Once again I’m combining the top 20 with adults 18-49 and the top 20 shows overall into one post with two separate tables. And no, NBC isn’t paying us to put the 18-49 list first so they actually have a few shows in the list…
Grey’s Anatomy led all scripted shows with adults 18-49, but had less than a 300,000 person lead over Two and a Half Men
J.J. Abrams is riding high with two top ten shows in the 18-49 list and a blockbuster Star Trek movie about to be released. Lost narrowly edged out Fringe by less than 150,000 adults 18-49. While both American Idol’s topped the 18-49 list (and just about any list that can be made), Dancing With the Stars only placed the performance show among the top twenty shows with adults 18-49. The results show was #25.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows (18-49 Demo) for the week ending 05/03/09:
| Rank | Shows | R=Repeat S=Special P=Premiere | Net | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Viewers (000) |
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 8.1 | 10,696 | |
| 2 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 7.7 | 10,162 | |
| 3 | GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 5.1 | 6,750 | |
| 4 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 4.9 | 6,459 | |
| 5 | HOUSE | FOX | 4.6 | 6,037 | |
| 6 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 4.4 | 5,800 | |
| 7 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 4.3 | 5,726 | |
| 8 | LOST | ABC | 4.1 | 5,349 | |
| 9 | FRINGE | FOX | 4.0 | 5,215 | |
| 10 | RULES OF ENGAGEMENT | CBS | 3.9 | 5,140 | |
| 11 | LAW AND ORDER:SVU | NBC | 3.9 | 5,121 | |
| 12 | OFFICE | NBC | 3.7 | 4,923 | |
| 13 | MENTALIST, THE | CBS | 3.7 | 4,889 | |
| 14 | HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER | CBS | 3.7 | 4,878 | |
| 15 | CSI | CBS | 3.7 | 4,821 | |
| 16 | SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS | CBS | 3.6 | 4,776 | |
| 17 | BIGGEST LOSER 7 | NBC | 3.6 | 4,719 | |
| 18 | NCIS | CBS | 3.5 | 4,625 | |
| 19 | PRIVATE PRACTICE | ABC | 3.5 | 4,595 | |
| 20 | FAMILY GUY | FOX | 3.5 | 4,572 |
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Nielsen Top Twenty Shows (overall) for the week ending 05/03/09
| Rank | Shows | R=Repeat S=Special P=Premiere | Net | # Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) |
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 23,261 | 13.5 | 21 | |
| 2 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 22,369 | 13.2 | 20 | |
| 3 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 19,285 | 12.3 | 19 | |
| 4 | MENTALIST, THE | CBS | 17,113 | 10.6 | 16 | |
| 5 | NCIS | CBS | 16,698 | 10.1 | 16 | |
| 6 | CSI | CBS | 15,542 | 9.7 | 15 | |
| 7 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 14,720 | 9.4 | 14 | |
| 8 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 14,163 | 8.7 | 13 | |
| 9 | GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM | ABC | 14,115 | 9.4 | 15 | |
| 10 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 13,611 | 8.5 | 13 | |
| 11 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 13,485 | 8.4 | 13 | |
| 12 | CSI: NY | CBS | 12,504 | 8.1 | 14 | |
| 13 | COLD CASE | CBS | 12,461 | 7.5 | 12 | |
| 14 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 12,312 | 7.8 | 15 | |
| 15 | WITHOUT A TRACE | CBS | 12,209 | 7.9 | 13 | |
| 16 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 12,122 | 7.9 | 13 | |
| 17 | SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS | CBS | 11,732 | 7.0 | 12 | |
| 18 | HOUSE | FOX | 11,693 | 7.0 | 11 | |
| 19 | RULES OF ENGAGEMENT | CBS | 11,303 | 7.0 | 11 | |
| 20 | AMAZING RACE 14 | CBS | 10,843 | 6.0 | 10 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
LOST, HOUSE, CSI and THE OFFICE… those are excellent shows. The rest? Meh. The fool’s golden age of television.
