| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating: Adults 18-49 | 5.2/14 | 3.1/8 | 2.7/7 | 2.0/5 | 1.3/3 | 1.0/3 |
| Rating: Adults 18-34 | 4.1/12 | 2.1/6 | 3.0/9 | 1.5/4 | 1.4/4 | 1.1/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 16.85 | 11.27 | 6.45 | 6.72 | 3.49 | 2.20 |
The 43rd annual CMA Awards dominated the night for ABC leading it to victory in all the major advertising demographics averaging a 5.2/14 (rating/share) with adults 18-49 and 16.85 million viewers. It was the most-watched CMA Awards since 2005, and the biggest audience for an ABC Wednesday (excluding sports) since 9/21/05. It was also ABC’s best Wednesday night with adults 18-49 (excluding sports) since 11/17/07.
Taylor Swift collected multiple awards, including “entertainer of the year” and displayed a good sense of humor about her experiences earlier this year at the MTV VMA Awards.
“I want to thank every single person here tonight for not running up on stage during this speech,” Swift said as she accepted the award for best female vocalist.
Glee returned from its baseball-induced hiatus as strong as ever (whether Julia is watching or not) to a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating. Glee tied for second for the hour with Criminal Minds with adults 18-49.
The CMA Awards hit So You Think You Can Dance harder than Glee. SYTYCD dropped to a 2.1 rating with adults 18-49, down from a 2.6 in its last Wednesday performance (10/21).
Is Gary Unmarried showing signs of life or did people who wanted a sitcom but not the CMA Awards tune in? It turned in a 2.5/6 rating/share with adults 18-49 at 8:30 – the show’s best performance with adults 18-49 since 11/19/08. At 10pm on CBS, CSI: NY with the second part of the CSI trilogy turned in its best performance since the season premiere with a 3.7/10 rating/share with adults 18-49.
Over on NBC, Law & Order: SVU matched its season best with adults 18-49 with a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating and the second largest overall viewers of the season (8.1 million).
In Late-Night Local People Meters Wednesday night:
- Conan O’Brien (1.0/4 in 18-49 in local people meters) tied CBS’s LATE SHOW (1.0/4) in Nielsen’s 24 local markets with People Meters.
- At 12:35 a.m., Jimmy Fallon (0.5/3 in 18-49 in local people meters) trailed CBS’s LATE LATE SHOW (0.6/4).
Full Details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millons) |
| 8:00 | ABC | 43rd Annual CMA Awards | 5.0/14 | 16.96 |
| FOX | So You Think You Can Dance | 2.1/6 | 5.55 | |
| CBS | New Adventures of Old Christine | 2.2/6 | 7.57 | |
| NBC | Mercy | 1.8/5 | 6.76 | |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model | 1.5/4 | 3.19 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Gary Unmarried | 2.5/6 | 7.70 |
| 9:00 | ABC | 43rd Annual CMA Awards | 5.5/14 | 17.74 |
| CBS | Criminal Minds | 3.3/8 | 12.26 | |
| FOX | Glee | 3.3/8 | 7.35 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 2.8/7 | 8.81 | |
| CW | Vampire Diaries (R) | 0.5/1 | 1.22 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | 43rd Annual CMA Awards | 5.0/13 | 15.85 |
| CBS | CSI: NY | 3.7/10 | 13.93 | |
| NBC | The Jay Leno Show | 1.4/4 | 4.60 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
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.
Yay for Glee.
It was the absolute best episode of the season, and I’m glad a lot of people got to watch it. I expect talks of Emmies.
Wow, a 52 rating. Don’t see those everyday. =p
Ouch, Mercy’s in trouble.
The CMA did very well but CBS held up well although Criminal Minds was down but CSI: NY made up for that and up 1m, looks like the crossover has a postive effect and bodes well for CSI.
They should just give the Emmy to Glee’s Jane Lynch right now.
I thought Glee might be hit worse by the CMA Awards but it did well. The same can’t really be said for SYTYCD which looks pretty low.
