| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 19.64 | 7.64 | 7.25 | 6.80 | 4.67 | .996 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 7.7/19 | 1.9/5 | 2.9/8 | 1.9/5 | 1.9/5 | 0.4/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 6.1/18 | 1.4/4 | 2.6/8 | 1.4/4 | 2.1/6 | 0.4/1 |
I apologize for the delays, I had some technical difficulties. I’d blame it on not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, which I honestly don’t love. But, it was technical difficulties.
Not a great night for fans of Knight Rider, Life or Life on Mars who were hoping on another season. The prospects for Life and Knight Rider were already grim and are now worse. Meanwhile, American Idol remains strong. Very strong.
For those wondering why any network (last night CBS and CW) would air reruns during February sweeps, that’s because this year February sweeps were moved to March to accommodate the digital transition which was originally scheduled for February.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 26.26 | 9.9/27 | 8.3/25 |
| CBS | Criminal Minds (R) | 8.54 | 1.7/5 | 1.1/3 | |
| NBC | Knight Rider | 4.94 | 1.4/4 | 1.2/3 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.90 | 1.9/5 | 2.1/6 | |
| ABC | LOST (R) | 4.76 | 1.7/5 | 1.4/4 | |
| CW | Privileged (R) | 0.92 | 0.3/1 | 0.3/1 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | Lie to Me | 13.01 | 4.7/12 | 4.0/11 |
| ABC | LOST | 10.98 | 4.7/12 | 4.4/12 | |
| CBS | Katie Couric: All Access Grammy Special | 6.83 | 2.1/5 | 1.8/5 | |
| NBC | Life | 6.76 | 1.8/4 | 1.3/3 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.37 | 2.3/5 | 1.3/3 | |
| CW | 90210 (R) | 1.07 | 0.4/1 | 0.6/2 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Law & Order | 8.69 | 2.4/7 | 1.8/5 |
| CBS | CSI: NY (R) | 7.54 | 1.9/5 | 1.3/4 | |
| ABC | Life on Mars | 6.02 | 2.1/6 | 1.9/6 | |
| UNI | Don Francisco Presenta | 3.75 | 1.6/4 | 1.7/5 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 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.
Lost lost a very very little, although I heard the second half of the episode was actually watched by more than the first half?
Anyway, still really good numbers.
yes, LOST had more viewers the second half hour
LOST 9p 10.85, 4.6/12, 4.3/12
LOST 930p 11.104 4.8/12 4.4/12
poor knight rider. i thought the ratings would stay above 6 million this week. i really wish Life would have better numbers it is so much better than Lost.
Wouldn’t that average to 4.7 in the 18-49 demo? And 4.4 in 18-34?
Well good. Lost is the number 1 show with the best demos in the 9PM hour.
I like watching the Lost vs. Lie to Me battle. Across broadcast primetime there are very few hours where the 2 top shows are so close.
why dont ABC show the remaining eps of Pushing Daisies instead of repeats of Lost. so stupid of them
Julia, yes. Again, one report we use is horrible for rounding. I’d already fixed it for Lie to Me and Life on Mars (it had LOM w/a 2.2) but hadn’t fixed it for LOST yet.
Damn it! ‘Life’ a very weak in demo. There is a only joy for me – ‘lie to me’, this show rocks!
Lost has been surprisingly consistent so far this season, especially considering the fact it’s airing in the middle of a network wasteland. I was actually worried that by this time, it would be in the 9.5 million range or below.
The episode in itself was very good. I knew Jin was alive, but it was great to confirm it! I love the new format of the show this season. In previous seasons, there’d be multiple plotlines going on, but each episode would typically deal with only one at a time (and generally alternating from week to week). This season, we’re getting it all at once, so I think that really helps with the flow of the series. It actually might explain why the ratings have been so consistent this season.
I think “Life on Mars” is probably a gonner, but I suppose it depends on how ABC’s spring shows perform. From the commercials I saw, “Castle” and “The Unusuals” look promising, but knowing ABC’s track record of late, I’m not gonna hold my breath so LOM might just survive.
You know, there may be some truth to the speculation that the Life lead in is hurting Law & Order. While Law & Order’s competition probably has more to do with it, this week’s competition was actually less than last week’s, but Law & Order still dropped 2/10s of a point in both demos.
