Nielsen Ratings

[Angel4576]

Hopefully someone can answer this, I've tried Googling, to no effect.

I seem to recall that the highest ever Nielsen rating for an episode of Star Trek was for an episode of DS9. From memory I think it was for The Emissary.

Am I going bonkers or can anyone else verify this?

 

[Michael]

Yes, I think this is true. Someone once posted this on the BBS:

It seems to affirm that "Emissary" had the highest rating ever.

 

[Angel4576]

That tallies with my recollection as well. I think thought that The Emissary got something like 18.8m, so that looks to correlate with the graph above.

Cheers.

 

[CorporalClegg]

If only judging by that, one might think, "Boy, 'Past Prologue' musta really sucked!"

 

[Angel4576]

Actually, wouldn't it kind of say that The Emissary kind of sucked? They tuned out after watching that.

 

[Cyrus]

Emissary did get a 18.8 rating. And while that means it had more viewers than any other Trek episode, it is not the highest rated Trek episode. TOS' first episode "The Man Trap" had a 20.7 rating.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Actually, wouldn't it kind of say that The Emissary kind of sucked? They tuned out after watching that.

All the premieres had a huge drop off. Ironically, ENT's was the least severe...and that was a pretty bad premiere.

 

[erastus25]

Emissary did get a 18.8 rating. And while that means it had more viewers than any other Trek episode, it is not the highest rated Trek episode. TOS' first episode "The Man Trap" had a 20.7 rating.

That's not entirely fair. There were only three networks back in the day!

On my work computer I have a website bookmarked that breaks down all of the nielsen ratings for DS9, even the repeat weeks. I'll post it on Tuesday if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

 

[Mr. Fergy]

Emissary did get a 18.8 rating. And while that means it had more viewers than any other Trek episode, it is not the highest rated Trek episode. TOS' first episode "The Man Trap" had a 20.7 rating.

Yes, that is true. I guess we were thinking of TNG and beyond.

 

[Cyrus]

That's not entirely fair. There were only three networks back in the day!

I didn't say it was fair, but it's not going to be fair either way. TOS has a definite advantage of having fewer competing channels. On the other hand DS9 ratings, as well as any other syndicated series, are the result of adding up the ratings of 2 airings (as the TV stations had an option of airing each episode twice), while the ratings for broadcast networks are based on a single airing. So that part is not fair either, favoring the syndicated shows.

Comparing the ratings among various Trek series is not going to be fair. The earlier the show the fewer the competing channels, as the TV market has been fragmenting more and more ever since cable and satellite industries started. And of course the difference between calculating syndicated ratings vs network ratings.


btw, Emissary had a GAA rating of 21.0. This is a rating that counts duplicate viewers, so it counts those who watched both airings twice (as opposed to the regular AA rating which excludes duplicate viewers). This means that about 12% of the viewers watched it a second time during the same week that it originally aired. That's a pretty high number.

 

[Bill Morris]

Really good Trek gets really poor and diminishing support. What kind of message is that for us to send?

 

[erastus25]

On my work computer I have a website bookmarked that breaks down all of the nielsen ratings for DS9, even the repeat weeks. I'll post it on Tuesday if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

Here it is if anyone's interested:
http://www.vidiot.com/st-ds9/Ratings.html

And another ratings link of interest:
http://www.geocities.com/hblur/cyrus/trekratings.html

I got both of those links from trekbbs posts in the past so I'm sure many of you have seen them. I don't remember who posted them originally so I can't give proper credit - sorry.

 

[Natural]

I was under the impression that TNG viewership was around 10 mill early on, but declined in its last few seasons.

Nothing too surprising on that graph, although I had no idea that DS9 started on such a high note. Most shows tend to tail off as seasons pass, and it looks like Trek is no exception. DS9's slow start didn't help, and diminishing quality through VOY and ENT pretty much sealed it.

 

[RAMA]

I was under the impression that TNG viewership was around 10 mill early on, but declined in its last few seasons.

Nothing too surprising on that graph, although I had no idea that DS9 started on such a high note. Most shows tend to tail off as seasons pass, and it looks like Trek is no exception. DS9's slow start didn't help, and diminishing quality through VOY and ENT pretty much sealed it.

The graph looks pretty accurate from my recollection, STNG ratings averaged over 12 the last few seasons, they didn't go down. Though the way they figured the repeated syndication figures meant that the average viewership, was in the 17 MILLION range.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

Emissary did get a 18.8 rating. And while that means it had more viewers than any other Trek episode, it is not the highest rated Trek episode. TOS' first episode "The Man Trap" had a 20.7 rating.

I don't recall that, but I do know the final season of TOS averaged slightly over a 13 rating. However.....because the ratings system of the 80s accounted for more households per rating unit, STNG still had more viewers per episode than TOS.

RAMA

 

[Cyrus]

I don't recall that, but I do know the final season of TOS averaged slightly over a 13 rating. However.....because the ratings system of the 80s accounted for more households per rating unit, STNG still had more viewers per episode than TOS.

Yeah, TNG had more viewers, mainly because the population had increased and there were many more TV viewers available. That's why the ratings are reported as percentages, to discount population increase or decrease. But the increase in number of channels nullified that as well, so now it's very hard to compare ratings of shows from different eras.

The first TOS episode had a 20.7 rating, the next couple were in the 18+ range and the few after that in 17+ range. The final TOS season had a bad time slot, but it still got very steady ratings, even the reruns were getting 13 or 14 ratings.

 

[RAMA]

I don't recall that, but I do know the final season of TOS averaged slightly over a 13 rating. However.....because the ratings system of the 80s accounted for more households per rating unit, STNG still had more viewers per episode than TOS.

Yeah, TNG had more viewers, mainly because the population had increased and there were many more TV viewers available. That's why the ratings are reported as percentages, to discount population increase or decrease. But the increase in number of channels nullified that as well, so now it's very hard to compare ratings of shows from different eras.

The first TOS episode had a 20.7 rating, the next couple were in the 18+ range and the few after that in 17+ range. The final TOS season had a bad time slot, but it still got very steady ratings, even the reruns were getting 13 or 14 ratings.

Yes that's what I meant, the numbers were changed to take into account more households.

TOS was shown in an era with bascially 3 channels, STNG with 50-100, and only shown in 90% of households for part of the time, and in inconsistent timeslots. Its really a wonder of its time, since the syndication market has gone bye bye since.

RAMA