# 2011-12 Season Ratings - Fall



## phrelin

As some may remember from last year, I try to keep up with the so-called "overnight" broadcast networks' ratings. It's a new year with many new shows. Here's last night's shows though some nets haven't premiered their fall shows yet as indicated in the pink highlights:








As I expected, "DWTS" took a hit at 9:00 with the season premier of "Two and a Half Men" and most stayed at CBS to watch "2 Broke Girls" (which much to my surprise we liked and will watch next week at 8:30).

NBC. I guess "The Sing-Off" is filler on a tough night - cheap to produce. But "The Playboy Club" started low and actually went to 1.5/4 & 4.62 million by 10:30 according to the final ratings. This is considerably worse than "Chase" did last year against the same competition. Looking at ratings like this some would have canceled the show at 10:45, but on NBC who knows. We haven't watched it yet. I should just move it to EHD storage until I know if NBC is going to dump it. Somebody at Comcast is gritting his/her teeth.


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## phrelin

Here's Tuesday of premier week:








*CBS* did well. "NCIS" is on track to be regularly the most popular show of the week again. "NCIS: LA" is running about the same as last year. And "Unforgettable" is every bit as strong as "The Good Wife" was in that 10:00 slot last year.

*ABC* didn't do so well with the "DWTS Results Show" at 9:00 against series premiers.

In its season premier "Body of Proof" did about the same as "Detroit 1-8-7" did in the early part of the season last fall which has to be a disappointment as "Body" premiered last March with 3.9/8 & 13.9 million though it settled into similar 10:00 pm second place numbers by the end of Spring 2011.

*Fox*'s "Glee" was down significantly.

However, "The New Girl" at 9:00 opened strong but didn't seem to carry the audience into "Raising Hope" which may indicate folks won't stick with it against "Dancing Result" and "NCIS: LA". "Raising Hope" seemed to be pulling its normal audience based on last year.

*NBC*. "The Biggest Loser" seemed about on par with last year which was good for a cheap-to-produce show. "Parenthood" also was on par with last year though down from its premier last week.

*The CW*'s "90210" is down from last week.

The much anticipated "Ringer" lost about a third of its viewers from last week's premier though on a par with last year's "Life Unexpected" in that time slot. If it doesn't recover, it means it lost most of the viewers not in The CW's core 18-25 (and younger) female following. Since "Life Unexpected" had no expensive stars I hope Sarah Michelle Gellar is not overpaid or it may not survive beyond its first 13 episodes ("Life's" Britt Robertson is now starring in "The Secret Circle" on The CW and it's male lead Kristoffer Polaha now is in "Ringer").

Overall, it appears that CBS newcomer "Unforgettable" has a chance though this is the premier. In its second week against other premiers "Ringer" didn't ring any great rating chimes over a The CW.


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## phrelin

Here's Wednesday of premier week:








*Fox*. Fox was the big winner this year. Compared to "Hell's Kitchen" which last year attracted 6± million viewers, "The X-Factor" pulled about 12± million at the 8:00 and 9:00 time slots.

*CBS*. "Survivor" is down year-to-year by a couple of million. "Criminal Minds" is about the same while "CSI" is about the same as the ill-fated "The Defenders" last year.

*The CW*'s lineup is weaker than last year. "Hellcats" pulled 50% more viewers last year.

*NBC*. What can I say about NBC. Last week, NBC premiered "Up All Night" and "Free Agents" at 10:00 and 10:30 pulling in 11.5 and 6.3 million viewers respectively. They pulled in about half this week at the 8:00 and 8:30 time slots. "Harry's Law" at 9:00 represents a good showing for NBC. :sure: And "L&O:SVU" has about the same number of viewers at 10:00.

*ABC* did well by premiering an hour each of "The Middle" and "Modern Family".

Compared to "The Whole Truth" last year, "Revenge" is a big winner for ABC at 10:00. Whether that can continue remains to be seen. We haven't watched the show yet.


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## olguy

phrelin, thanks for taking the time to make these ratings posts.

We, like you surprisingly enjoyed 2 Broke Girls. Some of the other new ones not so much. I did enjoy Revenge and am looking forward to more. I hope Body of Proof can hang on. I have enjoyed watching Dana Delany since China Beach.


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## phrelin

olguy said:


> phrelin, thanks for taking the time to make these ratings posts.
> 
> We, like you surprisingly enjoyed 2 Broke Girls. Some of the other new ones not so much. I did enjoy Revenge and am looking forward to more. I hope Body of Proof can hang on. I have enjoyed watching Dana Delany since China Beach.


"Revenge" is also on our list to enjoy this year after watching it last night. The writing for the pilot was excellent and the cast is solid. Emily VanCamp is one of those young actors (another Canadian) that we have been watching grow professionally, in her case since 2002 and "Everwood" and then in "Brothers & Sisters."

Here's Thursday's ratings:








*Fox.* "The X-Factor" did somewhat better than "Bones" last year at 8:00 and more than double the ratings of "Fringe" at 9:00. The show's going to be a winner for Fox. Relatively cheap and has audience appeal. I don't get it, but I'm not in the audience they care about anyway.

*CBS* did great with "Big Bang Theory" but took a slight loss over last year at 9:00 and 10:00.

*NBC*'s "Prime Suspect" premier was where CBS' "The Mentalist's" last year's viewers went at 10:00. Last year NBC aired "The Apprentice" at that time slot with very low ratings. NBC's comedies took a hit this year.

*ABC*. "Charlie's Angels" came out weak. "Grey's Anatomy" was down 30% from last year. Oh, oh.....

*The CW*. "Vampire Diaries" was down 30% over last year and "The Secret Circle" was down 37% over last year's "Nikita." Both were ok for the network based on their typical ratings, however.


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## Church AV Guy

I have to say, phrelin, I really appreciate it that you take th time to generate thses posts. I find them helpful, and very interesting.

NBC looks to not be doing too well this premier week. By the way, was Tuesday at 9:00PM a typo for NBC or did The Biggest Loser actually get a 24 rating (18-49)?


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## spartanstew

So far, Revenge is the first series I've dumped. Felt like I should have been a few years older, a different gender, and sitting on the couch eating bon-bons while I watched it.


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## olguy

spartanstew said:


> So far, Revenge is the first series I've dumped. Felt like I should have been a few years older, a different gender, and sitting on the couch eating bon-bons while I watched it.


I'm not sure gender has anything to do with it but phrelin and I are both geezers so maybe that explains why we enjoyed it. And somebody pass the bon-bons please. :lol:


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## John Strk

Thanks for posting the ratings phrelin. I really enjoyed Revenge a lot more than I thought I would and Emily is adorable.  

This show is a keeper!!!


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## phrelin

Here's Friday of premier week:








*CBS*. The network that has controlled Friday total viewer ratings continues. It's new show "A Gifted Man" did about 50% better than "Medium" did last year in total viewers but about the same in the demo. The other two are about the same as last year.

We watched "A Gifted Man" last night and are on the fence about it.

*Fox*. "Fringe" did 66% better in the demo and 22% better in total viewers compared to "The Good Guys" last year. But whether the raw numbers 1.5/5 & 3.53 million are good enough to sustain the show through to another season pickup is questionable at best.

Last year they ran a rerun of "House" at the 8:00 and pulled 0.6/2 & 3.11 million. "Kitchen Nightmares" did better with 1.6/6 and 3.84. It's these numbers that nag. It costs next to nothing to rerun a show and only slightly more for a reality show. Which brings me to....

*NBC* & *ABC*. For both these nets, reruns were the first order of business followed by their "news" programs "Dateline" and "20/20". Historically, the two "news" programs pull satisfactory ratings and sometimes even better.

*The CW*. "Nikita" and "Supernatural" did much worse than last year's lineup of "Smallville" and "Supernatural."

One thing is obvious about Friday. The 18-49 "demo" isn't home watching TV in numbers significant to the high-paying advertisers. Apparently it's the over-50 crowd and particularly us geezers and our wives. All week long only CBS is selling total viewer numbers and they like to see 12+ million. On Friday they have to settle for 10± million.

Last night we watched a number of recorded new shows in addition to "A Gifted Man."

ABC's "Charlie's Angels" was painful to watch. We stopped early on, something we almost never do, not even for The CW shows. It's off our recording list. Maybe we just remember the original too clearly, but the nothing seemed to work and the acting seemed way off.

"Person of Interest" was interesting both in premise and cast. We'll continue to record it.

"Prime Suspects" was a surprise - a strong ensemble cast of familiar faces. And the writing, though uneven, was clever for a crime procedural.

Its problems are that it's on NBC and it's on Thursday at 10:00. It needs a few more viewers. Perhaps it will get them from "The Practice" after next week's premier as its central character is a strong woman played by Maria Bello.

Its strength may be that Britain's ITV is one of its production companies, along with Universal Media Studios and Film 44 ("Friday Night Lights"). We'll continue to record it.


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## phrelin

I don't even look at Saturday ratings and normally consider Sunday ratings unreliable. I did look at Sunday overnights this week because of scheduling changes from last year. The problem is you can't rely on them because football affects different time zones and networks differently. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see them:








It is nearly impossible to compare these ratings to last year, except that the Fox animated shows are about the same. In terms of time slots CBS is about the same. It's new Sunday schedule for "The Good Wife" pulled about the same as last year's second hour of "Amazing Race" premier and about the same as it was doing last March.

ABC's situation is a mystery. Yeah, "Desperate Housewives" is down from fall premier week last year (but NBC's football took a larger share this year). And "Pan Am" series premier did well compared to "Brothers & Sisters" season premier last year. But we won't know whether "Pan Am" series premier can be compared to a previous shows season premier and will continue to pull that audience.

But it's interesting I guess.


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## phrelin

Here's Extended Premier Week Monday #2:








In terms of the big 4 nets, the two-hour premier of "Terra Nova" obviously pulled viewers away from most everything. But not enough for such a large investment. Its ratings were normal for a "House" episode in the 8:00 time slot last fall. I really don't know what Fox is going to do. I guess raise retransmission rates. "House" will premier next week at the 9:00 time slot.

I can't tell, but I think it even may have hurt the season premier of "Gossip Girl" and the series premier of "Hart of Dixie" on The CW.

At 10:00 some 4 million viewers were so uninspired by last week's season premiers they went to bed. "The Playboy Club" is dead, it just doesn't know it yet.


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## phrelin

Here's our first night with no premiers:








*ABC*. This year ABC's strategy at 8:00 is to run a cheap "DWTS" recap for a few weeks, then in October premier a couple of sitcoms. That's probably better than last year when "No Ordinary Family" premiered with higher ratings but then drifted down below acceptable ratings. However last year the "DWTS Results Show" at 9:00 on 9/28/2010 pulled 3.5/9 - 16.45 million. This year's ratings are a pretty big drop. "Body of Proof" seems to be faring well, comparable to its May ratings.

*CBS*. The two "NCIS" franchise shows appear to be on a course comparable to last year. "Unforgettable" may not be as strong as "The Good Wife" was last year.

*NBC*. "The Biggest Loser" is down slightly from last year, but for the *N*o*B*ody*C*ares network, it's fine. "Parenthood" is actually slightly up both week-to-week and year-to-year.

*Fox*. Fox suits must be tearing their collective hair. "Glee" pulled 5.8/17 - 13.14 million last year. Its ratings are down from last fall, but on May 10, 2011 its ratings were 3.4/11 - 8.71 million so that seems to be where that show's following is ending up. "The New Girl" is doing well however, up over "Raising Hope" at 3.2/9 -7.48 million in the 9:00 time slot last year. "Raising Hope" is up from its May 10 rating of 2.2/6 5.45 million.

*The CW*. "90210" is down from "One Tree Hill" last year and "Ringer" is up from "Life Unexpected" last year.


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## phrelin

As usual life is what happens when your making plans, so I'm behind. Here's Wednesday:








*ABC*. ABC is doing fine. The comedies are on a par with last year with "Modern Family" running a bit higher. "Revenge" is demonstrating that a "better" show can turn things around a bit at 10:00 as on 9/29/2010 "The Whole Truth" pulled 1.5/4 - 5.07 million.

*CBS*. While the CBS ratings are fine, they are not #1 in total viewers at 8:00 and 9:00 because of "The X-Factor" on Fox. "CSI" at 10:00 is up a little from "The Defenders" last year, though down some from its Thursday 9:00 slot a year ago.

*Fox*. "The X-Factor" seems to be doing well, though some pundits seem to find its ratings wanting when compared to "American Idol" and ABC's "DWTS." We'll have to wait to see how it does after the audition phase to really tell what's going on.

*NBC*. "Up All Night" has ok ratings for NBC. "Free Agent" is dead even on NBC. "Harry's Law" is ok for NBC at 9:00 - not as well as "L&O: SVU" last year and not as well as it did last Spring. But "SVU" isn't doing as well at 10:00 as the ill-fated "L&O:LA" did last year.

*The CW*. "H8R" at 8:00 isn't doing as well as "America's Next Top Model" did in that slot last year and "Top Model" at 9:00 is doing as well as "Hellcats" did last year.

Since I do comparison's from last year I should note that there were somewhat more total viewers in each time slot this year.

Now for Thursday:








*ABC*. "Charlie's Angels" lost viewers this week, mostly to "X-Factor." It's still doing much better than "My Generation" did last year before it was canceled. "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" did about as well as last year.

*CBS*. "The Big Bang Theory" is running above last year in both the demo and total ratings. However, it's viewers did not stick with the network for "How to be a Gentleman" which was under "$#*! My Dad Says" ratings of 3.2/10 - 10.44 million last year. "Person of Interest" which is in the old "CSI" slot and "The Mentalist" have dropped a little from 9/30/2010.

*Fox*. "The X-Factor" is an interesting comparison to last year when "Bones" pulled 2.4/8 -9.18 million and "Fringe" pulled "1.9/5 -5.39 million. Obviously this show boosts Fox's income.

*NBC*. NBC's comedy lineup is down slightly from last year. "Prime Suspects" has far more total viewers but about the same in the demo as "The Apprentice."

*The CW*. "Vampire Diaries" is down from last year and "The Secret Circle" is down from "Nikita" last year.


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## phrelin

Here's Friday:








*ABC*. So far ABC has abandoned Friday, using reruns and "20/20."

*CBS*. CBS continues to own Friday, with "A Gifted Man" doing better than "Medium" last year's ratings of 1.2/5 - 5.93 million.

*Fox*. Based on the ratings, I assume it is the final year for "Fringe" though its ratings are better than the 0.7/3 - 2.51 million that "The Good Guys" pulled last year in that time slot. I assume "Kitchen Nightmares" costs are cheap.

*NBC*. Reruns and "Dateline" weren't a great draw, although the latter is a better rating than garnered by most of their more expensive fare earlier this week.

*The CW*. "Nikita" apparently doesn't have the draw "Smallville" did last year, but then again "Supernatural" is down this year also.


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## phrelin

Here's Sunday:








Sunday is difficult. I don't do the 7:00 time because CBS and Fox regularly have football overruns in various markets making show ratings meaningless. Apparently Fox catches up in some regions somehow and the reality is Fox's animated shows are getting the same ok ratings they usually do. But CBS just runs it's lineup whenever. So I've also used CBS ratings at the half hour so that we can see how each show does on its own.

ABC took a hit on "Pan Am." One problem is that in the Eastern Time Zone the show as are all 10:00 shows is on opposite NBC's "Sunday Night Football" while in the Pacific Time Zone it is opposite NBC's affiliates offering reruns or syndicated shows. Sunday night is a ratings mess.

In week two including Sunday, CBS delivered to its advertisers _an average_ of 12.39 million viewers per hour of prime time (8-11 pm) programming, ABC 9.30 million, Fox 8.64 million, and NBC 7.28 million.

Without Sunday, CBS delivered 12.82 million, ABC 9.57 million, Fox 9.07 million, and NBC 5.48 million.

One thing we all knew is very clear. NBC is in trouble, but without Sunday Night Football it is offering advertisers Summer cable channel ratings.

Comparing the others to Fox by using only 8:00-10:00, CBS delivered 13.35 million viewers, ABC 10.05 million, Fox 9.07 million and NBC 5.32 million.


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## phrelin

So here is the third Monday of the season:








*NBC*. I'm starting with NBC because of "The Playboy Club" cancellation. Obviously they had to do it. With those ratings and the cost of production, they couldn't continue to take the loss. Instead they are going to replace it with repeats of "Prime Suspects", a new crime procedural show that is strong in production values but also short on audience.

With "The Sing-Off" cheap to produce, I guess they can afford to not be competitive at all on Mondays.

*Fox*. "Terra Nova" held its demo the second week though it lost total viewers. Apparently it really doesn't serve as a lead-in for "House" which on its premier pulled significantly more viewers than "Terra Nova" but around the same as last year.

*ABC*. "Dancing with the Stars" isn't winning its time slots in the demo, but it is a bit shocking to see it second at 9:00 in total viewers. On the other hand, "Castle" has locked into the top in total viewers at 10:00.

