The updated final number for Sunday night’s airing of The Office is 22.905 million viewers between 10:40p-11:40p (ET). 13.338 million homes were watching, and 14.463 million 18-49 year olds. The 18-49 results come in ahead of all three airings of American Idol.
via NBC press release:
‘THE OFFICE’ SCORES RECORD RATINGS FOLLOWING SUPER BOWL XLIII
THE SPECIAL ONE-HOUR EPISODE OF ‘THE OFFICE’ HITS NEW SERIES HIGHS IN ALL KEY MEASURES, AND DELIVERS THE TOP RESULTS FOR ANY NBC ENTERTAINMENT TELECAST SINCE MAY 2004
AN AVERAGE 22.0 MILLION PERSONS WATCHED ‘THE OFFICE,‘ WITH AN ESTIMATED 37.7 MILLION WATCHING ALL OR PART OF THE TELECAST
Universal City, Calif. – February 2, 2009 – Last night, the special one-hour telecast of “The Office,” which aired following NBC Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl XLIII, set new ratings records for the award-winning comedy, according to time zone-adjusted “fast national” “live plus same day” viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.
Sunday from 10:40-11:40 p.m. ET, “The Office” averaged a 10.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 22.0 million viewers overall. This marks a new series record for “The Office” and the highest 18-49 rating and biggest overall viewership for any NBC entertainment telecast in more than four and a half years (since the May 13, 2004 telecast of “ER”).
An estimated 37.7 million persons watched all or part of Sunday’s telecast of “The Office” (six minutes or more).
In adults 18-34, “The Office” delivered a 12.5 rating last night, making it the top-rated entertainment telecast of the season in that valuable demographic. In adults 18-49, Sunday’s telecast of “The Office” is the #3 entertainment telecast of the season on any network, behind only the Tuesday and Wednesday season premieres of “American Idol.”
The 10.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 22.0 million viewers overall for Sunday’s telecast of “The Office” roughly doubled the show’s prior “live plus same day” record numbers (a 5.1 rating in adults 18-49, 11.2 million viewers overall).
Since its original debut on NBC in March 2005, “The Office” has established itself as one of television’s most-honored comedy series, having earned such awards as the 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the 2006 Peabody Award, the 2006 and 2009 AFI Honors, the Producers Guild Award, the Writers Guild Award, the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy and the Television Critic’s Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy.
Note that all national ratings are “live plus same day” unless otherwise indicated.
That’s good to see, hopefully people will want to tune into it again on Thursdays. But isn’t that one of the lowest post Super Bowl audiences in the last few years?
Wow, and those numbers are only going to continue to drop when they factor in the true viewing of Pittsburgh, etc. Still the most telling thing to me is the 15 million people who stopped watching it.
NBC is spinning here. Anyone think this Thursday will be a highly watched episode?
We’ll see the final numbers (minus the Pittsburgh viewers) tomorrow for Sunday’s Office, but it didn’t do as badly as some thought (which was below Alias’ previous low of 17 million), although far from the 25 million I guessed. This Thursday it’s against a repeat of CSI, so that could help, but I am one who thinks that Office has been around long enough so that the viewers who were going to find it have found it, and that no big long term boost is possible from that additional sampling.
My guess is The Office returns to regular numbers against a new Grey’s Amatomy. The writing there has been phenomenal lately. Still, I enjoyed last night’s episode of The Office, but I don’t think it was special enough(not alot of big laugh out loud moments compared to some reg. episodes and still a bit on the weird/quirky side) that it will hold on to any new viewers.
I watched the Office for the first time last night and was laughing so hard during the first half. Really hilarious stuff. The second half was enjoyable too, but if it was all as funny as the beginning… definitely would’ve found a new viewer in me. For now it depends on my schedule.
The begining segment was one giant laugh out loud moment. I think if the entire episode was about them trying to escape the office, that would have made for an epic episode that everyone could enjoy. But the majority of the episode was heavy on the drama, and kinda slow.
I CALLED IT! I was exactly right. 22 mil.
(For now, at least…)
ALERT!
Julia is single-handedly rigging the Nielson numbers!
