Prime-Time Ratings:
Thursday 3/20/08

The following results are based on the fast affiliate ratings (Live Plus Same Day data)

-Total Viewers:
NBC: 8.64 million, CBS: 8.45, ABC: 8.37, Fox: 7.91, CW: 3.18

-Adults 18-49:
CBS: 3.3 rating/9 share, ABC: 3.0/ 9, NBC: 2.8/ 8, Fox: 2.4/ 7, CW: 1.3/ 4

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Deal or No Deal (NBC), Lost (ABC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Miss Guided (ABC), Lipstick Jungle (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
NBC scored a rare Thursday victory in total viewers, while basketball ignited CBS finished first among adults 18-49. Day 1 of 2008 NCAA Basketball, the First Round on CBS averaged a depressed 8.45 million viewers and a 3.3 rating/9 share among adults 18-49. Comparatively, the year-ago match-ups averaged 10.48 million viewers and a 3.8/11 in the demo. Do the math and this is a loss of 2.03 million viewers and 13 percent among adults 18-49.

In time period premiere news, the results were not positive for ABC sitcom Miss Guided, which aired in back-to-back episodes from 8-9 p.m. Take a look:

Miss Guided (ABC)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 6.34 million (#4), A18-49: 2.1/ 7 (#2t) – time period premiere
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 6.34 million (#4), A18-49: 2.3/ 7 (#3)

On average, the two episodes of Miss Guided were down by a massive 4.07 million viewers and 31 percent among adults 18-49 from regularly scheduled occupant Ugly Betty on the year-ago evening (Viewers: 10.41 million; A18-49: 3.2/10 on March 22, 2007).

Also in the 8 p.m. hour was NBC’s dominant Deal or No Deal (Viewers: #1, 10.21 million; A18-49: #1, 3.3/10), which is sitting in for former occupants My Name is Earl and 30 Rock, Fox’s below average Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Viewers: #3, 7.31 million; A18-49: #4, 2.1/ 7), and the CW’s depressed Smallville (Viewers: #5, 3.41 million; A18-49: #5, 1.4/ 4).

First in the 9 p.m. hour was ABC’s Lost, at 11.28 million viewers and a 4.4/12 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that built from the 8:30 p.m. portion of Miss Guided by a hefty 4.94 million viewers and 91 percent in the demo. Second was the 9-10 portion of basketball on CBS (Viewers: 9.91 million; A18-49: 3.8/10), followed by the second-to-last episode of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice (Viewers: 8.62 million; A18-49: 3.1/ 8), Fox’s Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Viewers: 8.51 million; A18-49: 2.7/ 7), and the CW’s Reaper (Viewers: 2.95 million; A18-49: 1.2/ 3), which maintained 86 percent of it Smallville lead-in. Worth noting for Don’t Forget the Lyrics was growth out of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? of 1.20 million viewers and 29 percent among adults 18-49.

At 10 p.m., ABC’s on-the-fence Eli Stone finished first in total viewers (7.54 million) and third among adults 18-49 (2.5/ 7). The season ( or series) finale of NBC’s Lipstick Jungle was third in total viewers (7.09 million) and second among adults 18-49 (2.6/ 7). And the 10-11 p.m. portion of basketball on CBS averaged 7.15 million viewers (#2) and a first-place 2.8/ 8 in the demo. All in all, that’s pretty unimpressive overall.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Ouch for Lost.

I am very upset with the fact that LOST is so low. it was a tremendous episode last night. hopefully it goes up after greys next month

-lipstick jungle seemed to do better than previous weeks.
-FOX still doing pretty good with those shows. DFTL is doing really well compared to former occupants of that timeslot
- very poor for miss/guided. ABC cant seem to produce a funny enough show. Eli Stone i think should be renewed. its been consistent at around 7.5m for about 4 weeks now. They should renew it and move it to Tues. next year
-The Apprentice had some good gains too

I like Lost more and more this season, yet the ratings are plummeting. Perhaps the public is getting tired of the whole thing?

