Broadcast TV Ratings for Wednesday, March 11, 2009 March 12, 2009 4:37 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Wednesday
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Lie to Me made a successful move to earlier in the evening. The show made its time slot premiere last night at 8:00pm and actually managed to grow its audience from the week prior when it had the benefit of airing out of an episode of American Idol. That’s very good news. It must be noted that there was a slight decline in terms of the show’s A18-49 audience, but not enough to be concerned about, at least not at the moment.
American Idol also was a bit stronger than usual (although its still down from last season’s numbers), increasing by near double-digits among viewers and double-digits among adults 18-49 from last week’s episode.
Following in second place was CBS, which while well behind Fox, still managed to post solid numbers and showed no ill effects, with each of the show’s improving in viewers and adults 18-49 from the week (or episode) prior.
NBC finished in third place and the most noteworthy development was the poor performance for new reality series Chopping Block. The show basically, to be put it bluntly, flopped, averaging less than 4 million viewers and a pultry 1.4 rating among adults 18-49, resulting in a dead-last place finish for the hour. NBC saw better results for Life at 9:00pm and especially Law & Order at 10:00pm, but overall, it was a poor showingn for a struggling network.
ABC aired just one original program last night, the already-canceled Life on Mars in the 10:00pm time period. Without the benefit of a Lost lead-in, the show dipped by double-digits and fell to below 5 million viewers and just a 1.5 rating in A18-49 rating.
That leaves us with The CW. Week two of the new season of America’s Next Top Model did very well for the network, drawing nearly 4.5 million viewers and improving upon last week’s numbers. The show also easily bested NBC’s premiere of Chopping Block in the hour and was very competitive (in A18-49 rating) with the two 8:00pm CBS comedies The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried. The viewer number reflected in the chart above is misleading due to a miserably performing 90210 repeat (which averaged just a touch over 1 million viewers) at 9:00pm.
Full ratings and breakdown’s, including week-to-week comparisons, etc., follow after the jump.
FOX finished in first place for the evening with a 10.5/17 household rating/share, 18.01 million viewers and a 6.1/17 rating/share among adults 18-49.
Last Week:
9.6/15 HH rating/share [#1]
16.35M viewers [#1]
5.7/15 A18-49 rating/share [#1]
- 8:00 p.m.: Lie to Me (6.7/11 HH rating/share, 11.12M viewers, 3.4/10 A18-49 rating/share) made a very successful move from post-Idol at 9:00pm to pre-Idol at 8:00pm. The show lost a bit of its A18-49 audience, but that loss was offset by noteworthy gains among viewers (+9%/nearly 1 million) and households (+8%). The show’s retention levels may not have been the best in the past, but this is a very good performance to lead off the evening. The show out-paced its nearest competitor (CBS’s back-back original episodes of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried) by a solid 3.45M viewers (+45%) and by 1.2 ratings points (+55%).
Week-to-week numbers (9:00pm):
Households – 6.2/10 to 6.7/11 (+8%)
Viewers – 10.20M to 11.12M (+9%/+0.92M)
Adults 18-49 – 3.7/9 to 3.4/10 (-8%)
- 9:00 p.m.: While still performing slightly below last year’s numbers, American Idol: Results Show (14.4/22 HH rating/share, 24.90M viewers, 8.8/23 A18-49 rating/share) continues to be a dominant force in television. The show held nearly all its day-ago audience, and rebounded a significant degree over last week’s numbers.
Week-to-week numbers (8:00-9:00pm):
Households – 13.1/21 to 14.4/22 (+10%)
Viewers – 22.78M to 24.90M (+9%/+2.12M)
Adults 18-49 -7.8/22 to 8.8/23 (+13%)
Day-to-day numbers (TUES; 3/10/2009):
Households – 14.6/23 to 14.4/22 (-1%)
Viewers – 25.77M to 24.90M (-3%/-0.87M)
Adults 18-49 – 9.5/25 to 8.8/23 (-7%)
CBS followed in second place for the evening with a 7.4/12 household rating/share, 11.75 million viewers and a 3.1/8 rating/share among adults 18-49.
