| Scoreboard |  |
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 |
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 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 25.60 | 11.59 | 6.50 | 4.72 | 4.27 | 1.82 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 9.2/23 | 2.9/8 | 2.7/7 | 1.5/4 | 1.7/5 | 0.9/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 7.3/21 | 1.9/5 | 2.3/7 | 1.1/3 | 1.9/5 | 1.1/3 |
The Tuesday two hour block of American Idol was bumped to Wednesday due to the presidential address on Tuesday night and FOX easily scored victory for the night, averaging 25.6 million viewers and 9.1/24 (rating/share) with adults 18-49 between 8pm-10pm. With Idol, Fox again outperformed ABC, CBS, NBC and the CW combined in both the 18-34 and 18-49 demographics.
The consensus opinion seems to be that CBS will stick with its Wednesday 8pm comedy block, but last night, up against Idol a Survivor: Tocantins clip show outperformed last week’s Old Christine/Gary Unmarried hour that ran against Lie to Me rather than Idol.
The 9pm hour had a lot of viewing between Idol, Criminal Minds (14 million and a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating) and Lost. Lost dipped below 9 million (4.0 adults 18-49 rating) and posted another series low, but it’s nothing to worry about since it will have no impact on its renewal prospects for next year. There’s not much else left to say about Life on Mars (sadly, already canceled), and Life (sadly, will certainly be canceled)
Better Off Ted now seemingly is certainly dead, but I fear making such proclamations since its a 30 minute sitcom on ABC (the According to Jim network). American Idol took some of the fierceness out of America’s Next Top Model’s numbers (ANTM was second with women 18-34 and females 12-34 for the hour, trailing only Idol) and ANTM still bested NBC’s Chopping Block. Can NBC go another week without putting it on the chopping block? Sure, NBC doesn’t think it will ever be #1 again, but how well can it sit with them to be #5 for the hour (#6, if you count Univision)?
Previous Wednesday overnight reports are available for comparison.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 24.33 | 8.5/24 | 6.7/21 |
| CBS | Survivor: Tocantins (Clip Show) | 8.15 | 2.3/6 | 1.2/4 | |
| ABC | Scrubs | 5.33 | 2.0/6 | 1.9/6 | |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model | 2.85 | 1.4/4 | 1.6/5 | |
| NBC | The Chopping Block | 2.60 | 0.9/2 | 0.7/2 | |
| 8:30 | ABC | Better Off Ted | 4.69 | 1.8/5 | 1.7/5 |
| 9:00 | FOX | American Idol | 26.87 | 9.8/23 | 7.8/21 |
| CBS | Criminal Minds | 14.02 | 3.4/8 | 2.3/6 | |
| ABC | LOST | 8.82 | 4.0/10 | 3.8/10 | |
| NBC | Life | 4.32 | 1.4/3 | 1.2/3 | |
| CW | 90210 (R) | .797 | 0.4/1 | 0.5/1 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI: NY | 12.60 | 3.0/8 | 2.1/6 |
| NBC | Law & Order | 7.25 | 2.2/6 | 1.4/4 | |
| ABC | Life on Mars | 5.67 | 2.1/6 | 1.4/4 |
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.
No! I love better off ted!
sad to see Lost get below 9 mil just becuase of that american idol crap
cw’s season average is so low because all of the reruns, they only had one midseason show (reaper) so where is all the money for original programming gone? The network is seriously running on fumes:O
Law and Order will survive! Keep it on NBC!
I’m amazed at how low the Chopping Block went. If they don’t yank it by tomorrow, I’ll be shocked.
I hate American Idol! Poor Lost can’t compete with it. But considering ABC’s dismal performances at 8 and 10, coupled with a huge Idol audience, I’d say it wasn’t so bad. Last nights episode was so-so, but the ending was a shocker. Did Sayid really kill young Ben? I wonder what implications that will have on the present timeline. Something tells me that Ben couldn’t have died, but I’m dying to see what will happen!
LOST has a great 18-49 rating. Impressive. LOL at NBC.
Good new for Chuck fans, keep Chopping away at Life.
There’s that typical NBC performance we all know and love!
Lost drop is expected, given how AI was hitting 27 mil between 9 and 10pm.
Why would anyone watch Criminal Minds over Lost? ugh people come on!
NBC should test the waters with heroes or chuck in the shiting blocks slot.
WAS expected. sorry.
BTW…better off ted is an awful show
@ Tony
Breacause currently it’s a much better show, that’s why
LOL
Wow 797 million for 90210, did the CW just discover a new audience in the over 49 age bracket
Hmm… I can’t believe 797 million people tuned in for a repeat of 90210!
