Because of the live Presidential press conference, the fast affiliate results for ABC, NBC and CBS are all approximate and subject to more than typical revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.8/9 | 1.8/6 | 1.7/5 | 1.3/4 | 1.2/4 | 0.5/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 2.9/10 | 1.4/5 | 1.1/4 | 1.5/5 | 0.7/3 | 0.6/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 7.32 | 5.29 | 7.39 | 3.18 | 5.95 | 1.17 |
As ABC, NBC and CBS covered the Presidential Press Conference, Fox’s regular So You Think You Can Dance cruised to an easy win in the adults 18-49 demo, far ahead of the competition.
Comparing the fast affiliate numbers for a live event is a bit tricky, but last night’s press conference drew 16.487 million on ABC, CBS and NBC compared to 18.81 million for the same 3 networks on April 29. Univision didn’t carry last night’s press conference, while they did carry the one on April 29.
In a continued push for congressional support of health care reform President Obama held his fourth prime time press conference on Wednesday July 22, 2009. The conference was carried live from 8:00PM to approximately 9:00PM on 11 networks. The sum of average audience for those networks was 24,682,519 viewers and had a combined household rating of 16.3. The networks carrying the press conference were ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision*, Telemundo*, BBC-A, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.
via Nielsen Wire.
Fox and So You Think You Can Dance was up 0.2 rating points in the adults 18-49 demo (2.8 vs. 2.6) from last week, likely getting a benefit from viewers shifting away from the press conference.
With the live press conference and because of how these fast affiliate ratings are gathered, I hesitate to comment on the ratings of any of the ABC, NBC and CBS shows that followed the press conference because their results are likely to be adjusted to the point where my comments would be silly (not that they aren’t liable to be that anyway!).
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Follow TV by the Numbers by email, RSS or Twitter.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 8:00 | FOX | So You Think You Can Dance? | 2.8 | 10 | 2.8 | 11 | 7.293 |
| ABC | Presidential Press Conference | 1.5 | 5 | 1.1 | 4 | 5.834 | |
| NBC | Presidential Press Conference | 1.4 | 5 | 1.0 | 4 | 6.375 | |
| CBS | Presidential Press Conference | 0.9 | 3 | 0.4 | 2 | 4.278 | |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model (repeat) | 0.5 | 2 | 0.5 | 2 | 1.226 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | So You Think You Can Dance? | 2.9 | 8 | 3.0 | 10 | 7.340 |
| NBC | America’s Got Talent | 2.5 | 7 | 1.6 | 5 | 11.051 | |
| ABC | Wipeout | 2.4 | 7 | 2.0 | 7 | 6.181 | |
| CBS | Criminal Minds (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 | 6.387 | |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model (repeat) | 0.5 | 1 | 0.6 | 2 | 1.111 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | I Survived A Japanese Game Show | 1.4 | 4 | 1.0 | 4 | 3.843 |
| CBS | CSI: NY (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 0.9 | 3 | 7.200 | |
| NBC | The Philanthropist | 1.1 | 3 | 0.7 | 3 | 4.737 |
-
Here is the 8pm portion of the Overnight Ratings Table for April 29 (last Presidential press conference) for comparison:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millons) |
| 8:00 | FOX | Lie to Me | 2.4/7 | 2.1/7 | 7.88 |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model | 1.8/6 | 2.1/7 | 4.00 | |
| ABC | President Obama Press Conference | 1.6/5 | 1.4/5 | 6.12 | |
| CBS | President Obama Press Conference | 1.5/5 | 0.9/3 | 6.01 | |
| NBC | President Obama Press Conference | 1.6/5 | 1.1/4 | 6.68 | |
| UNI | Conferencia de Prensa: Barack Obama | 1.3/4 | 1.3/4 | 3.224 | |
-
For reference here are the final combined average viewerships (broadcast+cable) for the previous Presidential Press conferences:
Feb: 9: 49.5 million
March 24: 40.4 million
April 29: 28.8 million
We will likely see cable network and combined viewership numbers for last night’s press conference later today.
-
Shows are sorted by Adults 18-49 rating in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
I guess it isnt surprising that FOX won the night, the combined viewers for the Obama press conference was high but dont go by combined results and each individual network’s ratings were generally low. America’s Got Talent looks good, too bad NBC doesnt have room for it in the fall.
The NBC should have used AGT at 8. Summer numbers are so depressing. Btw Bill, I saw the quote you had in a CNN article.
It will be interesting to see the final numbers for America’s Got Talent, which featured an interview with Britain’s Susan Boyle.
They gave her 20 minutes!
By the way, it’s great to see The Philanthropist at the bottom. What crap of a show.
CNN? I haven’t talked to anyone from CNN lately. Did it originally come from a NY Post article?
“After Elton”
Ah yes, that makes sense. I didn’t have time to look at the log this morning
Those repeat numbers for Lie to Me seem pretty good. Any idea if Fox is happy with this?
Looks like no one gave a crap about what Susan Boyle had to say, they should’ve made her sing, but they probably will in one of the final episodes.
