| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 14.48 | 10.67 | 7.95 | 4.29 | 3.88 | 3.81 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.9/10 | 3.6/10 | 3.4/9 | 1.7/5 | 1.6/4 | 1.6/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.2/6 | 3.1/9 | 3.2/10 | 1.8/5 | 1.6/5 | 1.4/4 |
Happy Halloween! For everyone save Fox perhaps. Fox aired a repeat of Kitchen Nightmares followed by an original Kitchen Nightmares and finished dead last (even behind the CW!). I’ll spare you the nightmare puns on Halloween. With Kitchen Nightmares, surely Ramsay must now be thinking “SHUT IT DOWN!”
I’m a *huge* Gordon Ramsay fan, but Fox has to face up to that Kitchen Nightmares isn’t going to fly on a Thursday. I’m not sure it will fly anywhere on Broadcast TV. While I’m a huge Ramsay fan, I don’t really enjoy Kitchen Nightmares. I’m all about the Hell’s Kitchen! I’d say Fox should, like CBS with Survivor run two installments of Hell’s Kitchen a year instead of Nightmares.
But although Survivor did better than nightmares, at least on a household ratings basis last night was its season low. Then again, so was Eleventh Hour and CSI matched its low for an original episode excluding airings on Thanksgiving.
Only 30 Rock fared “better” than last year. (My Name is Earl tied for its series low for an original), Kath & Kim is headed to the chopping block. The Office was average self (which means it did great in the demos) but with a household rating/share of 4.1/10, we hear last night’s season premiere of 30 Rock was its highest rating EVER. Again, I ascribe this to the buzz around Sarah Palin (and Tina Fey as Sarah Palin). We’ll have to see if it holds up. More detail from NBC on 30 Rock’s (and the rest of the network’s night).
Update: I have the data table up, but please note that over the last couple of days our normal source for some of the data (particularly the 18-34 data) has vanished in a supernatural-esque cloud of dark smoke. While there are other ways to skin the cat, it involves a lot more work on my part, which I will consider if the other source doesn’t return. The Supernatural cloud of smoke has returned. I’ve updated the table w/the 18-34 data. Happy Halloween! You can see how things fared last Thursday in the overnights if you’re inclined to do such comparisons.
Bonus: the rare CW press release on Smallville and Supernatural.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | Survivor: Gabon | 13.14 | 4.2/12 | 2.4/8 |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 8.55 | 2.6/8 | 2.3/7 | |
| NBC | My Name is Earl | 6.17 | 2.4/7 | 2.0/7 | |
| UNI | Cuidada con el Angel | 4.73 | 1.9/5 | 2.0/7 | |
| CW | Smallville | 4.24 | 1.7/5 | 1.8/6 | |
| FOX | Kitchen Nightmares (R) | 3.64 | 1.5/4 | 1.4/4 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Kath & Kim | 5.46 | 2.3/6 | 2.1/7 |
| 9:00 | CBS | CSI | 18.64 | 4.7/12 | 2.6/7 |
| ABC | Grey’s Anatomy | 15.05 | 5.6/14 | 5.4/14 | |
| NBC | The Office | 9.32 | 4.7/12 | 5.4/15 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 4.92 | 2.0/5 | 2.1/6 | |
| FOX | Kitchen Nightmares | 3.98 | 1.8/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| CW | Supernatural | 3.53 | 1.5/4 | 1.5/4 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | 30 Rock (Season Premiere) | 8.53 | 4.1/10 | 4.4/12 |
| 10:00 | CBS | Eleventh Hour | 11.48 | 2.9/8 | 1.7/5 |
| NBC | ER | 9.12 | 3.4/9 | 2.8/8 | |
| ABC | Life on Mars | 8.41 | 2.7/8 | 1.9/6 | |
| UNI | Rosa de Guadalupe | 3.22 | 1.3/4 | 1.3/4 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
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.