On a serious note, when will ABC learn not to put Lost against American Idol? There is no way Lost will be canceled, but poor ratings will surely effect its budget for next season.
The decline of Lost is not a surprise to me as it will drop further until the season finale. Genre shows like Lost are better than shows like Criminal Minds hands down but the viewing audience doesn’t want complicated. Serialized shows are dead soon and that’s a bad thing. The only good thing coming out of this is Lost finishing it’s run.
Heroes on the other hand is a bad example for genre shows because it’s written for kids. Battlestar and Terminator are excellent though, just like Lost.
Horrible numbers for Lost, what was ABC thinking? gosh, a 4.0 in the demo is awful!
Robert if you think Criminal Minds is a better show than Lost than obviously you have poor taste. =)
I mean that with respect of course.
So, does anyone think ABC might put Lost on at 8? Yeah, the demos are still pretty good, especially against AI, but falling below 9 million in totally views does not look good. And there are plenty of sites out there that focus on the total views more then they should. And like Jack said, it might affect their budget. And that last think I would want to see is characters killed or storylines have to be scrapped just to keep down the budget.
however lost is still the number 1 scripted show of the night in the demos!
I don’t understand how people watch AI and Criminal Minds over LOST.
That’s why CM was nominated in the Emmys, Golden Globes in the past years.. such an amazing show!
i dont care if you like CM/CSI NY more, but stating “Its a much better show” is a bit laughable IMO. They are episodic crime shows – almost zero originality. Plus they do have have lots of overall viewers, yes, but as far as the networks are concerned, 18-49> overall viewership. Lost makes more money than CM.
Lost to me was the greatest television show I have seen since the end of Seinfeld…I have seen it since its debut, when it was the most hyped and talked about tv show getting huge ratings and helping to revitalize the ABC brand…to see it now get half the ratings of American Idol is humbling, and people can say it’s because of the advent of internet and technology that allows viewers to watch tv shows anytime they want, but I really don’t think it ever really recovered from Season 3 (the season widely considered to be the worst)…because if American Idol could get 25 million viewers and a 9.0 in the 18-49 demo, so could Lost…but sadly since it is a show that demands of its viewers to watch episodes every week to understand whats going on, that will probably never happen…I know that since next season is its last, and its numbers are still pretty good compared to other shows, it has no shot of getting cancelled, but I would like for ABC to move Lost to Monday nights after DTWS at 9:30 to see if it can still get more viewers…after all Lost has done to revitalize ABC’s fortunes and helped to instill hope in viewers like myself that tv shows could still be great; i hope it gets its farewell it rightfully deserves next season…
I think if ABC wants to put Lost out of AI’s way they should put it on 10. They have done the 9-10pm switch in season 4 and it barely affected the ratings(in fact, it didn’t at all).
American Idol did well but I’m starting that if CBS put something like a drama in the 8pm hour, they would be able to compete more effectively and gives Criminal Minds and CSI:NY a boost. I think the NCIS spin-off could easily go in there.
The Chopping Block will probably be moved to Saturdays at this rate but I think Law & Order decent performance will mean it will be back at least one more season.
The CW needs to axe the 90210 repeats, they don’t rate well at all. ANTM was lower than usual but I expect it will rebound next week.
The thing with Lost is so many of it’s viewers are DVR viewers, I don’t know if I’ve ever watched an episode live.
Ted is a goner and if ABC renews Scrubs they are idiots.
Yeah Tony cause you’re the one able to judge what “poor taste” means. I can say the same thing: who watches Lost has “poor taste”. Just opinions nothing more, the only objective data we have are the numbers. Can we please comment on those?
the survivor clip show’s performance is most certainly not beneficial to the prospects of Christine/Gary, but i am pretty sure cbs will stick with the sitcoms in this hour. with these results The Chopping Block needs to be cancelled completely. it’s numbers do not even warrent a saturday burnoff even for nbc!
Melissa, if the most recent DVR data for a full week is a good indicator, Lost will add around another 1.7 million viewers in the Live+7 numbers. It gets about 3.5 million DVR viewers according to Nielsen, but close to 50% watch on DVR the same night it airs, so roughly half of the DVR viewing is probably already included in the above numbers.
Folks, THIS is not the site to opine on show quality, only show ratings
Lost has very good relative demo numbers and I’m sure CBS is very happy with the numbers for Criminal Minds.
Chopping Block should not be back next week
can’t decide if it’s a smart move from FOX to have this 2 hour Idol shows all the time. It’s good for their numbers, but not very good for their new show ‘Lie to me’, which has some potential.