Last week for anyone who doesn’t want to look it up:
CBS CSI: NY (R) 9.49 2.4/6 1.5/4
NBC Law & Order 8.89 2.6/7 2.0/6
ABC Life on Mars 6.51 2.3/6 1.6/5
Yeah, LOST basically has its hardcore fans still watching.. and actually increased by the second half hour! For all of us who’ve watched from the beginning, it’ll all pay off by the end of the 2010 season! I doubt it’ll go below 10m this season… it’ll probably always be between 10.5 and 11.5.
If L&O keeps bringing those numbers it will be back for next year.
Oh no! Life can’t be Lost. It’s just so damn good! I guess it’s NBC’s fault. I heard they didn’t even air an add on Superbowl.
They should have played this Life on Mars episode last week!
NBC lost in demos to Unvision, on the night with three new episodes…
Once again, I doubt that CWs less than million viewers (or amazing 2 million on a new episodes day) can pay for keeping the lights on…
once again CBS was a little stupid with that special on 9 pm hour…
and LOSt eith that lead-in don’t go to improve anymore…
FOX people is done a great job with now a schedule that works all way…
LOST still has plent of LIFE left in it. Besides, its going to end next year anyway and an 18-49 demo in the upper 4’s is ratings gold (not platinum, just gold).
As for Life on Mars, maybe people are getting it mixed up with the equally bad Life on NBC?
CW is a disaster, it needs to go away. It embarrassing when it routinely gets crushed by the Illegal Alien network.
Name Required – CW is a disaster, it needs to go away. It embarrassing when it routinely gets crushed by the Illegal Alien network.
You noticed that, too. I wouldn’t be surprised, if MNTV had better ratings than the CW last night. The CW should be regulated to two nights of the week and run sports or movies of the night for the other days.
FOX layed the Smackdown last night.
I’m dissapointed but not surprised about the numbers for both Life and Life on Mars and I guess people should enjoy both of them whilst they can. Lie to Me is doing well though, which is good because I’m enjoying it quite a lot. Long live Tim Roth!
Dang it! I was really pulling for Knight Rider this week. Took a step forward I thought last week, but back down again this week. I really wish NBC would’ve ran it on another night, because nothing can really compete with AI in that time slot.
LIfe on Mars isn’t looking so hot but it really doesn’t have a good lead in. The show still has potential I think but ABC, which I recall was doing really good two or three years ago when Greys Anatomy was huge, isn’t doing so good anymore. They’ve already cancelled three major shows, including Eli Stone, which really disappoints me the most, but can they really afford to cancel Life on Mars too.
Now if Castle is a disaster, which I have a feeling it will be. Does anyone suppose that that might secure a spot for Life on Mars.
I thought LOST was just disappointing last night. For one, if you want Jin’s being alive to be a significant twist, try leaving his name out of the credits. Second, the twist of Rousseau at the end was way too obvious. Seriously, who didn’t realize it was her group when they started speaking French? And who cares about her anyway? I am way more concerned with Locke and Jack than I’ll ever be with characters like Jin, Rousseau, Sun, and Charlotte, but I guess they can’t do anything big every week. The off-island plot was a little too obvious as well. So for me, this is the weak link of the season.
Bill, I agree the Lost vs LTM ratings race is interesting.
Julia, it’s a joke if a 18 year old show (L&O) is lead-in dependent.
Finally, I’m completely biased in favor of Life and thus will spin the numbers. 6.76 million viewer its third highest showing this season. 1.8 demo just tells me its a procedural and thus will skew older. If this was on FOX it would be put behind American Idol or House, but NBC has no show like that, lol.
As strange as it sounds, I wouldn’t count this show out for next season until I see the numbers for Kings & Southland. As it stands NBC has to fix Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Will they have enough new shows to fill 6 hours of programming?
Maybe one day CBS will learn that katie is not prime Time material. They seem to have taken the night off and conceded defeat to FOX.
@Vader — wow, you’re a harsh critic. Last night’s LOST was definitely not as good as last week’s, but last week’s was fabulous. It could be I’m just worn down and that a “so-so” episode of LOST is so much better than the dozens of sucky episodes of Heroes and Battlestar Galactica (though last Friday’s BSG rocked…finally) that I’ve subjected myselt to, that so-so looks good to me.
