Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	15.96	11.54	8.80	6.54		3.61
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	4.9/13	4.0/10	3.9/10	2.1/5		1.5/4
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34

More details, 18-34 and Univision numbers coming when they are available.

CSI opened its season with a larger audience than the comparable date last year last year’s premiere and pushed CBS to the overall viewership and demo adults 18-49 win for the night. Grey’s Anatomy faded noticeably from its premiere, but helped ABC take second for viewers and 18-49 adults for the night.

Survivor: Gabon beat down the competition from 8-9 winning easily, but did slip 0.1 in the 18-49 demo from last week. Ugly Betty was just about even with last week, while My Name is Earl kept its audience steady, but lost 0.2 ratings points in the 18-49 demo.

Kath & Kim did much better than I expected (and better than Earl) in its premiere, beating everything but Survivor in the demo for its half hour.

CSI premiere topped its 2007-8 premiere and pushed Grey’s Anatomy down at 9pm. Interesting to see if Grey’s can stabilize at that level. The Office held its audience from 9/25, but slipped 0.3 rating points in the 18-49 demo.

Life on Mars and Eleventh Hour premiered to nearly identical numbers at 10pm. The horse race of the new shows was closer than I would have thought, it will be interesting to watch it develop. While it came in behind the premieres, ER won the 18-49 demo for the hour, and bettered its 9/25 audience by 1.4 million and its 18-49 demo by 0.7 rating points, quite an improvement.

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Just getting the Metered Market overnight numbers up for everyone to chew on waiting for the Fast Affiliate Numbers:

Shows are sorted by HH Rating in each time slot.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

Definitions:

Metered Market Overnight Ratings:  This is normally the first available ratings information, and is based on the electronic measurement service that Nielsen provides in 56 of the nation’s largest markets.  In each market a sample of homes is selected to represent that individual market.  Often, networks or syndicators provide metered market information as an early indicator of a program’s performance.  In aggregate, the 56 metered markets represent 79,890,610 homes, or 70% of all U.S. TV households.  Preliminary metered market data are available as early as 8:00AM (ET).  Final metered market information, reflecting line-up changes, pre-emptions and runovers, are normally available by 3:30PM (ET).  

Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	13.094	7.405	6.251	6.020	4.215	2.871
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.6/10	2.5/7	2.2/6	2.3/6	1.7/5	1.3/4
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	2.2/6	2.1/6	2.1/6	1.8/6	1.8/5	1.7/5

CBS swept the audience title along with both adult viewing demographics Wednesday night on the strength of Criminal Minds and CSI:NY. Fox was second down the line (tied with ABC in adults 18-34) as Bones continued to grow all its audience groups. And ABC’s Wednesday night line up drifted lower, looking even weaker than its premiere last week.

Bones audience grew 5% from last week and its adult demo ratings did similarly as it increased its margins of victory in all categories and buried the competition from 8-9. Knight Rider fell about 10% from last week. New Adventures of Old Christine increased its audience and gained a tenth in the 18-49 demo, but its 18-34 demo was still startlingly weak. Prognosis: Negative. Pushing Daisies got pushed down even further from its premiere losing 12% of its audience, but maintaining its 18-49 demo at what is a dismal level. America’s Next Top Model took only a tiny audience hit, maintained its 18-49 demo, and grew its 18-34 demo a tick.

Gary Unmarried grew its audience and added a tenth to its 18-49 demo. It may have a better chance of survival than Christine, but I wouldn’t make long term plans for either.

Starting at 9pm it was all CBS as Criminal Minds began the rout growing its audience to 15.896 million and increasing its 18-49 demo by a big 0.5 rating points. Under the onslaught Private Practice faded, losing 800,000 viewers and a disheartening 0.8 18-49 rating points, but still nipped Criminal Minds for the 18-34 demo in the hour. Til Death drifted a bit lower from last week, further into the “why do they keep that show around” range.

