Broadcast TV Ratings for Wednesday, February 25, 2009 February 26, 2009 1:18 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.Tags: Broadcast TV Ratings, Wednesday
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Fox’s two-hour edition of American Idol blew away the competition, with its average audience of 24.25 million viewers beating the combined audience of its next three competitors (CBS, ABC and NBC — 24.07M) and nearly all four of the remaining major networks (including The CW it barely lost out 24.81M vs. 24.25M).
Now that’s what you call a dominant performance.
Despite being very far back in second, CBS’s two original programs, Criminal Minds at 9:00pm and CSI: NY at 10:00pm, managed to either stay firm against the ‘Idol’ competition (in the case of Criminal Minds which dipped just 4% from last week’s total audience) or improve slightly against its aired competition (CSI: NY was up single digits and the most-watched program at 10:00pm).
ABC was hurt most on a week-to-week basis with the added competition at the 9:00pm hour by way of American Idol. Lost, which hit season high’s last week, dipped back down by double-digits (although its ratings may change some when the finals are released–UPDATE below). Life on Mars was flat from the week prior (but again, we won’t really know the show’s true performance until the final nationals are released).
Note: Finals put Lost at a 5.9/9 HH rating/share, 10.05M viewers and a 4.4/11 A18-49 rating/share. That’s better than the fast affiliates, but not by too much. The finals for Life on Mars were a 3.2/5 HH rating/share, 4.88M viewers and a 1.7/5 A18-49 rating/share. That was much worse than the fast affiliates.
Over on NBC, the network made the correct call in airing an hour of what normally would have been the second hour of Tuesday night’s Biggest Loser at 8:00pm. While the show was below average, it proved to be a solid secondary option against American Idol and improved upon last week’s time slot performance (an original episode of Knight Rider) by 64% among viewers and a whopping 120% in the demo, yet another indication at the poor performance of Knight Rider.
Biggest Loser led into an original episode of struggling Life. The show failed to reach 5 million viewers, but, surprisingly, showed some week-to-week growth among A18-49 (+13%). It’s performance in the demo was still weak (a 1.7 rating), but it’s certainly worth noting that the show is up 31% in the demo over the last three weeks.
Rounding out the evening, The CW aired low-performing repeats of Privileged and 90210, with neither show managing to top 1 million viewers. Yes, that’s pathetic.
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 13.8/22 household rating/share, 24.25 million viewers and a 8.9/23 rating/share among adults 18-49.
Last Week:
10.3/16 HH rating/share [#1]
17.80M viewers [#1]
6.5/17 A18-49 rating/share [#1]
- 8:00 p.m.: American Idol-WED (13.8/22 HH rating/share, 24.25M viewers, 8.9/23 A18-49 rating/share).
Week-to-week numbers:
Households – 14.1/22 to 13.8/22 (-2%)
Viewers – 24.79M to 24.25M (-2%/-0.54M)
Adults 18-49 – 9.0/24 to 8.9/23 (-1%)
Last week’s numbers (Lie to Me):
Households – 6.5/10
Viewers – 11.09M
Adults 18-49 -4.1/10
CBS followed in second place for the evening with a 7.0/11 household rating/share and 10.86 million viewers and was tied for second among adults 18-49 with a 2.7/7 rating/share.
Last Week:
7.4/12 HH rating/share [#2]
11.53M viewers [#2]
2.9/8 A18-49 rating/share [#3]
- 8:00 p.m.: The New Adventures of Old Christine-REPEAT (3.8/6 HH rating/share, 5.83M viewers, 1.5/4 A18-49 rating/share).
Last week’s numbers (The New Adventures of Old Christine):
Households – 4.3/7
Viewers – 6.72M
Adults 18-49 – 1.8/5
- 8:30 p.m.: Gary Unmarried-REPEAT (3.9/6 HH rating/share, 6.00M viewers, 1.7/4 A18-49 rating/share).
Last week’s numbers (Gary Unmarried
Households – 4.1/6
Viewers – 6.50M
Adults 18-49 – 1.9/5
- 9:00 p.m.: Criminal Minds (9.0/14 HH rating/share, 13.98M viewers, 3.4/8 A18-49 rating/share).
Week-to-week numbers:
Households – 9.2/14 to 9.0/14 (-2%)
Viewers – 14.54M to 13.98M (-4%/-0.56M)
Adults 18-49 – 3.5/9 to 3.4/8 (-3%)
- 10:00 p.m.: CSI: NY (8.2/14 HH rating/share, 12.69M viewers, 3.2/8 A18-49 rating/share).
