Prime Time Ratings:
Thursday 8/30/07

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

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 10.18 million, Fox: 6.35, ABC: 5.61, NBC: 5.33, CW: 2.51

-Adults 18-49:
CBS: 3.1 rating/8 share, NBC and Fox: 2.0/ 6 each, ABC: 1.8/ 5, CW: 0.9/ 3

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-Note: The listing of the winners and losers will return in September.

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Mirroring all summer, CBS led Thursday care of Big Brother 8 (Viewers: 9.42 million, A18-49: 3.2 rating/10 share), a repeat of CSI (Viewers: 11.43 million, A18-49: 3.2/ 9), and a repeat of Without a Trace (Viewers: 9.69 million; A18-49: 2.8/ 8). All three shows finished first in every half-hour. As for Big Brother 8 (which I have not seen yet due to the late start on the East Coast), apparently evicted contestant Amber made some very controversial comments that CBS did not televise. For my personal take of this matter, click on today’s Programming Insider Podcast.

Second overall were repeats of Fox’s non-scripted Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Viewers: #2, 6.60 million; A18-49: #3, 2.0/ 6) and Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Viewers: #2, 6.10 million; A18-49: #3, 2.0/ 6). Just wondering: Is it really a good idea for Fox to be airing a celebrity edition of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader this coming November? If the show is already working, why stoop to unnecessary gimmicks?

NBC aired repeats of My Name is Earl (Viewers: #2, 6.43 million; A18-49: #2, 2.2/ 7), 30 Rock (Viewers: #4, 5.61 million; A18-49: #4, 2.0/ 6), The Office (Viewers: #3, 5.85 million; A18-49: #2, 2.3/ 7), Scrubs (Viewers: #4, 4.88 million; A18-49: #4, 1.9/ 5) and ER (Viewers: #3, 4.61 million; A18-49: #2, 1.7/ 5). Remember the days when no one could touch NBC on Thursday?

ABC’s repeat line-up of Ugly Betty (Viewers: #3, 6.08 million; A18-49: #4, 1.8/ 6), Grey’s Anatomy (Viewers: #3, 5.72 million; A18-49: #4, 1.9/ 6) and Men in Trees (Viewers: #2, 5.03 million; A18-49: #3, 1.6/ 5) were at typical non-original levels. Ditto for repeats of the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: #5, 2.27 million; A18-49: #5, 0.8/ 3) and Supernatural (Viewers: #5, 2.75 million; A18-49: #5, 1.0/ 3).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Wow! Cw was very strong for repeats last night!!!!

quote:

CW’s Smallville (Viewers: #5, 2.27 million; A18-49: #5, 0.8/ 3) and Supernatural (Viewers: #5, 2.75 million; A18-49: #5, 1.0/ 3).

Marc are you sure those numbers are right? ABC and NBC did best at 8. Is this because of football preemptions? Fox got mileage out of some reapeats. So did CBS.

Wow, 2.75 million for a Supernatural repeat! The season finale only got 2.72 million as an original airing, so maybe this is signaling an uptick in viewers...well one could only hope!

Well CBS didn't put Amber on the Early show (like they've done to the other 2 jury evictees), and she may not be on Housecalls today. It's been reported that there won't be any more interviews until the finale..which smells of cover-up to me (CBS has had a time with their reality shows this summer...first the Pirate Master suicide, then the Kid Nation mess, now this)....but still, best number of the season. 5th Grader was a repeat though-next week will be tougher because 5th grader will be new next week.

BTW Marc, HOH didn't end on the live show- it was an endurance race.

Check out my take on this at today's PIPodcast.

quote:

Originally posted by weaklink75:
Well CBS didn't put Amber on the Early show (like they've done to the other 2 jury evictees), and she may not be on Housecalls today. It's been reported that there won't be any more interviews until the finale..which smells of cover-up to me (CBS has had a time with their reality shows this summer...first the Pirate Master suicide, then the Kid Nation mess, now this)....but still, best number of the season. 5th Grader was a repeat though-next week will be tougher because 5th grader will be new next week.

BTW Marc, HOH didn't end on the live show- it was an endurance race.

Yes...I should have mentioned that the football pre-emptions screwed everything up.

quote:

Originally posted by himymfan22:
Marc are you sure those numbers are right? ABC and NBC did best at 8. Is this because of football preemptions? Fox got mileage out of some reapeats. So did CBS.

On the CBS BB message boards, an announcement was posted about Amber's Early Show and House Calls appearances being "canceled," so take that for what it's worth.

Also, CNN.com has a BB story (via AP) on its Web site that states that CBS will not allow reporters granted access to houseguests-turned-jury members to ask Amber or Jameka about what happened (so if/when Jameka is booted, don't be surprised if she doesn't get an Early Show/House Calls interview as well).

A CBS spokeswoman told the AP that asking Amber or Jameka about the comments could "influence the jury voters and affect the integrity of the game." So apparently the "diary guy" telling houseguests not to vote for Dick or Eric for elimination is OK, but not asking Amber and Jameka about their comments is evil. I don't get it.

Well Amber wasn't on House Calls...The host read a prepared statement that said because of things that happened in the house, "to protect the integrity of the game" there won't be any more interviews of eliminated players (not even their own shows) until after the finale...

I'd be more excited for those CW ratings if I didn't know that Supernatural got preempted in some major markets. It was preempted here in Oklahoma City, too, along with Smallville. Marc, can you get the finals later on? Travis, can you? It would be appreciated. I'd really be interested in seeing what the actual numbers for CW shows were. If Supernatural were still above 2 million viewers and it beat Smallville, I'll be happy. Oh, how I wish that 2.75 million were true.

I imagine they will be considerably lower for the CW.

quote:

Originally posted by jdinan:
So apparently the "diary guy" telling houseguests not to vote for Dick or Eric for elimination is OK, but not asking Amber and Jameka about their comments is evil. I don't get it.

and it's not evil when (alledgedly) One of the Diary Guys was talking to Dick and called Jen the c-word.....

When the other BB jury people find out Dustin and Jen got (admittedly controlled) interviews and they didn't until after the finale, they're gonna be ticked...CBS really fumbled this one.

9 Million for BIG BROTHER 8.

That's their highest rating this summer isn't it? It's been a good season, excellent casting and they deserve their success. Now if we can just have America's Tool Eric get his long deserved comeuppancee it'll be a good way to close out the season.

I've never seen "Big Brother", but I think Jerry Springer should have been the host of this instead of "America's Got Talent". The contestants are too much like the guests from his show!

30 Rock basically got new episode ratings.