Saturday 8/23/08

-Total Viewers:
NBC: 16.82 million, CBS: 4.82, Fox: 4.43, ABC: 3.31

-Adults 18-49:
NBC: 5.1 rating/16 share, CBS and Fox: 1.5/ 5 each, ABC: 0.9/ 3

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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-Ratings Breakdown:
NBC, of course, won Saturday with the final night of competition on the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing at an average 16.82 million viewers and a 5.1 rating/16 share in prime-time. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

2008 Summer Olympics
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 10.08 million, A18-49: 2.6/10
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 12.02 million, A18-49: 3.2/11
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 13.09 million, A18-49: 3.6/12
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 17.27 million, A18-49: 5.2/16
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 17.68 million, A18-49: 5.4/17
10:30 p.m. – Viewers: 16.82 million, A18-49: 6.3/20

Comparably, NBC beat the three competing networks combined on Saturday by 4.27 million viewers and 31 percent among adults 18-49.

NFL Preseason Football on CBS, Pittsburgh at Minnesota, finished a very distant second overall with an approximate 4.82 million viewers and a 1.5/ 3 among adults 18-49 (tied with Fox) from 8-11 p.m. Fox aired its perennial combination of Cops (Repeat, Viewers: #3, avg. 4.11 million; A18-49: #3, avg. 1.4/ 5) and America’s Most Wanted (Viewers: #3, 4.75 million; A18-49: #2, 1.6/ 5). And ABC ran repeat theatrical Madagascar (Viewers: #4, 3.67 million; A18-49: #4, 1.4/ 4 from 8-10 p.m.) and a repeat of Eli Stone (Viewers: #4, 2.59 million; A18-49: #4, 0.6/ 2) at 10 p.m. Once again, it was all about NBC.

Olympics have lost a lot of steam since Michael Phelps carried the 1st week, but still all in all have been a success.

Several of us chatting TV now:

I decided to watch Madagascar last night. It didn't do all that bad. Eli Stone on the other hand (again) dropped from it's lead in.

Madagascar is an incompatible lead-in for Eli Stone. In fact, anything on ABC airing after these kiddie movies is going to suffer.

Folks...I am doing a living chat on 90210 the day after it premieres at 12 p.m. Anyone interested?

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
Folks...I am doing a living chat on 90210 the day after it premieres at 12 p.m. Anyone interested?

I think 90210 will attract much initial interest...that's a great idea!

Its time to bring the chat room back to life now that the new season is just around the corner.

quote:

Originally posted by tvfan300:

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
Folks...I am doing a living chat on 90210 the day after it premieres at 12 p.m. Anyone interested?

I think 90210 will attract much initial interest...that's a great idea!

quote:

Originally posted by tvfan300:
Olympics have lost a lot of steam since Michael Phelps carried the 1st week, but still all in all have been a success.

The Summer Olympics certainly have lost steam in the second week. At this point, my tracking shows NBC is 4% ahead of their A18-49 numbers in Athens and 8% ahead in viewers (households will be reported on Monday). The Summer Olympics were doing better vis-a-vis Athens ahead at the end of the first week with all those Phelps-plumped up numbers.

That beings said, NBC has done an admirable job in building audiences over a four year period in an era of decline in broadcast audiences. None of the other networks have done a good job retaining their audiences from four years ago.

				
demo	web	demo	demo	%
Rank	web	2008	2004	chg
1	NBC	8.79	8.49	4%		
2	CBS	1.40	2.32	-40%		
3	FOX	1.16	1.90	-39%		
4	ABC	1.11	1.76	-37%		
5	CW/wb	0.58	0.99	-41%		
6	MNT/upn	0.45	1.03	-56%		
	total	13.49	16.48	-18%

viewers	web	viewers	viewers	viewers
rank	web	2008	2004	chg
1	NBC	26.788	24.706	8%
2	CBS	5.120	6.977	-27%
3	ABC	3.439	4.675	-26%
4	FOX	3.257	4.317	-25%
5	CW/wb	1.622	2.180	-26%
6	MNT/upn	1.200	2.382	-50%
	total	41.43	45.237	-8%
  

N.B. MNT is compared against UPN (roughly 2/3rds of UPN affiliates went to MNT) and The CW compared to The WB (2/3rds of WB affiliates went to CW). This is important to note because four years ago, UPN had the WWE Smackdown numbers factored into their averages, while this year, The CW has the Smackdown numbers within their average.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
Folks...I am doing a living chat on 90210 the day after it premieres at 12 p.m. Anyone interested?

Very much interested. 90210 is the only show I'm more anxious for than 24 this coming season.

How will those Olympic promo opportunities aid NBC this Fall?
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6589799.html

Apparently, only 13% of Olympic viewers are 'likely to watch' Kath&Kim. I wonder if the 13% is based upon regular/average Olympic viewership (about 28.6million) or on total Olympic viewership (over 200 million)? I'm guessing that NBC is looking at 13% of the 28.6million. They better hope that the show is much more popular with people that were non-Olympic viewers.

It seems to be obvious that in order to deliver huge ratings, the Olympics need 1)a compelling story, such as Phelps in week 1, and 2)live events. This is what drove ratings the 1st week, and caused big erosion the 2nd week. Also, this could mean that for the 2012 London Games, NBC could be looking at huge drop-offs because there will be no live events in prime time. With London 6 hours ahead of Eastern time, (8P-12Midnight here would be 2AM-6AM there) it would be impossible to have any live events in prime time. I found it so much more entertaining the 1st week when NBC was airing live, not just because I might know the outcome otherwise, but because of the way they covered it. For example, for taped events they would stretch the coverage for hours, mixing other events in between.

Folks...the fast affiliate results for Sunday are still delayed. Will out them up when they come in.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/tel...c6fecdaf0fa321a1ff81

American Idol will have a 4th judge next season: Kara DioGuardi

Hmmm, is this an attempt to tweek the show or a safety valve in case Paula can't make it through another season?

Side note for Marc: American Idol is the #1 show on TV. It really needs to have its own forum even if it isn't on this Fall. Also, it would be nice if 'lesser' shows like Reaper and 30 Rock could have their former forums (with the old posts) back as well. Thanks!

I will put one up for Idol now.

If they programmed correctly, why did the Olympics decrease last night? :P

Obveeus: Yes. Or maybe for gender balance. No, the former.