Prime-Time Ratings:
Sunday 3/02/08

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

-Total Viewers:
ABC: 12.21 million, Fox: 9.48, CBS: 8.15, NBC: 7.91, CW: 1.29

-Adults 18-49:
ABC: 4.3/11 each, Fox: 4.0/10, CBS: 2.1/ 5, NBC: 2.0/ 5, CW: 0.5/ 1

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
60 Minutes (CBS), NASCAR (Fox), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC), The Simpsons (Fox), Oprah’s Big Give (ABC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Big Brother 9 (CBS), Everybody Hates Chris (CW), Aliens in America (CW)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by a solid performance by Oprah’s Big Give, ABC dominated this first Sunday in March with a first-place finish in both total viewers and adults 18-49. The cluttered Oprah’s Big Give debuted as the highest rated show of the evening, with 15.55 million viewers and a 5.3 rating/12 share among adults 18-49 from 9-10 p.m. Comparably, that built from lead-in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Viewers: #1, 14.78 million; A18-49: #1, 5.1/13) by 770,000 viewers and four percent among adults 18-49. If good intentions measured quality, I would be raving about Oprah’s Big Give. But there was way too much going on in one episode -- it was frustrating to follow. A better idea would have been to feature teams of two in each episode, with the winning teams in subsequent weeks returning to go head-to-head in a two-hour season-finale face-off. For more on Oprah’s Big Give, listen to today’s PIPodcast at www.marcberman.tv.
Oprah’s Big Give led into the series-premiere of the cutesy Here Come the Newlyweds, which won the 10 p.m. hour (Viewers: #1, 10.34 million; A18-49: #1, 4.1/11), but dropped from Oprah and company by a hefty 5.21 million viewers and 23 percent among adults 18-49. And it decreased in the second half-hour by 1.76 million viewers (11.22 to 9.46 million) and 11 percent among adults 18-49 (4.4/11 to 3.9/11) -- never a good sign.

Also on ABC was just renewed America’s Funniest Home Videos at 8.15 million viewers (#3) and a 2.7/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#2) from 7-8 p.m.

The third show to debut last night was Fox sitcom Unhitched, which was reported incorrectly on today’s Programming Insider. Unhitched debuted with an approximate 6.02 million viewers (#4) and a 2.5/ 6 among adults 18-49 (#2) in the 10 p.m. half-hour. Retention out of a later edition of Family Guy (Viewers: #4, 7.11 million; A18-49: #2, 3.7/ 9 at 9:30 p.m.) was 85 percent in total viewers and 68 percent among adults 18-49 – not a bad start.

Earlier in the evening on Fox was NASCAR from 7-8:30 (Viewers: #1, 12.54 million; A18-49: #1, 4.7/13), followed by later editions of The Simpsons (Viewers: #3, 7.86 million; A18-49: #2, 3.8/ 9) and King of the Hill (Viewers: #3, 7.74 million; A18-49: #2, 4.1/10) from 8:30-9:30 p.m. Keep in mind that all results for Fox are approximate due to the estimated length for NASCAR.

CBS has a relatively uneventful Sunday with its combination of veteran 60 Minutes (Viewers: #2, 12.15 million; A18-49: #3, 2.1/ 6), grating Big Brother 9 (Viewers: #4, 6.17 million; A18-49: #3, 2.3/ 6), a repeat of Cold Case (Viewers: #4, 7.37 million; A18-49: #4, 1.9/ 5), and another repurposed episode of Dexter (Viewers: #3, 6.90 million; A18-49: #3, 2.0/ 5), which fits well out of Cold Case but is not exactly a breakout success. As for Big Brother, please CBS…this should be a summer option only.

NBC aired a two-hour edition of now underused Dateline (Viewers: 7.46 million; A18-49: 1.9/ 5 from 7-9 p.m.), the already overused Deal or No Deal (Viewers: #2, 8.65 million; A18-49: #3, 2.3/ 5), and a repeat of Law & Order: SVU (Viewers: #2, 8.08 million; A18-49: #2, 2.1/ 6). Oh, and yes…Law & Order: SVU is overused too!

Last, and very least of course, was the CW’s line-up of a repeat of America’s Next Top Model (Viewers: 1.34 million; A18-49: 0.6/ 2), which is an improvement over former 7-7:30 p.m. occupant CW Now, Everybody Hates Chris (Viewers: 1.45 million; A18-49: 0.5/ 1), Aliens in America (Viewers: 1.09 million; A18-49: 0.4/ 1), a repeat of Girlfriends (Viewers: 1.23 million; A18-49: 0.5/ 1), and a repeat of The Game (Viewers: 1.30 million; A18-49: 0.5/ 1).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Huge numbers for Oprah, actually higher than I thought. I wonder is she can keep that spot warm until DH returns. I'd like to see if that show can puill over 10 million viewers in week 3 or 4, at this point, I'd say it looks like it has a very good chance at that.

