| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 11.99 | 11.17 | 10.70 | 9.84 | 1.45 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.8/7 | 4.6/11 | 3.7/9 | 3.6/9 | 0.5/1 |
CBS took the night’s top honors in viewers with Fox winning the 18-49 year old demographic on the strength of a little over 30 minutes of NFL overrun featuring the Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers. The Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie Front of the Class performed solidly in terms of total viewers but 18-49 year olds preferred Desperate Housewives (the most watched program outside of the NFL overrun), Sunday Night Football and Brothers & Sisters. A rerun of Family Guy bested the movie in the demo as well (though it also bested an original airing of The Simpsons at 8:30p).
It’s no big surprise that viewing for the BCS Selection Show dropped steadily from the overrun and the OT (everyone already knew who was playing for the championship), but the relative “paucity” of viewers for the overrun from 7p-7:30p end of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game surprises me. That’s less than CBS had last week for an overrun game I can’t even remember. While all live events data is subject to massive change, it still surprises me.
But I wasn’t surprised at the below average performance of Sunday Night Football. I’m sticking to my theory that NBC would’ve been better off (ratings-wise) keeping the original game of the New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks rather than using flexible scheduling to replace it with the Washington Redskins vs. Baltimore Ravens.
I’m not sure there will be any 18-34 info for the day and it could be that until after the holidays we don’t receive the reports we normally get in a timely fashion (or perhaps, at all). Sorry!
Last Sunday’s overnight report.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 7:00 | FOX | NFL Football Overrun | 23.45 | 9.0/24 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 13.85 | 2.6/7 | |
| ABC | Ty Pennington: Behind the Scenes | 5.77 | 1.7/5 | |
| NBC | Football Night in America | 4.73 | 1.6/4 | |
| CW | Jericho (R) | 1.13 | 0.4/1 | |
| 7:30 | FOX | The OT | 15.95 | 6.26 |
| 8:00 | CBS | The Amazing Race | 10.57 | 3.1/7 |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 10.34 | 3.3/8 | |
| NBC | Football Night in America/Game | 10.05 | 4.6/11 | |
| FOX | BCS Selection Show | 9.61 | 3.9/10 | |
| CW | Movie: The Cutting Edge (R) 8p-10p | 1.61 | 0.6/1 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football 8:30-11p | 12.56 | 4.5/11 |
| Fox | The Simpsons | 6.19 | 2.8/7 | |
| 9:00 | ABC | Desperate Housewives | 16.00 | 5.9/13 |
| CBS | Hallmark Movie: Front of the Class | 11.02 | 2.6/6 | |
| FOX | Family Guy (R) | 6.54 | 3.1/7 | |
| 9:30 | FOX | American Dad (R) | 5.27 | 2.4/5 |
| 10:00 | CBS | Hallmark Movie: Front of the Class | 12.52 | 3.1/8 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 10.66 | 3.9/10 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
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.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Must. Resist. Corrections.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:52 am
eh, knock yourself out, especially if it’s the numbers. I know the NBC 18-49 number was wrong and corrected it, but the incorrect version could still be cached for some — it should be 3.6/9.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Kind of sad to see no scripted series at 8pm.
Simpsons really took a hit not being in it’s regular slot. People had to think it wasn’t on when they found that BCS show. That was a bad idea. Should not have wasted a new Simpsons after that thing. Those are rerun numbers.
Nice to see Housewives at the higher end of of their range. It will be interesting to see if they suffer the typical drop when they come back in January against the football playoffs unless ABC avoids that this year.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Desperat Housewives.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am
the good thing with ABC Sundays that they dont depend of football and after the Superbowl, CBS/NBC (especially NBC) will have weaker numbers as well ABC but with minor impact.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Tom, I agree. Last year Fox did air a rerun of the Simpsons after the BCS show (it outperformed last night, but so did last year’s BCS show).
December 8th, 2008 at 10:07 am
@Julia…yikes. Sadly, no automatic spell check within the data tables. Fixed.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Interesting that The Mentalist will be the #1 scripted show in viewers but is #15 in the demo (#1 is Desperate Housewives)
December 8th, 2008 at 10:24 am
haaaa! More people watch a 20 year old movie than Jericho – you know CW must at least be making money – having nearly 2 million people watch CUTTING EDGE is hilarious…I mean there must be minimal costs to CW to air “THAT” movie…
…still a guilty pleasure of hearing that movie soundtrack.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:42 am
R.G. small point but i don’t know if i’d call 1.6 million close to 2 million for cutting egde. you’re adding 25%. that’s a hefty nudge.
that’s the equivalent of housewives getting 16 million this week and saying they almost had 20
December 8th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Of all the movies on the CW slate from now through Christmas, I think “The Cutting Edge” was the best fit. Figure-skating theme is good for the holidays. Terry O’Quinn, of LOST fame, is in the movie. D.B. Sweeney of poor Jericho is also in the movie. Recognizable names + winter themes = 1.6 million viewers
.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Simpsons…. thats not a good demo for them 2.7/7. But only 6.19 million veiwers but puts salt on the wound more than like 2.6mil below seasonal current average, plus this week the competition wasn’t really that hard: but it did have a bad lead-in (different audiences).
December 8th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Have you seen this about NBC potentially cutting back on hours and/or days that they broadcast?
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i686368ba4cd6a88c1ba37d99bf187003
Talk abut throwing in the towel.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I loved the Hallmark Movie “Front of the Class” and I buy Hallmark Cards
so I guess they got the viewer they wanted even if I just turned 50.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Robert,
Do you publish cable numbers? I wanted to know how Leverage did last night.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:57 am
From the article Cameron linked:
“Can we continue to broadcast 22 hours in primetime? Three of our competitors don’t,” Zucker said during Monday’s keynote at the annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. “Can we continue to broadcast seven days a week? One of our competitors doesn’t.”
