My mother doesn’t watch NCIS but my teenage daughter does and loves it. She used to watch House but now she’s not even interested in watching when it’s not on opposite NCIS.

I’m all for character development over time – in fact I love it more than cases sometimes – but the House/Cuddy thing is anvil-meet-head effect. Beating us over the head with it is just going to turn me off. Subtlety was my favorited flavor of UST, and though I am smack in the middle of that women 18-35 bracket, I expect a lot more out of top shows like House.

I expected a lot more Of Bones too, which is why I haven’t been watching this year.

But just because women may want more relationship dynamic in a show, doesn’t mean “most” of us want it at the cost of the show-dynamic, feel and plot. I’m a smart girl, you don’t have to beat me over the head with two character’s unresovled issues.

OK, OK, back to ratings talk. NCIS pulled huge viewers for a repeat, but (as usual) yikes on their 18-34 numbers!

Since we don’t get overnight viewer numbers for the demos, but do get rating/share information for age demos we report them.

Frank, that does explain “ratings” somewhat, but I’m not sure it explains share. When you see 2.5/6 for the 18-49 rating share for CBS it means 2.5% of the overall 18-49 population (of about 132 million people) were tuned in on average. The 6 share means that of all 18-49 year olds who were watching TV (broadcast or cable) 6% watched on average.

it’s possible 5 million tuned in for a mere minute before realizing it was ATJ. I think there are no minimums to be counted into the average audience numbers we report. There is a 6 minute minimum only to be counted in the Total Audience measurement (numbers we rarely see outside of press releases and NBC TAMi).

the averages are just total minutes/duration. If you watch less than 6 minutes, it should still get into the averages. If it doesn’t, that would be a pretty serious flaw in Nielsen measurement.

The original 5.05 million viewers from 9-9:30 are all asleep by 9:30, contributing their viewing to the second half hour.

The increase of 290,000 average viewers from 9:30-10 consist of 1.45 million people who tune in for the minimum time to be counted into the average (which I believe is 6 minutes) realize it’s ATJ and tune out in horror. Voila, 290,000 more average viewers.

Not necessarily a plausible explanation, but more fun!

I’m also surprised that Biggest Looser was such a young show.

IMHO, the smart, capable women (like Cuddy and Thirteen in House) are suddenly written into states where their brains are replaced by hormones, thoughts replaced by feelings. I find it boring and a twinge misogynistic.

So far, Fringe has avoided going the “feelings” route with Olivia Dunham, save for her need to sort out the mysteries of John Scott. Anna Torv was a bit pained and frozen at first, but now it seems to be working. Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv have a good bro-sis vibe going now. I REALLY hope the writers don’t ruin that vibe!

Ok, so you don’t watch Heroes (smart, smart man), or TSCC, which honestly despite its fanbase here, I don’t know that I could recommend, or Life (which I think you’d like) or Chuck which is an incredibly fun show. But there are so many hours in the day — especially when sooner or later, you will give in and some of your TV viewing time will be SpongeBob! You will be assimilated in ways I will likely never be!

As for House, I’m not sure the relationship angles are vastly different. I think the new crop of Doctors changed the dynamic more. House/Cuddy has been more overtones than undertones this year, but if I read the last scene last night correctly, that’s done. On the other hand, if they change things to the point where House is both nesting AND paternal, I will agree with you that it’s a deliberate attempt at changing the show to change the demographic base.

Could it be an attempt to capture more female viewers? House did better last night among women 18-49 (6.2 rating), than men (4.85 rating), but we don’t know if that’s noticeably changed from earlier seasons.

House is getting to relationship-y IMHO. It’s not nearly as bad as Grey’s Anatomy, but slowly it’s moving that direction! The final kiss of last night’s episode was another leap away from the biting sarcasm and nihilism that makes House such a fun show. Too many feelings, not enough grumpy House, not enough Wilson, and not arguing over medical cases!!! Wilson at least had one fun sarcastic moment though, with the green wrapping paper