Bill will post the regular top twenty most-DVR’d shows, and the top twenty shows with the highest percentage of viewing on DVR. This list focuses only on increase to the live plus same day DVR viewing adults 18-49 rating when a full week of DVR viewing is added.
Again, I don’t think these percentage increases matter much any, and that the absolute gains are likely more interesting. I might switch to posting that info instead, or stop posting this information altogether. Note that House had more absolute gain (over 1 full ratings point) than any show on this list, but ranked only 15th in percentage increase.
For the week ending March 15, 2009, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse led the pack in terms of percentage increase to Live+SD 18-49 rating. CW’s Supernatural was third measured this way, followed by Heroes and The Office.
Life, a fan favorite that will surely be canceled due to low numbers ranked seventh in this list, and Chuck, a show with ratings that put it on the bubble between renewal and cancellation ranked 11th. The already canceled Life on Mars ranked tenth on this list, which just goes to show ranking high on this list doesn’t mean anything in terms of renewal. But we know people are interested in different slices of data, so I’m posting them anyway!
This week I’ve expanded things to include the top twenty shows by this slice, and also included total DVR viewing for those shows (the difference between Live+7 viewing and Live viewing. I’ve only listed the total number. We regularly report Live+SD viewing which already includes same day DVR viewing. You can’t add the total DVR viewers listed here to previously reported Live+SD numbers because those numbers already include some DVR viewing and there would be some double counting.
Both Castle and Kings premiered in this week, but were not among the top 20 shows based on percentage increase to the adults 18-49 rating. By that slice, Castle’s premiere ranked 35th and the premiere of Kings ranked 39th.
Again, Bill will post the lists for the shows with the most absolute DVR viewing and highest percentage of viewing on DVR. But here are the highest % increases to the live+SD adults 18-49 ratings due to a week’s worth of DVR viewing for the week ending March 15, 2009:
| Rank | Show | Net | DVR Viewing (000) | Live+SD 18-49 rtg | Live+7 18-49 rating | 18-49 %increase vs Live+SD |
| 1 | TERMINATOR: SRH CNR CHRON | FOX | 1,413 | 1.20 | 1.68 | 40.00% |
| 2 | DOLLHOUSE | FOX | 1,524 | 1.60 | 2.14 | 33.75% |
| 3 | SUPERNATURAL | CW | 888 | 1.12 | 1.48 | 32.14% |
| 4 | HEROES | NBC | 3,161 | 3.21 | 4.21 | 31.15% |
| 5 | OFFICE | NBC | 3,729 | 4.13 | 5.20 | 25.91% |
| 6 | GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 4,255 | 5.04 | 6.34 | 25.79% |
| 7 | LIFE | NBC | 1,609 | 1.72 | 2.15 | 25.00% |
| 8 | REAPER | CW | 664 | 0.85 | 1.06 | 24.71% |
| 9 | PRIVATE PRACTICE | ABC | 2,206 | 3.37 | 4.19 | 24.33% |
| 10 | LIFE ON MARS | ABC | 1,303 | 1.43 | 1.77 | 23.78% |
| 11 | CHUCK | NBC | 1,921 | 2.10 | 2.59 | 23.33% |
| 12 | BONES | FOX | 2,548 | 2.82 | 3.46 | 22.70% |
| 13 | 30 ROCK | NBC | 2,332 | 3.29 | 4.00 | 21.58% |
| 14 | NUMB3RS | CBS | 1,484 | 1.86 | 2.26 | 21.51% |
| 15 | HOUSE | FOX | 4,112 | 4.84 | 5.88 | 21.49% |
| 16 | FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS | NBC | 1,086 | 1.36 | 1.65 | 21.32% |
| 17 | APPRENTICE 8 | NBC | 1,597 | 2.82 | 3.35 | 18.79% |
| 18 | SMALLVILLE | CW | 1,025 | 1.58 | 1.87 | 18.35% |
| 19 | 24 | FOX | 3,343 | 3.61 | 4.27 | 18.28% |
| 20 | MEDIUM | NBC | 1,957 | 2.47 | 2.92 | 18.22% |
Thanks! I like to see this even if it doesn’t help bubble shows like Chuck. It goes to show people do watch shows that have lower numbers just at a different time. When will companies take DVD numbers as well as live? I know you just did an article on it but I think it’s a growing trend.
Thanks! Awesome list! We need more demo DVR numbers.
wow, those are some frustrating figures, especially for bubble shows.
I said this in another topic, but remember, if DVR numbers suddenly became important, the required Live+7 demo numbers for shows to be considered safe would increase across the board. The only show that I see on this list that would probably actually be helped by it is Heroes, which would probably be boosted back into at least breaking even level if networks were able to figure out how to use these numbers to their advantage.
What would be interesting would be the number of online views. Dollhouse has averaged well over 250,000 views per episode on Hulu alone. I imagine the number of views per episode is significantly higher on Fox On Demand since it still has more unique viewers than Hulu does and is limited to Fox shows.