Which three “competitors” don’t program 22 hours a week? CW, MNTV and Univision? Does Zucker really think that comparing NBC to CW and MNTV is a good idea? And since when do they care about Univision?
December 8th, 2008 at 11:57 am
there’s no way to publish cable numbers in the overnight report as there’s no comprehensive cable overnight reporting produced via Nielsen. we publish cable numbers weekly, so unless TNT issues a press release today, we won’t see the data for Leverage until tomorrow (weekly data runs Monday through Sunday and is usually received on Tuesdays).
December 8th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Julia — the only one that matters (to the Zuck) is the one you left out. Fox… And UNI actually does program 22 hours.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Wow a family guy repeat beats simpsons in veiwership and demos: not a good week for the simposons
December 8th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
That was a good football game last night on FOX between the Steelers and the Cowboys.
That was the match up that should have been in Primetime.
It’s great to see so many people watched the CBS Hallmark movie.
It was really inspiring and heartwarming…
December 8th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
glad TAR did reasonably well in the ratings, though it was down by a million from last weeks football overun.
thought that was the closest finish in TAR’s 13 seasons.
think last nights episode can win The Amazing Races’ 7th consecutive emmy! (in my humble opinion)
Happy Holidays Robert and Bill!
December 8th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Yeah, I was first thinking CW, FOX and Univision and then realized that he was counting MNTV and somehow replaced FOX with that.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Jericho wasnt down as much as I thought based on early numbers, but its only a matter of time before it slips under 1 million viewers. Worst rated show of Sunday night. Yep, its cooked.
These days there isnt much to watch on Sundays other than football. The Cutting Edge just didnt cut it for me. tee hee hee.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Julia, I’m sure Zucker was counting Fox as the biggest competitor who does not program 22 hours a week.
He’s probably counting the CW too, but I don’t know his basis for the third competitor. He could be counting MNTV or Univision, though I agree that’s not necessarily a good idea! Unless, technically, he’s noting that CBS mostly slaps reruns on Saturday nights, and thus does not “program” it much?
December 8th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Joe Cool, Jericho is already cooked. These are repeats, as you must know by now! It’s already cancelled!
I will agree with you on one point – football. I really didn’t care about football until network TV started to decline so badly that I got into watching football on Sundays for good couch-potato time. I still won’t deal with college football though. ZZzzzz…..
.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
richard, that was the closest TAR finish ever? Even counting Season Two where a team was passed up about 1/10th of a mile from the finish line? Wow. I’ll definitely need to be caught up since I’ve been busy and only tuned into the first few episodes of the season. I’m surprised it’s doing so well from a ratings perspective because I, for one, am getting just a little tired of the format. Shows like Survivor/Big Brother are dictated by the energy of the characters & the way the alliances happen to go down. The Amazing Race, on the other hand, is pretty much a plotted course with samey results thereof…the contestants are riding the roller coaster and forced to stick to the rails.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
WOW, with Animated Shows screwed up, FOX still managed to be the second highest of the night! That’s amaizing!
December 8th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Thanks, Richard
R.J., it’s not amazing,it’s the NFL. When you have an hour where you average 19.7 million and a 7.7/20 in the demo (NFL overrun + The OT from 7p-8pm) and you only program three hours, even if ZERO people watched the other two hours you’d still wind up averaging over 6.5 million and a 2.6/7 in the demo for the night.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
For Paul who asked about Leverage. 5 million viewers:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/12/08/5-million-viewers-tune-in-for-premiere-tnt-thrilling-new-series-leverage/9292
December 8th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
feel the same way about Survivor and Big Brother Dasies. Big Brother is spent in a house, for 3 months. Survivor a place, for 39 days…while the amazing race covers 5 continents and this last race was close to 40,000 miles in under 30 days.
While Survivor Gabon has some beautiful scenery and wildlife, the challenges are getting mundane after 17 seasons.
Personally think it is cool to visit new places like kazachstan (sic), or ireland last year. Like you said its the energy of the characters, and or new locations, that gave TAR 6 consecutive emmys for best reality series.
Lastly seeing how the contestants get to a locale, under pressure, makes for an Amazing ride (excuse the pun)ie: Euchenna & Joyce able to board a plane that had its doors closed, ready to leave the gate…bet rob and amber still have nightmares about that experience. (season 7)
December 8th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Desperate Housewives wins again
yes!!!
December 8th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters both had powerful December finales. They really set themselves up nicely for a strong January return. I would even say that I was as intrigued with what was going on with the Walker clan as I am with all the different families on Wisteria Lane. Each desperate housewife has such a significant story to tell. If I were ABC, I would try to convince Marc Cherry to spinoff a couple of these families into their own series, if and when Desperate Housewives has finished its seven year run.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Is the cost of airing Sunday Night Football worth the ratings that it gets for NBC?
December 9th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Funny that NBC Sunday night football can’t even come close to Housewives in the demo. Since we know advertisors target as much by gender as age, I wish they’s release gender breakdown for each demo. For all we know from the data, women 18-49 could be watching football per the NFL’s campaign to make more female fans, and a significant number of men 18-49 could be watching Housewives.
December 9th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
jay, for example, on Sunday 10/26:
Sunday Night Football: 18-49: Men 3.40 million, Women 1.69 million
Desperate Housewives: 18-49: Men 2.27 million, Women 5.21 million