| Scoreboard |  |
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 |
 |
 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.82 | 11.42 | 10.88 | 8.50 | 4.11 | 2.30 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.5/9 | 2.5/6 | 4.7/12 | 3.5/9 | 1.6/4 | 1.1/3 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.2/6 | 1.6/5 | 4.4/12 | 3.0/9 | 1.7/5 | 1.7/5 |
While we do love seeing the total viewer numbers, increasingly it’s as meaningless as DVR numbers. It’s used for PR, chest-thumping and bragging rights — and CBS can say it’s “America’s Most Watched Network”, last night it certainly was. But consider in the important age demographics NBC with two hours of The Biggest Loser and an hour of Law & Order: SVU tied CBS among 18-49 year olds and beat it outright among 18-34 year olds even though CBS had almost twice as many viewers.
But in CBS’ defense both NCIS (4.0 rating among 18-49 year olds) and The Mentalist (3.9) had good demo numbers. CBS demos were dragged down by Without a Trace which even though it had almost three million more total viewers than Law & Order: SVU, it trailed badly among 18-49 year olds. And props to The Mentalist for actually winning the 9pm hour in viewers and beating out the Dancing With the Stars results show.
Fox’s House may be past its prime, but its middle-age years still dominated the 8pm hour among 18-49 and 18-34 year olds. It averaged a 5.5 rating among 18-49 year olds compared to NCIS‘ 4.0. NCIS‘ number isn’t bad, it’s just House’s number is relatively…great. Unless you compare it to past years’ performances of House, in which case you could theoretically get depressed. But the landscape keeps changing and now a 5.5 is great.
Fringe, while not dominate like House still won the demos for the 9pm hour, although in the second half hour, Mentalist beat it among 18-49 year olds (3.9 to 3.7).
Eli Stone fans, sorry… At this point if ABC keeps this show, all I can do is throw my hands up in the air and ask WHY!? I mean seriously, it couldn’t even get to a 2.0 in the 18-49 demographic without needing to round up and that includes a couple minutes of Dancing With the Stars overrun baked in.
Keeping it just seems wacky to me, but I understand that perhaps I just do not understand. Because seriously, I don’t. If you’re a major shareholder of Disney stock and ABC keeps Eli Stone, would you do me a favor as a major investor in Disney and please ask them why they are investing your money like that? And then explain it to us so we will understand.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCIS | 18.79 | 4.0/10 | 2.3/7 |
| FOX | House | 12.88 | 5.5/14 | 5.4/15 | |
| ABC | Dancing With the Stars (Recap) | 10.43 | 2.1/5 | 2.3/7 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Families | 7.55 | 3.2/8 | 2.8/8 | |
| UNI | Cuidada con el Angel | 4.38 | 1.6/4 | 1.8/5 | |
| CW | 90210 | 2.73 | 1.4/4 | 2.0/6 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | The Mentalist | 16.46 | 3.9/9 | 2.5/7 |
| ABC | Dancing With the Stars Results | 16.39 | 3.6/9 | 2.1/5 | |
| FOX | Fringe | 8.88 | 4.0/9 | 3.6/9 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Families | 8.53 | 3.7/9 | 3.3/9 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 4.84 | 1.9/4 | 2.1/5 | |
| CW | Privileged | 1.87 | 0.9/2 | 1.4/4 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Without a Trace | 12.21 | 2.8/7 | 1.7/5 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 9.42 | 3.7/10 | 3.2/9 | |
| ABC | Eli Stone | 7.44 | 2.0/5 | 1.4/4 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 3.12 | 1.3/3 | 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.
Gotta agree with you on Eli Stone. I know it’s something about keeping producers happy, but at what cost? When Berlanti has two series that are failing miserably, and one that is just doing okay (Brothers & Sisters), is it worth it to keep him happy?
90210 is trending downwards, not looking good:(
Robert, do we know the cost per episode for DSM and ES?
So since Fringe’s average was 4.0 it must have dropped 0.6 from 4.3 to 3.7. Do I have that right? That’s a little worrying. With that kind of viewer dropoff it looks like Fringe is heavily dependent on a strong leadin.
Paul, I agree, so far Mondays (and Thursdays, a night the CW doesn’t even really care about) are the only night going more or less exactly to plan for the CW. It’s not impressive and I’m really surprised and disappointed it hasn’t tried mucking with the bad parts of Tuesday and Wednesday to see what else could happen w/Privileged. I’d still move Privileged to air after Gossip Girl, put OTH after 90210 and figure out quickly if 9pm is going to fly on Wednesdays.