*CBS*. "2 Broke Girls" is doing very well. While I'm showing only the "overnights," according to Marc Berman CBS won every half-hour in adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 for the third consecutive Monday with all four comedies posting year-to-year gains, _according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for Oct. 3_. And though more viewers are watching "Castle," "Hawaii 5-0" is leading in the demo.

*The CW*. "Gossip Girl" is not doing as well at 8:00 as it did last year in the 9:00 time slot. "Hart of Dixie" isn't doing as well at 9:00 as "Gossip Girl" did last year in that slot.


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## Rich

olguy said:


> phrelin, thanks for taking the time to make these ratings posts.
> 
> We, like you surprisingly enjoyed 2 Broke Girls. Some of the other new ones not so much. I did enjoy Revenge and am looking forward to more. I hope Body of Proof can hang on. I have enjoyed watching Dana Delany since China Beach.


We liked _2 Broke Girls_ too. Dana Delany sure lost a lot of weight, looks good. We like that show too.

Rich


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## Rich

spartanstew said:


> So far, Revenge is the first series I've dumped. Felt like I should have been a few years older, a different gender, and sitting on the couch eating bon-bons while I watched it.


We dumped _Whitney_. Found it rather annoying. The opening credits said something about it being filmed before a "live" audience, but it sounded like the same laugh track that we hear on _2 Broke Girls_. Are there different kinds of audiences, like "dead" or something else other than "live"?

Rich


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## Stuart Sweet

Being shot live doesn't mean they can't add a laugh track apparently.


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## Rich

We also dumped _New Beginnings_ and _Up All Night_. We really liked _Suburgatory_, good cast and funny. Anything with Jeremy Cisco is usually good. Looking at NBC's ratings kinda makes me wonder why they dumped _L&O:L.A_. I thought it was pretty good after they tinkered with the cast.

Rich


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## Rich

Stuart Sweet said:


> Being shot live doesn't mean they can't add a laugh track apparently.


Kinda implies it tho.

Rich


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## phrelin

Here's Tuesday #3:








*ABC*. Last year on 10/5/2010 "No Ordinary Family" pulled a much higher demo and about the same total viewers as "Dancing Encore" this year. But my guess is that ABC is making much more money on 8:00 this year. That would be good as "Dancing Results" last year at 9:00 pulled 3.2/9 -16.41 million so if some advertising is based on ratings, ABC's earnings for that time slot are down this year. But "Body of Proof" is doing well compared to "Detroit 1-8-7" which pulled 1.8/5 - 8.29 million last year.

*CBS*. CBS still owns Tuesday night. Compared to last year they are getting higher demos for "NCIS", the same demos for "NCIS: LA" and only slightly lower demos for "Unforgettable" compared to "The Good Wife." But the total viewers which were CBS' weekly bragging point is down for 8:00 and a lot down for 10:00 though they still are on top.

*Fox*. The young crowd is fickle and, unfortunately for Fox which focuses on them to drive higher revenue for their two hours of prime time programming, has a short attention span.

The much-touted "Glee" last year had 4.5/14 - 10.76 million, compared to this years 3.5/10 - 8.30 million. They didn't even carry the time slot in the demo. This is costly to Fox.

On the brighter side, "The New Girl" ratings at 9:00 are significantly higher than "Raising Hope" was last year and draw in a much higher demo than "Glee." So "The New Girl" appears to be giving "Raising Hope" a slight ratings boost and Fox a significant increase at 9:30 over last year's "Running Wilde."

*NBC*. I'm hoping "The Biggest Loser" is so cheap to produce that NBC can continue to subsidize the large ensemble in "Parenthood" which I think is one of the better shows coming from the broadcast nets outside the crime procedurals that dominate.

*The CW*. Those in charge of programming at The CW must be tearing their hair.

"Ringer" took a big hit - when ratings drop from 0.9/2 - 2.01 million to 0.6/2 -1.49 million it means the show is in trouble. That's a ⅓ loss in the demo and a ¼ loss in total viewers. It actually did worse than "Life Unexpected" did in the 9:00 time slot last year. All I can say is that we, of the unimportant viewer segment, never stopped recording "Life Unexpected" but took "Ringer" out of our recording schedule after last week's episode.

Of course, it doesn't help "Ringer" that its lead in "90210" this year is well below last year's "One Tree Hill" in the 8:00 time slot.


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## phrelin

Here's Wednesday #3:








Several things stand out.

*NBC* should have dumped "Free Agents" last week unless the cast and crew is working for free. On the other hand "Harry's Law" pulled over 8 million viewers - old viewers, but at least someone watches the show. Other than "Sunday Night Football" it is now NBC's show with the highest number of viewers, though others do much better in the demo.

*ABC* is doing ok with its comedy lineup other than "Happy Endings". Last night's "Revenge" dropped into what I now identify as the non-crime-procedural drama 10:00 ratings range. Against two not-very-unique crime procedurals a decent other-drama will never find more than 8 million Americans to watch it. Americans love their body count.

*Fox*'s "X-Factor" is keeping the network's overall ratings up.

*CBS* dominated the night with total viewers and has more than adequate demos.

*The CW* is in a year-to-year live viewer downward spiral. Even "America's Next Top Model" is finding fewer live viewers than last year's "Hellcats." I think because The CW really depends upon females ages 12 to 22, they might as well accept the fact that their shows on the web site are probably getting more views from smart phones, tablets, and computers.


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## phrelin

It is worth noting that "American Horror Story" premiered on FX Wednesday night pulling 5.2 million live viewers between the three airings.

FX does not have to share ad revenue or retransmission fees with local broadcast stations like the broadcast networks (such as NBC and The CW which get ratings similar to cable channels). It always makes me wonder why broadcast networks haven't started to disappear since over 90% of viewers watch via a cable/satellite/telco system anyway. If I got up one morning and found the NBC was among the cable channels next to its current sister cable channel USA, it wouldn't matter to me.


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## phrelin

Here's Thursday #3 - note that total viewer numbers are down because of the Yankees -Tigers game on TBS:








*ABC*. "Charlie's Angels" are now flying at the NBC ratings level which is unacceptable to ABC. The problem is finding something to put in that time slot. It isn't a slot to dump a news feature show into. Any new scripted series will be wasted there. So here comes a reality show, I guess. But "Private Practice" isn't looking real good at 10:00. The suits over in the Disney corporate offices aren't going to be real pleased with the suits over at ABC.

*CBS*. They just keep hanging on to the viewers.

*Fox*. It will be interesting when they bring "Bones" back November 3. Last Spring following "Idol" it pulled numbers like 3.3/9 -11.09 against "CSI". This fall it will be following "X-Factor" which isn't pulling "Idol" level ratings and against "Person of Interest."

*NBC*. Hopefully, 20% of their normal Thursday viewers are baseball fanatics.

*The CW*. Thursday night is The CW's big night as their audience seems to be into vampires and witches and not much else.


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## Church AV Guy

phrelin, thanks again for posting this. I find the presentation excellent, and the information very valuable. "Charlie's Angels" looks to be quickly following the likes of "The Playboy Club," "Free Agents," and "H8R."


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## phrelin

Church AV Guy said:


> phrelin, thanks again for posting this. I find the presentation excellent, and the information very valuable. "Charlie's Angels" looks to be quickly following the likes of "The Playboy Club," "Free Agents," and "H8R."


Thank you and the others for letting me know you find it useful.

Here's Friday #3:








*ABC* and *NBC* opted out of Friday for the first part of the fall season offering reruns and news programming. NBC's "Dateline" is doing badly. ABC's "20/20" had better be really cheap to produce. It is worth notice that NBC has tentatively scheduled "Chuck" and "Grimm" premiers at the end of the month. Which brings us to the rest of the ratings....

*CBS* controls the most viewers. But, "A Gifted Man" did only slightly better than the last season of "Medium" on 10/8/2010. The problem is CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Studios were heavily invested in the production of "Medium" and needed some additional episodes to make it a more viable show for syndication. If "Chuck" erodes "A Gifted Man" ratings, CBS might dump "A Gifted Man." Ironically, "Ghost Whisperer" was consistently a much stronger 8:00 entry in prior yers and practically no one understood why they didn't renew it.

On the other hand, "CSI: NY" and "Blue Bloods" are doing fine.

*Fox* probably isn't losing money on "Kitchen Nightmares" but "Fringe" I guess is this year's loss leader. If during sweeps "Terra Nova" does poorly (October 27 - November 23, 2011), Fox is going to have to confront the idea that the scifi genre may only be viable on their cable channel FX and maybe not even there. If it wasn't for a very successful international distribution, "Fringe" would be dead right now.

*The CW* is looking at a really bad year. Last year on Thursday "Nikita" pulled 1.1/3 - 2.96 million. On Friday last year, "Smallville" was a great lead for "Supernatural" which got 1.0/3 - 2.28 million. A Friday placement for "Nikita" is a disaster. They should have left well enough alone and scheduled "The Secret Circle" at 8:00 Friday. Since ratings are about money, The CW's situation is terrible this year.


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## TBoneit

I appreciate this information. I find it interesting.

Thanks


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## Rich

TBoneit said:


> I appreciate this information. I find it interesting.
> 
> Thanks


I do too. But my wife asked me the other night if we could become Nielson people and if we could, wouldn't folks who record just about everything with some substance skew the ratings? Don't know how that works.

Rich


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## phrelin

rich584 said:


> I do too. But my wife asked me the other night if we could become Nielson people and if we could, wouldn't folks who record just about everything with some substance skew the ratings? Don't know how that works.
> 
> Rich


They require you to tell them what is being watched and by whom in your household. They don't care what you record if it is never watched and if it is watched more than a week later, it doesn't get in the ratings reported to advertisers.

Here's Sunday #3 and demonstrates the reason I usually give up on Sunday ratings. Not only do we have Sunday Night Football to skew ratings against normal series programming, but last night the ALCS Game 2 on FOX was postponed due to rain leaving them to stuff reruns in. I've left the normal programs in the chart so you can see what would normally run.








The pundits look at this screwed up data and are pointing out the decline of "Pan Am" which I think is because the folks at ABC are idiots. They should have premiered this show in February after Super Bowl Weekend to see how it would do against other series programming at 10:00 Sunday. In the meantime, they might as well run old movies from 9:00-11:00 as "Desperate Housewives" may become desperate for viewers in its last Fall sweeps month (October 27 - November 23, 2011).


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## Gloria_Chavez

When I found out about six months ago that the networks were programming Pan Am and Playboy this fall, I thought they would both fail. Mad Men is successful because it airs on AMC, drawing a niche (not more than 3.5M) following that many advertisers clamor for. 

Mad Men's economics would doom it on broadcast television - the opportunity cost is simply too high.

I can still be wrong about Pan Am. But if I were programming the network, I would never have made that bet. And quite frankly, I'm surprised it got past the focus groups.


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## phrelin

Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if ABC gets their focus groups from random visitors to Disneyland.

I don't think the problem with "Pan Am" is that it is a "period piece" (boy do I struggle with calling a show set in the 1960's a period piece). It was unfair that the press compared it to "Mad Men." Very few people lived the lives of 1960's Pan Am stews and pilots. A lot of men and women worked in offices and lived in the "burbs" as in "Mad Men," maybe not advertising, but similar offices.

In any event, I think "Pan Am" is well done for what it is. Like "Mad Men", it raises bad feelings, even anger, in my wife who lived and worked in that time. She tolerates my fanatic fan feelings for "Mad Men" but "Pan Am" may not survive in our household.

Regarding ABC and Disneyland, the ads for "Once Upon a Time" set to premier at 8:00 two weeks from last night haven't lifted my lack of interest in what appears to be a Disney fairy tale character promo specifically for Disney-owned ABC that even is going to offer us a Jiminy Cricket alternate. But I'll give it a chance.


----------



## phrelin

For those who may share my interest in the total viewer numbers, here's my take on the first three weeks:








What the top chart would seem to indicate is that NBC isn't doing as badly as some would say compared to ABC and Fox. But the second chart without Sunday and Sunday Night Football tells us what we already knew - NBC's programming remains a disaster.

Because Fox and The CW only offer programming from 8:00-10:00, the third chart shows how that is going. I have to acknowledge that Fox does far better in the demos than the others but CBS has nearly 50% more viewers on average.

Finally, because ABC and NBC have chosen to run news programming on Friday at 10:00, I have limited the fourth chart to Monday through Thursday to see how those in charge of programming for the networks are really doing. It reflects what I would have expected - CBS captures about 45% of the viewers and ABC is seeing a worrisome decline. Since viewers represent income and scripted programming is very expensive, NBC is not doing as well as it did when they put the Leno show at 10:00.


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## sean10780

Nice work Phrelin! Seems NBC is still the least watch network, no matter how you look at it.


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## phrelin

Here's the 4th Monday which is completely fouled up by sports:








I have chosen to display this night as I recorded it on the West Coast. Most probably already know that game two of the American League Championship Series (Detroit Tigers vs. Texas Rangers) pushed into primetime on the East Coast until 8:51 p.m. To add further confusion in the 11th largest market, Detroit, the ABC affiliate carried an NFL game.

Suffice it to say, that while the *ABC* and *CBS* ratings are meaningless in the long term, the *Fox* ratings are not. If I laid out a plan to kill "Terra Nova," so far I couldn't have done a better job than the unconscious programming folks at Fox. I would have done the fast shuffle and run "House" at 9:00 as scheduled and offered up some comedy reruns for 8:00 and 8:30 in other time zones. Of course, that would mean pushing out the last episode date for "Terra Nova."

*NBC* remains in 4th place no matter what the others do.

Some say *The CW* shows declined this week. I don't think you can tell.

Finally, "House" running at 10:00 in the East made the 10:00 ratings unreliable.


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## Rich

phrelin said:


> They require you to tell them what is being watched and by whom in your household. They don't care what you record if it is never watched and if it is watched more than a week later, it doesn't get in the ratings reported to advertisers.


I guess not that many people record the whole season's episodes before watching them as we do. But a lot of people must record shows and watch them more than a week later. Guess it would be to hard to monitor.

Rich


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## Rich

phrelin said:


> Suffice it to say, that while the *ABC* and *CBS* ratings are meaningless in the long term, the *Fox* ratings are not. If I laid out a plan to kill "Terra Nova," so far I couldn't have done a better job than the unconscious programming folks at Fox. I would have done the fast shuffle and run "House" at 9:00 as scheduled and offered up some comedy reruns for 8:00 and 8:30 in other time zones. Of course, that would mean pushing out the last episode date for "Terra Nova."


I have to admit I'm kinda disappointed in _Terra Nova_. Just in the story lines, so far. The cast and the SFX and the premise, I'm good with.

Rich


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## phrelin

For those who wonder about it, TVbytheNumbers provides the Nielsen Live+7 Days ratings with the following comment:


> Do the Live+7 ratings tell us anything about a show's renewal prospects we didn't already know from the Live+SD ratings? No. Click here to learn more.


We watch almost everything after the important _Live + Same Day_ period which means if we were a Nielsen family we wouldn't count for advertisers (though because we're old, advertisers don't care about us anyway).

Also, the reality is we late DVR viewers still don't amount to a game changer. For instance, "Glee" got a pretty good bump for premier week jumping that all important demo from 3.2 to 4.5 and total viewers from 9.21 to 12.21 million. Seems like a lot, but most of the popular shows get a similar bump.


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## phrelin

Here's Tuesday #4:








Note that the Fox playoff game ratings is an average. Normally by noon Fox Sports would have given the breakdown but the numbers aren't very good, so why hurry?

IMHO "Last Man Standing" had mediocre premier ratings. Haven't watched it yet but if it wasn't overwhelmingly good, at 8:00 most of those 3 million extra viewers will disappear over the next two weeks. And I suspect that when "Glee" returns during sweeps October 27 - November 23 the demo will go back there. They certainly don't care much for baseball.


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## phrelin

Here's Wednesday #4

As expected, the rain delayed MLB playoff game screws with the ratings picture more than a bit. And *Fox* is taking more than a small risk by essentially forcing all its shows to rebuild an audience during October 27 - November 23 sweeps. I've used the average ratings to try to create some consistency. The problem is that the times are accurate for the East Coast, but not for the West and particularly for the West Coast where the game did not compete with the other networks prime time schedule. So while Fox may have gotten more viewers, they didn't necessarily get them in prime time.

Looking at the rest of the networks, I don't see any significance to the numbers.


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## phrelin

From the NY Times:


> According to Nielsen ratings data from Sept. 19 through Oct. 9, CBS has 20 of the top 30 shows among the broadcast networks in total viewership, making CBS the first network to accomplish such a feat. It was also the number one network in average viewership and in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic.


Of course they have nowhere to go but down. On the other hand, the others are straining their necks looking up apparently without a clue.


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## phrelin

While as noted above CBS set a record in high viewership ranking, Thursday #4 was NBC's worst in-season Thursday ever.

*ABC*. After it's ratings came in, "Charlie's Angel" was canceled. I don't think that's going to help anything but the networks' bottom line. It's slowing declining "aging" Thursday lineup last year were as follows:

Grey's Anatomy 4.4/12 -11.9 million
Private Practice 3.2/9 - 8.71million​
Basically, ABC is #3 for the night.

