| Scoreboard |  |
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 |
 |
 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 12.990 | 11.238 | 8.627 | 5.749 | 4.530 | 2.693 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.6/9 | 2.9/7 | 3.3/8 | 2.3/6 | 1.9/5 | 1.4/3 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.6/7 | 1.9/5 | 2.9/8 | 2.1/6 | 2.3/6 | 1.8/5 |
NCIS was the most watched show of the night beating back a direct challenge from an early Dancing with the Stars results show, but it was ABC’s Presidential Debate coverage and analysis that helped them take the viewership and demo 18-49 adults crowns for the night. NBC won the demo adults 18-34 nightly average on the strength of Biggest Loser and its young skewing debate viewers.
Note: These fast affiliate results are necessarily inaccurate for live events like the Presidential Debate because of their measurement methods, see below.
Head to head at 8pm, NCIS put Dancing with the Stars in its rear view mirror. NCIS was down a bit in viewers, but up a few tenths in both demos from last week. Not so with Dancing with the Stars, direct NCIS competition pulled down its results from last week 10-15% across the board. Biggest Loser showed surprising strength, up across the board from last week to be the 18-34 demo winner for the hour. Take these results with a grain of salt, House was in repeat last night. 90210 was down slightly from last week in viewers and 18-34 demo and flat for the 18-49 demo.
ABC claimed the viewer and the 18-49 demo win for the Presidential Debate that ran from 9-10:30 Eastern and the analysis that began at about 10:30. It was nip and tuck for the debate 18-34 demo between ABC and NBC and NBC edged ABC for the 18-34 demo analysis segment.
Against debate only English broadcast competition, Priviledged grew its audience 24% and its demo ratings by 0.2 (18-49) and 0.1 (18-34) from last week. Still, it was a distant 6th for its hour.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/ Share | 18-34 Rating/ Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCIS | 15.692 | 3.7/10 | 2.3/7 |
| ABC | Dancing With the Stars | 13.445 | 3.3/9 | 2.0/6 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Families | 7.487 | 3.0/8 | 2.7/8 | |
| FOX | House (repeat) | 6.325 | 2.6/7 | 2.3/7 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.406 | 1.8/5 | 2.3/7 | |
| CW | 90210 | 3.055 | 1.7/4 | 2.2/7 | |
| 9:00 | ABC | Presidential Debate | 14.643 | 4.2/9 | 3.2/8 |
| NBC | Presidential Debate | 9.935 | 3.7/8 | 3.3/8 | |
| CBS | Presidential Debate | 9.368 | 2.7/6 | 1.8/4 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.242 | 2.2/5 | 2.7/7 | |
| FOX | Presidential Debate | 5.172 | 2.1/5 | 1.9/5 | |
| CW | Privileged | 2.331 | 1.1/3 | 1.4/4 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | Presidential Debate | 12.126 | 3.8/9 | 3.0/8 |
| NBC | Presidential Debate | 9.295 | 3.4/8 | 2.9/8 | |
| CBS | Presidential Debate | 9.171 | 2.6/6 | 1.7/4 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 4.310 | 1.9/4 | 2.2/6 | |
| 10:30 | ABC | Debate Analysis | 9.637 | 3.0/8 | 2.2/6 |
| CBS | Debate Analysis | 8.135 | 2.2/6 | 1.5/4 | |
| NBC | Debate Analysis | 7.626 | 2.7/7 | 2.3/6 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 3.576 | 1.6/4 | 1.8/5 |
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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.
Pretty healthy decline in the ratings for the debate from the 9 to 10pm hours. Guess it wasn’t just the pundits who thought the debate was boring this time!
Good for NCIS, too. It not only beat DWTS in overall ratings, it also won 18-49 and nearly won 18-34. If only certain other preferred shows of mine — *cough* those starring Summer Glau — could have similar mojo.
Bill, could you please tell me if 90210 is doing good for the CW? I don’t want it cancelled by the end of the season:( do you think it’s chances for renewal are good?
Thanks
90210 has the highest average 18-49 audience for any CW show so far this season. If its current audience holds up, there is no chance that it gets cancelled.
It’s interesting to see how bad NBC has been doing overall – but appears to have some strength amoung 18-34 lately. Wonder how that will end up turning out?