By the way, DirectTV was advertising on TSCC during Friday night’s broadcast and also on Hulu this week. (Unlike DVR, online broadcasts do generate advertising income although I have no idea how much).
Mike, I’ve never actually seen Fox online data that broke out pure Fox.com access from Myspace. Because of the Myspace counting, it’s numbers look very big (even relative to Hulu) but that’s only meaningful if lots of people are watching FOX shows via MySpace pages. I’d guess FOX gets more views from Hulu, but it is just a guess.
Well this shows that TSCC will likely hit 4 million by the finale, and maybe crawl past 2.0 in the demo (both including DVR numbers). It seems like those who abandoned the show are now starting to show an interest but the majority are DVRing it in favour of live viewing. TSCC is slowly getting its audience back, maybe not fast enough to matter, but it might (and I say *might*) make FOX stop and say “Hmm…” before killing the show with one stroke of a pen.
Medium did beter then chuck in the all important 18-49 rating. CHUCK fans watch out. OOOOOoooo NNNNOOoo.
Tyler, Medium always does better than Chuck in the Live+SD as well. How is that news?
I really hope Heroes makes a turn for the better…I know that live even if it gets amazing again it probably won’t get over 3.5 rating but I SO badly want it to get in touch with the great first season it had.
Glad to see FNL got picked up. I love that show too. NBC has a lot of great television, but it’s always underrated (literally) lol.
Idiot, how could DVR numbers not matter when TSCC and Dollhouse’s core demographic is most likely to be out on a Friday night? Why do you think crap like Ghost Pissers does so well, their core demographic is sitting at home sipping tea.
Sycore, 1. Ghost Whisperer always gets more DVR viewers than TSCC or Dollhouse.
2. It doesn’t matter because advertisers aren’t willing to pay for those viewers. They pay based on C3 ratings, which as far as we have seen, is generally around the Live+SD ratings we get here daily.
nice to see the office that high. this list is awesome. i hope it is a weekly thing
holly, yes definitely GW has more live and dvr viewers. However, although some will say it doesnot matter, TSSC and DH has absolutely more viewers on hulu, fod, amazon, itunes, dvd sales (i have checked on amazon GW’s dvd rank is somewhere 3000th in all categories in tv whereas tssc’s something 1000, #436 in Movies & TV and 17th in #17 in Movies & TV > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Series & Sequels ), torrents, etc…
In my opinion, this fact suggests that both shows airs in wrong day, and they definitely have more potential viewers than their Friday numbers.
holly, yes definitely GW has more live and dvr viewers. However, although some will say it doesnot matter, TSSC and DH has absolutely more viewers on hulu, fod, amazon, itunes, dvd sales (i have checked on amazon GW’s dvd rank is somewhere 3000th in all categories in tv whereas tssc’s something 1000, #436 in Movies & TV and 17th in #17 in Movies & TV > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Series & Sequels ), torrents, etc…
In my opinion, this fact suggests that both shows airs in wrong day, and they definitely have more potential viewers than their Friday numbers.
I must agree with Veran and Sycore…
DVR should matter… IT’s on a friday, very few people stay home on Friday, especially 18-30 audience which is a MAJORITY of TSCC / Dollhouse watchers.
Compared to Ghost Whisperer that appeals to 30-49, usually women who stay at home on Fridays. Trust me, I watched Ghost Whisperer quite a number of times, I’m not just judging by the cover.
And I will repeat again, even if there are those that disagree completely, because we know they are wrong and have not looked at the numbers: TSCC was performing well on Mondays BEFORE the 3 week break in the middle of the season.
sorry for posting twice the same comment
Jonathan: “because we know they are wrong and have not looked at the numbers: TSCC was performing well on Mondays BEFORE the 3 week break in the middle of the season.”
This site looked at the numbers in the fall and predicted cancellation by May. It was NOT performing well on Mondays and more importantly kept bleeding viewers all season. And there was no “three week break” – it was two weeks and then one week later on, and most shows have that sort of problem.
You want to know why the DVR numbers keep going up? Because all the TSCC fans keep telling each other the DVR numbers matter and therefore many of them watch the show live AND on DVR in order to try to push the numbers up.
Unfortunately the DVR numbers do NOT matter, and thus the fans once again are killing the show they want to save by not realizing that fact.
I believe it’s also been established that GW viewers span the demographics, although they trend to the older demo.
The bottom line is: TSCC is not compelling enough to have large numbers of viewers view it live.
Good News for our Great Show !!! Not Surprise !!!
hope it help get season 3 !!!!
“You want to know why the DVR numbers keep going up? Because all the TSCC fans keep telling each other the DVR numbers matter and therefore many of them watch the show live AND on DVR in order to try to push the numbers up.”
I think this is not the case, since DVR numbers are also collected from viewers who have nielsen boxes in their houses.
Jonathan, if you were an advertiser, would DVR viewers matter much to you?
Hagi, if that’s true, then obviously no matter how many TSCC fans who aren’t Neilsen families watch via DVR, it won’t matter. So why bother?
