A good week for the CBS crime procedurals…
CSI was back, and with a vengeance, with this year’s delayed season premiere scoring 23.49 million viewers, well ahead of its nearest competitor, ABC’s Dancing With the Stars at 18.59 million. CSI was both the number one program overall and the number one program among 18-49 year olds. Among 18-49 year olds CSI had about 1.5 million more viewers than Desperate Housewives and almost two million more than Grey’s Anatomy which CSI went head-to-head with.
Because of the presidential debates and different dates for series premieres, it’s hard to effectively compare CSI’s season premiere to last year. Last year it premiered on September 27, 2007 to 25.22 million viewers and 10.73 million 18-49 year old viewers so this year’s premiere was down around 7% from last year in terms of viewers and down more than 12% among 18-49 year olds. But it’s still the best premiere numbers of the season and even outperformed the best Sunday Night Football performance of the year so far (22.23 million).
For the week, CBS was dominant with four of the top five shows and ten out of the twenty top shows. Again, this wasn’t a typical week since the Tuesday night schedule was impacted by the presidential debate. Only twenty shows had more than 10 million viewers and they are all in the list below.
NBC had no shows in the top 10 – a below average Sunday Night Football landed at number thirteen. NBC fared better in the 18-49 top ten where it placed three shows, Sunday Night Football, a SNL: Weekend Update special and The Office. Fox had only one show in the overall top 10, and that was 19 minutes worth of “The OT” after Sunday’s football game. The only other show Fox placed in the top twenty was Bones at number 20, but again due to the debate, neither House nor Fringe were on.
Eleventh Hour debuted at number fourteen on our top twenty, and Life on Mars bowed at number sixteen. Mars had a higher household rating than Eleventh Hour, but not quite as many average people watching per household.
The full 18-49 top twenty for the broadcast nets is available here.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 10/12/08:
| Rank | Shows | Net | # Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | # OF HOMES (LIVE+SD) (000) | 18-49 Rank |
| 1 | CSI | CBS | 23,485 | 13.9 | 21 | 15,954 | 1 |
| 2 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 18,592 | 12.0 | 18 | 13,764 | 10 |
| 3 | NCIS | CBS | 16,288 | 10.1 | 15 | 11,550 | 20 |
| 4 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 16,185 | 10.2 | 16 | 11,637 | 11 |
| 5 | CSI: NY | CBS | 15,873 | 10.1 | 17 | 11,522 | 12 |
| 6 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 15,505 | 9.8 | 15 | 11,202 | 2 |
| 7 | DANCING W/STARS RESULT SP(S) | ABC | 15,065 | 10.0 | 15 | 11,442 | 22 |
| 8 | GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 14,797 | 9.8 | 15 | 11,192 | 3 |
| 9 | OT, THE | FOX | 14,232 | 9.0 | 15 | 10,274 | 4 |
| 10 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 14,073 | 8.8 | 13 | 10,062 | 6 |
| 11 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 13,884 | 9.2 | 15 | 10,490 | 13 |
| 12 | SURVIVOR: GABON | CBS | 13,278 | 7.7 | 12 | 8,793 | 9 |
| 13 | NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL | NBC | 13,051 | 8.2 | 13 | 9,367 | 5 |
| 14 | ELEVENTH HOUR | CBS | 11,373 | 7.2 | 12 | 8,221 | |
| 15 | EXTREME MAKEOVER:HM ED-8P | ABC | 11,344 | 6.9 | 11 | 7,907 | 18 |
| 16 | LIFE ON MARS | ABC | 11,333 | 7.5 | 13 | 8,592 | 21 |
| 17 | COLD CASE | CBS | 10,994 | 7.1 | 11 | 8,149 | |
| 18 | SNL:WKND UPDT 10/9(S) | NBC | 10,850 | 6.4 | 10 | 7,341 | 7 |
| 19 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 10,753 | 7.3 | 12 | 8,306 | |
| 20 | BONES | FOX | 10,559 | 6.5 | 11 | 7,417 | 24 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
All numbers above based on live plus same day DVR viewing.
DWTS is such a better show than CSI. This season rocks and rolls! Can’t wait for next week!! You better watch out CBS.
nope, didn’t watch any of these shows.
why does everybody watch CBS
does CSI, CSI: NY, Criminal Minds, NCIS has Emmy or Golden Globes???
The only CBS show that I watch is Two and a Half Men. I got your point, CSI got boring about 5 years ago.
CSI can’t be too boring, over 23,000,000 people are watching it every week…..
i like sunday nights on CBS…although would prefer without a trace than the unit in the 10 p.m. time slot.
Oh and The Amazing Race has won 6 emmys in Reality Series!
joe: CSI does not have 23 mil viewers every week, but it used … 2 years ago
Dah…. NCIS is a very popular show that is consistently in the top 10 in the ratings. It gets little attention from the incredibly liberal media and the Hollywood crowd that determines the awards. My guess is that its because it is supportive of the military, portrays those who serve with honor and dignity and doesn’t stoop to the stereotypes of most other Hollywood drivel. You might take their lack of Emmy Award attention as a badge of Honor.
Leni, or it could be that procedurals are not usually considered award worthy. But conspiracy theories and accusations of political bias work, too!
I watch DWTS because of Brooke Burke only.
Where else can you see such a hot body.
Certainly not on the View.
OMG!!! She makes me hot hot hot.