| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 17.279 | 11.427 | 7.177 | 4.628 | 4.215 | 2.262 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.4/9 | 4.3/11 | 2.7/7 | 1.9/5 | 1.7/4 | 1.1/3 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 1.9/5 | 3.5/10 | 2.4/7 | 1.6/4 | 1.8/5 | 1.5/4 |
CBS’s viewership dominance on Tuesday was complete, its line up of NCIS, The Mentalist and Without a Trace topping every half hour for average viewers. But CBS dominated the aged, as NBC’s season premiere of The Biggest Loser and a new episode of Law & Order: SVU went large with the youth, winning every half hour for both the 18-49 and 18-34 youth demos.
ABC’s premiere of Homeland Security wasn’t as bad as waiting in an airport security queue, but they likely hoped for better. The season premiere of Scrubs on its new network home was down from it’s fall 2007 season premiere levels on NBC, but so is everything else this season.
Fox went with reruns and was an afterthought. The CW’s 90210 and Privileged were down from their fall levels.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (000s) | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCIS | 18,323 | 3.6 | 10 | 1.9 | 6 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser (season premiere) | 10,330 | 3.7 | 10 | 2.8 | 8 | |
| ABC | Homeland Security (premiere) | 7,752 | 2.2 | 6 | 1.6 | 5 | |
| FOX | House (repeat) | 5,449 | 2.2 | 6 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4,159 | 1.6 | 4 | 1.7 | 5 | |
| CW | 90210 | 2,819 | 1.4 | 4 | 1.8 | 6 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | NCIS | 19,807 | 3.9 | 10 | 2.2 | 6 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser (season premiere) | 11,385 | 4.2 | 11 | 3.3 | 9 | |
| ABC | Homeland Security (premiere) | 7,928 | 2.5 | 6 | 1.8 | 5 | |
| FOX | House (repeat) | 5,701 | 2.3 | 6 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4,616 | 1.8 | 5 | 1.9 | 6 | |
| CW | 90210 | 2,743 | 1.4 | 4 | 1.8 | 5 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | The Mentalist | 19,387 | 3.8 | 9 | 2.0 | 6 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser (season premiere) | 12,716 | 4.9 | 12 | 3.8 | 11 | |
| ABC | Scrubs (season premiere) | 6,764 | 3.1 | 7 | 3.0 | 8 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5,171 | 2.1 | 5 | 2.2 | 6 | |
| FOX | Fringe (repeat) | 3,880 | 1.5 | 4 | 1.2 | 3 | |
| CW | Privileged | 1,774 | 0.8 | 2 | 1.1 | 3 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | The Mentalist | 19,734 | 4.0 | 10 | 2.2 | 6 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser (season premiere) | 12,835 | 5.0 | 12 | 4.0 | 11 | |
| ABC | Scrubs (season premiere) | 6,640 | 3.2 | 8 | 3.4 | 9 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5,146 | 2.1 | 5 | 2.2 | 6 | |
| FOX | Fringe (repeat) | 3,482 | 1.4 | 3 | 1.1 | 3 | |
| CW | Privileged | 1,711 | 0.8 | 2 | 1.1 | 3 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Without a Trace | 13,554 | 2.7 | 7 | 1.6 | 4 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 10,383 | 3.8 | 10 | 3.3 | 9 | |
| ABC | Primetime (premiere) | 7,296 | 2.9 | 7 | 2.5 | 7 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 2,099 | 0.8 | 2 | 0.9 | 2 | |
| 10:30 | CBS | Without a Trace | 12,867 | 2.6 | 7 | 1.6 | 5 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 10,915 | 4.0 | 11 | 3.5 | 10 | |
| ABC | Primetime (premiere) | 6,685 | 2.5 | 7 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 1,906 | 0.7 | 2 | 0.8 | 2 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot. Timeslot demo winners are in bold.
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.
Jeez….”Homeland” bombed…..to bad, it was pretty good.
No pun intended!
Die ABC, Die!
(I’m not bitter at all about them canceling my favority show, am I?)
Andy, as the sign says, jokes about security are not appreciated. Strip search!
