ABC again slipped below breakeven in the adults 18-34 demo vs. last season, a position it’s been toying with for several weeks. I’m not sure how the last weeks of the season will effect its finish.
CBS continues ahead of all its major demo group results from last season. Because Fox’s average is so tied to American Idol, which is down this season, it will be hard pressed to exceed last season’s numbers, but except in adults 18-34, it’s very competitive with ABC’s results. NBC and the CW continue to both be down substantially across the board vs. last season.
Remember that at this point last season the WGA strike had already caused havoc with the English broadcasters scheduling.
I have adjusted the NBC numbers to remove the effects of Super Bowl week 2009 and adjusted the Fox numbers to remove the effects of Super Bowl week 2008. My adjustments remove the effect of the entire week, not just the game, so they’re crude, but they make season to season comparisons at least reasonably possible. With the data I have available I cannot make a finer adjustment.
Some of the CW decline is due to the fact that they started their new shows before the official Nielsen start to the season (but so did Fox for several shows), and so the timelines don’t line up well and they are airing increased reruns in the middle of the season. Still, we use the data we get, and by that measure the CW is very far behind last season across the board.
Univision is no longer up across the board vs. last season, having fallen behind in adults 18-34. MyNetworkTV (MNT) is up drastically over last season, thanks mainly to the addition of Friday Night Smackdown!. Note just their numbers, because their bars are truncated. The scale for the other networks would be useless if I adjusted the scale for them.
Our chart shows broadcast network prime-time season to date average prime-time viewership for the 2008-9 season compared to the 2007-8 season. Click the image for a full sized chart.
To see past week’s season to season comparisons click here.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Does that really matter if they lost $55 million in the past few months? Seems like a hollow victory.
CBS likes to remind it’s viewers of this on their commercials. I question the reasoning behind it. Is the ad really for advertisers looking to buy time? Is it to make CBS viewers feel good about watching a channel that has a lot of people watching it? I only post this rambling because I was watching CSI tonight and saw the dumb commercial.
I think it’s to make you feel good being part of the leader…when it just means your part of a large herd.
Hey, you can’t argue with success. CBS has a respectable, solid line-up of shows. Their big challenge is attracting younger viewers, since their viewership skews old.
Mike, none of the other big broadcasters are independent companies, so their results are not reported so clearly to the public. The industry’s current suffering is shared, but some are doing better than others. Unfortunately, a clear picture of the relative finances of the networks isn’t publicly available.
It must be all the pretty colors, but this is my favorite post each week. I wonder if fox would break even with 25-54 (and others) if their schedule followed the other networks in head to head battle. The CW seems screwed either way.