*CBS*. This network continues to hold its own. In a twist of irony, a rerun of "The Big Bang Theory" placed third in total viewers for the night behind a new "The Big Bang Theory" and "The Mentalist" while following closely behind in fourth highest for the night was the networks newbie "Person of Interest."

*Fox*. The "X-Factor" lost in both the demo and total viewers to both the new and the rerun of "The Big Bang Theory." It did win the demo against "Person of Interest", though not in total viewers.

*The CW*. Thursday night is still a good night for The CW.

*NBC*. As I noted, it was not a good night for NBC.

The venerable "The Office" led the night for the "must see TV" network with a ...oh, my... 3.2/8 - 6.05 million. Everything else had one-third fewer viewers. Last year it pulled 3.7/10 - 7.31 million.

The network is even trying to give its 10:00 entry "Prime Suspects" a boost by also running reruns in place of canceled "Playboy Club" Monday night. The show is a decent police procedural but absent a miracle it won't get a full season. It pulled a pathetic 1.3/3 - 4.5 million.

Two years ago on 10/15/2009 in that time slot, "The Jay Leno Show" drew 1.7/5 - 6.16 million. In retrospect, whoever made the choice to move Leno to 10:00, effectively reducing NBC to two hours a night like Fox, looks like a programming genius. And the network affiliates must be really happy they insisted on reducing the number of viewers in the lead-up to local news.


----------



## phrelin

Just to add to my comments on NBC really bad Thursday, they've schedule reruns of the lineup for next week.


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## Rich

So far, all the cancellations have been shows I either dumped from my SLs or had no intention of watching. 

Rich


----------



## phrelin

Here's Friday #4.

*ABC*. ABC has reduced its prime time programming to Sunday through Thursday, essentially abandoning Friday as well as Saturday.

*CBS*. CBS still controls Friday night. But additional episode orders for "A Gifted Man" is in question. For comparison, two years ago 10/17/2009 in the 8:00 slot, "Ghost Whisper" pulled 2.0/7 - 8.21 million against a Yankees-Angels playoff game on Fox, an "Ugly Betty" season premier on ABC, a "Law & Order" on NBC and a "Smallville" on The CW.

*Fox*. "Kitchen Nightmares" is a good affordable entry pulling a large enough audience to make a profit. "Fringe" not so much.

*The CW*. Nothing to add to previous night's observations that the only strong night The CW has left is Thursday.

*NBC*. On Friday 10/28/2011, NBC is offering up the season premier of "Chuck" at 8:00 and a series premier of "Grimm" at 9:00. I don't really understand this given the ratings situation the network is in and looking at the competition.

"Chuck" would likely be good for 6-8 million viewers and a decent demo on any night but Friday. Beginning sweeps week, I'd stuff "Chuck" into 8:00 Wednesday, move "Up All Night" to Thursday at 8:30, and slot "Grimm" at 8:00 Friday keeping a two hour "Dateline" on Friday 9:00. But that's just me.


----------



## Sixto

Very good thread. Excellent reading each day.


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## Laxguy

Sixto said:


> Very good thread. Excellent reading each day.


+1

Yes, thanks for posting this. Is the info in html on a site somewhere handy?


----------



## phrelin

Here's Sunday #4.

*ABC*. The channel from Disney world didn't think through its Sunday night offering this Fall. Next week they are premiering "Once Upon a Time" in the 8:00 time slot that for four weeks "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" pulled modest decent ratings.

"Desperate Housewives" last year pulled 3.8/9 - 12.43 and the TV ratings pundits were talking about how low they were because of baseball playoffs plus Sunday Night Football. It was obvious from last year when the show pulled a 2.7/7 -8.83 on April 17, 2011 (the last Spring Sunday without various scheduling changes confusing ratings), a fairly obvious indicator that the show had lost a significant portion of its audience.

"Pan Am." Unfortunately, this expensive-to-produce show with good story lines really never had a chance. The big question is will ABC pull it when they (a) have already pulled "Charlie's Angels" and (b) plan to introduce "Once Upon a Time" at 8:00 next week. And what can they put up against "Sunday Night Football" and "CSI: Miami"? (If they wait until football is over, they'll be looking at competing against "The Firm" on NBC starring Josh Lucas, Juliette Lewis, Molly Parker, and Callum Keith Rennie and actually produced by John Grissom.)

*CBS*. Given the competition for this particular Sunday, it is clear that CBS still controls where the viewers are when they're not watching football.

*Fox*. The shifted day episode of "The X-Factor" did fine in the demo.

*NBC*. It's "Sunday Night Football" but Minnesota at Chicago apparently wasn't the draw like previous games.


----------



## SPACEMAKER

I watched the first 2 episodes of Pan Am but finally bailed halfway through the 3rd. Just no substance to keep one interested.


----------



## phrelin

So we have ratings for four weeks into the 2011 Fall season. Some shows have already been canceled and some probably will be. But how does each network do compared to the others? Here is a prime time chart from the past four weeks for Monday-Sunday without Saturday or 7:00 Sunday

So far CBS has gotten the highest ratings. And NBC is #4. But this doesn't really tell us how the networks do in series/specials programming against each other because ABC and NBC bailed on Friday offering repeats and news shows, and Sunday simply doesn't reflect the effectiveness of the networks in finding appealing programming. The networks go head-to-almost-toe Monday through Thursday. Fox and The CW don't compete at 10:00 pm. But how are the non-sports, non-news programmers doing? Here's a chart.

*CBS* is still on top, both in total viewers and in the 18-49 demo in all three hours. Sure their shows don't win every slot every night, but overall they don't give much ground at any time. And they do very well on Friday and ok on Sunday.

*NBC*'s demo is almost down to The CW.

*ABC* has had some real hits and misses, but it could become more competitive quickly.

*Fox* is struggling mostly with programming misses. Even MLB doesn't help, and it maybe even hurts. If the World Series doesn't generate really great ratings, someone is going to have to reconsider the commitment in the future. Sure, "American Idol" and "X-Factors" may keep the network in money, along with high retransmission fees, but....


----------



## phrelin

And now for the coup de grâce for broadcast network programming non-visionaries. The 9 pm (6 pm Pacific Time) "Walking Dead" season premier on AMC Sunday night pulled 7.3 million viewers (4.8 million 18-49). All three airings seemed to find 11 million pairs of eyes total. If you check the Sunday night broadcast ratings above, you will note that only Sunday Night Football did better.

Not only did it set records, it indicates again that it is possible to air a show on cable that will pull in the demo and total viewers and the network doesn't have to share revenue with some local station owner, most of whom won't promote local programming and cut local news funding anyway. Who needs them?

And to the broadcast network programming non-visionaries - no we don't need five variations on a zombie theme, one on each broadcast network.


----------



## phrelin

Here's Monday #5.

*Click on the image if you need a larger version of the table.*[/CENTER]

*Fox*. As I said about last week's ratings (highlighted in pink):


> Suffice it to say, that while the ABC and CBS ratings are meaningless in the long term, the Fox ratings are not. If I laid out a plan to kill "Terra Nova," so far I couldn't have done a better job than the unconscious programming folks at Fox.


In truth, the decision Fox made last week dealing with the baseball playoff hurt "Terra Nova" but did even more damage to "House." At some point, no matter how good the World Series ratings are, Fox is going to have to decide if it's a broadcast network offering prime time series TV or a sports network. No broadcast network can do it all well.

*CBS*. IMHO the 8:00 - 10:00 ratings for half hour sitcoms are stunningly high across the board. And "2 Broke Girls" again gained over "HIMYM." At 10:00 "Hawaii Five-O" finds itself against tough competition from ABC's "Castle." Note that these are two crime procedurals but "Castle" offers a little humor/romantic interest in the mix.

*ABC*. Some pundits noted "Dancing with the Stars" last year on 10/19/2010 pulled 4.0/10 - 19.33 million, but its ratings this year are on a par with the 2009 Fall Season.

*NBC*. It's NBC, what can I say?

*The CW*. On 10/19/2009, two years ago, the network had the following ratings:

8:00 One Tree Hill 1.1/3 - 2.29 million
9:00 Gossip Girl 1.0/2 - 1.93 million
Something hasn't worked for *The* *C*ute *W*omen network since then, though they may be getting their audience on line. The recent deal with Netflix gives the network more money and Netflix must think the audience is there.


----------



## TBoneit

phrelin said:


> And now for the coup de grâce for broadcast network programming non-visionaries. The 9 pm (6 pm Pacific Time) "Walking Dead" season premier on AMC Sunday night pulled 7.3 million viewers (4.8 million 18-49). All three airings seemed to find 11 million pairs of eyes total. If you check the Sunday night broadcast ratings above, you will note that only Sunday Night Football did better.
> 
> Not only did it set records, it indicates again that it is possible to air a show on cable that will pull in the demo and total viewers and the network doesn't have to share revenue with some local station owner, most of whom won't promote local programming and cut local news funding anyway. Who needs them?
> 
> And to the broadcast network programming non-visionaries - no we don't need five variations on a zombie theme, one on each broadcast network.


That is amazing.

I wonder if all the people that were saying why did DirecTV bother adding AMC HD will get it that many people watch it.

I wonder how USA, TNT, AMC are doing with regards to ratings compared to the CW or NBC these days?

Cheers


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## phrelin

TBoneit said:


> That is amazing.
> 
> I wonder if all the people that were saying why did DirecTV bother adding AMC HD will get it that many people watch it.
> 
> I wonder how USA, TNT, AMC are doing with regards to ratings compared to the CW or NBC these days?
> 
> Cheers


One night last week USA got better ratings than NBC which probably has Comcast's management wondering about their commitments to NBC.

The top half dozen 9 pm cable shows on Sunday pulled about 20 million viewers. Of course that included at #1 "Walking Dead" and #2 the National League playoff game on TBS. But it indicates that if the cable channel owners keep improving their scheduling, they could become regularly competitive with broadcast TV. We are really at the point that cable/satellite homes are over 90% of homes.

IMHO the visionless broadcast affiliate channel owners missed the one golden opportunity to remain competitive enterprises when things went digital. They should have insisted on contracts to broadcast in HD on subchannels USA (NBC), FX (Fox), ABC Family (ABC) and TNT (The CW), with the contracts allowing the affiliates to sell advertising. CBS lacks any non-premium cable channel, but if I had been owner of a CBS affiliate I would have looked at BBCA.

Instead, the FCC wants to auction off some of their unused bandwidth.


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## phrelin

Here's Tuesday #5.

*Fox*. Fox ran "X-Factor" so we have no idea what the competition for the night really looks like. At 8:00 it did about the same in the demo as the last time "Glee" ran and at 9:00 it did a little worse in the demo as the last time "New Girl" ran. Interestingly it did better in total viewers than both those shows.

*CBS*. The league leader continued to control the night. "Unforgettable" is holding it's own in the demo and viewers.
:00
*ABC*. The sophomore week for "Last Man Standing" at 8:00 saw about a 20% drop in viewers and 15% drop in the demo as it appears the folks went to "X-Factor." The premier of "Man Up" at 8:30 didn't hold onto a lot of those viewers. "Body of Proof" remains in third place in the demo and second in viewers.

*NBC*. "The Biggest Loser."

Oh, one wrinkle is "Parenthood" which continues to be second in the demo at 10:00 despite the fact it only has 52% of the viewers of "Body of Proof." Next week just before sweeps starts, of course NBC will be running a rerun of the ratings loser "Prime Suspect" in the slot just in case "Parenthood" has a chance of gaining traction.

*The CW*. Since they picked up all their new shows despite the ratings, I don't know why I bother to comment. As usual, "The Ringer" at 9:00 gets slightly better ratings in the demo than the lead-in miserable ratings of "90210", but what should be noted is that total viewer ratings are higher indicating that "The Ringer" does get some folks older than 49.


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## renbutler

phrelin said:


> Here's Tuesday #5:
> Oh, one wrinkle is "Parenthood" which continues to be second in the demo at 10:00 despite the fact it only has 52% of the viewers of "Body of Proof." Next week just before sweeps starts, of course NBC will be running a rerun of the ratings loser "Prime Suspect" in the slot just in case "Parenthood" has a chance of gaining traction.


Parenthood is one of only a couple watchable shows on NBC in the past decade. I'd hate to see NBC mess around with it.


----------



## phrelin

renbutler said:


> Parenthood is one of only a couple watchable shows on NBC in the past decade. I'd hate to see NBC mess around with it.


 My wife and I agree.

Here's Wednesday #5.

The four networks other than Fox had pretty much normal ratings for Wednesday this Fall. Which brings us to Fox and the World Series....

What I've shown is the preliminary World Series half-hour ratings until 10:00. I chosen this approach as the ratings indicate viewership across the nation, but they don't accurately reflect competition in time slots. The World Series on Fox wasn't even in prime time on the West Coast.

It appears that the final ratings will be lower than Game 1 of San Francisco vs. Texas last year which averaged 4.7/14 - 15.01 million.

When you evaluate these ratings, you have to recognize that the Fox affiliates in the West don't get the full benefit. In San Francisco, the Fox affiliate KTVU showed two "Friends" in the 8:00 hour and a news special "Second Look: 20th Anniversary of the Oakland Hills Fire" in the 9:00 hour, the latter being smart programming, but tonight that hour will be "Seinfeld" reruns. Sure, there were more eyes on the station 5:00 to 7:30, but KTVU did not get the benefit of the programming that the East Coast affiliates received. However...

Last year the World Series started a week later, Oct. 27, 2010, with Game 2 airing on the first night of the Fall Nielsen Sweeps period. This year, even if the Series goes to 7 games, none will be during Fall Sweeps. Why is this important? From Wikipedia:


> Electronic metering technology is the heart of the Nielsen ratings process. Two types of meters are used: set meters capture what channel is being tuned, while People Meters go a step further and gather information about who is watching in addition to the channel tuned.
> 
> Diaries are also used to collect viewing information from sample homes in many television markets in the United States, and smaller markets are measured by paper diaries only. Each year Nielsen processes approximately 2 million paper diaries from households across the country for the months of November, February, May, and July-also known as the "sweeps" rating periods. Seven-day diaries (or eight-day diaries in homes with DVRs) are mailed to homes to keep a tally of what is watched on each television set and by whom. Over the course of a sweeps period, diaries are mailed to a new panel of homes each week. At the end of the month, all of the viewing data from the individual weeks is aggregated.
> 
> This local viewing information provides a basis for program scheduling and advertising decisions....


 Fox affiliates and the Network itself this year are going to be holding their collective breaths going into week 1 of November Sweeps.

This is because most West Coast and non-MLB fans in other regions will have been watching other channels during prime time on some nights over the prior three weeks. How many of those viewers will decide they like what's on the other channels on at least some of the nights and not go back to Fox could be a significant financial issue.


----------



## phrelin

Here's Thursday #5.

*Fox*. I've shown the preliminary World Series half-hour ratings until 10:00. It appears that the final ratings will be down from last year's (10/28/10) game 2 San Francisco vs. Texas 14.13 million- 4.0/10. Otherwise, see my comments on yesterday's ratings.

*CBS*. CBS dominated the night in total viewers and pretty much in the demo. While NBC ran reruns, CBS premiered "Rules of Engagement" at 8:30 pulling a good demo and total viewers.

*ABC*. While ABC burned off a remaining "Charlie's Angels" episodes against the World Series at 8:00, their remaining lineup continued at about the same ratings as previous weeks.

*NBC* ran all reruns. We won't know if that was a good move until two weeks from tonight during Sweeps.

*The CW*'s Thursday lineup held it's position as the network's best night.


----------



## phrelin

Here's Friday #5.

*ABC* premiered "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" in its new time slot. Some headlines implied that the night was a win for ABC because it tied CBS in the race for the demo. Yeah, about that....

On Sunday February 20 at 8:00 "EMHE" pulled 2.4/7 - 9.568 million against a season premier of "Amazing Race" on CBS. Last night the Friday 8:00 time slot premier of "EMHE" against fairly weak competition pulled 1.1/4 - 5.09 million.

In fact, despite those headlines about a win for ABC, it was "20/20" with a demo of 2.1/6 that gave it a tie with CBS.

IMHO ABC has wasted "EMHE" on Friday. But maybe I'll be proved wrong next week when NBC premiers "Chuck" at 8:00.

*CBS*. In terms of total viewers for the three time slots combined, CBS pulled its highest number since premier week with 30.13 million and the same demo total as the past two weeks, 4.7. This Friday ABC was in no way a challenge to the CBS control for Friday as it pulled a total of 18.75 million viewers. In the first two hours of the night in the demo CBS pulled 1.2 & 1.8 compared to ABC 1.1 & 1.7.

"A Gifted Man" had its best night since premier week while "NCIS: NY" had its best night this Fall. "Blue Bloods" didn't do so well against the real life NY drama on "20/20" - a piece about the wife of Bernie Madoff's late son who committed suicide. Apparently a real body count can attract American's away from a fictional body count.

*Fox* for whatever reason ran a rerun of "Fringe."

*NBC*'s "Dateline" did even worse than normal against "20/20" at 10:00. Next week, on the first night of Nielsen November Sweeps, the *N*o*B*ody *C*ares network will offer the season premier of "Chuck" at 8:00 and the series premier of "Grimm" to compete for the few Americans ages 18-49 who stay home and watch broadcast network TV on Friday.