Last Week:
5.8/9 HH rating/share [#2]
8.86M viewers [#2]
2.2/6 A18-49 rating/share [#3]
- While moving Lie to Me to 8:00pm turned out to be a good move for Fox, it also turned out to be a good move for CBS…
- 8:00 p.m.: The New Adventures of Old Christine (4.9/8 HH rating/share, 7.63M viewers, 2.1/7 A18-49 rating/share) posted solid double-digit gains from its last original episode, showing the most growth in the key A18-49 demo. Make no mistake though, the show is under performing in the demo. Then again, there are rumors that CBS is looking to renew the show again for another season. At this point in its fourth season, they’ll likely want at least one more year to guarantee a nice off-network syndication deal.
Episode-to-episode numbers (2/18/2009):
Households – 4.3/7 to 4.9/8 (+14%)
Viewers – 6.72M to 7.63M (+13.5%/+0.91M)
Adults 18-49 – 1.8/5 to 2.1/7 (+17%)
- 8:30 p.m.: Gary Unmarried (4.8/8 HH rating/share, 7.71M viewers, 2.3/7 A18-49 rating/share) continues to be incredibly compatible with ‘Old Christine’ with 98% retention among households, +1% growth among viewers and +9.5% growth in A18-49 rating. That coupled with impressive double-digit gains over its last original episode should at least somewhat please CBS. However, my same criticism of ‘Old Christine’ holds. The show’s A18-49 audience is just barely at the breaking point. I wouldn’t be surprised if CBS moves the two comedies away from Wednesday nights. I’d suggest putting the new NCIS spin off in this time slot (if that show turns out to be successful of course). I don’t expect Worst Week to be back next season, so that should open up at least one spot. They could just alternate between the two of them even. (I have no knowledge of that, I’m just saying).
Episode-to-episode numbers (2/18/2009):
Households – 4.1/6 to 4.8/8 (+17%)
Viewers – 6.50M to 7.71M (+19%/+1.21M)
Adults 18-49 – 1.9/5 to 2.3/7 (+21%)
- 9:00 p.m.: Criminal Minds (8.8/14 HH rating/share, 14.07M viewers, 3.6/9 A18-49 rating/share) held firm against its new time slot competitor American Idol. The show was a solid second place for the hour across the board, growing from its lead-in by an impressive 83% among households, 82.5% among viewers and 57% among adults 18-49.
Episode-to-episode numbers (2/25/2009):
Households – 8.9/13 to 8.8/14 (-1%)
Viewers – 13.93M to 14.07M (+1%/+0.14M)
Adults 18-49 – 3.5/8 to 3.6/9 (+3%)
- 10:00 p.m.: CSI: NY (8.6/14 HH rating/share, 13.52M viewers, 3.5/10 A18-49 rating/share) remained strong for CBS. In addition to growing by upper single-digits to double-digits, the show out-rated the combined audience of both ABC and NBC’s 10pm shows among households (8.6 vs. 7.4 rating) and viewers (13.52M vs. 12.17M) and nearly among adults 18-49 (3.5 vs. 3.8 rating).
Episode-to-episode numbers (2/25/2009):
Households – 8.1/14 to 8.6/14 (+6%)
Viewers – 12.56M to 13.52M (+8%/+0.96M)
Adults 18-49 – 3.1/8 to 3.5/10 (+13%)
NBC finished in third place for the evening with a 3.8/6 household rating/share, 5.62 million viewers and a 1.8/5 rating/share among adults 18-49.
Last Week:
3.6/6 HH rating/share [#4]
5.39M viewers [#4]
1.5/4 A18-49 rating/share [#5]
- 8:00 p.m: The series premiere of Chopping Block (2.9/5 HH rating/share, 3.98M viewers, 1.4/5 A18-49 rating/share) flopped. No other way to put it. The new reality series (I guess you can call it a mixture of Bravo’s Top Chef, Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen with a little bit of Food Network TV thrown in) was down 17% among households, 30% among viewers and 18% among adults 18-49 from last week’s season finale of Knight Rider. If that wasn’t bad enough, the show lost out to The CW’s America’s Next Top Model by 36% in the demo. It’s safe to say that NBC will not be happy with these numbers.
Last week’s numbers (Knight Rider – season one/series? finale):
Households – 3.5/6
Viewers – 5.68M
Adults 18-49 -1.7/5
- 9:00 p.m: Life (3.4/5 HH rating/share, 5.30M viewers, 1.7/5 A18-49 rating/share) managed some slight growth from its last original episode, but not nearly enough to make a reliable claim that it deserves renewal.
