| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: Rating/Share | 1.7/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.4/5 | 1.0/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 5.24 | 5.05 | 3.94 | 4.53 |
Note: coverage of live events like last night’s sports (College Football (ABC), makes their numbers approximate and subject to greater than normal adjustment. See definitions below for more information on these Fast Affiliate ratings.
Also note that the Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers match, while not having the same issues with timezone adjustment (it wasn’t broadcast live on both coasts) was only the primetime portion from 9p-11pm. The main event didn’t end until 11:24pm and the viewing after 11pm was almost certainly the highest viewing. I will update with those numbers when I see them.
I confess curiosity got the better of me and so I wound up checking out Fedor Emelianenko’s broadcast television debut on CBS against Brett Rogers during last night’s Strikeforce event. In high definition the gash on Fedor’s nose seemed so deep I was worried it would open into my living room! But then boom, a devastating right hand and Rogers is on the mat and Fedor was the winner.
But the fight was more interesting than the ratings which were not through the roof (though on par with previous MMA bouts that CBS has aired, like the one with Kimbo-Slice), keeping in mind that the post 11pm portion I haven’t seen yet will be higher, from 9p-11pm it averaged 3.79 million and a 1.7/6 rating share with adults 18-49. It did win the 10pm-11pm hour with adults 18-49 and had better results with men 18-34 where it won every half hour. Here are the ratings notes via CBS:
Fast NTI’s for Saturday, November 7th:
CBS’s SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS aired 9:00-11:24PM. Fast NTI ratings are only available 9:00-11:00PM so CBS’s ratings will change when released Tuesday morning.
ABC (split national college football) had live event programming Saturday night. CBS and ABC ratings and all time period rankings are tentative and subject to change.
CBS SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS (S) was first in adults 18-49 (1.7/05), adults 18-34 (1.7/06), men 25-54 (2.4/07), men 18-49 (2.3/07), men 18-34 (2.2/08), tied for first in adults 25-54 (1.7/05 with both NBC and ABC) and third in both households (2.3/04) and viewers (3.79m).
Compared to the 9:00-11:00PM season-to-date averages (CRIMETIME SATURDAY and 48 HOURS MYSTERY), CBS SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS was up +31% in adults 18-49 (from 1.3/04), +113% in adults 18-34 (from 0.8/03), +100% in men 25-54 (from 1.2/03), +156% in men 18-49 (from 0.9/03), +267% in men 18-34 (from 0.6/02), even in adults 25-54, down -44% in households (from 4.1/08) and lost -2.33m viewers (from 6.12m, -38%).
CBS average from 9-11p vs. college football
M1834: 2.2 (#1 in the tp, 0.7 ahead of ABC’s prelim football number, the closest competitor.)
M1849: 2.3 (#1 in the tp, 0.3 ahead of ABC’s prelim football number.)
The M1834 rtg was #1 in the tp for all four half hours. At 9pm, the M1849 was a tenth behind ABC, but led the tp for the remaining half hours.
I will post the post 11pm numbers when I see them, but here’s the half hourly breakout via Marc Berman:
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 3.50 million (#4), A18-49: 1.5/ 5 (#3)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 3.53 million (#4), A18-49: 1.6/ 5 (#2)
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 4.12 million (#3), A18-49: 1.9/ 6 (#1)
10:30 p.m. – Viewers: 4.01 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6 (#1)
Details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millions) |
| 8:00 | FOX | Cops | 1.7/6 | 4.99 |
| ABC | Saturday Night Football 8p-11p | 1.5/5 | 5.05 | |
| CBS | NCIS: LA (R) | 1.0/3 | 4.23 | |
| NBC | Mercy (R) | 0.5/2 | 2.33 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | America’s Most Wanted | 1.7/5 | 5.49 |
| CBS | Saturday Night Fights | 1.6/5 | 3.52 | |
| NBC | Law & Order (R) | 1.1/4 | 5.15 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Saturday Night Fights | 1.9/6 | 4.07 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (R) | 1.4/5 | 6.22 |
-
-
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source: Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
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 and Numbers 102.
When do you think that the networks will start announcing thier mid-season schedule and the premiere dates?
those are pretty damn good ratings compared to some previous events. ill be interested to see how they stack up against ufc’s shitty reruns.
Mark, stuff is already rolling out here and there on a show specific basis. My guess is that almost everything will have been announced by the week after Thanksgiving, with the bulk of the announcements between now and then.
Any chance of knowing legend of the seeker’s ratings?
No, syndicated shows do not have overnight ratings. I think some rating information will trickle out in a couple of days, but viewer information for syndicated shows lags a week behind. We won’t see viewer numbers for the premiere until a week from Tuesday.
Great numbers for both Law & Order and Law & Order : SVU.