Didn't catch Unhitched but will check it out tonight. I heard it has potential but I think those are very low numbers for a debut with as much advertising as FOX has done. Nascar can't go wrong with FOX either.

BB9 is such a bad show. I watched it last night and it's all over the map. Yeah, there's drama, but it's like watching kids in kindergarten. Hope they don't do this team if it comes back next year.

DOND needs to be on once a week, it's just getting too boring and Howie is getting on my nerves more so than ever. Wish I had a job like his.

WOW!

I'm shocked with Newlyweds

I was expecting 'Big Brother' numbers

Seriously, those ARE impressive ratings for The Simpsons--and last night's ep was really funny.

And I am getting increasingly sick of NASCAR screwing up FOX's Sunday night schedule.

I also enjoyed King of the Hill--and yet I have to agree, FOX would be justified in canceling it.

But not if they were going to replace it with the likes of Unhitched.

Good Night for ABC.

I'll repeat what I said in the other thread: Despite Marc's mixed reaction to Oprah's Big Give, I have to say it performed exactly where I expected it to: building from a new Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to solidly win the hour and give lead-out Here Come the Newlyweds a solid sampling opportunity. I'm not sure if anyone besides Marc expected it to perform at the level Desperate Housewives perfomed a year ago -- not even a new Desperate Housewives would perform at the level DH performed a year ago, as Marc has been reminding us all season long.

Having said that, I have to completely agree with Marc that the 1-hr of Oprah's Big Give was completely crammed with too much stuff -- it could easily have been expanded to 2-hours and allow us to learn more about each team's "give." I expect that in the future the "Big Give" season premieres will indeed be two hours.

All in all, a good night for ABC, and, as I have been saying all along, the start of a Spring resurgence for them, with a new season of DWTS coming in just two weeks, and new episodes of their hit dramas in about a month after that.

Very nice number for King of the Hill.

Sad to see Aliens in America going unsampled when it is such a funny sitcom. Of particular note to the format/topic of this messageboard was the Aliens in America reference/claim that fast forwarding through commercials is stealing. I think that CW really blew it by barely promoting the return to firstrun episodes of their 2 early sitcoms.

Oprah Big Give is a result of the strike? Like Big Brother?

quote:

the series-premiere of the cutesy Here Come the Newlyweds, which won the 10 p.m. hour (Viewers: #1, 10.34 million; A18-49: #1, 4.1/11), but dropped from Oprah and company by a hefty 5.21 million viewers and 23 percent among adults 18-49.

Marc, a lot of shows that follow a stronger show drop off at the half-hour -- that's not a reason to think it failed. In fact, it performed above my expectations, especially in the demo -- 4.1 is awesome! Compare that to the last couple of Brothers and Sisters episodes, which had a comparable (in fact in one case, significantly higher) EM:HE lead-in, and did significantly worse than Newlyweds did here. In fact, I think this is on par with B&S's first-run season average when it followed new Desperate Housewives, a measurable stronger lead-in...

quote:

Originally posted by lopez:
Oprah Big Give is a result of the strike? Like Big Brother?

what do you mean?

Oprah's Big Give and EM:HE, together, constitute one of the most compatible combos on network television. Oprah has a big chance of having more than 12 million viewers, 4.5 demos every week.

Here Come the Newlyweds skews very young.

Retention was 77% in the demo.

Oprah's Big Give should be retitled Oprahs Big Dud! I found it messy and boring. The Newlywed show was more entertaining than that mess, but not by much. Kudos to abc for some good #s though.

quote:

Originally posted by Tamaleobas:
Oprah's Big Give and EM:HE, together, constitute one of the most compatible combos on network television. Oprah has a big chance of having more than 12 million viewers, 4.5 demos every week.

Oh, I think it's gonna do better than that -- we'll have to see the half-hour breakdown to see if it lost many viewers at the half-hour point (I don't expect that), but my feeling is like other out-of-the-box reality hits EM:HE and DWTS, it will keep or even add some viewers as the season goes on. And add EM:HE to that compatible combo -- EM:HE was the perfect lead-in for Oprah's Big Give.

quote:

Originally posted by lopez:
Here Come the Newlyweds skews very young.

Retention was 77% in the demo.

Yes, something ABC has been lacking lately -- another reason I think ABC will be very happy to see last night's results. I just wish they marketed this show more accurately, because it was better than their ads indicated.

quote:

Earlier in the evening on Fox was NASCAR from 7-8:30 (Viewers: #1, 12.54 million; A18-49: #1, 4.7/13), followed by later editions of The Simpsons (Viewers: #3, 7.86 million; A18-49: #2, 3.8/ 9) and King of the Hill (Viewers: #3, 7.74 million; A18-49: #2, 4.1/10) from 8:30-9:30 p.m. Keep in mind that all results for Fox are approximate due to the estimated length for NASCAR.

Why is the animation block's numbers down NOW (after New Years), with less competition, than it was going up against Sunday night Football?

It does not make sense.