Episode-to-episode numbers (2/25/2009):
Households – 3.3/5 to 3.4/5 (+3%)
Viewers – 4.89M to 5.30M (+8%/+0.41M)
Adults 18-49 – 1.6/4 to 1.7/5 (+6%)
- 10:00 p.m: Law & Order (5.1/8 HH rating/share, 7.59M viewers, 2.3/6 A18-49 rating/share) was far and away the network’s highest-rated show on the evening, and managed noteworthy gains of 50% among households, 43% among viewers and 35% among adults 18-49 from its highly incompatible lead-in.
Episode-to-episode numbers (2/18/2009):
Households – 4.9/8 to 5.1/8 (+4%)
Viewers – 7.23M to 7.59M (+5%/+0.36M)
Adults 18-49 – 2.1/6 to 2.3/6 (+9.5%)
ABC followed in fourth place for the evening with a 2.7/4 household rating/share, 4.14 million viewers and a 1.4/4 rating/share among adults 18-49.
Last Week:
4.4/7 HH rating/share [#3]
7.02M viewers [#3]
2.9/8 A18-49 rating/share [#2]
- 8:00 & 8:30 p.m.: Back-to-back repeats of Scrubs-REPEAT (3.2/5 HH rating/share, 3.61M viewers, 1.2/3 A18-49 rating/share).
- 9:00 p.m.: Lost-REPEAT (2.7/4 HH rating/share, 4.22M viewers, 1.6/4 A18-49 rating/share).
Last week’s numbers (Lost):
Households – 6.3/10
Viewers – 10.65M
Adults 18-49 – 4.9/12
- 10:00 (10:02) p.m.: Away from an original episode of Lost, Life on Mars (3.0/5 HH rating/share, 4.58M viewers, 1.5/4 A18-49 rating/share) struggled even more than usual (and the ratings may get worse when the finals are released due to the two minutes of Lost reflected in these ratings, although it was a repeat so the differences should be less pronounced). Since ABC has already announced that the show will not be renewed, further analysis is somewhat pointless. But I will say this: judging by these ratings, it’s hard to criticize ABC’s decision. For whatever reason (and I didn’t watch the show, so I can’t offer my opinion of its quality) the show did not work. Props to ABC for giving the show’s producers enough time to wrap up the storyline.
Week-to-week numbers:
Households – 3.5/6 to 3.0/5 (-14%)
Viewers – 5.34M to 4.58M (-14%/-0.76M)
Adults 18-49 – 1.9/5 to 1.5/4 (-21%)
The CW finished in fifth place for the evening with a 1.9/3 household rating/share, 2.75 million viewers and a 1.2/3 rating/share among adults 18-49.
Last Week:
2.6/4 HH rating/share [#5]
3.88M viewers [#5]
1.8/4 A18-49 rating/share [#4]
- 8:00 p.m.: The CW got a very strong performance out of America’s Next Top Model (3.0/5 HH rating/share, 4.47M viewers, 1.9/6 A18-49 rating/share) which managed noteworthy double-digit growth among households and viewers from last week’s premiere and remained competitively in the loop with CBS’s back-to-back comedies among adults 18-49.
Week-to-week numbers (12th cycle/season premiere – 8:00-10:00pm):
Households – 2.6/4 to 3.0/5 (+15%)
Viewers – 3.92M to 4.47M (+14%/+0.55M)
Adults 18-49 – 1.8/5 to 1.9/6 (+6%)
- 9:00 p.m.: 90210-REPEAT (0.7/1 HH rating/share, 1.03M viewers, 0.4/1 A18-49 rating/share).
Note: Network average numbers from the week prior are based on fast affiliate data. Comparison’s from the week prior (or episode-to-episode, etc.) on specific shows are based on final national data. Ratings for the current day are based on fast affiliate numbers. (Expect all three scenarios to be the case at all times, unless otherwise noted). The final rating for first-run episodes that aired this evening will be reported the following week. So for example, the final rating for tonight’s episode of “American Idol” will be reported in next weeks report for Wednesday, March 18, 2009.
Also keep in mind that because these are fast affiliate ratings, numbers may increase or decrease when the final nationals are released.
Source: Fast Affiliate/Final National Ratings Data from Nielsen Media Research. Daily ratings figures can be found at PI Feedback, Zap2It and TV by the Numbers.
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