| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 12.482 | 10.361 | 7.873 | 6.847 | 4.007 | 3.204 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.6/10 | 3.0/8 | 2.5/7 | 2.3/6 | 1.6/4 | 1.6/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.1/6 | 2.2/7 | 1.9/6 | 2.0/6 | 1.8/5 | 2.0/6 |
CBS’s crime dramas carried its lagging comedies along to a win Wednesday night for average viewers with 12.482 million (over ABC with 10.361 million) and the adults 18-49 demo with a 3.6 rating (over ABC with a 3.0). ABC’s lineup of Dancing with the Stars and a David Blaine special took the 18-34 demo with a 2.2 rating (over CBS with a 2.1). And NBC is going to have a very weak Wednesday until Deal or No Deal returns in a few weeks.
This week’s third Dancing with the Stars won the 8-9 hour and was the most watched show of the night with 15.568 million viewers and an 18-49 demo rating of 3.6. Still strong, but it’s trending downward noticeably from Monday and Tuesday nights. Bones, a tick below its results last week, won the hour’s and the night’s 18-34 demo crown with a 2.7 rating. The premiere of Knight Rider barely got out of the garage. It was third in viewers and the 18-49 demo, and a punishing 4th in the 18-34 demo. The CBS premieres of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried stayed in the garage, not reaching Knight’s viewership or 18-49 demo and being absolutely buried in the 18-34 demo. America’s Next Top Model lost 4% of its viewers and was stable in the demos from last week, and was second in the 18-34 demo for the hour.
The Criminal Minds premiere dominated the 9-10pm hour across the board and while America’s Got Talent (down significantly from last week) was second for viewership, the David Blaine: Dive of Death special nosed it out for second in the demos. ‘Til Death and Do Not Disturb continued to slide down 10% and 14% in their audiences.
The CSI:NY premiere crushed the competition from 10-11pm and was a very close second for the most watched show of the night. It’s demo adults rating of 4.3 was tops for the evening. David Blaine: Dive of Death was second in all categories. The premiere of Lipstick Jungle was disappointing, finishing third for the hour. It’s a show that probably should have been cancelled.
Note that the Presidential address skewed many of these fast affiliate overnight results during and after the address. Final results will differ for those shows.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share | 18-34 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | ABC | Dancing with the Stars | 15.568 | 3.6/10 | 2.4/8 |
| FOX | Bones | 9.611 | 3.1/9 | 2.7/9 | |
| NBC | Knight Rider (premiere) | 7.300 | 2.4/7 | 2.0/7 | |
| CBS | New Advs of Old Christine (premiere) | 6.702 | 2.1/6 | 1.0/3 | |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model | 4.070 | 2.1/6 | 2.5/8 | |
| UNI | Cuidado on el Angel | 3.585 | 1.4/4 | 1.6/5 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Gary Unmarried (premiere) | 6.843 | 2.3/6 | 1.3/4 |
| 9:00 | CBS | Criminal Minds (premiere) | 15.120 | 4.2/11 | 2.5/7 |
| NBC | America’s Got Talent | 10.235 | 2.7/7 | 1.9/6 | |
| ABC | David Blaine: Dive of Death (9-11p) | 8.889 | 2.8/7 | 2.0/6 | |
| FOX | Til Death | 4.632 | 1.7/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 4.512 | 1.8/5 | 1.9/5 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 2.337 | 1.2/3 | 1.5/4 | |
| 9:30 | FOX | Do Not Disturb | 3.533 | 1.4/3 | 1.2/3 |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI:NY (premiere) | 15.553 | 4.3/11 | 2.6/6 |
| ABC | David Blaine: Dive of Death (9-11p) | 6.626 | 2.5/7 | 2.2/6 | |
| NBC | Lipstick Jungle (premiere) | 6.084 | 2.3/6 | 1.9/5 | |
| UNI | Don Francisco Presenta | 3.926 | 1.6/4 | 1.8/5 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot. Timeslot demo winners in bold.
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 25th, 2008 at 9:24 am
FIRST!
Wow, cannot believe DND is still even on. ‘Til Death has gotten better, unfortunatly I think it lost it’s viewers last year…
September 25th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Do you have any context about how online premiers will be compared with these numbers? Knight Rider and Lipstick Jungle did pretty low – but both episodes were available online for free a week ago…
September 25th, 2008 at 9:36 am
ok? wat the hell is lipstick jungle? Just by the title, i can see why the only were able to skim 3 million viewers. What a waste of a time slot. And in honor of Greys Anatomy tonight…
NBC, Seriously?
