Surprising no one, American Idol placed #1 and #2 for the 2008-9 broadcast prime-time season in terms of viewing by adults 18-49, the demographic most valued by TV advertisers.
With NBC Sunday Night Football at #3, two other NFL related shows were also in the top 20, The OT (Fox’s Sunday recap show) and NBC’s Sunday Night Pre-Kick runup show.
Along with American Idol and football there were a total of 11 unscripted shows in the top 20. Cheap (except for NFL games) and successful is a powerful force in the TV world.
CBS and ABC lead the networks, each with 6 of the top 20 shows. Fox and NBC each claimed 4 of the top 20 shows. But American Idol’s lead over the runner ups was so great that Fox easily won the seasonal 18-49 title.
Most surprising to me is the return of The Bachelor to such a level of success. Time will tell whether this season was just lightning in a bottle or whether the franchise has been revived.
Compare this season’s top 20 to last season’s (2007-8) top 20. Remember the WGA strike hammered most scripted shows.
Top 20 Shows For Adults 18-49 For The 2008-9 Broadcast Prime-Time Season
| Rank | Programs | Network | STD Adults 18-49 Live+SD (000) | P18-49 Rating |
| 1 | AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY | FOX | 12,196 | 9.2 |
| 2 | AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY | FOX | 12,043 | 9.1 |
| 3 | NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL | NBC | 8,533 | 6.5 |
| 4 | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES | ABC | 6,799 | 5.2 |
| 5 | GREY’S ANATOMY | ABC | 6,278 | 4.8 |
| 6 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 6,215 | 4.7 |
| 7 | HOUSE | FOX | 6,140 | 4.7 |
| 8 | DANCING WITH THE STARS | ABC | 6,135 | 4.6 |
| 9 | CSI | CBS | 6,000 | 4.5 |
| 10 | THE OT | FOX | 5,772 | 4.4 |
| 11 | LOST | ABC | 5,597 | 4.2 |
| 12 | SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK | NBC | 5,578 | 4.2 |
| 13 | SURVIVOR: GABON | CBS | 5,543 | 4.2 |
| 14 | OFFICE | NBC | 5,292 | 4.0 |
| 15 | THE BACHELOR | ABC | 5,245 | 4.0 |
| 16 | RULES OF ENGAGEMENT | CBS | 5,154 | 3.9 |
| 17 | SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS | CBS | 5,073 | 3.8 |
| 18 | BIGGEST LOSER 7 | NBC | 5,020 | 3.8 |
| 19 | DANCING W/STARS RESULTS | ABC | 5,017 | 3.8 |
| 20 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 4,836 | 3.7 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
happy to see both survivors up there !
how can people whine about DH if its the #4 show this season???
CHUCK! sorry I had to. This is cool
I mean I didn’t realize that Two and a Half Men was still so popular. Cool.
On paper the 2009 season of SNF looks to be one of the best ever matchup wise so it should be #3 next season again.
It’s interesting that there are only four FOX shows up there. Same number as NBC.
once again the power of the nfl……very surprise about the bachlor. it does have legs.
Wow, Rules of Engagement makes it but not TBBT or HIMYM. Why does CBS insist on keeping it as a mid-season replacement?
It would really be interesting to see how or if this list changes with LIVE plus 3 day DVR viewing. It may lift “Lost” into the Top 10.
So for stable megahits (4+): 1 nonscripted for each network (Prekick and OT don’t really count.)
For scripted, 3 ABC, 2 CBS, 1 FOX/NBC. It really is amazing how in one season ABC got such huge shows.
I know 18 – 49 is the prize demo but what about for overall audience numbers; is that available? I’m curious how the two lists differ.
Rob R, I have never seen Live+3 viewing data in public. I’m not certain it exists. We have seen one or two looks at C+3 commercial ratings, but nothing substantive. Until Oct, 2008, we saw season to date Live+7 viewing data, and I’m sure that’s still being collected and sold, but it’s no longer on the “free to the press” menu from Nielsen.
If they follow what they did last year, THR’s season wrap-up (which I think will be posted on Friday, based on when it was posted the past couple of years) will use the “most current” numbers, which means Live+7.