*The CW* had a fairly normal Friday night which this year means not so good.

For a comparison to gauge what TV's are tuned to what on Friday, last week at 8:00 "Wizards of Waverly Place" on the Disney Channel pulled 4.1 million viewers followed by "Make Your Mark" at 8:30 with 4.2 million. At 10:00 Disney's "Jessie" had 3.9 million and even HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" had 1.1 million.


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## phrelin

Here's Sunday #5.

Like all Fall Sundays what everyone, including me, shows in their tables has no bearing on what really happened.

Here's what the prime time schedule looked like in my DMA, the San Francisco Bay Area.

In all of the Pacific Coast DMA's the schedules were similar - essentially no World Series or football in prime time.

What I can tell from the ratings reports is that from 8:00 to 11:00 across the nation, CBS had _about_ the same number of viewers it had in previous weeks. The same is true for ABC from 9:00 to 11:00.

Also across the nation, the World Series on Fox stole viewers from Sunday Night Football.

That leaves us with the premier of "Once Upon a Time" on ABC at 8:00 which we haven't watched yet. On the surface, the numbers look promising until you realize that on March 6 at 8:00 ABC premiered "Secret Millionaire" which pulled 3.3/9 -12.61 million but only pulled 2.1/6 - 8.52 in its April 10 finale.

I've included the lower table to get some clarity. Compared to prior weeks, the total number of viewers watching ABC and CBS at 8:00 increased by 5.5± million. It appears that next week to retain the kind of ratings "Once Upon a Time" received, it would have to 

pull viewers from Fox's "The Simpsons" and a series premier of "Allen Gregory" and from the Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles on NBC; or
draw 5+ million folks who so far this fall don't normally watch broadcast network TV on Sunday at 8:00.
IMHO by December "Once Upon a Time" will be drawing an increase in total viewers to the time slot, but only enough to just be competitive with "Amazing Race." It will not continue to give "Desperate Housewives" the boost seen last night. And, of course, it didn't help "Pan Am" at all.

Given the likely high cost of "Once Upon a Time", whether the ABC and Disney suits will consider that a win I don't know.

Projecting out to the Winter schedule, right now NBC plans to offer "The Apprentice" at that time slot. No threat there to the established CBS and Fox audience nor to "Once Upon a Time".

On the other hand, maybe "Once Upon a Time" will be so good it will continue to draw a demo in excess of 3.5.


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## phrelin

Here's Monday #6.

Again, the World Series distorts this somewhat as none of it was on in prime time on the West Coast. I've omitted the 10 pm ratings of 4.3/10 - 14.24 million because when added it grossly misrepresents the audience available at that time slot. The problem is that far more viewers in the Pacific Time Zone are available at 7:00.

With that said, CBS continues to control the demo on Monday nights and its Monday two hours of comedy seems to have stabilized going into Nielsen November Sweeps (October 27 - November 23, 2011). This means that the other networks have to pry loose viewers from CBS', somehow get the 10 million 18-49 age group watching cable to switch, or get somebody not regularly watching TV Monday night to turn on the "boob tube."

The only other thing of interest is that "Hart of Dixie" on The CW has shown a gain in viewers the past two weeks.


----------



## phrelin

Here's Tuesday #6.

There's not much to say here since this in no way represents the regular competition we'll see next week, the first Tuesday of Nielsen November Sweeps. Just another night led by CBS.


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## phrelin

Here's Wednesday #6.

This was the last night before the beginning of Nielsen November Sweeps, plus Game 6 of the World Series was rained out. So it was a night of mostly reruns.

The shift of World Series games because of rain has some significant impacts on the Fox schedule. The "Bones" season premier will wait until next Thursday and presumably the return of Friday "Fringe" episodes will be put off a week. (I assume even if there is no Game 7, Fox won't further confuse things by moving back to the regular schedule tomorrow but we know about ass-u-me!).


----------



## phrelin

Here's Thursday #6 and a demonstration of how the ratings system can really foul up or benefit despite the best laid plans.

This was theoretically the first night of Nielsen November Sweeps. But these ratings are useless for purposes of evaluating regular programming.

*Fox*. Despite the rain delaying these last two games of this World Series forcing Fox to shuffle its lineup and not being able to premier its Thursday lineup, Thursday was a win for Fox. What was thought to be a relatively uninteresting Series became a hot item.

For ratings purposes, the problem is that in Pacific Time Zone the Game was not in prime time. It began at 5:00. I don't even show the ratings for these games at 10:00. But for discussion purposes I added the 10:30EDT/7:30PDT ratings. Using the preliminary ratings, here's what happens to the ratings as the commuters in the West get off work:

8:00/5:00 4.1/12 -15.61 million
8:30/5:30 5.4/15 - 19.46 million
9:00/6:00 6.1/15 - 21.18 million
9:30/6:30 6.6/16 - 21.78 million
10:30/7:30 6.6/17 -20.49 million

About the other networks....

*CBS* pretty much held its own, winning the night for routine programming and probably doing very well in the Pacific Time Zone.

*ABC* ran the annual 8:00 offering of "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" producing much better ratings than "Charlie's Angels" and somewhat better ratings than last year. It's medical lineup of "Grey's Anatomy" did pretty well as normal.

*The CW* gained a little from the Series, indicating something about its audience.

*NBC*. "Adapt or die" apparently is not thrown around in meetings at NBC. The *N*o*B*ody *C*ares network planned last ...what, April???... to go with their Thursday lineup to compete against regular programming on the other nets on the first night of November Sweeps. And compete they did, getting ratings that barely beat The CW.

Of course a day or two ago when it was clear there was going to be a Series game on Thursday, they could have inserted reruns. Revenue implications wouldn't have been much worse than wasting new episodes last night.

So what are folks planning for tonight to compete with Game 7? Well, as reported in CBS to Pull Original Series Episodes Due to Game 7 of World Series:


> Instead, the network plans to air repeat episodes of the shows, including a rebroadcast of the GIFTED MAN series pilot.
> 
> EW reports that as of now, NBC intends to go ahead with it's plans to air the season premiere of its hits series CHUCK as well as the series premiere of it's new fantasy drama, GRIMM.


This will be really interesting. The move by CBS might actually keep NBC's premiers from being a complete and total disaster.


----------



## phrelin

Here's Friday #6.

*Fox* did very, very well with the World Series. But see the time zone discussion for yesterday above.

*ABC* lost viewers to the World Series.

*CBS* decided not to waste new episodes of programming against the World Series and ran reruns which still allowed them to win the night for total viewers for programming other than the World Series.

*The CW* wasn't significantly impacted one way or another.

OK now...

*NBC*. On September 20, 2010 "Chuck" premiered with ratings of 2.1/6 - 6.06 million compared to last night's 1.0/3 -3.39 million. Probably it will come up slightly, but basically NBC has decided to starve the last season.

On the other hand, the season premier of "Grimm" probably benefited from there being no competition in the West from Fox or CBS. The show pulled a solid adults 18-49 for a Friday non-sports telecast. While it is being repeated on Syfy Tuesday, an adaptable network would have announced Wednesday night a repeat on NBC tonight, Saturday. Oh well....


----------



## phrelin

Here is the first Sunday of Nielsen November Sweeps:








For the sake of discussion, I'm going to pretend that there are no time anomalies in this competition even though NBC's "Sunday Night Football" doesn't run in prime time on the West Coast and the CBS schedule wasn't shifted by a half-hour in the East Coast because of an NFL game overrun.

*ABC* appears to have a solid show at 8:00 with "Once Upon A Time". Ground is lost with the last season of "Desperate Housewives" at 9:00. "Pan Am" is a loser at 10:00.

*CBS* "The Amazing Race" continues to do adequately at 8:00. "The Good Wife" at 9:00 and "CSI: Miami" are weak performers but they are against football on NBC.

*Fox* continues to do well in the demo with its animated lineup, though the "Allen Gregory" premier was weak.

The real battle here is between ABC and CBS. For the night ABC won the demo while CBS won the total viewers. That might be considered good for ABC except that for the first two hours, in the demo Fox gave ABC a run beating them at the hour.


----------



## phrelin

Here is the first Monday of Nielsen November Sweeps:








As you may have noted yesterday, I'm not comparing the Sweeps numbers to prior weeks. This is because you can't compare regular programming results mixed in with World Series games. And, for the same reason, you can't compare the results from the same week last year to this year as the comparable night last year had game 5 (SF Giants at Texas Rangers).

But we can look at the choices networks have made and how it appears to be playing out in the ratings.

*ABC* ran the "Scared Shrekless" on Halloween at 8:00. That choice cost them nearly 50% of their normal "Dancing with the Stars" viewers. But, hey, they are owned by Disney and even though the Shrek franchise is owned by DreamWorks Animation which is a subsidiary of Viacom ... it, still makes no sense. I really don't think "DWTS" viewers were trick-or-treating.

By 9:00 "DWTS" viewers were back in their normal numbers. And "Castle" at 10:00 continues to have a good demo and leads in total viewers.

*CBS* won the night in the demo. That's all that counts even though the network was nearly as strong as ABC in total viewers without any big reality competition show. Therefore any choices made going into this first Monday of Sweeps were winners. And the CBS choice is to provide their viewers with the same popular scripted programming week-after-week, no exceptions.

*Fox* probably made a bundle on their World Series. In the process, they continued to destroy their scripted lineup. "X-Factor" will probably do OK this week and of course "American Idol" will do well in the Winter ratings. I really don't know why they don't get rid of their scripted show programming people. They would probably do better as The Game Show network running a combination of reality competition shows and sports.

Finally moving "House" to 9:00 this year was a mistake. It means they've sacrificed their highest rated scripted show. It gives "Terra Nova" no lead in and "House" a crappy lead in. And, of course, viewers with short attention spans went on to other shows since baseball was on two out of the last four Mondays.

*NBC* had an average demo of 1.2 and pulled in the same number of viewers in three hours that Fox got in two. What else can one say.

The premier of "Rock Center with Brian Williams" did worse than the premier of "The Playboy Club" but it is so much cheaper to produce.

*The CW* decided to rerun some "Ringer" episodes instead of regular programs. I really doubt it's going to help "Ringer" ratings tonight, but we'll see.


----------



## phrelin

On Sunday and Monday there is distortion due to the NFL games ratings. On Monday night the ratings for ESPN's Monday Night Football were 4.7 in the demo with 12.03 million viewers. The shows on broadcast TV on Monday have to deal with the loss of that audience by appealing to other viewers. But what does that mean?


----------



## phrelin

Here is the first Tuesday of Nielsen November Sweeps:








Again, week-to-week and year-to-year comparisons don't offer much insight because of the World Series games impact on Fox last week and the comparable night last year. But we can look at the results of decisions made by the networks.

*CBS* overall won the night in demo ratings and total viewer ratings. "NCIS" continues to pull very strong ratings for scripted programming at 8:00. "NCIS:LA" won the 9:00 hour in total viewers against "DWTS Results Show" and in the demo against Fox's combination of "New Girl" and "Raising Hope." And "Unforgettable" continues to top its competition at 10:00.

*ABC* ends up as #3 in the demo and #2 in total viewers at 8:00 and 9:00. Overall the ratings are adequate.

*NBC*'s "The Biggest Loser" probably earns a profit. "Parenthood" got a slight, but noticeable, bump in the ratings at 10:00.

*The CW* made a mistake by renewing "90210". And running reruns of "Ringer" last night did nothing for the show's ratings while we "Hart of Dixie" fans were disappointed.

*Fox*. By becoming The Game Show Network for three weeks, running baseball or "X-Factor" the past three Tuesdays, Fox sacrificed big time any momentum its Tuesday shows may have had:








From TVbytheNumbers:


> To quote Fox's kinda sorta anonymous scheduling chief, "Baseball giveth Baseball taketh away."


Yeah, but baseball would have done just fine on TBS. What has been taken away is viewer support for Fox's "rest of the year" schedule.

The World Series generated some strong revenue for the quarter for News Corp, the home of the "what happened 5 minutes ago" attention span. Next spring, everyone there will be puzzling over the decline of their regular schedule.

I suppose to push ratings this coming Spring, they could run "American Idol" for an hour and two minutes at 8:00 Mon-Fri, followed by "House" on Monday, "Glee" on Tuesday, "The Finder" on Wednesday, "Bones" on Thursday, and "Alcatraz" on Friday.

But really, they should just run "AI" part of the week and "So You Think You Can Dance" the rest of the week. That way they could really become The Game Show Broadcast Network. I'm sure it would just as profitable as any plans they have now.


----------



## phrelin

Here is the first Wednesday of Nielsen November Sweeps:








*Fox*. Two interesting things about last night:

"X-Factor" won the demo in its two hours with an average of 3.9.
ABC got a 3.5 average for three hours plus CBS got a 3.5 and more viewers at 8:00.
So I'm not sure this is much of a win for Fox.

Some pundits noted that "X-Factor" slipped but I don't know how one could conclude that since Fox moved it all over the schedule for the past two weeks.

*CBS* won the night in terms of most viewers, again. And the demos for the three hours were good.

*ABC*'s Wednesday comedy lineup is doing well. And "Revenge" won the 10:00 demo in a big jump.

*The CW* has a problem with its Wednesday lineup.

*NBC* made a programming decision about 8:30 plus ran a rerun of "Harry's Law" last week. Those decisions may have given away about a million older viewers - you know, people like me who like consistency which is why we like CBS. Of course, according to everybody but CBS, we over-49 folks don't count.

Whether it's good or bad that the Nielsen Sweeps periods ratings will influence programming, it's still a fact. So for Monday through Wednesday the _*average*_ Sweeps ratings look like this:

CBS 3.5 - 12.9 million for 3 hours a night
FOX 3.1 - 8.5 million for 2 hours a night
ABC 2.8 - 11.6 million for 3 hours a night
NBC 1.5 - 4.2 million for 3 hours a night

When I reluctantly add Sunday which was the first day of November Sweeps with a full lineup of regular programming and gives NBC credit for Sunday Night Football, NBC still comes in fourth for total viewers and barely beats out ABC in the demo. It looks like this:

CBS 3.2 - 12.2 million for 3 hours a night
FOX 3.2 - 8.1 million for 2 hours a night
NBC 3.0 - 7.8 million for 3 hours a night
ABC 2.9 - 10.9 million for 3 hours a night


----------



## phrelin

Here is the first Thursday of Nielsen November Sweeps:








*CBS* again won the night in total viewers and though technically Fox's average 3.5 demo was higher, CBS 3.3 demo for 3 hours was really a winner.

*Fox*'s "X-Factor" hit about its average for the date and the "Bones" premier did well.

*ABC*'s 9:00-11:00 lineup appears to be losing its appeal with age. For instance, on 11/5/2009 "Grey,s" had 4.8/12 - 13.34 million and "Practice" had 3.6/10 - 9.59. Last night's "Grey's Anatomy" ratings weren't bad, but they weren't great. And "Private Practice" seems to me to be heading for the graveyard.

*NBC* barely beat The CW in the 8:00 hour. "Community" and "Parks & Recreation" are surely in their last season. "The Office" and "30 Rock" are still somewhat competitive in the demo.

At 10:00 on 11/5/2009 "Leno" pulled 1.6/5 - 4.68, while last night "Prime Suspect" pulled 1.2/3 - 4.47. "Prime Suspect" has to be canceled which is too bad as it is a pretty good police procedural. It is ironic how the affiliates complained that "Leno" wasn't giving them the lead into their news shows that "real programming" provides. I really am surprised that Comcast didn't sell NBC to the affiliates in the NBCU buy.

*The CW* had its usual Thursday, which is its best night.


----------



## phrelin

Here is the first Friday of Nielsen November Sweeps:








*CBS* as usual walked away with the total viewers, but did only tie for second in the demo at 8:00. One has to be impressed with those "Blue Bloods" numbers at 10:00 on a Friday.

What I like to remember is that at 10:00 pm on Friday November 6, 2009, "The Jay Leno Show" pulled 1.2/4 - 4.60 million. As far as I'm concerned the other three "big networks" pulled "Leno" ratings for the entire night. It's informative that no one, particularly affiliates, is vilifying the network programmers like everyone did to NBC in 2009.

*ABC*. Last week I said ABC lost viewers to the World Series. Apparently not. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" continues its slide from last spring on Sundays. Moving it to Friday was probably a good move. And "20/20" isn't doing all that hot.

*Fox*. In terms of costs, "Kitchen Nightmares" is probably well-placed and profitable. "Fringe" is ...well... it's in its last season.

*NBC*. "Chuck" is ...well... it's in its last season. "Grimm", on the other hand, won it's hour in the demo and was second in total viewers with 1.8/5 - 5.92 million. The problem is it cost many times more to produce than "Leno" did on November 6, 2009.

*The CW* was normal for The CW.

We've completed a Sunday through Friday cycle for Nielsen November Sweeps (ignoring the previous week which was screwed up with the World Series). Here's what things look like:








Whether you look at the full period, or Monday-Friday to eliminate the skew of NBC's "Sunday Night Football", CBS is the clear winner in programming. On Tuesday through Thursday they pull the highest number of total viewers with decent demos, on Monday they win the demo, on Friday they win both, and on Sunday they win total viewers other than "Football".