Thanks Bill!:)
They have put way too much marketing behind 90210 to cancel it. It really is fairly lousy, though – especially considering the other CW shows have done much better against the debate, by a tune of about half a million viewers.
Priveledged is a goner, though!
Well at least “Circus” With The Stars went down in ratings- I want that show gone in the next 3 years!…Hey….I do have realistic goals you know.
Wow, the ratings are way up for this Presidential Debate over the first one. I knew with Dancing with the Stars being the lead-in, that ABC would win the night hands down.
Nice to see viewership for Privileged go up. But even in CW terms, it’s not doing well enough to get beyond the initial 13 episodes, right? Damn shame, but oh well, won’t be such a big deal for me. But I am sharing Outlander’s concern though, about that show starring Summer Glau.
Hi Bill, first: sorry for my bad english! i am a huge fan of the US shows Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break, One Tree Hill and Ugly Betty. De ratings of these shows ar low i heard, and i have peace with cancellation for Prison Break, buw if Terminator and One Tree Hill and Ugly Betty get cancelled i would be VERRY sad…
Can you tell me how likley in percent (%) per show it is that these shows are going to be cancelled?
greetings from Holland!!!
@ Gusar: i like Privileged, but it is’nt a top show. I hope the show is nog getting cancelled, but if it is, i would not verry upset over it
Eddie, based on that logic, shouldn’t CBS have won the debate ratings?
Seriefan, One Tree Hill and Ugly Betty are fine. They will finish this season and probably both come back next year. Prison Break and Terminator are not doing well. Right now, it is likely that Terminator will get only 13 episodes this season. Prison Break could still air its full 22 episodes.
Hi Holly, wel if Prison Break getting the axe, i am fine with it. But TERMINATOR!? OMG… Such al great show, and i know the ratings are bad buth if FOX just move the show to Tuesdays after House en Fringe to monday 8 the ratings are getting better i think…
Seriefan, thanks for commenting from Holland.
It’s unlikely Terminator gets beyond 13 episodes this year.
Prison Break is in better shape, both because of its ratings and because it nearly has enough episodes (100) for syndication.
I’d be surprised if Ugly Betty doesn’t ultimately get renewed for another year, but I’m going to guess that fans may have some significant worrying to do about its future in the Spring at this rate.
One Tree Hill is very strong, no need to worry about it.
At the rate CW is going, One Tree Hill is going to last until all the actors all die from old age.
NCIS claimed another scalp. The Tuesday results show for Dancing With The Stars isn’t as popular as it used to be. Should ABC be worried? It’s amazing to see this spin off from JAG actually become more popular than its predecessor.
Cameron, of course I like to play up the competition, but I don’t think you can project DWTS’s future off last nights results. It was a time slot change on a special night that easily could have caught people off guard. Plus 8pm is a more lightly viewed hour in general.
Even if it turns out that DWTS did stay around this level for the results show ABC isn’t about to go canceling it. Profit-wise, it would still probably be one of their biggest payoffs.
Bill, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Prison Break in the last two weeks have worse ratings than Terminator?
The thing is though, PB is a Fox production which gives it preferential treatment, even if you don’t factor in syndication. Excuse the language, but this just utterly and completely sucks!
Bill, as well as smart and talented, you are beautiful.
I’m from Brazil.
Gusar, in the demo, Prison Break was tied with TSCC last week, and off by .1 this week. Hardly enough to make up for being above TSCC the first several weeks.
Gusar, if you assume age demos are all that matters, TSCC had one bright spot vs. PB.
Oct 6: TSCC better 18-49, PB better 18-34.
Sept 29: Tied 18-49, PB better 18-34.
On the West Coast, DWTS Results aired at 9pm, so the finals will tell a different story.
On the West Coast, DWTS Results aired at 9pm, so the finals will tell a different story.
Could that be part of the reason ABC is so far above everyone else in the 9pm hour?
Can anyone tell me when the next new episode of 90210 airs, i’ve searched everywhere and can’t find out. It is off the air next week & the week after that but will it be back in 2 weeks?
Also, didn’t no one get kicked out of Dancing with the Stars since whatsherface was injured and pulled out voluntarily? Maybe the fact that nothing happened made some people tune out.
