Prime-Time Ratings:
Saturday 4/19/08

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 5.48 million, CBS: 5.22, ABC: 4.62, NBC: 3.80

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 1.8 rating/6 share, ABC: 1.6/ 5, CBS: 1.1/ 4, NBC: 0.8/ 3

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Note: Any prior rating results are based on the final nationals. Since the level of DVR penetration has increased from 13 percent at this same point last year to approximately 23 percent at present, the overall results may be negatively impacted.

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-Saturday’s Winners:
Nothing

-Saturday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
The night overall. Pathetic, isn’t it?

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-Friday’s Winners:
Nothing; not a single series cracked 10 million viewers, and the highest rated among adults 18-49 was CBS’ Ghost Whisperer at just a 2.3 rating/ 9 share in the demo.

-Friday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Duel (ABC), 20/20 (ABC) and the night overall

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-Ratings Breakdown:
CBS won this first Friday of the May 2008 sweeps, with a non-spectacular first-place finish in every half-hour care of Ghost Whisperer (Viewers: 9.00 million; A18-49: 2.3 rating/9 share), Moonlight (Viewers: 7.99 million; A18-49: 2.1/ 6) and Numb3rs (Viewers: 9.61 million; A18-49: 2.2/ 7). Comparably, however, Moonlight versus older skewing year-ago occupant Close to Home (Viewers: 9.16 million; A18-49: 2.1/ 7 on April 27, 2007) was only equal among adults 18-49 (and down by 1.17 million total viewers).

Despite kicking off the May sweeps, 27 percent of Friday’s schedule was repeats and 62 percent was non-scripted programming.

NBC finished a distant second overall with its combination of a one-hour repeat of Most Outrageous Moments (Viewers: #3, 3.96 million; A18-49: #5, 0.9/ 3 from 8-9 p.m.) and a two-hour edition of Dateline (Viewers: 6.69 million; A18-49: 1.9/ 6 from 9-11 p.m.).

ABC was third in total viewers, but fifth among adults 18-49 as a result of a repeat of America’s Funniest Home Videos (Viewers: #2, 5.02 million; A18-49: #2, 1.3/ 5), waiting-to-be canceled game show Duel (Viewers: #5, 3.73 million; A18-49: #5, 1.0/ 3), and 20/20 (Viewers: #3, 4.98 million; A18-49: #3, 1.6/ 5). Without the benefit of a decent lead-in, 20/20 is floundering.

The CW’s departing Friday Night Smackdown! was on the map, with 4.21 million viewers (#4) and a third-place 1.3/ 4 among adults 18-49 (tied with Fox). And repeat theatrical 13 Going on 30 on Fox scored a minimal 3.80 million viewers (#5) and a 1.3/ 4 in the demo (#3t) from 8-10 p.m. The sad reality of Friday remains declining HUT levels, a reflection of network programming viewers are not interested in watching.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marc Berman,

Ewww! I think you should just take a hiatus on Saturdays, Marc, because there's really nothing to discuss these days (sadly).

It looks like by next year, it's going to be tough for networks to even average a 1 in the demo. I wouldn't be surprised if the networks just handed over Saturday nights to their affiliates and let them program the night as they choose.

It seems to get worse every week, doesn't it?

quote:

Originally posted by CanadianTVFan:
Ewww! I think you should just take a hiatus on Saturdays, Marc, because there's really nothing to discuss these days (sadly).

It looks like by next year, it's going to be tough for networks to even average a 1 in the demo. I wouldn't be surprised if the networks just handed over Saturday nights to their affiliates and let them program the night as they choose.

Marc, you wrote NBC as third in viewers and second in demo in the description, when it was last in both categories. Just letting you know.

quote:

Originally posted by CanadianTVFan:
It looks like by next year, it's going to be tough for networks to even average a 1 in the demo. I wouldn't be surprised if the networks just handed over Saturday nights to their affiliates and let them program the night as they choose.

The only problem with that idea is that the networks will want to broadcast sports on Saturday nights.

Every week it is the same story. Saturday's are terrible and networks aren't doing anything to improve the ratings. If they were serious, the networks could improve Saturdays by still keeping it cheap and appealing to the people who watch TV on Saturday.

As stated last week, ABC could do:

8:00 Oprah's Big Give
9:00 Supernanny
10:00 Welcome to the Newlyweds

CBS could do:

8:00 Price Is Right
9:00 48 Hours
10:00 Dexter

NBC could do

8:00 American Gladiators (tap into the sports crowd on Saturday)
9:00 Dateline (2 hours)

FOX does pretty well on Saturdays and could keep their Cops/AMW lineup. If they wanted to switch it up, they could add one of their reality shows or Bad Dads.

One problem the networks might have were they to go more for sports on Saturday nights is that in many local markets, such telecasts would be badly beaten by local telecasts of hometown pro sports teams.

I would suspect that last night (April 26th), the top-rated primetime program in most major markets was a local Major League Baseball game.

In Philadelphia, last night's top-rated show was likely the Stanley Cup playoff game between the Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens.

