Prime-Time Ratings:
Tuesday 9/16/08

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 13.89 million, CBS: 7.86, NBC: 7.11, ABC: 5.82, CW: 2.88

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 5.3 rating/14 share, NBC: 2.7/ 8, CBS: 2.0/ 6, ABC: 2.0/ 5, CW: 1.4/ 4

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-Countdown to the Start of the New Season:
5 days

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
House (Fox), Fringe (Fox)

-Honorable Mention:
NCIS R (CBS), The Biggest Loser (NBC)

-Still Promising:
90210 (CW)

-Disappointing:
Privileged (CW)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Fox was in a winning league of its own on Tuesday, beating with its combination of the season-premiere of House (Viewers: #1, 14.41 million; A18-49: #1, 5.5 rating/16 share) and week two of Fringe (Viewers: #1, 13.36 million; A18-49: #1, 5.2/13), which held 87 percent in viewers and 88 percent among adults 18-49 of the 8:30 p.m. portion of House (Viewers: 15.37 million; A18-49: 5.9/16). Although most new shows drop by 10 to 20 percent in the second week, Fringe actually built by a hefty 4.23 million viewers and 62 percent in the demo from its 90-minute debut one week earlier (Viewers: 9.13 million; A18-49: 3.2/ 9 on Sept. 10) thanks to the support of House. House, meanwhile, opened last season with 18.31 million viewers and a 7.8/19 among adults 18-49 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007 at 9 p.m.

CBS opened the evening with a repeat of NCIS (Viewers: #2, 9.65 million; A18-49: #4, 1.8/ 5), which held up well opposite House, followed by the season-finale of Big Brother 10 (Viewers: #3, 7.63 million; A18-49: #3, 2.7/ 7) and a repeat of Without a Trace (Viewers: #1, 6.29 million; A18-49: #3, 1.6/ 5). Kudos to Dan, who won in a 7-0 landslide over coattails-rider Memphis. After 10 seasons of watching Big Brother (time flies!), I can personally say this was one of the best editions.

Over at NBC, two-hour The Biggest Loser kicked-off with a very respectable 7.81 million viewers and a 3.1/ 8 among adults 18-49, building in each half-hour as follows:

The Biggest Loser (NBC)
8:00 p.m. - Viewers: 7.12 million (#3), A18-49: 2.6/ 8 (#2)
8:30 p.m. - Viewers: 7.63 million (#3), A18-49: 3.0/ 8 (#2)
9:00 p.m. - Viewers: 8.01 million (#3), A18-49: 3.3/ 8 (#2)
9:30 p.m. - Viewers: 8.48 million (#2), A18-49: 3.5/ 9 (#2)

The Biggest Loser led into a repeat of Law & Order: SVU at 5.71 million viewers (#3) and a 2.0/ 6 among adults 18-49 (#1) at 10 p.m. It should be interesting seeing SVU versus Without a Trace next season.

ABC aired the expanded season-finale of summer hit Wipeout, which averaged 5.96 million viewers and a 2.0/ 6 among adults 18-49 from 8-9:30 p.m., followed by a 90-minute Tuesday edition of 20/20 themed UFOs at 5.69 million viewers and a 1.9/ 6 in the demo from 9:30-11 p.m. If ABC is smart, it will not bring back Wipeout until next summer.

The CW capped off the evening with episode three of 90210 at 3.33 million viewers and a 1.8/ 5 among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. followed by week two of Privileged at 2.43 million viewers and a 1.1/ 3 in the demo. Keep in mind that the two-hour year-ago Beauty and the Geek season-opener averaged 3.38 million viewers and a 1.7/ 5 in the demo from 8-10 p.m. 90210 held up from one week earlier, while Privileged dipped by 210,000 viewers (2.64 to 2.43 million) and 8 percent in the demo (1.2/ 3 to 1.1/ 3). All things considered, Privileged could actually be worse.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Fringe did very well hanging on to the House audience. It will be interesting to see if it holds out.

So much for the argument that Privileged is the next "Gilmore Girls" and somehow going to increase to an audience of 3 million. As I thought, that thinking was way too optimistic and not looking at the ratings trends. I said it would drop 20%, it dropped 19%. It doesn't work with 90210 or the target audience CW wants. It will be replaced mid-season, especially with those low demos.

Good that 90210 held the audience but it still should do better than this.

Biggest Loser opened up to unimpressive numbers. With increased competition, its going to get lost.

Should be interesting to she how Fringe holds up next week… The Sunday re-broadcast did really well, so FOX may yet have another ratings winner.

DVR or no-DVR that's a huge drop for House. In viewing numbers it's getting close to CM and many said that show disappointed being given the post SB spot. FOX must by very disappointed, they've been saved by Fringe which did incredibly well. Still below what many expected but 13 million is a vast improvement over last week

90210 is a bomb without a doubt. Below Beauty and the Geek? Below GG and OTH? And it will drop more next week. Priveleged did OK IMO, if it stays above 1 in demos it might get a full season. But i don't think it'll do it

I agree to a point.
Wipeout should be used as filler and Specials through the regular season.
ABC will need something during the holiday season, since nothing they have repeats well. and Having a couple of Specials in November and February would keep in fron tf the audience, but not over use it like a DOND.

quote:

ABC aired the expanded season-finale of summer hit Wipeout, which averaged 5.96 million viewers and a 2.0/ 6 among adults 18-49 from 8-9:30 p.m., followed by a 90-minute Tuesday edition of 20/20 themed UFOs at 5.69 million viewers and a 1.9/ 6 in the demo from 9:30-11 p.m. If ABC is smart, it will not bring back Wipeout until next summer.

