Prime-Time Ratings:
Tuesday 2/24/09

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 11.79 million, NBC: 9.06, ABC: 7.12, Fox: 4.79, CW: 1.51

-Adults 18-49:
NBC: 3.0 rating/8 share, CBS: 2.5/ 7, ABC: 2.1/ 6, Fox: 1.7/ 5, CW: 0.7/ 2

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
NCIS (CBS), The Biggest Loser (NBC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats)
Homeland Security USA (ABC), Privileged (CW)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Leadership was mixed on this atypical Tuesday, with CBS the most-watched network and NBC No. 1 among adults 18-49. Last night, of course, featured President Obama’s Address to Congress.

Unsung hero NCIS opened the evening for CBS with a dominant 17.92 million viewers and a 3.8 rating/11 share among adults 18-49 from 8-9 p.m. Second was a one-hour edition of NBC’s The Biggest Loser (Viewers: 9.65 million; A18-49: 3.6/10), which really only needs to be one hour each week, followed by non-scripted ABC dud Homeland Security USA (6.16 million; A18-49: 1.9/ 5), a repeat of Fox’s Bones (Viewers: 5.03 million; A18-49: 1.7/ 5), and a repeat of the CW’s just renewed 90210 (Viewers: 1.39 million; A18-49: 0.6/ 2). The live performance show of Fox’s regularly scheduled American Idol was pushed back to tonight to make way for President Obama. On that note…

Here are the estimated results for President Obama’s Address to Congress, which totaled more than 30 million viewers combined for the four networks. Results for ABC, CBS and NBC are from 9-10:30 p.m. and Fox from 9-10 p.m. Keep in mind that fast affiliate ratings for any live event are always approximate.

President Obama’s Address to Congress

NBC
Viewers; 10.06 million (#1); A18-49: 3.2/ 8 (#1)

CBS
Viewers: 9.75 million (#2); A18-49: 2.2/ 6 (#3)

ABC
Viewers: 8.24 million (#3); A18-49: 2.4/ 6 (#2)

Fox
Viewers: 4.55 million (#4); A18-49: 1.8/ 5 (#4)

Over at the CW, the season (or more likely series) finale of drama Privileged closed with a mere (and last-place) 1.66 million viewers and a 0.8/ 2 among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m. Considering this could very well be the series-ender, concluding the hour last night with the words “To Be Continued” was very misleading and very unfair to the few viewers who did commit to this series.

Following President Obama’s Address, the 10:30 p.m. half-hour featured a shortened edition of ABC newsmagazine Primetime: What Would You Do? (Viewers: 5.72 million; A18-49: 1.8/ 5), a repeat of CBS’ Two and a Half Men (Viewers: #2, 5.68 million; A18-49: #3, 1.3/ 4) and a repeat of NBC’s The Office (Viewers: #3, 4.84 million; A18-49: #2, 1.6/ 5). All results are approximate.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Nobody wants Katie Couric.

What's unfair is the fact that the networks don't take the decisions before the last episodes are filmed.

Rather poor numbers for Obama, maybe people are getting tired listening to the same speech a thousand times

So was SVU pre-empted due to the overrun?

Solid numbers for Biggest Loser, especially since there was no weigh-in/elimination at the end to boost viewers. Anyone else enjoy the shotty editing of BL last night? They made the fight for last place during that first competition seem like it was neck and neck, when the last place winner ended up with only 87 out of 100 reps. I also find it hokey sometimes how they show reactions to weight results before cutting to a commercial too, but it's all forgivable due to the feel-good tone of the show. I just wonder how long NBC can rely on this show to anchor its demo numbers. It will be interesting to see if it gets cut to one hour next year with Leno taking over 10PM.

LOL..poor numbers? 30 million plus easily another 20 million plus on cable outlets and internet is a poor number?

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats)
Privileged (CW)
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Over at the CW, the season (or more likely series) finale of drama Privileged closed with a mere (and last-place) 1.66 million viewers and a 0.8/ 2 among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m. Considering this could very well be the series-ender, concluding the hour last night with the words “To Be Continued” was very misleading and very unfair to the few viewers who did commit to this series.

I found that ending odd as well.

I had hoped that 'Privileged' might see a season high up against President Obama's speech and 'Whacked Out Video' encores on MyNetworkTV but it was not to be.

