Prime-Time Ratings:
Wednesday 2/27/08

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

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 23.60 million, NBC: 9.73, CBS: 7.30, ABC: 6.55, CW: 2.94

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 8.9 rating/23 share, NBC: 2.6/ 7, ABC: 2.4/ 6, CBS: 2.2/ 6, CW: 1.5/ 4

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Supernanny (ABC), Law & Order (NBC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Wife Swap (ABC), Big Brother (CBS), Men in Trees (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by American Idol, Fox got over the “hump” in typically winning fashion, beating the four competing networks combined among adults 18-49. In the distant No. 2 Wednesday spot was NBC, with ABC and CBS sharing the No. 3 and 4 positions, and the CW a distant fifth.

Another 90-minute edition of American Idol opened the evening with a very healthy 27.36 million viewers and a 10.4 rating/26 share among adults 18-49, building in each half-hour as follows:

American Idol
8:00 p.m. Viewers: 24.82 million, A18-49: 9.3 rating/25 share
8:30 p.m. Viewers: 27.70 million, A18-49: 10.5/26
9:00 p.m. Viewers: 29.57 million, A18-49: 11.5/28

My picks to bid adieu tonight: Kady Malloy, Amanda Overmyer (who could be a good pick to play Lily if there is ever another remake of The Munsters), Luke Menard and Jason Yeager.

Although lead-out Back To You also dominated, with 12.30 million viewers and a 4.4/11 among adults 18-49 at 9:30 p.m., retention out of the last half of Idol was only 42 percent in total viewers and 38 percent among adults 18-49. That’s certainly not enough to list it as a winner.

NBC opened the evening with Deal or Deal second in both total viewers (9.39 million) and adults 18-49 (2.2/ 6) at 8 p.m. Next on the Peacock net was another repurposed episode of USA’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Viewers: #4, 8.34 million; A18-49: #4, 2.2/ 6), followed by old faithful Law & Order at a first-place 11.45 million viewers and a 3.4/ 9 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. Comparably, Law & Order built from Criminal Intent by a noticeable 3.11 million viewers and 55 percent in the demo.

CBS’ lackluster Big Brother 9 remained just that, at a mere 5.56 million viewers (#4) and a 2.1/ 5 among adults 18-49 (#3t) at 8 p.m. That led into a repeat of Criminal Minds at 8.37 million viewers (#2) and a 2.3/ 6 (#3) among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m. (#2), followed by a repeat of CSI: NY (Viewers: #2, 7.96 million; A18-49: #2, 2.3/ 6) at 10 p.m. Although CSI: NY was a repeat, let’s be honest: the whole CSI franchise is losing steam.

ABC had a typical Wednesday (and that is not necessarily a good thing) with its combination of Wife Swap (Viewers: #3, 5.63 million; A18-49: #3t, 2.1/ 5), Supernanny (Viewers: #3, 8.36 million; A18-49: #2, 3.3/ 8), which build by a significant 2.72 million viewers and 57 percent among adults 18-49 out of Wife Swap, and the return of Men in Trees (Viewers: #3, 5.66 million; A18-49: #3, 1.7/ 5). Did anyone even know that Men in Trees was back on the schedule?

Capping off the evening was the CW’s combination of America’s Next Top Model (Viewers: #5, 3.86 million; A18-49: #5, 2.0/ 5), which remains below average, and a repeat of Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious (Viewers: #5, 2.02 million; A18-49: #5, 1.0/ 2). Worth noting once again -- or not worth noting, perhaps -- were all five shows in the 8 p.m. hour of a non-scripted nature.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

American Idol down 10% from last year, that is not very healthy.

quote:

Although lead-out Back To You also dominated, with 12.30 million viewers and a 4.4/11 among adults 18-49 at 9:30 p.m., retention out of the last half of Idol was only 42 percent in total viewers and 38 percent among adults 18-49. That’s certainly not enough to list it as a winner.

Nice thing about these numbers is that it is mostly the same as last night's. A good sign that, perhaps, those that watched Tuesday's episodes like it enough to watch Wednesday's episode.

Supernanny absolutely deserves the winner label the way it's been performing opposite Idol -- especially the 3.3 demo!! And unfortunately this about seals the fate of MiT, with a paltry 1.7 in the demo!

quote:

a repeat of CSI: NY (Viewers: #2, 7.96 million; A18-49: #2, 2.3/ 6) at 10 p.m. Although CSI: NY was a repeat, let’s be honest: the whole CSI franchise is losing steam.

Losing Steam???

