Season To Date Ratings
ABC and CBS both chipped away at Fox’s adults 18-49 ratings season to date lead in the past week, but if Fox doesn’t completely collapse in the next seven weeks it could hang onto the seasonal lead until American Idol and 24 arrive and its annual spring ratings beatdowns resume.
Fox continued to hold it’s big lead in adults 18-34 ratings. This season is shaping up to be a huge margin of victory for them in that demo. CBS continues to hold both the adults 25-54 rating title (which Fox may challenge depending on how Idol does), and the average viewership title, which is unlikely to be challenged.
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
Not much of a change in the most recent week with the changes vs. last season. Fox continues to be the only English broadcast network up in all categories vs. last season. While they were certainly helped by a big improvement in the World Series numbers, they were well ahead of last season before the baseball playoffs began.
The CW is ahead vs. last season in viewership and adults 18-49 and 18-34, but they should be well ahead of last season across the board considering their automatic boost to their seasonal ratings averages just by dumping Sunday nights. Compared to last season, the CW’s current situation is a disappointment.
CBS is down or flat across the board. And after reading about how terribly NBC has been doing, but little on ABC’s woes, NBC is finally opening up a bit of a gap with ABC vs. last season, and is now doing noticeably worse in all the adult demo categories.
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.
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.
Wow, the CW is up versus last year. Dawn must be happy!
So CBS leads and will win braggin rights again in overall viewers and FOX leads in keys demos and will no doubt tout its victory. My question is would either one rather be in the other’s shoes?
gbd, CBS would rather have the demo ($) and the #1 show for the last 5 years. Overall viewers means little.
@Samuel but thats without the cw having Sunday nights
@J.R. — You’re absolutely right, but as someone who is well outside the 18-49 demo, I’m happy CBS is what it is. Most Fox shows just aren’t too my taste, although “Glee” is my favorite new show. It’s hell getting old, I tell ya.
CBS is preparing for the future a lot of teens love the comedies
You know, as idiotic as it might sound at first glance, I think NBC should make a play for the 18-34 demo market. Develop shows just for that demo market. Yes, behave like the CW. I know, I know, let the slings and arrows fly.
Couple of reasons why: the 18-34 demo market is completely covered by this 18-49 market as well. Raise your 18-34 demos and the 18-49 demos automatically go up. Yes, label it under the “duh, that’s obvious” heading, the point is, CW just goes after Women. I say go after everyone.
Basically, set yourselves up as “the Anti-CBS.” Yes, they get 15-20 million with CSI and NCIS, but the ratio of 18-49 demos to overall viewing audience aren’t nearly as good as other networks. They’re the “old people’s network” as the graph above demonstrates. By Anti-CBS, I mean don’t greenlight a single new show that apes, copies, or steals ideas from NCIS, CSI, or any medical drama.
Yes, leave those behind. Do something radical. Develop something that isn’t a normal genre show for the network. You’re in a hole here, the whole industry is. So take a chance and try something radical. Something bizarre. Promote the hell out of it, see how it does. You’ve got nothing to lose.
i agree with godfather. although its risky, NBC needs to take some risks if they want to recapture no.1 spot.
NBC’s first risk should be firing Zucker.
Unfortunately, I think NBC has already been trying to make a move on the younger demo, and they’re failing. Heroes, Chuck, their entire Thursday night lineup…it’s all aimed towards a younger crowd than say, Law and Order or Leno (both of which need to go). Hell, they’ve even freshened up their font and the style of their show promos.
Their problem is that some shows don’t seem to be aimed towards ANY demo. I personally don’t know anyone between the ages 18-25 who’s in want of more cop or medical dramas. If NBC really wants the younger crowd, they need some more sitcoms and a few original ideas. Breaking up the Thursday lineup wouldn’t hurt, either. Must See TV is dead.
Hell, maybe they should just start taking shows from USA. USA has more original shows with lasting potential than NBC has right now.
I’m new to all of this, so this is probably a stupid question, but its bothering me so…
There appears to be more “Adults 25-54″ watching television than “Viewers.” Now, assuming “viewers” is total viewers, that doesn’t seem possible… Is there an explantaion for this?
And by the way, I agree with Moxie. If USA shows were on NBC, it would be doing better right now. Most people i know who have cable watch at least 1 USA show regularly. Most who dont have cable are thinking about getting it either for the movies or for USA.
Hello, these charts show TV ratings, each of which are percentages of different groups. The Average Viewership group includes all US TV viewers age 2 and older, and is by far the largest group.
Here is the breakdown of what each rating point equals (from the bottom of the post). 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.
@Hello,
This chart shows ratings points, not viewer numbers. A ratings point is 1% of a given demographic, which means it represents a different number of viewers depending on what is being measured. More information here: http://tvbythenumbers.com/demystifying-the-s