Better Off Ted is certainly not doing well, but it IS truely on the According To Jim network, which has stated that it wants more sitcoms. I think that next week, with regular competition from Lie To Me rather than Idol, will be a more accurate test of how it will hold up. I still say that if it can stay above a 2.0 demo, it returns. Oh, and people need to relax ragarding Lost. It did just fine. How many scripted show could pull a 4.0 opposite the second hour of a 2hr Idol? Maybe 5?
Sorry Robert. I am just frustrated with network tv.
Banish chopping block to Sat nights along with kings too? I know we would like the networks to program Sat nights but I don’t think I want it done this way. haha
People need to remember that Lost only has 17 eps/season which means the budget is lower anyways then something like Heroes which is doing like 25 episodes. I highly doubt there will be a major budget cut for the final season.
The 90210 repeats which get commercial promotion are about as bad as JERICHO repeats on Sunday that get no promotion at all. That’s just bad. In fact those numbers are so horrible…
We’ll see if all the 90210 repeats pay off. Next week is their first new episode in ages, and it also has the return of Tori Spelling. Did the repeats interest new viewers? I mean they aired them in two time slots for weeks now! I’m not expecting anything huge next week, but we’ll see. Dawn’s praying for it that is for sure.
House Rules, that’s the problem with FOX only having two hours of primetime. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it though I do think the result shows should be shorter. The Obama press conferences are been the cause of Bones and Lie to Me being prempted as American Idol can’t be shorten due to the live nature of the show.
I just hope they continue to air the remaining episodes of “Chopping Block”. If not on NBC then at least air the remaining episodes on its sister network Bravo. “Chopping Block” is the first thing in primetime that I have watched on NBC since Seinfeld.
the only good show on last night was life. and the ratings are so bad. im so sick of America treating good shows like dirt.
I am surprised LOST lost a few viewers but it will hold until the end for sure.
Better of Ted, we are better of without this junk, not even funny , there is nothing to it.
LIFE and Life on MARS au revoir
Obviously if AI wasn’t on for 2 hours LOST would be getting better ratings… but the ratings still aren’t bad anyway. 4.0 in the demo is great.
Anyone thinking LOST is going to get budget cuts for S6 are totally wrong…. they make only 16 episodes(17 hours) compared to a show like HEROES which has over 20 episodes. LOST cost less and makes A LOT more.
“People need to remember that Lost only has 17 eps/season which means the budget is lower anyways then something like Heroes which is doing like 25 episodes.”
Wait, doesn’t that mean that it also has only 17 nights to bring money back in via advertising? I don’t know a thing about Lost’s budget except that it’s on the higher end as TV shows go, but that argument seems to chasing its own tail.
I actually find Better Off Ted strangely amusing (not really funny though) but looking at the ratings I see that not too many think the same nor did a lot of viewers stick around for Ep 2 like I did.
Holy, ‘Lost’ is low. It will likely pass 9 million in the final Live + SD numbers (last week, it gained 0.32 million and 0.1 A18-49 in preliminaries vs. finals) and gain around 1.75 million with DVR’s, but this is pathetic. It will surely fall into the 8 millions and the high 3 (!) demos this season and who knows about next year. Hopefully, ABC is able to successfully market that it is the final season (the ABC marketing department has always been kind to ‘Lost’–not like NBC screwing over ‘Scrubs’). Remember in 2005 when 12 episodes hit over 20 million? Remember when it hit a 10.2 A18-49 rating with its second season premiere? Remember when the clip-shows brought in 15 million and high 5 demos? Ah, the good old days. Since January 14 when it was announced that ‘American Idol’ would move to 9:00 after a few weeks, I have said that ABC move ‘Lost’ to 8:00, but now, 10:00 will suffice.
AI goes back to 1 hour next week. It’ll increase again……
though I’m not sure if it’s on at 8 or 9 est.
if last week is any indicator, Lost won’t increase by much due to there being only one hour of Idol since Lost goes up against that one hour.
so do people want more breaks between new LOST eps because of AI i think not
Why can’t American Idol just pick a night and stick with it?
They keep flopping between Tues/Wed and Wed/Thurs. It’s very annoying. And it’s forcing shows like Survivor to switch to Wednesday, and it’s causing shows like Lost to drop drastically in viewers.
ABC move Lost to 8pm. Please.
Alan, Obama on Tuesdays has forced FOX to move Idol to Wed/Thurs and Survivor was due to March Madness which is currently on CBS Thurs-Sun.