Arf, thanks
Mike,
Strikeforce beat the second Elite show, but fell short of the Kimbo ones.
Pretty good rating for strikeforce, especially if cbs is after the male demographic which they seem to be.
I wonder if the ratings were hurt by the bout that went 5 rounds. I attended this in person and people became very bored during that match, but the atmosphere during the main event was electric.
Chris, to your point, the ratings posts about the Kimbo bouts generated much more web traffic. Even the ratings for Kimbo’s appearance on Ultimate Fighter drew a lot of traffic. So far, this post isn’t
I probably should’ve headlined it “Fedor a better fighter, but Kimbo the better ratings draw!”
David, I thought the electricity for the main event came through in the television coverage, but it was the only part I watched and I am not a big MMA fan.
Robert, and somehow work in “Dollhouse”
Strikeforce ratings are unimpressive to me. If UFC can get 1 million+ buys for some of its pay-per views, then a free event should generate about 6 million viewers. Of course UFC events have deep cards, and interesting main events. CBS and their MMA partners need to take the effort and spend the money to put together a pay-per view worthy event on free television. I bet they’d get great numbers, but it’d mean having to poach some top UFC talent. Getting a top tier heavyweight to fight Fedor would be the best bet.
Fedor v Lesnar, now that would get huge ratings.. too bad itll never happen
I think the networks and their sponsors understand that ratings are a bit less accurate than usual regarding events like this. Guys tend to get together in groups to watch fights. So five or six guys watch a fight on one TV in one household while their wives are at home watching other channels in each of their respective households. Result? That one TV reaches the same number of viewers as the five or six corresponding TVs tuned in to other programming. I’d be very surprise if there weren’t more actual flesh and blood eyeballs on the main event Fedor/Rogers fight than on any other show airing at the same time and being watched primarily by women dozing off in bed while waiting for their husbands to come home.
Great to see you ratings guys are here. I have information going to Russia soon on a project (freelance, PR etc..) so do I take it that I have to wait an entire week from this Tuesday to get actual viewership stats on the Fedor/Rogers fight? I am looking for international viewership numbers and how many foreign countries carried this fight!
I appreciate any help I can get…Thanks again for being here-great site! -Cindy in Ohio
Cindy, unless CBS requested a special run (and I don’t think they did based on what they sent me), final numbers for Saturday night won’t be available until Monday and we might not see them before Tuesday morning.
As for the international numbers for countries outside of the US, I’m not sure we’ll see or post any of that information, though if I see any blurbs in the trade press I follow, I will try to post the info.
wowzers Law and Order more than doubled the ratings of its lead in (Mercy).
Cindy, at the following link you can find a list of all the countries the Fedor/Rogers fight was/will be broadcasted on television: http://mmajunkie.com/news/16762/m-1-global-announces-international-broadcast-plans-for-saturdays-fedor-vs-rogers-event.mma
thanks, Chris!
Hey Robert, if you want to fill in your blank for NCIS: LA repeat at 8pm, I have: 4.23 million, 1.0/3 A18-49. Cheers!
Blanks filled in, thank you!
TV ratings junkies should follow TVBill on Twitter (especially if you’re a “World Series of Poker” junkie):
http://twitter.com/tvbill
I didn’t expect Fedor’s debut to break records, since its his first appearance before this large of an audience without the “UFC” brand behind him.
However I think he made an awesome impression on people, and was able to demonstrate why he’s “the best fighter in the world”, and the fight was also as exciting as any fight I’ve seen.
A couple more shows like this, and Fedor will be a big name in MMA, and then we’ll see how negotiations go with UFC in Fall 2010.
The reason I say this is important, because if Fedor was in a five round snoozefest like Miller-Shields, then this would be a disaster for Fedor, SF, and CBS, so I think this show was a success and the next Fedor CBS show will beat this one, guaranteed.
I imagine Strikeforce was cheap enough for CBS and for Saturday Night is okay. Will probably mean more shows on CBS and Showtime.
Really low viewer numbers, but really decent adults numbers (for a Saturday). On CBS. It’s like we’ve entered a parallel universe.
I read about all the issues with Fedor and UFC but I’m guessing they will come to some kind of agreement soon. Both sides must realize that right now a Brock/Fedor fight would be the biggest in the history of the sport.
Sure Brock vs. Fedor will be huge but revenue-wise UFC will have to give up half to Fedor’s management. UFC would likely make more money for themselves running a B show than Fedor vs. Brock. Just doesn’t make sense financially.
I miss regular boxing.
I actually recorded the MMA program (or at least most of it) on the recommendation of a friend. His future recommendations are in jeopardy.
I was told that MMA was exciting and violent. “Mixed martial arts” does sound kind of cool. Well, it was occasionally violent, but it was overwhelmingly uninteresting. It looked like some form of freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling with the occasional punch or leg kick thrown in.