Fox is second in the demo while ABC is second in total viewers.

NBC's decline in programming talent has put it clearly in fourth place. Without Sunday the network's average ratings for the week was 1.6 in the demo and 5.1 million viewers. Basically most of the entire lineup is pulling "Leno" ratings.

The CW has a problem unless they are getting online viewing which is possible given their target demo.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Sunday of November Sweeps:








There isn't much new to comment on here except "The Good Wife" which probably isn't correct because there was a football overrun in 17% of the country but I can't get the 9:30 ratings. And this is getting to be a problem for CBS because the one thing they offer the rest of the week is consistency.

From the NY Times article N.F.L. Delays Anger 'Good Wife' Fans:


> "The Good Wife" on CBS is an Emmy-winning show (for its star Julianna Margulies) with a committed, devoted audience. But its relocation this season to Sunday nights has resulted in the loss of about 2 million viewers - and outright frustration for a number of its fans, especially those who make a point to record the episodes on DVRs.
> 
> This Sunday "The Good Wife" played in its usual 9 p.m. slot in much of the country, but in many big cities CBS was broadcasting N.F.L. games that again moved the starting time to 9:30. Those cities included television markets like Washington, Dallas, Tampa, Denver and Atlanta.


Whatever happened to the old announcement by sportscasters "and now we will join "60 Minutes" already in progress"???


----------



## Lord Vader

I noticed for the first time while watching _CSI: Miami_ (I watched its recording after the Ravens-Steelers game), there was a commercial announcement by CBS that "during Sunday nights of the NFL season,_ CSI: Miami_ will often begin later than normal; therefore, please set your DVR to record it for 2 hours and not 1."

Interesting.


----------



## phrelin

Lord Vader said:


> I noticed for the first time while watching _CSI: Miami_ (I watched its recording after the Ravens-Steelers game), there was a commercial announcement by CBS that "during Sunday nights of the NFL season,_ CSI: Miami_ will often begin later than normal; therefore, please set your DVR to record it for 2 hours and not 1."
> 
> Interesting.


That is interesting! They are acknowledging viewers who might not be in the Live+Same Day ratings group that advertisers favor.


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## Lord Vader

CSI: Miami is one of the season pass shows I record. I always remember to change the stop time to 1 hour later during the football season.


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## seern

I have stopped recording this show but last year added 2 hours to the end time.


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## timf

I despise CBS's scheduling practices on Sunday night. Fox always schedules double header games to run until 7:30 with postgame coverage until 8:00 in order to account for the fact that late games NEVER end by 7:00. On single header weeks, they schedule reruns for the 7:00 hour that they preempt as necessary to keep the rest of primetime on schedule.

CBS insists on scheduling 60 Minutes for 7:00 even when there's no way football games will be done by then. Even worse is when the scheduled game ends relatively on time and they then switch to the end of another game rather than keeping primetime on schedule. The practice is entirely a ploy to combat DVRs and get people to watch more of the CBS Sunday lineup by recording extra shows beyond what they really want to watch. Yet, I continue to put up with it since that's when they air The Amazing Race.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Monday of November Sweeps:








*NBC*. I'm starting with NBC only because I can't help but mention that for November 9, 2009 the TVbytheNumbers headline read in part "Jay Leno slips below 4 million viewers" when The Jay Leno Show pulled 1.2/3 - 3.97. Brian Williams has lower ratings and the last hour of "The Sing Off" is about comparable. Boy, if I were an affiliate I'd be begging NBC to put Jay Leno back on a 10:00.:sure:

*ABC*'s lineup did about normal.

*CBS*' lineup did about normal though I should note that the ratings for "Two and a Half Men" on November 9, 2009 were 4.4/11 - 14.12 million while this year it pulled a remarkable 5.1/12 - 14.52 million.

*The CW*. By cleverly scheduling reruns of "Ringer" last Monday, it appears programmers were able to further drive down ratings for their Monday shows while doing nothing for "Ringer."

And now to my nominee for replacing NBC in two years as the least competently run network, *Fox*. _The Hollywood Reporter_'s headline this morning says 'Terra Nova' Improves Significantly which is a half-truth. The show's ratings on October 17 right before Fox decided to try out being The Game Show Network were 2.7/7 - 7.97 million while last night's ratings were 2.6/6 - 7.67 million. So while the ratings were a significant improvement over last week, they still haven't fully recovered from the damage Fox programmers caused when they decided scripted programming just isn't that important to them.

Which brings us to "House." Fox premiered this show two weeks after premier week and it drew a 3.9/9 - 9.77 million. The following week, October 10, they basically demolished their lineup for a baseball playoff overrun causing "House" ratings to drop to 2.7/7 - 6.85 million. On October 17 the ratings recovered a bit to 3.1/7 - 8.37 million. The following week Fox destroyed the recover by showing the World Series which for that hour pulled 3.4/8 - 11.93 million, a rating likely close to what "House" would have received if Fox were a regular TV network rather than The Game Show Network. So last night's 2.7/6 - 7.54 million looks like "House" should be canceled when in fact Fox should be just move to cable placed next in the guide to the real "Game Show Network."

:rant:
Yeah, you can ignore this rant but I'm irked.

I'm particularly tired of this catering to sports BS. Ordinary Americans apparently have decided to dump billions of hard earned, and now, scarce dollars into professional sports. In 1931 in the depths of the Great Depression Babe Ruth's salary maxed out at an equivalent of $1.1 million in today's dollars. No sports star should be paid more than that and no team should earn enough money from its fans to be able to pay more than that.

Now back to your regularly scheduled posts....
:rant:


----------



## renbutler

Each series has a limited number of episodes that need to be shown from mid-September to late May -- roughly 22 episodes in 38 weeks. Obviously you don't want a serial program to have lots of breaks, particularly a new show at the beginning of the season.

But my point is that you need to show _something else_ for 16 of those weeks no matter what. So if you can show a popular sport in primetime for a couple of those weeks, there's no reason you shouldn't do it. Some programs (like Terra Nova) don't lend themselves to showing re-runs, and there's only so much holiday filler to go around.

So I don't think it's such a big deal for FOX to show the World Series during primetime in October. Even if some FOX shows were dinged a bit, the network more than makes up for it by showing popular live sports instead of re-runs or filler.

(And for full disclosure, I'm a fan of Terra Nova, the Tuesday 9:00 comedies on FOX, and Fringe -- all of which were affected by baseball. But I know I'm going to see only a certain number of episodes per season no matter what -- and I have a DVR -- so it doesn't really matter to me which weeks they air.)


----------



## phrelin

renbutler said:


> Each series has a limited number of episodes that need to be shown from mid-September to late May -- roughly 22 episodes in 38 weeks. Obviously you don't want a serial program to have lots of breaks, particularly a new show at the beginning of the season.
> 
> But my point is that you need to show _something else_ for 16 of those weeks no matter what. So if you can show a popular sport in primetime for a couple of those weeks, there's no reason you shouldn't do it. Some programs (like Terra Nova) don't lend themselves to showing re-runs, and there's only so much holiday filler to go around.
> 
> So I don't think it's such a big deal for FOX to show the World Series during primetime in October. Even if some FOX shows were dinged a bit, the network more than makes up for it by showing popular live sports instead of re-runs or filler.
> 
> (And for full disclosure, I'm a fan of Terra Nova, the Tuesday 9:00 comedies on FOX, and Fringe -- all of which were affected by baseball. But I know I'm going to see only a certain number of episodes per season no matter what -- and I have a DVR -- so it doesn't really matter to me which weeks they air.)


Everything you say is true. But the problem is the networks seemed to have lost the ability to adapt such as when they had the overruns and should have rescheduled to the following week that night's shows. It is part of why shows get poor ratings and get canceled.

On Fox we record and watch "Terra Nova", "House", the comedies you mention, and "Fringe", as well as "Bones" which had a delayed season premier. We also record and watch "The Good Wife" on CBS Sunday. Because I'm on the West Coast, many of the timing problems don't affect my recording. But...

When they shift start times at the last minute, networks are screwing the scheduled shows' production companies and personnel, plus the shows' fans. They risk creating a lack of viewers for the show and thus risk cancellation of shows, ones that I like.

They'll do that rather than risk offending the pro leagues and their fans. But I wonder how long the networks could get away with cutting away from an active game to show their scheduled programs saying "we'll see if we can't show the end of the game sometime over the next weekend."

I don't have a problem with scheduling sports on broadcast television. Just don't try to compete in prime time until the sports season ends. If there aren't enough games, show old movies. Don't buy a series program then screw with its schedule at the last minute.

Or let ESPN and TBS offer nationally distributed sports programming and have the broadcast nets step up to the programming plate, to use a sports metaphor.

Hmmm. Sorry about a second rant, but....


----------



## olguy

phrelin said:


> They'll do that rather than risk offending the pro leagues and their fans. But I wonder how long the networks could get away with cutting away from an active game to show their scheduled programs saying "we'll see if we can't show the end of the game sometime over the next weekend."


Remember when pro football games fit well within the 3 hour programming slot? Well, most anyway. And then there was Heidi. :lol:


----------



## Laxguy

*Originally Posted by phrelin * 


> They'll do that rather than risk offending the pro leagues and their fans. But I wonder how long the networks could get away with cutting away from an active game to show their scheduled programs saying "we'll see if we can't show the end of the game sometime over the next weekend."


About 30 seconds after the commercial break!.....:lol: 
As Shakespeare wrote,
"Hell hath no fury like a sportsfan spurned...."


----------



## renbutler

phrelin said:


> Everything you say is true. But the problem is the networks seemed to have lost the ability to adapt such as when they had the overruns and should have rescheduled to the following week that night's shows. It is part of why shows get poor ratings and get canceled.


It can be reasonably assumed that the network programmers take these things into account when they look at the ratings. In fact, it can be particularly useful when they consider how dedicated the fan base is. If the fans stick with the show even if it gets moved around by sports, then it's probably the type of show that can sustain a strong (even if not huge) audience over the course of several seasons.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Tuesday of November Sweeps:








*ABC*. At 8:00 "Last Man Standing" appears to be holding a decent audience. But "Man Up" at 8:30 is on the cancellation track. "DWTS Results Show" is about normal. At 10:00 they ran "In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts", basically a puff piece designed to promote tonight's "CMA Awards."

*CBS* won the night in all time slots.

*NBC* had normal ratings for the night.

*The CW* had pathetically normal ratings for their two shows for the night.

*Fox*. "Glee" did about normal for this year.

Here I'm going to return to the continuing debate over displacing regularly scheduled programming.


renbutler said:


> It can be reasonably assumed that the network programmers take these things into account when they look at the ratings. In fact, it can be particularly useful when they consider how dedicated the fan base is. If the fans stick with the show even if it gets moved around by sports, then it's probably the type of show that can sustain a strong (even if not huge) audience over the course of several seasons.


Twenty-five years ago, I would have agreed though perhaps not enthusiastically when discussing the first two years of a show. Today it appears that the "short attention span" disease that seems to have infected America sometime in the past twenty years has to be considered when making programming decisions.

For instance, IMHO ABC's decision to do the Robin Roberts puff piece replacing "Body of Proof" was iffy, but probably ok for one night to help boost the CMA's. Tonight the CMA's are replacing the full schedule but it's a strong schedule and probably won't even hurt "Revenge".

On the other hand, there's the results of the Fox machinations:








IMHO in today's environment you cannot premier a new show, run it for three weeks, then have it disappear from the schedule for a month. I'm not even sure you could have done that 25 years ago and I think it would have been the death of "M*A*S*H" and "All in the Family" neither of which even without that audience alienating treatment were in the top 30 shows of their first seasons.

In this case it cost "New Girl" 20% of its viewers and likely has finished assuring cancellation of "Raising Hope" in its second season of being bounced around by The Game Show network. IMHO half of the 20% would have trickled away anyway. But half might have been reliable viewers for a few years if they hadn't forgotten that the show was on.

Simply, if I were a producer shopping a new show around to the networks, even if Fox offered me twice what CBS or USA did, I wouldn't go with Fox. My two goals would be to (1) last long enough to secure syndication contracts which is where the real profits are and (2) not get a reputation as a producer of ratings failures. Neither of these goals are achievable on Fox.

I know I'm being very critical of Fox, but this doesn't even relate to my other feelings about News Corp which, as a business, does seem to cater to the financial analyst talking head types who ask how much did you make in the last hour and never think about a long term future.

Sometimes I think it's a function of Rupert Murdoch being 80 - the long term future isn't in his frame of reference.

But that shouldn't be the cause of cancelling "Raising Hope".


----------



## renbutler

phrelin said:


> In this case it cost "New Girl" 20% of its viewers and likely has finished assuring cancellation of "Raising Hope" in its second season of being bounced around by The Game Show network. IMHO half of the 20% would have trickled away anyway. *But half might have been reliable viewers for a few years if they hadn't forgotten that the show was on.*


This is the part I don't get. How did they find the show in the first place? Why do you believe the viewers will be lost forever? Do people really forget when a show is on? The shows are promoted during FOX football coverage.

And isn't New Girl's audience loss typical for any new show, even the popular ones? How do you arrive at your estimates of which parts of the loss are natural and which parts are FOX-induced? And Raising Hope clearly depends on the lead-in, which explains why it's drop is nearly identical to New Girl's.


----------



## phrelin

The CBS strategy of consistency appears to work on live viewers. My personal opinion is that people get hooked on a decent show. If it's not there to watch, the risk is they'll get hooked on another show in the same time slot. I think the numbers over a full season support that viewpoint.

If I want to watch a show, I set a recording timer. When it's in my recordings, I watch it. But I'm not a live viewer, so this is all my speculation about the habits of other people. My opinion is free and worth every penny.


----------



## mreposter

In this day and age of 200 channels, keeping viewers loyal to a particular show has to be a significant challenge. Dropping it for few weeks, moving it around, etc, only encourages viewers to forget about a show or consider the alternatives. 

As an example, when I'm visiting my folks, if there's nothing on or we can't agree what to watch, there are stations like HGTV that are sort of the default. Everyone seems to be okay with House Hunters  And for others it might be whatever's on ESPN, CNN or whatever comedy rerun is on TBS.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Wednesday of November Sweeps:








*ABC* carried the CMA Awards which for the night gave them a 30% jump in the demo and a 60% jump in total viewers.

*CBS*, *Fox *, and *The CW* all took about a 10% hit in the demo for the night.

*NBC* saw both "Up All Night" and "Harry's Law" increase giving them a slight increase in the demo for the night. Apparently what viewers they have are very, very loyal.

Compared to last week, there was a 10% increase in viewers in the demo and total for the night and it appears they were there for the CMA Awards.

Whether any promotional ads of ABC's regular programming during the night will help with ratings in future weeks remains to be seen.

It does not appear that airing this special sent any viewers to the competition against "Revenge" at 10:00.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Thursday of November Sweeps:








*CBS* does this every year during sweeps - they schedule reruns to test their schedule when the competition is offering new episodes of their series schedules. What it demonstrates is the strength of the CBS approach to programming. At 8:00 they offered a new episode of "Big Bang Theory" which walked away from the competition. At the 8:30 slot the lead in allowed "Rules of Engagement" a tie with "X-Factor" in the demo at 3.6/9 and a win in total viewers with 11.77 versus 11.13.

At 9:00 we had a rerun of the newbie "Person of Interest." This resulted in "Grey's Anatomy" grabbing first place for total viewers for the first time this season. But the good news is that "PoI" still held onto second place for total viewers at 9:30.

At 10:00 "The Mentalist" rerun lost the demo lead to "Private Practice" but still won total viewers. But the truth of the matter is that fewer folks watched during this hour.

CBS wants to be in a position to say to advertisers that they are in the broadcast television network business, offering consistent programming that holds viewers 5 nights a week (and 6 nights if it weren't for regional football overruns on Sunday).

Head-to-head new episodes of "Person of Interest" so far this year beat "Grey's Anatomy" in total viewers *and* "X-Factor" in total viewers and has a reasonable demo. Head-to-head new episodes of "The Mentalist" so far this year beat "Private Practice" in total viewers and took over the lead in the demo.

And reruns of those shows hold their own against new episodes of the rest of the time slot lineups. Care to guess which network will win during rerun periods?

*ABC* can say to their advertisers that new episodes of their shows will beat reruns of CBS shows. What they can't sell is high priced ad spots during the rerun periods.

*Fox*'s programming strategy this year assures that "X-Factor" can get a tie against the sitcom "Rules of Engagement" at 8:30 and "Bones" might get 3rd in the demo at 9:00, though the latter we won't know for a couple more weeks.

*NBC*. On Thursday, November 12, 2009 Leno at 10:00 pulled 1.6/4 -	4.64 million. For the entire night, Thursday, November 10, 2011 NBC had one half-hour show that clearly did better, "The Office" from 9:00 to 9:30. Why haven't we heard that loud screaming from affiliates that we heard in 2009 over what was thought to be the Leno debacle?

