Prime-Time Ratings:
Thursday 10/29/09

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 17.12 million, CBS: 14.12, ABC: 10.54, NBC: 5.56, CW: 3.53

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 5.3 rating/14 share, ABC: 3.8/10, CBS: 3.5/ 9, NBC: 2.4/ 6, CW: 1.7/ 4

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Baseball World Series, Game 2 (Fox), Survivor: Samoa (CBS), The Vampire Diaries (CW), CSI (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), The Office (NBC), The Mentalist (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers:
Community (NBC), Parks and Recreation (NBC)

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Note: Any prior rating results are based on the final nationals. Since the level of DVR penetration has increased from 27 percent at this same point last year to approximately 33 percent at present, the overall results may be negatively impacted.

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Game two of The Baseball World Series lifted Fox to a solid (and rare) Thursday victory, with 3.00 million more viewers than the second most-watched network, CBS, and an advantage of 39 percent among adults 18-49 over the No. 2 network in the demo, ABC. But still respectable results for ABC and NBC exhibit the true power of broadcast television. In the distant No. 4 spot was NBC, followed by The CW.

The Yankees victory last night scored an estimated 17.12 million viewers and a 5.3 rating/14 share among adults 18-49 in primetime, with the half-hour breakdown as follows:

Baseball World Series, Game 2 (Fox)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 12.33 million (#1), A18-49: 4.9/14 (#1)
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 17.34 million (#1), A18-49: 5.1/14 (#1)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 17.22 million (#1), A18-49: 5.2/13 (#1)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 16.96 million (#1), A18-49: 5.3/13 (#1)
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 16.96 million (#1), A18-49: 5.7/15 (#1)
10:30 p.m. – Viewers: 17.03 million (#1), A18-49: 5.9/16 (#1)

One night earlier, game one of The World Series scored stellar 19.51 million viewers and a 6.3/17 among adults 18-49 on Wednesday, Oct. 28. As always, keep in mind that results for any live sporting event are approximate.

Despite facing baseball, CBS was on the map with is combination of Survivor: Samoa (Viewers: #2, 12.49 million; A18-49: #2, 3.7/10), CSI (Viewers: #2, 14.94 million; A18-49: #4, 3.4/ 8) and The Mentalist (Viewers: #2, 14.92 million; A18-49: #3, 3.5/ 9), which is a vast improvement over year-ago 10 p.m. occupant Eleventh Hour. ABC was only slightly below average, meanwhile, with its combination of FlashForward (Viewers: #3, 8.98 million; A18-49: #3, 2.7/ 8), Grey’s Anatomy (Viewers: #3, 13.42 million; A18-49: #2, 5.1/12) and Private Practice (Viewers: #3, 9.23 million; A18-49: #2, 3.6/ 9).

NBC, as always, had only one Thursday show worth positively noting, The Office, which always delivers among adults 18-49. But, personally speaking, 30 Rock was an absolute hoot last night. Community, which was just renewed for the full season, opened the evening for NBC with a distant fourth-place 5.48 million viewers and a 2.1/ 6 among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. Next was sophomore Parks and Recreation (Viewers: #4, 4.96 million; A18-49: #4, 2.1/ 5 at 8:30 p.m.), which also got a full season pick-up, followed by aforementioned The Office (Viewers: #4, 8.14 million; A18-49: #3, 4.2/10) and 30 Rock (Viewers: #4, 6.01 million; A18-49: #4, 3.0/ 7) from 9-10 p.m., and failing The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m. (Viewers: #4, 4.38 million; A18-49: #4, 1.6/ 4), which is a true embarrassment.

Last was The CW with scripted duo The Vampire Diaries (Viewers: #5, 4.19 million; A18-49: #5, 2.0/ 5), which is now being repeated out of America’s Next Top Model on Wednesday, and Supernatural (Viewers: #5, 2.88 million; A18-49: #5, 1.3/ 3), which should be maintaining more of The Vampire Diaries lead-in. Of note for The Vampire Diaries, which makes it a “winner,” was a series-high performance among adults 18-34 (2.3/ 7).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

VD it's a hit. 2.0 almost ties NBC's sitcom pairing. And also a "wow" at CSI-Mentalist's numbers. How more compatible two shows can be?

Not bad overall for any of the networks, really. NBC's lowered expectations at 8pm seem to be at a consistently "low" level - but at least they don't seem to be dropping.

FlashForward seemed to get dinged by baseball the most (from a demos standpoint at least...)

Private Practice STILL beating Mentalist in demos!

Despite the baseball, CBS had a good night and The Mentalist is slowly starting to catch up with CSI beating it in the demo and was only 0.1 apart from Private Practice.

The Vampire Diaries is doing great business for The CW, surely Dawn should get the message that the teen shows like Gossip Girl, 90210 and Melrose Place are not the key to success.

VD it's a teen show as well

VD might be a teen show, but it is NOTHING like those other shows.

Mark, i would like to point out that the overall trend for Baseball/World Series is in bearish trend.

The last 4 World series were the lowest in record, averaging about 15 million. The fact the game is averaging about 17-18 million on the National level is not a great thing for Baseball. In a country of 300 million, this shows why Baseball will further slide in ratings going into the next decade. Expect contraction for some Baseball teams due to this Great Recession/Depression. In the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, World Series used to score anywhere between 20.0-40.00 rating, something like 25 million to 40 million.

The fact that you have the Yankees, it is inflating the numbers by 20%-30%, plus Philadelphia being a TOP 10 market.

I wouldn't be surprised to the World Series averaging between 12-15 million going forward into the next decade, with possible spikes due to a major team like Yankees playing. For a game that is labeled as "America's Pastime", it appears that this is not the case anymore going forward. The game appears to be outdated, too slow, and too long.

