FOX Holds Commanding Lead After Two Weeks of the 2008 February Sweep: After two weeks of the February Sweep, FOX holds a commanding lead over the other networks in all key measures. The mammoth FOX lead over its rivals has been fueled by the enormous, record-breaking Super Bowl numbers, the powerhouse American Idol numbers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and reliable ratings strength on every other night.
In nightly wins for the young audience A18-49 demo that advertisers crave to place commercials within, FOX has the most nightly wins having beaten the other networks on nine out of 14 nights so far (one tie), followed by NBC with three nightly wins (one tie also). FOX's 8.64 average in the young demo is more than the five-network combined average of 8.52.
After two weeks, ABC holds a narrowing 0.17 advantage over NBC for second place in the A18-49 demo, while NBC in turn is only 0.07 ahead of CBS in fourth. However, CBS has a firm grip on second place in households and viewership.
After two weeks, FOX is at roughly double what its numbers were last year. MyNetworkTV is also showing significant double-digit year-over-year upward movement. All the remaining networks are showing significant double-digit year-over-year slippage, with NBC showing the least year-over-year slippage (-18% in demo, -15% in households, and -14% in viewers) while CBS, who were last year's Super Bowl broadcaster, is faring worst (-64% in demo, -51% in households, -14% in viewers) due to its large proportion of encore programming as a result of the writers strike.
After two weeks, the six networks are showing smaller-than-expected (given the strike) year-over-year erosion: the young adult demo down by -10%, households are down by -9% on a year-over-year basis, while viewership is down by -7% year-over-year.
nights nights
demo web demo demo % won won
Rank web 2008 2007 chg 2008 2007
1 FOX 8.64 4.65 86% 9 7
2 ABC 2.49 3.43 -27% 2 2
3 NBC 2.39 2.90 -18% 3
4 CBS 2.32 6.44 -64% 1 5
5 CW 0.85 1.31 -35%
6 MNT 0.48 0.27 78%
total 17.16 18.99 -10% 15 14
nights nights
HH web HH HH HH won won
rank web 2008 2007 chg 2008 2007
1 FOX 11.6 6.7 73% 9 5
2 CBS 5.4 11.0 -51% 3 8
3 ABC 4.7 5.8 -19% 2 1
4 NBC 4.7 5.5 -15% 2 1
5 CW 1.5 2.1 -30%
6 MNT 0.8 0.5 51%
total 28.7 31.6 -9% 16 15
nights nights
viewers web viewers viewers viewers won won
rank web 2008 2007 chg 2008 2007
1 FOX 22.420 11.444 96% 8 5
2 CBS 8.273 19.200 -57% 2 8
3 ABC 7.378 9.053 -18% 2 1
4 NBC 7.275 8.499 -14% 2
5 CW 2.249 3.255 -31%
6 MNT 1.229 0.786 56%
total 48.83 52.24 -7% 14 14
This years and last years numbers are based upon final Nielsen numbers, except for last nights data which is based on FAST national numbers.
