| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 11.15 | 10.25 | 9.45 | 4.16 | 3.95 | 3.76 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.6/9 | 3.3/8 | 3.8/9 | 1.7/4 | 1.6/4 | 1.5/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.5/7 | 2.8/7 | 3.1/8 | 1.9/5 | 1.5/4 | 1.3/4 |
Update: 11:15am PDT: Variety is reporting that overall viewing for the debate including cable and PBS should top 70 million. If so that would top the presidential debate by more than 33%.
Nearly 40 Million were watching the vice presidential debate on broadcast network television for the 9pm-10pm portion. I can’t calculate the full broadcast average for the 9pm-10:30pm portion because we lack any data for Fox after 10pm. We do not have the cable network numbers yet, but we will have them this afternoon and Nielsen will surely publish some aggregate ratings for the event which looks set to easily surpass the ratings for last Friday’s presidential debate.
Keep in mind that the total number of people who watched any portion of the debate is much bigger. These numbers are averages based on the entire duration measured.
Younger adults are very interested in this election, the 18-49 demographic numbers for the debate were very good, and the 18-34 numbers were surprisingly strong (see table below), and among these younger viewers NBC seemed the preferred venue.
The night had split leadership with CBS winning the most viewers with Survivor: Gabon and the debate/analysis. But NBC took both the 18-49 demo and the 18-34 demo with its combination of My Name is Earl and the debate. ABC had the most overall viewers during the debate, but ABC, CBS and NBC were fairly tightly knotted. The 10:30p-11pm portion of debate/analysis had ABC in the lead with 9.2 million, NBC with 8.75 million and CBS with 7.91 million.
Fox wasn’t really on the map as Hole in the Wall sunk below four million and many more people likely watched the debate on Fox News Channel rather than the Fox broadcast network.
The CW aired new episodes of Smallville (3.948 million) and Supernatural (3.567 million).
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Survivor: Gabon | 12.85 | 4.4/12 | 2.6/8 |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 8.58 | 2.6/7 | 2.4/7 | |
| NBC | My Name is Earl | 7.01 | 2.9/8 | 2.4/7 | |
| CW | Smallville | 3.95 | 1.6/4 | 1.4/4 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 3.75 | 1.5/4 | 1.8/6 | |
| FOX | Hole in the Wall | 3.54 | 1.5/4 | 1.5/5 | |
| 9:00 | ABC | Vice-Presidential Debate | 11.83 | 4.0/9 | 3.2/8 |
| NBC | Vice-Presidential Debate | 11.57 | 4.6/10 | 3.8/10 | |
| CBS | Vice-Presidential Debate | 11.44 | 3.5/8 | 2.7/7 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 4.85 | 2.0/4 | 2.3/6 | |
| FOX | Vice-Presidential Debate | 4.37 | 1.8/4 | 1.6/4 | |
| CW | Supernatural | 3.57 | 1.4/3 | 1.3/3 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | Debate & Analysis | 10.34 | 3.5/8 | 2.7/7 |
| NBC | Debate & Analysis | 9.79 | 3.8/9 | 3.2/8 | |
| CBS | Debate & Analysis | 9.16 | 2.8/7 | 2.1/6 | |
| UNI | La Rosa de Guadalupe | 3.87 | 1.5/4 | 1.7/4 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot. Timeslot demo winners are in bold.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
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.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
Continuing to be incredibly impressed by Supernatural’s numbers this season. I wonder how much longer Dawn Ostroff will push this teen drama trite down the throats of “potential CW target audiences.” Has she ever acknowledged the fact that their “male targeted” night is so successful? Especially when compared to the varying degrees of advertisement.
I’m willing to bet that the drop-off from the 9:00 to 10:00 hour is explainable, at least in part, by Democrats turning the channel when they realized Palin didn’t sink like a stone. (Regardless of what you may think of Palin and Biden substantively, the fact is that virtually everyone I knew was tuning in to that debate specifically to see if Palin would sink or swim against Biden… In fact, the whole evening had a Roman Coliseum feel to it).
Smallville Rocks! Almost 4 Million viewers. Let’s hope it hits 4 Million again.
why’d they have to debate on thursday? I have to wait till thursday to see another “office” episode. I”m really ticked.
Seems tv shows benefit from Vice-Presidential Debate.
When some people don’t like politics, they don’t have too many options then.
Outlander, not sure why lots of your recent comments are getting grabbed by our spam filter.
It sometimes works in strange and mysterious ways.
sorry outlander, democrats have no reason to turn off this debate when our candidate pounding his opponent and more importantly her running mate into the dirt. we rather enjoyed that. the drop off probably has more to do with A-political americans’ short attention span or republicans’ growing incresingly HOPE-less.
freethkntxn, while Biden definitely kicked some ass, I have to partially agree with Outlander. I only watched because I wanted to see the inspiration for Fey this weekend, and there wasn’t too much great stuff. Personally, I know who I’m voting for regardless of any of the debates, so why would I bother watching if not for purely entertainment value?
But I think the real drop off was that people didn’t stick around for the analysis.
Wow. Gossip Girl & One Tree Hill beat Smallville & Supernatural in demos.
Just saying.
Ugly Betty dropped 1 million and more than a full point in the 18-34 demo. Either this show is very dependent on the Grey’s lead-out for its young viewers, or ABC could be in for a very bad week next week if all its shows drop like that.
Pifeedback has Ugly Betty at 8.58 million viewers. Which one is correct?
Margaret, good catch. It’s 8.58 million (actually 8.576 if you want to split hairs). I just transposed the last two digits, thanks for pointing it out.
Did “My Name is Earl” go up in viewers from last week? I hope so cause it really is back on the right track both shows were very funny last night and I hope the fans of Earl from seasons 1 and 2 that left during season 3 comeback because it really is good again much like the first two seasons
Joe, Yes, MNIE went up about 600,000 viewers and .2 in the demo.
What Holly said, though it was down .2 among 18-34 year olds.
BTW Joe, we archive all our old reports so if you want to see last week’s overnight report just click the “overnight” link near the top left of the site navigation above. It only takes a couple of clicks to find last week’s data.
Actually, Supernatural does pretty well considering there is no promotion for the show at all. The only promotion comes from online. (Like youtube etc.) Most of the general TV watching public doesn’t even know it exists. Where such shows as Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill have so many tv promos out there to see. So for Supernatural to do so well just by the word of mouth, and the internet, says so much for the show right there.
Have to wonder how much longer Hole in the Wall is going to be around. Every week, it’s numbers keep getting lower and lower.
I only began watching supernatural last season, i really enjoyed it, but i just don’t get it this season, it is boring, i am gonna give it another few weeks but i expected this season to be much better:(
Smallville has exceeded my expectations this year, it’s amazing ( with a capital A;)
Paul, You really need to watch from season 1 to understand what the story is about, then maybe you would know what is actually happening. There are some stand alone episodes where you don’t need to know the back story to enjoy the show. But, in order to fully comprehend what is actually going on, you need to see it from the beginning. It really is a well written show that does not insult one’s intelligence. And dude, if you knew the back story you would see that this season totally rocks.
Sorry Paul, I was talking about SUPERNATURAL.
Do the debates on FOX always rate that badly? – ignoring the awful lead-in for this one.