-Adults 18-49: Fox: 2.6 rating/7 share, NBC: 2.2/ 6, CBS and CW: 1.6/ 4 each, ABC: 0.7/ 2
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-Yesterday’s Winners: Deal or No Deal (NBC), Two and a Half Men R (CBS)
-Improved, But Far From Spectacular: Gossip Girl (CW)
-Disappointing: Prison Break (Fox), America’s Toughest Jobs (NBC)
-Yesterday’s Losers: High School Musical – Get in the Picture
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-Countdown to the Start of the New Season: 20 days
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No, the 2008-09 season has not officially begun yet. But Fox’s Prison Break and the CW’s Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill opened new seasons last night. And NBC’s Deal or No Deal finally had the opportunity to award a contestant with the grand prize. On that note, NBC was dominant in total viewers, while Fox was No. 1 among adults 18-49.
NBC’s Deal or No Deal was the most-watched show of the evening, with 10.89 million from 8-9 p.m. It was also first in the hour among adults 18-49, with a 2.6 rating/7 share in the demo. While I understand why the network promoted a million dollar winner, doing so made the whole long-awaited event less suspenseful. That led into week two of reality/competition America’s Toughest Jobs at 7.33 million viewers (#1) and a second-place 2.4/ 6 among adults 18-49. 9 p.m. Although that was virtually on par with it’s week-ago debut (Viewers: 7.30 million; A18-49: 2.7/ 7 on August 25), retention for America’s Toughest Jobs out of the second-half of lead-in Deal or No Deal (Viewers: 12.64 million; A18-49: 3.2/ 8 at 8:30 p.m.) was just 58 percent in total viewers (and 84 percent in the demo).
The two-hour season-premiere of Fox’s Prison Break was a disappointment at 6.48 million viewers and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m. Compared to it’s already below-average year-ago opener on Monday, Sept. 17, 2007 (Viewers: 7.51 million; A18-49: 3.3/ 9), that was a loss of 1.03 million viewers and 21 percent in the demo. Here is the half-hour breakdown:
As I have said many times, I think opening the season on September 1 was too early. With that in mind, season two of the CW's Gossip Girl kicked-off with 3.38 million viewers (#4) and a 1.7/ 5 (#2) among adults 18-49 (#3) at 8 p.m. One year earlier (on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007), it launched with a similar 3.50 million viewers and a 1.6/ 4 in the demo (out of America’s Next Top Model). So, it matched its performance without the lead-in support. And the CW is reporting its best ratings ever for Gossip Girl in adults 18-34 (2.3/7), women 18-34 (3.2/10), adults 18-49, women 18-49 (2.3/6).
The season-premiere of veteran One Tree Hill followed at an almost duplicate 3.14 million viewers (#4) and a 1.6/ 4 among adults 18-49 (#4) at 9 p.m. The combination of the CW’s Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill led the network to its best Monday ever in adults 18-34, women 18-34 and women 18-49.
Elsewhere, CBS aired repeats of The Big Bang Theory (Viewers: #3, 4.73 million; A18-49: #4, 1.5/ 4), How I Met Your Mother (Viewers: #3, 4.72 millionl; A18-49: #3t, 1.7/ 5), Two and a Half Men (Viewers: #1, 7.86 million; A18-49: #2, 2.5/ 6) and The New Adventures of Old Christine (Viewers: #3, 6.00 million; A18-49: #3, 1.9/ 5) from 8-10 p.m. And ABC was barely on the map with the inane High School Musical – Get in the Picture (Viewers: #5, 2.15 million; A18-49: #5, 0.6/ 2 – both series lows) and two repeat episodes of Samantha Who? (Viewers: #5, avg. 2.15 million; A18-49: #5, avg. 0.7/ 2 from 9-10 p.m.). Did you know that Samantha Who? is ABC’s only half-hour scripted sitcom this fall?
The 10 p.m. hour featured coverage of the pending hurricane Gustav in New Orleans, which performed as follows:
And ABC was barely on the map with the inane High School Musical – Get in the Picture (Viewers: #5, 2.15 million; A18-49: #5, 0.6/ 2 – both series lows) and two repeat episodes of Samantha Who? (Viewers: #5, avg. 2.15 million; A18-49: #5, avg. 0.7/ 2 from 9-10 p.m.). Did you know that Samantha Who? is ABC’s only half-hour scripted sitcom this fall?
Just when you think they hit Rock Bottom, the go and produce even worse ratings the next week.
1. PB was really good but i don't think it will improve a lot. My guess is this season PB will settle between 7 million-7.5 million with 3 in demos. Once again i must say it: FOX made a big mistake by premiering PB yesterday. I'm 99% this will be the last season, my fear is that we won't get a full season
2. I'm very sad to see OTH below GG, although clearly the success story is OTH if anyone compares the money CW put into promoting those 2 shows
3. GG will drop below 3 million very soon, and anyway for all those chanting success (seeing some of the headlines about the ratings i can only think Ostroff is paying a lot of money even today ) let me remaind you that GG is well belor Secret Life of an American Teenager
Good numbers for GG. Demos are all that seem to matter with the CW, so they've got to be happy with that. As for Prison Break.. It couldn't even make a 3.0 demo, and the demos it achieves are the main reason FOX continues to renew it.
Posts: 518 | Location: England (UK) | Registered: 11 October 2007
Great demo numbers for Gossip Girl, beating ABC and CBS. Despite the naysayers here, CW has to be happy to have the highest demo numbers ever for the show and highest viewer numbers since the premiere.
Prison Break is in trouble. It debuted to record low numbers. What will happen when it has to face Heroes and Two&1/2Men?
ABC is dead, but they will be Dancing back to victory soon.
not bad for the cw for a holiday...OTH is doing respectable for being in its sixth season...gonna outlast dawson's creek for second longest running teensoap drama tvshow??...look out bh 90210
continuing from my post on the Sunday ratings thread, the numbers for Gossip Girl were just what they should be. It rebounded a lot from what most episode got in the first season, and for it being Labor Day, maybe the ratings will go up even more next week. One Tree Hill was right on par, too. I think the CW is finally getting it-LOL
Prison Break was a disappointment - I know FOX is weak in the fall, and it was Labor Day, but this is embarassing. I think an hour premiere a few weeks later would have done 2 million more. I as well think it will rebound as soon as the regular season starts, though.
NIce numbers for Deal, although I thought it was going to hit somewhere around 12-13 million, just because of all the hype that it was going to show the first million dollar winner. And America's Toughest Jobs, IMO, had a good showing. Instead of going down, it went up just a little from the premiere, which is a good sign. I think it'll do similar numbers when to moves to Friday nights.
Decent number for the CW. I would expect they wanted a bit more. But you are right, true test is 90210. I think it will show how many actual eyes there are that actually reach the CW. If they find success and a large number, they may succeed at starting to build viewers finally rather than shedding them.
Then again, it is all about retention. It really is a snowball. And they are hoping 90210 starts picking up steam and viewers. Which will lead to a bump in Wednesdays and some cross promotion back for Mondays.
Sad for Prison Break. It seems to have run its course. And with these numbers, do we really want to see what a spinoff will do?
---------------------- Geeksix - The Gestalt of Geekdom...check it out http://www.geeksix.com
Posts: 912 | Location: Utah | Registered: 21 February 2007
Yeah, that half hour increase for Deal is great - I was glad to see her win the million. I wonder if what it'll do when it's up against more competition when the season begins - it usually holds up pretty well.