And in Boston, Atlanta, Houston, and Salt Lake City, the top-rated program of the night was probably coverage of the local NBA team's playoff game.

One other thought:

Could the rising prices of gasoline, movie tickets, and restaurant food keep more people at home on Saturday nights over the next few months (or maybe the next year)??

That could open a "window of opportunity" for a network to do something and be able to attract viewers.

On the other hand, even if more people do stay home on Saturday nights, the winners may not be the networks, but video-on-demand services on many cable systems, Netflix, services that will allow one (for a fee) to download and burn movies from your PC onto DVD-R's to play in your DVD player, as well as local stations and regional cable sports channels carrying games of hometown professional sports teams.

Let's face it. The reason why Saturday-night television viewership has plunged in recent years is that far fewer people are staying home on Saturday nights than during the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, and early 1990's.

To fight back, networks will need to find compelling programming that will make people want to stay home on Saturday nights.

With good programming there won't be any troble getting at least Friday type of numbers. But the network just don't want to even try.

Wow, last night was VERY exciting!

CBS, put PIR on the night to actually give us something to watch.

I think reality honestly has had so much overkill here recently that most of what you're suggesting wouldn't be profitable. And I don't see people staying in to watch Oprah's Big Give or even American Gladiators. The Price is Right is pretty older skewing so it would probably do alright and I even like the usage of Dexter but I just don't see people caring about cheap reality enough to improve the night. It would take a half decent set of dramas to get back to Friday levels (and for some networks thats not saying much) but nevertheless, stuff like Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, and even Las Vegas would've done no worse this year on Saturday than they did on Friday imo.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmBlueBloodWorstEnemy:
Every week it is the same story. Saturday's are terrible and networks aren't doing anything to improve the ratings. If they were serious, the networks could improve Saturdays by still keeping it cheap and appealing to the people who watch TV on Saturday.

As stated last week, ABC could do:

8:00 Oprah's Big Give
9:00 Supernanny
10:00 Welcome to the Newlyweds

CBS could do:

8:00 Price Is Right
9:00 48 Hours
10:00 Dexter

NBC could do

8:00 American Gladiators (tap into the sports crowd on Saturday)
9:00 Dateline (2 hours)

FOX does pretty well on Saturdays and could keep their Cops/AMW lineup. If they wanted to switch it up, they could add one of their reality shows or Bad Dads.

That is exactly the problem. People would be willing to watch TV but networks haven't programmed anything of interest.

quote:

Originally posted by robert:
With good programming there won't be any troble getting at least Friday type of numbers. But the network just don't want to even try.

Part of me thinks CBS should bring back Dexter edited next fall for Saturdays and move 48 Hours up an hour. Lead off the night with a beginnings franchise of one of their crime franchises. Criminal Minds or CSI:NY would both be alright options and the episodes would be pretty old so viewers wouldn't necessarily remember everything.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmBlueBloodWorstEnemy:
That is exactly the problem. People would be willing to watch TV but networks haven't programmed anything of interest.

quote:

Originally posted by robert:
With good programming there won't be any troble getting at least Friday type of numbers. But the network just don't want to even try.

To put these numbers in perspective, there are 300+ millions Americans. Less than 6% of them cared enough to watch anything on network TV last night.

Maybe DVR hurts weekend programs even more than other nights. People catch up on what they missed during the week (good shows) instead of watching the Friday-Saturday crap.

Viewing hasn't plunged on Saturdays. If you work out the averages using share numbers, viewership on Saturdays is only about 20% less than on Thursdays. This week, the 4 nets combined for a 5.3/18 in adults 18-49 and a 14.0/38 on Thursday. Working it out, that means that total HUT in adults 18-49 was 29.4/100, and 36.8/100 on Thursday, meaning that Saturday 18-49 HUT was 20.1% lower on Saturday than Thursday. But the network numbers don't bare that out at all. The problem with Saturdays is that the networks have given up programming it. Theoretically, if they programmed Saturdays with the same vigor as Thursdays, the networks could combine for a 11.1 rating in adult 18-49, meaning a 2.8 rating average for each of the networks. There would definitely be space for at least a 5.0 demo show.

quote:

Originally posted by Joseph:
One other thought:

Could the rising prices of gasoline, movie tickets, and restaurant food keep more people at home on Saturday nights over the next few months (or maybe the next year)??

That could open a "window of opportunity" for a network to do something and be able to attract viewers.

On the other hand, even if more people do stay home on Saturday nights, the winners may not be the networks, but video-on-demand services on many cable systems, Netflix, services that will allow one (for a fee) to download and burn movies from your PC onto DVD-R's to play in your DVD player, as well as local stations and regional cable sports channels carrying games of hometown professional sports teams.

Let's face it. The reason why Saturday-night television viewership has plunged in recent years is that far fewer people are staying home on Saturday nights than during the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, and early 1990's.

To fight back, networks will need to find compelling programming that will make people want to stay home on Saturday nights.

According to this Please Stop Blaming Lousy Weekend Ratings on Lower PUT Levels it's the programming choices not the number of viewers that are to blame for the low ratings.