Desperate Housewives isn’t in the top 10!! :O I think that might be the first time in its history
Yeah, Fringe! Last night’s episode was great, setting up for what must be a blockbuster finale next week.
DS, that’s not fair, there’s at least…2 other good shows listed up there.
Yeah…
(Mother and Fringe if curious)
Thank goodness for 18 – 49 demo because House’s overall ratings just keep dropping. The show could feasibly fall out of the Top 20 by the Season Finale this coming Monday. Hard to believe.
Can’t wait to see the overnights for this past Monday to see if it rebounded at all.
Things that caught my attention:
Mentalist tops CSI.
SVU tops Office (as does Rules Of Engagement!)
Desperate Housewives has been steadily slipping all season. I expect that one day, cold case will actually surpass DH in total viewers. right now, only 1 million viewers seperates the two. Also dont worry, despite what this site wrongly states, Cold Case will be back next season. CBS isnt going to cancel a show that Consistantly makes the The Top 20.
But it doesn’t make the top twenty in the key advertising revenue-generating demographic.
SPJava, I wouldn’t doubt if House falls out of the Top 20. I stopped watching regularly after the second season, even though my daughter still likes it.
Watching an arrogant jerk on TV year after year is not much fun, especially when there are enough in real life to deal with.
Give me something else. (like Chuck!)
That’s pretty good for Fringe
That’s pretty good for Fringe and Lost. Regardless, of what the Fringe haters say, that’s pretty good for Fringe in the 18-49 demo.
but where is better off ted!
Down with leno, this isn’t a top 80 list
Fringe actually did better this last week than the week previous, 4.0 vs. 3.9
“SVU tops Office’
Hilary Duff is probably the reason for this.
Someone please enlighten me to how The office is funny, annoying is more like it from the very first episode, House is garbage, again not funny not serious just boring, and CSI was good about 5 years ago and before the clones and well Lost lost me at the second episode and its on ABC and I have not forgiven them for Daybreak.
I love J.J. Abrams for LOST…Score!
I hate J.J. Abrams for Fringe…Fail!
I’m not sure where to put this. But did anyone see the “What did you see?” ad during Lost? Looks like ABC is teasing an early pickup for Flash Forward.
Buddy, it’s hard to see it as anything else than an indication they are picking it up, though ABC still hasn’t officially picked it up yet. I don’t know if I like the strategy for those ads though. The campaign has gotten a lot of hype on the Internet, but sticking the short 5 second “What did you See?” ads in a show where 1/3rd of the viewers are watching on DVR and likely skipping commercials…
Flash Forward sounds really interesting!
nice and all, i like fringe, but…
the retention is horrible. hells kitchen did better when it was paired with ai.
fringe should get at least 5 in the demo, but it doesn’t… kind of a failure. im sure it’d get decent ratings on its own, but im sure that it wont be with ai next season.
lost with no lead in and ai as competition, in its FIFTH heavily serialized season gets the same ratings. think about that.
Its good that NBC has the office, l&o: svu, apprentice and biggest loser
I love ABC and Survivor and the Amazing Race
jesus_stick said:
“nice and all, i like fringe, but…
the retention is horrible. hells kitchen did better when it was paired with ai.
fringe should get at least 5 in the demo, but it doesn’t… kind of a failure. im sure it’d get decent ratings on its own, but im sure that it wont be with ai next season.
lost with no lead in and ai as competition, in its FIFTH heavily serialized season gets the same ratings. think about that.”
24 got the same ratings 5 years ago paired with American Idol and no one said a thing about that show losing nearly half of AI’s audience. Robert’s right, there are alot of Fringe haters on this board. I will always admit when Fringe is doing poorly. Reality will always do better than Fringe after AI because it appeals to the exact same audience. Fringe and 24 do not and that’s why you see a large percentage of viewers drop off.
Oh no!
Desperate housewives!!!!!
Why are stupid shows like two and a half men and grey anatomy?
It is one of the best shows on tv!!