Andrea, Assuming NBC has *anything* in development, don’t count on product scarcity to safe Life.
They have 6 hours worth of scripted “Fall” shows that look good to come back, plus 2 for Biggest Loser. That only leaves 2 hours to fill among either new spring shows this season or new adds for next season.
Andrea, I actually enjoy Life and liked last night’s episode. But I could and would say the same for Life On Mars, and I’d conclude that no matter how you or anyone else spins it, neither of them will be back next year.
NBC won’t cancel everything, but with Leno at 10pm it will be cancelling several shows. Barring a miraculous boost into the mid 2.0’s (heck, getting a 2.0 would be good news) for 18-49s, Life and Knight Rider will certainly be among the cancelled.
Vader, trust me; there are PLENTY of who care about Rousseau. And personally, I’m loving Sun this season!! In fact she might be my favorite of the Oceanic 6
The only reason Lie to Me is beating Lost is because of AI lead. Also don’t forget Criminal Minds. Ones AI makes that switch you know that the rating for LTM will fall and on top of that it will have the heavy competition from CM. Since CM and LTM are very similar, I’m sure that a lot of CM fans are tuning in to LTM as well. But if they are going up against each other many of them will decided to stick with CM since it’s on for a while now.
“Dang it! I was really pulling for Knight Rider this week. Took a step forward I thought last week, but back down again this week. I really wish NBC would’ve ran it on another night, because nothing can really compete with AI in that time slot.”
I think the fact Knight Rider is being sacrificed to AI is a good sign that NBC has given up on it and just want to burn the remaining episodes.
Lost was fantastic last night. My favorite of the season so far. Not every episode has to be DUN DUN DUN SHOCKREVEAL. I loved the balance between the island and O6 plot, and had quite a few dramatic scenes. Sawyer seeing Kate and Claire, for example.
Name Required, while I couldn’t agree more about the CW, it’s pretty rude to call Univision the Illegal Alien Network.
Why does CBS keep putting Katie Couric in primetime? No one wants to watch her, and putting her on more often isn’t going to change that.
It’s bizarre to me that ABC decided to air LOM out of order so they could air a very generic, very non-sci-fi, very boring episode last week. You’d figure last night’s episode, which actually was shot prior to last week’s, would have been the better ep to air it’s first night following the very trippy Lost.
Man, the only people more clueless than network execs right now must be Wall Street bankers.
So way to kill LOM before it even got a shot, ABC (not that LOM is really any good anyway).
And, NBC, good job not airing a single Life promo during the Super Bowl, or airing Life or Chuck after the Super Bowl. Way to drag your network even furthur into the sewer, Ben.
It’s amazing to me that once the NBC brass heard he had scheduled The Office for the post Super Bowl slot that they did not fire him on the spot. I guess the Alec Baldwin character on 30 Rock must not be much of an exaggeration.
Schmokey, The Office was the ONLY logical choice for post Super Bowl in terms of potential ad revenue. Yes, launching a new show may have been the smart thing to do to launch a show (I do not think airing a dying show like Life or a second season show like Chuck would make any more sense than The Office) but NBC needed the ad revenue The Office brought in.
Creampuffer, you are right I did watch Lie to me yesterday instead of the Katie Couric but once Criminal Minds is back next week with a new episode so will I.
Fans of Knight Rider? I didn’t think there were any. I know 5 million(ish) people watched last knight, but I don’t think many of them will miss it next year, at least not like Jericho or Moonlight or Joss Whedon fans. Not on the forums/blogs I peruse.
Julia, I beg to differ. A show like CHUCK would have been fine if they’d gone the big guest star route (just like THE OFFICE did). Chances are good that the NBC marketing team likely could have pulled nearly the same income for CHUCK. Plus it would have been a launch pad for CHUCK that either would have worked or failed. Since I don’t think the show is bad, and believe it’s better than half the stuff on TV I think it would have found some viewers. It may have started averaging 8-9M viewers after the SUPER BOWL. I don’t see THE OFFICE gaining much of anything from it.
So it was a one stop event for making money. I think it likely made about $5M to $10M more than CHUCK would have in the same time slot. That isn’t enough for me to justify THE OFFICE. I’d have likely debuted KINGS if I was the guy in charge tho.