Maybe it would help to have Freddy Kruger host Kitchen Nightmares? He’s got those cool knife fingers and good DEAD pan humor.
FOX should be really embarassed. I’m suprised it fared that low. But good for CW – its never fun to be last every outting. Although it doesn’t have as many total viewers, NBC was competive last night in the demo. Here’s to hoping that many people who have never watched 30 Rock last night sampled it and will continue to tune in. It really is a great show.
I just want to thank this site for once again giving us ratings-enthusiasts an alternative to Marc Berman’s generally terrible taste/consideration of how the ratings are.
Those numbers for 30 Rock make me happy.
Also, did The Office beat the first half of CSI in the Demo?! Because the hour average for CSI was 4.7, while The office was at 4.7 also, but CSI usually increases in its second half, which might indicate a second-place finish for The Office in the Demo, which would be nuts.
wow, The Office beat CSI in the demo? that’s a huge loss for CBS!
Jonathan, yes in the 18-49 from 9p-9:30 The Office bested CSI 4.7/12 to 4.6/11. Grey’s won with a 5.2/13. in the 9:30 half hour (and I believe the office went to 9:31, so these numbers will change in the finals) Grey’s had a 5.9/14, CSI a 4.8/12 and 30 Rock a 4.1/10.
My brother is of the opinion that NBC is going to nurture Kath & Kim for a while and hope it turns into the next Office. But he works for ABC, not NBC, so he’s probably wrong.
Where are the Univision numbers?
Andrea, MIA with the 18-34 numbers. Not really MIA, but just significantly more complicated for me to reproduce. Sorry.
Smallville still going strong, it’s up another 20,000 viewers this week, Let’s hope it can make it too the 5 Mil’s by the end of the season.
Hmmm Julia, I think they’d have to flip-flop time slots for 30 Rock to truly nurture it (Earl is sucking as a lead-in so far) and I don’t think they will do that since they moved 30 Rock out of that slot because it was often too “risque” for the the 8pm hour (MILF Island)
FYI to Andrea and others the “cloud of smoke’ referenced above has returned. I will update the table w/18-34 and Univision data.
NBC will definitely be keeping Kath & Kim around for a full season. At least, it looks that way at the moment. It’s certainly not faring much worse than MNIE. As long as it keeps pulling nearly the same demo numbers, it’s down to NBC whether they’ll cancel both Kath & Earl or renew them.
Hilarious that FOX is being thrashed but they actually had the gall to predict going into this Fall that they would be able to drastically cut the Survivor audience. Didn’t happen.
I am so glad that the CW was able to keep up with the competition. Especially at Supernatural. The show certainly gets less attention that it deserves by the CW. Dawn has really been difficult.
And thank you Robert, I can’t wait to see the 18-34 demos.
Sweeps Cometh! I am so ready for the Sweeps-worthy episodes. I know it all about bringing out the A-game for the ad revenue, shamless plugging for the new and shiny episodes, but I have to admit, I’m a Sweeps whore.
All those Kitchen reality shows (and I dispise reality shows anyway) just make me want to never eat out again. Grow my own food. Be a shut-in or something. Yeesh!
Rock on Eleventh Hour! The show is definitely growing on me.
What will happen to 30 Rock after the election, I wonder? *hee!*
the table is now updated w/18-34 and Univision shows. Mel, good point actually last night was the first night of “November” sweeps…
Wow wonder wether 30 Rock will be able to keep this up; MNIE should be cancelled sooner; the first three seasons were respectable in their positions but now MNIS just sucks in the ratings.
Has Fox canned Hole in the Wall or has it just been secretly hidden away somewhere? Don’t know why they thought that would even be slightly competitive with Survivor. Obviously, showing reruns of an already low rated show isn’t going to pull in the viewers either.
