-Yesterday’s Winners: ER Series Retrospective (NBC), Survivor: Tocantins (CBS), ER (NBC), CSI (CBS)
-Honorable Mention: Hell’s Kitchen (Fox)
-Not Expected Back Next Season: Eleventh Hour (CBS)
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): In the Motherhood (ABC), Samantha Who? (ABC)
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-Ratings Breakdown: A night of all ER led NBC to a Thursday victory, with an advantage over second-place CBS of 2.35 million viewers and 58 percent among adults 18-49. The long awaited two-hour ER series-ender ranked first in each of the four half hours (beating CBS’ competing CSI), with 16.23 million viewers and a 6.0 rating/16 share among adults 18-49 from 9-11 p.m. But as good as that is, its average 10.3 household rating places it at the bottom of the chart of other long-running series-finales.
MASH (CBS) – Feb. 28, 1983: 60.2 rating The Fugitive (ABC) – Aug. 29, 1967: 45.9 Cheers (NBC) – May 20, 1993: 45.5 Seinfeld (NBC) - May 14, 1998: 41.3 Magnum, P.I. (CBS) – May 1, 1988: 32.0 Friends (NBC) – May 6, 2004: 29.2 The Cosby Show (NBC) – April 30, 1992: 28.0 All in the Family (CBS) – April 8, 1979: 26.6 The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS): March 19, 1977: 25.5 Dallas (CBS) – May 3, 1991: 22.0 Home Improvement (ABC) – May 25, 1999: 21.6 Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS) - May 16, 2005: 20.2 Happy Days (ABC) – May 8, 1984: 19.0 Newhart (CBS) – May 21, 1990: 18.7 The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS) – March 23, 1971: 18.1 Three Company (ABC) – Sept. 18, 1984: 17.9 Gunsmoke (CBS) – March 31, 1975: 15.3 Hill Street Blues (NBC): May 12, 1987: 17.0 St. Elsewhere (NBC): May 25, 1988: 17.0 Frasier (NBC) - May 13, 2004: 16.3 L.A. Law (NBC) – May 19, 1994: 15.9 Roseanne (ABC) – May 20, 1997: 11.6 Will & Grace (NBC) - May 5, 2006: 11.5
Earlier in the evening, the ER retrospective was second behind CBS’ Survivor: Tocantins, with 10.55 million viewers and a 3.5/10 among adults 18-49. Survivor: Tocantins returned to the hour (after two Thursdays of basketball) with 11.21 million viewers and a 3.6/11 in the demo. That led into a second-place finish for CSI (Viewers: 14.38 million; A18-49: 3.7/10 at 9 p.m.), followed by the season (or series) finale of Eleventh Hour at an also second-place 10.38 million viewers and a 2.5/ 7 in the demo at 10 p.m. Although the overall season to-date performance for Eleventh Hour was certainly not bad, retention out of CSI was never spectacular and CBS can certainly put the time period to better use. Next up: mystery Harper’s Island, which kicks-off next Thursday. Chances are Eleventh Hour will not be back for a second season.
Fox finished third overall with its combination of underrated Bones (Viewers: #3, 8.98 million; A18-49: #3, 2.6/ 8) and Hell’s Kitchen (Viewers: #3, 6.98 million; A18-49: #3, 3.2/ 8), which managed to built by 23 percent in the demo despite facing some very heavy competition.
Fourth-place ABC got off to a rocky start last night, with week two of sitcom In the Motherhood dropping to a distant fourth in the 8 p.m. half-hour, with just 5.00 million viewers and a 1.6/ 5 among adults 18-49. Compared to its debut on March 26 (Viewers: 6.70 million; A18-49: 2.2/ 6, based on the final nationals), that was a decline of a hefty 1.70 million viewers and 27 percent in the demo. Yes, ABC was smart to already reduce the episode order for In the Motherhood. Next on ABC was relocated Samantha Who? (Viewers: #4, 4.79 million; A18-49: #5, 1.5/ 4 at 8:30 p.m.), which cannot stand on its own without the benefit of a strong lead-in, followed by repeats of Grey’s Anatomy (Viewers: #4, 4.90 million; A18-49: #4t, 1.5/ 4) and spin-off Private Practice (Viewers: #3, 3.82 million; A18-49: #3, 1.2/ 3) from 9-11 p.m. The inability of these serialized dramas to attract an audience the second time around will be costly when it heads to off-network.