That’s why NBC is losing money, Julia, because they are so shortsighted. The ad rates for The Office episode were likely ratings contingent. No one paid premium bucks for adds in that hour because NBC said it was airing The Office. They bought the ads because NBC guarenteed a number with give backs or make goods.
And let’s face it, you can get 20 million viewers for a test pattern after the Super Bowl (like Fox did with Alias), so the difference between what the Office got and what any other show with that type of lead in would have garnered would likely not be that large. Certainly not large enough to offset all the money you lose by not trying to launch (or at least relaunch) a show in the only time slot NBC has all year that will guarentee a gigantic sampling.
Yeah, they may be be losing some money over at NBC, but they don’t actually NEED the money. They are not in any danger of folding. And they just cut tens of millions of dollars out of next season budget with their Leno deal. What they actually NEED is a hit. One hit can make a giaganctic difference to a networks fortunes. The Office is never going to be that hit.
NBC should have had either a mid season replacement ready to launch after the game, or they should have slotted Chuck in there and counted on the 3D curiousity to help them grab them a giant number, which it would have. Instead they wasted the slot completely on The Office for some short term dollars that will have zero impact on NBC’s ability to come back from the hole they have dug for themselves. There is just no way that makes any sort of sense.
Schmokey, I agree, and I have said before that NBC is very shortsighted. But for their current strategy, which is not leading to success, The Office was the only show that made sense, even if it was only slightly more than they could have gotten for another show. They are all about the bottom line right now which is not going to help them in the long run. But that is the reason no one was going to get fired over putting The Office after the Super Bowl.
BTW, Alias was on ABC.
Julia, I don’t agree with you.
Life only has crappy ratings because NBC doesn’t promote it. They were on Fridays for God sakes! Then, they put it on Wednesdays against Criminal Minds with a lead-in like Knight Rider. What were they expecting? When Life had a better lead-in, the episode boost to 8 million. Bang! It’s obvious that the show has potential.
Life is a procedural. People love procedurals. And this is actually a good one. I am pretty sure that if NBC had air Life after the Super Bowl, they would have saved the series. And it would have much better ratings than The Office.
Normally I’d come down hard on NBC for being pennywise and pound foolish, which I’d agree with Nick, Ricardo, and Julia that they were. But in this economy, I can’t really fault the “GET CASH NOW!” mentality and opting for the extra $5M-$10M.
Given the event, they could’ve aired an hour of Jeff Zucker and Ben Silverman talking about how much TVbytheNumbers sucks and it still probably would’ve averaged 15 million. But they’d have made $0.00 ad revenue on that.
I think airing Chuck or Life would’ve made some differences for those shows numbers, but how much a week or two from now? Hard to say. If Nick is right and The Office could outperform by $5M-$10M worth, it could take a long time for the benefits to make that difference.
My guess is that NBC probably pretty much already figures it is renewing Chuck and didn’t want to give the post Super Bowl slot to a show produced by Warner Bros and that it already figures it is cancelling Life so it didn’t want to waste the slot on a show it knew it was going to cancel.
NBC was originally way back last spring planning on airing the Amy Poehler “spinoff” to the Office after the SuperBowl. But then it became not a spinoff and Amy Poehler was pregnant and show got delayed so there was no way to get her show on the air in time for February. So NBC had to scratch that plan in the fall and didn’t have much time to not only pick which show but also allow enough time to write and film a special SB episode. To me, the Office was the best choice out of what they had to choose from. I admit Chuck is probably second best but this show also seems like it has its niche audience and wouldn’t have performed any better, but Chuck might have been able to see more of a prolonged ratings bump than the Office since it’s only in its second season.
NBC was shortsighted, when the Amy Poehler show wasn’t available(which they should have figured out sooner than they did), they should have tried to have one of their other midseason shows ready to give it the biggest sampling possible and try to get them a big hit.
this is really good for christine….CBS gotta look at these numbers and think that there arnt really alot of people watching in the 8′o clock hour besides AI
Yes, it did seem like a missed opportunity to me as well. That NBC didn’t have a new show ready to go and get the sampling post_SB seemed a mistake. The Office has been around long enough so that I don’t expect it to get any real benefit.