Suki, with that logic I should still be upset NBC canceled Homicide, Life on the Street. One of the all time great programs.
Getting back to Fringe Vs. The Mentalist:
The ratings above show why TM is considered a hit. It is now starting to eclipse NCIS, its lead-in, in the ratings.
I believe FOX was hoping this effect would happen with Fringe out of House.
It will be interesting to see if the delay in Fringe’s return will be to TM’s benefit in the demo…
Man. Those numbers for The Mentalist are almost unreal. I wonder if CBS had any idea that the show would be this big of a hit?
Andrea, no question The Mentalist is the biggest success story of Fall 2008. I never disputed that. The fact that it is now drawing more than NCIS is quite remarkable for a new show.
As for Fringe, I doubt that Fox could seriously have hoped that it would surpass House in its first season. That would have been equally remarkable.
Dear Andy McNab,
ABC recently cancelled almost every single show I watch in one fell swoop. Its’ just going to take some time for me to forgive them.
Suki
David,
It’s probably all the old women salivating over Simon Baker. Then they told their daughters about the show. Now they are salivating over Simon Baker, too
Bill,
From the way FOX was hyping the show since back in May, I got the feeling they totally expected it to surpass House.
Odd that NCIS first half hour was so low compared to their second half hour. And lets not say that The Mentalist (Which I do watch) is beating NCIS all the time. This is only the 2nd time its done it. And if their first half hour wasnt what it was NCIS would of beaten it out. No worries though its not like either show has anything to worry about.
Oh and glad to see you all back to work on a daily basis it was like something was missing when you werent around for the holidays…
How much longer can the CW go with ratings this low?
Lets face it…the ratings of the mentalist went up after The Dancing with the Stars Results show ended its fall run. DWTS consistently beat it. Just wait until it returns in March. They get the same demographic anyways…the old people. But I love them both
I don’t agree that Fox had huge expectations for Fringe. High HOPES perhaps, but Fox saw it as an experimental show to begin with — if Fox thought it was a slam dunk to to sell ads for a show like that, it wouldn’t have gone with it as one of the shows for “remote free” programming. Fox likely is very enamored with JJ, but the notion that a show called FRINGE could be a huge hit with the mainstream would be delusional on Fox’s part.
My guess is that especially give House’s erosion, Fringe is in line with Fox’s expectations, unless the Fox execs are delusional, which while possible seems doubtful. If I’m Fox I’m feeling “fine” about Fringe. Not ecstatic, but fine.
Kathy B., I’d bet *at least* one more season.
Gotta say that although Scrubs has been low for veiwership for ABC, i’d say it will be like 4th/5th for ABC in 18-49 scripted and like 7/8th over all. So i’d say it started out good.
ABC has got to be satisfied with “Homeland Security”…did they expect more than a 2.2 rating? Perhaps, but 7.8 million viewers and a 2.3 18/49 is a big improvement over the fall, that’s for sure. Also, the fact that it grew in the hour is encouraging. ABC should be especially pleased with “Scrubs”. The 3.1/3.2 that the two episodes of “Scrubs” is pretty decent considering how ABC has done on Tuesdays previously.
“The Mentalist” is a ridiculously huge hit, which is good for network TV! I’m going to bet that CBS is going to win the total viewer race on Tuesdays even after Fox brings back American Idol.
Here is my prediction: Fox will get about 22-24 million viewers from 8-9 with AI, and at 9 “Fringe” will start averaging 12-13 million viewers with the huge lead in. I’m thinking CBS will get 16-18 million for NCIS and probably 18-20 million for The Mentalist. Fox will still dominate in the 18/49 race.
Anyone care to challenge my prediction?
I agree JT but i don’t think that the Mentalist will get 18-20 more like 18-19 possilbly a tiny bit into the top 17’s. It still has people that come in from lead-ins.
NCIS is a really interesting story to me, now that I’ve been following the ratings game for a while. Its repeat episodes do almost as well as its new episodes. Its syndicated old seasons on USA and Ion Television do really well for those networks, apparently. And the show keeps adding viewers each season. None of those things are typical behavior.
