-Yesterday’s Winners: Survivor: Tocatins (CBS), CSI (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), The Office (NBC), Private Practice (ABC)
-Disappointing: My Name is Earl (NBC), Ugly Betty (ABC)
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): Kath & Kim (NBC), The 40th Annual NAACP Awards (Fox), ER (NBC)
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-Ratings Breakdown: It was a Thursday of split leadership, with CBS the most-watched network (with 1.98 million viewers more than second-place ABC), and ABC No. 1 among adults 18-49 (with a 15 percent advantage over CBS in the demo). NBC was third overall in both categories, followed by Fox and a night of repeats on the CW.
The latest edition of CBS’ long-running Survivor franchise, Tocatins – The Brazilian Highlands, opened with a dominant 13.79 million viewers and a 4.4 rating/13 share among adults 18-49 from 8-9 p.m. Comparably, that was right on par with the season-premiere of the Gabon edition last fall (Viewers: 13.06 million; A18-49: 4.5/11 on Sept. 25, 2008, based on the final nationals). Amazingly, this is the 18th edition of Survivor.
Tied for the No. 2 and 3 spots in the 8 p.m. hour were NBC’s My Name and Earl and the canceled Kath & Kim and ABC’s hiatus-bound Ugly Betty. Take a look:
Thursday 8-9 p.m. My Name Is Earl (NBC) – 8 p.m. Viewers: 6.30 million (#3), A18-49: 2.6/ 8 (#2)
Kath & Kim (NBC) – 8:30 p.m. Viewers: 5.48 million (#3), A18-49: 2.4/ 6 (#3)
Coming up on ABC in the time period on March 26 is new sitcom In the Motherhood and the returning Samantha Who? Ugly Betty will be returning later in the season and is likely to be renewed for the 2009-10 season to have enough episodes for off-network syndication.
Annual special The 40th Annual NAACP Awards was a lackluster option on Fox, meanwhile, at a mere (and fourth-place) 4.23 million viewers and a 1.4/ 4 among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m. And the CW was in repeats last night with aging core favorites Smallville (Viewers: #5, 2.39 million; A18-49: #5, 0.9/ 3) and Supernatural (Viewers: #5, 1.98 million; A18-49: #5, 0.8/ 2).
Despite the absence of William Petersen, CBS’ veteran CSI remains the show to beat in total viewers, while Grey’s Anatomy on ABC (another crossover with Private Practice) was first among adults 18-49. Take a look:
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) Viewers: 15.07 million (#2), A18-49: 5.9/14 (#1)
You can relax, now CBS. CSI is still rock-solid.
NBC’s competing The Office, meanwhile, got plenty of mileage among adults 18-49 with a healthy third-place 4.6/11 in the demo (and 8.89 million viewers, also third). An hilarious episode of lead-out 30 Rock followed with 7.72 million viewers (#3) and a 3.8/ 9 among adults 18-49 (#3). Worth noting for The Office was growth out of Kath & Kim of 3.41 million viewers and 92 percent in the demo. That makes it a “winner.”
ABC’s Private Practice benefited by another crossover from Grey’s Anatomy, with a dominant 14.15 million viewers and a 5.8/15 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. Needless to say, the added exposure will help but there cannot be a crossover episode every week. Second was also hiatus bound Eleventh Hour on CBS (Viewers: 11.04 million; A18-49: 2.7/ 7), followed by NBC’s soon-to-conclude ER (Viewers: #3, 7.25 million; A18-49: #3, 2.6/ 7), which should have ended three seasons ago. Does anyone even care that George Clooney is making an upcoming guest appearance?
ABC - I can't wait to see how "Private Practice" will do on its own now.
CBS - It is amazing how well "Survivor" has held up over the years.
NBC - I'm so sad that "The Office" has not seen any extra strength post Superbowl. Perhaps if they would have aired the first half of "Lecture Circuit" and ended with the to be continued and then aired the second part of "Lecture Circuit" it would have helped... who knows?
The CW - I have always found it amazing that repeat episodes of "Smallville" nearly beat out "Gossip Girl", "90210", "One Tree Hill", I know not in the demo--but in total viewers.
Does anyone think CBS could not bring back Eleventh Hour? It doesn't seem like many like it and it may only be surviving because of CSI in front of it. I know it's going off early to accomidate Harpers Island but is this a show that CBS wants to continue to stick with ? You can't argue the numbers as a whole are good but not overwhelming and the quality of the show doesn't dictate a long term hit.
Posts: 68 | Location: PHL | Registered: 15 February 2008
There is no way Eleventh Hour is coming back. With so few holes to fill, CBS will no longer waste the plum Thursday 10 p.m. hour on this. I would schedule the NCIS spin-off here.
quote:
Originally posted by ynot716: Thanks Marc,
Does anyone think CBS could not bring back Eleventh Hour? It doesn't seem like many like it and it may only be surviving because of CSI in front of it. I know it's going off early to accomidate Harpers Island but is this a show that CBS wants to continue to stick with ? You can't argue the numbers as a whole are good but not overwhelming and the quality of the show doesn't dictate a long term hit.
That said, I imagine the CW will do everything it can to get Smallville back next season.
quote:
Originally posted by William: ABC - I can't wait to see how "Private Practice" will do on its own now.
CBS - It is amazing how well "Survivor" has held up over the years.
NBC - I'm so sad that "The Office" has not seen any extra strength post Superbowl. Perhaps if they would have aired the first half of "Lecture Circuit" and ended with the to be continued and then aired the second part of "Lecture Circuit" it would have helped... who knows?
The CW - I have always found it amazing that repeat episodes of "Smallville" nearly beat out "Gossip Girl", "90210", "One Tree Hill", I know not in the demo--but in total viewers.
NBC had an uptick in all their comedies last night. The Office was up last night (isn't it weird how it saw no growth the week after the Superbowl, yet did this week) and so was 30 Rock surprisingly. ER - it's been declining lately, and with the series finale approaching, shouldn't it be going the opposite direction?
And wow to Private Practice - too bad their couldn't be a crossover every week. But very impressive numbers. ABC hasn't had a lead-out do that well out of Grey's Anatomy ever. And who knows - maybe some of those extra viewers will stick around for good. Ugly Betty, on the other hand, needs to go. I'd even think about giving it a new timeslot for next season.
CBS had another great hour of Survivor, which even with its aging, isn't going anywhere. CSI was down a bit, and the surprising thing is, The Mentalist will be CBS's highest rated show of the week. That's fantastic for CBS, finally finding a new show people (including myself) want to watch.
I bet FOX missed Bones/Hell's Kitchen last night. Those NAACP Awards are always low-rated for them.
Originally posted by Marc Berman: Does anyone even care that George Clooney is making an upcoming guest appearance?
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
Most definitely, yes! I think the best is yet to come, with Noah Wyle also scheduled to return in a few episodes. I don't care that much for the new characters, but with Doug and Carol and Carter returning, I can't wait.
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