NBC is not that far behind ABC for the season in the 18-49 demo. If you include only scripted shows, I’ll bet its even closer. The ad recession and the writers’ strike last year has levelled the playing field between CBS and everybody else who can put one reality show with huge numbers or a stable of mediocre reality shows. All the heated debate between NBC and ABC partisans boils down to what seems evident to me. One, if you have a halfway decent scripted show, leave it on. If syndication doesn’t grab it, you still avert the disaster of two or three years of promotion and even meagre audience anticipation being thrown away for a bird in the bush. Two, forget about the next Idol. You’re doing great just to find the next Bachelor or Biggest Loser. Three, all the mutual hating between ABC and NBC can’t disguise the fact that as brand names, they are virtually indistinguishably mediocre.
jay, NBC hung relatively close to ABC in adults 18-49 based on Sunday Night Football and its attendant shows. Watch how far they drop by the end of this season now that’s finished.
Bill: Andrea, Assuming NBC has *anything* in development, don’t count on product scarcity to safe Life.
They have 6 hours worth of scripted “Fall” shows that look good to come back, plus 2 for Biggest Loser. That only leaves 2 hours to fill among either new spring shows this season or new adds for next season.”
Robert: NBC won’t cancel everything, but with Leno at 10pm it will be cancelling several shows. Barring a miraculous boost into the mid 2.0’s (heck, getting a 2.0 would be good news) for 18-49s, Life and Knight Rider will certainly be among the cancelled.
Oh, well. At least it lasted two seasons.
Robert, I do agree that last week’s episode was fantastic. The one complaint that I do have about the show is that there are a handful of characters that I couldn’t care less about, and last night tended to focus on all of them. I never have seen the point of doing a Rousseau flashback of any sort because would it really show anything we don’t already know? Would it be nice to see her record the distress signal and kill off her party? I guess. It wouldn’t serve any real purpose though. She can’t do anything much with Jin either because that would create a major plothole with her not recognizing him in season one.
My problem at the end was not the fact that it wasn’t a major twist, but more so that the writers acted like nobody could’ve figured that out beforehand.
NBC ran Chuck promos through out the Olympics. Even if it had goten 20 million after the Super Bowl it wasn’t going to grow even to Heroes level.
People will find a show if it interests them. CSI started on Fridays and became the biggest scripted shoe in the past 7 years. NCIS started as a spin-off of a medium size show and look at it now, if it keeps up next year it will be the #1 scripted show.
Robert,
You’ve mentioned you enjoy Life before. Me too! I have a question for you. Followed by a rant. Then a return to the question. (!)
Does NBC *want* Life to be canceled? Ricardo mentioned that they never gave the show’s return any promotion during the Super Bowl. (I didn’t see EVERY commercial during the Super Bowl, but I saw almost all of them and I sure didn’t see anything about Life’s return.) It was off the air for 6 or 7 weeks, I think. And there was even a mid-season cliffhanger to resolve but no ads hyping this. How were fans going to know the show was coming back?
And howzabout promoting the show with ads trumpeting it as one of AFI’s 10 Best TV Programs of the Year? As an aside, only three of this top ten are network shows: Life, Lost, and The Office. How sad it is that two of these three shows AIR AT THE SAME TIME, UP AGAINST ONE ANOTHER! When is the last time a show as good as Life received so little promotion from its own network? (Even ABC was behind Pushing Daisies during the abbreviated first season with a lot of on-air promos for that program.)
NBC has never promoted this show. In 2007, NBC was all about promoting Bionic Woman, with Chuck getting modest attention and the other newcomers, Journeyman and Life, getting almost no notice. In 2008, NBC seemingly put all of its promotion behind Knight Rider and My Own Worst Enemy. Honestly, I find it remarkable that 6.76 million viewers stumbled across Life last night at all, given how NBC spent $0.00 promoting the show between mid-December and yesterday.
So back to my question. Does NBC *want* Life off the air? Why bother to put it on at all then? It just bugs me A LOT when a show is good, then gets moved around the schedule with little or no promotion—Life has air new episodes on three different nights so far this season—then gets canceled with the network claiming “well, the ratings weren’t good enough”.
Sorry for the rant. (Oh, and I WATCH Life and RECORD Lost! Enjoy them both!)
Unless FOX changes its mind this was the last time Lie to Me aired against Lost. And Criminal Minds btw, because CM aired out of its usual time slot yesterday and on 8pm LtM will actually be up against the much weaker comedies. Just saying because of all the above comments on those two battles. FOX will kick ABC’s butt in the 9pm hour and LtM will move out of Criminal Minds’s way.
