-Yesterday’s Winners: Dancing With the Stars (ABC), Two and a Half Men R (CBS), CSI: Miami (CBS)
-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats): Chuck (NBC), Gossip Girl (CW), Heroes (NBC), One Tree Hill (CW), Medium (NBC)
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-Ratings Breakdown: ABC opened the week on a now typically winning note, with a first-place finish in both total viewers and adults 18-49. That, of course, was the result of the rock-solid Dancing With the Stars. Third overall was Fox, followed by struggling NBC (which needs to swing the axe on fading Heroes) and the CW.
The two-hour edition of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars stood well above anything else on this fourth Monday in March, with 20.02 million viewers and a 4.9 rating/13 share among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m. Take a look at the half-hour breakdown:
Dancing With the Stars (ABC) 8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 18.22 million (#1), A18-49: 4.2/12 (#1) 8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 20.54 million (#1), A18-49: 5.1/13 (#1) 9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 20.85 million (#1), A18-49: 5.2/13 (#1) 9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 21.03 million (#1), A18-49: 5.2/12 (#1)
While it is obvious who is going home tonight (Steve Wozniak, of course), the most painful moment last night came when dancer Dmitry Chaplin told host Tom Bergeron how tough it is dancing with Holly Madison. Nice comeback, Mr. Bergeron. As for Steve Wozniak, please ABC…no more business moguls in the future. They just can’t dance.
Dancing With the Stars led into week three of drama Castle, which finished second at 10 p.m. (behind CBS’ CSI: Miami) with a series-low 9.81 million viewers and a 2.7/ 7 among adults 18-49. Take a look at the three-week overnight track for Castle (and note that the weeks of March 9 and 16 are based on the final nationals):
Castle (ABC) March 9 – Viewers: 10.76 million; A18-49: 3.0/ 8 March 16 – Viewers: 10.97 million; A18-49: 2.9/ 8 March 23 – Viewers: 9.81 million; A18-49: 2.7/ 7
While Castle is by no means a bust, retention of just 47 percent in total viewers and 52 percent among adults 18-49 out of the last half-hour of lead-in Dancing With the Stars could certainly be better. Keep in mind that the first two minutes of the Castle average included Dancing With the Stars.
CBS pre-empted regularly scheduled The Big Bang Theory (bummer!) for an 8 p.m. installment of How I Met Your Mother, which dipped 7.40 million viewers (#2) and a 2.9/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#2). One week earlier, The Big Bang Theory scored 9.69 million viewers and a 3.7/11 among adults 18-49 in the half-hour. We need our weekly dose of BBT! That led into a repeat of How I Met Your Mother at 6.95 million viewers (#3) and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49 (#3) at 8:30 p.m. (#3), followed by a repeat of the multi-season renewed Two and a Half Men (Viewers: #2, 11.06 million; A18-49: #2, 3.5/ 9), Rules of Engagement (Viewers: #3, 9.43 million; A18-49: #2t, 3.4/ 8) and the aforementioned CSI: Miami (Viewers: #1, 13.46 million; A18-49: #1, 4.0/11) from 9-11 p.m.
Next was Fox care of a repeat of House (Viewers: #2, 7.67 million; A18-49: #3, 2.7/ 7) and an original installment of 24 (Viewers: #3, 10.30 million; A18-49: #3, 3.4/ 8), which remains on the map despite not being the ratings powerhouse it once was. Fourth-place NBC, meanwhile, continues to lose steam with its combination of Chuck (Viewers: #4, 6.05 million; A18-49: #4, 2.2/ 6), which lost any of the minor momentum it once had, Heroes (Viewers: #4, 6.48 million; A18-49: #4, 3.0/ 7), which appears to have sunk to a series-low, and Medium (Viewers: #3, 6.56 million; A18-49: #3, 2.2/ 6).
Last was the CW with its combination of Gossip Girl (Viewers: 2.20 million; A18-49: 1.0/ 3) and One Tree Hill (Viewers: 2.26 million; A18-49: 1.1/ 3), which have both lost steam. Given these results, is the planned spin-off of Gossip Girl really such a good idea?
