THE PROGRAMMING INSIDER
Friday, May 23, 2008

Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:
ABC Dominates; Respectable Return for Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance

Ratings Box:
What’s Hot/What’s Not

On the Air This Weekend:
Prime-Time Programming Options

TV Tidbits:
Notes of Interest

TV Trivia Time:
A Kookie Kind of Question
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Note: The Programming Insider will not be published on Monday for Memorial Day. Have a great and long holiday weekend!
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Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:
ABC Dominates; Respectable Return for Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance

Thursday 5/22/08

HH
Rtg/Shr
ABC 10.0/16
Fox 5.8/ 9
NBC 5.3/ 8
CBS 4.5/ 7
CW 1.5/ 2

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Thursday, May 24, 2007):
ABC: +138, NBC: +56, Fox: - 5, CW: -12, CBS: -39

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Note: The fast affiliate results for Thursday will be posted at PIFeedback by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Thursday, May 22, 2008.

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Ugly Betty (ABC), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) -- Keep in mind, however, that both scripted hours remain on the double-digit downside.

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Last Comic Standing (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
A night of season-finales led ABC to Thursday victory, with an advantage of a hefty 4.2 rating points over second-place Fox. Third overall was NBC, followed by repeats on CBS and the CW.

Season two of ABC’s Ugly Betty closed with a first-place 6.8 rating/12 share in the overnights from 8-9 p.m., followed by the two-hour Grey’s Anatomy season-ender at an 11.6/18 from 9-11 p.m. Take a look at Grey’s Anatomy by half-hour:

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
9:00 p.m. 10.3/16
9:30 p.m. 11.5/18
10:00 p.m. 12.1/19
10:30 p.m. 12.4/20

While both Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy dominated, both were also down considerably from their year-ago season-finales on Thursday, May 17, 2007 (when there was more original programming present). Take a look:

Season Finales

Ugly Betty (ABC)
May 17, 2007: 8.6/14
May 22, 2008: 6.8/12
Percent Change: -21

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
May 17, 2007: 15.0/23
May 22, 2008: 11.6/18
Percent Change: -23

In season-premiere news, a two-hour edition of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance finished second overall for the night, with a 5.8/ 9 from 8-10 p.m. Compared to its year-ago 90-minute opener (6.8/12 on May 24, 2007), that was a decline of 15 percent.

Third for the night was NBC, care of a 90-minute edition of Deal or No Deal (#2: 6.6/11 from 8-9:30 p.m.) and the 90-minute season-premiere of Last Comic Standing (3.9/ 6 from 9:30-11 p.m.). Comparably, Last Comic Standing declined by a significant 22 percent from its two-hour season-opener on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 (5.0/ 8). Am I the only one wondering why NBC keeps bringing back this lackluster reality/competition?

A night of repeats on CBS -- The Big Bang Theory (#4: 3.2/ 6), How I Met Your Mother (#4: 3.4/ 6), CSI (#4: 4.7/ 7) and Without a Trace (#2: 5.5/ 9 ) -- finished fourth overall for the evening. And the CW’s repeat combination of Smallville (1.7/ 3) and Supernatural (1.3/ 2) ranked a distant fifth.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data
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Ratings Box:
What’s Hot/What’s Not

-Final American Idol Results:
To the masses who think Fox’s American Idol is on its way out, you’re wrong. The two-hour seventh-season finale on Wednesday, May 21 averaged a whopping 31.66 million viewers with an 11.4 rating/30 share among adults 18-49. Comparably, that was virtually equal to one year earlier. For more on Idol, CNN’s Larry King Live will feature the top 10 contestants tonight.

-CBS and Fox Dominate May 2008:
Based on the final national rating results for the just completed May 2008 sweeps, the leadership was mixed. CBS was first in households and total viewers; and Fox was No. 1 in the three key demos -- adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and adults 18-34. But both networks were down year-to-year by similar minor levels.

Excluding a third-place finish in total viewers, ABC was second across the board (including a tie with CBS among adults 25-54), followed by rapidly declining NBC, the CW and MyNetwork TV sixth. Of the six networks, only MyNetwork TV built from one year earlier, with gains of as much as 33 percent among adults 18-34. ABC, NBC and the CW all dipped by double-digit percentages, with NBC the biggest loser at losses of 19 to 29 percent.

Here are the final results for the May 2008 sweeps (April 24 through May 21, 2008), with change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses.

Households:
CBS: 6.8 rating/11 share (- 8), ABC: 6.3/11 (-13), Fox: 6.1/10 (- 6), NBC: 3.9/ 7 (-20), CW: 1.7/ 3 (-15), MNTV: 0.8/ 1 (+14)

Total Viewers:
CBS: 10.66 million (- 6), Fox: 10.01 (- 7), ABC: 9.68 (-12), NBC: 5.95 (-19), CW: 2.66 (-13), MNTV: 1.19 (+27)

Adults 18-49:
Fox: 3.8 rating/11 share (-10), ABC: 3.1/ 9 (-21), CBS: 2.8/ 8 (-13), NBC: 1.9/ 5 (-27), CW: 1.1/ 3 (-15), MNTV: 0.5/ 1 (+25)