As for the actualy ratings of LtM this week, it’s much the same as Fringe, both shows did not get an initial boost from their first post Idol airing as huge as I’d have expected, but both seem to hang on to the numbers extremely well. Good job!
I am sad for Life, but yeah, the best I could do is spin it enough to make it look better than Life on Mars and that’s just pathetic all on its own.
Life is such a great show with good acting and writing. NBC has given little or no support to the show. What do they expect. The other networks promote their shows.
idol seems stable now. i think ratings are gonna raise for when the competition starts though.
Vader, I think the writers knew that the second Locke mentioned the French writing loyal viewers would know exactly what was coming next. That point was the surprise, it just didn’t come at the end. Actually seeing her was to confirm what we already know and to let people know we will be seeing her back story.
As for the characters, there are a lot of characters on the show and different people are going to like and dislike different characters. Personally, I’m not all that into the O6 story so far; I prefer the island stories, including all the new characters. But Charlotte REALLY needs to start doing something, especially if she is who people are predicting she is.
Stacy, who are people predicting Charlotte is?
Just to add something about the ratings, since this is what this site is about and not about review shows.
What is the deal with Wednesdays? The 18-34 ratings, Lie to me has a 4.0 and the next lowest goes all the way to a 2.1 for Cuidado con el Angel. I know there were repeats, but still it seems like a major gap. I’ve notice this about Wednesday all year and I just find it odd.
Matt,
I don’t want to say here, just in case it’s true; I don’t want to spoil anything. But go to here Lostpedia article and look in the theory section.
I mean HER article
Tom, Chuck is already almost at Heroes levels. If Heroes keeps up the slide, Chuck might pass it soon.
Hyperbole and I know it, but pretty realistic hyperbole nonetheless when you consider how far that show has fallen.
We can all talk about the reasons for the The Office airing after the SB until we are green in the face and blue in the gills, but it will never change the fact of what a massive screw up it was. That NBC didn’t have a show waiting to go since before the season even began is just total mismanagment. They have only known this day was coming for the past two years. To end up totally wasting the slot to no purpose should get Silverman not only fired but also locked up in Gitmo (once they let all the detainees go, that is).
Hey, an idea for a new reality show: Bennie Goes to Gitmo! Talk about a potential ratings bonanza. Imagine the spike in viewers in Week 6 when Dick Ebersol hooks the car battery up to Bennie’s gonads.
Anyway, I highly doubt people paid prime $$$ to air ads during The Office, as opposed to airing adds during whatever else might air in the spot. You could have run old Green Acres reruns and people were going to pay pretty much the same amount, because the ads were probably sold based on a projected number, and not based on whatever actual show was airing. So they guarenteed a number and then would have to offer make-good free ads if they do not meet that number. What they aired in the slot likely had zero impact on how much money they made from that hour.
But even if you go with Robert’s figure (5-10 million), that’s, sad to say, a drop in the bucket. Five million bucks buys you production costs for one hour of Heroes. Maybe one and a half. Five million dollars in ad buys, or even ten, will again have zero impact on NBC viability in even the shortest of short terms. No one is going to save their job based on that amount of money. NBC will not be helped in the least by that amount of money. And, as I said, NBC likely would have made the same amount of money if they had aired Ben Silverman’s colonoscopy, so long as 20 million people watched.
Quick aside: if they would have offered to let the winner of a reality show GIVE Ben Silverman a colonoscopy, likely they would have gotten 20 million applications just to be on that show, let alone watch it.
No one will ever convince me that wasting that time slot was anything other than gross negligence. I guess that doesn’t leave much room for discussion, but there you go. NBC is in the dumper because they are inept network. It ain’t bad luck, and it ain’t because Tim Kring is a bonehead (which he is).
It is because from Ben Silverman to Jack Donaghy, and all the way up to Don Geiss, you have a bunch of guys who do not know what in the hell they are doing.
Which is pretty annoying when you consider how much richer than us they all are.
For a historical perspective, Wednesday 3 years ago (Feb 8, 2006). Discuss amongst yourselves.
I never look at the credits for Lost, in case they ruin a good surprise. Not that Jin was much of a surprise.
Knight Rider continues its cruise off of the TV schedule with horrible demo ratings.