Can’t people just be happy that Lost is still putting out demo numbers that would be dandy for a new hit show (actually it’s about en par with The Mentalist in 18-49 now) in its fifth (?) season and that it won’t get enough time to fall into cancel territory ever? Your show does not always have to be the best or the most succesful in ratings. And Lost is neither, but it’s doing fine.
Geez, at least the Chuck fans DO have something to moan about except losing bragging rights.
I HATE American Idol, why can’t pple record that and watch LOST, who on earth can wait and watch LOST later, I watch it as soon as it airs.
It’s not fair to compare Lost ratings of past years, EVERY SINGLE SHOW is down. Not only Lost. CSI was averaging 30 MILLION VIEWERS every week and Survivor hit 50 MILLION VIEWERS.. so yes, Lost is down but in today’s TV ratings is doing great.
And that’s the beauty of human nature, Zee. What you love and hate is very different from what someone else loves and hates.
Hey, I thought ABC was the “Scrubs Repeat Network”?
Get rid of AI!
I think it’s funny that NBC has shows with titles spelling out there future as a network:
“The Chopping Block” – well enough said there…
Life – yea and very little “life” at that…
CW beating NBC again…
and Dawn from the CW again…just danced down my hallway…
Robert, thanks for the DVR information. I didn’t realize that much of the DVR viewing was already included in the numbers.
All you LOST fans can are good to go – enjoy your program…it’s fate is already planned!
“if last week is any indicator, Lost won’t increase by much due to there being only one hour of Idol since Lost goes up against that one hour.”
But this week’s week’s AI was significantly stronger then last weeks presumably due to being 2 hrs long. I think it will bring back viewers who watch both shows but watched AI this week at 9pm because they were already watching it before.
I honestly believe that at this point LOST can match Grey’s in the demo if it is not against AI. Without AI Lost easily does the same demo ratings that Grey’s does. It is just frustrating that Lost does not get the credit it deserves. I wish ABC would swap LOST & Grey’s timeslots. I can bet Lost will beat grey’s in the demos. If not I promise to make a video of me eating my hat and post it on youtube.
Lourdes – FOX saw your comment – and they said…okay – they will.
Really? CSI had that many viewers? 30 million?
I am looking forward for LOST to end because I will then start watching the DVD’s – I was into other shows when LOST first aired and I had no time to watch it – but when it’s done…I have something to look forward to…
I’ll say it again…I hate American Idol. I’ll never get why that show just won’t die already!
Cool, while you have a valid point, wiewership decline is not relative for all shows. In the winter/spring ‘05 “Lost” had around 20 million viewers while AI was around 30 million (presumably, at least). Last night Lost didn’t even have half that number while AI still averaged 25 million.
Where has the TV audience gone in the past 5 years? I know there’s been a steady decline for the past 30 years, but has it ever been as steep as it’s been in the last 5 years? That would be an interesting little project…to group up total average network viewership by year and see when the biggest declines fall.
Chopping Block’s numbers make Knight Rider’s look fantastic. If I was NBC, I would be embarrassed with ratings like that. But, I don’t think that they have any dignity left anyway.
R.G. – Thank you, I was so worried they wouldn’t listen to me
to Lourdes – LOL…:)
Mike G., when you’re all about return on investment and not ratings, ratings never cause embarrassment! And the bonus of saying you’re after return on investment is that nobody but your accountants get to see those numbers!
@Zee
Don’t people have to watch Idol live if they want to vote for their favorite? I don’t know since Ive never seen the show myself.
If Better Off Ted can’t even retain its Scrubs lead-in numbers, I don’t think it will be around after its initial run. As for Chopping Block what else does NBC have to replace it? If they move everything faltering to Sat they’d have to start prime time at 4PM.
American Idol >>> next week’s Tuesday program is NOT 1 hour and it’s NOT 2 hours…
it’s going to be about 80 minutes…so they don’t have to rush through the 9 finalists…
And it starts at 8PM (7 Central).
joe d, kings should be moved to saturday, but the chopping block needs to be yanked completely.
The Osbourne Reloaded is on next Tuesday although I don’t hold much hope for it and I bet it will lose a good chunk of the American Idol lead in.
YThe “Osbourne crap” is a 40 minute filler -b/c IDOL is 80 minutes next week and if it bites – Fox will put it somewhere else…FRINGE returns the week after following A.I.
…and that week FRINGE returns – I wouldn’t be surprised if IDOL does a 65 minute show due to the fact that FRINGE has fewer commercials anyways.
Ouch for the CW; NBC is just plain awful for a major network. Is this a series low for Top Model?
“I think it’s funny that NBC has shows with titles spelling out there future as a network”
The Biggest Loser, too.