It's unfortunate that so many people have abandoned Heroes. The show has really improved this volume. Last night's episode was probably the best episode in the volume, maybe even the last two volumes. Bryan Fuller clearly knows what he's doing.
Well, we all know BBT is going to be stuck in that 8:00 time slot for a long time to come. CBS obviously only has two anchor shows in The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. I can't believe HIMYM bombed that badly, and all this when House had a repeat. If House was new last night HIMYM might have been under 7 million.
Very little difference between the HIMYM repeat and original. I wonder if people who don't have DVRs didn't realize it was on at 8pm? And just as well, it was *not* a great episode. This winter/spring section of the season has really been saddled by Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders' pregnancies.
Chuck, at least creatively, is speeding along with a full tank of gas. Too bad no one is watching.
Castle will, as you said Marc, drop in the finals because of the two minutes of DWTS overrun. People obviously sampled the show again last week and decided that they ultimately didn't like it. From a 3.0/8 to a 2.4/6... circling the drain. And it's only going to get worse when DWTS goes to a 90 minutes format and Surviving Suburbia is Castle's lead-in.
24 held up surprisingly well without a new House lead-in. It really seems to have found its usual mid-season basement.
It will be interesting to see if Gossip Girl gets a bump next week now that Secret Life of the American Teenager's season is done.
After 19 Days of 2009 February Sweep (in March), FOX Leading in A18-49s While CBS Victoring in Viewership and Heading Up Households
After 19 days of the 2009 February Sweep (in March), FOX remains the popular choice for the young adult demo, attracting the most A18-49s with 3.60, with CBS in second place at 2.97, ABC sits in third with 2.58, while NBC lags behind in fourth with 2.07. At the bottom are the mini-nets starting with Univision at 1.53, The CW at 0.74, and MyNetworkTV at 0.59 (16 nights).
In households, CBS leads, followed by FOX in second, ABC third (only 0.1 behind), NBC fourth and then the mininets. In average P2+ viewers, CBS retains bragging rights as most viewed with a 11,193,000 viewer average, with FOX second, ABC is third and NBC fourth. Univision is fifth, MyNetworkTV is sixth, and The CW is in seventh.
CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV and Univision are all showing growth in all key measures of A18-49 demo, households and viewers from last years February Sweep. FOX is down by double digits on all measures, but that is due to the 'Super Bowl' being included in FOX's February Sweep numbers last year.
Overall for the seven networks, after 18 nights A18-49 demo is down -15% from the 'Super Bowl'-inflated Sweep last year, households are down -6% and P2+ viewers are down -9%.
nights nights
demo demo demo % won won
Rank web 2009 2008 chg 2009 2008
1 FOX 3.60 6.40 -44% 7 10.5
2 CBS 2.97 2.28 30% 7 1
3 ABC 2.58 2.48 4% 5 3
4 NBC 2.07 2.55 -19% 4.5
5 UNI 1.53 1.53 0%
6 CW 0.74 0.85 -13%
7 MNT* 0.59 0.47 25%
total 14.08 16.56 -15% 19 19
nights nights
HH HH HH HH won won
rank web 2009 2008 chg 2009 2008
1 CBS 7.0 5.3 30% 11 3.3
2 FOX 5.7 8.9 -36% 4 8.3
3 ABC 5.6 4.7 20% 4 3
4 NBC 3.8 4.9 -23% 4.3
5 UNI 2.0 1.7 12%
6 CW 1.2 1.5 -20%
7 MNT* 1.1 0.8 43%
total 26.3 27.8 -6% 19 19
nights nights
viewers viewers viewers viewers won won
rank web 2009 2008 chg 2009 2008
1 CBS 11.193 8.238 36% 10 3
2 FOX 9.709 16.575 -41% 5 9
3 ABC 8.683 7.406 17% 4 3
4 NBC 5.838 7.746 -25% 4
5 UNI 3.746 3.520 6%
6 MNT* 1.804 1.179 53%
7 CW 1.779 2.274 -22%
total 42.75 46.94 -9% 19 19
* 16 nights only for MNT
The data for this and last year are all final Nielsen numbers, except for the last three nights which are preliminary data (last eight nights for Univision). This year, the February Sweep is being held in March due to the DTV changeover, whereas last years February Sweep included the 'Super Bowl' but was also held during the WGA strike which curtailed original product across some of the networks. Comparison of year-over-year Sweep numbers must be viewed within this context. All Sweep calculations incorporate Nielsen final numbers for primetime programming, Monday to Saturday 8-11 pm, and Sunday 7-11 pm. For daytime over-runs into primetime and primetime run-pasts into latenight (e.g. sports coverage, award shows), only the primetime portion of the program numbers have been factored in. For networks that split programs into multiple segments of sustaining and non-sustaining coverage, the rating for the sustaining portion applies to the entire program broadcast.
