Prime-Time Ratings:
Wednesday 4/15/09

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 17.13 million, CBS: 9.43, ABC: 6.74, NBC: 5.68, CW: 2.36

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 5.5 rating/15 share, ABC: 2.6/ 7, CBS: 2.4/ 7, NBC: 1.5/ 4, CW: 1.1/ 3

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Bones (Fox), American Idol (Fox), Criminal Minds R (CBS), CSI: NY (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Scrubs (ABC), Better Off Ted (ABC), The Unusuals (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by American Idol, it was another midweek victory for Fox, which beat the No. 2 network (CBS in total viewers; ABC among adults 18-49) by 7.70 million viewers and 112 percent in the demo. Fourth overall was NBC, followed by the CW.

A Wednesday installment of underrated Fox drama Bones opened the evening with a dominant 10.76 million viewers and a 3.0 rating/9 share among adults 18-49. No matter where Fox puts this show, it always delivers. Also in the hour were repeats of CBS sitcoms The New Adventures of Old Christine (Viewers: ##, 5.68 million; A18-49: #2, 1.6/ 5) and Gary Unmarried (Viewers: #2, 5.87 million; A18-49: #3, 1.8/ 5); ABC’s Scrubs (Viewers: #3, 5.30 million; A18-49: #2, 2.0/ 7) and Better Off Ted (Viewers: #4, 4.72 million; A18-49: #2, 1.9/ 6); a repeat of NBC’s Law & Order (Viewers: #3, 5.57 million; A18-49: #5, 1.3/ 4); and America’s Next Top Model on the CW (Viewers: #5, 3.76 million; A18-49: #3, 1.8/ 5). Top Model, of course, always delivers among young female viewers.

Fox’s American Idol stood well above the competition at 9 p.m., with a hefty 23.49 million viewers and an 8.0/20 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that built from the second-half of lead-in Bones (Viewers: 11.62 million; A18-49: 3.2/ 9 at 8:30 p.m.) by 11.87 million viewers and a massive 150 percent in the demo. While Mr. TV was right on the money with the bottom three picks (Anoop, Lil and Matt), it was Matt that got the lowest number of votes. But those wise judges used their one save and kept Matt in the competition, so next week two contestants will go home.

Tied for second in the 9 p.m. hour was a repeat of CBS’ Criminal Minds and ABC’s Lost as follows:

Wednesday 9 p.m.
Criminal Minds R (CBS)
Viewers: 10.51 million (#2), A18-49: 2.5/ 6 (#3)

Lost (ABC)
Viewers: 9.01 million (#3), A18-49: 3.9/10 (#2)

Also populating the hour was a repeat of NBC’s Law & Order: SVU (Viewers: #4, 5.51 million; A18-49: #4, 1.5/ 4) and a repeat of the CW’s 90210 (Viewers: #5, 961,000; A18-49: #5, 0.4/ 1), which featured the return of Tori Spelling as Donna Martin.

CBS capped off the evening on a winning note, with CSI: NY at 12.01 million viewers and a 2.8/ 8 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. While dominance is certainly a good thing, has anyone else noticed how the whole CSI franchise has aged up this season?

Next at 10 p.m. was week two of ABC dramedy The Unusuals, which dipped to 6.21 million viewers and a 1.9/ 5 among adults 18-49. Compared to its already lackluster debut just one week earlier (Viewers: 6.83 million, A18-49: 2.1/ 6), that was a loss of 620,000 viewers and 10 percent in the demo. Last was a repeat of NBC’s Law & Order at 5.95 million viewers and a 1.7/ 5 among adults 18-49.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Lost was awesome last night.

The Unusuals is DOA. It barely beat a L&O repeat.

With Lost down the way it is, I think ABC should consider rethinking their programming strategy. Run the show in the fall and let it reach its finale before it has to potentially face off against Idol again. More people might jump back on board for the last season this way.

i think abc will give a second season to one show among unusuals, castle and cupid. it's rather close between unusuals and castle

Great numbers for Bones. While it has been doing better than Fox's average on Thursdays at 8pm... Wednesdays at 8pm lets the series win its timeslot (and it's stronger than LTM). Hm. Fox needs to be in play on Thursdays, but I wonder if they're better off keeping Bones on Wednesdays next season (and, here's an idea... NOT MOVING IT).