The Office comes second in the demos domination; maybe NBC will see a new strength in their previously declining thursday night schedule
Wow, 30 Rock, really impressive! Does anyone think if they moved it back to its 8:30 timeslot (to replace the fading Kath & Kim), it would start competition with Betty? I know this was only the premiere, but if the amount of viewers doesn’t slip too sharply next week, I think it could… It would probably beat it in the demo, at least.
Grey’s is slowly starting to gain on CSI but I don’t see that lasting too long. And My Name Is Earl doesn’t seem to be fairing too well…
It looks like ratings for Life On Mars are flattening out, well, actually they’re up a little. I hope a range between 8-9 million viewers is enough for ABC. The demos aren’t so hot though. I like that preposterous show and I hope ABC likes it enough to keep it around.
30 Rock should be OK at least for ONE episode after the election. Next Thursday Oprah will be on it. Oprah is no Sarah Palin ratings-wise, but she can’t hurt.
I’m not sure what’s up with Hole in the Wall other than it wasn’t doing great in the ratings.
Grey’s gained quite a bit on CSI where it mattered — in the demos.
FOX seems to have already cancelled two or three shows (or removing them); not looking so good for them.
does FOX have any new plans for thursdays?
Tyler, moving 30 Rock would probably be a huge mistake.
Speaking of sweeps, after Holly informed me that Feb sweeps will be March sweeps this year, I found something that said it’s always going to be March instead of Feb from now on. Does anyone know anything about this?
Yeahhh 30 Rock! This is awesome news. It’s about time the best show on TV got some more viewers. I know the bump was most likely because of Tina Fey’s recent success (not to mention all the promotion NBC has given the show), but I’m hoping those new viewers will stick around now that they’ve seen how funny the show is. With Oprah on next week and Jennifer Aniston the week after, that should help.
Like Jonathan, I’d also like to thank this site. I’m a refugee from Berman’s site
Fin, FOX will look much better when Idol returns. They never look too hot in the fall.
Julia, sweeps were definitely moved from February to March (this year March 5-April 1). As for the permananet changes I’m not well-read on the switch other than THIS year they were moved because February is the mandated change to digital broadcast and Nielsen wanted some time to work in the “new” system.
Seriously? Last night? Wow, I thought it wouldn’t really start until after next week?
Judging from the press releases on episode summaries that I’ve read at FoutonCritic and such, shiney episodes are being pulled out just after the elections. And I’ll be needing them, after TV menu blackout of Election ‘08.
Well, well, well. It looks like it’s 30 Rock’s year. I expect a large dip later, but retention % out of The Office was higher than even my best-case-scenario would have been. The demo numbers are killer (Heroes just got bumped to NBC #3 in 18-34). But what surprised me the most was the retention in total viewers. I knew the younger audience would stick around after the office, but the 8.53 million total views is a surprise.
As for the Office, it too had a great night. Edging out Grey’s in the 18-34 for a second time this season. It just goes to show that, these days, if you can simply maintain your audience from the previous season, you are doing really, really well.
first, thanks to all for the kind words.
The128boy, unfortunately we didn’t see 15 minute data and I think there’s at least a minute of The Office in the 9:30-10p half hour, so the numbers will likely change at least a little in the finals.
Does it hurt Eleventh Hours chances of renewal when it loses alot of viewers both in overall ratings and demos from CSI? Or is it relatively safe because of its high overall rating? I really like this show.
Mel here again, I guess this gravatar doohicky is smarter than me. Can’t get the avatar to work.
Also, I’m curious as to HOW the male-female demos are accumulated? I understand the aggregate numbers in the 18-34, but how do they determine which sex is dominating the numbers?
Ok, I’ll put this very bluntly. FOX needs to get rid of Kitchen Nightmares immediately. Those numbers are absolutely pathetic and remind me of another show that got cancelled immediately last season (Quarterlife). Hole in the Wall could’ve done better! Hell, I’m convinced if we gave Robert an hour timeslot to talk about primetime TV numbers and shows he likes, it would’ve done better! Hell’s Kitchen wouldn’t do too well either considering it’s dependent on the American Idol leadin and then airing in the summer with little competition compared to this. But good heavens, those numbers are a whole ‘nother kind of terrible.