Surely not even NBC can keep Chopping Block on the air with those numbers? It was last in the timeslot and worse than that only performed fractionally better in the demos than a 90210 repeat that wasn’t even seen by a million people. That’s awful however you slice it either NBC yank it or its getting shipped to the dead zone (Saturday), although then NBC have to plug a hole in the schedule and I’m not seeing any obvious contenders for doing that.
On the subject of Lost whilst I think its staying at 9 for the rest of this season it would be interesting to know if ABC consider moving it to 8 next year to anchor Wednesday nights. I know a lot is made of how poor a lead-in Lost is but at this stage surely in its final season (next year is the final season, right?) Lost is a more valuable property for ABC as a launching pad for new shows? Because lets face it ABC is pretty screwed when Lost wraps.
On a completely random note the Life fan in me thinks that NBC should consider switching Chopping Block and Life – if Chopping Block is going to die a painful death anyway you may as well throw it against Idol and Lost on Wednesday. Not that the move would make any difference to Life at this point but still…
Alex, how is ABC screwed when LOST wraps? Most of its audience doesn’t even bother to tune into any of their other series and it’s not really much of a lead-in for anything…ABC will lose a mega hit from one-hourly time slot, that’s about it. Hell, and by the time this thing finishes its run next May, it’ll be far less valuable since the ratings keep plunging.
Daisies ABC is screwed when Lost finishes because its one of their biggest shows and as of right now they have nothing waiting in the wings to replace it. They still have next year to find it assuming one of the to debut shows doesn’t break out but they need to find something.
Lost still was the next best thing with the 18-49: hello 4.0 is like awesome. Lower yes but its seems that demographic is the most loyal to the show. Even if the show looses like 2million veiwers it only goes down by like 0.4-0.5 so I think (especially against AL) ABC does have something to brag about: Out of wonder (apart from reality shows) LOST is the best scripted show against AL isn’t it?
Alex, while I’m not so sure LOST is really the thing keeping ABC afloat right now, I do agree that they are in trouble, and looking more and more like NBC every day. Hopefully they take a more aggressive approach than NBC and actually fix the rut they are in.
Its odd shows like LOST (especially), Heroes, The Office and 30 Rock don’t need many veiwers to get good on the 18-49. Whereas all the CBS shows kinda do
Ouch… America’s next top model got kicked in the nuts… And as always, NC is a big fail
I love when NBC has nights like this because it makes Chuck look so good.
Julia I don’t necessarily think that Lost is what’s keeping them afloat but I do think its one of four shows that makes up ABC’s central ‘tower of strength’ and if they don’t have something else to slot into that position when it wraps they take a sizable hit. I think ABC is in a very similar position to the one occupied by NBC not that long ago, they’ve got a handful of aging shows still performing relatively well but can’t find any new hits.
If I’m not mistaken the newest ‘hit’ ABC’s come up with is Private Practice, which is a spin-off from one of their aging shows and was in fact struggling until they moved it so Grey’s could prop it up with connected episodes and storylines.
KeepChuck, when you need a show to drop below a 1.0 to make Chuck look good things aren’t going well – just an observation.
YES YES YES!
It’s great to see Lost getting thrashed and also great to see all the fanboys out with their excuses for the low ratings. Let’s face it the show has been garbage since season 2 so don’t bother blaming Idol or Criminal Minds.
sheesh.. chuck reruns might do better than CB in that slot….
or kings for that matter..
Not really functioning
Broadcast
Conglomerate
ABC is a pretty strange network, compared to the others. They are feast or famine when it comes to their programs. A few of their shows like DH, Lost, Grey’s, & DWTS generate over a 4.0 in the demo, but then most of the rest are lucky to break a 2.0.
I’m sure they’d be happy to just a couple of solid performers that could get them 8-10 million viewers and a 3 to 3.5 demo. With the strong hits they have, I’m not sure why they’ve struggled to find these types of shows. With the exception of B&S and PP, ABC has had nothing but bombs following their mega hit shows in the last few years. Fox has managed to successfully build a powerhouse based of the strength of AI, but ABC has struggled despite having several hits nearly as big (well, at least they were at one time…lol)
Speaking of CW, I just read that they are in final negotiations to air the Daytime Emmys this year because the other nets passed after dropped ratings in recent years. Somewhere there’s a parable here when a show supposedly honoring the “best” in TV lands on the CW. I don’t know, it just made me laugh. They are also downsizing the venue from the 6,000 seat Shrine Auditorium to the 2,000 seat Orpheum Theater.
