-Honorable Mention: My Name is Earl (NBC), The Office (NBC), Shark (CBS), ER (NBC)
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): The War at Home (Fox), 30 Rock (NBC), The O.C. (Fox), Supernatural (CW), Men in Trees (ABC)
-Ratings Breakdown: ABC and CBS shared leadership on this second Thursday of the Feb. 2007 sweeps, with CBS the most-watched network (1.12 million more viewers, on average, than ABC), and the alphabet net No. 1 among adults 18-49. NBC finished a typical third, followed by Fox and the CW’s combination of Smallville and Supernatural.
In season-premiere news, CBS’ Survivor: Fiji finished first in both total viewers (16.68 million) and adults 18-49, with a 5.8 rating/15 share in the demo. That beat ABC’s second-place Ugly Betty (Viewers: 14.30 million; A18-49: 4.7/12) by a healthy 2.38 million viewers and 23 percent among adults 18-49. Comparatively, the year-ago edition of Survivor: Panama opened with 19.19 million viewers and a 7.0/18 among adults 18-49 on Feb. 2, 2006, and the more recent Survivor: Cook Islands kicked-off with 17.43 million viewers and a 6.5/18 in the demo on Sept. 21, 2006. While each edition of Survivor tends to lose some steam, it remains a viable top 10-rated entity for CBS. And last night’s launch was considerably more satisfying creatively than recent editions. One look at the Sylvester Stallone clone and I knew his name had to be Rocky!
Also in the 8 p.m. hour were NBC comedies My Name is Earl (Viewers: #3, 9.56 million; A18-49: #2t, 4.2/11) and The Office (Viewers: #3, 8.85 million; A18-49: #3, 4.4/11), which are worthy of honorable mention due to the strength of the demos, the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: #5, 4.67 million; A18-49: #5, 1.8/ 5), and Fox sitcoms ‘Til Death (Viewers: #4, 5.02 million; A18-49: #4, 2.0/ 5) and The War at Home (Viewers: #5, 4.41 million; A18-49: #5, 1.9/ 5). There was nothing unusual to report from 8-9 p.m. last night.
ABC maintained dominance at 9 p.m. care of Grey’s Anatomy, which launched its three-part episode with a hefty 24.95 million viewers and a 10.7/25 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that built from already potent lead-in Ugly Betty by 10.65 million viewers and 128 percent among adults 18-49. A solid second in the hour was CBS’ CSI (Viewers: 22.28 million; A18-49: 6.8/16), followed by NBC’s Scrubs (Viewers: 6.22 million; A18-49: 3.1/ 7) and 30 Rock (Viewers: 5.09 million; A18-49: 2.5/ 6) in the distant No. 3 spot. Given the ongoing erosion, is anyone really convinced that 30 Rock will really catch on?
Rounding off the 9 p.m. hour were Fox’s soon-to-conclude The O.C. (Viewers: 3.57 million; A18-49: 1.6/ 4) and the CW's Supernatural (Viewers: 2.83 million; A18-49: 1.2/ 3), which disappointed with retention out of Smallville of 61 percent in total viewers and 67 percent among adults 18-49. Sorry, Supernatural, but competing The O.C.’s advantage of 740,000 viewers and 33 percent among adults 18-49 makes you a loser this week.
CBS and NBC shared bragging rights at 10 p.m., with ABC’s recently relocated Men in Trees tied with the Eye net’s Shark for No. 2 among adults 18-49. Take a look:
ER (NBC) Viewers: 11.50 million (#2), A18-49: 4.8/13 (#1)
Men in Trees (ABC) Viewers: 10.90 million (#3), A18-49: 4.1/11 (#2t)
As a basis of analysis, here is the percent change from the lead-in for all three series:
Shark out of CSI Viewers: -35, A18-49: -40
ER out of 30 Rock Viewers: +126, A18-49: +92
Men in Trees out of Grey’s Anatomy Viewers: -56, A18-49: -62
In a nutshell: 1. Shark is strong enough for a second season, but the fall-off from CSI this week demotes it to honorable mention. 2. Growth for ER out of 30 Rock is admirable, but the continued audience erosion from recent season makes it also worthy of only honorable mention. 3. Too much fall-off for Men in Tees out of Grey’s Anatomy means the network is sharpening the axe.
ABC made a lot of mistakes this season, but they sure got Thursday 8-10 right. It's Thursday 10-11 they need to fix.
You know, I honestly don't know why I like Grey's Anatomy either. But I do. Last night's episode was just great entertainment. I like spending time with these characters, played by these actors.
In my opinion, it was a lot better than Lost was this week.
I've resigned myself to the fact that MIT will be cancelled. But can NBC really afford to cancel 30 Rock? Especially if they cancel Studio 60? Both of their 'behind the scenes of sketch comedy shows' shows will have failed.
At least Baldwin got to win an award or two...
Posts: 91 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: 30 October 2006
This is the first time Supernatural has ever fallen below 3 million viewers. I guess a lot of people wanted to see the ferry boat accident and the return of Grissom. Shame - it was a great episode.
What is the hell happened to SN last night? This is really scaring me now. I do not understand how this could happen!! And please...before any of the CW haters come in with their rude comments...I am worried now.
Two weeks ago, MIT had its highest overall ratings and demo rating since its "preview" after the Dancing With the Stars finale. Those #s were 10.98 million viewers and 3.9/11 in the demo. It was up against a repeat of Shark and 2 repeats of The Office.
Last night, it got 10.90 million and 4.1/11. It was up against a new Shark and a new ER. So, it was only .8 million of its overall high, and it got a new high in the demo by .2
Yeah, it' still losing a lot of GA's audience, but it slowly but surely keeps on growing.
Can someone explain me this? The boring episodes always get higher ratings then the interesting ones. Supernatural's episode was the best so far. This is the first time it drops below 3 mill. O well, there is always a first time I guess.
Supernatural is lucky just to SURVIVE in that timeslot. It's doing better than The OC, when you take relative network strength into account. By CW standards, it's doing just about well enough to rate renewal. Unfortunately for CW.
Survivor wins in viewers and demos, even with so many ready to lay it to rest.. Interesting to see what happens after the AI attack and March Maddness.
Yikes for ER's demo numbers. It was well above 6.0 last fall.
