The surprise would be if American Idol didn’t sit perched at the top of the charts. It was, though look for the Academy Awards to briefly knock it off its perch next week.
Both airings of American Idol were the only shows FOX placed in the top 20, ABC had five shows, and NBC could only squeeze Dateline into this list (though things look different with the 18-49 top 20 where NBC also squeezed in The Office, 30 Rock and The Biggest Loser). CBS took twelve spots out of the overall broadcast prime time top twenty rankings.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending February 15, 2009:
| Rank | Shows | R=Repeat S=Special P=Premiere | Net | # Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | 18-49 Rank |
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 24,941 | 13.9 | 21 | 2 | |
| 2 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 24,825 | 14.0 | 22 | 1 | |
| 3 | MENTALIST, THE | CBS | 19,699 | 12.0 | 18 | 12 | |
| 4 | NCIS | CBS | 18,031 | 11.3 | 17 | 19 | |
| 5 | CSI | CBS | 17,938 | 10.8 | 17 | 6 | |
| 6 | GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 15,159 | 9.7 | 15 | 3 | |
| 7 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 14,995 | 9.2 | 13 | 7 | |
| 8 | WITHOUT A TRACE | CBS | 14,308 | 8.9 | 15 | 24 | |
| 9 | PRIVATE PRACTICE | ABC | 14,097 | 8.9 | 15 | 4 | |
| 10 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 14,010 | 8.7 | 13 | 5 | |
| 11 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 13,813 | 8.7 | 14 | 16 | |
| 12 | SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS | P | CBS | 13,632 | 8.0 | 13 | 10 |
| 13 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 13,112 | 8.3 | 14 | ||
| 14 | BIG BANG THEORY, THE | CBS | 12,723 | 7.8 | 11 | 9 | |
| 15 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 12,476 | 8.0 | 12 | ||
| 16 | CSI: NY | CBS | 11,939 | 7.6 | 13 | ||
| 17 | BACHELOR, THE | ABC | 11,586 | 7.5 | 11 | 13 | |
| 18 | DATELINE NBC 2/10(S) | S | NBC | 11,259 | 7.5 | 13 | 15 |
| 19 | 20/20-FRI | ABC | 10,990 | 7.0 | 13 | 23 | |
| 20 | ELEVENTH HOUR | CBS | 10,941 | 6.9 | 12 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
All numbers above based on live plus same day DVR viewing.
Wow. I never thought Id see the day that Desperate Housewives was beaten by Private Practice; cross over or not. I also think its funny that I have been so worried about Grey’s Anatomy’s ratings drop that I did not see Desperate Housewives’ drop coming at all.
haha yeah DH is not performing at the level that they used to be at. And private practice? What?!
I’m glad to see Desperate Housewives didnt stay in the 13 million area, finally went above 14 million again
I think the main problem with DH is the lack of a long-term storyline. The show needs an overreaching plot like it had the first season that draws in all the characters and builds each week.
No one suffered any major loss from last years tornado stunt.
So far this year, it’s been easy to figure out why Dave wanted revenge on Mike and there has been no buildup or suspense waiting for him to strike. Porter’s legal problems seem to have vanished. Carlos regaining his sight made him and Gabi much less interesting. I couldn’t care less how jealous Orson is of Andrew’s salary. Marc Cherry can’t just keep jumping around in time to bring viewers in, he needs to start telling a compelling story!
Hi Robert:
Do you know the ranking for the Amazing Race in the Nielsons?
Apprecitate it
richard, in terms of viewers it was 28th out of the broadcast shows.
where’s the 18-49 chart?
meant to hyperlink it above, and now have. but it’s here:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/02/18/american-idol-greys-anatomy-and-private-practice-lead-weekly-18-49-viewing/13028
Yay! Big Bang Theory, it is finally getting the viewers it deserves.
Two networks make up a total of 3 of the top twenty most viewed programs in America last week. The rest belong to ABC and CBS. Pathetic!
desperate housewives is far better than it ever was.
and grey’s anatomy isnt that good and dont get me started on private practice.
they just want to get the shows watched so they do another crossover!!!!
its all for ratings as they were both struggiling before
desperate housewives is great but i dont get why there are less viewers than at the start of the season
Where can I find a complete listing of the ratings? I can only ever find the top 20.
Rob, our agreement with Nielsen only allows us to generally publish lists of 20. You can see the ratings for individual networks at the links in the nav bar as well.
Rob, what Bill says is true, and if you want to find household ratings you’ll have to take his advice. But ABC weekly publishes a list ranked by viewer and viewer rating (P2+, different than Household rating) for shows on the big four nets and CW. An example is here:
http://www.abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=021809_04
Bill or Robert, ever considered doing a tvbythenumbersUK out of wonder: if not for American shows seeing as apparently international airing become more and more important.
I know proberly not but it would be interesting to see the numbers.
Fin, not really. For a few reasons that range from availability of data to lack of interest to it’s really hard to know individual markets if you’re not participating in them (example, everyone with a television in US has at least a vague idea of the US TV market). I think the UK market is better served by someone who lives in the UK!
I think what’s important with the International distribution of US shows is how much the shows sold for, data we’d love to have and aggregate. but I don’t believe for example, that if Heroes dropped under a 3.0 in the 18-49 demo, that its international income would save it.
K, on a weird notice though just read a article that said Pushing Daisies which in the UK is airing Season 2 on ITV has also flopped seeing as people also lost interest as Season One averaged 3mil, this season’s latest ep only pulled in 1.37: half of ITV’s standard audience for a friday night at 10:00pm.
An odd correlation between the airing flop in the US and the UK.
Honestly, if you can intuitively see some pattern in the relation between top 25 overall and top 25 18-49 you are clearly being paid to find one. I see one-two-three GH-PP-DH on the demo, but the cliff those shows drop off of after that … NCIS, 19 in the demo. Without a Trace, up there too. Miami, CSI etc … but these procedurals are scattershot to me. I’d really hate to have to figure out what to put on, not that they aren’t paid more than well to do it. Can all that $$$ be worth the tranquilizers and antacids and therapy bills … I guess the John Prine quote on the Oscars forum kind of brought back memories. I’m listening to Velvet Underground, Bowie, Moody Blues and Cream five hours a morning just so I don’t make the evening news by four PM right now. Please, baseball, steroids and all … Remeber another great poet: All the world is Babylon, A ship of Fools sailing on … Wang Chung. hah hah.
LOVE NCIS!