A huge NFL lead in propelled 60 Minutes to the top of the weekly overall broadcast network viewing charts, followed by CSI and Sunday Night Football. Election coverage and the Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008 alsomade the list. On this list CBS was dominant with eleven shows, followed by ABC with five and NBC with four. Fox was completely shut out of this list, though it fared much better in the weekly 18-49 year old top twenty rankings where it at least placed Family Guy and The Simpsons.
CBS isn’t so dominate among 18-49 year olds where it placed seven shows (NBC place six, ABC five and Fox two) but it was still dominant and, it pulled something off I never thought I’d see: two out of three shows from Friday making the top 20 – Numb3rs and a repeat (yes a repeat!) of NCIS. Ghost Whisperer was not far behind at number 23. Just so you know I still have my head screwed on more or less correctly, yes I know it was a strange week with election coverage preempting all of the Tuesday shows. While I don’t personally find this particular list as meaningful as the 18-49 list (and neither, by the way, do the networks) CBS is still cleaning up here and among 18-49 year olds as well. Actually making a night out of Fridays is to be commended in my book.
Still, with almost four million more viewers, Grey’s Anatomy had a million more 18-49 year old viewers than CSI. But there’s no shame in that. The shame for now lies a little at Fox and a LOT at NBC. Without sports, and election coverage NBC would’ve placed no shows on this list (and without Sunday Football that would be the case every week!). Fox at least would’ve place House if not for the election coverage. But the fun doesn’t start for Fox until American Idol comes back, which is going to be a while. Though it will be very interesting to see how the two hour movie, 24: Redemption does in a couple of weeks.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 11/09/08:
| Rank | Shows | R=Repeat S=Special P=Premiere | Net | # Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | 18-49 Rank |
| 1 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 18,471 | 11.5 | 18 | 12 | |
| 2 | CSI | CBS | 18,175 | 11.2 | 17 | 5 | |
| 3 | NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL | NBC | 17,564 | 11.0 | 18 | 1 | |
| 4 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 17,089 | 11.1 | 16 | 15 | |
| 5 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 15,854 | 10.1 | 15 | 3 | |
| 6 | DANCING W/STARS RESULT SP(S) | S | ABC | 15,848 | 10.2 | 16 | 28 |
| 7 | GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 15,740 | 10.1 | 15 | 2 | |
| 8 | SNL PRESIDENTIAL BASH ‘08(S) | S | NBC | 14,436 | 8.7 | 13 | 4 |
| 9 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 14,304 | 9.3 | 14 | 22 | |
| 10 | VOTE 2008-9:00PM(S) | S | ABC | 14,185 | 8.5 | 12 | 6 |
| 11 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 12,761 | 8.0 | 11 | 7 | |
| 12 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 12,740 | 8.5 | 14 | 20 | |
| 13 | COLD CASE | CBS | 12,693 | 8.0 | 12 | ||
| 14 | DECISION ‘08 PRIME(S) | S | NBC | 12,462 | 7.5 | 11 | 8 |
| 15 | SURVIVOR: GABON | CBS | 12,013 | 7.2 | 11 | 17 | |
| 16 | CSI: NY | CBS | 11,801 | 7.9 | 13 | 26 | |
| 17 | AMAZING RACE 13 | CBS | 11,708 | 7.1 | 11 | 24 | |
| 18 | SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK | NBC | 11,400 | 7.0 | 11 | 9 | |
| 19 | NUMB3RS | CBS | 11,275 | 7.1 | 13 | ||
| 20 | NCIS FRIDAY 9PM-SPECIAL(S) | SR | CBS | 11,216 | 7.1 | 12 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
All numbers above based on live plus same day DVR viewing.
When was the last time “60 Minutes” was number 1 ??
It’s huge !!!!!
NBC had 4 entries in the top 20; 2 were football related, 1 was election coverage, and 1 was a special. Does not bode that well for their regular programming.
I realize that it’s in the Friday Wasteland, but how could Numb3rs be in the top 20 and on the potiential cancel list? I realize this is a snapshot and it’s just one week but there seems to be a disconnect.
tjd_chill, first if Numb3rs performs like it did last week often, I see little chance CBS won’t bring it back next year. There’s zero chance it won’t see it’s full run this year. But there are at least a couple of factors at work:
1. with a normal Tuesday schedule, Numb3rs wouldn’t be on this list. It only was because of the election.
2.The cancel list is driven off of 18-49 viewing averages. the list above is only based on total viewers.
I know the 18-49 demo is important (the most important factor). But I don`t think CBS (or any network this days) would ever cancel a show that gets almost 10 million viewers a week.
Those are the final numbers? the overrun always inflate CBS numbers.
Cool, the top 20 lists are always final numbers.
I`m not in the US right now, so I didn´t watch 60 minutes, but I bet last sunday’s show was about the election, that’s why it got so many viewers.
Well 60 Minutes had a terrible drop in the demo
60 MINUTES
7:26 PM-7:30 PM 4 11.5/19, 5.1/14
7:30 PM-7:45 PM 15 11.4/18, 4.4/12
7:45 PM-8:00 PM 15 11.6/18, 4.2/11
8:00 PM-8:15 PM 15 12.0/19, 4.1/10
8:15 PM-8:26 PM 11 10.7/16, 3.5/9
source: sitcomsonline.com
It had a 8.0 demo lead in also.
Interesting. CBS-TV continues to be “America’s Most Watched Network.”