-Honorable Mention: The Office (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), Eleventh Hour (CBS)
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): My Name is Earl (NBC), Kath & Kim (NBC), Life on Mars (ABC)
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-Ratings Breakdown: CBS won this first night of the Nov. 2008 sweeps, beating second-place ABC by 3.75 million viewers and eight percent among adults 18-49. Third in both categories was NBC.
Since we are all wondering if the mega-exposure of Tina Fey helped NBC’s 30 Rock, let me begin with that. And, yes, it did. While it was nothing to jump up and down about, the third season-premiere of 30 Rock kicked-off third in the 9:30 p.m. half hour with an improved (and third-place) 8.53 million viewers and a 4.1 rating/10 share among adults 18-49. Comparably, that put retention out of lead-in The Office (Viewers: 9.32 million; A18-49: 4.7/12 at 9 p.m.) of 92 percent in viewers and 87 percent among adults 18-49. But this is not, and it never will be, a hit show. Once the dust settles from the election next week, so will any momentum for 30 Rock.
Earlier in the evening on NBC were lackluster comedies My Name is Earl (Viewers: #3, 6.17 million; A18-49: #2, 2.4/ 7) and Kath & Kim (Viewers: #3, 5.46 million; A18-49: #3, 2.3/ 6), from 8-9 p.m. And capping off the night was veteran ER at 9.12 million viewers (#2) and a first-place 3.4/ 9 among adults 18-49 from 10-11 p.m. Considering NBC’s ongoing woes, maybe the 15-year-old medical drama is worth keeping. As for Kath & Kim, Mr. TV has a new TV turkey this year!
CBS’ Survivor: Gabon won the 8 p.m. hour, with 13.14 million viewers and a 4.2/12 among adults 18-49. But compared to Survivor: China one year earlier (Viewers: 14.44 million; A18-49: 4.9/13 on Nov. 1, 2007), that was a decrease of 1.30 million viewers and 14 percent in the demo. Next on CBS was CSI at 18.64 million viewers (#1 for the evening) and a 4.7/12 among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m., followed by Eleventh Hour at a 11.48 million viewers (#1) and a second-place 2.9/ 8 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. Comparably, Eleventh Hour dipped from year-ago occupant Without a Trace (Viewers: 14.58 million; A18-49: 3.9/10 on Nov. 1, 2007) by 3.10 million viewers and 26 percent among adults 18-49. In other words, this is not a drama that will necessarily break out.
ABC scored a now typical Thursday performance with its combination of Ugly Betty (Viewers: #2, 8.55 million; A18-49: #2, 2.6/ 8), Grey’s Anatomy (Viewers: #2, 15.05 million; A18-49: #1 for the evening: 5.6/14) and week four of Life on Mars (Viewers: #3, 8.41 million; A18-49: #3, 2.7/ 8). Comparably, that put retention for Life on Mars out of Grey’s Anatomy of only 56 percent in total viewers and 48 percent in the demo.
Fox, which would have preferred a game seven of The World Series, filled the night with two repeat episodes of Kitchen Nightmares (Viewers: #5, avg. 3.81 million; A18-49: #4t, avg. 1.6/ 4 from 8-10 p.m.). And the CW capped off Thursday with veteran Smallville (Viewers: #4, 4.24 million; A18-49: #4, 1.7/ 5), which was on par from one year earlier, and Supernatural (Viewers: #5, 3.53 million; A18-49: #5, 1.5/ 4), which still works relatively well at 9 p.m. despite the hefty competition. Looking ahead, there is no reason to believe the CW will abandon its strategy of airing sci-fi dramas on Thursday next season. . Source: Nielsen Media Research data
Since we are all wondering if the mega-exposure of Tina Fey helped NBC’s 30 Rock, let me begin with that. And, yes, it did. While it was nothing to jump up and down about, the third season-premiere of 30 Rock kicked-off third in the 9:30 p.m. half hour with an improved (and third-place) 8.53 million viewers and a 4.1 rating/10 share among adults 18-49. Comparably, that put retention out of lead-in The Office (Viewers: 9.32 million; A18-49: 4.7/12 at 9 p.m.) of 92 percent in viewers and 87 percent among adults 18-49. But this is not, and it never will be, a hit show. Once the dust settles from the election next week, so will any momentum for 30 Rock.
Agreed--Fey has many talents, but showrunning just isn't one of them. She should consider starting her own sketch show, or just concentrate on her movie career. With all the nonstop free promotion (plus plenty of paid promotion) 30 Rock should have AT LEAST outperformed The Office, which has seen far better days.
Now, a new Daily Game for the upcoming November 2008 Sweeps!
