| Scoreboard |  |
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| Total Viewers (million) | 21.536 | 14.296 | 9.448 | 8.797 | 4.197 | 1.322 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 8.0/22 | 2.9/8 | 2.2/6 | 3.3/9 | 1.7/5 | 0.6/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 6.2/20 | 1.8/6 | 1.7/5 | 2.5/8 | 1.8/6 | 0.6/2 |
Update: due to heavy server strain on this post in particular, the comments for the post have been temporarily disabled. Thanks for your patience.
Comments are on again for the post now that server load has abated. Sorry for the enforced silence 
The first direct clash this spring between American Idol and Dancing With The Stars was no contest. Idol buried Dancing head to head at 9pm, more than tripling its adult demos and pushing Dancing to its lowest rated regularly scheduled episode ever. Even winning the night, with all the competition Fox was down 1.3 ratings points in both demos for the night from last week. It was also the worst Tuesday performance for Idol since its first season.
Update (from Seidman): ABC tries to spin straw into gold by saying the night was its best Tuesday in two months. NBC actually has more to crow about (The Biggest Loser did best DWTS in key demos) but so far I haven’t seen the NBC version of Rumpelstiltskin’s daughter.
Sharing the pain, CBS’s full line-up, back with all new episodes for the first time since February 17, also suffered mightily, pushed down to season lows. NBC too got hurt, down 0.4 ratings points in both demos from last week. The only thing reasonably stable was CW’s Reaper, with nearly identical demos from last week although those numbers may not be enough to keep it around for next season.
You can see past Tuesday overnight TV ratings reports here.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (000) | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 19,056 | 6.9 | 21 | 5.3 | 19 |
| CBS | NCIS | 15,209 | 3.0 | 9 | 2.1 | 7 | |
| ABC | Dancing With The Stars Recap | 7,536 | 1.6 | 5 | 1.3 | 4 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 6,849 | 2.6 | 8 | 1.9 | 7 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Ángel | 4,317 | 1.7 | 5 | 1.9 | 7 | |
| CW | Reaper | 1,954 | 0.9 | 3 | 0.9 | 3 | |
| 8:30 | FOX | American Idol | 21,774 | 8.0 | 22 | 6.2 | 20 |
| CBS | NCIS | 15,813 | 3.2 | 9 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| ABC | Dancing With The Stars Recap | 8,704 | 1.8 | 5 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 7,603 | 3.0 | 8 | 2.3 | 7 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Ángel | 4,784 | 1.9 | 5 | 2.0 | 7 | |
| CW | Reaper | 1,809 | 0.8 | 2 | 0.9 | 3 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | American Idol | 22,645 | 8.5 | 22 | 6.5 | 20 |
| CBS | The Mentalist | 15,287 | 3.2 | 8 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| ABC | Dancing With The Stars | 12,323 | 2.6 | 7 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 8,076 | 3.3 | 9 | 2.5 | 7 | |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 4,716 | 2.0 | 5 | 2.1 | 7 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 810 | 0.4 | 1 | 0.4 | 1 | |
| 9:30 | FOX | American Idol | 22,669 | 8.7 | 22 | 6.8 | 20 |
| CBS | The Mentalist | 15,498 | 3.2 | 8 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| ABC | Dancing With The Stars | 12,521 | 2.8 | 7 | 2.1 | 6 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 9,093 | 3.8 | 10 | 2.9 | 9 | |
| UNI | Mañana Es para Siempre | 5,011 | 2.1 | 5 | 2.3 | 7 | |
| CW | 90210 (repeat) | 717 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.3 | 1 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Without a Trace | 12,362 | 2.6 | 7 | 1.5 | 5 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 10,211 | 3.4 | 9 | 2.7 | 9 | |
| ABC | Primetime: What Would You Do? | 9,078 | 2.6 | 7 | 1.9 | 6 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 3,589 | 1.5 | 4 | 1.5 | 5 | |
| 10:30 | CBS | Without a Trace | 11,608 | 2.5 | 7 | 1.3 | 4 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 10,951 | 3.5 | 10 | 2.8 | 9 | |
| ABC | Primetime: What Would You Do? | 6,526 | 2.0 | 6 | 1.4 | 5 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 2,763 | 1.0 | 3 | 1.1 | 4 |
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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.
