Season To Date Ratings
Good luck with the baseball ALCS games and a fall season programmed with more than throw away shows has Fox on top of the important season to date adults 18-49 ratings (through October 25, 2009). The competition is used to getting left in Fox’s ratings dust in the spring when American Idol appears, but with a seemingly good World Series matchup, could Fox hold the lead from here on out? That sound you hear is CBS’ Les Moonves sulking.
Fox also has a commanding lead in adults 18-34, while CBS is well ahead in adults 25-54 and average viewership.
You can see past week’s broadcast network primetime season to date average TV ratings results here.
Ratings Increase / Decrease: 2009-10 Season vs. 2008-9 Season
Fox is also well ahead vs. last fall in all the important adult demo groups. No other English broadcast network is ahead in any. Unless the World Series ends in a four game sweep, count on them getting more improvement considering last years Series disaster.
And while the entertainment press continues harping on NBC’s ratings drop from last season (with good reason!), there’s still nary a whisper about ABC’s declines which are nearly identical across the broad demo groups. Who’s got the better PR?
While the CW is flat in the demo groups vs. last season, that’s still a woeful result. They should be well ahead of last season considering their automatic boost to their seasonal ratings averages just by dumping Sunday nights.
Each rating point is a percentage of the US TV population in that demographic group and equals: 2.90 million viewers, 1.32 million adults 18-49, 0.68 million adults 18-34 and 1.24 million adults 25-54.
Sadly, we will no longer be having a Tiny Network Showdown! since MyNetworkTV ratings averages are no longer being reported by Nielsen, since they are no longer classed as a network but are now a “programming service”. And we are no longer seeing Univision season to date averages for last season, so I cannot do a comparison.
Note that the chart includes RATINGS not VIEWERSHIP as was typical in our weekly network ratings posts prior to July, 2009.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
This is my favorite kind of post.
Mine too, but we’re in the minority.
Most folks, understandably, care about individual shows.
Bill, those the average from last season on the second table is from the entire season (sep 08 – may 09? or just the first five weeks of the 2008/2009 season?
TomKH, the comparison in the second chart is 5 weeks vs. 5 weeks.
So when does CW actually start showing improvement sans Sundays? I don’t think it will be next week, because of the repeats this week. Will they actually improve the following week?
Fox has come a long way. It seems like yesterday they weren’t expected to challenge the big three. But sorry to inform them, it IS going to be a 4-game Phillies sweep.
Julia, CW could show real % improvement soon, some data points from last season that will drive that:
1. Their Sundays got worse right after they dumped MRC in Nov. that will be good for comparisons. The Sunday numbers actually picked up a little at the end of the season.
2. The Gossip Girl (and other shows) slide accelerated as the season went on. That’s going to improve year to year comparisons.
Wow, they should be sulking. That’s pretty pathetic.
Is it my imagination or is that an improvement for the CW from last week’s? Flat is better than down.
Smallville once again saving the network’s ass.
Mel, the CW vs. last season is about the same as last week, and Smallville isn’t saving the networks ass (seasonal ratings) the comparisons without last season’s dreadful Sunday numbers is
This is a good fall for News Corporation. Not only is FOX leading all broadcaster and cabler networks, but MyNetworkTV is showing surprising strength with their syndicated programming services strategy which is showing year-over-year metered market improvements on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
After just three weeks of comparable year-over-year national syndication viewership roll-up numbers, ‘WWE Friday Night Smackdown’ is up from 3,330,000 viewers to 3,421,000 this year, a 3% rate of growth.
Channel Nerds …Good Times..
Oh Bill, you mean its not the Blur to the rescue???? Too true.
Honestly — I really think that the CW has squandered a real chance here to pull themselves out of a hole and its like they jump back in on purpose.
If SV was pulling the numbers it did last year AND TVD was doing as well as it is — wouldn’t that perk up the numbers a bit? I know SV is doing better than the comedies on Friday, but wouldn’t it be better still if it was doing as well as last year on Tuesdays and 90210 was stinking up Fridays?
It’s true that I’m more interested in the shows I like than the networks they air on, but all my shows (the animated ones) are on Fox, and I have a couple friends who like Fringe and Dollhouse, so Fox is my dawg!
That’s hilarious that “AMERICA’S MOST WATCHED NETWORK” is dead last in 18-34
I agree that these kinds of posts are among the things that make this site great. Individual network shows I, for subjective reasons, may see as a marker or tag for public opinion or short-term trends and fads – ” the delusions of crowds ” – type thing, but I say with complete honesty and non-elitist truthiness that if they were to cancel 100% of the network shows and replace them with 100% new shows, I would not only not care, but would see it, in a slash and burn and let new growth come up sense, as almost a certain improvement.
What I find funny about these numbers is how they influence behavior.
Fox is so far up from last year that they can allow shows to play out a little longer (Dollhouse is the obvious example but I firmly believe Lie To Me would have been pulled by now if not for Fox’s good fortune elsewhere).
At the same time NBC is so low that they’re hanging on to things simply to have stuff to air (Trauma for example)
So what you have is the #1 network and the #4 network both acting in the same way but for vastly different reasons.
Tom, Beautiful Life and (sort of) Southland are the only shows that have been removed from broadcast line ups so far.
The accountants are in control.
I just came up with the idea for a post
It must be because of their incredibly successful Friday night lineup.
NBC is looking much better than ABC. I believe that Leno is a benefit for them right now. It’s cheap! I don’t think we can debate the question about killing network tv. The old format is gone. FOX is programing 2 hours with dramas sports cartoons and reality. Give us the mix like cable does. CBS will be in trouble after the trend ends. Variety not signature is the future. Maybe the CW can pull it off a few more years.
Its funny to see some people still call ABC, NBC, CBS the big three. Its also fun to see Obama’s war against Fox, asking “the big three” to boycott them…
Well, seems like Fox is there to stay, and it’s a good thing
FOX is my favorite of the Broadcast Nets and am happy for there sucess. Although I wish they had a daytime to feel like the BIG 2 (ABC and CBS) and NBC
They need a Network News to compete with the BIG 3. They have the number 1 Cable news network. Why not translate that sucess to the broadcast net.
EX.
9-11 America’s News Room (all they would have to compete with is TODAY)
11-12 5 Daytime Dramas (Primetime Budget and aired in Primetime on My Network TV)
11PM-12AM The best of the Fox News Channel (BECK HANNITY OREILLY etc…)
Bill, guess I’m confused how can Fox be ahead of ABC in all of the age categories (actually one is tied) yet behind in overall viewers? Is that because people > 54 years old watch more ABC by a large amount?
Yes it does, RR.
Cody, soaps failed in MyNet’s first year in primetime, and NewsCorp isn’t about to give MyNet a primetime budget for anything. News shows skew old, and the affiliates would rather not give up the adtime. Alot of FOX stations have a lengthy local newscast in the morning. FOX has been a Big 4 network since either “The Simpsons” debuted, when FOX bought NFL rights, or when “Idol” became the #1 network show. Some people still say Big 3 because, well, those 3 have been around since 1948.