Ljo, I don’t know the relative costs, but I don’t need to know the costs to know based on the numbers I’d keep neither Eli or DSM. I think the opportunity cost of keeping shows with below average performance is too high, regardless of how inexpensive they may be to produce.
CDN, 4.2 to 3.7, and it lost over a million viewers from one half hour to another. I imagine that is a bit unsettling. The Mentalist by comparison “only” lost ~700K from one half hour to the next
Well said Mr. Seidman
No way the Network should allow Berlanti to choose ES over DSM when ES follows a top 5 show and pulls a like demo
Also, based on what is posted at The Futon Critic, most of the 700K viewers The Mentalist lost were outside of the demo. (He shows it even at the half-hour in the demo).
NCIS might beat CSI this week. Amazing. I watch plenty of procedural shows and i’ve always find NCIS the worst. Clearly many others have another opinion. Great for The Mentalist against such tough competition
“House” was especially good last night. Glad it did (relatively) well.
I see ABC Family is moving “Secret Life” to air directly opposite “Gossip Girl” starting in January. Giving that the former got ratings that the latter could only dream about, it should be pretty funny to see what happens in a head-to-head matchup. (Not a big fan of the CW here, in case you couldn’t tell.)
This is still confusing…..is it still better to win in the demos than overall? Do the advertisers only look at demo or the overall ratings? Also with NCIS doing well on tuesday and on Fridays, what does CBS do mid season? Continue the reruns and wait for next fall, or do they put in a new show, Flashpoint maybe?
I don’t know what your problem with NCIS is Bob. It’s a well written procedural and has humor that CSI lacks (particularly Dinozzo!). That being said, it looks like its viewers and demo ratings are improving, and at least in viewers, its up to CSI level. CBS should be thrilled.
hookedonmick, everything indicates that the advertisers only care about the demos, and total viewers don’t count for much. It’s better to have a big audience, because that means you’ll likely have higher demos, but that’s about it.
Wow. Fringe was in double digits for total viewers last time wasnt it?
hookedonmick, I’d be very surprised if CBS keeps a rerun on Friday night for the rest of the season. Almost certainly they will put a new show in starting in January.
Those Biggest Loser ratings are eye opening to me. I admit not paying much attention to most unscripted show numbers, but I imagine the profits for that show have got Jeff Zucker smiling.
Notably, at least in the overnights, The Biggest Loser beat Heroes, both in total viewers and in 18-49 year olds…
Anthony, Fringe hadn’t aired a new episode since 10/21, I think it did do over 10 million but you’re welcome to scroll back through the overnight archive and find out.
NCIS is a “lighter” crime procedural show. I have never watched CSI, so I couldn’t tell you the difference. I actually like NCIS, though I admit I only started watching it this season. I do think that they should vary the formula, though. I think the segments with the goth chick and the coroner are in the same place in the show in every episode, which is kind of … eh.
I remain pissed at Fox for ruining TSCC by sticking it on Monday night, and running freaking Fringe in its place. Fringe is a bad X-Files knockoff. I mean, I watch the show because I’m a genre fan and will watch anything sci fi, but it’s decidedly not my favorite. [Well, almost anything... I quit watching Knight Rider two episodes ago.]
90210 producers are quite sad, it’s like their throwing crap at us between good episodes ( in which we’ve had like 3 since the premiere) The writers are average at best, so that reflects the viewership drop, they use past characters to create a buzz but atm it’s doing quite the opposite, Kelly returned last night and the viewership eroded further (-290k) the episode was lacklustre and on top of that Kelly only had a few minutes screen time. Next week will tell the story, whether it can vault back over 3 million, which i doubt even though Brenda returns. They have used only 2 original characters, we are now half-way through the season and the writers are teasing us by the 2 originals they are using leaving and then promoting the return of an old 90210 alum and it turns out to be them. I like the show, One tree hill is the best teen drama out there, with Gossip Girl a close second. I think Reaper should be given a chance behind 90210 and shift priviliged to Fridays (slot vacated by ANTM rerun).