It seemed like everyone was down even AI…NCIS and The Mentalist have not been on for weeks now so maybe some did not know it was a new episode…and with it being st. patricks day I know I was out last night and wasnt able to watch anything…
It looked like the three way clash dented everyone with DWTS being hit the worse, it will be interesting if there is an increase for the three shows from now on.
The Osbourne: Reloaded debuts in two weeks and I have a feeling that even with an Idol lead in, it will fall flat.
Jon, I rarely comment on the specific content of a show and its prospects, but that new Osbourne’s show just seems like a bad idea.
The thing that seems odd about Osbourne’s reloaded is that FOX plans to schedule it apparently only intermittently as opposed to having a regular slot, and yet they are giving it a slot after Idol. Perhaps it’s really just a way for FOX to do a huge panel and decide whether it’s a bad idea.
Bill, The Rosie Variety Show was a ratings disaster so I can imagine The Osbourne will be equally as bad if not worse. The ratings will be interesting to be see though. Will it be the first show that is below 10m with an Idol lead in?
Off-topic but how does The NCAA Basketball usually rate for CBS? I ask as I am not from the US so I’m not familar with the ratings for sports.
Woah, three reality giants apparently can take NCIS down hard. Still good for it for holding onto second place, but someone stop them putting this stuff all on one night.
Bill,
I thought you had planned on pulling out that boiled bat recipe just for the occasion
Jon,
Osbournes has a chance only because it’s not on NBC.
Seems as if there is just so much reality audience to go around. I’m not one of those who questions why reality shows are everywhere (THEY MAKE MONEY-DOH!!!!), but it sure is nice to see that there is at least some finite top end to this craze. It would have been depresessing to see both shows get 20 million and big demos at the same time.
Still, between the Big Two and NBC that is 45 million viewers and 15 million in the demo during the Reality Block. Not sure whether to be impressed as hell or completely nauseated. A little of both.
Be interesting to see DVR this week. I’m sure DVR usuage on DWTPT will be through the roof.
Be nice if Reaper could hang around (it’s funny), but I seriously wonder why CW doesn’t just start airing telenovas. I mean, they’d make a fortune compared to paying triple or more for half the ratings, as they are now, and finishing behing UNI every night.
It’s interesting that Idol beats DWTS because in the UK, Strictly Come Dancing (the UK and original version) beats The X Factor when they clash so both ITV and BBC1 try and avoid schedulng them against each other but both these shows air on a Saturday so start times tend not to be on the hour or half hour.
YES! Smackdown on Circus with the Pretend…I mean…um…DWTS…
“Clash” of The Competition Shows…and AI prevails! Nice going —and I have to say Solid talent on AI this year…
Not surprised about Dancing with the Stars. It’s an hour of boring, useless crap. If you want to find out who got eliminated, you don’t need to watch anything but the last 3 minutes.
wrong the x factor wins over strictly come dancing…
dancing w~ith the stars had a bad lead-in, then this was the first results show… so is natural be the thirsd option last night.
jon the x factor constantly beats strictly come dancing it was on d papers as well so I dnt know where u gt day from
R.G. I am surprised it took you so long to comment, I almost added a sub-head “R.G. Has His Day”
A.I. is so BIG they need their stage and the “Dance floor” to perform…
Bil….LOL….!!
I’m surprised that AI got less than 20 million viewers, this has to be the first time for at least a few years.
I think people were hanging out at their version of “CHEERS” last night- numbers went up on AI as the night went on…I think some people are “planning” more when to spend their cash and last night was one of them…
Jack, AI’s down from last week, but it still averaged over 20 million for each hour, and for the whole show. It was only below 20 for the first 30 min.
Ouch, Dancing got killed. Is it going to be going up against American Idol again any time soon?
I bet a lot of the audience was recording “NCIS” and “The Mentalist” since AI and DWTS would contain viewers from both shows.
wow…dwts did awful last night in the demos. Biggest Loser seems like it has a very strong audience, standing up against both of them.
Tuesday’s line-up is so incredibly boring. LOL DWTS got its ass kicked by American Idol: yeah it stood strong but compared to Monday: ouch.
