Prime-Time Ratings:
Thursday 3/01/07

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

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 25.31 million, CBS: 14.17, ABC: 8.09, NBC: 6.20, CW: 2.51

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 9.9 rating/24 share, CBS: 4.2/11, ABC: 2.9/ 7, NBC: 2.8/ 7, CW: 1.0/ 2

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Fox), CSI R (CBS), Shark R (CBS)

-Honorable Mention:
Survivor: Fiji (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
30 Rock (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
With repeats running rampant, Fox’s original combination of the American Idol results show (Viewers: 27.14 million; A18-49: 10.4 rating/26 share) and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Viewers: 23.48 million; A18-49: 9.4/22) stood head and shoulders above the competition. Based on the first three nights, it certainly looks like Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is the real deal. Take a look:

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?:
(*Tuesday and Wednesday are based on the final nationals, Thursday is the fast nationals)

-Tuesday, Feb. 27 (P) – 9:30 p.m. - Viewers: 26.48 million; A18-49: 11.2/26
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 86 percent, A18-49: 92 percent

-Wednesday, Feb. 28 – 9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 23.37 million; A18-49: 9.7/23
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 78 percent, A18-49: 82 percent

-Thursday, March 1 – 9 p.m. – Viewers: 23.48 million; A18-49: 9.4/22
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 87 percent, A18-49: 90 percent

Over at CBS, Survivor: Fiji is down, but not out opposite American Idol, with a solid second-place finish in both total viewers (14.74 million) and adults 18-49 (5.0/13) at 8 p.m. That led into repeats of CSI (Viewers: #2, 15.72 million; A18-49: #2, 4.3/10) and Shark (Viewers: #1, 12.06 million; A18-49: #1, 3.2/ 9) from 9-11 p.m.

A night of repeats on ABC -- Ugly Betty (Viewers: #3, 7.01 million; A18-49: #4, 2.2/ 5), Grey’s Anatomy (Viewers: #3, 10.47 million; A18-49: #3, 3.9/ 9) and Men in Trees (Viewers: #3, 6.80 million; A18-49: #2, 2.6/ 7) -- were on par with typical non-original levels. Now that the February sweeps is over, get used to the word repeat!

Speaking of that pesky word, NBC opened the evening with repeats of My Name is Earl (Viewers: #3, 7.42 million; A18-49: #3, 3.0/ 8) and The Office (Viewers: #4, 6.54 million; A18-49: #3, 3.0/ 7) from 8-9 p.m., followed by original episodes of Scrubs (Viewers: #4, 6.80 million; A18-49: #4, 3.4/ 8) and the hiatus-bound 30 Rock (Viewers: #4, 5.58 million; A18-49: #4, 2.7/ 6) from 9-10 p.m. A repeat of The Black Donnellys capped off the evening for NBC with 5.42 million viewers (#3) and a 2.4/ 7 among adults 18-49 (#3) at 10 p.m. Since The Programming Insider was on hiatus when The Black Donnellys debuted, note that it opened nationally on Monday, Feb. 26 at 10 p.m. with just 7.93 million viewers (#3) and a 3.2/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#3). Retention out of lead-in Heroes (Viewers: 14.42 million; A18-49: 6.5/15 at 9 p.m.) was a weak 55 percent in total viewers and 49 percent among adults 18-49.

Repeats of the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: #5, 2.75 million; A18-49: #5, 1.1/ 3) and Supernatural (Viewers: #5, 2.27 million; A18-49: #5, 0.9/ 2) capped off the evening.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

I am looking forward to ABC's "October Road" in a couple of weeks. That will be a nice change on thursday nights. Anyone else hear anything good about it?

This could be the seasons ONLY true breakout hit of the season!

quote:

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?:
(*Tuesday and Wednesday are based on the final nationals, Thursday is the fast nationals)

-Tuesday, Feb. 27 (P) – 9:30 p.m. - Viewers: 26.48 million; A18-49: 11.2/26
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 86 percent, A18-49: 92 percent

-Wednesday, Feb. 28 – 9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 23.37 million; A18-49: 9.7/23
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 78 percent, A18-49: 82 percent

-Thursday, March 1 – 9 p.m. – Viewers: 23.48 million; A18-49: 9.4/22
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 87 percent, A18-49: 90 percent

How much does a lamborginni go for, anyway???

Interesting that Trees in a re-run did about what it did on Friday nights. No matter what a loyal audience is watching Trees. That is not a bad number for a repeat and close to seventy percent in retention. This is just great MY TREES has that loyal audience no matter what and this was a repeat from September.

To me, FOX horribly misuses American Idol's Wednesday (or Thurs) editions. They get great one-shot ratings with reality and game shows, but they don't last. No one can tell me they think "5th grader" will still be on the air two years from now. It's just dumb. I don't understand why they don't find a good quality sitcom and try to rebuild a live-action sitcom or any big hit sitcom on the network that can last for years and make money in syndication. They were smart with giving 24 and House two seasons behind 24 to build loyal audiences, now I think they should use the results show to do give a sitcom a long-term boost.

It's amazing how much of the American Idol lead-in it is holding.