*The CW* has one "strong" night, Thursday, with its vampires and witches.

What I'm waiting for is that time coming soon when the advertisers discover that the 18-29 crowd is less financially flush relative to other age groups than at any other time since broadcast TV became a force. I believe they will begin valuing total viewers as much as the demo and will insist on ad pricing based on "eyes-on-commercials-live-plus-7-days" numbers which could be done right now.


----------



## olguy

phrelin said:


> What I'm waiting for is that time coming soon when the advertisers discover that the 18-29 crowd is less financially flush relative to other age groups than at any other time since broadcast TV became a force. I believe they will begin valuing total viewers as much as the demo and will insist on ad pricing based on "eyes-on-commercials-live-plus-7-days" numbers which could be done right now.


Maybe that demo outnumbers we geezers. :lol: If I were buying ad time I would not count any thing other than live. I don't know for sure but I doubt if very many folks watch recorded commercials. Even when on the rare occasion I watch something live when the commercials come on the sound goes off.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the second Friday of November Sweeps:








Also I'm offering up a table comparing the network ratings in 2009 to yesterday:








*CBS* is doing better this year than they did in 2009 with their lineup of "Ghost Whisperer", "Medium" and "Numb3rs". They continue to win the night though "A Gifted Man" is 2nd in the demo at 8 pm.

*ABC* is doing poorly. "Supernanny" in 2009 is doing better than "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is this year.

*Fox* ran reruns two year ago. Then a rerun of "Bones" did better than a new "Fringe" did this year. "Fringe" slipped again this week.

*NBC*. Two years ago, NBC ran "Law & Order", "Dateline NBC", and "The Jay Leno Show" and in the two early time slots did better than this year. In the 10:00 slot, it's likely the network made far more money on "Leno" than on any show it ran this year. "Grimm" lost a few viewers this week.

*The CW*. Two years ago "Smallville" at 8:00 did better than "Nikita" this year. "Nikita" saw a very slight gain in total viewers over last week

Interestingly, two years ago there were fewer total viewers at 9:00 and 10:00 but more viewers in the demo.


----------



## mreposter

The CW and NBC are looking more and more irrelevant. The CW has a bit of a niche with the teen/early 20s set, but other than Vampire Diaries, they've just about lost all their hits. 

NBC is in even worse shape. Comcast has hired a new team to rescue the network, but they've fallen so far behind, it won't be easy. The real question in my mind is are there enough viewers left to support four and a half traditional broadcast networks?


----------



## phrelin

mreposter said:


> The real question in my mind is are there enough viewers left to support four and a half traditional broadcast networks?


That's a nagging question on everyone's mind.

Before there was Fox and before there were hundreds of cable channels there were basically three broadcast networks. But 50 years ago, when the 1961-62 season was aired, there were 48.6 million TV households, in 1971-72 62.1 million TV households, and in 1981-82 81.5 million TV households. Today there are 114.7 million TV households. Looking back at the "good old days" of TV, ratings for the top rated shows looked like this:








In week 4 of the 2011-12 season, the top 25 looked like this:








The raw number of viewers look surprisingly similar to years far past considering that the number of TV households has doubled since 1961-62.

The economic issue, I suppose, is the percentage of households and the fact that advertisers have to go after the customers on cable channels and on line. For the truth is that at best a top show may be viewed live in 15% of American households today while in 1961-62 "Wagon Train", "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" sent the sound of bullets into 30% of American households each week.

And so the second week of November 2011 sweeps generates these cumulative average statistics:








In terms of programming skills, CBS continues to dominate even with some reruns as #2 ABC chose to run the "CMA Awards" on the strongest night of its regular schedule thereby not improving its numerical status much.

Technically Fox is #2 in the demo but holds fewer total average viewers and only offers programming two hours a night.

NBC without Sunday Night Football has a huge programming problem.

And The CW, yes, does technically aim for the 18-29 female market, but really the 14-24 market. The problem is that in terms of broadcast TV viewing, they really aren't doing very well in their market this year.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Sunday of November Sweeps:








*ABC*. "Once Upon a Time" appears to be a winner for ABC, as opposed to "Pan Am". The general consensus on the web is that during the Winter season ABC will replace "Desperate Housewives" with "Good Christian Belles" at 9:00 but if I were ABC I'd go with "The River" at that slot and move "Private Practice" to Sunday at 10:00.

*CBS*. The lineup for CBS is strong in total viewers. But if ABC and NBC were to put in a stronger group of shows at 9:00 and 10:00, I'm not sure if this CBS lineup might weaken fatally by the end of Spring. Of course, NBC will probably fail....

*Fox*. The animated lineup seems to be working ok. I don't know if "Allen Gregory" will improve after football season.

*NBC*. What the Comcast installed suits at NBC will do with Sunday night should be an indication of how well they can tackle competition. Right now they have "The Firm" slotted into the 10:00 Sunday slot. It looks like a very expensive show to produce based on cast and production staff. I'm not sure it's not wasted on the Sunday late slot.


----------



## mreposter

CBS is heavily dependent on the CSI & NCIS franchises. The CSI's are already well down from their best years. What happens to CBS when NCIS slides as well? Will CBS make the same mistakes NBC made with being too dependent on Law & Order?


----------



## phrelin

mreposter said:


> CBS is heavily dependent on the CSI & NCIS franchises. The CSI's are already well down from their best years. What happens to CBS when NCIS slides as well? Will CBS make the same mistakes NBC made with being too dependent on Law & Order?


 One of the things many overlook is the fact that CBS through its production companies owns substantial pieces of the "CSI's" and the "NCIS's" and NBCU through its production companies own substantial pieces of the "L&O's" and both corporations make significant revenues from syndication.

Ironically, both franchises fill the NBCU-owned USA Network schedule. And various showings of "NCIS" is usually in several of the top 25 cable show ratings each week among all the sports and "Spongebob".

But CBS has enough episodes of the "CSI's" and the original "NCIS" for syndication. I've never seen CBS reluctant to ax or move a show that starts to weaken.


----------



## phrelin

Right after I pontificated on this....


phrelin said:


> *NBC*. What the Comcast installed suits at NBC will do with Sunday night should be an indication of how well they can tackle competition. Right now they have "The Firm" slotted into the 10:00 Sunday slot. It looks like a very expensive show to produce based on cast and production staff. I'm not sure it's not wasted on the Sunday late slot.


...NBC released it's revamped schedule (see thread NBC announces mid-season schedule revamp).

Indeed, they aren't going to use "The Firm" on Sunday, but rather Thursday at 10:00 pm. Sundays will be
7 p.m. "Dateline" in this time slot starting Jan. 8)
8 p.m. "Harry's Law" moves to this time slot starting March 4
9 p.m. -11 p.m. "The Celebrity Apprentice" premieres Feb. 12​I'm seeing this as giving away Sunday using mostly cheap programming while burning off "Harry's Law."

I don't understand this as "Harry's Law" has been one of NBC's better performers (for NBC) at it's Wednesday at 9:00 slot and they're moving "Rock Center with Brian Williams" which on Monday at 10:00 has been viewed by his family and friends so far to that slot.

Oh well....


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Monday of November Sweeps:








*ABC*. "Dancing with the Stars" continues to hold the total viewers though runs 2nd in the demo. At 10:00 a "20/20" special with Diane Sawyer interviewing Gabrielle Giffords did well, though about the same as "Castle".

*CBS*. "How I Met Your Mother", "2 Broke Girls", "Two and a Half Men" and "Mike & Molly" make up one of the strongest two hours of comedy in recent memory and the 2nd strongest two hours for CBS behind the Tuesday two "NCIS" franchise shows. "Hawaii Five-0" got a big jump. The issue is did the ABC "20/20" push the demo audience over to CBS? The number imply that wasn't the case, but I'll be curious about next week which is Thanksgiving week when many people are away from home.

*Fox*. "Terra Nova" and "House" continue to run #3. I have to wonder whether Fox hired a bunch of former NBC folks to schedule their programs.

*NBC*. We're #4... well... #3 at 10:00.

*The CW*. Not much to say.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Tuesday of November Sweeps:








No significant changes in viewer interest on Tuesday nights were apparent last night.

One item of passing interest is that of the 2.1 million viewers that leave Fox at 9:30, 1.1 million switch to ABC to see the results of "DWTS" and 0.5 million switch to NBC to see the end of "The Biggest Loser." The rest do something else.


----------



## BobaBird

I'd recommend more of them stick around for Raising Hope, an inventive and charming comedy with actual LOL moments.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Wednesday of November Sweeps:








*ABC*. Here's what I said about last Wednesday:


phrelin said:


> *ABC* carried the CMA Awards which for the night gave them a 30% jump in the demo and a 60% jump in total viewers.
> 
> Whether any promotional ads of ABC's regular programming during the night will help with ratings in future weeks remains to be seen.
> 
> It does not appear that airing this special sent any viewers to the competition against "Revenge" at 10:00.


While my observations might have been true, they probably weren't.

The fact is "The Middle", "Suburgatory", "Modern Family" and "Happy Endings" ratings are down from two weeks ago. It appears that "Revenge" lost about 10% of its viewers since its last showing.

This again raises the question about the advisability in interrupting the week-to-week flow of scripted series shows.

*CBS*. Where the competition is the toughest, 9:00, "Criminal Minds" actually had an increase in the demo over two weeks ago - the only demo increase from two weeks ago (I'm ignoring the "Up All Night" rerun).

*NBC*. "Harry's Law" at 9:00 and "L&O: SVU" at 10:00 are the best consistent lineup ratings of the season for NBC (I'm ignoring "Sunday Night Football"). At midseason they will be giving "L&O: SVU" at 10:00 a new lead-in, "Rock Center with Brian Williams", and will be moving "Harry's Law" to 8:00 Sunday. Ya gotta love the lack of thinking at NBC.

*Fox*'s "X-Factor" continues to do well for the night with an average of 3.8/10 - 11.18 million. Obvious they need about a dozen of these game shows to rotate through the schedule when sports games are not on.

*The CW*. There's not much to say about this lineup.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Thursday of November Sweeps:








*ABC* put out an instant spin news release that would make any politician proud. Here's how they handled the failed "Charlie's Angels" slot:


> "A Special Edition of 20/20" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
> 
> During the 8 o'clock hour, "A Special Edition of 20/20 - Regis Philbin: The Morning Maestro with Katie Couric" pulled in a strong 8.0 million viewers on average, drawing ABC's biggest audience in the hour in 8 weeks (since 9/22/11) and its 2nd largest viewer count in 10 months - since 1/20/11....


And here's how they handled giving away 4 million "Grey's Anatomy" viewers at 9:00:


> "Private Practice" (9:00-11:00 p.m.)
> 
> Gaining sharply on its Adult 18-49 lead-in at 9:00 p.m. (+67% - 2.5/7 vs. 1.5/4) and building from its first to second hour (+8% - 2.4/6 to 2.6/7), ABC's 2-hour fall finale of "Private Practice" moved up to No. 1 from 10:00-11:00 p.m. (2.6/7)....


*CBS* actually won the night even though Fox at 9:00 and ABC at 10:00 squeeked out a win in the demo.

*Fox*. "X-Factor" slipped a little but "Bones" won its time slot in the demo and tied in total viewers.

*NBC*. Despite assertions to the contrary, "Parks and Recreation", "The Office" and "Whitney" all have loser ratings. And no, "Whitney" is not a viable show for next year if Comcast is serious about turning NBC around. Of course, NBC has already said "Community" and "Prime Suspect" will soon be on hiatus until never.

*The CW* preempted the best night of its schedule to prove that even the movie "Beneath the Blue" (plus NFL football in New York and Denver) could outdraw the second hour of its best night.


----------



## 50+

Phrelin,

Thanks for these updates. Really enjoy seeing where my favorite shows are in the rankings. Fantastic job!!!

JDP


----------



## phrelin

Here's the third Friday of November Sweeps:








*ABC* apparently decided to kill off "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" by putting it on Fridays, a night when the 18-49 demo does other things between 8:00-10:00.

*CBS*. No meaningful changes as CBS continues to "dominate" the night. "Blue Bloods" at 10:00 had the highest demo at 2.0/6 which isn't worth bragging about.

*Fox*. "Kitchen Nightmares" is probably affordable so that the miserable ratings don't count, but "Fringe" probably could be moved to The CW with no discernible change in ratings.

*NBC*. "Grimm" tied "CSI: NY" in the demo at 9:00. "Chuck" is barely staying ahead of The CW's "Nikita".

*The CW*. I've already said enough.


----------



## phrelin

The November Sweeps this year only had three weeks without results being altered by the World Series and next week is a major national holiday week. Looking at those three weeks to see how a regularly scheduled show ranked putting a slight emphasis on the demo but not ignoring the total viewers (since I'm not in the demo, I guess), I came up with the following:

1. NBC Sunday Night Football 8.3 - 21.80 million Sunday
2. CBS NCIS 4.0 - 19.88 million Tuesday
3. CBS The Big Bang Theory 5.2 - 15.33 million Thursday
4. ABC Modern Family 5.6 - 13.07 million Wednesday
5. CBS Two and a Half Men 5.0 - 14.31 million Monday
6. ABC Dancing with the Stars 3.4 - 18.31 million Monday
7. CBS 2 Broke Girls 4.5 - 11.39 million Monday
8. CBS NCIS: LA 3.4 - 15.40 million Tuesday
9. CBS Mike & Molly 4.1 - 11.92 million Monday
10. FOX The X-Factor 4.1 - 11.35 million Wednesday
11. CBS How I Met Your Mother 4.3 - 10.48 million Monday
12. ABC Once Upon a Time 3.8 - 11.45 million Sunday
13. CBS Criminal Minds 3.6 - 12.22 million Wednesday
14. CBS Rules of Engagement 3.6 - 11.57 million Thursday
15. CBS Survivor: South Pacific 3.3 - 11.33 million Wednesday
16. CBS The Mentalist 2.7 - 12.77 million Thursday
17. ABC Castle 2.7 - 12.11 million Monday
18. CBS Hawaii 5-0 3.1 - 10.57 million Monday
19. FOX The Simpsons 3.7 - 7.84 million Sunday
20. ABC Grey's Anatomy 3.3 - 9.20 million Thursday
21. CBS Person of Interest 2.7 - 11.63 million Thursday
22. FOX Bones 2.9 - 10.15 million Thursday
23. CBS The Amazing Race 2.7 - 10.50 million Sunday
24. FOX New Girl 3.5 - 7.05 million Tuesday
25. ABC Desperate Housewives 3.0 - 9.06 million Sunday
26. ABC Happy Endings 3.4 - 7.48 million Wednesday
27. ABC The Middle 2.9 - 9.24 million Wednesday
28. CBS Unforgettable 2.4 - 11.36 million Tuesday
29. CBS CSI 2.6 - 10.41 million Wednesday
30. ABC Suburgatory 3.0 - 8.31 million Wednesday
31. CBS Blue Bloods 1.9 - 11.99 million Friday
32. ABC Last Man Standing 2.6 - 9.16 million Tuesday
33. ABC Revenge 2.8 - 8.26 million Wednesday
34. FOX Glee 3.0 - 7.14 million Tuesday
35. FOX Family Guy 3.1 - 5.89 million Sunday
36. ABC Body of Proof 2.1 - 9.95 million Tuesday
37. ABC Private Practice 2.7 - 7.19 million Thursday
38. CBS The Good Wife 2.0 - 9.75 million Sunday
39. NBC The Office 3.0 - 5.83 million Thursday
40. CBS CSI: Miami 2.0 - 9.29 million Sunday
41. FOX House 2.6 - 6.92 million Monday
42. CBS CSI: NY 1.6 - 9.91 million Friday
43. FOX Terra Nova 2.3 - 7.04 million Monday
44. NBC The Biggest Loser 2.2 - 6.27 million Tuesday
45. NBC The Sing-Off 2.5 - 4.95 million Monday
46. NBC Law & Order: SVU 1.9 - 6.98 million Wednesday
47. FOX American Dad 2.4 - 4.75 million Sunday
48. Fox Raising Hope 2.3 - 4.98 million Tuesday
49. NBC Parenthood 2.0 - 5.16 million Tuesday
50. ABC Man Up 1.7 - 6.30 million Tuesday
51. CBS A Gifted Man 1.2 - 8.28 million Friday
52. FOX Allen Gregory 2.2 - 4.43 million Sunday
53. ABC Pan Am 1.8 - 5.51 million Sunday
54. NBC Whitney 2.0 - 4.24 million Thursday
55. NBC Up All Night 1.8 - 4.79 million Wednesday
56. NBC Grimm 1.6 - 5.51 million Friday
57. NBC Harry's Law 1.2 - 7.10 million Wednesday
58. NBC Parks & Recreation 1.9 - 3.75 million Thursday
59. ABC Extreme Makeover: Home 1.5 - 5.61 million Friday
60. ABC Charlie's Angels 1.3 - 6.18 million Thursday
61. NBC Dateline NBC 1.4 - 4.90 million Friday
62. NBC Community 1.6 - 3.66 million Thursday
63. FOX Kitchen Nightmares 1.5 - 3.69 million Friday
64. NBC Prime Suspect 1.2 - 4.56 million Thursday
65. ABC 20/20 1.3 - 3.58 million Friday
66. NBC Brian Williams 1.1 - 4.04 million Monday
67. The CW Vampire Diaries 1.2 - 3.05 million Thursday
68. FOX Fringe 1.2 - 3.07 million Friday
69. NBC Chuck 0.9 - 3.15 million Friday
70. The CW The Secret Circle 0.9 - 2.37 million Thursday
71. The CW America's Next Top Model 0.8 - 1.77 million Wednesday
72. The CW Ringer 0.7 - 1.78 million Tuesday
73. The CW Supernatural 0.7 - 1.68 million Friday
74. The CW 90210 0.7 - 1.56 million Tuesday
75. The CW Nikita 0.6 - 1.84 million Friday
76. The CW Gossip Girl 0.6 - 1.25 million Monday
77. The CW Hart of Dixie 0.5 - 1.28 million Monday

Note that I don't consider "Football Night" nor "DWTS Results" separate from the show they are related to, nor do I list any show except at its highest half hour or hour ratings. I realize that those extra shows and hours make money for the networks. I don't care, I'm interested in looking at how the networks demonstrate any depth of creativity associated with the ability to appeal to the audience.

