Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings: CBS Wins, NBC’s 30 Rock Benefits by the Tina Fey Exposure
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: They’re Creepy and They’re Kooky _______________________________________________________________________
Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings: CBS Wins, NBC’s 30 Rock Benefits by the Tina Fey Exposure
Thursday 10/30/08
HH Rtg/Shr CBS 8.9/14 ABC 7.3/12 NBC 5.2/ 8 Fox 2.7/ 4 CW 2.7/ 4
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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Thursday, November 2, 2007): NBC and CW: - 4 each, ABC and CBS: -14 each, Fox: -51
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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, October 30, 2008.
-Honorable Mention: The Office (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), Eleventh Hour (CBS)
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): My Name is Earl (NBC), Kath & Kim (NBC), Life on Mars (ABC)
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-Ratings Breakdown: CBS won this first night of the Nov. 2008 sweeps in the overnights, beating second-place ABC by 22 percent. Third overall was NBC, followed by Fox and the CW tied for the distant No. 4 position.
Since we are all wondering if the mega-exposure of Tina Fey helped NBC’s 30 Rock, let me begin with that. And, yes, it did. While it was nothing to jump up and down about, the third season-premiere of 30 Rock kicked-off third in the 9:30 p.m. half hour with a 5.3 rating/8 share -- building from lead-in The Office (#3: 5.2/ 8 at 9 p.m.) by two percent. Since The Office always manages to score among adults 18-49 (a 4.2/10 in the demo last week), so will 30 Rock. Comparably, the 5.3 rating for 30 Rock was up in the vicinity of 20 percent from its 2007-08 overnight average. As for the show itself, I still don’t get all the critical hoopla, do you? Personally, I think it tried too hard last night.
Earlier in the evening on NBC were lackluster comedies My Name is Earl (#3: 4.3/ 7) and Kath & Kim (#3: 3.7/ 6), from 8-9 p.m. And capping off the night was veteran ER at a second-place 6.3/11 in the overnights from 10-11 p.m. -- 19 percent above lead-in 30 Rock. Considering NBC’s ongoing woes, maybe the 15-year-old medical drama is worth keeping. As for Kath & Kim, Mr. TV has a new TV turkey this year!
CBS’ Survivor: Gabon won the 8 p.m. hour, with a 6.9/11 in the overnights. But compared to Survivor: China one year earlier (8.2/13 on Nov. 1, 2007), that was a decrease of 16 percent. Next on CBS was CSI at an 11.8/18 at 9 p.m. (the highest rated show of the evening), followed by Eleventh Hour at a dominant 8.1/13 at 10 p.m. Comparably, Eleventh Hour was down by 24 percent from year-ago occupant Without a Trace (10.7/18). In other words, this is not a drama that will necessarily break out.
ABC scored a now typical overnight Thursday performance with its combination of Ugly Betty (#2: 6.3/11), Grey’s Anatomy (#2: 9.9/15) and week four of Life on Mars (#3: 5.8/ 9). Expect Grey’s Anatomy to dominate among adults 18-49 once the fast nationals are posted at PIFeedback. As for Ugly Betty, too bad Lindsay Lohan was booted early because she definitely added some spice to the show.
Fox, which would have preferred a game seven of The World Series, filled the night with two repeat episodes of Kitchen Nightmares (#4: avg. 2.7/ 4 from 8-10 p.m.). And the CW capped off Thursday with veteran Smallville (3.1/ 5), which is still vying for a spot next season, and Supernatural (#5: 2.5/ 4), which still works relatively well at 9 p.m. despite the hefty competition. Looking ahead, there is no reason to believe the CW will abandon its strategy of airing sci-fi dramas on Thursday next season.
Source: Nielsen Media Research data _______________________________________________________________________________
Ratings Box: What’s Hot/What’s Not
-Record High The View on ABC: Based on ratings for the week of October 20, ABC’s The View rose to the most-watched week in its history in total viewers (4.24 million), and best among women 18-49 (967,000) in nine months. The Monday, Oct. 20 telecast, featuring the controversial Bill O’Reilly, peaked at 4.43 million viewers -- one of its 10 most-watched shows historically.