Is it just the highly serialized approach to the show? Or does it say something about how the 18-49 demo approaches things? NCIS was always an older-skewing audience, but perhaps all the repeats and syndication finally lured younger viewers to start watching it, after which they started watching new eps too?
I think american idol is going to drop significantly in viewers this year. Sure it will win the demos but this season will mark the beginning of the end for the series. It is going to drop hard and fast. That is my prediction.
Robert,
A lot of my preconceptions of FOX’s expectations came from the upfronts.
From the upfronts live blog (New York Times):
“I’m confident this [Fringe] will become the next tentpole show for Fox.”–Kevin Reilly
http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/upfronts-live-blogging-the-fox-upfront/?pagemode=print
Now when I think of “tentpole”, and Wikipedia backs this up, I think of a show that brings in huge viewership and demo numbers, can stand on its own, and can be a strong lead-in for fledgling shows. For example, House is a tentpole show for FOX.
Andrea, I think you and I have a different interpretation about how “salesmanship” works internally and externally. Though then again Reilly’s recent public comments about Dollhouse didn’t smack of salesmanship…at all. But they were well after the upfronts which are nothing but a sales pitch.
Then again compared to TSCC or something like the cancelled New Amsterdam, Fox could already claim Fringe a tentpole show and almost do it with a completely straight face!
Surprisingly nice for Scrubs. Much better than I was expecting, though my expectations were so low that a repeat of According to Jim could have beaten them. Now I just have to watch the episode and see if they’ve fixed anything from last season. (Too bad ABC doesn’t use Hulu so I can watch it legally, since the abc.com viewer sucks so bad.)
JT and everyone:
General question: Say that American Idol averages 23 million on Tuesdays and Fringe retains 65% of that, which is roughly 15 million viewers.
Of course, 15 million would be nearly double Fringe’s current numbers, but when tied to AI is 65% good enough? What do you think?
What numbers are you people looking at? NCIS pulled better numbers in its second half than the Mentalist pulled all night. In fact, the only reason NCIS had such low numbers in its first half hour is because it comes on at 8. Reminds me of what I said two months ago…
Andrea, considering that’s better retention out of Idol than nearly anything else, I’m sure FOX would be very pleased. Pleased enough to tie up that spot next year? Maybe not. If it retains 65% of Idol I see FOX giving it a spot without a House lead in in the fall and seeing how it fairs. If it still needs support, they’ll put it behind Idol again. If not, they’ll let it remain as a moderate hit and use the spot for something else.
Vader,
I assuming you’re question TM beating NCIS? When you average the hour for NCIS, it comes in a little lower that TM’s average.
[Said with correct grammar]
Vader,
I’m assuming you’re questioning TM beating NCIS? When you average the hour for NCIS, it comes in a little lower that TM’s average.
Andrea, I think Vader’s point is that if NCIS were at 9 rather than 8 it would be beating TM. Possibly (or even probably) true, but, Vader, does it really matter? Both are among the largest scripted audiences on broadcast TV. Neither are in danger of cancellation any time soon. So why quibble over such a minor thing? It’s not like CBS is killing NCIS by airing it at 8. It’s still flourishing and getting better ratings than ever.
I think 65% retention of Idol is MORE than good enough. 45% retention might be good enough!
we have all kinds of data on how Fox did each week and you can see how stuff ranked last year for Fox while AI ran.
Wow, Tuesdays definitely belong to CBS. All the naysayers can put down procedurals all you want, but it’s a huge cash cow for CBS and clearly viewers tune in to it in droves.
Eat your heart out, Leno.
NCIS was down a bit. Not to steal a beloved argument rom the “networks don’t promote my show” crowd, but maybe people actually had to discover CBS was running new episodes again, seeing how the numbers kept climbing in the later half hour. Not that they missed anything, it wasn’t a very good episode and the new multi episode arc starts next week anyway.
Fringe repeast are looking lousy when not behind a new House episode. No surprise there.
Say what you will about Homeland and Scrubs, they must be losing less money than Pushing Daisies did.
idizzle, if NCIS can perform like this without any promotion (I have no idea if that’s true or not since I do not watch TV on TV and don’t see any promos at all) why would CBS waste the money to promote it?
Seriously, did anyone think a show about the border patrol would be a hit? I’m surprised it did as well as it did!