Nielsen*
…
LOL, if Julia could rig Nielsen’s, Pushing Daisies would have gotten huge ratings
Bill, I thought it had a real chance of beating ALIAS in the “wow that didn’t do to well department,” but I based part of that in thinking the game wouldn’t be watched by as many people. I’m sure NBC is happy with the number because I wasn’t the only person who was thinking it had a shot of making ALIAS look better.
I think I would save my powers for 30 Rock.
Bet you guys would NEVER guess where my numbers would go!
/sarcasm
and it was beaten by THREE episodes of American Idol! good job NBC!
Honestly, we can all mock NBC for the choice to put The Office on post-Super Bowl, and it wasn’t a good choice, but i’ve racked my brain trying to think of a show that would fit in that slot better and I can’t do it. There aren’t a lot of quality, mass appeal shows on NBC. Maybe 30 Rock would’ve been better. Maybe they should’ve just thrown the 3D Chuck into that timeslot, but honestly, I think no matter what NBC threw on it would’ve been a quasi-disaster.
Alias is one of the lowest because it was a serial show in the middle of a story arc. Anybody watching that series for the first time with that episode wouldn’t have a clue what was going on (even though it was one of the best of the series). Thus, procedurals and comedies should always be given that timeslot above serials.
Jesse, you’ve got a point, NBC doesn’t have many, you know, mass appeal shows. Personally, I thought Office never needed that timeslot. I thought CHUCK needed it more. But, would it really fit? I didn’t think it would.
I think 30 Rock would have had lower numbers, although I’m not a psychic or anything. I’m just assuming that you’ve got millions of drunken, adrenaline high football fanatics who need to turn off the tv and relax. Like they could ‘get’ 30 Rock after a football game.
Jeez Superbowl go to ABC’s Ugly Betty!
Vader, that is right up there with the “it’s too smart for people,” the Super Bowl ratings had dropped due to the blowout that Tampa Bay had put on. So by the time ALIAS aired (after a longer post game show too, post game shows are shorter now to benefit the show they air after) viewing was already down under 27 million. While when THE OFFICE started I think I read it was nearly 32 million. There is your 5 million viewing difference right there.
I’ll never understand the logic of putting a well establish series on post-SB. ABC did it with Alias and it failed. And now The Office pulling just okay numbers, after Criminal Minds did the same last season. Was it Criminal Minds last season? the memory fades…
The two strongest post SB series in recent memory were Friends and Grey’s Anatomy, popular enough series that completely broke-out with the SB exposure. That is not going to happen to The Office, which is not mainstream enough to ever be a big hit.
No it isn’t Nick, seriously, you aren’t always right. Take a look at what’s been aired after the Super Bowl and tell me how many serial shows you find. Alias is a show that if you start in the middle (particularly of a season) you will be lost. If you miss an episode, you will be lost. It has nothing to do with it being too smart for people, it has everything to do with it being heavily serialized. There’s a reason networks will almost always use procedurals behind it, namely being most people will not care to watch a show that they don’t have a clue what’s going on in. You, on the other hand, must enjoy staring blankly at your TV for an hour in the middle of a serial show’s season. Tell me how that’s like saying it’s too smart for people…
Fairly expectable figures for The Office. I don’t think any show is going to pull the 53 million that Friends did in 1996 (highest post superbowl ratings in history). No show these days has that much mass appeal. I’m thinking Two and a Half Men could pull maybe 30 million. I think if 30 Rock aired after the game it would have gotten below Alias. I heart 30 Rock like no other show on air at the moment, but it wouldn’t have done well. I really hope, however that The Office has a semi-big boost from this event. It’s probably not out of the question for it to get 10 million on Thursday. I love The Office, but I really hope it does well so that 30 Rock does better. I hope both shows can get something out of this. Maybe that’s why NBC chose The Office and not Chuck, realising that they could get boosts from The Office and 30 Rock.