Well those are the Daytime Emmys…that’s much different than the Primetime Emmys (Where they actually honor the BEST in TV)
I know this is off topic and belongs on the Monday thread, but I just read that Monday night’s episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 had 4.6 million viewers, the largest ever. That’s more than some of the network shows above. Pretty impressive.
Anyway, just had to add that in, because I literally just read that 2 minutes ago on *ahem* another TV website.
@Jenna…. good point but it’s strange as CW doesn’t have a national daytime schedule and that the ratings are so all-important that the Big Nets can’t even forget them one night to rotate the show between them. It must have done better than Chopping Block ):
broadcast finals have Scrubs upa tick to 2.1, Lost up a tick to 4.1, Life on Mars down a tick to 2.0, and American Idol up to a 9.3 average over 2 hrs.
Not sure what you guys who are critical of Lost’s demo are smoking, but could you share it with the rest of us?
ABC is creaming over anything that get a 4.0 or better. In any case, it matters little, because Lost is not getting cancelled, and it’s return on investment is solid. It’s DVD numbers are among the best of all time, which means its studio does not have to charge as much for it as it would for it as its budget would suggest.
Also, for the most serialized show in television history to still be a top demo show five years in is mindboggling. They never comprimise, never pander to get ratings, and have less exposition per season than 24 has per scene. Yet they still get boffo demo numbers week in and week out for a show that requires vigilant viewing in order to really understand it.
That said, Lost is a show that the uninitiated could drop into even now and still enjoy. Not “understand” fully, but they could definitely enjoy it. It’s just that entertaining on a week-to-week basis.
“LOST is the best scripted show against AL isn’t it?”
The Mentalist can do the same >4 demo and far more viewers and NCIS does high 3s and more than twice the viewers in a lower HUT level 8pm slot against Idol. So unless Lost can go back up about half a demo point, when it’s up against the weaker Wednesday results show again next week, more like among the best.
Wow, why some need to attack Criminal Minds just because their darling Lost is losing viewers….what that got to do with CM?
I wonder why the fanboys need to remind everyone on a ratings site how wonderful Lost is and how stupid or without taste everyone who are not watching are…One thing I did notice the lower the ratings goes the more of those comments we get, no matter the show, must a be a defense mechanism.
As for how many awards Lost won versus CM, on a ratings site this arguments hold no water, it is the ultimate arguments of the fans of fading shows, we sure got those comments from the Pushing Daisies fans as the show ratings went downhill. Beside, awards have nothing to do with quality but politics and what is the flavor of the month among the critics. You want to know if people like a show, look at the weekly top 20 shows and you will see that people love NCIS, Mentalist, CSI, CM, AI, DWTS, Grey’s, DH and it doesn’t matter if they won awards or not, people will watch if they like it.
As for last night ratings, Criminal Minds did good this week, ratings were up from last week. Lost ratings are down again and AI is still a ratings monster.
I’m dissapointed in CSI:NY ratings, that show should be doing better since it isn’t facing AI and L&O is a shadow of its former self.
Lost was an epic episode last night and I can’t believe that AI is still so big. Lost is probably the best drama on TV and deserves the viewers.
What happened to Lost, i hope they can film season 6, i fear ABC might reduce the budget by millions per episode and replace the actors with Canadian lookalikes, maybe they wont show next season till summertime, i hate abc
No worries for Lost. It is still the #2 show for the entire night in the demo, even though it competes directly with Idol’s performance show this week. No other show on TV could do better in the demo against Idol. The audience loss in the same day viewing seems to be mainly with the older audience. This show is becoming like “The Office”, with a large disparity between where it places in the demo (a clear Top 10 show) vs. where it places in total audience (Top 25, but never Top 10 anymore).
I watched Lost for the first season, but it just didn’t seem to go anywhere. The attraction to things like CM and CSI:NY is that even if the viewer isn’t familiar with the interpersonal issues, the episodes are easy to follow. Plus, surprisingly, and especially with CSI:NY, the personal stuff is generally(and boy were there exceptions!) treated as a side issue. By the way, and I hate this stuff(Perry Mason is my ideal-I don’t know what they did after work and I’m glad I never found out) but best wedding ever on CSI:NY. And I was cringing leading up to it.
Scmoker: “Also, for the most serialized show in television history to still be a top demo show five years in is mindboggling. They never comprimise, never pander to get ratings, and have less exposition per season than 24 has per scene. Yet they still get boffo demo numbers week in and week out for a show that requires vigilant viewing in order to really understand it.
That said, Lost is a show that the uninitiated could drop into even now and still enjoy. Not “understand” fully, but they could definitely enjoy it. It’s just that entertaining on a week-to-week basis.”