I really liked Homeland Security USA but ABC should put this on Fridays.. Tuesdays is way too high profiled for this show. I bet ABC is making money with this, doesnt even have a host.
With Scrubs, ABC is making 1 million per episode with $indication so ratings no matter. At least is beating Kath & Kim.
I LOVE SIMON BAKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!I’ve been in love with him since I saw his interview on the ellen degeneres show. I also love all his movies.
Even though I don`t really like THE MENTALIST, I still watch it cause hes in it
I find this “lead-in” talk annoying. If Fringe can’t stand on it’s own without a big show in front of it to rake in the viewers who will probably just leave the TV tuned to the same channel after said “big show” is over, thus giving Fringe higher ratings, does that really make FOX or fans happy?
To me, personally, it just says “Fringe can’t exist on it’s own, and needs help to exist!”
AC, Fringe can make FOX plenty of money by sticking it after big shows, while plenty of other shows that have been tested behind those shows have not. So, yes, that makes FOX very happy. And who cares about the fans?
AC, I understand your interpretation of “Fringe can’t exist on its own, it needs help…” As a very experimental show in its first season, I think giving it said “help” via a strong lead-in, is a solid programming strategy. I’m curious to see how it fares with AI lead-in. If it bleeds AI viewers to, say, less than 30% retention, then it won’t exist much longer. If it holds 50% or more of AI viewers, then FOX may give it a chance as a tentpole show next season!
Fringe is not the type of series that can be a tentpole right out of the gate. That doesn’t mean it won’t be, after a couple of seasons. House did not premiere to “tentpole” Nielsen numbers, either
.
As for people who just leave the TV on and don’t pay attention – there’s some kind of button on the Nielsen People Meter that you are supposed to push every few minutes to prove you are watching. If the meter is idle for more than 15 minutes, that meter may not be counted, from what I understand.
Secret Life thrashes Gossip Girl with a 4.4 total viewers.
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20090107abcfamily01
do any of you even watch fringe? Why are all of you just tearing this show apart?
Tony, a.) that was info about a *Monday* show and this is the post for Tuesday! and b.) though I love the Futon Critic, we were quicker in posting the Secret Life info.
There is no justice in the world. It should have been Fringe that was the hit!
To Andrea:
I’m not one who puts a lot of merit behind retention, especially when the show is a huge hit like American Idol, and I don’t think Fox will either. I think that Fox will be pleased if Fringe attracts between 12 and 13 million, which would be just over 50% retention of American Idol. Does anyone really beleive that Fringe will pull in more than 13 million when it airs after Idol? Fox might hope they can get 15 to 18 million to watch Fringe, but they know it’s not likely to happen.
We should also remember that House premiered to a very weak 7 million viewers in the fall 2004. It doubled it’s audience when American Idol became it’s lead in, and at its peak was retaining nearly 90% of the Idol audience. While it’s possible that Fringe can catch on to that extent, I consider it highly unlikely for a genre show to repeat the success of a medical drama like House.
That’s the problem with reading both Monday and Tuesday at the same time.
Apologies.
JT, thank you for articulating my opinion better than I did myself – I am with you down the line. Fringe *is* a genre show and I find it impossible to believe that Fox views it as anything other than that.
Tony, we’re glad you’re reading and I’m generally very happy when people post links. I probably shouldn’t have called you out. My apologies.
I do think Fringe will get a big boost from Idol when it starts. I’m just sorry about it. Yes, playe, I’ve watched 3 episodes of Fringe. Well, maybe not 3 full episodes, but I gave it 3 different tries, but I was unable to watch a full episode after the pilot episode. I was so excited about it when I saw the trailer all those months ago. What a let down.
Everytime I watched it I found myself wishing C.G.B Spender would stroll in, lite up a Morley and send the whole show someplace past the exosphere.
Scrubs was great last night, and i hope abc leaves it to finish it’s last season and doesn’t treat it like nbc did.