The CW capped off this first Thursday in April with the already renewed pairing of Smallville (Viewers: #5, 3.80 million; A18-49: #4, 1.6/ 5) and the highly compatible Supernatural (Viewers: #5, 3.28 million; A18-49: #4t, 1.5/ 4).
I think they should do a spin-off with Alexis and Rachel Greene at Carter’s new medical center.
Great finale numbers, I did not expect it to be that high. Its hard to get finale numbers like this now in days. Too bad NBC Thursday goes back to normal next week.
NBC Thursday actually was watchable all the way through from 8-11pm for the first time since 2004.
Southland looks terrific: I just watched the pilot on NBC.com and man its going to be the best crime drama on TV outside of a few CBS shows. Its a little better than The Mentalist and Castle. Its like a high quality cable drama that reminded me a lot of The Shield. Oh Ben from The OC is going to be a great lead for the show.
I give it a A+ and I hope NBC builds a schedule around it because its got it. Its the best new NBC show in years. You guys are going to love it.
If you’re looking for the next Hill Street Blues or Third Watch well this is it!
On a side note I’m glad Procter & Gamble along with Guiding Light are looking for a new home for the longtime soap because it doesn’t deserve the off the air for good treatment at all.
Maybe the mad Guiding Light fans are leaving CBS for good as CSI: scored its lowest numbers in years.
Posts: 198 | Location: Anaheim, California | Registered: 14 February 2009
As big as its ratings used to be, and as durable as it proved to be, ER just doesn't go down as one of the all-time classics--as can be told from that rundown of finale ratings. The great majority of the people who watched it at one time or another failed to come back to see it end. Including me, because I did not honestly see the point.
Did Eriq LaSalle do that 'boo-yah!' fist-pumping move we used to see in the opening credits every week?
ER did perk up for the finale... but I was expecting 18-20 million at least. Sure it never hit over 10 million in viewers this year - but this series finale has been marketed to death by NBC for weeks and has been all over the entertainment news and websites - and you'd think that those who were even casual fans in the era when it was getting over 30 million viewers consistently would have tuned in for the finale?
Let's face it - they barely got the same number of viewers who tuned into a "declining" non-stunt/non-series premiere/non series finale Grey's Anatomy episode last week...
Kudo's to ER for going out on top!! Well deserved ending for an iconic show.
Ouch CSI! Can't recall seeing it so low.
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ER did perk up for the finale... but I was expecting 18-20 million at least. Sure it never hit over 10 million in viewers this year
Yes it did, when Clooney returned.
quote:
Let's face it - they barely got the same number of viewers who tuned into a "declining" non-stunt/non-series premiere/non series finale Grey's Anatomy episode last week...
GA's crossover stunt could not muster past 15 million. ABC would love to have GA reach 17 again as opposed to the low teens it gets presently.
Originally posted by a-mad: ER did perk up for the finale... but I was expecting 18-20 million at least.
Looking at the numbers, the demo turned out a bit stronger than I expected, but the viewer number was lower. I guess that those long time ago fans that moved beyond the 18-49 demo in recent years don't remember ER. Alzheimer's kept them tuned to CBS.
quote:
Let's face it - they barely got the same number of viewers who tuned into a "declining" non-stunt/non-series premiere/non series finale Grey's Anatomy episode last week...
Looking at Grey's Anatomy ratings, there really is no comparison between that show and ER. Grey's Anatomy will not last more than a couple more years and should more closely be compared with Chicago Hope.