Good god you people!!!!
Yes, American Idol has been Fringe’s lead-in, but Fringegreat ’s ratings have remained steady, even after the 7 week hiatus. Sometimes, having lead-ins doesn’t matter. For example, it didn’t matter that CSI was Harper’s Island’s lead-in, it’s viewer ship has been dropping like flies from week to week. Fringe’s ratings hasn’t, they’ve gone up a little and then down a little and then up again. In fact, despite the CSI lead-in, Harper’s Island still lost out in the 18-49 demo. Whereas, Fringe has been consistently winning it’s time slot against CBS in the demo. You see, while lead-ins can help, it’s the responsibility to make sure that the audience doesn’t drop like flies from week to week. That’s what’s happened to Harper’s Island. That’s why it’s now on Saturdays. However, it hasn’t happened to Fringe.
correction: Fringe’s ratings. Sorry for the snafu.
YAY Grey’s Anatomy! and it will continue to go up with the 100th episode and the Season Finale coming!
Sad DH is not in TOP 10 and stupid sitcom like Two and a Half Men is
at least Grey’s Anatomy is picking up some steam!
pattern dude, what about opening your eyes and putting your fanboyism elsewhere? i didnt say that fringe wouldnt get good ratings without ai, it did well paired with house. but with ai, its NOT good, its not even decent. 24 was only paired with ai for a little while, exactly beacuse it wasnt great with retention.
fringe in its 2nd half hour gets beaten by biggest loser even in 18-49, so think about that. fringe, i guarantee, wont be paired with ai the next season.
I’m not denying that Fringe loses the half hour to the Biggest Loser. However, you did neglect to point out that it does beat the Mentalist in the demos in the last half hour. As far as moving the show to another night? I think that’s a good idea. Why? It would get more viewers than it does now simply because it wouldn’t have The Mentalist to contend with. I’d say pair with House on Mondays.
Actually, you make one point, House and Fringe are a better match up.
Once again, Fringe doesn’t have to do 24 numbers. I don’t see why people keep comparing Fringe to some other show that isn’t relevant to the discussion at all.
Fringe gets adequate numbers on its own to be renewed. There’s no way AI is giving Fringe six million viewers. The concept of Fringe retaining AI viewers makes no sense at all, since the two shows are utterly different. One would expect Fringe to lose a significant number of AI viewers. The fact that it undoubtedly does yet retains fairly high numbers indicates that the show itself is pulling viewers to replace the ones lost after AI. The viewers lost at the half hour are probably more AI viewers who finally switch the channel.
According to Fringebloggers.com, for episode 16, Fringe pulled the following numbers:
First half hour (with AI overrun):
18-49 Demo/Share: 4.5/11 18-34 Demo/Share: 3.3/9
Biggest Loser:
18-49 Demo/Share: 4.2/10 18-34 Demo/Share: 3.4/9
Second Half Hour (all Fringe):
18-49 Demo/Share: 3.9/9 18-34 Demo/Share: 2.9/8
That is not a huge difference. Fringe drops a mere 1.7 to 2 million viewers – not six million – and .6 in the demo. I don’t have Biggest Loser numbers for its second half hour. But even if you assume everybody who dropped Fringe switched to Biggest Loser, it’s hardly the death knell of Fringe with or without AI.
The retentionistas are getting ridiculous here.
richard’s right about that. I expect Glee to do better in post- AI’s spot because it appeals to the same audience.
as American Idol.
Great to see [random show in top 20] is up there, but why the hell is [another random show in top 20] up there as well? That show sucks!
Lost is amazing tv.
Fringe is isn’t even mediocre. Out of all the project Abrams made Fringe is by far the worst.
LOST was amazing television last night. Sometimes i can’t believe how good is this show.
Do you guys have the rankings for the other Fox cartoons? It’s always interesting to compare Family Guy and The Simpsons as leadi-ins for King of the Hill and American Dad.
Dennis, we have overnight ratings via the “Overnight” link in the white Nav bar above.
