Prime-Time Ratings:
Tuesday 2/05/08

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

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 25.52 million, NBC: 7.16, CBS: 6.12, ABC: 5.26, CW: 2.36

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 10.1 rating/24 share, NBC: 2.8/ 7, CBS: 1.5/ 4, ABC: 1.4/ 3, CW: 1.0/ 2

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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 9 percent in early 2006-07 to approximately 20 percent at present, the overall results may be negatively impacted.

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), House (Fox)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Overall Super Tuesday Election Coverage, which was not so super!

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by American Idol, and opposite a schedule populated with Super Tuesday Election Coverage, dominant Fox beat the four networks combined by 5.43 million viewers and 51 percent among adults 18-49. American Idol opened the evening with 27.79 million viewers and an 11.2 rating/28 share among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m., followed by House at a very compatible 23.24 million viewers and a 9.0/21 in the demo at 9 p.m.

A repeat of CBS’ NCIS was second in total viewers at 8 p.m. (8.98 million), and third among adults 18-49 (1.8/ 4). That led into two-hours of Election Coverage on CBS at an estimated 4.69 million viewers and a 1.3/ 3 among adults 18-49 from 9-11 p.m. Keep in mind that results for any live event are always approximate.

NBC aired another two-hour edition of The Biggest Loser 5 (Viewers: 7.96 million; A18-49: 3.2/ 8 from 8-10 p.m.), which always manages to flex some muscle among adults 18-49, followed by Election Coverage at 5.58 million viewers and a 2.1/ 5 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m.

Three hours of Election Coverage on ABC finished fourth in both total viewers (5.26 million) and adults 18-49 (1.4/ 3) from 8-11 p.m. As a recap, here were the results for the very lackluster Super Tuesday Election Coverage last night:

ABC, 8-11 p.m. – Viewers: 5.26 million, A18-49: 1.4/ 3
CBS, 9-11 p.m. – Viewers: 4.69 million, A18-49: 1.3/ 3
NBC, 10-11 p.m. – Viewers: 5.58 million, A18-49: 2.1/ 5

Last was the CW with its combination of a repeat of Reaper (Viewers: 1.89 million, A18-49: 0.7/ 2) and One Tree Hill (Viewers: 2.84 million, A18-49: 1.3/ 3). The good news for One Tree Hill was growth of 950,000 viewers and 86 percent among adults 18-49 out of the Reaper encore. The bad news: considering that ABC and CBS aired election coverage opposite it, the results should have been better.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Great episode for House last night. Sad to see that was the last episoade until there are more scripts. I guess the Super Bowl telecast didn't really jump start this episode. I expected more viewers for AI and House last night due all the unnecessary coverage of Super Tuesday last night. Guess that's what happens when there's a writers strike. Looks like a dull Feb Sweeps, other than Fox and MyTV network. Let's see how MOT does in week 3. I say 15 million viewers.

Strike update from medialife:

With the Academy Awards looming, and after three months on the picket lines, the striking writers are to meet on Saturday to get briefed by union leaders on the latest offer from the heads of Hollywood studios, and it's expected they will urge those leaders to adopt the new contract so they can get back to work.

That's even as leaders of the Writers Guild of America press members to continue walking the picket lines and to disregard reports that a deal is all but done.

Terms of the latest offer have not been revealed, but it appears to give the writers much of what they have been asking for in terms of payment for work that appears on the internet, either originally or as reruns.

New media rights had been the sticking point from well before the writers walked off on Nov. 5, and they've remained at the forefront of their on-and-off negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the negotiating arm of the studios.

The breakthrough came when the AMPTP recently reached an agreement with the Directors Guild of America that's considerably more generous in new media payouts than what it offered the writers.

Typically, the first of three unions to reach a deal with the studios--the WGA, the DGA or the actors’ guild--creates the template for agreements with the other two.