CSI:NY continued the CBS steamroller at 10pm gaining over a million viewers from last week and boosting its demo ratings by a tenth each. Dirty Sexy Money lost over a million viewers and a quarter of its 18-49 demo to complete the humbling night for ABC. Lipstick Jungle fell about a half million viewers but held its 18-49 demo steady in what is still “see ya” territory.

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Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	12.990	11.238	8.627	5.749	4.530	2.693
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.6/9	2.9/7	3.3/8	2.3/6	1.9/5	1.4/3
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	2.6/7	1.9/5	2.9/8	2.1/6	2.3/6	1.8/5

NCIS was the most watched show of the night beating back a direct challenge from an early Dancing with the Stars results show, but it was ABC’s Presidential Debate coverage and analysis that helped them take the viewership and demo 18-49 adults crowns for the night. NBC won the demo adults 18-34 nightly average on the strength of Biggest Loser and its young skewing debate viewers.

Note: These fast affiliate results are necessarily inaccurate for live events like the Presidential Debate because of their measurement methods, see below.

Head to head at 8pm, NCIS put Dancing with the Stars in its rear view mirror. NCIS was down a bit in viewers, but up a few tenths in both demos from last week. Not so with Dancing with the Stars, direct NCIS competition pulled down its results from last week 10-15% across the board. Biggest Loser showed surprising strength, up across the board from last week to be the 18-34 demo winner for the hour. Take these results with a grain of salt, House was in repeat last night. 90210 was down slightly from last week in viewers and 18-34 demo and flat for the 18-49 demo.

ABC claimed the viewer and the 18-49 demo win for the Presidential Debate that ran from 9-10:30 Eastern and the analysis that began at about 10:30. It was nip and tuck for the debate 18-34 demo between ABC and NBC and NBC edged ABC for the 18-34 demo analysis segment.

Against debate only English broadcast competition, Priviledged grew its audience 24% and its demo ratings by 0.2 (18-49) and 0.1 (18-34) from last week. Still, it was a distant 6th for its hour.

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Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	15.675	11.377	6.627	5.519	4.280	1.689
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.8/9	4.0/10	2.8/7	2.3/6	1.7/4	0.8/2
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	2.5/7	2.7/7	2.9/8	2.1/6	2.1/6	1.1/3

Dancing with the Stars again powered ABC to the viewership win on Monday with 15.675 million viewers, but CBS’s comedy block, lead by Two and A Half Men, took the 18-49 demo with a 4.0 rating / 10 share. NBC, while well back in viewers, took the 18-34 demo on the youthful strength of Heroes.

Dancing with the Stars averaged 18.81 million viewers and was the most watched show of the night and was down about 2% from last week. The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother provided strong demo competition during the 8-9 hour, with HIMYM winning the 18-34 demo in its portion.

The heavy promotion for Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles may have had some effect. It was up a bit in viewers, but up 0.3 ratings points for 18-49 and 0.4 ratings points for 18-34 from last week, both big % moves. Chuck lost about 10% of its viewers and 20% in each demo from its premiere last week.

While Two and A Half Men didn’t challenge the viewership of Dancing with the Stars, it beat it to win the hour for adults 18-49, and be the most watched show in the demo for the night. Heroes, well back in viewership, and down about 10% from last week, was still the 18-34 winner for the hour and the night. Prison Break was well back, but was up 10% in the demos from last week.

CSI: Miami was down about 10% from last week as well, but still dominated the 10-11 hour across the board.

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Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:
ABC Dances to Victory; NBC’s Heroes Continues to Lose Steam 

Monday 10/06/08

Note: The following results exclude Houston.