I agree with a lot of the other commentators here: NBC is basically ignoring Life. BTW, I always hated that title; it doesn’t sound like a cop show, it sounds like a hour dramedy ala Providence.
Ben Silverman 0 Fred Silverman 1
Bones fans are liers. They claim that it never recived AI support despite knowing that’s a lie.
I forgot that LOST was so big, if you look at the fall 2005 numbers it’s even bigger. That season LOST started a decline which continues to this day. The combination of 3 bad episodes in a row, tons of repeats betwine new episodes, and the highest rated AI (with the lamest winner) killed LOST as a broad appeal show.
In 3 years LOST lost over 7 million viewers, L&O lost 6, and BIGGEST LOSER dubled it’s viewership.
oh please, Lost is still doing good.. it premiered with 16 millions and in their FIFTH season and with 5 different timeslot, is still the #1 scripted show on Wednesdays. The fact that the DVD sales are huge and is critically acclaimed with 26 Emmy nominations. ABC doesnt care about the ratings they have an end date! It seems nobdy wants to remember that CSI was averaging 30 millions every week a few years ago and now is struggling to get 15.
I response to cool, let’s not forget ‘Desperate Housewives” 30 million in 2005.
the Lie to Me vs. Lost horse race stayed neck and neck even in the finals, where the 4.7/12 held up for both. Lost in Mars though dropped below 6 million and to a 2.0 for 18-49s in the finals.
Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but when was Desperate Housewives getting 30 mil? Was it a special and happened one time?
Interesting that Lie to Me didn’t fall in the finals this week. Could it actually be developing a real audience rather than just Idol’s leftovers?
It’s nice to see that Lost is retaining its good numbers. They’re certainly not as good as Season 1’s, but they’ve kept steady ratings this season since the premiere rather than taking giant dips like some other shows right whent eh second episode comes along. And those of you criticizing its loss of viewers, that’s only natural for a serialized show. If people were to jump into Lost now, they’d have no idea what was going on. Whereas shows like American Idol, you can just jump in at any point int the show, any season, any episode. Lost you have to see every single episode from the beginning. It’s only natural for a show like that to lose viewers. I’ve never seen Lie to Me, but what is probably the reason it’s been beating Lost is because it’s a procedural type show (right?) thus making most episodes independent from the rest and the fact that it’s in its first season (no one to be confused) in that nice little spot after American Idol.
That being said, I don’t quite see why ABC has been airing repeats of Lost in the 8 PM time slot. I mean, they could’ve taken the last 3 weeks to air the remaining episodes of Pushing Daisies which would have had similar ratings. Oh well, there’ll be a DVD. Also, things aren’t looking too good for Life on Mars. I’ll cherish what little episodes we’ll probably have left.
Robert, 6.76 million seems alright for Life though? Isn’t that significantly higher than a lot of previous airings? Or are you talking solely about the 18-49 demo? Shame, it was a great idea for a series, and the reviews love it. I agree with others that NBC really should promote Life as much as they can.
I have a good feeling about Lie To Me! 18-49 looks pretty respectable…
@Holly, the CBS love affair with Katie Couric is puzzling indeed. Somehow, someone became convinced that Katie is the next Barbara Walters, maybe? Barbara does the Oscar specials, so Katie tries a Grammy special? Sorry, Ms. Couric – you are no Barbara Walters.
i think LOST is just doin more than fine !!
ppl com’on it’s on his 5th season
clutz, Tim Goodman the SF Chronicle TV writer (who’s link is in our blogroll) theorizes that Couric is now being groomed for some non-anchor job at CBS. She’s being wasted on the Evening News. She’s being paid real money, and Moonves doesn’t want to lose her all together, so he might as well figure out a way to have her *help* CBS instead of just keeping the Evening News status quo going. Not knowing anything of the inside dealings at CBS, it at least hangs together logically.
Those LOST numbers from three years ago are quite impressive especially against American Idol. Maybe I should do what Cat says and ignore the credits. I’ve gotten to the point where I can recognize anybody from the main cast plus Christian and the mysterious Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick from Fringe). I do hope we see both of them again soon, because both are quite interesting right now.
Desperate Housewives, I dont *think* hit 30 million but it hit 28 million for the Second Season Premiere, but the Housewives are still doing fine. It was the #1 scripted show on TV.