Just guess one or more of your selected program's final 18-49 demographic before each night at 7:00 PM Eastern time. Also, you can play multiple nights so you won't have to miss any of the 28 nights of sweeps programming. And, it's just as simple as the regular PIFC Daily Game! Play right now! (click on the sweeps game logo on the left or below)
As an experiment, I had the PIFC Daily Game page direct to PIFC Sweeps Daily for the past 16 hours. Got a bit more entries for today's Sweeps Daily! Thanks!
As of the time of this post, PIFC Daily Game has returned with today's featured show for Halloween, Ghost Whisperer (CBS). Play right now!
TV ratings data for the Academy Awards since 1953 now online! Check them out now!
Next week 30 Rock will probably be fine. The mega-hyped "Oprah guests!" episode is on. But I'm not sure whether the stunt guest star effects of Jennifer Aniston and Steve Martin will continue any sort of ratings boon. But I hope so.
And can I take a moment to say... 30 Rock beat Heroes this week.
Weird that CSI beat Grey's by a tenth in the demo last week and lost by almost a full point this week. Was there anything special about last week's episode?
I thought this week's Grey's was excellent. Some real drama with a new character who actually mixed things up for the first time in a long while.
Always so much negativity here on 30 Rock. I haven't seen last night's episode yet, but if it was a good one, then why wouldn't people come back for more. It might not be a Megahit, but what on NBC is... and it certainly isn't Kath & Kim and 30 Rock may finally get a large enough following to warrant it sticking around for a few more years. The stunt casting is going to keep it on the ratings radar, but they are going to have keep up the quality and not turn into Will & Grace.
At 9:31, the third-season premiere of 30 ROCK delivered new series records in 18-49 and total viewers with a 4.1/10 in 18-49 and 8.5 million viewers overall. Versus its year-ago season debut (3.4/9 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall at 8:30 on October 4, 2007), 30 ROCK is up 21% in 18-49 and 16% in total viewers.
Originally posted by TravisYanan: Next week 30 Rock will probably be fine. The mega-hyped "Oprah guests!" episode is on. But I'm not sure whether the stunt guest star effects of Jennifer Aniston and Steve Martin will continue any sort of ratings boon. But I hope so.
And can I take a moment to say... 30 Rock beat Heroes this week.
Weird that CSI beat Grey's by a tenth in the demo last week and lost by almost a full point this week. Was there anything special about last week's episode?
I thought this week's Grey's was excellent. Some real drama with a new character who actually mixed things up for the first time in a long while.
Jorja Fox was on and the 18-49ers just love that relationship soap opera I guess.
Originally posted by TravisYanan: Next week 30 Rock will probably be fine. The mega-hyped "Oprah guests!" episode is on. But I'm not sure whether the stunt guest star effects of Jennifer Aniston and Steve Martin will continue any sort of ratings boon. But I hope so.
And can I take a moment to say... 30 Rock beat Heroes this week.
Weird that CSI beat Grey's by a tenth in the demo last week and lost by almost a full point this week. Was there anything special about last week's episode?
I thought this week's Grey's was excellent. Some real drama with a new character who actually mixed things up for the first time in a long while.
Jorja Fox was on and the 18-49ers just love that relationship soap opera I guess.
Ah. Hm, does this spell trouble for the show when William Peterson leaves? Or will Laurence Fishburne allay that... at least for a few episodes?
I think its way too soon to dismiss 30 Rock's ratings, especially with even more guest stars like Oprah, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Martin. Also, its not fair the double standard that 30 Rock gets when it comes to being a "hit" show, Til Death and Back to You did awful last season (and both are now cancelled) yet, they were never given the "this is not, and never will be, a hit show."
And the fact that the ratings went up by 20% shows that 30 Rock does have a chance to at least be a stable player for NBC.
The only thing I'm concerned with is whether NBC is happy enough to keep airing the series, not whether Marc thinks the show can be a hit. Based on last night's ratings, NBC is happy. Hopefully it will continue to be happy.
quote:
Originally posted by Legends: I think its way too soon to dismiss 30 Rock's ratings, especially with even more guest stars like Oprah, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Martin. Also, its not fair the double standard that 30 Rock gets when it comes to being a "hit" show, Til Death and Back to You did awful last season (and both are now cancelled) yet, they were never given the "this is not, and never will be, a hit show."
And the fact that the ratings went up by 20% shows that 30 Rock does have a chance to at least be a stable player for NBC.
I think fans will watch an episode or 2 with laurence to see how he does, if they like him, they'll stay.
I really could care less about GA winning the demo by a point..CSI usually doesn't win the demo anyway...Plus, GA used to win the demo by much more sometime ago..
CSI is still #1 in the weekly ratings and GA is right around 7-10 in the weekly ratings.