HH 
Rtg/Shr 
ABC 10.5/16
CBS 7.5/11
NBC 4.6/ 7
Fox 3.7/ 5
CW 1.4/ 2

-Ratings Breakdown: 
ABC danced its way to another Monday overnight victory, with a hefty 40 percent advantage over second-place CBS. Next was NBC, the home of the rapidly deteriorating Heroes, followed by Fox and the CW, which took a hit because it aired a night of repeats. To the readers emailing to ask why the CW was already airing encore telecasts, don’t forget that it kicked-off Monday on Sept. 1. That’s why.

Another two-hour edition of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars stood head and shoulders above the competition, with a whopping 12.7 rating/19 share from 8-10 p.m. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
8:00 p.m. 11.6/18 (#1)
8:30 p.m. 13.0/19 (#1)
9:00 p.m. 13.0/19 (#1)
9:30 p.m. 13.4/19 (#1)

As good as this is – and it is tremendous – Cloris Leachman on Dancing With the Stars is beginning to wear very thin. While I admire her gusto, I also think this is a competition that needs to be treated more seriously. Don’t you? My pick to exit tonight: Rocco DiSpirito.

At 10 p.m. ABC’s soon to conclude Boston Legal was second with a 6.2/10 — 54 percent below the last half-hour of lead-in Dancing With the Stars. The network is smart to be cutting Boston Legal loose this season.

Second-place CBS opened the evening with sitcoms The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother each at a 5.9/ 9 in the overnights from 8-9 p.m. Compared to one year earlier (when The Big Bang Theory anchored the night, followed by How I Met Your Mother), that is an increase of 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Although veteran Two and a Half Men remained healthy at a second-place 9.2/13 at 9 p.m., week three of lead-out Worst Week dipped to a 5.8/ 8 (#2) at 9:30 p.m. — 17 percent below year-ago occupant Rules of Engagement. Tick, tock…the cancellation clock is ticking.

CSI: Miami capped off the evening for CBS with a still dominant 9.1/15 at 10 p.m. — 57 percent above lead-in Worst Week.

Third-place NBC is finding Monday a challenge this season. Chuck opened the evening at a depressed (and third-place) 4.3/ 6 in the overnights at 8 p.m. — 12 percent below one year earlier. While I recognize that the strength of lead-out Heroes falls within the young adult demos, a third-place 5.4/ 8 in the overnights at 9 p.m. is 28 percent below the 7.5/11 on Oct. 8, 2007 (and that was already down from one year earlier). Is the show really that bad this season? The second (and final) Monday 10 p.m. airing of Life sunk to a last-place 4.0/ 6 at 10 p.m. Next week, look for the premiere of NBC drama My Own Worst Enemy at 10 p.m. Good luck, Christian Slater!

Fox remained on the downside care of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (#4: 3.7/ 6) and Prison Break (#4: 3.8/ 6), which decreased year-to-year by an average of 12 percent from then occupants Prison Break and K-Ville. And The CW closed the night with repeats of Gossip Girl (#5: 1.6/ 2) and Privileged (#5: 1.3/ 2), which would be a better option on Sunday than the Media Rights Capital mumbo-jumbo.

Metered Market Overnight Ratings:  This is normally the first available ratings information, and is based on the electronic measurement service that Nielsen provides in 56 of the nation’s largest markets.  In each market a sample of homes is selected to represent that individual market.  Often, networks or syndicators provide metered market information as an early indicator of a program’s performance.  In aggregate, the 56 metered markets represent 79,890,610 homes, or 70% of all U.S. TV households.  Preliminary metered market data are available as early as 8:00AM (ET).  Final metered market information, reflecting line-up changes, pre-emptions and runovers, are normally available by 3:30PM (ET).  

Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	13.490	11.750	10.716	6.060	2.851	0.950
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.8/9	4.1/10	4.1/10	3.0/8	1.2/3	0.4/1
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	2.8/8	3.3/9	3.6/10	3.8/10	1.2/3	0.4/1

Update: The half-hourly, 18-34 and Univision results are now in. Two things to note (1) Fox rocked in the 18-34 demo winning the night with a 3.8 rating while being way behind in average viewers (2) CBS results for the night are not comparable to earlier Sundays because of the half hour football overrun which because of the limitations of these fast affiliate overnight ratings have skewed the measurement of all of their shows. Wait until tomorrow’s final results to draw any conclusions about CBS results for Sunday.