Vader, I agree on the serialized issue post-Bowl. I cannot imagine, say, Hour 4 or 5 of “24″ airing post-SB. Fox would likely run a special AI or comedy block. There’d be a huge ratings difference there, at least until 3-day DVR viewing was factored in. 3-day DVR factor was not a mainstream issue at the time ABC tried the Alias run. Alias was a series that screamed “exec’s Pet Project,” and post-SB run was another instance.
While I agree with the serialized bit in general, it’s still not as cut and dry as serial vs. procedural.
Grey’s Anatomy did splendidly while Criminal Minds did not. You can temporarily focus a more character driven serialized show and you cannot make every procedural work. Criminal Minds, though a great show, didn’t, because who wants to see a lot of analyis and bureaucratic dallying? CBS should have chosen a more action heavy procedural out of their wide variety and opened it with shit blowing up.
The Office may not be a huge winner, but NBC has nothing that would have done better.
The lower viewer numbers for the Superbowl (which also affected The Office) were largely due to the Cardinals being in the Superbowl since they have a very small fan base – other than people in Arizona people really care about them. Last year New England and New York, which are huge markets naturally added millions more viewers. The ratings would have been way under 90 million if there were 2 small market teams. Pittsburgh is not a TV huge market, but it is a hard core football city with fans all over the country, this helped keep the numbers up; going for a sixth record Super Bowl also helped keep numbers over 90 million.
Another problem with The Office was that it was on too late on the East Coast. They really need to move kickoff to 5:00pm. 4 hours for the game plus and hour for post game. DVR numbers will be interesting to see. Odds are alot more people recorded it.
Name Required, this ended up being the second most watched Super Bowl ever. How is that lower numbers?
They couldn’t move the Super Bowl any earlier because it would be on in the afternoon on the west coast which wouldn’t work.
My guess was below de 20 millions mark…
I still wish they’d launch a new show after the Super Bowl, like what used to happen. That move might have actually benefited NBC in the long term this time. At the least, I think it had a better chance of succeeding than The Office does of picking up new long-term viewers.
What a failure The Office is. You had 95 million viewers and could only muster up 22 million viewers. At least everything else got over 25 million viewers. Like somebody said before once Pittsburgh is factored in then the ratings will go down dramatically. Pittsburgh aired post-Super Bowl celebrations on NBC in that same time period.
What I really want to see is the ratings for The Office between 11:15-11:45pm where I’m sure it really dropped off.
Lisa I agree with you. Southland or Kings should’ve gotten launched out of the Super Bowl. I think the networks are better off going with new shows without much reputation there. A lot of people don’t like The Office so it was sure not to get a Grey’s Anatomy or Friends rating.
Wasn’t there a song that went Julia …. I think it was on the white album. Creepy how tight she got it. Scramble my eggs anytime, babe. Anyway, NBC still sux. Comments?
I think last year was House after the Superbowl and the year before was Criminal Minds, but I could be remembering wrong.
Now after seeing Chuck last night, it so would have worked after the game. It had a lot of action sequences and the “great” Jerome Bettis as a white collar criminal.
Note: “great” denotes his football prowess and not his acting chops.
Here is hoping Chuck did not get brutalized on Monday by House and the CBS comedies.
Joe, it doesn’t look like it got brutalized. based on early numbers its shaping up to be its best performance of the season, but still nowhere near as good as the CBS comedies or House.
We’ll see.
Vader, it’s an excuse right up there with “people aren’t smart enough,” and “my dog ate my home work.” It’s pure fantasy. ALIAS did poorly for multiple reasons: 1. The show wasn’t a “hit,” but just mildy popular. 2. The SUPER BOWL was a blowout with Tampa Bay steamrolling the Raiders. It wasn’t ever close. It had Al Michaels cracking jokes in the 3rd quarter about how they needed anything to keep viewers around. The numbers dropped dramatically by the end of the game. The post game was also 20 minutes longer than it is today. That combination resulted in 17 million viewers. THE OFFICE had the same problem with a lack of being a “hit,” but it had the benefit of following what many are calling “the most exciting SUPER BOWL ever, or at least since possibly last year.”
Looking back at the numbers it appears there were 9 million less viewers by the end of the post game show in 2003 vs 2009. Percentage wise, THE OFFICE did about as well as ALIAS for keeping viewers.