In Canada they aired The Mentalist episode on Sunday night and that’s when I watched it. I watched NCIS and Scrubs and both shows rocked. Not a big Mentalist fan, its alright but I prefer Eleventh Hour over it. I’m looking forward to Lie To Me (kind of a Mentalist like show) with Tim Roth.
so guys, do you think that abc will continue scrubs with a new cast? How good would the show have to do in order for that to happen?
Shatten, it’s *way* too early to guess at the prospects for Scrubs, but *if* it keeps a 3.0 18-49 demo rating it will very likely be back.
Though I’ve heard it will be sans Braff. I wonder if he’ll actually go through with it this time. Weren’t there rumors during seasons five and six that Braff was quitting?
Also, Shatten, you can’t quite blame NBC for Scrubs’ seventh seasons. The strike forced the order to be shortened. Though NBC did decided to air that last episode completely out of order for no reason.
Yes, AND when Bill Lawrence told nbc that if necessary he could finish the series in a mere three episodes, they said no. They said he could have a one hour finale and that was it. Scrubs is a great show, and although it’s ratings have waned in recent years, it has always been a good show for nbc. They were unfair.
Scrubs was god-awful last year……and you can’t solely blame the strike for that. The two episodes I saw last night were an absolute breath of fresh air and I feel like I’m watching the show again for my own enjoyment rather than to satisfy the part of me that likes to be a completest. Those numbers are certainly nice and hopefully they can help make The Goode Family into a minor hit as I’m sure that show is ace since Mike Judge has the Midas touch.
I kind of miss the chart with lines and color… It made it easier to read, in my opinion. A suggestion, not a complaint.
Gahhhh I hate the ratings of Homeland Security USA and Scrubs.
Bring on Castle now
I just read this Text.
http://www.scrubs-hq.com/news/archives/368
Sounds really great, but is it really? I’m not sure.
The 18-49 demo for FOX on the chart is messed up.
sfdsdf, you are correct sir! I plead simple typo. Now fixed.
So, all kudos to The Mentalist, but c’mon, it’s demos get hammered by Biggest Loser, and by Scrubs in the 18-34, for goshsakes. It’s a hit, but it sure ain’t a big $$$$$ hit in the ad rate department.
I mean, how much of a hit are you really when a bad flu epidemic this winter could end up wiping out 70% of your audience?
Ok, hyperbole, and I know it, but let’s not go off the rails here because every blue haired lady in America gets wet panties over Simon Baker. Ask me, I’d rather have Biggest Loser than The Mentalist on my net any day of the week.
Of course, then I’d never actually watch my own network, but at least I’d be making boatloads of money.
Sorry for the double post, but, jeez, Cuidado con el Angel had nearly as good an 18-34 demo as did the Mentalist.
CBS’s numbers are fool’s gold, my friends. Impressive now, but not going to be worth it in the long haul. Their audience just keeps getting older, while ad agencies’ desires just keep getting younger. 18-34 is the new 18-49 for those guys. Pretty soon, they may be only interested in prepubescents.
To the people ad guys drool over, Thomas Jane and Jethro Bodine are just “those old guys my mom and gramma drool over.”
JT, I agree with you that ABC is probably satisfied with the first numbers for all of its new Tuesday night lineup. A 7.8 for Homeland Security, a big improvement with Scrubs over ATJ, and the return of the popular newmag, What Would You Do, all delivered solid numbers. If they hold onto or build upon these numbers, it will put ABC in a great position going into March with the return of DWTS: The Results.
I don’t know for certain but it would appear that Tuesday night is NBC’s strongest night of programming now that SNF has ended. Big numbers for The Biggest Loser and L&O: SVU had to put a huge grin on the faces at NBC.
At CBS they have to be chomping at the bit to see how well their big guns do against AI next week. They probably smell victory in the air. This is looking like the year that AI fades even more significantly than it did last spring and we have to note that their were some nights when AI barely scored a 21.5 rating last season. I’m thinking AI will win a few of the first weeks but then drop off significantly enough to allow CBS to take over the night. Then in March AI will be squeezed even further with the return of DWTS: The Results, which demonstrated last fall that it can hold its own against The Mentalist. Clearly, we have already seen from these first few nights of the first week in January that so far every single network is connecting with their niche and this spring 2009 could bring one of the biggest ratings battles between the big four that we have seen in a long time.