Wopa, Julia, it could have been a contributing factor, it will be interesting to see the final results.
I agree that Fox should move Terminator to a more fitting time. You know it’d get tons of viewers if it aired after House. *sigh* I just hate seeing a great show getting treated like this.
Oh, but I did have a thought… since Warner Brothers makes the actual show or whatever, would there be a chance that if Fox chose to drop it, the CW would pick it up? I’d rather it be on Fox, but as long as it stays on the air I’ll be happy.
looks like it will be a walk in the park for idol to be nr 1 for another year. with all these low numbers from its biggest competitors, like DWTS. idol can lose like 40 % of last season’s audience (which they wont do, obviously) and still be nr 1 basically. the only threat might be CSI though, but Im not even sure about that one, it seems to be down too.
if Fox terminates Terminator I hope CW picks it up, but it doesn’t seem likely, for one thing, where would they put it? For another it doesn’t line up with their current “target audience”.
Well, if these five and a half million people who continue to be faithful to Terminator each week choose to be loyal to the SHOW (and not just the show on the NETWORK, aka Fox), then those viewers would carry over to the CW and that would be their highest rated show, right? Yeah, I’m probably being too optimistic about the ratings if the show moved there. Hm, well I would like to think that at least SOME channel would pick it up, even if it’s a cable one.
Oops, I didn’t even answer any of your questions, Johnthemon. Heh, whoops! My bad. Well, I’m not a pro at this stuff so Bill or Robert would certainly know better than me. I’m just trying to hope for the best.
Cw would never take on Terminator, if it can lose half it’s audience between 1 season, whos to say it won’t do that between 2 and 3?
If it did it would rate lower than CW’S shows and it aint even in their target audience:))
Okay then, the CW can instead just stick to their brilliant programming plans (namely Sunday night) that include such hits as “In Harms Way.”
The entire “If my show fails on network X, maybe network Y will take it” event is such a long shot that it’s not worth talking about.
Yeah, I know it’s happened a couple times (Scrubs!), but it usually takes special circumstances and still is incredibly rare.
True, Bill. I just thought Terminator had more of a potential chance since it’s actually made by Warner Brothers, and of course the CW used to be the WB. Ah well, I’d rather it stay with Fox, so hopefully it will.
Rachel, if Terminator was a huge hit on DVD, then it’s possible that WB would want to keep it going. Of course, CW isn’t as much WB as it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a 50/50 split between WB and CBS, but it seems CBS went in there and just took over. I’m sure the profits are still split, but CBS wouldn’t have any DVD advantage to want to keep a WB show, so they would probably veto it.
Julia, I’m not sure of the count but a fair number of the Monday thru Thursday shows are produced by Warner Bros., including Gossip Girl and Privileged. I’m on the iPhone right now (and no 3G) or I’d look up how many shows are CBS/Paramount on those days. I think it’s fewer shows than WB though CBS is definitely the managing partner.
As for TSCC sadly I fear it is doomed. I’ll be extremely surprised if it lives on anywhere after its Fox run. It’s too bad. Last Monday’s episode was one of its best but it’s bled off too many viewers.
Oh, yes, I wasn’t arguing that. I was just referring to keeping a dying show around simply because the DVD sales are so hot, like ABC did with Scrubs. If T:SCC were to be profitable in DVD sales, but not ads, WB would be the only one benefiting from that, so CBS wouldn’t want it around.
I’m surprised. I didn’t think that the Presidential debates figured into the ratings since all the networks cover it. Nevertheless, it’s shocking to see such a huge gap in the debate coverage ratings between ABC and the rest of the news divisions.
Robert, I found out the other day that WB also produces Fringe (or at least, it’s listed under the Warner Brothers studios section of iTunes along with Chuck and Terminator). Has me wondering if the ratings for TSCC pick up even a bit if WB would be able to make FOX an even better deal on episode price. Cutting the cost on Fringe with such high ad rates may be enough to get Warner Brothers their Terminator tie in at least through their movie.
Anyway, wishful thinking, I know, but still, something to ponder.
Matt, at least part of ABC’s Debate numbers can be attributed to having Dancing With the Stars as a lead in to the debate.