You forget that ALIAS was designed specifically for that airing. It was far less serial and more action/big budget than other episodes. It just was unlucky to follow a blow out. Even shows that did well like FRIENDS were subject to viewer numbers. FRIENDS followed the 3rd most watched SUPERBOWL I believe between the Cowboys and Steelers in a close game. If it had been a blowout even FRIENDS would have had less numbers (but still big numbers).
I don’t think the Office is going to get good DVR numbres. It didn’t start on a scheduled time. I believe it started at 10:37 and ended at 11:37. And, if you recorded it according to the digital guide, during the 10:30-11:30 block, you miseed 14 minutes of the actual show. My DVR set to record any new episodes of the The Office. On Sunday night it didn’t record. I wonder how many other people this happend too as well?
I’d just like to point out that the third “Vader” comment on this page is not mine (yes, I was very confused for a minute). I do like the Office, but I’ve never watched an episode of 30 Rock to comment on if it’s good or not…
Alias never was going to be a main stream show. The whole Rambaldi subplot throughout the entire series pushed it into sci-fi where not many people would’ve been likely to follow it anyway.
Vader, if you follow the instructions in the link below the comment box, it’s easy to create a gravatar that will appear only with your comments (and not with the comments of faux-Vaders). That’s the best way we have found to discourage comment spoofing.
Vader, I find that argument lacks merit. Sci Fi has done well with the masses. I think a movie called STAR WARS once did well in theaters, but I might be wrong. I think there was a show called X FILES that was once one of the most watched programs on TV and it had massive Serial elements and was Sci Fi. ALIAS didn’t do as well as X FILES because it didn’t get the word of mouth like X FILES did. I believe because it wasn’t as good, but I’m sure that would start arguments here. It just didn’t catch on with mass audiences. Every decade of TV has had a Sci Fi show that was at the top or near the top in ratings. So “sci fi,” and “serial,” are just excuses.
Nick, no dragging JJ Abrams through the mud as well? I’m disappointed.
I’m going to give that a go Bill, thanks!
And I think movies are just a tad bit different than TV, Nick. Look at Terminator the movie vs. Terminator the TV series if you don’t believe me. The X Files is more like an exception to the rule than the rule itself.
Vader, then why has there always been a top sci fi show every decade since the 50s in TV? It’s just an excuse. Sci Fi is not a reason why a show won’t be main stream. It just has to be good. ALIAS was entertaining but it had many problems. It didn’t know where it was going (a JJ fallacy).
TSCC by the way was viewed by what 19 million viewers after a playoff game? That is pretty good for a post playoff game. I guess Sci Fi wasn’t a problem there.
Nick, so if serialized shows do not have a disadvantage in attracting viewers, then what in your opinion is the reason that networks are constantly pressuring showrunners to reduce serial elements? Because executives personally hate serialization? I doubt it.
There is always one or two shows that break the rule, that doesn’t change the fact that serialized shows generally have a built-in disadvantage in gaining new viewers. It’s common sense that new viewers will tune out if they arrive in the middle of a storyline and can’t follow what’s going on.
That said, serialized shows often do better in DVD sales. The first half of Battlestar Galactica’s season 4 got $7 million. After the second half is released, the total will probably be around $14 million. Compare to CSI which got around $3 million for the entire season.
cdn, come on now. You’re going to actually try and tell me that TV executives know better? They run their networks off of panels. Panels show “I think it’s too serial,” and the Execs send out an order of “tone it down.” I don’t think GRAY’S ANATOMY or DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES are worried about being a serial. Heck on HOUSE they are adding more serial elements.
I’m not sure I buy that those are the “final,” numbers. Have they factored in Pittsburgh yet? It usually takes days for that to happen.
Hey, I’ll try and add an avatar later. Thanks for the advice. After thinking for a while I’m now in the mind that sc-fi is dead… in the TV world at least. I think it’s apppeal will now be limited to science geeks and dudes who can’t get layed (no offence to you guys here… honestly I was a virgin up until the age of 26 lol). Do you guys consider LOST sc-fi? That’s not doing well anyway. Also, nice to see Chuck not do so well last night. Proves that it wouldn’t have done any better post superbowl.
is that fake Vader again?