Jon, Paul and Elliot all three of you are right in different ways when it comes to the Strictly vs. X-Factor ratings war.
Just looking at the most recent series of both shows The X-Factor did achieve bigger ratings totals than Strictly for the majority of their respective run. The X-Factor also scored higher peak audience numbers than Strictly when they were on the same night together. However when the two were actually on air at the same time Strictly usually had more people watching it than The X-Factor, it is however worth noting that, that’s because they usually clash during the final 10-15 minutes and the audience will skip the opening minutes of The X-Factor rather than miss the final Strictly performance, which is why certain acts rarely (if ever) get given the task of performing first during The X-Factor – the producers are worried people will miss it and they’ll be eliminated.
On the subject of these numbers are ABC likely to rethink where they air the Dancing… results show if it continues to get destroyed by Idol? It seems like they’d want to avoid too many stories of ‘American Idol destroys Dancing With The Stars’ being written. Although to be honest if I’m ABC I’m probably more worried about the fact that NBC can claim victory over Dancing With The Stars at this point.
Whoa, the Dancing Recap at 1.7 doesn’t surprise me, they didn’t get much better when they replaced Opportunity Knocks in the fall with a weekly recap… but a 2.7 for the Results Show? Last night it got 5.3. That is down 50% in one day. Even though the results show normally drops from the competition one, this is drastic. Kudos to the Biggest Loser for schooling DWTS in every half hour, even the elimination one at 9:30.
Alex, thanks for clearing up the whole Strictly vs X Factor. I do wonder whether ABC should consider airing Dancing with the Stars once a year rather than twice a year. It works well for American Idol and it did wonders for The Bachelor. It’s unlikely to happen but it would be worth a shot and it save Len and Bruno from travelling back and forth to the US and UK when Dancing and Strictly are on at the same time.
You can’t really compare the DWTS perfomance with the DWTS Results..
I have been reading that some folks think Without A Trace is on the bubble. I just don’t see it. First of all, it’s index shows it’s pretty healthy, second, it is a tried and true success with many seasons under it’s belt, and third, it held up better than anything else last night on cbs, and fourth, I doubt many cbs shows could do better in this specific slot because it is the rare one that actually has a successful COMPETING procedural (in the form of SVU). And when leno comes in this fall, WaT won’t have to compete with it. It would appear as if NCIS and The Mentalist were hutr by the Reality Th3wdown, but WaT seemed to be down just a tad… I’m guessing due to slight lead-in loss from The Mentalist.
Alex, a few years ago, ABC specifically moved DWTS to Monday-Tuesday so they could avoid Idol. It may just be my imagination, but FOX is doing far more 2 hour shows than most years, which is why DWTS went head to head last night. I don’t remember FOX’s schedule off hand, but hopefully they won’t have to do this again this season.
Cool, hisotically the results show was nowhere near this much lower than the competition, in either total numbers or percentage. This was drastic.
HAHA that makes me laugh so hard. DWTS sux. A I blew them beyond weak. haha MEGAN was amazing last night on A I
I’m thinking St. Patrick’s day partying must have had some significance to the ratings. The dip for Idol is bad enough, but 12 mil for DWTS(even a results show)???
Thanks for clearing that up Julia.
On another note how is it NBC haven’t released a ‘we beat Dancing with the Stars’ press release yet? Seriously they were a whole point ahead at 9:30 and you’d think given how things are going for them they’d be shouting this from the rooftops.
“Strictly” wins because of only one reason: Bruce Forsyth. Legend- nay, God.
Poor Reaper! I too think St. Patrick’s Day had an effect(not just on Reaper, but for everyone).
Wow, this was a reality show battle today… AI easily winned it… I don’t think we will see DWTS going against it sooner or later… Biggest losser just got totally destroyed…
Poor reaper, if the ratings don’t go up soon, we won’t get another season.
Reaper aired at 10:30 central time here in illinois because of a basketball game, so I missed it. I guess a lot of people did!
Reaper inched up a tad in the finals.
Reaper
- 1.963 million viewers
- 1.2/2 HH
- 0.9/3 A18-49
- 0.9/3 A18-34
Woahh!! Grey’s Anatomy did not have lower than 13 viewers but Dancing with the Stars did! That’s insane it was even beat by a CBS Show!