Originally posted by Marc Berman: CBS pre-empted regularly scheduled The Big Bang Theory (bummer!) for an 8 p.m. installment of How I Met Your Mother, which dipped 7.40 million viewers (#2) and a 2.9/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#2). That led into a repeat of How I Met Your Mother at 6.95 million viewers (#3) and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49 (#3) at 8:30 p.m. (#3)
I agree. What on earth was this all about? Well, whatever it was, I'm sure one look at the fast nationals cured them of ever doing it again.
Note to CBS. I don't want to watch a half hour of "How I Met Your Mother," let alone a full hour of it. As Nielsen is my witness, I am not alone. Thank you.
-- "Better Off Ted," Wednesdays at some time or another at some point or another in the near future. Because we can't all live in mansions and not ever work like the people on "Modern Family."
Originally posted by Marc Berman: CBS pre-empted regularly scheduled The Big Bang Theory (bummer!) for an 8 p.m. installment of How I Met Your Mother, which dipped 7.40 million viewers (#2) and a 2.9/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#2). That led into a repeat of How I Met Your Mother at 6.95 million viewers (#3) and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49 (#3) at 8:30 p.m. (#3)
I agree. What on earth was this all about? Well, whatever it was, I'm sure one look at the fast nationals cured them of ever doing it again.
Note to CBS. I don't want to watch a half hour of "How I Met Your Mother," let alone a full hour of it. As Nielsen is my witness, I am not alone. Thank you.
BBT was preempted because several weeks ago there was an Obama speech that preempted the BBT/HIMYM block, but CBS moved the original BBT to after 2.5 Men. 2.5 Men was also a repeat last night. This move evened out BBT and HIMYM's seasons, so from now on they will air originals on the same night and repeats on the same night. CBS also had a repeat it wanted to run of HIMYM, last season's "Final Four" episode.
Absolutely awful evening. I'll hold out some hope that Castle will rebound for ABC but given the creative complaints, I'm not expecting a long future. WTF was CBS thinking last night? Why didn't they just go with a BBT repeat at 8 into a new HIMYM? Very dumb, ABC-like scheduling. CW's shows have lost steam. OTH certainly deserves it with these pathetic storylines. A dog eating Dan's donor heart? Really? NBC in all reality could do without all 3 Monday dramas next year. I would still keep Medium for Fridays (and push for a cheaper licensing fee). Heroes can air on Sundays for a shortened season at midseason. Chuck is gone. Only 24 remained at recent levels and that with a House repeat for a lead in. Speaking of which, couldn't hour one of Idol have aired last night, hour two after Obama tonight and the remainder of the schedule stayed like it was?
Dancing With the Stars seems to be hurting younger skewing competition (Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother) more than usual, likely because of the ex-Bachelor contestant.
As for Heroes, there's now so much negative momentum driving the ratings downward that Fuller's return could prove too late to reverse the trend.
Posts: 198 | Location: Fort Washington, MD | Registered: 15 May 2007
Originally posted by TV-aholic: And no mention of how ROE kept nearly all the demo leadin from 2.5 Men?
That was very good. You do need to qualify it by saying that it was a new episode following a repeat, but a very fine showing for ROE. Maybe we try it at 8:00. It could not do any worse than HIMYM.