Yikes at those CW numbers....The question now might be what happens first, Ostroff getting canned or the network folding..

Those BB numbers were good- if it wasn't for the competition I'd think it would have hit 8 million pretty easily...but I was SHOCKED that it ended up being 7-0. I was thinking Jerry and Ollie were NEVER going to vote for Dan to win, but for once, the BB jury voted for who played the best game, not who screwed them over less (plus the fact Dan was more personable- I think Memphis playing it businesslike and cold cost him in the end). And yay to Keesha winning the $25K jury prize- I was afraid it was going to be Jerry with the edit he was getting all season.

Interesting how Fringe, unlike The X-Files, centers around a CORPORATE conspiracy. The government is simply the handmaiden of big business. And both are incapable of controlling the forces they've unleashed.

Now if they just knew what to do with that fascinating idea.

Maybe Darin Morgan can tell them.

Great numbers for Fringe, and a great episode too. Much better than the Pilot.

Marc, do you have the half hour numbers for Fringe by any chance?

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:
I agree to a point.
Wipeout should be used as filler and Specials through the regular season.
ABC will need something during the holiday season, since nothing they have repeats well. and Having a couple of Specials in November and February would keep in fron tf the audience, but not over use it like a DOND.

quote:

ABC aired the expanded season-finale of summer hit Wipeout, which averaged 5.96 million viewers and a 2.0/ 6 among adults 18-49 from 8-9:30 p.m., followed by a 90-minute Tuesday edition of 20/20 themed UFOs at 5.69 million viewers and a 1.9/ 6 in the demo from 9:30-11 p.m. If ABC is smart, it will not bring back Wipeout until next summer.

It should also be noted that this "season finale" was really just a 90 minute clip show with "best of" performances from the prior shows.

If it had been an actual new episode, with perhaps winners from prior shows and a bigger grand prize, I would have expected numbers in the 8 million range and 18-49's in at least the mid-2's.

This was an unfair episode to generalize on its overall performance - which was quite strong for a new summer show.

Good bye BIG BROTHER.

It was a great season even if none of my faves made it to the final two. It was satifying to see dullard Memphis not be able to muster a single vote-especially Ollie and April's who could have held a grudge against Dan.

Highlight of the show was Renny's entrance...doing a curtsy, waving to everyone and shaking every hand held out to her...one can only imagine the panicky broadcast crew having caniptions over her throwing off the timing of a live broadcast...Renny was great casting and deserved the 25K unlike Keesha who America voted for out of sympathy when Memphis betrayed her.

They are already looking for contestants...I wonder if they might bring it back in the winter after all.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmLAPD:
I said it would drop 20%, it dropped 19%.

I'm not seeing the 19%. Even if you're basing it on last week's preemption-affected fast nats, that seems too high.

quote:

Biggest Loser opened up to unimpressive numbers. With increased competition, its going to get lost.

It premiered a week before most things last year to a 3.1 as well. What were you expecting, and why do you think it will get lost this year when it clearly didn't last year?

I noticed Fringe had a ton of pilot recap during last night's ep. And while it made the episode drag at times, it was probably a great idea considering the huge number of new viewers that saw it this week.

90210 probably got a bit of a bump from ABC Family's Teenager being out of the timeslot, but I don't think we're going to be able to gauge exactly what that meant until we see tonight's encore numbers. If the encore drops, there probably were some people watching Teenager on Tuseday and the encore on Wednesday/Thursday for the first couple weeks.

quote:

Originally posted by WlcmLAPD:Biggest Loser opened up to unimpressive numbers. With increased competition, its going to get lost.

I have to disagree, not quite as strong at the numbers for Season 5 in January, but still solid. Also, I think the numbers will hold over the next few weeks, it has quite a loyal fan base and if you look back at season 5's ratings (Jan - April 08) you'll see it held its numbers even when it was up against American Idol and DWTS, which is pretty darn good going!

edit : just looking back at season 4 (premeired this time last year) :-

Sep 2008 7.81 million viewers, 3.1/8 among adults 18-49 last night
Sept 2007 7.84 million viewers, 3.1/9 among adults 18-49.

so on a year on year comparison its actually pulled in almost identical numbers from last season. Not something many returning are likely to tout this season.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jconrad,

Is no one alarmed by the 4 million viewer drop for House?

I have to say Bravo to CBS and Big Brother. Those are good numbers considering all the competition. If it had little less competition, it would have been higher numbers. Anyways this season restored my faith in the show. After last year's terrible stupid season and the Donato producer influnced season I had all but given up on the show. This year it went back to it's roots which were no twists, strangers, and it went back to Big Brother old school. The theme this year was it was all about the game NOTHING personal. The voting for Dan last night proved that. What exciting final two and I was beyond thrilled when Keesha won the jury prize. I like Renny but it should go to who played the best game of these people. Keesha played one of the best games in the game, I loved her. I loved this season of BB10 IMO it reminded of BB3 but with a better endgame. Go RENEGADES. Also BB11 will be back next summer not winter. Big Brother is a show that works in summer, it should never be anywhere else. That way we can savior it's return. BB10 was a big high point in the series, KUDOS to evryone involved.

What do I think about last night's BB finale?

Let's just say I'm lucky my TV is still under warranty.

WORST WINNER EVER!