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With Strong Retention of its Lead-in and of its Week-Ago Series Debut, “Better Off Ted” Dominates its Freshman NBC Competition at 8:30pm

Posted on 26 March 2009 by Robert Seidman

I might just be sleep deprived but the sub headline that I used above as the headline and the corresponding text below regarding Better Off Ted made me laugh.   NBC is the whipping boy for other networks’ PR teams.

via ABC press release:

Quick Take for Wednesday, March 25, 2009

(Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)

Continuing to See Year-to-Year Improvement on the Night, ABC is Up

Over the Year-Ago Wednesday on 7 of the Past 8 Weeks in Adults 18-49

For its 9th Consecutive Original Airing This Season, ABC’s “Lost”

Registers as Wednesday’s No. 1 Scripted TV Program with Adults 18-49

“Scrubs” Finishes No. 2 to “Idol” at 8pm Among Adults 18-34 and Key Men

With Strong Retention of its Lead-in and of its Week-Ago Series Debut,

“Better Off Ted” Dominates its Freshman NBC Competition at 8:30pm

“Lost” Takes Full Control of its Drama Competition in the 9pm Hour Among

Adults 18-49, Topping CBS’ “Criminal Minds” and NBC’s “Life” by Wide Margins

“Life on Mars” is Up for the 2nd Straight Week in Viewers and Young Adults

Wednesday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC finished No. 2 to Fox (with a 2-hour “Idol) Wednesday night in Adults 18-34 (2.3/7) and key Men: M18-34 (2.2/7) and M18-49 (2.5/7).   Among Adults 18-34, ABC (2.3/7) bested third-place CBS by 28% (1.8/5) and fourth-place NBC by 109% (1.1/3).

  • Continuing to deliver year-to-year increases on the night, ABC’s Wednesday results were up from the same night last year (3/26/08) by 10% in Total Viewers (6.5 million vs. 5.9 million) and by 35% in Adults 18-49 (2.7/7 vs. 2.0/5). The Net has delivered gains over the year-ago Wednesday on 7 of the last 8 weeks in the key young adult sales demo.

“Scrubs” (8:00-8:30 p.m.)

ABC’s “Scrubs” placed second to “American Idol” at 8:00 p.m. among Adults 18-34 (1.9/6), Men 18-34 (1.8/7) and Men 18-49 (1.9/6), beating out CBS’ “Survivor” special on all three counts.

“Better Off Ted” (8:30-9:00 p.m.)

Despite facing “Idol” and “Survivor” on its second airing, ABC’s “Better Off Ted” continued to demonstrate strong retention of its “Scrubs” lead-in in viewers (89%) and young adults (90%).  Like its lead-in, “Better Off Ted” beat out “Survivor” in Adults 18-34, outpacing the CBS special by 31% (1.7/5 vs. 1.3/4).  Versus its freshman competition in the half-hour, “Ted” defeated NBC’s “Chopping Block” by 2.3 million viewers (4.7 million vs. 2.4 million) and by 125% in Adults 18-49 (1.8/5 vs. 0.8/2).

  • Although it aired against increased competition on its second week, “Better Off Ted” exhibited solid retention of its week-earlier series debut in Total Viewers (85%) and Adults 18-49 (86%).

“Lost” (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

Surging from its lead-in opposite the second hour of Fox’s 2-hour “American Idol,” “Lost” took full control its drama competition in the time period among Adults 18-49.  During the 9 o’clock hour, ABC’s “Lost” (4.0/10) beat out CBS’ “Criminal Minds” by 18% (3.4/8) and NBC’s “Life” by 186% (1.4/3).

  • ABC’s “Lost” marked its 9th consecutive original airing as Wednesday’s No. 1 scripted TV program in Adults 18-49. The ABC drama was also the night’s top-rated scripted series in the other two Adult demographics: Adults 18-34 (3.7/10) and Adults 25-54 (4.4/10-tie).

“Life on Mars” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

Posting its 2nd consecutive week of gains, “Life on Mars” grew over the prior week by 14% in Total Viewers (5.7 million vs. 5.0 million) and by 17% in Adult 18-49 (2.1/6 vs. 1.8/5).  

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to over 30% currently, from 23% at the same point in 2008. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Source:  Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings), 3/25/09.

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  • AJ
    i love schmoker's line: Do they really want one million toy robots sent to their offices? Maybe there is a big baby shower coming up at ABC?

    hahahahahahaha... hilarious!

    and bill your right... i think thats the only rule they have in their PR book. yawn!
  • Schmoker
    Bill, you would think that these networks would learn that they are tempting fate by giving the crazy demographic hope for these cancelled shows coming back. Seems every cancellation these days generates so much ill will, no matter how justified it is. Why pump up LOM, which is exactly the sort of show that has fans who will send you all sorts of odd paraphenalia to get you to bring it back?

