Prime-Time Ratings:
Thursday 5/08/08

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

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 15.03 million, ABC: 11.62, Fox: 6.98, NBC: 6.58, CW: 3.25

-Adults 18-49:
ABC: 4.4 rating/12 share, CBS: 4.3/12, NBC: 2.8/ 8, Fox: 2.0/ 5, CW: 1.3/ 4

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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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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Survivor: Micronesia (CBS), CSI (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, despite the considerable year-to-year losses), Without a Trace (CBS), Lost (ABC)

-Honorable Mention:
The Office (NBC), which built out of Scrubs by 44 percent among adults 18-49.

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
My Name is Earl (NBC), Scrubs (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Before I get into the rating results, let me focus on CBS’ Survivor: Micronesia for a moment. Erik…are you crazy? Nuts? Cuckoo? Meshugenah? Could you believe he fell for that scheme to give the immunity necklace to Natalie? As James appropriately noted, this is now the dumbest move in the history of the Survivor franchise. All I can say at this point is…go Cirie!

Beginning with 8 p.m., Survivor: Micronesia led with a typical 11.98 million viewers and a 4.1 rating/12 share among adults 18-49. Second overall in the hour were ABC and NBC as follows:

Thursday
8:00 p.m. Ugly Betty (ABC)
Viewers: 7.99 million, (#2), A18-49: 2.4 rating/7 share (#3)

8:00 p.m. My Name is Earl (NBC)
Viewers: 6.08 million (#3), A18-49: 2.6/ 8 (#2)

8:30 p.m. Scrubs (NBC) – season finale on NBC (expected to move to ABC next fall)
Viewers: 5.37 million (#4), A18-49: 2.5/ 7 (#3)

Also airing from 8-9 p.m. were Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Viewers: #3, 7.73 million; A18-49: #4, 1.9/ 6) and Smallville on the CW (Viewers: #5: 3.96 million; A18-49: #5, 1.5/ 5).

CBS’ CSI and Grey’s Anatomy, as usual, shared leadership in the 9 p.m. hour as follows:

Thursday 9 p.m.
CSI (CBS)
Viewers: 17.82 million (#1), A18-49: 4.9/13 (#2)

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
Viewers: 15.60 million (#2), A18-49: 6.1/16 (#1)

But what is concerning about Grey’s Anatomy is a year-to-year loss of a hefty 3.98 million viewers (19.58 to 15.60 million) and 22 percent among adults 18-49 (7.8/21 to 6.1/16). Are viewers tiring of the forced dramatics at Seattle Grace Hospital?

Also in the 9 p.m. hour was NBC’s riotous The Office (Viewers: #3, 7.22 million; A18-49: #3, 3.6/ 9) and the season-finale of 30 Rock (Viewers: #4, 5.61 million; A18-49: #4, 2.1/ 5), which continues to drop at large margins from its lead-in, Fox’s Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Viewers: #4, 6.22 million; A18-49: #4, 2.0/ 5), and Supernatural on the CW (Viewers: #5, 2.53 million; A18-49: #5, 1.0/ 3).

ABC and CBS also tied for first in the 10 p.m. hour as follows:

Thursday 10 p.m.
Without a Trace (CBS)
Viewers: 14.60 million (#1), A18-49: 3.8/10 (#2)

Lost (ABC)
Viewers: 11.28 million (#2), A18-49: 4.9/13 (#1)

Third was NBC’s veteran ER (Viewers: 7.61 million; A18-49: 2.9/ 8), which is finally calling it quits next season. From a ratings standpoint, ER should have ended three or four years ago. As for Lost, what’s up with Claire? And is Christian Shephard really alive?

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Ugh...Ugly Betty!! Any chance of a late-season bump up in ratings like we saw last year? :\

OH, and I think DH beat/tied GA in the demo this week

Grey's Anatomy is boring, boring, boring. NBC is in some deep doo-doo.

Lost is up a bit, and deserves to be--good episode, best Locke-centric ep since S2.

I think Christian and Claire (his daughter, you'll recall) are dead.

I'm more interested in who those two spooky guys who kept turning up in Locke's life and who never seeem to age might be.