Glee glee glee
Glee was amazing last night.
“Ouch, Mercy’s in trouble.”
Err, that’s a given, the only chance it has of making it into March is if Parenthood never gets off the ground – the chances of it getting into next year are about 1%.
9PM results are kind of odd. SVU/Glee/CM are all up or static, but CMA is way up over MF/CT’s ratings. CMA audience doesn’t normally watch broadcast TV?
Guessing GU is simply lack of The Middle. Makes you wonder how it will fare vs. AI/UB (probably) come Spring.
Who is that pressing her face against Swifts left breast and grabbing the one on the right? Or is that just some kind of “Country Music” thing with the ladies?
I was worried Glee would share a lot of audience with the CMAs. I guess not though. Good episode, Jane Lynch was fantastic.
Anyone know what Jay Leno is averaging now-adays?
Wow, CSI’s crossover is big. Tonight I’m guessing it’ll be the #2 show of the night, vs. last week when it was…5th, I think?
Love Taylor. First female nominated for EOTY since 2000 and youngest winner ever. She also has the most hit singles as lead artist this decade with 19. And the top album of the year.
Top Model’s performance is the 2nd most impressive in its hour.
Will SVU not get back to a 3 at all this year?
Interestingly, Glee this week is ahead of Cleveland’s last episode.
Last night was a poor tv night, nothing on – Glee was about it but the show entirely lost itself. It’s like when Roseanne went all dramatic towards the end – you’re a comedy! Act like one! I don’t need feel-good moments for the handicapable and special – I want some good, old-fashioned making fun of people. #fail
KHL What do you mean by “these days?”
Over the last 10 days he averaged a 1.46 in the demo. And 4.79 viewers. I dunno if that helps.
Almost delivering his 1.5 that he promised to advertisers.
Although Leno was up a tick from last Wednesday (when Fox aired game 6), his show, outside of Tuesdays, now seem consitently at or below 1.5.
I assume he’ll take a couple of weeks off late in December, but I wonder when we’ll see him at or below 1.0.
Who’s Jay Leno?
I’m wondering, why is the 18-49 demo more important than the 18-34?
What’s sad is that if Gary Unmarried was on NBC it would be one of their higher rated shows.
Glee’s becoming a real consistently solid performer. It’s stayed pretty much even all season, hasn’t it?
How likely is it that SYTYCD will be on next fall? It hasn’t done great but I can’t imagine their expectations were all that high to begin with.
Glad for Glee. Glad for Cougar Town not being on.
gary is sputtering to life…mercy is sputtering out…and jay who???
After two weeks of the November Sweep, FOX continues to hold on to an unassailable lead:
Ranked by A18-49 Demo:
# Net A18-49 P2+ Viewers
————————
1. FOX 3.7 10,886,000 viewers
2. ABC 2.9 10,102,000 viewers
3. CBS 2.8 11,042,000 viewers
4. NBC 2.3 6,775,000 viewers
5. UNI 1.3 3,372,000 viewers
6. CW 1.1 2,342,000 viewers
7. ION 0.3 896,000 viewers
Compared to the first two weeks of the November Sweep last year, broadcasters are up +4% in P2+ viewership, +3% in households and down only a small -1% in A18-49s.
Samuel, in a lot of cases it isn’t. For most CW shows, for example, Women 18-34 is the most important demo.
There are lots of different age/gender demos that are important, 18-49 is pretty much the trade standard for reporting, and in terms of figuring out show’s future fates, 18-49 still works very well, even for shows on the CW.
The 18-34 demographic is definitely an important one though.
Ratings-wise, Glee is definitely one of the most consistent shows on right now. Last 5 episodes: 3.3, 3.3, 3.4, 3.3, 3.3
When looking at the overall ratings for abc what do the two numbers mean in the 5.2/14?
Glee – simply one of the best episodes of an exrtraordinary show. I thought for sure the CMA Awards would put a dent in Glee’s numbers, but it seems pretty bulletproof now.
Too soon for Golden Globe / Emmy predictions?