    Do they really want one million toy robots sent to their offices? Maybe there is a big baby shower coming up at ABC?
  • schmoker, I think it's in the PR rulebook. Must. Promote. Everything. No. Matter. What.
  • schmoker
    I know that the Ted stuff is silly, but why are they pimping Life on Mars, a show they have already cancelled? What the F is that all about?
  • ABCFanaticWows
    It's official! Better Off Ted will cancelled!

    I confirmed it!
  • S.
    They don't put all the episodes out, but that is not a good sign. They usually put out full episodes for the big events in a show that they want the media to promote, or for shows that are doing poorly, and need a little more media attention than what they would get from the promos.

    By media attention, I mean Kristin, and Ausiello pretending they got some extra special spoilers from exclusive sources, when we all know they just saw the episode online. Ausiello is the worse, most of his spoilers in the summer came from reading the fans interpretation of the casting sides over at TWoP.
  • You know what might be a slightly better indicator of how the network feels about Better Off Ted? They haven't put the second episode up on abc.com.
  • S.
    I am not sure either. I just find it odd, that the ever so eloquent, ABC spin masters are just so cold about Castle. Even for Pushing Daisies, or Dirty sexy money, after it was obvious they were not coming back, they always found some niche demo to brag about, like the "M18-34 with in-grow toe nails", or something like that. Either the show is very safe, or they don't care about it, or Castle just has no demo they can brag about. What it is I have no idea, but, to me it feels that they aren't their usual exuberant selves with Castle.

    When you read the spin for Ted, they are going all out on the bragging of it's A18-34 numbers like where working for CW.
  • S., I'm not sure that "level of spin" is a reliable indicator of show future prospects, but it's a fun theory! ;)
  • S.
    They do really want Better Off Ted more than they do want Castle, just compare the amount of spin they put in to Ted's numbers, and the way the write up Castle. That or Ted does give then some bragging demos that Castle is not pulling in.
  • the128boy
    ^^^ And I totally give kudos to NBC for being patient with stuff this season (wether it be from true patience or lack of alternate material) and airing all filmed episodes of shows, airing more originals and fewer repeats, etc etc etc, but at this point in the season I would say cut your losses and pull the repeat trigger.
  • the128boy
    FrankJ, I don't see why they have to finish airing Chopping Block, ESPECIALLY in that slot. they can put anything there really. the first thing that comes to my head is L&O repeats, which, at this point, would probably draw 3 times as many viewers, half a point more demo, provide a better/more compatible lead-in for Life, and overall fit this supposed "crime themed" night much better than Chopping Block does (or Knight Rider did, for that matter).
  • Looks like it has the largest paragraph to me.
  • Fin
    Not much they can talk about for Better Off Ted apart from it beat a massive flop of a NBC series... Notice its paragraph is so much smaller
  • FrankJ
    Well they'll probably have to let it finish the run anyway right? What does NBC have to put there? But I was thinking more along the lines of sowing chaos at NBC. Isn't it just expensive and chaotic for NBC to keep having to cancel and order new shows? I bet ABC would love to keep the people at NBC off their game and weighing a lot of uncertainty with new shows.
  • the128boy
    julia, i have a feeling that Motherhood may do *slightly* better tonight (and SW? too) than what the general consensus is, even though Idol will be on. Of course i could be very very wrong when the numbers come out tomorrow. as for Suburbia, i also think it will get the best ratings of the bunch, simply because of the lead-in.
  • the128boy
    FrankJ, i think that ABC would actually prefer if NBC stuck with Chopping Block. It's doing amazingly anemic numbers and is essentially zero competition. It would be in ABC's best interest if it completed it's whole run in that slot.
  • FrankJ
    I think they're spinning the 1.8 to draw attention to NBC's numbers. I think they'd love to see NBC have to cancel their shows just after they started. Clears the deck for ABC's struggling show (which they claim is not struggling), thus giving it that much more of a fighting chance.
  • I think it depends on how the In the Motherhood, SW? and Surviving Suburbia do. I don't think ITM or SW? will do well, but SS has a nice lead-in and might benefit the same way SW? has. I would be surprised if SW? gets canceled, no matter how it performs, and without seeing any numbers, my shot in the dark guess is SS rates highest of the new comedies. So the question is, what are ABC's plans for comedy next season? If they just want a couple of shows to fill the gap between DWTS and whatever is on at 10 and an hour block, I don't think they need to pick up more than one new comedy from this season, since they have 14 comedy pilots according to TFC. If they want to do two one-hour blocks, there might possibly be room for two of the new comedies. In which case, I don't know that there's really any threshold that they have to pass. It's just whichever is the best performing of the three new comedies.

    But, if I were running ABC, I would stick to just one hour of comedy, unless there is an abundance of amazing pilots, greater than you can ever imagine.
  • the128boy
    Julia, what do you think it would have to pull to get renewed? I get the feeling that the bar is lower here than elsewhere on their schedule. I'm guessing a 2.0, despite that being well below their index average. Because otherwise, yes... why specifically spin this 1.8?
  • Wow... You know a network is desperate if they are trying to spin 1.8 as positive.
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