Week-to-week numbers:
Households – 8.0/13 to 8.2/14 (+2.5%)
Viewers – 12.33M to 12.69M (+3%/+0.36M)
Adults 18-49 – 3.0/8 to 3.2/8 (+7%)
ABC finished in third place for the evening with a 4.2/7 household rating/share and 6.78 million viewers, but managed a tie for second place among adults 18-49 with a 2.7/7 rating/share.
Last Week:
4.6/7 HH rating/share [#3]
7.54M viewers [#3]
3.0/8 A18-49 rating/share [#2]
- 8:00 p.m.: LOST Enhanced-REPEAT (3.3/5 HH rating/share, 4.97M viewers, 1.7/4 A18-49 rating/share).
- 9:00 p.m.: LOST (5.9/9 HH rating/share, 9.82M viewers, 4.3/11 A18-49 rating/share). Note: Despite the six-minute overrun into 10:00pm, there wasn’t too much difference in the fast affiliate and final numbers. The finals for Lost were a 5.9/9 HH rating/share, 10.05M vieweres and a 4.4/11 A18-49 rating/share.
Week-to-week numbers:
Households – 6.5/10 to 5.9/9 (-9%)
Viewers – 11.41M to 9.82M (-14%/-1.59M)
Adults 18-49 – 5.2/13 to 4.3/11 (-17%)
- 10:00 (10:06) p.m.: Life on Mars (3.6/6 HH rating/share, 5.55M viewers, 2.0/6 A18-49 rating/share). Note: While there wasn’t much change in the finals for Lost, that wasn’t the case for Life on Mars. The six-minute later start, resulted in the show posting a 3.2/5 HH rating/share, 4.88M viewers and a 1.7/5 A18-49 rating/share. Clearly much lower than the fast affiliate numbers. It completely changes the week-to-week numbers I posted below. Week-to-week, based on the finals, the show was off by 9% in HH rating, 11% or 600,000 among viewers and 15% in A18-49 rating.
Week-to-week numbers:
Households – 3.5/6 to 3.6/6 (+3%)
Viewers – 5.48M to 5.55M (+1%/+0.07M)
Adults 18-49 – 2.0/5 to 2.0/6 (n/c)
NBC followed in a tie for third place for the evening with a 4.2/7 household rating/share, but was fourth among both viewers (6.43 million) and adults 18-49 (2.2/6 rating/share).
Last Week:
3.9/6 HH rating/share [#4]
5.93M viewers [#4]
1.7/4 A18-49 rating/share [#4]
- 8:00 p.m: The Biggest Loser: Couples (5.5/9 HH rating/share, 8.73M viewers, 3.3/9 A18-49 rating/share).
Episode-to-episode numbers (TUES; 2/24/2009 – 8:00-10:00pm):
Households – 6.0/10 to 5.5/9 (-8%)
Viewers – 9.86M to 8.73M (-11.5%/-1.13M)
Adults 18-49 – 3.7/10 to 3.3/9 (-11%)
Last week’s numbers (Knight Rider):
Households – 3.5/5
Viewers – 5.32M
Adults 18-49 – 1.5/4
- 9:00 p.m: Life (3.3/5 HH rating/share, 4.87M viewers, 1.7/4 A18-49 rating/share).
Week-to-week numbers:
Households – 3.3/5 to 3.3/5 (n/c)
Viewers – 5.04M to 4.87M (-3%/-0.17M)
Adults 18-49 – 1.5/4 to 1.7/4 (+13%)
- 10:00 p.m: Law & Order-REPEAT (3.9/7 HH rating/share, 5.71M viewers, 1.7/5 A18-49 rating/share).
Last week’s numbers (Law & Order):
Households – 4.9/8
Viewers – 7.23M
Adults 18-49 – 2.1/6
The CW finished in fifth place for the evening with a 0.6/1 household rating/share, 0.74 million viewers and a 0.3/1 rating/share among adults 18-49.
Last Week:
0.6/1 HH rating/share [#5]
0.82M viewers [#5]
0.3/1 A18-49 rating/share [#5]
- 8:00 p.m.: Privileged-REPEAT (0.7/1 HH rating/share, 0.90M viewers, 0.4/1 A18-49 rating/share).
- 9:00 p.m.: 90210-REPEAT (0.5/1 HH rating/share, 0.57M viewers, 0.2/1 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 4, 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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