Honestly, will we EVER tire of American Idol?? Other than Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, have any of the “winners” gone on to be BIG stars? I know Jennifer Hudson made it big on Broadway or a movie or something, but I don’t think she ever sold a lot of records (although I may be wrong). I can’t honestly recall any of the other winners “making it big”(i.e., Taylor, Reuben, etc.)(but then again, I haven’t watched the show in probably 5 years – I only know what shows up on the Internet)!!
The most entertaining thing I ever found with American Idol was when “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” (from the Conan O’Brien Show) would go out and do his own auditions of people who were standing in line to audition for the show. Now THAT I would still tune it to see!
Good to know Julia, THR benefits from eating from the “owned by Nielsen” menu
Bill, we have access to 18-49 S-T-D “most current” and Live+7 numbers too. For anyone who cares about the designations, Most Current is “live+7″ wherever available and Live+SD where they are not yet available. In terms of of the S-T-D “Most Current” info, it would all be Live+7 except for the last couple of weeks which would be Live+SD.
Hmm, show’s what I know!
Top 20 Average Viewership for 2008-9 is now posted.
John K, The Rules/BBT/Mother comparison is a little skewed. Season-to-date numbers include all in-slot reruns. Since BBT and Mother have quite a few included while Rules doesn’t, that will make Rules look a little better. Also, Rules has the benefit of a huge lead-in.
What I find more interesting about Fox is that 2 of the four shows on the list is American Idol. It goes to prove that once Fox does, if ever, loses Idol they’d end up at NBC status.
Holly is absolutely correct. I’d love to have averages which contained only numbers for new episodes, but not enough to calculate them myself!
Kathy, while that hypothetical is certainly true, you can play the same “if XYZ lost show A, they’d be toast!” game with any network. Fact is, no network is losing their best shows suddenly, so its meaningless!
Actually, I don’t think that is even hypothetically true. FOX didn’t have AI in the fall and it still held up OK and was winning the 18-34 demo.
Holly, correct again!
But it proves Kathy correct too, if Fox lost AI they *would* be nearly at NBC levels!
Bill, eh, you can keep playing Kathy’s game down the line, FOX tied NBC in 18-49 and beat it in 18-34 all while NBC was heavily 18-49/18-34 fueled by SNF. I’d still MUCH rather be FOX even without AI.
Actually, I think tides are turning with fox.
They might have themselves a solid lineup for the fall actually……
SYTYCD pulls good numbers in the summer….in the fall I personally expect an increase in interest for the new season….also….
HOUSE, BONES, ANIMATION, GLEE looks potentially promising (actually very promising FOX airs the heck out of those GLEE comercials!), FRINGE will do well, LIE TO ME after HOUSE…come on now….,, and….they have Hells Kitchen (a very solid show for FOX) there to replace any failures. FOX is being smart….wow….
Have to admit though….CBS will be the FRIDAYS only winner I believe….All 3 of those shows look promising for the network…MEDIUM will do good there…
Sorry FOX, ur screwed FRIDAYS….outside of that…SOLID IN MY OPINION
That Fox Friday lineup is absolutely DOA.
Rick Holy: Jennifer Hudson was in the movie Dreamgirls and won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the role — not bad for her very first movie role. She also won a Grammy for her self-titled debut album (which went gold, 500,000 copies — to me, that’s not a lot, I think of gold as in the long-ago vinyl days when it took a million copies, but that’s merely opinion, not RIAA rules as they are these days
). Again, not bad, especially for someone who didn’t even make the top 5 in AI competition that year.
The only reason I am aware of Jennifer Hudson at all is because of the murders of her mother and brother in October of last year (headlines were on all the major news sites I visit about it). Understandably she has not been doing a lot since, only recently returning to the spotlight in the Super Bowl this past February for the Star Spangled Banner.
Just a bit of FYI
Fox has a substantial upside (and downside) every fall from the baseball playoffs. Their ratings effect is much more variable than, for example, Sunday Night Football is for NBC. Because the *number* of playoff games isn’t fixed, getting long series vs. short series can make a gigantic amount of difference to Fox. Popular teams are another potential bonus.
