-Yesterday’s Winners: Survivor: China (CBS), CSI (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), The Office (NBC), Without a Trace (CBS)
-Down But Far From Out: Ugly Betty (ABC)
-Honorable Mention: Smallville (CW), Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Fox), Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Fox)
-Yesterday’s Losers: Big Shots (ABC), ER (NBC)
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Note: Any prior rating results are based on the final nationals. Also, since the level of DVR penetration has increased from 8.54 percent during premiere week in 2006 to 19.43 million percent at present, the overall results may be negatively impacted.
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-Ratings Breakdown: CBS opened this first Thursday of the 2007-08 season at a first-place finish in both total viewers and adults 18-49, with 4.22 million more viewers and a one-tenth of a rating point advantage in the demo over No. 2 ABC. Third overall was NBC, followed by Fox, and the CW. The biggest news, and this is not positive, was significant unexpected slippage for Grey’s Anatomy on ABC. Keep reading…
Week two of CBS’ Survivor: China opened the evening with a first-place 14.16 million viewers and a 4.6 rating/13 share among adults 18-49 from 8-9 p.m. Second was the sophomore season-premiere of ABC’s Ugly Betty at 11.05 million viewers and a 3.8/11 in the demo. While this is certainly still a vast improvement over all programming on ABC in this time period before last season, Ugly Betty debuted on Sept. 28, 2006 with a much heftier 16.32 million viewers and a 5.0/14 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that’s a loss of a significant 5.27 million viewers and 24 percent in the demo.
Over at NBC, the one-hour season-premiere of competing My Name is Earl was on par with year-ago levels, at 8.52 million viewers (#3) and a 3.7/11 among adults 18-49 (#3). Also in the 8 p.m. hour was Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Viewers: #4, 7.35 million; A18-49: #4, 2.0/ 6), and the season-premiere of the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: #5, 5.08 million; A18-49: #5, 1.9/ 5). The positive news for Smallville was a performance close to year-ago opening levels.
At 9 p.m., the battle of the two big season premieres -- CSI vs. Grey’s Anatomy -- resulted as follows:
CSI (CBS) Viewers: 24.85 million (#1), A18-49: 8.0/19 (#2)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) Viewers: 20.48 million (#2), A18-49: 8.7/21 (#1)
While leadership was mixed, CSI built from it’s year-ago opener (Viewers: 22.57 million; A18-49: 7.7/18, on Sept. 21, 2006) by 2.28 million viewers and four percent among adults 18-49. Grey’s Anatomy, however, was down by 4.93 million viewers (25.41 to 20.48) and 21 percent in the demo (11.0/26 to 8.7/21). Are viewers tiring of the soggy dramatics between Meredith and Dr. “McDreamy”?
A one-hour edition of NBC’s The Office finished third in the 9 p.m. hour, with 9.67 million viewers and a series-high 5.1/12 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that built by a hefty 31 percent in adults 18-49 from the second half of lead-in My Name is Earl (3.9/11), with growth 19 percent in the demo from its year-ago season opener (4.3/11 on Sept. 21, 2006).
Also in the 9 p.m. hour was Fox’s Don’t Forget the Lyrics (#4, 5.39 million; A18-49: #4, 1.8/ 4), which is a big improvement over year-ago occupant Celebrity Duets, and a repeat of the CW’s Reaper (Viewers: #5, 2.53 million; A18-49: #5, 1.0/ 2).
As expected, the sixth season-premiere of CBS’ Without a Trace led the 10 p.m. hour, with 16.73 million viewers and a 4.8/13 among adults 18-49. Comparably, former occupant Shark debuted in the time period with 14.47 million viewers and a 4.1/11 in the demo on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006. Last season, Without a Trace kicked-off with a similar 17.56 million viewers and a 4.8/12 in the demo on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006 at 10 p.m.
In series-premiere news, ABC’s Big Shots opened second in the hour, with 11.56 million viewers and a 4.7/13 in the demo. Under different circumstances this might have been considered positive. But retention for Big Shots out of Grey’s Anatomy of just 56 percent in total viewers and 54 percent among adults 18-49, and the following losses at 10:30 p.m. lands it in the loser’s listing:
Former failed occupant Six Degrees debuted with 12.56 million viewers and a 5.4/14 among adults 18-49 in this time period on the year-ago opening Thursday.
Last, but not least, was the 14th season premiere of NBC’s ER at a last-place 9.93 million viewers and a 4.1/11 among adults 18-49. Compared to it’s year-ago opener (Viewers: 15.59 million; A18-49: 6.8/18 on Sept. 21, 2006), that was a loss of 5.56 million viewers and a 40 percent in the demo. So long, ER!
The Office did take viewers away from Grey's! How about that?
Also keep in mind that TO was one of the VERY few shows last year whose season finale was up year-to-year from the year-ago season finale. Looks like extremely good news for NBC.
I was worried about Smallville with the way the CW had been going of late with it's premieres. But it's numbers for the premiere are very positive. Those are higher than last years!. I hope SN benefits from it when it returns next Thursday. The CW better promote SV and SN more.
Posts: 87 | Location: Spokane, WA | Registered: 15 January 2007
Marc I know you are not a big Grey's fan. Remember you cannot compare season premieres. Last season's was so much more hyped. It had a six million dollar marketing, The Fray's How to save a life, the move to Thursday's and much more buzzed. It fell in the ratings. Also CSI's episode was very hyped because of Sara. Marc do you know what ABC used to do before Grey's came along on Thursday's? Does Night Stalker ring a bill or the 2.0 to 4.0 DOA it used to recieve? Grey's has been ABC's savior for the night. Also while Big Shots dropped, it was no different from other series that premiered in the slot. It actually did better then Six Degrees because Grey's was much higher when SD premiered. Big Shots dropped and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. It had promise.
oh lord, way was my first thought when I saw the reaper get 2.5 for a repeat was that the CW will move the new episodes in that slot instead of SN? I watched Grey's last night and yeah Mark, it's getting a little dull the back and forth. Once SN comes back next (which it better) Greys will be recorded.