The agreement with the DGA opened the way for the WGA and the AMPTP to resume talks on an informal basis, and this time around there appeared to be a real desire on both sides to finally reach a deal. Word out of the talks has it that the AMPTP was modifying the new media terms in the DGA deal to meet the specific concerns of the writers.

Presumably, writers could be off the picket lines as early as next week if WGA leaders vote to approve the new contract, which covers upwards of 10,000 writers.

That would allow the Academy Awards to air as planned on Feb. 24.

It will also mean fully staffed writing crews on the late-night shows, which were the first to feel the effects of the strike, as well as the daytime soaps. Here the timing could not be better. For months they’d gotten by on backlog of scripts—soaps typically are written months ahead—but those scripts were fast running out, or had run out, and more and more the shows were turning to non-WGA writers who were not familiar with the shows often complex plotlines and character quirks.

Ratings were already suffering this season, the result of the natural attrition of network daytime audiences, and the fear was that the soaps were about to take far worse tumbles as longtime viewers came to notice the declining quality of the scripts.

As for primetime, fresh episodes likely won’t start airing until at least April. That’s how long it would take to get scripts written and episodes shot if the strike were to end next week.

Sitcoms would come back sooner than dramas, since they don’t require shooting on location.

Read article here: Expect Speedy Vote Ending the Strike

I am rather shocked by the low numbers for the super tuesday primaries, considering that all the televised debates have done surprisingly well.

quote:

Originally posted by tv avenger:
I am rather shocked by the low numbers for the super tuesday primaries, considering that all the televised debates have done surprisingly well.

Me too!

quote:

One Tree Hill (Viewers: 2.84 million, A18-49: 1.3/ 3). The good news for One Tree Hill was growth of 950,000 viewers and 86 percent among adults 18-49 out of the Reaper encore. The bad news: considering that ABC and CBS aired election coverage opposite it, the results should have been better.

I still think considering it's lead in and going up against AI or House (which had more viewers than it did last week) OTH isn't doing horrible. Not sure any other scripted CW show, other than Smallville, would be able to do as good as what OTH has in it's timeslot and with it's lead in. It's the CW, so I know that isn't saying much. Plus, isn't that demo pretty good?

quote:

Originally posted by tv avenger:
I am rather shocked by the low numbers for the super tuesday primaries, considering that all the televised debates have done surprisingly well.

But you can actually get something from the debates. There's very little you could have gotten from the 3 hours of coverage last night that you couldn't get in less time on the news this morning or online.

quote:

Originally posted by tv avenger:
I am rather shocked by the low numbers for the super tuesday primaries, considering that all the televised debates have done surprisingly well.

Apathy reigns supreme.

Anyway NEXT Tuesday is the day I'm looking forward too...I've got my fingers crossed that BIG BROTHER will do well.

And I want JERICHO to succeed too but I think CBS is trying to kill the show once and for all.
JERICHO was kind of a "family" show hence the 8PM hour when it was first on. Tuesdays at 10PM will kill it.

If they were serious about JERICHO it would be airing say at 8PM on Sunday night...with the strike on they have the luxury to try any better time slot that its infamous Tuesday Death Slot.

CBS may have been better going with The Unit at 9 and only one hour of primaries, as they always struggle with the news coverage. NBC's coverage obviously got help from a good demo lead-in. Should be noted that the nets were also going head-to-head with a lot of cable coverage.

House obviously did great, but the post-SB bump from its last Tuesday ep was less than 5%, so while Fox probably didn't have anything that could've done better than the 29 million it got out of House, it wasn't a choice that will have a long-term impact. Super Bowl promotion in general made little difference, only temporarily stopping the Terminator decline (as opposed to spiking it) and giving only a tiny boost to House.

I would venture to say that most political analysis was watched on cable (CNN, MSNBC) rather than the networks.

Also I would say viewers numbers were depressed to a certain extent because people were out voting. There is no apathy here, considering there has been record turnout across the country.