RHS, Some of them watch it via dvr because it airs fridays where people generally do not stay home. Some watch it via dvr because they like it and want to watch more than once . Although you’ll disagree with me, in my opinion (and my opinion only) it is one of the best shows in tv and its quality, its writing its acting is so good that i can watch any of its episodes more than once.
and please do not start again by saying 1000th times how bad it is, how JF ruined it etc. we have memorized what your idea about this show is. Thank you
1st, TSCC’s total DVR viewing isn’t really going up. In fact, it’s down for the 3/13 episode versus the 2/27 episode by more than 100,000. Mostly the DVR #s have held pretty flat.
If someone wants to blame the baseball playoffs and World Series for TSCC’s downfall, what can you do? There are many things I will blame on Major League Baseball’s Bud Selig, but TSCC’s ratings are not among them.
Still, I’d love to see a season 3 just for an episode where Cameron/Summer Glau is on a mission to take down Bud Selig because he’s somehow responsible for Skynet! “This is for creating SKYNET, and THIS is for turning a blind eye on performance enhancing drugs for years and then lying about it just like everyone else!”
It’s even better if there are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez terminators accompanying her.
To me all this says is, “Here is some meanless numbers to give false hope to fans of doomed shows.”
This is right up there with the posting of O’Reilly vs. Oberman(sp?) ratings. O’Reilly crushes this guy every week and does anyone care either way?
ABC ROCKS!
Ani, I don’t love the sorting of this list or the % increase, But since we’re focusing on 18-49 more, I think it does make sense to do something. I think next week I’ll try sorting it by the most absolute gain in 18-49 ratings and see how that goes. Doing it for the current week, the sorting is a quite a bit different than the overall top 20 most-watched on DVR. There are 21 shows that improved by at least one half 18-49 ratings point from Live+SD to Live+7 and there were four shows that increased by at least an entire point.
that sorting might be interesting and make sense for us and is less likely to be false hope stirring (TSCC wouldn’t have made the top 20 by that slicing, though neither would Chuck – Dollhouse would’ve been #18), but I don’t think it is something that is going to typically change a show’s renew/cancel prospects.
Robert yes total dvr viewing of tssc is rather stays constant in every week but live viewing increases a little in every week. It may be possible that this new viewers mainly either fresh viewers or old viewers who regain interests rather than people who previously dvring it.
Live viewing only increased “a little” indeed, and it isn’t every week – just in the last couple of weeks. Really could be nothing more than random variation, too, since the variation has been what, ten percent of less? When TSCC was dropping, it was losing 400-500,000 a week, rather more than ten percent.
Hagi brings up one interesting point – how many people DVR a show to watch it more than once? If that second or third viewing is counted, it means the show is being over counted by some (probably small) percentage. I suppose the advertisers don’t mind since it gives them two or three chances to sell. Or are repeat viewings weeded out?
Jonathan you must be looking at numbers from a dream world where TSCC has more viewers. Season 2 ratings have always been rather depressing, right from the start.
according to Nielsen only one viewing per person is counted. But, if three different people were in the household and one watched live, another one watched on DVR the same night and another one watched 2 days later, they would each count one time for a total of 3. But if one person watches 3 times, it only counts once.
That makes sense, I forgot that they have to code in who the viewer is.
Obviously, TSCC will not get a 3rd season, but the point is live broadcast tv is changing, and the networks should realize this make the necessary changes. Nielsen data is totally unreliable as to true viewership and shows should be weighted on many factors instead of just live viewers. DVR, VOD, torrents, dvd sales, hulu etc., while most are for the purpose of eliminating commercials, product placement much more effective then live ads.
Sycore:
Please detail the necessary changes.
One necessary change is to abandon Nielsen families, and instead, have *all* cable and satellite boxes and DVRs send back data about what is being watched. We’ve seen from election polls how wildly off the mark samples are. It is time to replace it with the actual data.
oh yeah, Will, the privacy advocates will LOVE your solution (sarcasm). Plus, that method currently doesn’t separate out in any fashion which member of the household was doing the viewing. Nielsen does, and it’s information the advertisers hold very dear.
Sigh. I really wish some of those DVR people that watch Heroes would watch it live. All the alternate ways to watch it show there’s still an audience for it, but they’d rather watch it another way. Hopefully next year it can get an easier timeslot.
Is this making FOX money – leading in the genre like this?
in my personal opinion GW is one of the worst show in television.. it’s not so different from the other crimes on CBS, there is a dead man, an investigation, jennifer’s humps.. every episode is so boring and ‘RIPETITIVE’. maybe all the audience is over 40, my mum included..
supernatural is on the top!!
Hey Robert! In light of this development (for Dollhouse/Terminator), hows about moving this post to the page one headlines? Pretty Please?
Robert
I’m curious to know whether the networks (or some separate entity) will begin posting online views in the near future. One study I read recently suggested that online viewers are more likely to sit through commercial breaks(which are short online) than TV viewers are (I know this is true for me; I basically only watch the news and sports on cable anymore, but when I do watch TV I get up and go to my treadmill for 2 to 3 min during commercial breaks). I sit through the online commercials.