Mel, the Nielsen boxes require you to punch in codes that include information about sex, age and ethnicity.
I’m convinced if we gave Robert an hour timeslot to talk about primetime TV numbers and shows he likes, it would’ve done better!
Uh, zero percent chance of that! I think I could pull 72,000 on FX though
Mel, if my memory serves, it took several minutes or longer for the gravatar thing to update when I did it. But as long as you used the same e-mail address for your comments here that you registered with there, it should work…
I think 30 Rock will remain level next week, mostly because of Oprah and nonstop ads on Election Day (I remember a lot of shows saw increases in the days after Election Day ‘04). After that it’ll probably fall into a 7-8 million viewers range, but so long as it maintains 80% retention from The Office in total viewers, that should be enough for NBC to keep it around (Outside of the fact that it has, y’know, 138 Emmys).
What’ll also be interesting is how it and The Office do after The Office’s post-Super Bowl airing next year, and after William Petersen leaves CSI (Which should somewhat help its competition, right?).
Mel, I can see your avatars, and I seem to remember thinking I had similar problems when I started with the Gravatars too. Try clearing your browser cache and/or restarting your browser.
Grey’s is slowly going up again…It will go up to its 17-18 of last year soon with all that drama coming up
YAY. Tis working. My gravetar’s rating was too high. Oops!
Thanks Julia. I’d wondered if it had something to do with the boxes, since that’s the only way they would know for sure who was watching what. So everything beyond the “actual” numbers they have is estimated, right?
I think Petersen leaving will show a significant drop in numbers fro CSI at first, then when his replacment comes in, people will tune in to see who that turns out. But honestly, after however-many seasons (what are they on now, 7 or 8?) a decline in ratings is to be expected. People lose interest, like I did. And when the cast becomes unrecognizable (ER) then people start finding new shows to get hooked on.
tim: nothing they’ve announced.
Terminator/Dollhouse, perhaps? or (one of them)/Hell’s Kitchen ?
Mel, I’m not sure what you mean by everything beyond the actual numbers being estimated. Technically, everything is estimated.
good for the CW, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Kitchen Nightmares had nightmarish ratings and Smallville and Supernatural are two of the CW’s biggest shows.
Chris, DOLLHOUSE is going to stay on Monday Night.
Dollhouse would be a good pair with Bones on Wednesdays but I think they’re already planning on pairing it with 24 in January. What if Fox put American Idol on a Wednesday/Thursday schedule instead of the usual Tuesday/Wednesday?
30 Rock’s numbers are probably the best news since the fall season started. Anything in the 3.something region among A19-49 will keep NBC very happy considering their dire straits.
What needs changing, which I suspect they might try, is to give one of their comedies in development the 8pm slot to try it out maybe during December when all major players are in repeats.
Robert – have you heard anything about the status of production for ZIP with Steve Weber?
ABC is starting to notify people of being picked up or not. Samantha Who has been picked up, and as mentioned before Pushing Daisies was told to wrap it up. Eli Stone hasn’t been picked up (still 5 shows left to pick up).
Harry, sorry but I’m more of a straight numbers and watch TV guy than a follow the intricacies of show development guy… but perhaps one of our readers has heard something.
Good to see Supernatural starting off the sweeps strong. And congrats to the CW. While I don’t agree with Dawn’s strategy for the network, I’d hate to lose SPN, Smallville and Reaper.
Kathy, and other Supernatural & Smallville fans, regardless of the “we want the young women” meme at the CW, I see absolutely no chance they let go of those two shows with the numbers they’ve been getting this year.
More good news for Supernatural, it only went down 4.55% for total views at the half hour and it didn’t go down at all in the demos. That better then the last two weeks. I guess more people prefer the mythology episodes.