I would think The CW's remaining open Tuesday hour for next season is now down to 'Reaper' vs the re-boot of the 'Melrose Place' series. I hope 'Reaper' leaps out of the gate with a good-sized audience (and a healthy A18-34 too) next Tuesday when it returns.

quote:

Originally posted by dumont:

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats)
Privileged (CW)
----------
Over at the CW, the season (or more likely series) finale of drama Privileged closed with a mere (and last-place) 1.66 million viewers and a 0.8/ 2 among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m. Considering this could very well be the series-ender, concluding the hour last night with the words “To Be Continued” was very misleading and very unfair to the few viewers who did commit to this series.

I found that ending odd as well.

I had hoped that 'Privileged' might see a season high up against President Obama's speech and 'Whacked Out Video' encores on MyNetworkTV but it was not to be.

I would think The CW's remaining open Tuesday hour for next season is now down to 'Reaper' vs the re-boot of the 'Melrose Place' series. I hope 'Reaper' leaps out of the gate with a good-sized audience (and a healthy A18-34 too) next Tuesday when it returns.

You have more faith in the CW then I do I'm still expecting a "schedule change" this week dumping Reaper to a later date aka buy the DVD.

quote:

Rather poor numbers for Obama, maybe people are getting tired listening to the same speech a thousand times

The polls and focus groups would tend to indicate otherwise. He gave a very successful speech, which a lot of people watched online, on cable, etc. I suppose you have detailed info on what the last few Presidential Addresses to Congress did?

quote:

Originally posted by robert:

Rather poor numbers for Obama, maybe people are getting tired listening to the same speech a thousand times

Agree with the "fatigue" issue, but I'd be surprised if these aren't still historically high numbers for this type of event. The shocking numbers were a few weeks ago for the press conference.

Keep in mind, and this sounds like a slap but it's half a compliment, some people would listen to this man read out of the phone book.

quote:

LOL..poor numbers? 30 million plus easily another 20 million plus on cable outlets and internet is a poor number?

Seriously. It's a political speech, not the Superbowl. But you could see from the faces of the Republican leaders in the audience that they knew he was scoring a touchdown. And then Bobby fumbled the ball.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce:
Keep in mind, and this sounds like a slap but it's half a compliment, some people would listen to this man read out of the phone book.

Was that a quiet jab at someone on this forum?

Polls and focus groups are nice, but I wish for the sake of my investments, the markets would begin to like what they hear from the new administration. So far, not so much.

quote:

Originally posted by pisher:

quote:

Rather poor numbers for Obama, maybe people are getting tired listening to the same speech a thousand times

The polls and focus groups would tend to indicate otherwise. He gave a very successful speech, which a lot of people watched online, on cable, etc. I suppose you have detailed info on what the last few Presidential Addresses to Congress did?

quote:

Originally posted by pisher:

quote:

LOL..poor numbers? 30 million plus easily another 20 million plus on cable outlets and internet is a poor number?

Seriously. It's a political speech, not the Superbowl. But you could see from the faces of the Republican leaders in the audience that they knew he was scoring a touchdown. And then Bobby fumbled the ball.

I didn't see either event, but I heard Jindal bombed out. The GOP pundit crowd got on this guy's bandwagon after the election, in what I thought was a hasty overreaction. He's not very telegenic. Even had he performed better, it was too transparent an attempt to go young and ethnic.

And then the markets plummeted.

quote:

Originally posted by pisher:

quote:

LOL..poor numbers? 30 million plus easily another 20 million plus on cable outlets and internet is a poor number?

Seriously. It's a political speech, not the Superbowl. But you could see from the faces of the Republican leaders in the audience that they knew he was scoring a touchdown. And then Bobby fumbled the ball.

Yeah, because the guys who run our economic sector are such infallible seers, and could never possibly be wrong about anything.

quote:

Originally posted by PaulC:
And then the markets plummeted.

quote:

Originally posted by pisher:

quote:

LOL..poor numbers? 30 million plus easily another 20 million plus on cable outlets and internet is a poor number?

Seriously. It's a political speech, not the Superbowl. But you could see from the faces of the Republican leaders in the audience that they knew he was scoring a touchdown. And then Bobby fumbled the ball.