ABC barely beats CBS in demos and is crushed in viewers on a night with its three most buzzed shows. Not looking good.

Thoughts:
First, everything is down overall but ABC's declines remain concerning. I think they Greys will rebound to around 18 million in the fall and I think Ugly Betty will rebound to around 9 million. That will be enough to ensure ABC still wins the night next year. Who knows where Lost will end up.
NBC's lineup is now mediocre at best. The Office is no longer the demo hog it once was, at least not in live viewing when it counts. ER remains consistent.
Fox's gameshows have to make that net happy. They should stick with them next year at least in the fall instead of sacrificing stuff to Grey/CSI and the high profile programming.

CBS: Survivor remains a share of what it once was, much like ER, but is still the eye's best option for 8pm next year, at least until midseason. CSI managed to do some rebound control while WAT would likely do worse than CSI:NY on Wednesday at 10 next year. A move to Tuesdays at 10 could really hurt it.

quote:

Originally posted by robert:
ABC barely beats CBS in demos and is crushed in viewers on a night with its three most buzzed shows. Not looking good.

Actually, I'd replace Betty with Housewives if you are talking three most buzzed about shows. Its going to take time for these shows to regain audiences if they ever do.

quote:

Originally posted by JimmyU:
Grey's Anatomy is boring, boring, boring. NBC is in some deep doo-doo.

I thought last week's Greys was back in true form, but of course, Addison had something to do with that. Completely agree about NBC. This network will only continue to sink imo.

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:

quote:

Originally posted by robert:
ABC barely beats CBS in demos and is crushed in viewers on a night with its three most buzzed shows. Not looking good.

Actually, I'd replace Betty with Housewives if you are talking three most buzzed about shows. Its going to take time for these shows to regain audiences if they ever do.

I don't know about that, DH has been rather out of media's attention lately. Not so much buzz around DH.

As usual, the crappy FOX game shows are not on the Losers list where they belong.

I don't think it's realistic to say that live viewing is what counts (only). Our society has changed significantly. When you can have 20-25% of the total ratings going to time shifted/DVR numbers, then I cannot argue that live ratings is what counts. I remember a similar argument regarding retail sales vs. legal downloads. The latter was not included because, like your statement, the prior is what people felt "counted." Now, three years later, that has changed considerably. It's time for TV ratings to make the same leap.

Of course, Nielsen still does not count hotel viewership - a very interesting example of randomized viewing with an interesting demographic of people. Someone, please correct me if I am wrong with this statement. I hope I am!

FOX and NBC did terrible last night.

quote:

Originally posted by Zitrone:
As usual, the crappy FOX game shows are not on the Losers list where they belong.

When you look at the history of Fox on Thursdays, they don't belong there. Also, they did as well as NBC's comedies.

at Ugly Betty. Still Ugly numbers.

I still don't know why ABC wants Scrubs. At best, it will be in the 5 million range, mid 2 demos. ABC has cancelled comedies with better ratings than that. Why put an almost guarenteed clunker on your schedule?

NBC's comedies are a disaster. 30 Rock at barely a 2 demo?

What is up with Supernatural? The audience left it. To put it in perspective, FWAW and Supernatural earned the same demo ratings this week.

Last week--

Also airing from 9-10 p.m. were NBC sitcoms The Office (Viewers: #3, 7.67 million; A18-49: #3, 3.9/10) and 30 Rock (Viewers: #4, 5.41 million; A18-49: #4, 2.6/ 7)

This week--

Also in the 9 p.m. hour was NBC’s riotous The Office (Viewers: #3, 7.22 million; A18-49: #3, 3.6/ 9) and the season-finale of 30 Rock (Viewers: #4, 5.61 million; A18-49: #4, 2.1/ 5)

Just how lead-in dependent IS 30 Rock?

This was its SEASON FINALE, and it fell half a percentage point in the demo. Which is to say, it lost about 20% of its demo audience.

NBC, are you really up for a whole 'nother year of this overhyped mediocrity-fest?

The show doesn't work. It never has worked, it never WILL work. It was a bad idea from the very start. Just not as bad as Studio 60.