And FOX Thursday gameshows did poorly, if LJ is a loser, so are they.

It appears that despite more viewers for a lead in, Miss Guided's incompatibility with Lost kind of hurt it a bit. The fact that it was Maundy Thursday and that basketball was on may have took some viewers too. Or they may have been DVRing the ep. Either way I don't really care and I think Lost will do just fine behind Greys here soon. Very happy to see Eli Stone holding strong and for Reaper to see some week to week growth. Not surprised NBC held off DOND last night in order to air it tonight. Seemed to work out alright. Kudos to Celebrity Apprentice and the soon-to-be cancelled Lipstick Jungle, which shouldn't survive this season. Basketball did about what I thought it would. Happy Holiday weekend to those of you celebrating Easter and Passover!

What the devil happened to Smallville? It must have been a Lana heavy episode. I swear, sometimes I wonder if Smallville gets a second half hour boost from Supernatural nielsen viewers who turn on their sets about 10 minutes early and thus get counted for the second half hour for Smallville. Isn't 3.41 million a series low? Smallville always falls in the spring because they go Clark and Lana heavy, but wow.

Come on Reaper, little more break the 3 mil mark again...

quote:

Originally posted by galveston:
What the devil happened to Smallville? It must have been a Lana heavy episode. I swear, sometimes I wonder if Smallville gets a second half hour boost from Supernatural nielsen viewers who turn on their sets about 10 minutes early and thus get counted for the second half hour for Smallville. Isn't 3.41 million a series low? Smallville always falls in the spring because they go Clark and Lana heavy, but wow.

Yes. Smallville was getting a boost from a show that brought in less viewers than it did. The show is sinking because 1)the CW sucks at promotion and 2) the show is old and should be ending.

The CW just can't catch a break these days. ANTM is down, so is Smallville. And their so-called "breakout hit" Everybody Hates Chris is down each season and now barely breaks 2 million.

And for some reason they dropped WWE Smackdown! which is always a solid performer for those TV dead fridays.

They're really hitting rock bottom.

They handpicked The WB and UPN's top shows and somehow managed to end up getting worse ratings than either of those networks.

I knew I made the right decision not watching Lost. I hear it sucks like usual. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm not surprised it's hemorrhaging viewers. It did last season. Why not this season?

quote:

Originally posted by galveston:
What the devil happened to Smallville? It must have been a Lana heavy episode. I swear, sometimes I wonder if Smallville gets a second half hour boost from Supernatural nielsen viewers who turn on their sets about 10 minutes early and thus get counted for the second half hour for Smallville. Isn't 3.41 million a series low? Smallville always falls in the spring because they go Clark and Lana heavy, but wow.

Lana was only on about 5 minutes total. I was wondering where she disapeared to.

I'm surprised too, it was a very good episode - not sure where all the fans went.

Watched a bit of MG, ehh

quote:

Originally posted by MoMo19947:
Come on Reaper, little more break the 3 mil mark again...

Hopefully with no Lost, next week's the week!

quote:

Originally posted by Hunter:
The CW just can't catch a break these days. ANTM is down, so is Smallville. And their so-called "breakout hit" Everybody Hates Chris is down each season and now barely breaks 2 million.

And for some reason they dropped WWE Smackdown! which is always a solid performer for those TV dead fridays.

They're really hitting rock bottom.

They handpicked The WB and UPN's top shows and somehow managed to end up getting worse ratings than either of those networks.

The problem is they didn't hand pick the top shows. They left out Everwood, foolishly believed 7th Heaven fans would return after a series finale, and left off half the African American comedies that made UPN.

Wow, Reaper gets to compete with no lost or CSI next week? Some shows get all the luck. With Smallville as a lead in, though, I wouldn't count on it. Hee hee.

quote:

Originally posted by galveston:
I knew I made the right decision not watching Lost. I hear it sucks like usual. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm not surprised it's hemorrhaging viewers. It did last season. Why not this season?

That's all a matter of opinion. I personally am enjoying Lost and DVR numbers are showing that most of the audience is still around.