5.2 (the rating)is the percentage of the entire adults 18-49 viewing population in the USA whether they were watching TV or not. 14 (the share) is the percentage of the adults 18-49 viewing population who were actually watching TV.
You go Glee! I am so happy for the show. The only one to keep its good standard since EPISODE 1! I think it’s safe to say now that it has stabilized at 3.2-3.5 which is very good news!
Country music fans and high school musical fans perhaps don’t have much overlap.
It’s sad that the last time ABC had over 16 mill on Wednsdays was on Lost’s season 2 premeire and over a 5.0 demo on Lost’s season 3 fall finale (episode 6).
hi,
since its thursday, would you happen to have the sit down shut up ratings?
I can’t take for granted how Glee is doing at all. I love it so much and I really don’t want it to be yanked away next season due to bad ratings. I can’t get the negatives out of my head whenever I see its ratings.
I think it’s interesting that Glee didn’t experience a decline in viewership associated with the World Series break. I think I remember some shows having to regain momentum after such breaks especially this early in the season. I’m thinking of Moonlight which suffered from the writer’s strike. Although I understand the writers’ strike was considerably longer (like 4-5 months). Glee was able to not only retain but gain strength. Nice job.
Samuel, I don’t think that 18-49 is necessarily seen as more important than 18-34, but it is the most general target for broadcast primetime advertisers, and as such, tends to be used as the general indication of financial/ratings success.
Julia’s loss, Glee was excellent last night.
Glad to see Glee doing so well. What a great episode last night.
Hopefully NBC doesnt cut Mercy’s order but Im hopeful it will air all 13 episodes. CBS’s second comedy night performance makes it more likely that Gary will get another year over Christine.
Gary and Christine’s ratings are similar enough that any possible difference in their treatment by CBS will likely be driven by other reasons (like syndication situation, cost, etc)
creatively glee is still struggling to decide whether it wants to be biting high school satire, or sugary sweet high school dramadey. It’s awkward when it tries to do both. Also the musical numbers are either the best part of an episode or act like brakes in an otherwise pleasantly paced series. I think they need to cut the numbers to no more than two full songs an episode, with one probably being the right number. The show could also benefit from end of episode cliffhangers to maintain momentum week to week, but that’s currently impossible if they end every week with a song. Cutting numbers from the show would be a big risk in the ratings so don’t expect them to do it.
First of all, what the hell happend to county music? The show was terrible and I’m sorry but I can’t watch Taylor Swift without feeling embarressed for her. All that crap strutting about the stage, head banging, and throwing chairs around. And don’t even get me started on the stripper pole she slid down…
Why can’t anyone just stand on a stage and sing a song anymore? It’s got to be a big production. Brad Paisley was a good host as was Carrie Underwood but please…don’t let them sing!!! Brad sang a song about Pac Man and the video arcade (I didn’t think it could ever get worse than the song about Ticks he had out last year) and Carrie did her stripper screamer thing and used the most awful song to do it. Who writes the crap songs…
Basically it was a train wreck of either talentless people or people with talent but who have just forgotten how to use it.
To NotInToItAtAll:
Ticks actually hit #1 in june 2007….not last year.
I’m soo happy for Glee!! I think they should be nominated for bunch of Emmys…they are totally an awesome cast!!
The CSI “sweeps crossover” is working, so far. We’ll see what happens when Ray (Laurence Fishburne) returns to Las Vegas for the conclusion tonight. CSI Miami and CSI New York got nice ratings boosts from Fishburne-Caruso and Fishburne-Sinise (some top-drawer acting and interaction from these three pros). I guess Billy Petersen, wearing his producer hat, was right: he is getting some well-deserved time off, the scripts have gotten better, they have ‘re-integrated’ the Sara Sidle character back into the cast, and Fishburne has kept the show going in his absence. Win-win-win for all three shows because the advertising sponsors got what they wanted during a bold “sweeps” move by Willie Pete and company.
3.7 for CSI: NY. Is that the highest I’ve seen a CSI show go in the d18-49 demo?
