Glory days for the NBC! It placed two shows in the top 20, including the number one show for the second consecutive week, America’s Got Talent. The Sunday Dateline came in at #16. Better news still - though not on the list, Baby Borrowers was the #25 show overall on a household ratings basis and was the #5 show in the 18-49 demo. Also, the 8pm-9pm hour Olympic Swimming Trials Sunday night was #26 and #23 in the 18-49 demo. While not in the primetime ratings, the epic Wimbledon men’s finals victory for Rafeal Nadal over Roger Federer makes for a pretty nice week for the peacocks. Plus, some WSJ.com blogger called NBC chief Jeff Zucker Gallant to Les Moonves’ Goofus.

Meanwhile it’s hit and miss for ABC. Wipeout is a hit - coming in #2 in overall viewers even though it was tied for tenth on a household ratings basis. So it’s not just a hit, it’s a family-style hit people are watching together and Wipeout was also #2 in the 18-49 rankings. But the news isn’t as good for I Survived a Japanese Game Show, it’s a miss in the overall ratings. Coming in 34th on a household ratings basis with 4.145 million total viewers. Wipeout had more viewers just in the 18-49 demographic (4.693 million)!  Update:  I blame old age and bad eyesight.  While Japanese Game Show is no Wipeout, it still was the 8th most watched show in the 18-49 demo with 3.354 million out of its 4.145 being in the demo.  ABC will take that as a summer hit.

CBS placed the most shows with 11, but seven out of eleven were not well received by the 18-49 demo. Swingtown haters will be relieved to know that its free-fall continues, dropping to #42 overall with 3.561 million viewers and nowhere to be found on the 18-49 demo radar.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 07/06/08:

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America’s Got Talent and Wipeout led all comers this week, and although Wipeout was #2 overall, it was #1 among the 18-49 set. Swingtown haters may savor that it’s not on the list, but in the 18-49 ratings, it was tied for #20 on a ratings basis and #23 on a viewers basis. While that hardly makes it a hit, at least in the demo that puts it ahead of every CBS show in the list below except the reruns of Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami. If CBS were NBC, Swingtown already would’ve been dubbed summer’s new biggest hit! Fortunatley CBS has not sunk so low yet. Low enough to air Swingtown? Sure, but not low enough to brag about a 1.9 in the 18-49 demo.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 06/29/08:

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The final game of the NBA finals where the Boston Celtics wrapped up their 17th championship led all shows for the week. Followed by the premiere of America’s Got Talent.

But although these are the ratings that everyone wants to see, it’s the 18-49 numbers that really matter most. Which is why I am again paying homage (via the picture to your left) to the force of nature that is Gordon Ramsay You’ll note that save FOX’s Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader every show that does not have an 18-49 ranking is a show that airs on CBS.

Million Dollar Password was a solid performer for CBS, but unfortunately for CBS, “the password is…old people.” Though number 12 on the list overall it was not one of the top 33 highest rated shows among 18-49 year olds (note: each week we get access to the top 25 shows in the 18-49 demographic, and sometimes due to ties on the 18-49 rating, we get more – this week it was 33).

Univision had as many show’s in this week’s 18-49 top twenty as CBS, three. And although both America’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance draw more total viewers, Hell’s Kitchen drew more 18-49 year olds than any other program outside the NBA final game. But then again, it’s summer and the NBA game was the only program for the week to clear the 10 million mark.

Wake me up when it’s September.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 06/22/08:

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Although for reasons which remain mysterious to me, US Open Golf primetime coverage for the Saturday and Sunday rounds is NOT included in the Nielsen Weekly primetime show data where it would have contested easily for top 5 placement.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 06/15/08:

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

All numbers above based on live plus same day DVR viewing.

While they’re definitely not Michael Jordan style numbers, the NBA finals still took the top two spots in this week’s total viewing rankings.   Both game one and two performed very similarly at around 13.5 million viewers.  I’d like to see seven games and 20 million viewers for games six and seven, but if it doesn’t happen like that, at least there is a free lunch in it for me.   Bill G. and I have a little wager on the average for the series I took under 15 million, he took the over.  You can weigh in too (we’re not buying you lunch though).