Once the reboot started for Knight Rider I was really pulling for it. I wish NBC would promote it more and put the repeats on Saturday night again.
Cool,
Just because you work for ABC doesn’t mean all your posts have to pimp your shows and degrade others. Use some original thinking rather than the standard party line comrade.
Yeah, awhile back i said Life On Mars was done for, and someone said “no cause abc paid alot blah blah”.
LOL I dont work for ABC, I only see Lost, DH and Dancing. But I like Criminal Minds, American Idol, NCIS and the CBS sitcoms.
“Bones fans are liers. They claim that it never recived AI support despite knowing that’s a lie”
Count me among the type of Bones fan that doesn’t care how the show I love gets it’s ratings, I just care that it’s nice and safe, which it is. If I could stick Chuck on after Idol just for the ratings, I would.
Now then, I figure I should say something pertinent to Wednesdays’ ratings so… Am I allowed to call Lie to Me a bonafide hit now? People just can’t seem to get enough of their crime procedurals. Unless that procedural is Life, which, ironically seems like it’d be one of the better ones (never watched).
dissapointing for life on mars it premiered here in australia last night it won its timeslot (9:30) against the premiere of greys anatomy (which used to be pretty big!) and was the number 4 most watched program of the night!! Lie to me did blockbuster here beat ncis which is big here to
Lost is way beetter than Life!!!
Lost is amazing! season5 is oh so great!!! I hope it gets more viewers! I don’t get why Fox’s new shows Fringe and Lie to Me are doing so well! Gahhh!.
I think there’s still hope for Life on Mars! the show is amazing I love it. Plus it won the 18-34 share at 10pm.
I just hope all the sitcoms in ABC suck (Better Off ted, Surviving Suburbia, Samantha Who and Scrubs) and all will be cancelled! ABC is better with 1hour scripted shows and they could keep those shows.
To me the American Idol group auditions were slightly better last night and Lost was just incredible! There were so many mind bending twists and turns on Lost, I was exhausted by the end. It seems each episode is a little more intense than the previous one and creates about a million more questions. A consistent ratings power, its strength, especially without a strong lead-in or lead-out show, is a testament to the quality of the writing.
I didn’t watch anything else last night but I have to agree with JT on the commercials for many of the spring shows that I have seen this week. The new promos are much more appealing. Already, we are pumped to see which stars will take the ballroom dancing plunge this Sunday night. The new Dollhouse trailer is ten times better than the first combo trailer that was created with TSCC. I was really impressed as well with crime dramas, The Unusuals and Castle. I hope they don’t have one good episode and then fall to pieces like LOM. I even liked all the new promos for sitcoms; In the Motherhood, Rules of Engagement and Parks & Recreation. I think all the major networks will see some improvement by the time they have their new schedules rolling along in March.
Seems like other places were more impressed with Life’s ratings from yesterday.
http://www.tvguide.com
Ratings: Life Makes a Lively Comeback
“9 pm
Fox’s Lie to Me stayed on top with 13 million viewers, up 900K from last week. Lost tied the Fox newbie in the demos while holding steady at 11 million viewers. NBC’s Life returned to an audience of 6.76 mil, surging 30 percent from its last fresh outing. Katie Couric’s Grammy special cued up 6.8 mil, but was bested by Life in its back half-hour.”
Too bad next fall Leno is gonna be hogging so many hours in primetime really killing any chance shows like Life have for getting another season.
Bill, the interesting thing on that list you provided is the difference between what were good numbers just three seasons ago and what are good numbers now.
Law and Order was at 14 million and people were talking about it like it was fading away. Bones had 12 million viewers and was on shaky ground with a number that would be considered fine and dandy today. And then you look at Invasion’s 9 million and realize that ABC would love the have it back and doing those numbers right now.
Well, NBC would love to have it now anyway.
The drop in viewership for the broadcast nets has been staggering in just the past three years. Or at least the drop in viewership for scripted shows on broadcast nets has been staggering.
We are living through a tipping point, I think. Be interesting to see where it stabalizes. Or if it stabalizes. I still think we lose one of the big broadcast nets in the next ten years. Maybe two.
Schmokey, agreed. While the shift from broadcast to cable has been going on for a generation, in the last several years it has accelerated substantially. I don’t think we lose the big broadcast networks, but their business models will need to change.