Soon MNTV will be thrashing CW and that isn’t fiction, their weekly average is creeping up while CW favs are eroding by wide(for CW) margins. Dawn Ostroff has to get her head screwed on and fix this mess before WB and CBS do.
LAW & ORDER SVU beat HEROES this week! The winds are changing.
As for FRINGE, I feel that the show is silly. It’s probably not losing viewers, they pick up a decent amount on the C3 compared to Live numbers.
Robert,
“Eli” is a good show, so why are you editorializing about its demise. Aren’t you supposed to remain neutral and only report the numbers?
Dawn may have seen her last days at CW. It isn’t looking good for her.
Tom, we’ve taken no pledge of “neutrality” whatever that means. We’ll pledge to be *accurate* with the numbers. As for our opinions, take them as you will.
Brothers and sisters keeps bleeding viewers, ABC should pre-empt B&S for 1 week and give DSM a shot to see if it does any better.
Since ABC Studios is behind the “Eli Stone” and it has wide international distribution, it might just be a source of profit for the mothership Disney. And add that “relationship with God” overtone into the mix, it may be more of a keeper than some think.
And I agree with others here, NCIS is routinely funnier and it has an interesting character mix including two really different hot chicks.
Tom, would you be happy if I just said “Eli’s numbers stink!?” Because that’s not editorializing, that’s just a fact. Calling for its demise because the numbers stink didn’t seem a far cry different to me than just saying the numbers stink. But I can see where there might be a subtle difference.
Michael O’Faolain>
DSM has wider international distribution, Eli Stone in most places seems to be on Digital channels, here in the UK eli stone pulls in 150,000 viewers whereas DSM at first pulled 2.2 million, before settling on 1.2 million. DSM creates the mose revenue, it regularly comes first in women demos, i can’t even think of a demo Eli stone comes in first.
Michael O’Faolin: I believe in the concept of “opportunity cost”. There’s a cost to having an underperforming show in a fairly prime slot. ABC Studios would be better off churning out a show more people would watch. Since the bulk of the money is made in the USA, and traditionally shows that are more watched here are also more watched abroad when they are distributed, it’s a missed opportunity to keep an underperforming show. I concede it’s possible (though seemingly quite unlikely) that Eli Stone is profitable, but the opportunity cost of not making more money with a show that at least has average performance seems high.
I, for one, am insanely happy with Fringe doing well in the demos again. Especially after a three week gap, that could have easily killed it. So, it had a strong lead-in from House – that’s good. I wish/ hope it retained the numbers through the half-hour, but I’ll take what I can get right now.
Since Sweeps is in full swing, I think people will will be more likely to take notice that their shows are back from reapeat land and tune in. So, I’m hoping for numbers increase. And Fringe is going to get an even bigger lead in with American Idol in the spring. Even I can’t hate on AI for that. *grin*
That’s quite a dip in SVU’s numbers from previous seasons. Hmm.
YES 90210 ratings finally going down. seriously why are people watching??
I didn’t watch the original 90210, i’m a teenager and my girlfriend made me download the first few episodes, it’s like an addiction i just can’t stop watching anymore:))
About a year ago i was only in to Sci/fi shows, now my genre reaches almost everything lol
John B… seriously, why do you care if people enjoy 90210? how does this offend you?
I don’t know anybody that watches NCIS…but for CBS – anything that has initials in the title is a hit…I’m wondering how long it will take CBS to do spin offs with NCIS as they did with CSI…(CSI: New York, CSI: Miami)
They could do… NCIS: Top Secret, NCIS: International…hahaha
Anyways I don’t watch NCIS…I do watch CSI on Thursdays and “when I’m up late” on weekends – I’ll watch the syndicated episodes of CSI “New York/Weekends” & “CSI:MIAMI/Weekends” I have to much to do during the week to watch that much TV.
It’s funny how quite boringly written and weakly structured shows seem to gain relatively more support. It is a hard fact that DSM floats on Krause and Sutherland. If you’d take both of them away (and don’t get me wrong, they’re both excellent actors, I personally loved Krause in “Lost Room” and obviously Six Feet Under with which I haven’t gotten very far yet). The bottom line is that all the other characters come across far fetched and bland. Even stereotypical. Both ES and even B&S don’t suffer from the same problems.
But yeah, keep endorsing one of three which needs it the least. Only comes across showing the general mindset.
…and why on earth are people watching recaps of:
Circus with the (nobody knows who they are)Stars” ???????????