CSI is still top dog in the scripted series world.(Lets put those repeats of DH on sunday's and see). It still gets about 20 million per episode

CSI: NY, before the strike, had been trending up with its numbers. It premired at 12.7 million and had reached 14.36 million before the holidays. The repeats are taking their toll on this and CSI: Miami (which could go away).

CSI:Miami had been staying at that 15 - 15.5 million viewers each week before the strike.

With all thre getting new episodes on the air before the other networks, they will see a nice rebound from the repeatfest that was the Writers Strike.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
followed by old faithful Law & Order at a first-place 11.45 million viewers and a 3.4/ 9 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m.

Now this is a little more like it! I guess the rather overblown promos about a storyline that was kind of tacked on to the last quarter of the show worked well for them.

The MIT numbers look very similar to what the show did on Friday at 8pm, where many considered it mis-scheduled. So that's probably not good news for that show.

Cashmere Mafia has actually been averaging better than MiT did in its premiere.

At this point, if MiT is a lost cause, I'd rather move Wife Swap at 10pm, which is almost guaranteed to keep much more of the Supernanny lead-in than MiT has done. I know it's drastic to say this after 1 episode, but if MiT can only pull a 1.7 in its timeperiod premiere, there's no place to go but down. And Wife Swap had pulled in some of its best ratings on Wednesdays @ 10pm a few years ago.

quote:

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 23.60 million, NBC: 9.73, CBS: 7.30, ABC: 6.55, CW: 2.94

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 8.9 rating/23 share, NBC: 2.6/ 7, ABC: 2.4/ 6, CBS: 2.2/ 6, CW: 1.5/ 4

I think ABC should beable to keep a hold of 2nd place in the demo, but I think CBS did just enough to take #2 in viewers back from ABC.

But, what does it all matter. CBS, NBC and ABC all were about even for the month while FOX just dominated the Sweeps

Or that the same percentage just left their TV sets on after IDOL was over while they called and texted their friends to discuss the show and then voted for their favorites.

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:
Nice thing about these numbers is that it is mostly the same as last night's. A good sign that, perhaps, those that watched Tuesday's episodes like it enough to watch Wednesday's episode.

PS - Nice spin.

Top Model is still under 4 million viewers?

Uh oh.....the CW is just falling into oblivion, isn't it? Smackdown is the only thing earning more than 4 million viewers now, and it's leaving after this season.

"Men in Trees" makes "Cashmere Mafia" look like "Desperate Housewives."

Dick Wolf's gonna love going up against these men for the next 10 weeks.

quote:

Originally posted by Zitrone:
American Idol down 10% from last year, that is not very healthy.

Yes, at this rate it will no longer be the number one show in ... um, two or three years.

Given that CSI (the original) wasn't on last night, Marc clearly was referring to the CSI franchise. And yeah, that is losing steam. It's been overleveraged, and even something as formulaic and episodic as this can repeat the same tired material so many times that people just lose interest.

The way this works in TVLand is that something hits big, and then come the imitators--in this case, the people who made CSI managed to be their own #1 copycats (well, NCIS excluded), but the downside is that the shows are all too much alike, in spite of the regional flavorings, so that's going to speed up the fall of this absurd subgenre that does not remotely resemble actual law enforcement, or good crime fiction.

The way it ends is basically that the imitators go into decline, and the original show is often (not always) the last to leave. That's what happened with Gunsmoke inspiring the Adult Western genre. And the whole L&O/CSI deal is nothing compared to that craze. Never got half the audience #'s, either.

Copshows are with us always, but CSI hasn't even been around for a full decade yet. It's not immortal. Neither is William Petersen.

It's going to be interesting next week- when AI only does hour shows.

CBS seems like it's sticking with BB for the duration- a CBS win a trip to the finale contest has the finale scheduled for Apr 29th- and there was news of a twist coming next week at the end of the live show. It's rumored to be most likely to bring back some evictees and split the partnerships up so they can fill the remaining 9 weeks....

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:

quote:

a repeat of CSI: NY (Viewers: #2, 7.96 million; A18-49: #2, 2.3/ 6) at 10 p.m. Although CSI: NY was a repeat, let’s be honest: the whole CSI franchise is losing steam.

Losing Steam???

CSI is still top dog in the scripted series world.(Lets put those repeats of DH on sunday's and see). It still gets about 20 million per episode

CSI: NY, before the strike, had been trending up with its numbers. It premired at 12.7 million and had reached 14.36 million before the holidays. The repeats are taking their toll on this and CSI: Miami (which could go away).

CSI:Miami had been staying at that 15 - 15.5 million viewers each week before the strike.

With all thre getting new episodes on the air before the other networks, they will see a nice rebound from the repeatfest that was the Writers Strike.

That is just Marc being biased against CBS.