Adults 25-54:
Fox: 4.2/11 (- 7), CBS: 3.7/10 (-10), ABC: 3.7/10 (-16), NBC: 2.3/ 6 (-23), CW: 1.1/ 3 (- 8), MNTV: 0.5/ 1 (+25)

Adults 18-34:
Fox: 3.2/10 (-16), ABC: 2.4/ 8 (-25), CBS: 1.8/ 6 (-14), NBC: 1.5/ 5 (-29), CW: 1.2/ 4 (-20), MNTV: 0.4/ 1 (+33)

Source: Nielsen Media Research data
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On the Air This Weekend:
Prime-Time Programming Options

Friday 5/23/08

ABC:
8:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy (R)
9:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy (R)
10:00 p.m. 20/20

CBS:
8:00 p.m. Ghost Whisperer (R)
9:00 p.m. Moonlight (R)
10:00 p.m. Numb3rs (R)

NBC:
8:00 p.m. American Gladiators (R)
9:00 p.m. Dateline (two hours)

Fox:
8:00 p.m. Movie: Cheaper by the Dozen (R)

CW:
8:00 p.m. Friday Night Smackdown!

MNTV
8:00 p.m. Movie: Being Julia (R)

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Saturday 5/24/08

ABC:
8:00 p.m. NBA Countdown
8:30 p.m. 2008 NBA Conference Finals

CBS:
8:00 p.m. Movie: Vinegar Hill
10:00 p.m. 48 Hours Mystery

NBC:
8:00 p.m. American Gladiators (R, 90 minutes)
9:30 p.m. Last Comic Standing (R, 90 minutes)

Fox:
8:00 p.m. Cops
9:00 p.m. America’s Most Wanted

MNT
8:00 p.m. Meet My Parents (R)
9:00 p.m. Decision House (R)

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Sunday 5/25/08

ABC:
7:00 p.m. America’s Funniest Home Videos (R)
8:00 p.m. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (R)
9:00 p.m. Desperate Housewives (R)
10:00 p.m. Brothers & Sisters (R)

CBS:
7:00 p.m. 60 Minutes
8:00 p.m. Cold Case (R)
9:00 p.m. Cold Case (R)
10:00 p.m. Shark (R)

NBC:
7:00 p.m. Dateline (two hours)
9:00 p.m. Law & Order (R)
10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU (R)

Fox:
7:00 p.m. NASCAR

CW:
7:00 p.m. America’s Next Top Model (R)
8:00 p.m. Everybody Hates Chris (R)
8:30 p.m. Aliens in America (R)
9:00 p.m. The Game (R)
9:30 p.m. Girlfriends (R)

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TV Tidbits:
Notes of Interest

-More Law & Order: Criminal Intent on USA:
USA has renewed veteran Law & Order: Criminal Intent for an eighth season, with an order for an additional 16 episodes. Criminal Intent shifted to USA in originals this season, but also ended up on NBC in repeats to fill the void caused by the writers strike.

-Additional Summer 2008 Programming Entries:
Adding to the growing list of original upcoming summer programming are…

-The Andromeda Strain (A&E): Monday, May 26 and Tuesday, May 27: 9 p.m. ET (premiere, miniseries)
-Ice Road Truckers (History Channel): Sunday, June 8: 9 p.m. ET (season premiere)
-Surviving History (History Channel): Sunday, June 15: 10 p.m. ET (premiere)
-Intervention (A&E): Monday, June 16: 9 p.m. ET (season premiere)
-Psychic Kids (A&E): Monday, June 16: 10 p.m. ET (season premiere)
-Randy Jackson Presents: America’s Best Dance Crew (MTV): Thursday, June 19: 10 p.m. (season premiere)
-The Two Coreys (A&E): Sunday, June 22: 10 p.m. ET (season premiere)
-First 48 (A&E): Tuesday, July 8: 9 p.m. ET (season premiere)
-Criss Cross Mindfreak (A&E): Wednesday, July 23: 10 p.m. ET (season premiere)
-Work That Room With Christopher Lowell (Fine Living): Saturday, July 26: 6 p.m. ET (premiere)
-Paranormal State (A&E): Monday, July 28: 10 p.m. ET (season premiere)
-Big City Broker (Fine Living): Sunday, Aug. 10: 9 p.m. ET (premiere)
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TV Trivia Time:
A Kookie Kind of Question

Which TV series featured a character nicknamed “Kookie”?

a) Hawaiian Eye
b) The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
c) The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
d) Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
e) 77 Sunset Strip

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…

Which one of the following five options was not the title of a television show?

a) Goode Behavior
b) Happy
c) Mad About You
d) Mean Streets
e) Nasty Boys

Is: d) Mean Streets, which was a 1973 theatrical with Robert De Niro. To the masses who answered Happy, that that was an NBC sitcom in the 1960-61 season that focused on a young married couple who managed a motel.

-Current kudos goes to:
Sheila Berman, Gerry Bixenspan, Jordan Breslow, Larry Collins, Maureen Goldman, Bob Ingersoll, Deb Kainer, Mary Kalnin, Marc Miller, Aaron Paquette, Gordon Purcell, Stewart Wallace