FOX Holds Unassailable Lead After Six Nights of the 2008 February Sweep:

After six nights of the February Sweep, FOX continues to hold a huge lead in the young adult demo, households and viewership averages, by virtue of the enormous Super Bowl numbers combined with the powerhouse American Idol numbers added in last night.

The Cinderella of this Sweep has to be second place ABC, which continues to hold second place in the young adult demo and viewership.

After four nights, FOX is off the charts in terms of year-over-year improvement, with MyNetworkTV also showing significant year-over-year upward movement. Of the remaining networks, ABC, NBC and The CW are all showing low double-digit year-over-year slippage while CBS (last year's Super Bowl broadcaster) is showing terrible year-over-year fall-off.

Also of note: despite the WGA-strike addled line-ups of the six networks, after six days, the young adult demo is virtually even on a year-over-year basis (down just 1%) while viewership is up by a small amount (up 1%).

					nights	nights
demo	web	demo	demo	%	won	won
Rank	web	2008	2007	chg	2008	2007
1	FOX	12.68	3.80	233%	4	2
2	ABC	2.35	2.90	-19%	1	1
3	NBC	2.26	2.91	-23%	2	
4	CBS	1.66	9.30	-82%		3
5	CW	0.87	1.23	-29%		
6	MNT*	0.46	0.27	71%		
	total	20.29	20.42	-1%	7	6
  

					nights	nights
viewers	web	viewers	viewers	viewers	won	won
rank	web	2008	2007	chg	2008	2007
1	FOX	33.165	9.530	248%	3	1
2	ABC	7.201	7.931	-9%	2	1
3	CBS	6.799	26.669	-75%		4
4	NBC	6.366	8.510	-25%	1	
5	CW	2.382	3.159	-25%		
6	MNT*	1.215	0.784	55%		
	total	57.13	56.58	1%	6	6
  

* MyNetworkTV is five nights of data only.

This years and last years numbers are based upon final Nielsen numbers, except for Monday and Tuesday this year which are based upon the FAST Nationals.

1. OTH got disappointing viewing numbers but escellent demos


2. Very surprised by the low numbers for the election coverage

3. Very surprised by how badly the main networks and the news channels have covered the tornados. Remember how they've covered the California wildfires?

quote:

Originally posted by lopez:

quote:

Originally posted by tv avenger:
I am rather shocked by the low numbers for the super tuesday primaries, considering that all the televised debates have done surprisingly well.

Me too!

I don't think that the results coverage carry the same level of drama as the debates do.

I believe the Clinton campaign has proposed weekly debates through the remainder of the caucuses and sweeps, so there may be more opportunity for covering debates by ABC and the cablers (CNN, FOX NEWS, MSNBC).

quote:

Originally posted by A.C.:

quote:

Originally posted by tv avenger:
I am rather shocked by the low numbers for the super tuesday primaries, considering that all the televised debates have done surprisingly well.

Apathy reigns supreme.

Anyway NEXT Tuesday is the day I'm looking forward too...I've got my fingers crossed that BIG BROTHER will do well.

And I want JERICHO to succeed too but I think CBS is trying to kill the show once and for all.
JERICHO was kind of a "family" show hence the 8PM hour when it was first on. Tuesdays at 10PM will kill it.

If they were serious about JERICHO it would be airing say at 8PM on Sunday night...with the strike on they have the luxury to try any better time slot that its infamous Tuesday Death Slot.

If CBS wanted to kill the show they would not have brought it back. Would'nt that have been easier?

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

quote:

Originally posted by tv avenger:
I am rather shocked by the low numbers for the super tuesday primaries, considering that all the televised debates have done surprisingly well.

But you can actually get something from the debates. There's very little you could have gotten from the 3 hours of coverage last night that you couldn't get in less time on the news this morning or online.

You could say the same thing about American Idol yet its ratings are a bit higher.