Prime-Time Thursday Ratings: Fox Wins Despite Lackluster World Series
Thursday 10/26/06 Metered Market Ratings
Household Rating/Share Fox 10.0/15 CBS 9.4/14 ABC 8.9/14 NBC 5.9/ 9 CW 3.2/ 5
-Percent Change From the Comparable Year-Ago Evening (Thursday 10/27/05) (The CW is compared to Smallville and Everwood on the WB on the year-ago evening; Fox aired a repeat of theatrical Maid in Manhattan). Fox: +186, ABC: +98, CW: -16, NBC: -19, CBS: -32
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-Yesterday’s Winners: Ugly Betty (ABC), CSI R (CBS)
-Ratings Breakdown: Opposite repeats on ABC and CBS from 9-11 p.m., game four of The World Series on Fox (Detroit vs. St. Louis) took center stage, with an 11.4/19 in the overnights from 8:30 p.m.-12:15 a.m., and an approximate 14.52 million viewers and a 4.5/12 among adults 18-49 in prime time. While that is certainly an improvement over Fox’s regularly scheduled Thursday delivery, compared to the game four match-up on Oct. 26, 2005 between The Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros (Overnights: 14.8/24; Viewers: 19.98 million; A18-49: 6.6/18), it was also a decrease of a considerable 23 percent in the overnights, 5.46 million viewers and 32 percent among adults 18-49. Good? Yes. But a home-run? Absolutely not.
As a reminder, total viewers and adults 18-49 from last night are based on the fast nationals. Any prior results are based on the final nationals.
Airing opposite a clips edition of CBS’ Survivor: Cook Islands (which only demonstrated how deadly dull this season is) and Fox’s aforementioned baseball (including the half-hour pre-game show), ABC’s Ugly Betty dominated the 8 p.m. hour with a healthy 10.2/16 in the overnights, 13.15 million viewers and a 4.2/12 among adults 18-49. Second was Survivor: Cook Islands at a 7.9/12 in the overnights, 12.61 million viewers and a 4.1/11 among adults 18-49. The pre-game show scored a 6.7/10 in the overnights.
Repeats of NBC’s My Name Is Earl (Overnights: 5.4/ 8; Viewers: 7.56 million; A18-49: 2.8/ 8) and The Office (Overnights: #4, 4.6/ 7; Viewers: 6.38 million; A18-49: 2.7/ 7), which will begin airing into the return of Scrubs and the relocated 30 Rock in November, finished fourth in the 8 p.m. hour. The CW’s Smallville, meanwhile, held up at a 3.7/ 6 in the overnights, 4.79 million viewers and a 2.2/ 6 among adults 18-49. Comparably, Smallville matched its season highs in adults 18-34 and 18-49.
In the battle of the repeats at 9 p.m., CSI’s advantage over Grey’s Anatomy only solidifies the value of crime solving dramas versus serialized story-telling in off-network syndication. The CSI second-run averaged a potent (and first-place) 12.2/18 in the overnights, 16.63 million viewers and a 5.0/12 among adults 18-49 versus a third-place 9.0/13 in the overnights, 12.21 million viewers and a 4.5/11 among adults 18-49 for Grey’s Anatomy. As reported yesterday, Tony winner Liev Schreiber will be temporarily filling in for William Petersen on CSI beginning in January.
NBC’s competing Deal or No Deal, which the network is wisely removing from the competitive Thursday waters, scored a fourth-place 7.3/11 in the overnights, 11.03 million viewers and a 3.5/ 9 among adults 18-49. The CW’s Supernatural, which like lead-in Smallville is down year-to-year, capped off the hour with a last-place 2.8/ 4 in the overnights, 3.67 million viewers and a 1.7/ 4 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that put retention for Supernatural out of Smallville at 76 percent in the overnights, and 77 percent in both total viewers and adults 18-49.
In the battle of the repeats at 10 p.m., the No. 2 spot was shared between CBS’ Shark and another episode of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. Shark averaged an 8.1/13 in the overnights (#2), 10.37 million viewers (#2) and a 2.9/ 8 (#3) among adults 18-49, with Grey’s Anatomy at a 7.6/12 in the overnights (#3), 9.92 million viewers (#3) and a 3.8/10 among adults 18-49 (#2). A repeat of NBC’s ER was fourth with a 5.5/ 9 in the overnights, 7.20 million viewers and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49.
I'm thrilled to see that Ugly Betty is the real deal. I was worried that without Grey's Anatomy after it, the audience would go down considerably (no halo effect). But it basically help steady (albeit against less competition from CBS's Survivor).
How do the CSI repeat ratings compare against its year-ago repeat ratings? Just curious.
Frankly, Grey's bringing in 50% of its original audience for a repeat is a "winner" in my book. Serial dramas seem to average much lower original-to-repeat retention (Lost repeats do, what, maybe 6 million out of 17 million for an original?)
Smallville got was seems like unusually high overnights this week. Any reason (maybe the Survivor clip show?)
Posts: 4484 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: 21 September 2006
Considering a repeat of Grey's at 10 did better than Six Degrees does, and far better in terms of retention, think they'll finally let it go?
I hadn't even noticed that! Wow, a Grey's repeat, leading out of a Grey's repeat did better than an original Six Degrees leading out of a Grey's original!? That's insane (and, really, a very strong hint that ABC should try something else after Grey's for sweeps).
You're right about Smallville. For some reason I had Gilmore Girls' 3.2 overnight in my head and went "3.7! What went right there!?"
Posts: 4484 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: 21 September 2006
Originally posted by TravisYanan: I'm thrilled to see that Ugly Betty is the real deal. I was worried that without Grey's Anatomy after it, the audience would go down considerably (no halo effect). But it basically help steady (albeit against less competition from CBS's Survivor).
How do the CSI repeat ratings compare against its year-ago repeat ratings? Just curious.
Frankly, Grey's bringing in 50% of its original audience for a repeat is a "winner" in my book. Serial dramas seem to average much lower original-to-repeat retention (Lost repeats do, what, maybe 6 million out of 17 million for an original?)
Smallville got was seems like unusually high overnights this week. Any reason (maybe the Survivor clip show?)
I agree, Grey's repeat rating is quite impressive, considering the episodes were airing for the third time in the past month(premiere, repeated on the Friday night after the premiere, and then again last night).
I would imagine that Six Degrees will get the axe anyday now. Since ABC just announced additional script orders for Help Me Help You, The Nine and Men in Trees (while already renewing Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters) I would say that it's over for Six Degrees.