CBS has 6 out of the top 10 shows and the only other scripted show in the top 10 is ABC's "Modern Family." The other three are "Sunday Night Football", "Dancing with the Stars" and "X-Factor."

Regarding scripted shows Fox only has #19 "The Simpsons" in the top 20. And #39 "The Office" is NBC's highest rated scripted entry.

The top 25 shows are:

*Scripted:*
CBS	NCIS
CBS	The Big Bang Theory
ABC	Modern Family
CBS	Two and a Half Men
CBS	2 Broke Girls
CBS	NCIS: LA
CBS	Mike & Molly
CBS	How I Met Your Mother
ABC	Once Upon a Time
CBS	Criminal Minds
CBS	Rules of Engagement
CBS	The Mentalist
ABC	Castle
CBS	Hawaii 5-0
FOX	The Simpsons
ABC	Grey's Anatomy
CBS	Person of Interest
FOX	Bones
FOX	New Girl
ABC	Desperate Housewives

*Other:*
NBC	Sunday Night Football
ABC	Dancing with the Stars
FOX	The X-Factor
CBS	Survivor: South Pacific
CBS	The Amazing Race

Of the top 25, 20 are scripted. Only one of the top 5 is a crime procedural, but 8 of the top 25 are crime procedurals and two are a "franchise."

CBS has 12 of the top 20 scripted shows, 6 of which are crime procedurals and 6 are comedies.

ABC has 5 of the top 20 scripted shows, "Modern Family" a comedy, "Once Upon a Time" a fantasy, "Castle" a crime procedural, "Grey's Anatomy" a medical soap, and "Desperate Housewives" a dramedy soap.

Fox 3 has of the top 20 scripted shows, "The Simpsons" an animated comedy, "Bones" a crime procedural, and "New Girl" a comedy.

Of the top 25, 5 are not considered scripted. Of the 5, CBS has two, the other three networks each have 1.

Evaluating the networks, IMHO CBS wins the Emmy for "depth of creativity associated with the ability to appeal to the audience" despite its number of crime procedurals. (Even its two entries in the "Other" category of shows, its two shows offer creative thought albeit both are "seasoned" shows.) But ABC wins the Emmy for "depth _*and breadth*_ of creativity associated with the ability to appeal to the audience."

NBC isn't even in the running since it has no scripted shows in the list and Sunday Night Football is really dependent on the players.

CBS probably will need to broaden its offering in the next three years to stay on top. Judging by the list on the Futon Critic, I'm not sure they are looking far enough beyond their current offering, though recent news indicates they are looking at bringing back the western.


----------



## renbutler

I watched the 2 Broke Girls pilot and was very much underwhelmed. But I noticed that ratings for subsequent episodes were so strong, so I gave it another shot. CBS re-aired the second episode this weekend -- and I couldn't make it through ten minutes.

Not only did I not laugh a single time, but I felt actually felt _bad_ for the people involved with the project. I know, they're probably going to make a ton of money off of it the next few years. I'm just perplexed about the draw of the show.

There are many shows like Mike and Molly that I don't enjoy, but I can imagine their appeal to others. Conversely, I cannot imagine 2BG's appeal to others.


----------



## phrelin

Different strokes, I guess.

All I can tell you is that my wife and I laugh out loud while watching "2 Broke Girls", a show which has a high demo rating. And we are both well beyond the demo in age.


----------



## renbutler

And we're squarely inside the demo range (35). The thing is, we love the other top comedies in the demo (BBT and MF). I'm not sure why 2BG seems so bad. I wonder if other BBT and MF fans are also 2BG fans.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Sunday in Nielsen's November Sweeps:








There is not much to talk about since

ABC had "The American Music Awards" all night
CBS had a 30 minute overun in its Sunday daytime football shifting all its shows
Fox had no football effectively leading into its shows
NBC had Sunday Night Football as usual
But it's interesting to see what happens to CBS regular shows.


----------



## mreposter

Wow, Pan Am loses more than 40% of the viewers from DH.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Monday in Nielsen's November Sweeps:








*ABC*. Running "You Deserve It" at 9:00 gave away several million viewers. "Castle" at 10:00 picked up a few. Last years "DWTS" competition finale in the 9:00-9:30 slot pulled 4.4/11-22.04, but the one hour showing still gave ABC a win in total viewers.

*CBS* wins Monday nights in the demo with shows that will be there in January. The entire comedy lineup is a winner.

*Fox*. As I've noted before, putting "House" in the second hour was a downer for the show. It should have been the lead for "Terra Nova" which is a ratings disaster.

*NBC*. Pathetic.

*The CW*. All I can say is that we record and watch "Hart of Dixie" because it has some great music and is light and fluffy, plus we like being in the very small minority of TV viewers occasionally.:sure:


----------



## TBoneit

phrelin said:


> Different strokes, I guess.
> 
> All I can tell you is that my wife and I laugh out loud while watching "2 Broke Girls", a show which has a high demo rating. And we are both well beyond the demo in age.


I enjoy 2 Broke Girls too.....



phrelin said:


> Here's the fourth Monday in Nielsen's November Sweeps:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *ABC*. Running "You Deserve It" at 9:00 gave away several million viewers. "Castle" at 10:00 picked up a few. Last years "DWTS" competition finale in the 9:00-9:30 slot pulled 4.4/11-22.04, but the one hour showing still gave ABC a win in total viewers.
> 
> *CBS* wins Monday nights in the demo with shows that will be there in January. The entire comedy lineup is a winner.
> 
> *Fox*. As I've noted before, putting "House" in the second hour was a downer for the show. It should have been the lead for "Terra Nova" which is a ratings disaster.
> 
> *NBC*. Pathetic.
> 
> *The CW*. All I can say is that we record and watch "Hart of Dixie" because it has some great music and is light and fluffy, plus we like being in the very small minority of TV viewers occasionally.:sure:


I am also enjoying Hart of Dixie.

I'm not sure why advertisers love the Demo they do. Older people are more likely to watch more TV as well as having disposable income beyond what many college grads have these days after paying for student loans. Older people have paid off those loans in many cases and own their home. Lower credit card debt etc.

I know mine are pretty well paid for.


----------



## mreposter

Tera Nova ratings aren't horrible, but from what I've heard the show is costing Fox big bucks, plus they probably had to make a full season commitment to Speilberg.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Tuesday in Nielsen's November Sweeps:








Since Fox ran a two hour "X-Factor" and ABC ran a two hour season finale of "Dancing with the Stars" the ratings are a bit screwed up. For those who might be curious I was able to include the half-hour ratings on "X-Factor", "DWTS", and "The Biggest Loser" which is also two hours.

What is surprising is how little the two hour special runs cut into the CBS lineup. For instance, while a lot of folks stuck around for the 10:00 hour for "DWTS", the CBS regular offering "Unforgettable" only lost 10% of its demo and even fewer of its total viewers.


----------



## frederic1943

TBoneit said:


> I'm not sure why advertisers love the Demo they do. Older people are more likely to watch more TV as well as having disposable income beyond what many college grads have these days after paying for student loans. Older people have paid off those loans in many cases and own their home. Lower credit card debt etc.
> I know mine are pretty well paid for.


But older people are pretty well set in their product likes and less likely to change them based on an commercial.


----------



## phrelin

Here's the fourth Wednesday and last day in Nielsen's November Sweeps:








ABC had the only lineup of new episodes on Thanksgiving Eve. With no real competition, they didn't do too badly.


frederic1943 said:


> But older people are pretty well set in their product likes and less likely to change them based on an commercial.


 That's the theory, but I think that was more true of the generations that preceded the Baby Boomers.

I do believe the Boomers (I'm not one) do spend more, at least those who have the money in their "Golden Years." And I think they are responsive to advertising that offers a new product or a true improvement. But I don't think they respond as much to ads for mouse traps that have a better paint job, one that makers your trap "really pop."

Like regular network programming, I'm going to take a break until next Monday's ratings are out.


----------



## TBoneit

frederic1943 said:


> But older people are pretty well set in their product likes and less likely to change them based on an commercial.


I'm not likely to rush out and buy "New & Improved". I will buy something useful. I suspect most older people see through the glitz and hype of things like Apple products and look fro something realistically priced (Utilitarian).



phrelin said:


> Here's the fourth Wednesday and last day in Nielsen's November Sweeps:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ABC had the only lineup of new episodes on Thanksgiving Eve. With no real competition, they didn't do too badly.
> That's the theory, but I think that was more true of the generations that preceded the Baby Boomers.
> 
> I do believe the Boomers (I'm not one) do spend more, at least those who have the money in their "Golden Years." And I think they are responsive to advertising that offers a new product or a true improvement. But I don't think they respond as much to ads for mouse traps that have a better paint job, one that makers your trap "really pop."
> 
> Like regular network programming, I'm going to take a break until next Monday's ratings are out.


I suspect that boomers are more resistant to "It's new & Improved" marketing. Are more likely to buy a car rather than lease it for example. I've owned three automobiles since 1973 and one used Automobile, A 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo V8 w/4 Speed. It was never really hot in that car between the vent windows and the floor vents. Fact: I'm still driving the last of the three new cars I had bought.

So if all they're selling is glitz then yes I'm not their target.


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## TBoneit

Mistake post


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## phrelin

The next Nielsen Sweeps period will be February 2 - February 29, 2012. Until then we have different blocks of ratings wars. For the next four weeks it will be holiday specials and reruns versus new episodes. And so here's Monday:








*Fox*. The first thing one can't help but notice is that ABC's showing of the 1966 animated version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" pulled more in the demo and total viewers than a new episode of "Terra Nova" on Fox.

Fox where someone said: "Let's see, how can I kill a show. I know. Show a couple of episodes, then baseball and game shows during the mid part of the fall season, then show the rest of it between Thanksgiving and Christmas when viewership is down (average number of viewers during sweeps weeks at 8 pm Monday 39.08, this week 31.27)." So "Terra Nova" is now at NBC ratings levels.

And then, while the network is pretending to be a general audience network while catering to sports and game show audiences, take the strongest scripted show which previously did well at 8 pm and move it to 9 pm after that new show that may or may not succeed. So "House", which at 8 pm 11/30/2009 pulled 4.8/12 -13.18 million against "The Grinch", a "HIMYM" rerun, and "Heroes", has been "put down" about 50% to 2.6/6 - 7.33 million.

At some time Fox is going to have to decide whether it wants to be a general audience broadcast network.

*CBS* won every time slot with reruns.:grin:

*ABC*. Without its highly rated game show, ABC doesn't do so well. And "Castle", which has been competing with and sometimes besting "Hawaii Five-0" apparently can't hold an audience for reruns.

*NBC* is maintaining a strong #4 position with new episodes of its game show and news show against mostly reruns.

*The CW*. Shucks, "Hart of Dixie" just can't buy an audience.

For those who are interested in Sunday, you can check the TVbytheNumbers report, but basically NBC's "Sunday Night Football" won, CBS had a football overrun but did ok, ABC's "Once Upon A Time" did about what one would expect on Thanksgiving weekend Sunday and its "Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie: Mitch Albom's Have A little Faith" didn't fare too well as "Hall of Fame" first outing on ABC. One reviewer called it a "Thanksgiving turkey."

After the next four weeks goes by, I'll defer reporting ratings until January when the Winter lineup of shows will try to attract audiences before the February sweeps.


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## phrelin

I'll post Tuesday's ratings soon. But I'm irked and feel the need to rant.

:rant:
In an article with the big headline TV Ratings: Fox Wins November Sweep Among Adults 18-49, _The Hollywood Reporter_ without any evaluation:


> The dust has settled on November's annual ratings battle, and Fox comes out on top for only the second time in the network's history.
> 
> According to Nielsen ratings for Oct. 28 through Nov. 23, Fox averaged a 3.1 rating among adults 18-49. That marks a 9 percent lead over its nearest competitor, CBS, which averaged a 2.8 rating.


I couldn't stand it, so I responded:


> What have the ratings folks been smoking here? On any given night of Sweeps, you'd be hard-pressed to find a regular Fox show scoring a 3.1 demo or higher other than "X-Factor". And after the World Series extended run, there's really nothing that matches CBS for providing TV shows outside the reality show genre.
> 
> The Fox Sunday night animated lineup did ok, but most certainly did not average 3.1 even though "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" did.
> 
> On Monday night "Terra Nova" and "House" both failed to reach 2.9 during sweeps.
> 
> On Tuesday we have "Glee", "New Girl" and "Raising Hope." Only "New Girl" achieved ratings at or above 3.1.
> 
> On Wednesday, "X-Factor" did regularly get ratings above 3.1.
> 
> On Thursday, "X-Factor" did regularly get ratings above 3.1 but "Bones" did not.
> 
> On Friday, "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Fringe" didn't even get 2.0.
> 
> So Fox had three half hour shows and "X- Factor" that get demo ratings above 3.0.
> 
> CBS had "How I Met Your Mother", "Two Broke Girls", "Two and a Half Men", "Mike & Molly", "NCIS" and "Big Bang Theory" that regularly pulled demo ratings above 4.0. CBS had "Hawaii 5-0", "NCIS: LA", "Survivor: South Pacific", "Criminal Minds" and "Rules of Engagement" that regularly pulled demo ratings above 3.0. And CBS had the total viewers win.
> 
> I don't get it. During Sweeps Fox had no regular show that averaged above 4.0 in the demo but they are the winners? What kind of spin is this?


CBS buys the production of what I call TV shows, including two popular reality shows.

Fox only offers two hours of TV a night which gives them 13 hours to fill (Saturday simply does not count). Regardless of the season, Fox includes a "let's-showcase-some-freebie-"amateur"-singers-for-three-months show" that chews up three-to-four hours of that 13 hours a week with relatively cheap TV. When you add in sports for which Fox should get minimal credit for production - the athletes create the show - plus awards and other specials, IMHO Fox really isn't a true competitor with ABC, CBS, and NBC in the television network business. Even TNT, USA, AMC, and FX buy some great TV that draws audiences.

Am I just too old and too far removed from the business to understand how Fox could seriously be declared the winner of Sweeps because of its accidental World Series games 6 and 7 and running "X-Factor" three and four hours a week?
:rant:


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## phrelin

Here's Tuesday:;








*Fox* got it's first time slot demo win this week with "New Girl" so that gives them a half hour so far this week.

*CBS* won with reruns the remaining hour and a half when Fox has shows on. Admittedly, the reruns were "Rudolph" at 8:00 and the last half hour of a "NCIS" at 9:30. CBS also won 10:00 with a "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show".

*ABC*. "Last Man Standing" seems to have lost some of the demo to "Rudolph" though it picked up a few more viewers than average while "Man Up" still gives away viewers. A rerun of "The Middle" at 9:00 because "DWTS" is over hurt "Body of Proof".

I'm sure at some point ABC will be disappointed with "Body of Proof" as opposed to being disappointed at its own failure to help the show hold viewers. Of the past five weeks, the show was replaced with a news puff piece to promote the CMA's and a "DWTS" finale, and now gets zero lead in. So it will be the showrunner's failure at something rather than ABC's failure.

*NBC* continues to garner modest ratings [strike]as[/strike] with "The Biggest Loser." "Parenthood" showed a noticeable increase at 10:00.

*The CW*. I hope "The Ringer" is cheap, because it's a huge ratings disappointment, as is its lead in "90210".


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## Church AV Guy

As usual phrelin, I am "Thankful" (see what I did there) for your efforts to bring these ratings here, and make some sense of them. I like the analysis you post better than the arm-waving, foot-stomping of many other sites.

Thanks!


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## phrelin

Church AV Guy said:


> As usual phrelin, I am "Thankful" (see what I did there) for your efforts to bring these ratings here, and make some sense of them. I like the analysis you post better than the arm-waving, foot-stomping of many other sites.
> 
> Thanks!


This time of year particularly, I'm "Thankful" for your "Thanks". When one gets as old as dirt like me, acknowledgements for anything one does tend to come rarely and are appreciated.