Bill, Smallville is in its last season (so they claim). Supernatural is building up for its last season. I don’t see Supernatural getting canceled. That show may just be the best quality show the network has.
Justin, I am surprised Fox hasn’t moved Idol to Wednesday/Thursday. To me, it’s clear that they’ve got a fairly good thing going on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but need to shore up their Thursday lineup. That would mean fewer shake-ups once January rolled around: no need to move “Bones” or “House.” Are they afraid viewers won’t follow them? I know Thursdays are crowded (although less so anymore), but Fox could really strengthen their schedule.
It seems to be a rather obvious move to me, but maybe that’s why I don’t run a network.
Next week we see the power of Raimi for Supernatural. That episode should be fun, hopefully 3.5M or more watch it as well.
Harry, unless Zip is going to get a very late pick up, it looks like it’s dead. The only comedy that NBC seems to have for midseason is the Office spin off.
Julia, by “actual” numbers I meant, people who “actually” had a Nielsen box to punch their information into. I know they haven’t handed out 5.6 or 9 million boxes, so that’s why I wondered if after counting the numbers of people who actually had boxes, if everything else (the other few million people) was estimated.
And true, technically everything with ratings is pretty much an estimation. But how they divide up the demos (even if they are estimating) intrigues me.
Has Eleventh Hour been picked up yet? It’s stronger than any new show except Mentalist, and it seems to have leveled out at the 11 to 12 million range, about the same as Without A Trace.
If we could determine the way the brain of a network head-honcho worked, FCP, we could probably solve global warming, the Middle East problems and cure the common cold. LOL!
But I aggree with you, things we see as “obvious choices” for networks to do, seems to never happen.
Plus, American Idol just screws up a whole LOT of things on the TV menu. I dread when its time rolls around each year.
Nick C. if something hasn’t been claimed is the this is Smallville last season on the contrary the producers keep talking about a 9th and Dawn shut down the rumors also that this was the last season. And with the results they are getting this year…I don’t think they will let Smallville go that easily
All its in Tom Welling’s hands it seems, and at this tage I think the CW and the producers might be offering him the world for a 9th season
There was a new “Kitchen Nightmares” last night? Huh. My TWC DVR said that “MLB Baseball” would be on from 8-11. I know the World Series is over, but I just figured that Fox would run repeats of “House” or something.
Does “Kitchen Nightmares” always have such bad numbers?
Jim, the 9p-10p airing was new. I think your TWC program guide just doesn’t update regularly. In the original scheduling, had the world series gone seven games, I believe Thursday would’ve been game 7.
Kitchen Nightmares hasn’t done great this year, but I believe last night’s numbers were the worst for an original episode. perhaps, because like you, a lot o people were not even aware it was on.
i think nbc failed in the ramke of kath and kim… the australian show is far best.
I doubt very much Zip will be on the air at NBC, according to Jossips article on Ben Silverman “He’s brought more controversy than ratings to the network. Hiring his Reveille partner Teri Weinberg, he also brought Weinberg’s live-in boyfriend inside NBC. Though Weinberg promised not to get involved, she ended up pushing her boyfriend’s project — “a comedy called Zip, about a down-on-his-luck con artist” — inside the network. Eventually, NBC paid $1.75 million to buy out the boyfriend’s contract and make him disappear.” Full article at http://www.jossip.com/making-the-case-to-fire-ben-silverman-or-let-him-stay-20080917/
Fox moving Idol to Wed/Thurs? Could work, but they won’t do it. Too risky of a move I think.
A Wednesday/Thursday move would’ve worked best for Idol when it was at its peak, but I’m sure it could still pull it off. It’ll still be the only show this season to consistently pull in an audience of over 20 million viewers. But if FOX didn’t do it when it was rumored to a couple seasons ago, it probably won’t now.
if the goal is simply to WIN, Wednesday/Thursday might work. But if the goal is to CRUSH THE SOUL of your competitors (and I’m pretty sure it is) there’s ZERO chance of this.