Ok, romo, whenever it was, I didn’t think it could get worse than that…but it did…
i assume Mercy could get moved to friday after the olympics when Parenthood and Persons Unknown premiere ( i assume one will be with chuck the other will take mercy’s slot –there was a wednesday March 3rd premiere date floating around the internet for Persons Unknown)
The CMA Awards were awesome last night. They had great talent. Sugarland and the Kenney Chesney/Dave Matthews duet were superb. I figured the ratings would be pretty good considering how well the Tues interview show did. While I watch The Middle, I could have done without the tacky self promoting. Awards shows do it all the time, but this one seemed particularly pathetic for some reason.
Bad Robot wrote: {Who is that pressing her face against Swifts left breast and grabbing the one on the right? Or is that just some kind of “Country Music” thing with the ladies?}
The face-presser should be Caitlin Evanson, one of Swift’s band members. In a super exciting moment like that, it is your duty to listen for irregular heartbeats. Even if the heart is on the other side.
With part three of the CSI trilogy coming tomorrow night and Heigel returning to Grey’s I fear FRINGE will be looking at another 1.7.
Go Glee! And that was a great episode too.
CORRECTION: With part three of the CSI trilogy tonight night and Heigel returning to Grey’s I fear FRINGE will be looking at another 1.7.
@Rebecca,
Is that your way of saying you agree with Gerry but just don’t want to think about it? Or just your way of saying you have no rational argument against his prediction?
I don’t watch or care about FRINGE but it will rise a little tonight again. If not, then…Do I smell toast?
Looks like The Office and Fringe are going to murdered due to CSI and Grey’s.
to be murdered I meant.
Dan,
NBC already ordered 22 episodes of Mercy. But, I know it’s not out of the question that they could recant and cut the order. I know Knight Rider last season initially got a full 22 episode order and then NBC cut it back to 17.
@Rebecca, If you have an argument, present it. If you want to discuss something, discuss it. If you just want to proclaim your undying love for Fringe, proclaim away.
Have Receccas comments been removed? I sware they were there a minute ago…Can we delete comments on our own?
while it’s hard to say a 1.8 is good, it is an uptick for Mercy. SVU did high-end numbers for this season.
Wasn’t Glee doing like 3.4’s before the hiatus?
I have a serious love/hate relationship with that show.
johnthemon, here were the Glee 18-49 Live+SD fall ratings prior to last night: 3.1, 3.3, 3.3, 3.4, 3.3
An interesting article about NBC.
http://nymag.com/news/media/61857/
^We already had a post on that:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/11/09/should-an-innovative-network-programmer-beat-ncis-ratings/33055
So happy for Glee! That was the best episode of the season by far.
@Bill or Robert, is Glee looking good for a second season renewal?
Last night I watched Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, and Glee live last night. I recorded Mercy.
Glee is a lock for a second season. Fox’s pre-baseball adults 18-49 rating average was a 3.0. Glee has averaged a pretty steady 3.3 all season.
@Bill,
Just one more question. I heard that Human Target is going to take Glee’s spot after the winter break. If that happens, when will Glee come back?
GLEE is so smart…..smartest thing I have seen on TV in a decade possibly.
Mark Glee will return in the Spring after Human Targets finishes.
Mark, sadly I’m not the one to ask about scheduling, I don’t keep good track of it, but I bet someone else chimes in with an answer.
Edit: And even before I replied!
I’m happy about Glee but really sad about Mercy, that was looking to be another annoying cliché drama just to fill schedule, but developed into a quality show and it’s pretty entertaining, also with well constructed drama scenes. I love Mercy.
Good job for Glee last night! Also a great rating for CSI: NY! I hope the rest of the season does well for CSI: NY!
