The new broadcast television season has begun and few are interested in looking back, but we will just one more time. Here are the highlights (and low lights):
- Fox completed its sweep of all the major broadcast prime-time categories for the 2007-8 season.
- Aided by the Olympics, NBC was second for all the age demographic categories.
- CBS, used to finishing in the top spot for average viewership, had to settle for second.
- ABC was third for Adults 18-34 and 28-49 (just barely), but 4th for Adults 25-54
- Young skewing Univision beat CBS to finish fourth for Adults 18-34, otherwise finishing fifth across the board.
- CW was a distant 6th in all categories.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
If you minus American Idol, FOX would not be #1 in ANY category, I’m pretty sure. FOX is still struggling when it comes to remaining competitive on the scripted circuit. CBS is still in a great position to retain #1 this year in total households, especially if their shows perform extremely well, which they have been already.
I think the REAL verdict is FOX was the winner with a big, fat *. The abbreviated season depleted CBS, NBC, and ABC of scripted series, not allowing them to properly compete against reality-horse FOX.
Shane, any network is going to suffer if you remove multiple hours of its top show.
As for “Fox is all Idol” (look at point 2 in this post for the chart)
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/04/18/the-15-hour-advantage-what-does-fox-gain/3379
Fox’s top 3 shows (Fox, Idol x2) do account for more of its viewers than the others, but ABC isn’t *that* far behind, you could claim “ABC is all Dancing With The Stars” and be almost as correct.
Likewise, take away those 3 CSI hours and CBS is in a world of hurt.
Bill,
Not to be pushy or demanding, but could you make one of those charts just after the November sweeps? The one made in April would have included a lot of reruns, which could skew things. I just curious how it would look with only original episodes counted and the nets don’t usually start many reruns until December.
Holly, if you meant the network weekly season to date chart, they are all here: http://tvbythenumbers.com/category/nielsen-network-tv-ratings-season-to-date
If you meant the “STD Viewership By Show Rank”, sorry but its too much work!
I meant the viewership by rank, but that’s OK. No need to do a bunch of extra work just to satisfy my couriosity. If I decide I really care, I’ll do it myself.
Shane and Bill,
If you minus Survivor, could not the same be said about CBS? The CSI’s would do the same. In any case, these top two Nielsen powerhouses are both relying on less than a handful of their programming to be where they are.
clutz, you could really go through that exercise with any of the networks, I agree.
I wish I knew if that “top heavy”ness was a recent phenomena or had existed for quite some time, but we don’t have the data ourselves to figure that out.
Wonderful! Hey Fox! You won the cable news business by being fair and balanced – how about leaving them in the dust by creating a cable channel dedicated to serving conservatives? That would include news and other broadcasting that is UNfair and NOT balanced, but something that is dedicated to the viewing needs of those who identfiy themeselves as conservatives.
One would think that with the success of Fox News there would be people who would look to serve the needs of those who watch Fox with entertainment tailored to their specific needs. What happened is that the kool aid drinkers in the “traditional” big three networks just don’t get it, which leaves the field wide open for an enterprising company (like Fox), which wants to make lots of money. So how about it? If there’s a channel dedicated to golf, for crying out loud, can’t there be one for the millions of people out there who listen to talk radio?