Baseball has to cut the regular season, make the game faster, and reduce the innings played.

Media Life just reported that the 3.4 demo for CSI is a series low.

quote:

Originally posted by stingbee30:
Mark, i would like to point out that the overall trend for Baseball/World Series is in bearish trend.

The last 4 World series were the lowest in record, averaging about 15 million. The fact the game is averaging about 17-18 million on the National level is not a great thing for Baseball. In a country of 300 million, this shows why Baseball will further slide in ratings going into the next decade. Expect contraction for some Baseball teams due to this Great Recession/Depression. In the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, World Series used to score anywhere between 20.0-40.00 rating, something like 25 million to 40 million.

The fact that you have the Yankees, it is inflating the numbers by 20%-30%, plus Philadelphia being a TOP 10 market.

I wouldn't be surprised to the World Series averaging between 12-15 million going forward into the next decade, with possible spikes due to a major team like Yankees playing. For a game that is labeled as "America's Pastime", it appears that this is not the case anymore going forward. The game appears to be outdated, too slow, and too long.

Baseball has to cut the regular season, make the game faster, and reduce the innings played.

You've also got to remember that the past few World Series haven't had the most compelling teams (Tampa Bay in 2008 and Colorado in 2007 aren't going to draw a lot of national interest), plus they've been one-sided (since 2004 the Series went 4,4,5,4,and 5 games respectively).

MLB wants to have an afternoon WS game so there can be more kids watching- Fox doesn't, even a Sunday afternoon one because it doesn't make as much money for them as prime-time does. I agree they have to cut down the time between innings and the number of times there are conferences at the mound- a half-hour to play a half-inning isn't good at all. No way the owners give up any home date sales, so they won't cut the season down (that's why you don't see any traditional doubleheaders anymore either- they do day-night ones only if there are rainouts, and even then it's two different admissions)...

I'd rather see minor-league baseball in person than major-league anyway...a lot cheaper, and a lot more fun.

quote:

Originally posted by stingbee30:
Mark, i would like to point out that the overall trend for Baseball/World Series is in bearish trend.

The last 4 World series were the lowest in record, averaging about 15 million. The fact the game is averaging about 17-18 million on the National level is not a great thing for Baseball. In a country of 300 million, this shows why Baseball will further slide in ratings going into the next decade. Expect contraction for some Baseball teams due to this Great Recession/Depression. In the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, World Series used to score anywhere between 20.0-40.00 rating, something like 25 million to 40 million.

Like any major sporting event (with the possible exception of the Super Bowl), the ratings are largely dependent on the teams involved. I wouldn't really call it a "trend." This year's World Series matchup is a strong one, so it's boosting ratings.
It's absolutely ridiculous to compare the 2009 ratings with those from the 1970's.

I have to disagree. The game peaked at 10:30/11:00 after the game was 3 hours old so length of game is not an issue if its a good game, which last night's was. The last 4 series and most in the past decade have been pretty awful overall. If this one does go the distance I think we'll easily see 25 million for game 6 and over 30 million for game 7. not super bowl #s but proof that a good closely matched up series can still bring in good numbers.

quote:

Originally posted by stingbee30:
Mark, i would like to point out that the overall trend for Baseball/World Series is in bearish trend.

The last 4 World series were the lowest in record, averaging about 15 million. The fact the game is averaging about 17-18 million on the National level is not a great thing for Baseball. In a country of 300 million, this shows why Baseball will further slide in ratings going into the next decade. Expect contraction for some Baseball teams due to this Great Recession/Depression. In the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, World Series used to score anywhere between 20.0-40.00 rating, something like 25 million to 40 million.

The fact that you have the Yankees, it is inflating the numbers by 20%-30%, plus Philadelphia being a TOP 10 market.

I wouldn't be surprised to the World Series averaging between 12-15 million going forward into the next decade, with possible spikes due to a major team like Yankees playing. For a game that is labeled as "America's Pastime", it appears that this is not the case anymore going forward. The game appears to be outdated, too slow, and too long.

Baseball has to cut the regular season, make the game faster, and reduce the innings played.

CSI is having a great season quality wise. Might be a little too late though

quote:

Originally posted by a-mad:
Media Life just reported that the 3.4 demo for CSI is a series low.

And still good enough for renewal--but the writing is on the wall. The whole franchise will collapse within five years. And the whole 'criminal forensics expert as hero' thingy is likewise getting a bit ripe on the bough.

The only way for Leno to get off the loser's list is when Marc forgets to put it there!

The wedding seems to have given The Office a bit of long-term help (arguably even moreso than the Super Bowl airing), as it dipped below the 4 mark for a couple weeks there pre-wedding but is now squarely above it for the fourth straight week. And now way ahead of CSI in the demo.

Glad Vampire Diaries is showing some momentum as it's really the only CW show I'm enjoying at this point. I know the "slutty rich teen" police will come after me if I say this about Gossip Girl, but I actually think the show has been rather tame and boring this year. And it's always been tamer than the haters have thought. Credit the ad campaigns for that. Also, sending them to college really hurt, just like it does with a ton of teen dramas.

quote:

Originally posted by a-mad:
Media Life just reported that the 3.4 demo for CSI is a series low.

CSI ended the last season with a 3.4 in the demo. Not surprised at that number last night in lieu of the fact they were competing against the World Series. I suspect the dvr for CSI, The Office, and GA will be up this week.
CSI was a good, solid episode last nite. This season the writing has improved, Jorja Fox is back, and I think the erosion since Petersen left has ebbed. The show seems to have settled in at 15 million+ viewers, and upper 3's in the demo. I expect some peaks and valleys, but it still is a winner on this competitive night.