CBS put a whopping 13 shows on this list but only six out of those thirteen shows were among the top 25 shows among the 18-49 year old demographic.  Which is one reason why CBS will tell the PTC to kiss its butt when it comes to Swingtown.  The Parents Television Council wants the show off the air and is encouraging local affiliates not to air it.  But that’s not going to happen.  It was the #14 show overall and the #9 show in the 18-49 demographic.

FOX only had four shows on this list, but all four of them were top-ten performers both overall and in the 18-49 demographic.  The only two shows ABC placed on the list were the NBA final games between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.

NBC’s only entry on the list was the Sunday night version of Dateline.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 06/08/08:

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The two hour LOST finale won the week against little competition,  as the second place show in the weekly top 20 was a repeat of Two and a Half Men.  FOX’s lineup of Hell’s Kitchen, two airings of So You Think You Can Dance and Moment of Truth all cracked the top 20 and all performed well in the 18-49 demo.

CBS led the list with thirteen shows, with ten of them being reruns.  The problem CBS has is still one of skewing older.  60 Minutes was the third most watched program overall but wasn’t even among the top 30 highest rated broadcast primetime programs in the 18-49 demo.  Neither were NCIS, The Price is Right Primetime or Cold Case.

On the other end of the spectrum was CBS’ foray into mixed martial arts (MMA) with the Elite XC Saturday Night Fights airing featuring Kimbo Slice which tied for 51st  on a household ratings basis.  It averaged 4.851 million viewers for  the entire 171 minute (almost, but not quite 3 hours) event.  The Kimbo Slice/James Thompson bout happened after the primetime portion but is included in these numbers.  The primetime portion from 9pm-11pm averaged 4.3mm in the overnights so there’s no doubt a lot more people tuned in when Slice was on the screen.

While Saturday Night Fights didn’t make the top 20 in total viewing it outranked number three in total viewing 60 Minutes in the 18-49 demo.  The fights were #18 in the 18-49 rankings based on viewers and if we had 18-34 rankings, it probably would have performed even better.

CBS also did well with Million Dollar Password it was third overall and made the 18-49 rankings at #17 (ahead of Kimbo Slice!).

It turns out LOST was ABC’s only entry in the top 20.  I guess if you’re only going to have one, number one is the best one to pick.  NBC had but two shows on the list and FOX had four.  I’ll get the full 18-49 top 20 up soon.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 06/01/08:

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I’m not sure we’ll see 30 million viewers again for a good long while, or a week where three shows eclipse 20 million. Perhaps the Summer Olympics will score big for NBC. We’ll see.

American Idol roared back in the finale with over 31.66 million viewers. Shark made the top 20 in its swan song at number 16, and Ugly Betty’s season finale made it at number 17. The premiere of FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance landed in the #19 spot. NBC placed two shows on the list for the week, but that was only because LOST didn’t air last week. Deal or No Deal was the 14th most watched show and Law & Order came in at #20.

For the week, CBS placed seven shows on the list, FOX placed six shows on the list, ABC had five.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 05/25/08:

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As usual, American Idol took the top two spots on this list followed by Dancing with the Stars and CSI.  CBS had the most shows on the list with 9, followed by ABC with 6, FOX with 4 and NBC with but one show, but at least they didn’t get shut out of the top 20 as they did last week.

This week where available I included the 18-49 ranking (I will still do a separate top 20 ranking as well).  We only see the top 25 or so  demographic shows on a weekly basis and of the top 20 most viewed shows overall, 18 of them ranked in the top 18-49 rankings.  The only two shows on this list that didn’t make it were  CBS’ 60 Minutes and the Country Music Awards.  Hell’s Kitchen and LOST outperformed their overall rankings nicely when it came to the 18-49 demo.

It’s fairly easy to spot some of the reasons that even though CBS has the most shows on this list (and will rank first in total viewers), it will trail both FOX and ABC when it comes to the 18-49 demo.

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