In the early metered market household ratings CBS  won the night(remember, not only are these numbers subject to change, they *always* change even by the time the fast nationals arrive).

House had an 8.2/13 (household rating/share), up a bit from last week’s same metered market results of 7.8/13.  The Mentalist, while demo challenged somewhat has pulled good overall numbers and got a 10.6/17, up from last week’s early metered market number of 10.2/15. 

Fringe also bounced up from last week’s 6.3/9 to a 6.7/10

The Dancing With the Stars Results Show had an 11.7/18, the night’s highest rated show followed by NCIS on CBS with a 11.1/17.

The Biggest Loser averaged a 4.8/7 from 8pm-10p, up slightly versus last week’s 4.7/7.

At 10pm, holding the trend of being up versus last week was Law & Order:SVU with a 7.5/12, last week it had a 6.7/11 in this same early slice but still placed second to Without a Trace at 9.6/15. L&O will surely fare better in the demos than WAT.

CW fans, 90210 also fared better than last week with a 2.6/4, up from last week’s 2.4/4.  This is still the problem night for the CW’s Monday through Wednesday quest to attract younger females, Privileged scored a 1.8/3, only up just barely from last week’s 1.7/2.  Up is up, but that’s probably not enough to get the CW excited about their floundering Tuesday nights. 

It seems that there were just more people watching broadcast network television last night than the week before.  Not a huge surprise, the season is kicking into new shows every night and the days are growing shorter…

Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	16.12	11.54	7.62	5.29	3.92	3.48
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.8/10	3.9/10	3.3/8	2.0/5	1.6/4	1.9/5
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	2.6/7	2.8/7	3.3/9	1.8/5	1.8/5	2.7/7

Dancing With the Stars led ABC to victory in total viewers, but it was split leadership with CBS winning the 18-49 demo and NBC winning the 18-34 demo (and somewhat handily at that).

The 8pm hour saw the premiere of Chuck get bested by DWTS and The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother on CBS. While Chuck with 6.62 million in its premiere was down well below its premiere in season one where it did over nine million viewers, it performed OK in both the 18-49 and 18-34 demos (though Gossip Girl beat it among 18-34 year olds). I know some knuckleheads will chime in about how the Chuck premiere has been available on the Internet via Hulu for a week, but we doubt that significantly impacted the numbers. I really love this show, so I hope it turns out I’m wrong and that three million people watched it over the Internet last week. I’d guess more like 300,000. Still Chuck performed better across the board than Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Sorry Summer Glau. I still love you, but the numbers are the numbers.

At 9pm Two and a Half Men took the win among 18-49 year olds, but DWTS, 2.5 Men and Heroes were pretty bunched up in that demo. Among 18-34 year olds, Heroes was on steroids, completely dominating the field. The good news for CBS is over at the CW, One Tree Hill had a 2.7/7 with 18-34 year olds - the bad news for CBS is that actually tied with Two and a Half Men.

At 10pm, CSI: Miami won handily across the board. And although the return of Life only brought 6.92 million viewers, with almost three million fewer viewers than Boston Legal, it beat it in both demographics.

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Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	14.23	12.47	10.86	10.58	1.31
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	5.6/14	4.4/11	2.6/7	4.4/11	0.6/2
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	4.9/13	3.7/10	1.9/5	5.2/15	0.6/2

An impressive goal line stand in the fourth quarter led the Chicago Bears to victory over the Philadelphia Eagles and NFL Sunday Night Football led the night on NBC. The game averaged 15.94 million viewers between 8pm-11pm (the game actually starts at 8:15pm, but we don’t see 15 minute numbers so there is no way for us to break out just the game portion). The return of the ladies from Wisteria Lane led ABC to a second place finish as Desperate Housewives scored a whopping 18.44 million viewers between 9p-10 and rocked in the age demographics. Housewives was down a bit from last year’s premieres based on these numbers, but well ahead its pace at the close of last season. You can see last season’s Desperate Housewives ratings (and last year’s Sunday Night Football numbers as well).

The numbers for Extreme Makeover were definitely down from last year, although it did gain strength in its second hour, but the return of Brothers & Sisters at 10pm performed very solidly after Desperate Houswives holding two-thirds of the viewers and the demo numbers.