Misleading title…
More PEOPLE watched the president than MORONS watched So you think you can Dance…
Kathy, those Lie To Me numbers are from April 29. I have made some changes to the post/table to make things less confusing.
@Eric:
Misleading comment…
FOX won the night. Period.
Thanks, Bill. I watched last week’s Rescue Me on DVR so I wasn’t exactly aware of what was on TV last night. Didn’t even realize that the President was making yet another press conference.
Not airing the president’s press conference works for Fox because they’re the only ones doing it. If other networks started not airing the press conference, then it would concentrate the people who want to view it on the remaining networks.
Regardless, they don’t even sell advertising during the press conference anyway, do they? I’ve never seen the president pause for a commercial break, at least.
TSA, no TV advertising is sold during press conferences.
Hardly surprising really.
I like I Survived/Japanese Games Show, so I’m sad to see it going down the hill! I also watched Wipeout last night with my mom, she is a big fan of the show. I am not so much.
Its weird becuase ABC puts promos for their fall shows during like BOT and Scrubs, but not as many during WIPEOUT. You’d think they would since more people watch it.
ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!
PLEASE WATCH ABC’S NEW SHOW “DEFYING GRAVITY” AUGUST 2ND!!!!!
IT WAS PITCHED TO ABC STUDIOS AS “GREY’S ANATOMY IN SPACE”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE GIVE THE PILOT A TRY!!!!
I think I’m done with The Philanthropist. During last week’s promo they made it seem like Jesse L. Martin’s character was going to die, but he didn’t. What a crock. Do they really think audiences in this day and age are going to stand for that crap? I’ve also come to the realization that Neve Campbell’s character is a bitch.
Bill, I was wondering if you’ve seen any press releases about the numbers the british open got this past weekend.
Thanks
Does anyone have numbers for TNT”s shows Leverage and Dark blue?
You know what that Obama show needs? A baby. A new baby always helps a show add viewers
FOX didnt air the Press Conference?
Did here in Vermont…kinda annoyed with screwing up the schedule all the time.
If they didnt air it on FOX I wish our FOX wouldnt have also.
Oh darn, I missed Obama’s “PRESSER” !! I guess that means I will have to go to Re-Education Facility to be indoctinated. PRESSER has to be the most annoying new term of 2009.
tripp, sorry I haven’t seen anything on British Open numbers. Nielsen does release non-primetime sports data on Fridays, but lately it has been uneven. I will keep an eye out though.
Bad Robot, I think of “presser” as one of the many terms of “Variety-speak” (although not limited to Variety) like “prexy” (president), “topper” (CEO), and “laffer” (comedy). Sort of the “this is our language, outsiders need not apply”.
why doesnt the CW ever broadcast the press conferences or anything? dont they realize they can get a larger audience attracted if they were to do this? and if the audience stuck around for the next show on the CW they can promote the hell out of their shows to get people to watch. they didn’t even hole any coverage for the elction. if i remember correctly they aired 90210 instead. i realize the CW doesn’t have a national new program butt hey could carry some type of coverage for these important things. The next time CBS airs the Superbowl, they should air it on The Cw since its owned by them. that way they can attract audiences to both networks. why dotn they ever think of brilliant marketing schemes anymore? all they do is advertise on their network and occasionally on CBS but if nobody is watching in the first plae what makes them think anybody will see the ads?
I actually found the overnight numbers for both saturday and sunday of the british open, if anyone is interested…
Saturday: 2.4
Sunday: 3.9
Here’s the link
http://golf.fanhouse.com/2009/07/21/british-open-ratings-up-from-08-still-low-by-historical-standa/
Watched the President, Leverage, and recorded So You Think You Can Dance and watched it after Leverage and this morning, but I made sure I watched enough last night to vote for my choice in the alloted time. Since the individual performances were random you would have no idea what number to call for your favorite unless you at least recorded the show and fast forwarded it to find out the number.
And that is probably one reason why SYTYCD did well. They had three performance shows left as of Wednesday night. If you wanted to vote for your favorites you had to watch because the phone banks are only open for two hours per time zone. In addition there were probably a number of people who pro or con have their minds made up about health care and did not want to or need to watch the President.
FOX only broadcasts Republican presidents, they are a rightwing corporation.
^ No political comments, please.
Actually the term “Presser” has been around for years. A lot of “peeps” are just know hearing the term and because they have’nt heard of it before they are assuming it must be new.
FYI, total press conference 11 network average viewership was 24.7 million. Down from 28.8 million for the April press conference.
There are CW ads on CBS?? i have never seen any… But then again CBS is for old people.