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## Holydoc

phrelin said:


> This time of year particularly, I'm "Thankful" for your "Thanks". When one gets as old as dirt like me, acknowledgements for anything one does tend to come rarely and are appreciated.


Let me also chime in that I truly enjoy your analysis and the time you take to post this information. It is both informative and enlightening.


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## phrelin

The appreciation is appreciated. And here's Wednesday:








*Fox* had so-so news and bad news. The so-so news is that "X-Factor" continued to pull decent ratings. The bad news is that with the "X-Factor" providing a 4.1/10 - 12.12 million rating lead-in, the premier of "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" at 9:30 could only garner a 2.8/7 - 6.84 million in a time slot that the two hour "X-Factor" previously pulled ratings of 4.2/10 - 11.67 million.

Again, the decision-makers at Fox don't seem to get it. They should really take a look around. The other network relying upon sports and really-cheap-on-a-stage-competition game shows instead of normal TV programming is NBC. There's nothing inherently wrong with sports and competition shows if 

they only use up 15±% of your prime time schedule and
your management focuses long term on finding scripted programming that works based upon the observable successful experience of others.

*NBC* pulled nearly 10 million viewers in each of all three hours! The first hour was "Christmas in Rockefeller Center" pulling slightly lower ratings than last year's show.

According to TVbytheNumbers, "Harry's Law" at 9:00 "surged 27%" with a "still tiny 1.4 adults 18-49 rating." Well, I wouldn't overstate the total viewers nor dismiss that demo against "X-Factor" and reruns of the normally high demo grabbing "Modern Family" and "Criminal Minds."

"Harry's Law" consistently has attracted far more viewers than any other show in NBC's lineup (except Sunday Night Football which I ignore). The plan to move "Harry's Law" to Sunday at 8 pm seems like a typical NBC move - kill anything that works.

"L&O: SVU" at 10:00 is second behind lead-in "Harry's Law" in total viewers and pulls a higher demo. The sad fact is that these two shows create the network's best night.

*ABC* ran reruns of its strong Wednesday lineup, but doesn't seem to hold its viewers as well as CBS typically does with reruns.

*CBS* surrounded a rerun of "Criminal Minds" with a new "Survivor" episode at 8:00 that competed well against "X-Factor" and a "Grammy Nominations Concert" that didn't do as well as last week's "CSI" rerun in total viewers and only had a slightly higher demo.

*The CW*'s programming could be shifted to a cable channel plus streaming without a noticeable loss of viewers, IMHO.


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## phrelin

Here's Thursday:








*ABC* seems to have dropped its regular schedule for this period offering specials.

*CBS* ran reruns. "Big Bang Theory' at 8:00 and "Rules of Engagement" did slightly better than ABC's "Santa Claus", but at 9:00 and 10:00 reruns of "Person of Interest" and "The Mentalist" did not do quite as as well as ABC's "CMA Country Christmas." Of course, there are no additional production costs for reruns, so financially CBS probably made more money.

*Fox* was declared in most stories as a winner for the night. I don't see it that way. In the half hour ratings "X-Factor" lost to a rerun of "The Big Bang Theory" while beating a rerun of "Rules of Engagement". I don't see that as a win. And in the half hour, "Bones" lost the demo to "The Office" (though it beat "Whitney") and it lost the total viewers to "CMA Country Christmas."

*NBC* ran its Thursday lineup. Sadly, one of the better shows on TV, "Prime Suspect", just can't draw an audience.

*The CW* ran reruns. I guess they figure their audience is preoccupied.


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## phrelin

Here's Friday:








*Fox*. Unfortunately I can't get the half hour numbers on the Pac 12 Championship game aired by Fox. But overall for the night the game put Fox #2 in the demo and #3 in total viewers though the game essentially wasn't in prime time on the West Coast. But that 1.3/4 - 4.31 million still pretty much matched or beat Fox's normal ratings for "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Fringe."

*NBC* for whatever reason ran a made-for-TV movie in the first two hours of its schedule. The CW's lineup beat them in the demo.

*The CW*'s regular Friday shows were about average, but NBC made those ratings look like *T*he *C*ute *W*omen network was actually competing.

*CBS*. Given that this was a Friday during the holiday doldrums when folks do things like shop, plus Fox had a football game on, the CBS lineup seems to hold its own.

"A Gifted Man" gets discussed in various speculative "on the bubble" and cancellation stories. If CBS paid attention to that discussion, they would be foolish. Considering there was no football game in previous years, this show isn't doing badly:








And overall this year, it's doing better than "Medium" and as well as "Ghost Whisperer." There just aren't many demo viewers on Friday at 8:00.

"CSI: NY" was down slightly in the demo and "Blue Bloods" was down some in both the demo and total viewers.

But for the night CBS averaged double the total viewers against #2 ABC and was 10% higher than #2 Fox in the demo.

Basically the CBS Corporation still views itself as the CBS Broadcast Network plus other interests, and that primary focus seems to work for CBS and its affiliates.

In contrast, the Disney folks have more interest in Disney stuff and even ESPN than they do ABC. The News Corp executive office, which really is still Rupert Murdoch, is still print press oriented, sports TV oriented, and generally focused on profits made in the last hour. And the multifaceted Comcast is running NBCU, which itself is a multifaceted operation.


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## phrelin

Here's the first Sunday during the holiday doldrums:








*ABC* shows are about what one would expect.

*CBS* shows are holding their own, but it will be interesting to see what happens to "The Good Wife" after football season. (It also should be noted that CBS had football overruns in a couple of metro DMA's that affect these ratings.)

*Fox* shows are about what one would expect.

*NBC* is at risk after football season unless they send checks to everyone who watches "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Harry's Law." Sunday may kill "Harry's Law", one of the best performers for the net this year among its scripted programming. But football did earn them some money.


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## phrelin

Here's the second Monday during the holiday doldrums:








*ABC* did well running its annual showing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at 8:00. The show must have a solid cross generational appeal. "Prep & Landing Naughty vs. Nice" didn't fare as well. And "You Deserve It" gets NBC level ratings which, along with not showing a new episode last week, has resulted in "Castle" bleeding viewers big time.

*CBS* blew away the competition. For three hours, the average demo was 3.6/11, double ABC's, and 92.5% higher than Fox for two hours. Total viewers was nearly double ABC's for three hours and Fox's for two hours.

*Fox*. As part of its effort to lose viewers for "House" Fox ran "American Country Awards" for two hours averaging 2.0/5 - 7.42 million. That cost them viewers in the demo and total compared to "House" last week at 9:00. Avid "House" fans can only hope that moving "House" back to 8:00 on January 23 will somehow get the live viewers back.

No, if you DVR the show, you really don't count in the ratings as far as advertisers are concerned - it's not debatable because you do skip commercials. But don't worry about Fox because you will soon be paying them a "tax" of $1 a month to make up for them being an incompetent broadcast network, uncompetitive, and un-capitalistic no matter what crap they feed you over on Fox News.
*
NBC*. Over the first two hours, "The Sing-Off" got a demo of 1.1/3 which did beat The CW's demo of 0.7/2, barely.

*The CW* lineup pretty much performed as usual.


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## renbutler

I also appreciate the updates, but is it possible to cut out some of the snarky and repetitive comments about FOX?

Just a friendly request...


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## phrelin

renbutler said:


> I also appreciate the updates, but is it possible to cut out some of the snarky and repetitive comments about FOX?
> 
> Just a friendly request...


Sorry. I just get frustrated losing *good* programming on Fox year-after-year because of management myopia. I had such hopes back in the early "X-Files" years.... 

Here's the second Tuesday of the holiday doldrums:








*ABC*. At least partly by planning no new programming for a lead-in, ABC set up "Body of Proof" to lose to a rerun on CBS and "The Biggest Loser" on NBC.

*CBS*. CBS handily won the total viewer competition with 84% more viewers and a higher demo than ABC over three hours and 78% more viewers than Fox over two hours. This was accomplished with reruns!

*Fox*. Against a rerun on CBS and Michael Buble on NBC, "Glee" won the demo at 8:00, something that has not occurred against "NCIS" this year. Against reruns on ABC, CBS, and The CW, "The New Girl" won the demo at 9:00 which it has consistently accomplished but was handily beaten by the CBS rerun in total viewers.

*NBC*. By running "Michael Buble Christmas" at 8:00 shifting "The Biggest Loser" to 9:00-11:00, NBC didn't do too badly for NBC.

*The CW* needs to do something about its schedule.


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## phrelin

Here's the second Wednesday of the holiday doldrums:








*ABC*'s comedy lineup performed pretty well, though down a bit. "Revenge" seems to have bounced back.

*CBS*, which this season leads in total viewers on Wednesday, won the demo sweepstakes for the night.

*Fox* likely would have won the demo for their two hours of programming if they had kept "The X-Factor" on for the entire time. But "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" at 9:30 is pulling NBC-like ratings.

*NBC* continues with NBC-like ratings.

*The CW* is still on the air.


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## phrelin

Here's the second Thursday of the holiday doldrums:








Thursday is an interesting ratings night simply because during post-World Series Sweeps there was only one night - 11/3/2011 - that all the competition went head-to-head all three hours and that night wasn't "clean" because Fox premiered "Bones." That night compared to last night the nets averaged in the demo:

ABC - 2.4...1.7
CBS - 3.3...3.3
Fox - 3.5...2.9
NBC - 1.9...1.9
The CW - 1.2...0.4

*ABC*. Is ABC taking a ratings risk not running "Grey's Anatomy" is the big question. The show is getting rather "long of tooth" and 3 million viewers just discovered "Person of Interest" on CBS.

*CBS* won the demo wars in all time slots and walked away with total viewers. For three hours they had well over double the viewers of any other network. At some point someone in advertising is going to recognize that the discrepancy in total audience size matters.

*Fox*. Many Fox viewers weren't home. But the shows did ok.

*NBC* is stagnant. Sticking "Grimm" in on Thursday at 10:00 proved nothing other than nobody watches NBC live.

*The CW* continues to be weak among the cable channels.


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## phrelin

Here's the second Friday of the holiday doldrums and clearly a lot of people were out shopping:








*CBS* won the night with an average of 1.4/4 - 6.39 million. Even for a Friday night, if it wasn't for the fact that all three hours contained "previously aired" programming this would be a broadcast network's economic nightmare.

*NBC* aired all new episodes and did about as well as they did against new programming on all the other nets, which means really poorly.

*ABC*'s "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" did about as well as it did against new programming on all the other nets, which means it's a good thing it is cheaper reality programming.

*Fox* and *The CW* ran reruns and did about as well as usual.


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## phrelin

Sorry, but I decided to not do Sunday until the final ratings were in as CBS had a 41 minute NFL overrun nationally and Fox had a short NFL overrun which left the ratings confusing. Here's the final ratings for the second Sunday in the holiday doldrums:








The only thing worth commenting on IMHO is the drop in ABC's "Once Upon A Time" which may or may not mean anything given the holiday season.

And here's the third Monday in the holiday doldrums:








*ABC* apparently has chosen to take itself out of the competition during the holiday doldrum period.

*CBS* seems to be testing out "2 Broke Girls" and I would call it a successful test. I can see them evaluating restructuring Monday next year. As usual CBS won the night.

*Fox*'s "Terra Nova" seems to have found its viewers and they aren't enough to support the show. And I still think someone over at Fox hates scripted programming and is trying to get rid of "House."

*NBC*'s "Fear Factor" ran second for the first two hours of the night, which gave them #2 for the whole night despite the pathetic showing of Brian William's who isn't keeping pace with Leno ratings two years ago.

*The CW*. :shrug:


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## mreposter

phrelin said:


> *Fox*'s "Terra Nova" seems to have found its viewers and they aren't enough to support the show. And I still think someone over at Fox hates scripted programming and is trying to get rid of "House."


Terra Nova - another bland, over-hyped tv series from Steven Spielberg. 
If you ever have trouble sleeping, just track down an episode of Earth 2
and it'll have you snoring within 15 minutes...


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## phrelin

Here's the third [strike]Monday[/strike] _Tuesday_ in the holiday doldrums:








*ABC*. "Last Man Standing" was ABC's only new episode for the night and it didn't do too well.

*CBS* ran new episodes its regular lineup for the first time during the holiday doldrums and seems to still have millions and millions of viewers, even in the demo. Except that "Unforgettable" seems a bit short in the demo. Still the eye network easily won the night.

*Fox*. "The New Girl" continues to do very well.

*NBC*. It appears it may have been a good idea to move "Biggest Loser" to 9:00-11:00 as it does better in the 10:00 hour than it did in the 8:00 hour.

*The CW*.:shrug:


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## renbutler

Tuesday, not Monday. :grin:

I figured it out, but it was a little confusing at first.


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## phrelin

renbutler said:


> Tuesday, not Monday. :grin:
> 
> I figured it out, but it was a little confusing at first.


Sorry. Being retired, I find I don't know what day of the week it is half the time.


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## phrelin

Here's the third Wednesday in the holiday doldrums:










*ABC* ran reruns except for the annual Barbara Walters special from 9:30-11:00 which did just ok.

*CBS* ran all new episodes and won the night handily, even in the first two hours because of Fox's 9:30 entry.

*Fox*'s "X-Factor" actually led in the demo for its 1½ hours, but viewers seem to hate "I Hate My Teenage Daughter".

*NBC* ran a full night of reruns which scored somewhat worse than new episodes.

*The CW* ran a rerun of "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" in the second hour for some reason.


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## phrelin

Here's the third Thursday in the holiday doldrums:








Apparently a lot of folks are still at the mall during primetime.

*ABC* reran "Charlie Brown Christmas" at 8:00 and "The Year with Katie Couric" from 9:00-11:00 pulling mediocre ratings.

*CBS* won the night with an average 2.8 demo and 12.0 million total. They did lose some viewers running a rerun of "The Big Bang Theory" though it still beat every show on the other networks.

*Fox.* "X-Factor" did ok and the rerun of "Bones" not so much.

*NBC* hit a new low with an average 0.8 demo and 2.78 million viewers. Looking at the ratings for the past few weeks "Whitney" has become a disaster. "Prime Suspect" isn't even choice anymore.

*The CW*. :shrug:


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## Jaspear

phrelin said:


> Apparently a lot of folks are still at the mall during primetime.


Or watching the Republican debate on Fox News. 6.7 million of them, anyway.


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## phrelin

Here's the third Friday in the holiday doldrums:








Let's all give a big round of applause for NBC - they won the night in the demo though reruns on CBS drew more viewers. These ratings look like cable ratings for a night:

NBC 1.2 demo,4.8 million total
ABC 1.1 demo, 4.5 million total
FOX	1.0 demo, 3.2 million total
CBS	0.9 demo, 6.1 million total
The CW 0.4 demo, 1.3 million total

This is the end of what I call the holiday doldrums. The next two weeks are almost reruns and holiday specials. So I will not be posting any charts until January, though I admit I'm curious about how the finale (season or series) "Terra Nova" will do against nothing but reruns and game shows on Monday.


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## sigma1914

Jaspear said:


> Or watching the Republican debate on Fox News. 6.7 million of them, anyway.


All the old people were watching... notice only 1.9 million were in the 25-54 demographic.


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## phrelin

Thought I'd note the ratings for the season (?) finale of "Terra Nova" last night:

8:00 ratings 2.1/ 6 - 7.23 million
8:30 ratings 2.1/ 6 - 7.25 million
9:00 ratings 2.1/ 5 - 7.05 million
9:30 ratings 2.2/ 5 - 7.18 million​
Unfortunately, these would be great ratings at NBC. What Fox will do with the show is a big question mark.


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## kevinturcotte

Is there somewhat we can see the ratings every week for our favorite shows? Is there a site that does that?


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## kevinturcotte

Yeah, that works! Thanks!!
Hoping Grimm's numbers go up. I REALLY like that show, but looks to me like it's in danger of not being renewed.


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## phrelin

kevinturcotte said:


> Yeah, that works! Thanks!!
> Hoping Grimm's numbers go up. I REALLY like that show, but looks to me like it's in danger of not being renewed.


I've moved my response to your question over to the current ratings thread because I thought many people share your interest and would see it there in the next week.

Yes, I hope the live+7 "Grimm" numbers might encourage NBC to keep the show around.


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## kevinturcotte

phrelin said:


> I've moved my response to your question over to the current ratings thread because I thought many people share your interest and would see it there in the next week.
> 
> Yes, I hope the live+7 "Grimm" numbers might encourage NBC to keep the show around.


I'm hoping for a HUGE twist at the end of the season. Has Juliette has a scene by herself where it's CONFIRMED she doesn't he's a Grimm?


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## phrelin

kevinturcotte said:


> I'm hoping for a HUGE twist at the end of the season. Has Juliette has a scene by herself where it's CONFIRMED she doesn't he's a Grimm?


Not that I know of, which all seems weird given what has happened to her.


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## kevinturcotte

phrelin said:


> Not that I know of, which all seems weird given what has happened to her.


And we don't see a whole lot of her when she's not with Nick. Wondering if she's not a creature too, but can hide it from Nick like the Captain can. Maybe either the Captain's sister, or a Reaper that's trying to protect him.


----------