Fox’s animations were back and total viewers do not matter. Their strength in the demos, particularly the 18-34 demographics is phenomenal. And even shows like King of The Hill pull numbers among 18-34 year olds that should keep it around if it maintains them. Family Guy with about half the viewers of Desperate Housewives almost had as many 18-34 year olds, and it least in its premiere The Simpsons has some life in it still

Over on CBS this night showcases just how youth starved the eye network is. While Amazing Race and Cold Case pulled OK overall numbers, the demo numbers relative to the field were pretty sparse. Note there were about 15 minutes of Football overrun so the CBS schedule will all be a bit altered from these numbers (and a bit lower for the night overall).

The CW ran with repeats, but next week MRC (Media Rights Capital) takes over programming Sunday nights on the CW with the premieres of In Harm’s Way, Valentine, Inc. and Easy Money.

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Update: full night’s details for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and the CW are available.

In the early metered market ratings the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears led the night with a 12.3/19 (household rating/share) for the portion from 8:30p-11p.

A two hour premiere of Extreme Makeover seemed down vs. its performance last year with a 6.2/10 between 7pm-9pm, though it built in each consecutive half hour, down more than 10% versus last year, but it probably still performed well within the 18-49 demo. We’ll see when we get the fast affiliate data.

Desperate Housewives scored an 11.2/17 in the metered markets. While off its premiere numbers last year, I believe this, like Grey’s Anatomy may finish above its season finale for last year. We’ll take a closer look when we have more data. In a normal year, we’d have expected some attrition from one season to the next, so I think it’s a good sign that there is at least some recover from the WGA strike if the premieres - especially of serial dramas - outperform their season finales last May.

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Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	6.03	5.52	4.85	3.15
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	1.3/4	1..9/6	1.7/6	0.9/3

CBS took the most total viewers, edging out ABC by an average of about half a million viewers. Though CBS came in next to last among 18-49 year olds with its lineup of repeats of CSI: Miami and Criminal Minds. But, the season premiere of 48 Hours was the night’s most-watched show with 7.27 million viewers and a 1.8/6 (rating/share) among 18-49 year olds.

ABC won the 18-49 demo with college football, but while Joe Pa and the Penn State Nittany Lions are winning games (now 5-0, I think) they’re not exactly a ratings juggernaut. In fairness, the Illinois vs. Penn State game was only on in ~70% of the country according to ESPN, with the other 30% getting Virginia Tech at Nebraska. ABC probably wishes they could air a USC game every Saturday night. Even though USC is no longer undefeated, a mere two weeks ago when USC beat Ohio State it averaged 10.5 million viewers and a 4.1/13 among 18-49 year olds in the overnight ratings (remember, overnight ratings for live events are always subject to change). That game had over 100% more 18-49 year old viewers than last night’s game.

Indeed, no network averaged even a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demo last night, and Fox’s long-running combo of Cops and America’s Most Wanted finished third in total viewers and second among 18-49 year olds. Meanwhile, NBC did its best impersonation of the CW…

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Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	8.74	7.39	6.50	4.42	4.41
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	2.6/8	2.0/6	2.0/6	1.4/4	1.4/4

Viewed by an average broadcast audience of 29.53 million, the first Presidential Debate dominated the night’s television. (Cable viewership will likely come soon via news story or press release). It is interesting to note that quite a few more viewers watched the debate on ABC than on CBS, NBC or Fox boosting ABC to the win for the night for both average viewers and the adults 18-49 demo. Update: Nielsen has provided some additional data about the debate’s performance in local markets.  James Hibberd of The Hollywood reporter has more info here.

In non-debate television, CBS’s new The Mentalist won the 8-9 hour for viewers and the 18-49 demo with a repeat. That bodes well for the show. Fox’s Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? was down 800,000 viewers, but up a tick in the demo from last week. NBC’s America’s Toughest Jobs was up 900,000 viewers and 0.2 ratings points in the demo. And finishing at the bottom for viewers and not much better for the demo was the final Friday Night Smackdown to appear on the CW. Next week is its first episode on MyNetworkTV.

Note that the live Presidential Debate causes measurement problems with these Fast Affiliate Overnight Ratings, see below.

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

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source Marc Berman/Mediaweek.

Definitions:

Fast Affiliate Overnight Ratings: Local metered-market ratings service of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) in which household ratings and shares are provided to clients the morning following the day or evening of telecast. While routinely used for “next day” immediate analysis, these fast affiliate ratings are by process inaccurate for programs that air live across a network since they represent affiliate time period performance. For example, last night’s 10-11pm affiliate #’s would reflect 10pm on the East Coast but also 10pm on the West Coast which for a live event would not represent the same broadcast or portion of the broadcast.

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.)

LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast.

For more information see Numbers 101.

Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	15.462	11.743	7.838	4.333	3.957	3.674
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	6.0/15	3.8/10	3.6/9	2.0/5	1.6/4	1.5/4
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	6.5/18	2.3/6	3.9/11	1.9/5	1.7/5	1.4/4

ABC buried the competition on the first Thursday of the new season, particularly in the age demos, but the premiere of Grey’s Anatomy, the leader for the evening, was down over 2.5 million viewers from last season’s premiere.

The premiere of Survivor: Gabon took the viewership crown and the adults 18-49 demo from 8-9pm, but it was down almost 2.5 million viewers from the Survivor:China premiere last September. Ugly Betty’s premiere was down over a million viewers from last year’s premiere, but managed the adults 18-34 demo win for the hour. Even worse was the premiere of My Name is Earl, which lost 26% of it’s viewers compared to last season’s premiere.

Against real competition, Kitchen Nightmares just got crushed in both hours, shedding almost a third of its viewers and demo adults from last week. Compared to that carnage, Smallville’s loss of only 6% of its viewers and a tick in each demo seems positively heroic. Supernatural, on the other hand, lost 18% of its viewers and about a quarter of its demo adults from last week.

Although down from last year’s premiere, Grey’s Anatomy had no equal on the night, completely overwhelming the competition in both hours across the board.

In some rare positive news for the night, The Office premiere was on par with last year’s premiere and it put in some good demo numbers. Berman is reporting that it won both the 18-34 and 18-49 demos for men.

The premiere of the final season of ER was down over 2 million viewers from its premiere last year.

Full details:

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

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

Definitions:

Fast Affiliate Overnight Ratings: Local metered-market ratings service of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) in which household ratings and shares are provided to clients the morning following the day or evening of telecast. While routinely used for “next day” immediate analysis, these fast affiliate ratings are by process inaccurate for programs that air live across a network since they represent affiliate time period performance. For example, last night’s 10-11pm affiliate #’s would reflect 10pm on the East Coast but also 10pm on the West Coast which for a live event would not represent the same broadcast or portion of the broadcast.

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.)

LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast.

For more information see Numbers 101.

Full details now available.

Remembering as always that these numbers are very preliminary (and also not nearly as much fun since they lack total viewers and demos) here are some early metered market numbers from Thursday night.

Update 9:00 AM PDT: Grey’s Anatomy had 18.3 million viewers and crushed in the demos with a 7.4/18 among 18-49 year old and nearly an 8.0/21 among 18-34 year olds. The Office had 9.20 million and a 4.5/10 with 18-49s and a 6.1/15 with 18-34s. Not shabby at all up aganst Grey’s (but again, no new CSI for either to compete with). Kitchen Nightmares definitely had a tough time between 8p-10p, see Bill’s post sometime soon. Survivor was still strong with 18-49s (4.5/12ish) but as typical less so with 18-34s (2.7/8). ER’s premiere drew 7.9 million and a 3.3/8 among 18-49s and a 3.0/6 among 18-34s. Not shabby demo numbers for the start of its final season.

Grey’s Anatomy had an 11.0/17 (household rating/share) for its two hour premiere. If those numbers hold up, it would be down a bit from the two hour season finale (which scored an 11.8/19 and 18.09 million viewers in the final numbers last May ) and down even more from its premiere last September when it pulled a 13.2/20 and 20.9 million in the final numbers. And then, it was airing against a new CSI, last night CSI was a repeat. The two hour finale in May also didn’t run against a fresh CSI either though.

Survivor is experiencing attrition as well, but the old girl is long in tooth and still had a 7.5/12 from 8pm-10pm. Last year in the final numbers, Survivor China debuted to a 9.0/15. But both the Survivor or the Grey’s premieres last year seemed to only be one hour.

My Name is Earl pulled in a Knight Rider-esque 4.3/7 and The Office rose to a 5.8/9 in a one hour premiere from 9p-10pm and the tale for The Office will be in how it does in the 18-49 and 18-34 demos – which we imagine will be good. We won’t see that data for at least another hour (it’s 7:25am PDT as I write this).

Gordon Ramsay seems to have finally had a bad night as two episodes of Kitchen Nightmares only drew a 3.2/5 between 8pm-10pm. Meanwhile on the CW, Smallville had a 2.8/4 and Supernatural a 2.5/4. Last week in these same preliminary metered market numbers, Smallville had a 2.9/5 and Supernatural a 2.7/4, so it looks like both mostly held up versus increased competition.