I know it ends this month -but I’m sure they’ll have another LAME installment after the holidays…Blah…I’d rather have coal in my stocking this Christmas than to hear about another season of Circus with the Pretend Stars!!!
Tom, haven’t you ever heard of Schadenfreude?
DSM and Eli Stone are both dead.
I also hate *gasp* circus with the stars, it is so boring, same thing all the time. I feel bad for Heroes, it is fading fast and at the rate it’s falling i don’t think there will be a season 4. I’m gobsmacked at how fast it has declined, i think it is the worst casualty of the writers strike.
grd: yes i have… in fact i thought of that while writing.
just seems like such a waste of energy. like the dude who suffer so greatly because of dancing. poor poor guy. and then in his warped mind he calls it circus because it makes him think he is getting some sort of revenge… (like a reverse stalker) even worse he thinks he’s funny. i don’t watch ncis for example and seriously don’t get why people like it based on stuff i’ve heard… even an actor friend who did the show can’t figure it out… but people like it. good for them.
GRD, thats so funny does the word Schadenfreude really exist in the english language. Because its german and it sounds so funny in connection with english.
Backt to topic. CW has to do something. 90210 hast to go up over 3 Mio again. But i don’t think that it is the best solution to split OTH and Gossip Girl. These are the only two teen dramas that actionally work.
CW can’t split oth & gg up last nite they both had 3.01 million each, they fit like a glove and i seriously think at this rate CW’s days are numbered, Priviliged and stylista can barely hold half of their lead-ins audience, i’m not mocking privileged, i have been led to believe it is a good show, but it just is not working, i used to think Dawn was doing a great job, but she takes far too long to cancel under performing shows, the only success stories from last season to this are the very compaitable gg & oth, and SV &SN.
Steven, it’s borrowed from German.
Tom, I don’t think it’s JUST schadenfreude, although I do think that’s part of it. (There aren’t many of us who don’t have a little malice in us somewhere.) In a lot of cases, I think it’s just that we don’t like to see shows that we think are terrible doing well. It erodes our faith in the justice of the universe.
Conversely, we’re happy to see them fail. I won’t deny I have that feeling about quite a few bad shows.
I like the Schadenfreude notion. Also, Robert’s rephrasing his commentary to using the word “stink” is still editorializing…it has a slant. Word/phrases like “bad numbers” or “low numbers” are more neutral and call up less emotion.
Good to see Fringe held some good demo numbers, even with the 3 week hiatus and the stiff competition. I really think the show is coming into its own now. The absolute insanity of the Fringe father-son relationship is building well, IMHO! I’d like to see it reach double-digit total viewers and maintain a little more of the House lead-in, though.
I can see why Eli Stone is not holding up against two solid crime procedurals. Creatively, though, if I had to choose between ES and DSM, I’d pick Eli without hesitation. I’ve never watched DSM because, frankly, the very premise bores me.
Let us not forget that back to back episodes of “According to Jim” are replacing DWTS results shows as of December. Imagine what will happen to “Eli Stone” then. Or any new show that ABC decides to replace ES with. They might be better off airing “20/20″ or “Primetime.” In any event, ABC Tuesdays are about to get even more troublesome. All… winter… long…
The notion of people watching laugh-track comedies is totally beyond me. And I’m afraid I’ll never understand why’d people watch something that *tells them* when to laugh.
Tom, fair enough. Though it’s not really my goal to stir up emotion, I don’t have any real desire to be “neutral” about my opinions of the numbers either. A lot of that probably comes from being a huge sports fan and watching about an hour of sports ‘talking heads’ every day Mon-Friday on ESPN (5pm-6pm eastern). And from that mindset, you don’t look at the 0-9 Detroit Lions and think “they’re having a bad season by the numbers” you think, “they STINK!”
P.S. Eli Stone doesn’t stink compared to the Detroit Lions, in fact it probably comes off smelling like a rose…
LBColby, there’s no doubt ATJ will immediately shoot to the top of the Renew/Cancel index and stay there. But against all odds (and numbers) it made it back for 2008-2009. It seems to be “index proof”, and from what I gather that’s based on syndication revenue/revenue potential.
I think FRINGE is going to have to hope to pickup viewers next season. Just hold on to the numbers it has now. It takes time for shows like that to pick up viewers. It just can’t lose them.