Also: Bones has better demos the CSI: NY (which, granted, had a repeat CM as lead-in). Who'd have thunk it?

Lost is very lucky to have a clips special next week against the Idol double elimination. Frankly, the first half of this season of Lost was amazing, but ever since the Oceanic 6 got back to the Island (some in 2008, some in 1978), the show has hit the brakes. It's all been set-up for the finale and the episodes themselves - for the most part with with exceptions - have not been very engaging. Last night's episode, for instance, was interesting... but not exactly edge of your seat television.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
CBS capped off the evening on a winning note, with CSI: NY at 12.01 million viewers and a 2.8/ 8 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. While dominance is certainly a good thing, has anyone else noticed how the whole CSI franchise has aged up this season?

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

That's a series low for CSI:NY

I agree about Lost and am starting to get bored.

quote:

Originally posted by TravisYanan:
Great numbers for Bones. While it has been doing better than Fox's average on Thursdays at 8pm... Wednesdays at 8pm lets the series win its timeslot (and it's stronger than LTM). Hm. Fox needs to be in play on Thursdays, but I wonder if they're better off keeping Bones on Wednesdays next season (and, here's an idea... NOT MOVING IT).

Also: Bones has better demos the CSI: NY (which, granted, had a repeat CM as lead-in). Who'd have thunk it?

Lost is very lucky to have a clips special next week against the Idol double elimination. Frankly, the first half of this season of Lost was amazing, but ever since the Oceanic 6 got back to the Island (some in 2008, some in 1978), the show has hit the brakes. It's all been set-up for the finale and the episodes themselves - for the most part with with exceptions - have not been very engaging. Last night's episode, for instance, was interesting... but not exactly edge of your seat television.

CBS made a schedule change late in the game for last night, they had CSI:NY as a rerun until late last week. I know in this site you had it as a repeat yesterday, and I know my direct TV had it as a rerun.

quote:

Last night's episode, for instance, was interesting... but not exactly edge of your seat television.

I found it boring.

quote:

i think abc will give a second season to one show among unusuals, castle and cupid. it's rather close between unusuals and castle

But do you think that would be a good idea? Do you think any of these shows have any potential to become solid ratings performers, let alone hits?

There are shows you give a bit of extra time to find an audience, but what about shows like Castle, that find an audience right away, then lose it in a few weeks?

The Unusuals has a few more weeks to prove it's the other kind of show--the one that starts small and builds. But it sure didn't do that last night.

Travis, I've really enjoyed many episodes of Lost this season, but of course there have been boring stretches--and there always were, but we used to notice them less when we were first falling for Lost.

There's really no way to keep people on the edge of their seats for SIX YEARS. This is the show, and this always has been the show--it's has improved since they set the end-date, but they still have too much time to fill. We're less interested because it's run too long. It should never have been planned as an open-ended series. But there's no way they'd have done it as an extended mini-series.

We're not dating Lost anymore--we're married to it. Buck up--we'll be merry widows in a little over a year.

I think it was a mistake to let so many shows premiere so late this season. I don't know about others, but I find it hard to really get interested in shows at this time of the year.

Having said that: I like "The Unusuals". I didn't like last night's episode as much as the pilot, but I still enjoyed it. I also think it could have been more of a hit, but the timeslot and the late premiere date pretty much ruined its chances for success. LOST is a horrible lead-in. Nobdy wants to watch another show after LOST.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
Also in the hour were repeats of CBS sitcoms The New Adventures of Old Christine (Viewers: ##, 5.68 million; A18-49: #2, 1.6/ 5) and Gary Unmarried (Viewers: #2, 5.87 million; A18-49: #3, 1.8/ 5); ABC’s Scrubs (Viewers: #3, 5.30 million; A18-49: #2, 2.0/ 7) and Better Off Ted (Viewers: #4, 4.72 million; A18-49: #2, 1.9/ 6).

Good to see 'Scrubs' and 'Better Off Ted' eke out a demo victory over 'Old Christine' and 'Gary Unmarried'.

And 'The Unusuals' belly-up at 10 pm means that when comparing at 'Castle', 'Cupid' and 'The Unusuals', 'Cupid' is still the top A18-49 retainer out of the 9 pm tentpoles 'DWTS' and 'Lost'.

Hi Marc,

Long time reader, just joined the site though. Can you post the half hour breakdown for The Unusuals? Thanks!

Did you watch it last night? Thoughts?

HH