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:
This could be the seasons ONLY true breakout hit of the season!

quote:

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?:
(*Tuesday and Wednesday are based on the final nationals, Thursday is the fast nationals)

-Tuesday, Feb. 27 (P) – 9:30 p.m. - Viewers: 26.48 million; A18-49: 11.2/26
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 86 percent, A18-49: 92 percent

-Wednesday, Feb. 28 – 9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 23.37 million; A18-49: 9.7/23
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 78 percent, A18-49: 82 percent

-Thursday, March 1 – 9 p.m. – Viewers: 23.48 million; A18-49: 9.4/22
Retention Out of American Idol – Viewers: 87 percent, A18-49: 90 percent

How much does a lamborginni go for, anyway???

According to an insider at ABC, Men in Trees is coming back next season. I certainly hope so.

quote:

Originally posted by JONNYSBRO:
Interesting that Trees in a re-run did about what it did on Friday nights. No matter what a loyal audience is watching Trees. That is not a bad number for a repeat and close to seventy percent in retention. This is just great MY TREES has that loyal audience no matter what and this was a repeat from September.

The Smallville repeat had more viewers than Veronica Mars had in first-run this week.

The Supernatural repeat had almost exactly the same number of viewers that Veronica Mars had in first-run last week. Maybe slightly fewer, once SPN's final #'s are in.

Do we really have to wait until May Upfronts, CW?

Interesting to see that a repeat of CSI beat Grey's in the Demo (4.3 to 3.9)

This Weeks current Top 10 Demo Shows

  
American Idol - Tues                        12.1	FOX
American Idol - Wed                         11.8	FOX
Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader-Tu        11.2	FOX
American Idol - Thur                        10.4	FOX
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader-W        9.8	FOX
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader            9.4	FOX
Heroes                                       6.4	NBC
Lost                                         5.7	ABC
Two and a Half Men                           5.5	CBS
CSI: Miami                                   5.5	CBS

The repeat of the Black Donnellys did actually quite well last night. It retained two thirds of its Monday audience...and considering that certainly 4 million viewers saw the pilot for the 1st time there might be hope for TBD after all.

Its hard to say which of ANY shows will be on in two years from now.

People's tastes change, Shows jump the shark, Networks make bad choices. You just never know.

5th Grader IS real and IS fun!

To win the 9pm hour is REALLY BIG. The OC did nothing with its AI lead in last week.

quote:

Originally posted by Xavier:
To me, FOX horribly misuses American Idol's Wednesday (or Thurs) editions. They get great one-shot ratings with reality and game shows, but they don't last. No one can tell me they think "5th grader" will still be on the air two years from now. It's just dumb. I don't understand why they don't find a good quality sitcom and try to rebuild a live-action sitcom or any big hit sitcom on the network that can last for years and make money in syndication. They were smart with giving 24 and House two seasons behind 24 to build loyal audiences, now I think they should use the results show to do give a sitcom a long-term boost.

I hope so. It seems like a good show.
This monday will be key though.

quote:

Originally posted by starbase135:
The repeat of the Black Donnellys did actually quite well last night. It retained two thirds of its Monday audience...and considering that certainly 4 million viewers saw the pilot for the 1st time there might be hope for TBD after all.

Marc do you really think Six Degrees will even do what Trees did on Friday's. Trees grabbed 6-8 million loyal fans. Marc what have you heard from ABC about Trees? Are they very happy the show? I do not see it staying on Thursday's after Grey's but it will return. I just love the loyal fans watch no matter what. Marc isn't it weird watching the second episode how much the show has evolved? I think Heche is much better as the show has evolved. She is less manic and over the top and more subtle/understated and better.

I watched most of The Black Donnelly's pilot last night. Not quite as bad as I'd thought, and it definitely has some of that same brooding rain-soaked melancholy atmosphere I liked about EZ Streets. I definitely would take it over Studio 60.

But they just don't have the actors EZ Streets had, and EZ Streets FLOPPED--and I have a problem with romanticizing gangsters this way. The Sopranos shows these people for what they are--parasites. But INTERESTING parasites, who feel relevant to our times. Not a hackneyed conglomeration of worn-out Hollywood-Irish cliches taken from old movies starring Jimmy Cagney and the Dead End Kids, but played by actors who don't have a tenth the charisma Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall had. And at least Leo Gorcey actually WAS Irish.

I lived in Hell's Kitchen for several years, and I never saw a Westie--this was long before the time the show is set in (why on earth would they set it in the present day?). There are very few Irish people at all living in that neighborhood these days, and Irish gangsters just do not exist there, period. The Westies were a handful of psycho low-lifes who did odd jobs for the Mafia--they've been gone for decades. They didn't run ANYTHING.

It's not even true to the story of the real Black Donnellys of Canada, who weren't a bunch of pouting prettyboys who were just misunderstood. The show isn't true to anything, except TV's desire to pretty up even the ugliest of tales.

May it die soon--but AFTER Studio 60. Which would have been lucky to do as well as TBD, without all the advantages it was given for its premiere.

Hey pisher, how's your relative?