LIE TO ME on the other hand is likely going to be a huge hit. I bet it follows HOUSE next season on Tuesday. It would make sense.
The Dolphins couldn’t pull off a perfect season last year, but I think the Lions have it in them. How can you say perfect = stink?
Steven, though I agree that GG and OTH “fit like a glove” according to Marc Berman and his ilk my bet is that OTH’s audience will find it wherever it is and that Privileged would benefit from the GG lead-in.
That could be wrong, but if the CW is putting its eggs into 6 hours (Mon-Weds) and two out of six (arguably three out of six, I’m sure 90210 isn’t living up to expectations) aren’t performing, they don’t have many hours to work with to try and improve things. If they really want to give Privileged a go, they need to try it somewhere else. The options are after ANTM or on Mondays.
Julia, lol.
Well said on all counts Robert! ABC has a lot of decisions to make in a few short days.
<>
Coming from somebody who probably has not seen a single episode.
Thanks Julia. I will get this all straight in brain one of these days, LOL!!! Bob, will the new show be different like they tried with ML and Xlist or do they go more the procedural route, like a CSI?
Wow. House continues to drop in total viewers. Sadly they won’t pay attention until they start dropping in the 18-49 demo. But NCIS seems to be creeping up there too… I guess we’ll see at the end of the week where they all stand.
Too bad Fringe went down, tought for the last couple weeks, it’s been re-runs. If House is Pulling 12 Million Viewers, i expect Fringe to do better than 8 Million.
Paul you should think about watching the original 90210 instead, it’s a million times better than the crap that’s airing on The CW.
Speaking if The CW…
Now that 90210 is turning out to not be the saving grace the execs at The CW were hoping for, does that mean that the channel may really close-up shop by September of 2009?
BTW: I like Eli Stone and hope ABC keeps it on at least for a full season.
Last season’s finale could have been a fitting end for the series had ABC canceled the show…
But now that they decided to go through with a season 2 I just hope the writers have the chance to give these characters a good ending that they deserve.
Alex S.: despite my blather, signs seem to point to a full season of Eli Stone. As for the CW, regardless of what happens (including, perhaps, executive changes) I’d put the chances of the CW not being around next season as a network at zero.
Alex S.-
I’ve looked at some trailers on youtube, the whole atmosphere seems retro and not for me, i wasn’t even born when the first season aired, thanks for the heads up i may look at later seasons, i’ve saw a few episodes of Melrose place (the one with the apartment bombings is one of them) and it seems pretty good.
I expect 90210 2.0 to pick up steam in the new year, with a new showrunner who is making it more real life teen issues. I will not stop watching the show even if it worsens, it sounds stupid but i hate starting something and not getting round to seeing the conclusion.
Who can give me 5 reasons to watch the most recent 4 episodes of supernatural?( I got bored after the *yawn* guy turning in to a hannibal:(
I don’t buy the fact that total viewers is meaningless. If you really felt that way (as you do about DVR numbers) why are you reporting them? By that notion almost all the numbers you report on this site are irrelevent. If two shows mirrored each other in the demo, but one had 5 million more viewers than the other, it wouldn’t get more money per ad? Surely, logic would indicate otherwise
Finals are out: The Mentalist beat Fringe in the demo, 4.0 to 3.8
Vader, we have made the decision to report more number vs. fewer numbers. By comparison, some traditional TV industry print titles (and their websites) feature *only* 18-49 numbers.
MediaLife 18-49 ratings only: http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Overnights_50/McCain_wins_vote_of_Leno_s_viewers.asp
TV Week, 18-49 ratings only: http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/ratings-chart-attack/2008/11/ratings_rise_as_viewers_seem_k.php
There are other examples, but posting more would belabor the point.
Age demos are all that matter to advertisers, and therefore are all that matters to television executives and the future of shows. As far as DVR* numbers, as far as we can tell they are irrelevant to the economic success of shows, but they are not irrelevant in terms of examining how TV viewing is changing in the US.
*Edit:By this I meant Live+7 viewing, not Live+SD viewing.
Vader, perhaps I need to do a better job saying what i mean, and meaning what I say, but, it’s a blog.
I don’t think total viewers is meaningless. I think that it’s meaningless if it is used by itself as a data point. I agree fully that if two shows have indentical demos but one show has 5 million more total viewers, that show should make more money. But, I also think House makes more revenue than NCIS despite the fact that NCIS had almost six million more total viewers last night.