Good points on LOST, that isn’t a hit at all.
Nick, indeed that is fake Vader.
I assure you, this is real Vader lol. But I like that I’m considered the real Vader and the other guy is the fake Vader. Thanks for having my back guys! Nick C, I totally agree, LOST isn’t a hit this year. Really disappointing debut this season.
I would just like to say The Office is my favorite TV comedy of all time. I am a little dissapointed by the numbers, but i hope NBC didn’t expect gargantuan numbers. The Office isn’t mainstream at all, and i have noticed that hour long episodes of the office tend to drag a little bit. I have watched this show from the beginning, and it is an amazing and innovative television show, but is still too quirky, deadpan, and lacks alot of broad humor (minus the cold open). The first 30 minutes of this episode were some of the funniest of the show, but it lost some steam in the second half. Still one of my favorite episodes. I expect maybe a boost of a couple million viewers for this thursday, but the long term viewership gains won’t be anything to write home about for NBC execs. Man, this network is really down. I hope people will enjoy Conan on the Tonight SHow. Nobody is funnier than him out of the late night talk show hosts. He’s got a quick mind.
OMG! What is this other Vader’s f-ing problem! Argh! I’m probably going to have ot change my name now
Fake!Vader, now you’re just pretending you are both the real and fake Vader. I’m not sure what the point is?
New/Fake/Faux Vader, is trolling these comments and spoofing the “original” Vader actually interesting or fun for you?
The “original” Vader has posted hundreds of comments on our site. Best I can tell, you have posted four.
Man, I am the real Vader. I don’t know how to prove it to you. Ask me something fake Vader wouldn’t know.
Vader, ok:
What is 2 + 2?
Sorry guys, I couldn’t resist. Fake Vader did make me laugh though… but he/she is being an idiot. I sure hope this doesn’t make you guys have to consider accounts.
Here’s a question you should be able to answer, but he couldn’t.
His IP address is attached to hundreds of comments. The 2 IP addresses you have used are attached to 5. How does that make you the real Vader?
Nick, Folks spoofing comments aren’t even remotely close to a problem that would cause us to force registrations, not to worry.
Funny story you’d appreciate. Remember dirtysexyj from the DSM commenting threads last fall? I randomly met a guy at MacWorld who’s wife was a writer on the show. She was a big reader of our site. He had met dirtysexyj and confirmed that he did in fact work for the show in a very low level capacity.
Bill, I was convinced the person was a crazy fan or a fanatically crazy set cleaner.
Your site is definitely read by a lot of people in the business. Your index is pretty good at predicting what will happen. As you’ve learned there are exceptions to the rule (like CBS Friday Nights, Til Death, etc), but yours is a good yardage stick to measure hopes by. So you get a lot of borderline shows checking the site out. I’ve had some people high up the food chain at the networks mention your site in “power of the internet conversations,” and even heard mention of “Nick C,” as well (right after the ABC announcements about ES, PD, and DSM).
More importantly, since you know dirtysexyj exists, did you try and get info on how to claim your $10,000?
I completely forgot about the $10,000!
Don’t say I didn’t tell anybody what the “J” stood for.
What an awful holiday season for him. First he lost his low level capacity job on “Dirty Sexy Money.” And then he lost his no level capacity “job” on “My Own Worst Enemy.” Talk about a harsh business.
Wow, I’m glad I’ve provided some sort of entertainment for somebody. Bill, I’ve got an account set up and the image selected on the account, but it deosn’t seem to be working. I am using the same e-mail and everything, I guess I’ll keep trying, but is there anything I’m clearly doing wrong here?
Real Vader — I can see your avatar in our admin screens, so I believe you did everything right and it is probably some issue with our caching. If it’s still not working tomorrow, we’ll investigate further.
Vader, I can see your avatar as well, try clearing you browser cache and/or restarting your browser, that might do the trick.
I deleted our site cache as well. from my end, that seems to have done the trick. and most appropriate avatar.
It’s showing up fine now, thanks a lot guys!