Good playoff ratings (which I believe Fox has almost no effect on) can cover up a lot of other scheduling problems. Likewise, bad playoff ratings are difficult to recover from on a year to year comparison basis.
MLB post season games on FOX very definitely have a much higher variance potential than Sunday Night Football. But fall 2008 was not FOX’s friend in the MLB post season. TBS got the seven game LCS featuring the Red Sox while FOX got a five game series with the Dodgers and Phillies. The World Series didn’t feature marquee markets and only went five games (though due to rain delay went 6 broadcasts, which didn’t hurt things for FOX). Things could have worked out a little worse for FOX or a LOT better. Without AI, and with a fairly mediocre post season MLB scenario, FOX still tied NBC w/18-49s and beat them with 18-34s.
So much for The Mentalist the biggest show since Desperate Housewives and Lost.
^ That’s according to Marc Berman.
wow seems no new hit since none of the new shows were in that list (Fringe, The Mentalist) NCIS isn’t even included in that list
Good job for Survivor: Gabon, Survivor: Tocantins <333, Lost <333, Grey’s Anatomy <333 and Desperate Housewives.
Rick Holy:
15 American Idol Alumni (Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia, David Cook, Kellie Pickler, Jordin Sparks, Josh Gracin, Taylor Hicks, Jennifer Hudson, Bo Bice, David Archuleta & Elliott Yamin) have produced at least one RIAA Gold Certified Album. 9 American Idol Alumni have produced RIAA Platinum Certified Albums including all 7 previous winners. People are not going to tire of American Idol as long as the show is an annual platform for discovering platinum selling artists.
“Desperate Housewives,” which just finished its 5th season, is TV’s #1 scripted hour? So those lamenting its sinking ratings should refocus on the slow death of network TV, not the show. Wisteria Lane is doing just fine.
DH ranking is a bit misleading compared to other scripted shows because with only 1 exception, ABC aired repeats OUTSIDE of timeslot, which don’t count in rankings. GA, CSI, NCIS, etc had mutiple repeats. LOST had no repeats obviously.
DenverDean, you are indeed correct. Shows that have few or no in slot repeats benefit in these average rankings over those that do.
The Office averaged a 4! Unfortunately lately it’s been well below that, hoping it makes a comeback next season.
I’m not trying to nitpick here, but you misspelled lightning as “lighting” in your bachelor comments in this post.
Wow, its very impressive how 2 1/2 men was able to pull. . .and I mean literally pull. . .a medicore show like Rules of Engagement all the way to a No # 16 finish. Just watch what it does for Big Bang Theory this year.
I note that CSI (without Grissom) is still in the top 10. I suspect that reflects the fact that Grissom was not gone for the entire season. It (CSI) may have trouble holding a top 15 spot next year.
Bill Gorman said above in answer to an earlier post
“DenverDean, you are indeed correct. Shows that have few or no in slot repeats benefit in these average rankings over those that do.”
Its a good thing for shows like Greys and DH that this is the case. If there re-run values were included you might not see them with the Hubble telescope, much less in the top 20. Grey’s in particular is practically worthless in reruns.
J. Norman, to be clear, in slot reruns, those that air in the show’s normal day/timeslot are included in these averages.
Robert or Bill, since the 2008-09 season just “officially” ended, and the final season to date rankings/ratings have been tallied, what happens to shows that still have original episodes airing? Are those numbers added in to the shows season to date averages at the end of their season? Or are those episodes just wasted?
By the way, was the official end of the season on the 20th, or the 27th? Will Medium’s final two episodes be counted?
Dawn, technically the official 2008-2009 season according to Nielsen ended on May 20 (though the results above actually include airings through 5/24 — we haven’t seen the Nielsen season spreadsheets cut off on May 20 yet). No episode is wasted though in that the numbers are still measured and reported, and Nielsen will keep tabulating a 52 week season-to-date total that will end in September and then it will start over for 2009-2010.
Kewl. Thanks, Robert!
Hail to the women of Wisteria Lane…DH rocks until now….