I don’t think the DVR numbers are meaningless either — just the live+7 DVR numbers. The same day DVR usage is meaningful, at least as a proxy, and the live+7 numbers are also meaningful, especially as an indicator of how much the business model is going to have to change, but not to revenue.
I tend to think that if two shows have an identical 18-49 demo then the amounts each show is earning will depend on how each show demo breaks down in terms of how many males 18-49 they have vs. female and what there 18-34 demo is etc. Advertisers know pretty much exactly who they’re aiming for with any given product so they’re not overly concerned about the total number of viewers they’re reaching but the total number of their key audience, for example men 18-34 they’re reaching.
Paul, I’d definitely watch at least the episode from 10/30 (It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester). I’m not going to give you five reasons — only one; I thought it was a really great episode
What Alex wrote about advertisers buying certain quantities of specific age groups is my understanding as well. The networks and advertisers get and use much more detailed breakdowns of age/gender viewing than we see regularly (we’ve seen them a few times). Shows are valued based on the specific numbers of those age groups they deliver. The 18-49 demo is a somewhat cruder measure of the value of a show, but its the only one we get a regular broad look at.
Alex,I’m sure all of what you say is true to a point, but I’m also sure that any show with a 3.0 rating in the 18-49 demo is making more money than Knight Rider, even though it does especially well in the male demos. We often see the gender/age data, but posting it all would be a ton of work, not to mention that our sources for the info would stop sending it, and Nielsen would certainly send us cease and desist notice.
18-49 seems to be the industry standard, plus it’s the only slice we regularly see season-to-date info for.
I may watch it soon bt it’s 10:53pm here:O
The CW has ordered 5 more episodes of Privileged.
wow. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t 90210 start off with over 4 million viewers? Of course that’s terrible for anyone but CW anyway, but the numbers are really looking anemic.
Good for “The Biggest Loser”. NBC needed some good news after Monday night’s disappointment.
I really loved last night’s Fringe episode.
Why do people watch procedurals so much? NCIS, The Mentalist, Without a Trace…they’re all just kind of generic. I guess people just like more and more of the same.
Actually advertisers are basing everything off of C3 ratings now. They do get breakdowns of the C3 with age, gender, etc.
I skipped ahead as soon as I saw the puzzled post about NCIS. Many people feel that. Alone, I watch NCIS muted if at all. I sometimes watch it with mixed crowds ( meaning men and women ) of the WW2 generation. They enjoy it and I find myself sticking to the edgy or weird characters like the goodlooking Goth computer nerd Pauley Perrete plays. She makes the show for me. That is a good instance of leaving a guy wanting more. Older women like Mark Harmon, just like twenty and thirty year olds loved the guy in the 80′. Also,its military without being too militaristic. ( Casualties are down in Iraq so maybe more people are willing to watch a show like that now as a kind of quiet celebration.) Just some ideas.
Nick C, that may be, but one thing I am certain that nobody will ever see is C+3 ratings for Tuesday night shows the following Wednesday morning
And as we’ve seen, the C3 ratings end up looking very similar to the overnights anyway.
Robert, true that would be impossible. However getting those ratings on Friday isn’t that bad.
Julia, but there are differences. Some shows do better and some do much worse. There are shows that I believe a lot watch same day, about 20 minutes after the shows start so they can skip commercials.
Here’s a random question, could CBS get away with moving NCIS to Fridays? If the theory/idea that the show appeals largely to an older demographic works out (and the 18-34 vs. 18-49 demo would suggest it probably does) then the key audience won’t take much a hit since they’d probably be willing to move to Friday with it and a repeat of the show did surprisingly well last Friday in the 9PM slot. That would potentially open the door for CBS to have a big night on Friday with new Ghost Whisperer, NCIS and Numbers and allow them to launch a younger skewing show in the Tuesday Night slot.
Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly are C3 viewers? Is that when someone (as Nick just stated) watches it later on DVR that same night so they can skip commercials?
Rachel,C3 measures commercial viewing, not program viewing — but includes 3 days worth of DVR viewing.
Paul,
I would also suggest watching the Yellow Fever Supernatural episode. Dean’s girly scream still has me laughing. And the Eye of the Tiger at the end is already a hit on Youtube.
So with the demo ratings for fringe as the only base line, what is the opinion of whether the ‘remote-free’ tv is worth trying again in the future?