Excellent description of how a serialized show SHOULD be in terms of results! I don’t know if it’s true of Lost since I’ve never watched it, but it SHOULD be true of any serial show that wants to survive.
Well said. Can you explain HOW they manage to be that compelling?
I was at my brother’s a few weeks ago on a Wednesday night and they were watching LOST. I couldn’t understand a damn thing and certainly couldn’t enjoy it.
I think this season, with its constant time shifting and references to prior episodes, might be incredibly difficult for a new LOST viewer. The passion that we regular viewers feel is because we know the characters so well. The acting and the writing is so good, that we can feel every emotion of every character, understand completely every glance, every silent glare, every thought of the character in a scene. It makes every scene, whether action-oriented or conversational, more intense. A regular viewer will become absolutely absorbed in every detail because of this rich characterization that has built up for 5 years….a new viewer would not be able to appreciate it as much. The writers have stopped trying to pull in new viewers. But every single episode ever produced is sitting on abc.com waiting to be viewed for free…..If you start with episode 1 and continue forward, you will not regret it.
Rob, I was just responding to the comment that LOST is written so even the “uninitiated” can enjoy it. I’m am one of the uninitiated, and I didn’t enjoy it.
You misspelled “Better Off Ted” on the chart, but it will probably be cancelled before you fix it.
For every person who dosen’t watch LOST its another person who is missing out on perhaps the most creative show ever produced. I APPLAUD the writers, as they truly are amazingly talented, and will never have to worry about getting another job, because they are the best of the best! In every aspect Lost is a tremendous acheivement.
chuck
Lost is getting its loyal audience Thank You!!!
ABC has countered programed as well. Its also Spring Break so people are doing things other than watching TV.
I don’t always go rooting for Heroes here, but what is the greatest thing about Chuck.
I ‘ve noticed what Alex and JT have noticed about ABC. It’s funny to realize that in the demo so far this year ABC and NBC are basically tied. Thanks to NBC’s comedies on Thursday night, plus shows like Heroes and Chuck. And ER still hangs in there, bringing me to fact that the Big Four on ABC will keep aging yet hang in there. Let’s face it; its the graying of all three of the old nets and Fox has trouble scaring up the demo except for Idol and a few shows riding on Idol’s coattails like House, Bones, Liar. Anyone who dosn’t know cable and eventually PC-TV interface is the near furure just aren’t paying attention. I’m sorry, but i see no other way to analyze it.
Damages is by far the best show on Wednesdays. The ratings are not reported, but I am sure they will once again be low. It’s too bad people are not willing to think while they watch TV.
Rob R says:
“The passion that we regular viewers feel is because we know the characters so well. The acting and the writing is so good, that we can feel every emotion of every character, understand completely every glance, every silent glare, every thought of the character in a scene.”
You can count this regular viewer out of that (somewhat disturbing) generalization.
Holy bejeezus. NBC should really consider pulling that Chopping Block crap immediately. Those numbers are unacceptable for any non-CW network. Maybe they should just throw on some cheap movie that people might watch and essentially concede Wednesdays. It’d be cheaper, especially if said movie was made by Universal.
Bye Better Off Ted. You’re the best show I never watched.
it would appear that the disaster that was The Chopping Block has been pulled effective immediately. on the nbcumv.com website next weeks schedule at 8pm says Check Local Listings. and if you do a search for airdates of Chopping Block it shows only the three airings through yesterday with no future dates listed. 3 and out.
128boy, you are correct, James Hibberd at The Live Feed has the Chopping Block cancelation story. I have posted the excerpt.
except I beat you by a full 3 minutes so I deleted the duplication.
I hate Lost’s viewers count! Its a blasphemy! Idol is so overrated I’m tired of it!
And Chopping Block’s rating is so bad!!! It has CW numbers!
LOST GETS over 2.5 million viewers online: the most than any show. Lost get’s about 12-13 million DVR Viewers (SD+LIVE+7-DAY DVR). Now add the 2.5 million viewers online, you will get to 15 million. It is the most downloaded show on ITunes. Lost brings a lot of money to ABC. It is still one of the most popular shows internationally. It brought it millions of revenue to ABC with it’s DVD sales.
Yes, AI is garbage, and i don’t understand people wasting 2 hours of their primetime on such a garbage.
I’m not really sure why I bother checking the Nielsen ratings. I’ve never been a participant nor have I ever known anyone who has participated in a Nielsen sample. So unless the people at Nielsen research have psychics on their payroll I doubt they know what myself or my acquaintances are watching. Hell, I don’t even know what they watch. I could probably try to guess, but since the Nielsen company basically does that already, I should just call the psychic friends hot line.