Glad for Glee, considering the awards were on and since baseball has finish the show is steadily growing. Great show with a lot of promise and one of the most original shows to come out this year. Kinda sucks for CW they really new some more scripted shows or even reality, with the growth the network is showing somethings gotta give, repeats are only useful when there’s nothing better on
Wow @ Gary Unmarried. Wonder if it’ll pull that off next week.
lol last night’s glee actually redeemed the ‘manipulative and evil’ Sue…
Great numbers for CMA, way beyond my prediction (I guess around 2.5-3.0). I miss the ABC comedies though, hopefully their ratings next week will be strong
Glee is holding up pretty well, when Idol comes in, I can imagine the show pushing for 4.0
Funny that the CMA dominated, but posters only want to talk about Glee.
What is it? Tvbythenumbers.com posters don’t like country music?
BTW, I wonder what affiliates did best in the ratings with the CMAs? Who listens to country music besides those in the Bible Belt?
Andrea, I think it has more to do with people not being worried about the ratings for award shows or worrying about them being canceled. We’d of course love it if the bigger events did draw more traffic, while the events have a lot of fans (way more people watched game 6 of the World Series, but almost no comments about it either) they don’t necessarily have “fanboys”.
I don’t have finals or demos handy, but in the metered markets CMA held a commanding HH rating lead in NY and LA at 8pm, but at 9p and 10p CBS won. In Chicago, the third largest market, the CMAs won for the whole night.
Last nights Glee episode was like an episode of Freaks and Geeks.
That’s how good it was!
“Why can’t anyone just stand on a stage and sing a song anymore? It’s got to be a big production. Brad Paisley was a good host as was Carrie Underwood but please…don’t let them sing!!! Brad sang a song about Pac Man and the video arcade (I didn’t think it could ever get worse than the song about Ticks he had out last year) and Carrie did her stripper screamer thing and used the most awful song to do it. Who writes the crap songs…”
The last two CMA awards Carrie Underwood stood under a sngle light and sang a song. She wanted to change things up a little, is that so bad?
Anyways, go glee!
The viewers weren’t just because of Taylor Swift…She would have helped, yes, but we also had Daughtry & Carrie Underwood on the show.
I think FlashForward might go up today.
I bet Kanye wished he had thought of doing that – as well as at least five million men who watched, and another twenty million who have downloaded the picture headlining this – including me
If SVU holds at a 2.8, it should be safe, as long as Hartigay and Meloni don’t ask for a raise – and (spoiler alert) if they don’t get hurt too much if they have to replace a character.
And when will the CW stop airing repeats at 9 – sure, they’ve paid for the airing, but the ad rates they can get have got to make airing the TV Link Hour a better bet
since its thursday, would you happen to have the sit down shut up ratings?
Last night, by chance, I stumbled onto PBS, and a documentary called the Way We Get By. I was in tears. I was so glad I found it because I don’t usually watch PBS, but wow it was good. Just wanted to say that.
Are PBS ratings reported to the reports that TVBN uses?
ron, since Nielsen typically tracks only ad supported TV, we rarely seen PBS ratings except for special events like the Inauguration or a Presidential speech.
Wow at 2.5 for Gary Unmarried! How did that happen?
I don’t hate Taylor Swift but damn she’s overrated
Andrea writes, “Funny that the CMA dominated, but posters only want to talk about Glee.”
Studies show vapid teenage girls do not watch the CMAs.
Mercy really needs to be a 9pm or a 10pm show, it just doesn’t really look right at 8pm, too much drama too early, NBC really screwed the pooch giving Leno 5 nights a week at 10pm.
Flashforward? Its DOOMED! Hint: It involves something called JERICHO.
glee is so gay
How do they know how many 18-36 yr old males or females or what ever the age is, is watching a show, how can they know this. We have 3 different tv’s and sometimes we all watch something different in our household.
Im lovin Glee sooo much, and Im so happy everyone else loves it TOO, the show only gets better and it will continue to grow and grow!!! Everyone Loves GLEE GLEE GLEE!!!Its such a feel good show, fresh, smart, funny, and surprising!!!
SVU might be cancelled in a couple of seasons if it keeps going like this. And I’m not so sure USA Network would give it a home because all of their new progamming has to be quirky and lighter toned.
It was nice to be able to watch Glee given Modern Family wasn’t on. Jane Lynch is awesome