Alex, I doubt CBS would screw with NCIS, it just had its most viewers ever last night in its current slot and there aren’t that many shows anymore that can pull 18 million+. But I do kind of like how you’re thinking about it.
Ben, everything we hear about “remote free” for Fringe is that it’s working and advertisers are happy. It would seem almost everyone who watches the show watches the commercials.
Ah, thanks Robert. Glad I understand that now.
Ok, apparently I am that mysterious creature right in the middle o the 18-34 demo, who loves NCIS madly. I don’t get much out of the CSIs or The Mentalist, but I adore NCIS and Criminal Minds.
Also, while a 4.0 demo is probably not much out of 19 million viewers. it’s still more than most 8pm shows on CBS get. Plus, CBS wouldn’t risk leaving it’s best new show hanging like that. Anyone really think The Mentalist can do 16 million viewers on its own?
I just scored 5 points in the “Program the CW Network from your home” game.
Futon Critic says CW *will* air two episodes of Privileged (12/1 & 12/8) following Gossip Girl.
http://www.futoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=7843
They have to do something at the CW. Otherwise Privileged is on its way to cancellation and Dawn is on the way out.
I still say the best thing CW could do is grab an NFL like deal. Get people to accept it as a legit network.
I am one of the faithful NCIS viewers in the 18-49 demo and I want to respond to some of the posters who question why the show has become so popular.
I only just started watching the show in reruns during the summer of 2007 and at first I found it only mildly entertaining. I’ve tried to watch some of the other procedurals but they bore me to tears about halfway through and I find the acting to be lacking in some of them as well. But NCIS is very different, and it’s one of those shows that you have to see several times to really “get it.” The humor is the obvious difference, but I don’t think it’s the most important difference. The characters are people you come to care about more each week. I don’t tune in to see them solve a crime, although that part of the show can be interesting. But I really tune in to see what new things I’m going to learn about the characters each week. (Dinozzo for example comes across at first as just an immature frat boy, but if you actually watch the whole series it becomes apparent that he is much more competent than he acts like he is and is probably the most complicated of all, except possibly Gibbs). The characters are multi-layered and complex and they are like a family. I want to know more about them every week and I want to see them interact with each other. Each week the show gives you some tidbits and you keep wanting to come back for more. NCIS seems to have perfected this the past few seasons and that is why the ratings are defying convention and going up instead of down.
I think a lot of people don’t take the show seriously because of the humor, or they discount it as an “older person’s show,” but I don’t think this assumption does the show justice. The producer’s of the show understand their audience and know how to keep them coming back.
I’m totally confused,why people love The Mentalist so much?In my opinion,it’s a boring show.
100% agree with the post above
NCIS’s characters make it so good, not the storylines wich are not the best but still good. I don’t understand how young people in the US don’t watch it, its demos in australia are pretty good. btw i’m in the 16-24 demo
Looks like NCIS is pulling the “hey look there’s a whole bunch of new interns..” trope. Reminds me of House. I really wish they wouldn’t copycat House because not many writers know how to add characters without reducing them to cliches, especially when they’re only added to attempt to garner ratings from a specific demographic, in this case, probably younger viewers.
CBS should take it from me, an 18 year old viewer, and be happy with the 5.9 million more viewers NCIS has over House, and maybe look at House’s erratic ratings, which is likely the result the difficulty of juggling so many characters.
I’m surprised Fringe isn’t doing better. Especially since it was supposedly one of the most talked about new programs of the fall season.
I doubt any of the interns are at NCIS to stay, it was obviously a tool to get back to the Langer and Lee storyline for sweeps.
I happen to LOVE Eli Stone, but have been concerned for its future ever since they announced its timeslot…If they want that show to succeed, move it Fridays at 8! (Spy Daddy vs that Ghost Lady? I know who I would watch!)
Is there a C3 audience? I think most people tune out. I know I do but then again I am an elderly viewer. I do watch the full hour of NCIS even the commercials as a thank you to CBS for a great show. Loved the hemi plug a few shows back. That’s an engine for the elderly.
To the person who said something about NCIS pulling a House if you actually watched the show you would of saw that those “interns” didnt even make it out of the first episode of the season. They were gone. NCIS didnt pull a House because NCIS wasnt dumb enough to try and screw with one of their top shows like House did.