When will you have Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s overnight reports?
Mindy said:
“Fringe is isn’t even mediocre. Out of all the project Abrams made Fringe is by far the worst.”‘
The 1st few episode were really terrible. However, it’s really improved though since the 1st few episodes. This last episode was amazing!
@ThePattern
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/05/07/nielsen-schedule-for-tuesday-night-and-wednesday-night-data/18232
Besides, Felicity is Abrams worst production.
Thank you, Holly!
@ThePattern & @Mindy
I must disagree with you and strongly agree with Mindy. I’ve not been able to watch FRINGE every week, but I have tried to be fair about it and give it a chance. This time last year I was actually very excited about it. After seeing much of this season though I’m left wondering what the fuss was about. I feel the quality of it has continued to decline from day 1 to a level that is nearly pure awfulness.
See, it’s the exact opposite with me. I felt the 1st few episodes were horrible, but they’ve improved since. The episode Ability and Bad Dreams were especially good. It’s become more like Damages (my favorite show by the way) in the sense that you don’t know who is on whose side and you don’t know which side is good except Olivia is good.
Fringe has also become very baroque in that it’s become very complicated like Damages. Execept that Damages is still the better show.
Especially the storyline about the parallel universe.
correction: Except
Wow, The Mentalist beat CSI, now that’s a real shocker.
1): Goddamned American Idol always makes the first two slots. Really, I hope anybody involved with Idol in any way, whether they be the contestants or the viewers, suffer a horrible and painful death.
2): Family Guy is in the Top 20- yes! Well, it’s better than the Simpsons (which didn’t make the list).
Why anyone would watch shows like American Idol, Survivor and Lost is beyond me. Lost is a waste of television space and needs to go away.
House is still a great show, they just need to freshen up the story lines, and move it to a better night.
CSI will be ok too. The Vegas version obviously took a hit when Peterson left the show. I think Fishburne has done a great job since joining the show.
CSI is still King!
while “THE WIRE” was the best show ever, there are other good shows currently on, especially
lost, desperate housewives and house
while “THE WIRE” was the best show ever, there are other good shows currently on, especially
lost, desperate housewives and house
There are still some good shows on TV right now but they should not be mentioned in the same sentence as The Wire. It is just on a whole other level.
Lost is definitely the best show I have the honor to watch.If you are bored one day, try watching LOST. They have all the episodes up for free at ABC.com. You will thank me.
I love Lost when watching it on dvd after the season has wrapped up. I despise watching it live. The pacing and commercial breaks just tick me off if I am only watching it one hour each week.
The “Nielsen Top Twenty Shows (18-49 Demo) for the week ending 05/03/09″ should look like this:
1 LOST
2 HOUSE
3 FRINGE
4 THE OFFICE
5 GREY’S ANATOMY
6 FAMILY GUY
7 TWO AND A HALF MEN
8 CSI
9 BIGGEST LOSER 7
10 PRIVATE PRACTICE
11 NCIS
12 THE MENTALIST
13 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
14 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
15 LAW AND ORDER: SVU
16 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
17 DANCING WITH THE STARS
18 SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS
19 AMERICAN IDOL- TUESDAY
20 AMERICAN IDOL- WEDNESDAY
For the record, it does not.
that’s why i said SHOULD.
JJ Abrams is the man! He creates the best shows. I love LOST. It is hands down my favorite show of all time and the season 5 finale was amazing. It reminded me of the season 1 finale that got me hooked on the show.Too bad next season is the last season. I love Fringe as well. I don’t understand how some people can say that its garbage. I believe its a great show. But then I love sci-fi shows so I’m biased. I really dislike American Idol. I don’t know how someone can tune in every week to watch a bunch of no name people sing. BORING!!! I couldn’t get into Grey’s Anatomy either. Double Boring!!!
I think Southland should be on this list.
Its one of the best new shows to come out in a long time in my opinion.
Fringe sucks and Lost should have been wrapped up in 3 seasons – and this from a person who loves sci-fi