-Syndicated Court – Season to-Date Update: Six weeks into the 2008-09 season (9/01 – 10/12/08), here are the household rating results in syndicated court (with change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses). CBS Television Distribution’s Judge Judy stands head and shoulders above the rest, of course.
Judge Judy (CBS Television Distribution): 4.3 (- 9), Judge Joe Brown (CBS): 2.3 (-12), People’s Court (Warner Bros.): 2.1 (-13), Judge Mathis (Warner Bros.): 1.8 (-18), Judge Alex (Twentieth Television): 1.6 (- 6), Divorce Court (Twentieth): 1.5 (-17), Cristina’s Court (Twentieth): 1.1 (- 8), Judge Karen (Sony Pictures Television): 1.0, Judge David Young (SPT): 0.8 (no change), Family Court with Judge Penny (SPT): 0.6, Jury Duty (Radar Entertainment): 0.2 (no change)
Source: Nielsen Media Research data ________________________________________________________________________________
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On the Air This Weekend: Prime-Time Programming Options
-Fox Cancels King of the Hill: Fox’s King of the Hill, the second longest running animated sitcom in the history of television (behind The Simpsons), will be wrapping up production this spring after over 250 episodes. Waiting in the wings to replace King of the Hill are two new animated comedies -- Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show and Shut Down, Shut Up, which focuses on the lives of eight staff members at a high school in a small northeastern fishing town. Fox’s American Dad, meanwhile, which airs out of Family Guy, has been renewed for a fifth season.
-Election Day on Maury: Want to have some fun on Election Day this Tuesday, Nov. 4? Then tune into NBC Universal’s Maury for “Time to Vote! Born Man or Woman?,” where viewers at home can vote on whether the show’s guests are really men or women in disguise. Viewers can participate and have their vote counted by logging onto to http://mauryshow.com/.
Remember the sign that was on The Addams Family’s front lawn? What did it say?
a) "Beware of the Thing" b) “Cousin Itt’s Hangout” c) “Enter with Caution” d) “Lurch Lives Here” e) “Watch Out for Grandmama”
The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…
What was the name of the feline occupant on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch?
a) Cleo b) Josie c) Noelle d) Pepper e) Salem
Is: e) Salem, who always seemed to have something smart-alecky to say!
-Current kudos goes to: Gerry Bixenspan, Kimay Bloch, Ted Blumberg, Melanie Caselas, Larry Collins, Shelia Collins, Harold Cooper, Kay Copeland, Audrey Davis (2x), Reid Davis, Sue Doron, Chris Dykhuisen, Bob Eisenstaedt, Josh Emmett, John Ferlazzo (2x), Maya Garner, Maureen Goldman, Bill Graff, Michael Grewe, Joslyn Hansen, Sherrie Henstchel, Brad Hight, Mike Holland, Bob Ingersoll, David Jackino, Cara Jacobs, Mike Joliffe, Deb Kainer, Marie LeFevre Karp, Irene Kirschner, Synda Kollman, Andi Kupersmith, Stephen LaRue, Tom Lawrenson, Charmaine Leary, Lisa Montalvo, Beverly Morris, Joanne Albrecht Murnane, Michael Murphy, Tillie Nutter, Kimberley Orti, Scott Osbourne, Francine Purcell, Liza Reich, Connie Rigg, Lisa Tatum-Roehrig, Deanna Rosolen, Jay Rossi, Colleen Roth, Maureen Ruane, Joe Rubi, Neal Sabin (2x), Ron Salmon, Michelle Stanton, Myndi Weinraub, David Williams, Meg Williamson, Ted Zawislak
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marc Berman,
The good news for LOM is that it is doing something no other show has done out of GA recently, stabilize and actually grow. LOM will find an audience if allowed enough time. It's a good time to give LOM that back nine and talk about its weekly growth.
K&K is just dragging down the comedy numbers. How long until we will be seeing one hour MNIE episodes?
30 Rock did better than normal, but those numbers are not amazing for the amount of promos NBC ran on the show. Looks like it will just be 1 to 1.5 million more than MNIE. The Office has really fallen this season.