September 25th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I can see why LJ was renewed. That demo number is huge for the little number of total viewers watching.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Sorry folks, that 3 millionish number for LJ was a typo, it is fixed. ;(
September 25th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Neps, we won’t get that context unless NBC releases data for streams and average minutes per stream. The online viewing in the US will be signficantly less than the TV viewing — I’d guess well under 5%.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Everybody can recycle their ‘lipstuck bungle’ headlines from a few weeks ago now.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Ha, okay, that’s better for Lipstick Jungle. I was wondering…
September 25th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Sandy, my typo was our very own “Lipstick Bungle”!
September 25th, 2008 at 10:06 am
A third night of Dancing With The Stars? Did ABC learn nothing from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I think they should only make one series a year not two and two nights of it are enough.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I think NBC made a huge mistake with Knight Rider. They should have paid attention to what people were saying after the movie instead of just looking at the numbers.
And just to say it again, in case people from FOX are reading this website, I think FOX needs to seriously consider moving Terminator to Wednesdays after Bones.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I think one thing that would help Knight Rider is to give the car a voice with personality like Finney did with the old Knight Rider. (Yes, I did say Finney because of his character on Boy Meets World. Shamefully, I don’t remember the actor’s real name and am too lazy to look.)
September 25th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Okay, I stand corrected on LJ. Time to put Life back in that timeslot
September 25th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Denise, changing the voice will make no difference. No, what they need to do is stop the stupid transformations (the minor modifications of the nano-skin from the Pilot were great and made sense, but this…) and get rid of the silly, silly, silly computer animation before the Turbo Boost. This kind of silly animations is what bothered me the most about Bionic Woman. Well, that and the crappy writing.
But even that won’t save this show, because there’s so much sillyness in there it’s just… well, beyond repair. I swear, if Knight Rider, after a few airings, has higher ratings than Terminator, I’m going to start shooting people. I don’t even have a gun, but I won’t let such a minor detail bother me.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Good to see Bones still goin’ strong on its own. If it can hold similar numbers next week when ABC rolls out their Wednesday premieres I think it’ll be safe to say Bones can finally be considered a mainstay on FOX.
Not so good for “Christine.” DWTS is probably siphoning a large part of its audience. Bummer. It’s a funny show.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:56 am
NBC has to be worried. Both KN and LJ premiered low and will likely take a hit next week when PD and DSM return on ABC (not that either of those will do great, but DSM and LJ will definitely share an audience).
The new comedy block on CBS arrived with a thud, but I think they’ll be a little patient with it. It’s a new time slot for comedies and they probably knew going in that it would be an uphill battle. The numbers now are horrid, but I could see them picking up, especially when KN tanks and ABC is airing the much weaker PD. The CBS dramas, on the other hand, came back strong.
Bones is still a solid player for FOX, but those comedies make the CBS numbers look good.
September 25th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I won’t be watching KN anymore, so don’t shoot me.
I only watched because PD wasn’t back on ABC until next week.
September 25th, 2008 at 11:24 am
The voice was William Daniels – he was also a doctor on St. Elsewhere before that. Google would easily have answered that question – “VOICE OF KITT”
Im sick to death of remakes.
What I want to know is Criss Angel really dead this time after he went over a cliff in a burning car? LOL!
September 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am
there’s no trending downward… in a sense of (ratings are dropping they are in trouble) the results show always does less and wed at 8 is an odd slot. monday will be back with 19-20 million as usual. results on tuesday will be 15-18. i think the weaker lineup around them will hurt a bit on tuesday. how in this world of crap ratings all around can a show that does 21, 18 and 15 for a result show receive the slightest bit of negative comment?
September 25th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Your headline is misleading. To read your headline, I’d expect that the crime dramas were aired directly against DTWS and had taken viewers away from it. Clearly that is not the case. CBS crime dramas did not actually overcome DTWS – they achieved comparable total viewers, and better 18-49 demos, but at separate timeslots!
September 25th, 2008 at 11:59 am
clutz, It was meant as a “To win the night” overcoming. Although, personally, I like TV Guide’s headline today “Crime Pays for CBS”. Their headline for last week’s Tuesday post is still my favorite with “Fringe Benefits”.
My skill in headline writing demonstrates that I’m a numbers guy!