Most of the matches consisted of two sweaty guys just sort of rolling around on each other and occasionally “mounting” (according to the announcers) each other in what the residents of South Park would clearly consider a form of gay pornography – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.T.F.
It’s rather amusing that your blog has all this Dollhouse (and Chuck) die hard fan contention… And both shows have more viewers then the winner of Best Drama at the Emmy’s 2 years in a row… I haven’t caught on to any of the 3 but hold some popular relevance to ‘REAL’ mainstream entertainment, i.e. LOST…
All these devotee’s to Dollhouse and Chuck need to accept the inevitable.
The shows will END.
You didn’t see me scratching to save, Pushing Daisies, BETTER then either of those shows combined. Why? Why, because the networks seem to now produce JUST cult classics and soak in the revenue of cult status. It’s almost like it’s becoming a network rule. Look at Arrested Development: Never stood a chance !!! Never a good appropriate lead in, sometimes we just have to accept, the truth, we are smarter then 100 people running a network…
Perfect examples: Seinfeld… Everybody Loves Raymond
Some IDEAS take time… Even Cheers for that matter…
There is no RESPECT for developing a commitment from the audience.
Which is why the networks are struggling to find an audience.
Give RESPECT TO THE AUDIENCE…
AND AN AUDIENCE YOU WILL HAVE !!!
Obvi says at November 9, 2009 at 12:10 am:
“Perfect examples: Seinfeld… There is no RESPECT for developing a commitment from the audience. Which is why the networks are struggling to find an audience.”
Everyone who brings up this tired argument fails to mention that Seinfeld and the other shows were retooled. The most obvious redesign was a complete change in how Elaine would be portrayed. Even the name of the show was changed.
So, at the very least, if you’re going to cite those shows, that is an implied admission that your preferred show needs retooling.
I was at this event and it looks like CBS lost viewers when Jake Sheilds on was and I hope CBS & Strikeforce does not put him on again. He was terrible and the fans there did not like him at all. After the event some people stayed around to get autographs and pictures with the fighters and very few people had nice things to say to Jake. He put on a very boring safe fight and I think he should have been more exciting being that this event was on CBS.
the big 4 only with a 11/12% share on primetime is… no words for that!
i’m some doubts that FOX was the number one network. could any cable network average above that numbers?
Harold- Well no it is nothing like freestyle wrestling because there are no chokes, armbars, or leglocks in freestyle wrestling. BIG DIFFERENCE. Your homophobic comment was typical and tasteless.
If you think the gash on Fedor looked scary in HD, you should see something even scarier in HD. Kimbo on TUF. YIKES!
Homeless people should not be allowed to be shown on television during dinner hour.
Those were some good numbers for Strikeforce as I was expecting anywhere between 3-4 million viewers. This is usually a good number for UFC on SPIKE so I think this qualifies for a win for CBS especially if their going after the male demo. Its even more impressive since there was no Kimbo who is a ratings beast in the picture. If CBS wanted a higher number in terms of beating the other networks then they should use their college football coverage as a lead-in for it.
Okay, so what they lost to the kimbo ppv’s. Here’s the main points, short and sweet I dont like long winded posts:
1. Fedor isnt nowhere near known in the states as Kimbo, he has a translator for god sakes, and although the mma world knows him, the regular fat guy on a couch who cant afford cable and has a converter box only list of channels probably doesnt know this guy whatsoever, and may even hate him because of the cold war, there are still those in my family who served who hate asian people from korean war, over 50 years ago.
2. They did NOT promote this nearly as much as they did with kimbo fight cards, and despite that the ratings went UP as the show went on, meaning people were calling their friends to tune in or it generated buzz as it went on. For a first show, you could not have asked for more.
TLD
How do they get those numbers I saw the fight and I will bet 1000000 dollars that I was not count like millions. this is ridiculous and false
Fedor was impressive as always. The only way he can be beaten is by cuts… he’s a bleeder! I respect him for not going into the UFC, who needs Dana’s BS? I love his emotionless style and his hammer punches that follow through like a 1 wood. I’ll watch him fight anyone, anytime. Fedor/Lesnar may not happen, but we could see Fedor/Couture after Couture’s contract is up. Fedor is so good that great fighters will come to him. Check him out on Youtube against Randallman… he’s obviously immortal.
To daves comment about this not being impressive for a free event having 6 million people, keep in mind this didnt air on cbs on the west coast, only east coast, so generate the other half is about anot 3 to 4 million you get roughly what you would have expected.
Also, to put aside a whole brock vs fedor argument, thats a dream matchup that will never happen. dana whites already sick of hearing about fedor, and after hearing EA sports is making an mma game now, white said anyone who is featured in that game is ban from ufc for life