Not for anything, but kind of a bitter irony that Life On Mars viewership is up approximately 20% from two weeks ago, especially when you consider its lead-in show had its series low in terms of total viewers this week (this is no personal knock on Lost as it is my favorite show on TV today, but the numbers are what they are). Life on Mars’ numbers are still bad, but it did better than either of the sitcoms earlier in the night on ABC. While I commend ABC for giving it a fair chance and a proper ending, I still think with a different approach from the network it could/should have been a minor hit. It certainly had most of the ingredients, imo.
Anyway, I was just curious as to whether or not it is common for the final episodes of a cancelled show to see an uptick in the ratings like this (particularly a semi-serialized show like Life on Mars).
Poor Life. How can it cope against AI, Criminal Minds AND Lost when it’s never gotten great ratings… plus with Chopping block before it…
Blaming Idol for LOSTS lower numbers is a straw man argument. NCIS gets around 17 million going up against it. Also, alot of people watch it after it airs on DVRs/VCR’s. Its actually better viewing that way (the 2nd time around to catch the little things you miss on the first viewing).
This episode of LOST was rather dull until Sayid blew “little Ben” away. That was clearly the coolest thing since…. I dont know what. I was like “Oh yeahhhh!!! So what happened to adult Ben? Did he vanish? Or does he still exist on the other timeline?
This season has been a bit slow at times. But in the end the ratings wont matter much since the series is heading into the home stretch ending next Season and the Demos are still good.. Hope it picks up the action and goes out with a bang.
I love how the same people who try to say awards mean Lost is a good show with a straight face, will make posts about how much Two and a half Men sucks next Monday. TAAHM has won Emmys too, now go back and reflect on how much I really need to stop watching Life just because some old geezers in some academy gave it a premature prize years ago.
Aren’t ratings irrelevant? HULU, Netflix, etc. etc. are how people are watching TV now.
Liz, you are wrong. Overwhelmingly people still watch TV on TV.
American Idol makes me VOMIT and I can’t believe what makes individuals watch such garbage! “Lost” is perhaps one of the most cerebral TV series ever created by a major network, and I commend ABC for sticking with it. I pity the fair-weather fans who gave up on “Lost” back in its second or third season. What were they expecting? Some sort of serious version of “Gilligan’s Island?”
Just knowing that most neilsen family homes watch IDOL is pretty much all I need to know about how horrible the neilsen system is..
Anthony, first of all, most Nielsen homes do not watch Idol. The household rating is somewhere around 15, meaning around 15% of households watch. Second, just because you don’t like or watch Idol doesn’t mean that millions of other people do.
AI keeps moving around these past few weeks because of CBS’ coverage of “Final Four” College basketball on Wed/Thursday last week. This week is back to normal. I hope AI stays put on Tues/Wed so LOST has a chance on Wed.
LOST is contracted for the rest of S5 and all of S6 so 1 person could be the only one watching and it would still be on TV.
Obama needs to only be on “The President Channel” instead of every network, when he has to talk to us – better yet, give us a web address and we’ll watch it streaming live instead. I’m not paying for cable so he can interrupt me when he wants. ESPN doesn’t broadcast it’s sports on Cartoon Network so why should Obama broadcast everywhere? I still didn’t watch him so broadcasting on every major network did him no good to reach me.
LOST is contracted for the rest of S5 and all of S6 so 1 person could be the only one watching and it would still be on TV.
No. There’s no possible way there isn’t any sort of clause to cancel the show if the ratings drop too low. They won’t, and LOST will finish its stated last season, but if the ratings dropped low enough, LOST would be off the air.
And you seem to forget that Idol’s regular spot is up against LOST. (Plus, the March Madness coverage had nothing to do with Idol moving.)
bad robot, ncis and other cbs shows are not really affected by idol because they are mostly watched by old people. ai and lost target the same audience, which is why lost gets considerably lower ratings when going against ai.
if you look at the ratings history, it will obvious for you too.
bad robot,
NO. You can’t change the past or future in LOSTs version of time travel. Sayid ALWAYS shot young Ben. He’ll survive, and because of this incident, will grow up to the person he is today.
Don’t make time travel harder then in needs to be. Faraday had said it a bunch of times…. WHATEVER HAPPENED, HAPPENED!
It’s funny… that’s the title of the episode tonight.
I wish NBC would give Life a fighting chance, putting it up against American Idol and CSI just doesnt. Then combine that with the lack of promotion, its practically destined to fail. It’s the network’s best kept secret and I it will be missed.