphor for alienation and social anxiety. He helped keep the dream ( or nightmare ) alive.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Jay — I am decidedly NOT fond of Art Bell (or George Noory) who capitalize heavily on the people who *do* believe in fairies. I like the subject matter in dramatic fiction, but Coast-to-coast capitalizes on believers and has spun an entire “cottage industry” (and its getting to be a pretty big cottage) that takes advantage of these people — AKA gets their cash. There are people who believe Stargates really exist, right now and the government is hiding them. Art Bell wouldn’t have it any other way. I would. /rant off.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I think putting it after House is just going to make its deficiencies more noticeable. A large part of the problem is that Pacey has very poor delivery and timing, and is quite obviously trying very very hard to be the same character as House. But he can’t pull it off.
Of course, the other huge problem is the lead female, and since House doesn’t have any great female leads, I suppose that won’t be underscored. Though the Fringe lead is far more annoying than even Cameron has ever been.
(I should note, I say this as someone who gave up on House a couple seasons back.)
September 17th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Hurray for “House”!
And way to show off that racism, CW-and-rest-of-the-English-media. Ignore the Hispanic channel just because it doesn’t make you look as good. Nice.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I am actually surprised that Fringe did that well also, but I do see it as a good pairing with House. Both of them have a certain amount of “ick factor” associated with them. It is a good start for Fringe…I am not surprised about the success of House. Let’s see if Fox can continue to carry the night once all of the other new shows come on. My guess: Tue night belongs to Fox.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am
FRINGE is like merging X-FILES with LOST. Like it so far – not in love with it yet. Hope it sticks around. I wonder if it survives until LOST ends – we will find out that MEGA DYNAMICS actually runs the HANSO FOUNDATION and Widmores company? It would be funny of dead LOST characters started showing up on FRINGE.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Honestly, I feel that Fringe is a bad X-Files knockoff and will burn itself out quickly. That said, given that its ratings improved over last week and are that large, it’s time to start playing taps for TSCC.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Fringe’s increase can be explained in one word, House. While it did better than I expected, I’m still looking at last nights numbers as the initial sampling. We’ll see what happens next week.
The year-to-year drop for House is significant even with the move to 8. It’s in no danger of getting canceled, but the numbers still need to increase.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:55 am
It seems pretty natural for shows to start shedding viewers after the initial interest has worn off. I am curious to know when Fringe will hit that plateau. Holly, you say that the numbers for House need to increase. I think they are good. What do you think the numbers should be? How high is great? AI numbers probably aren’t realistic for a scripted show.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I think that some people just thought House was on at 9 like last season and so turned on the TV at 8:30, increasing the second half numbers. And some maybe just turned it on at 9, saw it wasn’t House, and watched something else.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Mike G., Last year House premiered to over 18 million and a 7.8 in the demo, a drop of 4 million and 2.0 in the demo against weak competition is not good. Without anything to compare it to, these numbers are not bad, but they are not great either. Given its status and popularity, it should be getting closer to 16 and 6.0 (1 mill and 1.0 lower than it ever got last year for a new episode, but it’s at an earlier hour). It’s still they highest rated scripted show that FOX has to offer, but the premeire numbers have to be worrying the Powers That Be a bit.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Good for 90210… better thn next week even though it was against House!
House did well so did Fringe!!!!
just out if intrest, does anybody know what the ratings were like for ‘LAS VEGAS’ is its 5 year run?? Wikipeida doesnt say! thanks!
September 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Hmm, I just looked it up, and House premiered to over 19 mil at 8pm in 2006. Makes this rating look even less impressive.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
House should be expected to drop of significantly. Shows only remain massive hits for 2 or 3 seasons almost without exception. (AI is one) It happened to Desperate Housewives, Lost, and even 24. People lose interest. It happens. House is still an exceptional moneymaker for Fox and will milk many more seasons out of it.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I recall reading an article during the writer’s strike about how after the last strike 10% of viewers just didn’t return to broadcast TV. Could this be a sign of the same thing occurring again?
September 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Holly, House dropped below 16 million viewers with original airings three times last season — in the range of ~13.5 million to 15 million per each of those three episodes. They were all post-strike airings. Julia, I’m sure Bill will do a more thorough analysis, but we will not be shocked by 10% decreases over last year for the broadcast nets during primetime
September 17th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Julia, I with you 100%. I’ll run some numbers and post something before Monday about my expectations for broadcast viewership overall for the season.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Oops, didn’t scroll down far enough to see the post-strike Monday airings.
September 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
House is suffering because it is going out at 8pm, if it was on at 9pm it’d be a different story. And before Fringe can be called a success we should see how well it holds up against Dancing With The Stars.