Latest Weekly Changes in Season to Date ‘07-’08 vs. ‘06-’07

Read the full story

Latest Weekly Changes in Season to Date ‘07-’08 vs. ‘06-’07

Read the full story

Latest Weekly Changes in Season to Date ‘07-’08 vs. ‘06-’07

NBC continued its improvement trend vs. last season, and had the strongest move upwards in the most recent week. ABC continued its recent improvement trend as well, and even CBS with new episodes starting to return, improved vs. last season. The CW continued to bump along at nearly their lowest level vs. last year. Fox continued it’s trend of weekly decline vs. last year. I’ll go out on a limb and predict Fox finishes with equivalent average viewer results for this season vs. last season when the final tally is in.

Overall Season Total Change in Season to Date ‘07-’08 vs. ‘06-’07

Fox continues as the only network with increased viewership vs. last year, but that cushion is eroding quickly. All the other broadcast networks continue below last years pace, CBS and CW by significant margins. The addition of new shows in the coming weeks is likely to boost all the networks, CBS in particular.
Our chart shows broadcast network primetime season to date average primetime viewership for the 2007-8 season compared to the 2006-7 season.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

With #3 and #4 finishes by Dancing With The Stars, plus top 20 finishes by Lost, Extreme Makeover:Home Edition and Oprah’s Big Give, ABC improved more than any other network in the most recent week ending March 23 when comparing this season’s to date results vs. last season.

Read the full story

A #6 finish by Law & Order, plus top 20 finishes by two Deal or No Deals, a Law & Order:SVU rerun and Medium still left NBC far, far behind Fox for the week, but continued its improvement trend this season vs. last season, the best improvement by any network in the past week. Deal or No Deal has really been a winner for NBC this year. WGA writers, thanks to the strike that’s a couple hours of programming that’s not going back to scripted shows any time soon.

The CW had fresh episodes of Reaper and Smallville and that was enough of a boost for it to post a small improvement vs. last season in the latest week as well. Although at more than 22% below last season’s average to date, it’s small consolation indeed.

Fox, ABC and CBS all showed declines vs. last years viewer averages to date with all 3 falling approximately half a percent.

Our chart shows broadcast network primetime season to date average primetime viewership for the 2007-8 season compared to the 2006-7 season.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Our chart shows broadcast network primetime season to date average primetime viewership for the 2007-8 season compared to the 2006-7 season.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

ABC, NBC Show Improvement, All Others Slide

With Lost, Oprah’s Big Give and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition posting strong results, ABC showed improvement compared to the same season to date viewership in the 2006-07 season. NBC, with no new shows added last week, continued its season over season improvement likely because of weak results from last year. All the other broadcast networks continued their decline vs. last season. Fox while still doing relatively well is likely being hurt by the absence of 24.

Our chart shows broadcast network primetime season to date average primetime viewership for the 2007-8 season compared to the 2006-7 season.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This week’s summary: Slight improvement at ABC, slight drop at CBS, big drop at Fox, little change at NBC and CW since last week. NBC’s Jeff Zucker must be worrried that his competition’s new scripted shows will soon begin arriving, the strike was his time to catch up!

Our chart shows broadcast network primetime season to date average primetime viewership for the 2007-8 season compared to the 2006-7 season.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Almost Unnoticed, NBC Continues to Improve

Our comparison of season to season average viewers this week shows ABC, CBS, CW and Fox continuing to slip vs. last year, while NBC continued to show improvement, although very slight this week. To again beat a dead horse, the rest of the media is all over the story that Fox has benefited from the strike, and they certainly have, but so has NBC, and that seems to be relatively unnoticed.

Our chart shows broadcast network primetime season to date average primetime viewership for the 2007-8 season compared to the 2006-7 season.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.