I don’t know what the crossover is between Survivor and Idol, but Fox does. And even if it’s only 10%, it doesn’t make any sense to put Idol on Thursday at 8. At 9p it would have to compete with CSI and Greys at the same time. AI would likely still “win”, but its margin of victory would be reduced (as would the total number of viewers). Why would you screw with your franchise show like that?
I agree, Robert. Right now, Tuesday and Wednesdays are dead zones. Every other network lives in fear of trying to program those days in the spring. Thursday is very strong for all three nets other than FOX, so while Idol may deplete them somewhat, the nets would not dread the day Idol starts on Thursdays. All FOX would be left with was killing Wednesdays.
Yes, you’re probably right, Robert. Which, like I said, is why I don’t run a network. My first impulse would be to win (even if it’s by a smaller margin than usual) over as many nights as possible, but if that’s not their goal, so be it. Good luck programming Thursdays, FOX!
I agree Julia, even NBC is strong Thursdays especially in the demos — at least starting at 9pm.
FCP, my first impulse would be to make as much money as possible — Fox currently best optimized for that w/Idol on Tue/Wed.
I think 30 Rock’s ratings will go low in the next few weeks
YAY for Grey’s Anatomy – 15 million – a huge gap in the demos against CSI
not bad for Life on Mars too
It’s nice to see the CW showing some appreciation for the two genre shows. I know that guys are the main demo, but I have seen alot of posts on other forums where many a young lady think that the two young men on Supernatural are definitely “hot.” The comic fomula is apparently not lost on the CW, since, according to a MediaWeek article, they are considering following the Smallville
formula and applying it to the characer Dick Grayson, better know as Robin, Batman’s young ward, showing him in his formative years before the death of his parents and his mentor/student relationship with Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Gabriela, the CW doesn’t know what it is doing. A “Green Arrow,” show is a possibility. The “Super Girl,” show is obviously not going to happen. Smallville for 9th season? I’m not sure Welling wants to do that. They’re leaving the door open, but I believe all involved would like another course of action.
Supernatural on the other hand is in it’s 4th season and the show is supposed to only last 5.
OK, Brace yourselves:
Kath and Kim got a full season pickup!
News from The Hollywood Reporter.
I haven’t stopped laughing. How bad are things on NBC for that to happen?
Interesting. CBS is really killing all the other networks lately…
S, not a big surprise considering Reveille produces the show…
Nick, as much fun as it would be to simply chalk it up to Silverman slimyness/nepotism, there’s actually a bit of numerical data to support it. But the Reveille connection can’t hurt.
there’s an office spin off?? whats it about??
great news for 30 rock, probaly the 3rd best sitcom on tv at the moment
Well, I always like to root for the underdog and in this case it’s Survivor. Love that their ratings are increasing little by little this season and I love that they destroyed Fox’s dreams of crushing it.
It’s kinda the little engine that could, constantly dumped on by everyone for being another “cheesy reality show”, never getting any credit for being the one to start the entire phenominon.
Robert, it was all in jest. Of course the show was picked up, because awful can do that when you’re the Peacock. It is sad that NBC is being run so poorly.
Quite surprised at ER – wonder if Angela Bassett is having an effect on the ratings?
That huge ratings advantage Grey’s Anatomy has over CSI in the demo category must be an eye opener as the CSI total viewer lead shrinks. The Grey’s Anatomy ratings increase is a two fold phenomena. First, you have the addition of the army doctor already shaking things up. More importantly, the actual medical stories are so amazingly well thought out this season. Now, if Shondaland Productions infuses the same energetic writing into Private Practice, they could make Wednesdays at 9pm a major battle zone and give its lead out show, Dirty Sexy Money, an even bigger boost.