2 repeats of KN? Odd decision by FOX. Original aren't doing very well so repeats are just going to tank the numbers.
Considering NBC’s ongoing woes, maybe the 15-year-old medical drama is worth keeping.
Hell has frozen over! Yes I say keep ER!
Don't get too excited. Marc is just trying to sabotage ER now that I have pointed out to him that his ER bashing would lead towards renewal. Well, that and he is hedging his bets since NBC has already approached ER for additional episodes to add on to this season.
Come on, Marc, go back to bashing ER so it can have a guaranteed renewal.
NBC must keep 'ER'. Last night '30 Rock' was so much funny! I love that show! Great episode bouth 'Smallvile' & 'Supernatural'. This is the best night for The CW.
Originally posted by WlcmLAPD: 30 Rock did better than normal, but those numbers are not amazing for the amount of promos NBC ran on the show.
I agree with that. NBC has been pushing 30 Rock like it was the network's premiere show or like it was their top new Fall show. Usually, each network only pushes one or two top shows and one or two new shows this hard. The rest are expected to perform based upon their prior years of existence (hint for the OTH fans on why their show doesn't get quite the push of GG or 90210) or based upon word of mouth (I can't even think of any new Fall shows that went that route this year (maybe Life on Mars) because so few new shows were launched this season.
quote:
2 repeats of KN? Odd decision by FOX. Original aren't doing very well so repeats are just going to tank the numbers.
No time to promote any firstrun offerings because they may have had baseball last night, right?
Marc, I don't think a GA 18-49 is the sure bet as it once was. Last week CSI did beat it. GA likely will win since it got a bigger bump than CSI this week.
Quite a good start for 30 Rock. I'd expect it to follow the same track that Mad Men did... it'll take big drops in the next couple weeks but settle down at a little stronger than last year.
What K-Ville means by "The Office has really fallen this season" is that the first four episodes of this season (avg. 4.55 demo) are down by a catastrophic 4% from the first four episodes of last season (avg. 4.725 demo). I probably would've wanted to mention Earl's 19% demo drop in its first five episodes (2.68 vs. 3.30), but I guess it may have depended on which one I preferred creatively.
Viewership is way down this season. With these numbers, viewership is only one million above MNIE. Of course you conveniently forgot about those numbers. The numbers are catastrophic for an overhyped show less watched than 30 Rock.
quote:
Originally posted by spotupj: Quite a good start for 30 Rock. I'd expect it to follow the same track that Mad Men did... it'll take big drops in the next couple weeks but settle down at a little stronger than last year.
What K-Ville means by "The Office has really fallen this season" is that the first four episodes of this season (avg. 4.55 demo) are down by a catastrophic 4% from the first four episodes of last season (avg. 4.725 demo). I probably would've wanted to mention Earl's 19% demo drop in its first five episodes (2.68 vs. 3.30), but I guess it may have depended on which one I preferred creatively.
I agree about 30 Rock, but that is still not good enough.
quote:
Originally posted by spotupj: Quite a good start for 30 Rock. I'd expect it to follow the same track that Mad Men did... it'll take big drops in the next couple weeks but settle down at a little stronger than last year.
What K-Ville means by "The Office has really fallen this season" is that the first four episodes of this season (avg. 4.55 demo) are down by a catastrophic 4% from the first four episodes of last season (avg. 4.725 demo). I probably would've wanted to mention Earl's 19% demo drop in its first five episodes (2.68 vs. 3.30), but I guess it may have depended on which one I preferred creatively.
No...it sure isn't. I think viewers are quickly tiring of the dramatic nonsense on Grey's Anatomy.
quote:
Originally posted by Dean's_List: Marc, I don't think a GA 18-49 is the sure bet as it once was. Last week CSI did beat it. GA likely will win since it got a bigger bump than CSI this week.
-Record High The View on ABC: Based on ratings for the week of October 20, ABC’s The View rose to the most-watched week in its history in total viewers (4.24 million), and best among women 18-49 (967,000) in nine months. The Monday, Oct. 20 telecast, featuring the controversial Bill O’Reilly, peaked at 4.43 million viewers -- one of its 10 most-watched shows historically.