CBS should definately show some CW promos!!!
why the hell do you think CBS is for old people? Many of the shows on CBS attract young audiences. most of the kids at my high school watch Two and A Half Men, Big Bang, Old Christine, and Unmarried. the drams are kinda dry and are more for old people. and yes CBS does occasionally show CW promos in the Monterey/Santa Cruz area. Usually the ads only show up during the 7pm hour during Entertainment Tonight and The Insider. but i bet more people wold watch the CW if CBS advertised their shows during their commercials in between shows. they own the network and they should pull their own weight and try to save the network since they are partial owners and they run America’s highest rated network.
another idea for the CW is that they could have CBS program their Weekends. that way CBS air their Saturday and Sunday night program on CBS and CW and they can advertise on both networks at the same time and attract viewers to CW. and CBS seriously should advertise this venture on their network since they do own part of it.
too many conferences…space them out more and the numbers will go back up…
on a different topic..british open viewing?
just saw the post about british open…above..nevermind
Looks like I win the no-prize in guessing the viewer numbers for the Presidential Address as I guessed in the neighborhood of 25 mil. would tune in to watch. When the numbers hit the low teens will more of the boardcast nets decide to just let it run on their cable channels?
AniMatsuri, you win, you win!
The White House got scheduling push back from both NBC and ABC in addition to the “no” from Fox Broadcasting, and this was in mid-summer, when much less is on the line for the broadcasters.
Nothing happens in August, anywhere, but if the White House intends to do another press conference, they better be shooting for early September because I think all the broadcasters might shut him out from the third week in September until early November.
where Leaverage and Dark Blue?
We do not get cable numbers on an overnight basis.
fyi fox never showed bush’s press conferences for anyone trying to claim their scheduling is politically motivated
Hopefully the President of the United States can just try to reach as many Americans as he can and not worry about hitting a good number in the demographic. But if he would outline his health plan and then run the Wipeout obstacle course, he might get more people to hear him out.
The Philanthropist officially sucks. 2 bad, the premise it self had potential. But, this is just bad, even for a summer schedule.
NBC just can’t have a break.
I’m certain ‘Body politic’ (I apologize in advance) could pull this kind of numbers during the summer. And it will probably (certainly) cost less then The Philanthropist.
NBC always has a great “premise” but they can’t deliver…Kings, Life, Philanthropist, My Own Worst Enemy and Bionic Woman. These had the ability, but NBC can’t pull it off.
http://www.studiobriefing.net/studiobriefing.net/FILM_NEWS/Entries/2009/7/23_VIDEO_ON_DEMAND_HIT_RECORD_IN_JUNE.html
“While ratings for the broadcast television networks have been hitting record lows for the summer, viewers are increasingly watching video — primarily movies — on demand. Rentrak, which track transactional viewing, said Wednesday that, with 589 million transactions, June set a video-on-demand record. It said that during the month there was an average of 16.5 minutes of on-demand viewing a day. In addition, free on-demand children’s programs was up 7 percent from May. “
Lets keep politics out of the comments.
Twin Peaks/MediaFan, I posted that yesterday.
Of the ratings, share, households and persons what is more important for our President? Granted they are all important, but what can give him the best news even though the numbers are going down?
The Philanthropist and I Survived a Japanese Game Show are looking bad! I think those two will be cancelled.
Does anyone keep track of how many nationally-televised press converences that Presidents have had in the “modern TV-era?” I’d be interested in seeing how Obama compares. It seems to me like he’s had A LOT. You can say that there are numerous problems that need the nation’s attention, but there have ALWAYS been problems and will continue to be problems that need the nation’s attention after Obama is in the history books. I’m just getting the feeling that the Pres. enjoys being on TV – maybe a little too much.
Ricky Holy, I’m sure plenty of folks keep track, but that would not include us! Here is some data from yesterday’s NY Times.
Mr. Obama has given roughly three times as many interviews as George W. Bush and held four times as many prime-time news conferences as Bill Clinton had by comparable points in their terms.
Bill note: That’s a goofy way of comparing Clinton to Obama. Why not just say Clinton had 1, Obama had 4?
Past presidents have been more exclusive in giving exclusives, believing they would have more impact. In their first four months, Mr. Clinton gave 11 interviews and Mr. Bush gave 18, compared with 43 by Mr. Obama, according to Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential communications scholar at Towson State University.
Bill, thanks for the info. You either have a “crack staff” to get this data so quickly, or YOU are the “crack staff.” Either way, thanks. I think the Pres. could do with a little less “face time” on the tube. If he’s making TV appearances so frequently, he’s going to blur the distinction between what’s really pressing and really important – and what is just a part of his particular agenda for his presidency. He’s entitled to pushing that agenda – after all, he was elected based on what he said he would do – but enough already of the nationally-televised press conferences for every item of that agenda.
And if he “bumps” CHUCK off the air again during Season 3 like he did in Season 2, I’m REALLY going to have a problem!!
The constant conferences take a lot of ad revenue from the networks, the affiliates, and even the advertisers themselves who’d rather have the benefit of the ads than to save the money. This isn’t like a State of the Union that they can plan for ahead of time.
Why not just use public television? It may not be as glamorous but doesn’t some form of PBS cover every part of the country?
Personally I think Barry Soreto wins because more people didn’t uhhh…. seeee, uhh… his… um…. errr…. poor answers.
WATCH “I SURVIVED A JAPENESE GAME SHOW”