60 Minutes was the most watched regularly scheduled show averaging 16.42 million viewers but Desperate Housewives had the most 18-49 demo viewers with a 5.8 rating / 13 share for Sunday night, and NFL Football gave big boosts to both CBS and, of course, NBC for the night.

Aided by a football overrun from 7-7:30, CBS racked up the most viewers for the night averaging 13.49 million. Regularly scheduled NFL Sunday Night Football elevated NBC to the nightly 18-49 demo win with a 4.4 rating / 11 share. Note (below) that fast affiliate overnight results are inaccurate for live events.

Although Desperate Housewives the most watched 18-49 demo show of the night it was down nearly 3 million average viewers (but just a tenth and 1.2 in the demo) from last week, and ABC was no worse than second in any hour last night for viewers or the 18-49 demo.

CW sold off its Sunday night programming time to Media Rights Capital who proved that there *is* someone who can do worse than the CW did last year on Sunday nights! It’s premiere night was a disaster with In Harm’s Way drawing only 676,000 viewers, Valentine 1.10 million, and Easy Money 1.08 million.

Without the football overrun they had last week, Fox’s Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy were flat to down a bit from last week, but American Dad kept its viewers and improved on its 18-49 demo.

Full details:

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Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot. Timeslot demo winners are in bold.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 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.

I’ll have the fast affiliate numbers up as soon as I get them, but in the metered markets ovenight results CBS won Sunday night with a 9.2 rating / 14 share, followed by NBC (7.5/12), ABC (7.4/12), Fox (3.9/6) and CW (0.8/1).

CBS benefited from a ~30 minute NFL overrun into prime-time grabbing a 14.3/24 in the 7-7:30 time period. 60 Minutes likely got a big boost averaging a 11.4/18, followed by Amazing Race (7.4/11), Cold Case (7.7/12) and The Unit (6.4/11).

NBC’s Football Night in America drew a 3.4/18, followed by Sunday Night Football with a 10.8/17 from 8:30-11pm which was the most viewed program of the night.

On ABC, America’s Funniest Home Videos premiered to a 5.3/9 followed by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at 7.2/11, and ABC’s beast Desperate Housewives with a 9.9/15 and Brothers & Sisters with a 7.2/12.

Fox’s King of the Hill repeats drew a 2.7/5, The Simpsons a 4.6/7, the new King of the Hill a 4.2/6, Family Guy a 5.1/8 and American Dad a Fox leading 5.1/8. Fox was likely very competitive in the demo, those results will follow when I get them.

The CW Sunday night which was sold off to Media Rights Capital debuted with a thud. Opening with In Harm’s Way with but a 0.6/1, then Valentine with a 1.0/1 and Easy Money with a 0.7/1. All below their Sunday night premiere results from last year, which were themselves woeful. I almost expect a press release from CW reading “It wasn’t us, it was MRC!”, but won’t hold my breath. 

Note: The following results are based on the metered market ratings and exclude the New York, Detroit, Boston, Houston, Washington, D.C., Providence, Dayton and Ft. Myers markets.

Metered Market Overnight Ratings:  This is normally the first available ratings information, and is based on the electronic measurement service that Nielsen provides in 56 of the nation’s largest markets.  In each market a sample of homes is selected to represent that individual market.  Often, networks or syndicators provide metered market information as an early indicator of a program’s performance.  In aggregate, the 56 metered markets represent 79,890,610 homes, or 70% of all U.S. TV households.  Preliminary metered market data are available as early as 8:00AM (ET).  Final metered market information, reflecting line-up changes, pre-emptions and runovers, are normally available by 3:30PM (ET).