September 25th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I’m disappointed with Old Christine’s numbers. Everyone knew it was going to be extremely tough competition for it to do well, and it didn’t do to bad. I just hope CBS doesn’t jump the gun and make any drastic decisions before they realize that it’s going to be a pretty hard timeslot for comedy. I think the numbers will get better and hopefully CBS will see the true humor the series has and not be sidelined by the ratings.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I do think it’s true that the appearance of Dancing on Thursday was a unique competitve event and that starting Oct 1, Pushing Daisies at 8pm is going to be a lot easier competition.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
CBS should put Christine back behind Two and a Half Men where it belongs. Ditch Worst Week which really was the worst comedy show I’ve seen, I think, ever. Jay Mohr was okay so they should give his show more of a chance but do we need another divorced guy with kids with overbearing ex-wife show? And find something else to go into the left over half hour time slot.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Disappointing night for networks across the board. Only CSI shows impressive numbers. Knight Rider, CBS Comedies, and Fox comedies are a joke.
If networks want comedies to succeed, they need good comedies. “Safe” sitcoms that have been popular in the past only guarantee failure. The one exception is the chuck lorre comedies on CBS, but not all comedy writers are chuck lorre. Traditional sitcoms are dead. Single camera story driven comedies are the future.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
OK last night’s shows WOW I cannot wait until next week when I can watch PD because I watched Knight Rider and that show is so badly written NBC should be happy they got the number they did for that show because it was horrible I mean the part where the guy has that stupid wig on and the woman kidnaps him in a convertable and his hair never comes off?? Oh and somebody explain to me how mike can be driving KITT as a stupid truck which I hate one second and then show up in the bed of the truck the next? WOW the new Knight Rider is horrible and I loved the original so I gave it a chance and I hated it last night
Over on ABC who watched that crap David Blaine: Dive of Death??? Did you see that sorry ending I mean he goes for his dive and he doesn’t even touch the stage he has a damn harness on and it just carries him up off screen and you hear the host saying oh that was incredible he dived just short of the stage and disappeared into thin air……..Oh yeah more like incredibly lame
A bad night for TV if you ask me but good to see Bones pulling good numbers my friend loves that show and I hope PD pulls in good numbers next week I really like that show and tonight I am watching My Name is Earl the show that in my opinion is much more funny than those two shows the Emmy Awards are jumping all over The Office and 30 Rock Earl is the best comedy on Thursday night’s and I hope the ratings show that when they come out tomorrow
September 25th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Well, I am very gleeful to see that “Lipstick Bungle” is doing so badly. It’s curtains…it’s over. I totally agree: it SHOULD have been canceled at the end of last season. Forget “Lifeless,” just bring back “Law & Order.”
As for “Knight Rider,” I’m a fan of the original series, so I’m not sure that I could bear to watch them kill a longtime favorite show. Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way. At least it did better than “LB.”
September 25th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Looks like FOX just canceled “Do Not Disturb”. Apparently they’ll be running two episodes of “Til Death” in the spot for now.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
^ Hah, like that’s any better.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Yeah, I expect a nice hour long spot will open up in FOX’s Wednesday night schedule pretty quickly.
Now if only FOX would put Terminator there, I think the show’s ratings would perk up pretty quickly.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
They cancelled it even before I got the Cancellation Index going!
September 25th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I have a feeling The New Adventures Of Old Christine will do better once DWTS goes back to 2 nights. The writing on The New Adventures Of Old Christine keeps getting better and better. I hope CBS realizes that they have a gem of a show on their hands. They really should partner it Two And A Half Men again, since they are truly the two funniest comedies on television right now.
Julia, Hamish, Wanda et al are brilliant! And you gotta love the “Meanie Moms.”
Love it Love it Love it! This show is LOL funny!
September 26th, 2008 at 7:16 am
I don’t know if you have seen this but the numbers for Criminal Minds and CSI:NY have been revised:
Criminal Minds, 17.007 million viewers, 10.5/16 HH, 4.7/12 A18-49
CSI: NY, 14.591 million viewers, 9.2/16 HH, 4.0/11 A18-49
September 26th, 2008 at 7:38 am
RViewer, thanks. The numbers for everything airing from 9pm on were highly skewed due to the Bush address. But we don’t typically post “final” number on a daily basis. We do post them weekly on Tuesdays.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:22 am
good post, thanks for this!
September 27th, 2008 at 7:02 am
It’s sad to say I check til deaths ratings each week to see when they will cancel this piece of cr**. No one but Fox knows how to kill a show. The whole premise of the show was the newlyweds with the 25 year married couple. When they got rid of the neighbors they should just close the door and turn out the lights.