TV Ratings (Thursday 6th October) + Friday

[Jax]

* Ratings were down generally across the board due to baseball.

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 11.69 million, Fox: 11.21, ABC: 6.88, NBC: 4.66, CW: 2.26

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 3.8 rating/10 share, CBS: 2.9/8, ABC: 2.1/6, NBC: 2.0/5, CW: 1.0/3

CBS

The Big Bang Theory - 13.63 million & 4.4/13

How To Be A Gentleman - 7.82 million & 2.5/7

Persons of Interest - 11.46 million & 2.5/6

The Mentalist - 12.89 million & 2.7/7

FOX

The X Factor (2 hours) - 11.21 million & 3.8/10

ABC

Charlie's Angels - 5.93 million & 1.2/4

Greys Anatomy - 8.50 million & 3.0/8

Private Practice - 6.21 million & 2.2/6

NBC

Community - 3.37 million & 1.5/5

Parks & Recreation - 4.13 million & 1.9/5

The Office - 5.71 million & 3.1/8

Whitney - 4.88 million & 2.3/6

Prime Suspect - 4.93 million & 1.5/4

CW

The Vampire Diaries - 2.55 million & 1.2/3

The Secret Circle - 1.96 million & 0.8/2

--------------------------------------------

CW has cancelled H8R and NBC has cancelled Free Agents

South Park's return scored 2.94 million & 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demo

 

[Professor Zoom]

Oh, NBC on Thursday... I remember when you were must see TV... those were the days.

Of course, I'm one of those watching, but still...

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

That's a series low for Grey's Anatomy, and Private Practice is fading. ABC is heading into potentially stormy waters next season with no Desperate Housewives and a weakened Grey's. Plus they need a better cast for Dancing with the Stars to arrest its ratings slide.

CBS had huge hopes for Person of Interest (it tested through the roof across all demographics), so they've got to be very disappointed with the ratings so far.

The Office is weakening, threatening the one bit of strength NBC had left on Thursday.

The CW is having a terrible season. Their established shows are down substantially and none of their new shows have broken out.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I haven't seen this week's PoI yet, but here's what it needs to do right now: to start establishing Reese as a loose cannon and not just some knight in shining armor who runs around being helpful and occasionally crashing vehicles into evildoers who deserve it.

Howsabout he hurts an innocent person? That would be a realistic approach to the problem of vigilante justice. Their silly machine can't tell the good guys from the evildoers, so that kind of mistake is bound to happen. This show needs to differentiate itself from the usual CBS fodder.

 

[Jetfire]

The CW is having a terrible season. Their established shows are down substantially and none of their new shows have broken out.

CW's woes are due to Dawn Ostroff's garbage...with the new CW pres Mark Pedowitz he promises to make some changes...but it won't go into effect until next fall...Like adding comedies, another comic based show(Deadman)...etc. He also said he was in favor of remakes(Beauty & The Beast)...If the CW can get back to what the WB did well...they might be ok...to be honest they would need a miracle.

 

[RaymondJames]

I watched the Person of Interest pilotand didn't care for it. My spouse liked it and still watches it each week while I'm onTrek BBS

 

[bigdaddy]

The CW is having a terrible season. Their established shows are down substantially and none of their new shows have broken out.

CW's woes are due to Dawn Ostroff's garbage...with the new CW pres Mark Pedowitz he promises to make some changes...but it won't go into effect until next fall...Like adding comedies, another comic based show(Deadman)...etc. He also said he was in favor of remakes(Beauty & The Beast)...If the CW can get back to what the WB did well...they might be ok...to be honest they would need a miracle.

7th Heaven! The next generation!

 

[sidious618]

Oh, NBC on Thursday... I remember when you were must see TV... those were the days.

Of course, I'm one of those watching, but still...

Their line up of comedies is the best it's ever been if you ask me. The Office isn't as good as it used to be but it's still good and then you have Community and Parks and Rec which are both ingenious.

 

[timothy]

DVR overload totally love the NBC line up for thursday.
how to be a gentleman is deffinatelly getting better.

 

[bigdaddy]

how to be a gentleman is deffinatelly getting better.

And unofficially canceled. It's been moved to the Saturday Night death slot.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Oh, NBC on Thursday... I remember when you were must see TV... those were the days.

Of course, I'm one of those watching, but still...

Their line up of comedies is the best it's ever been if you ask me. The Office isn't as good as it used to be but it's still good and then you have Community and Parks and Rec which are both ingenious.

While the quality may be there, NBC is interested in numbers of viewers. (You wouldn't guess it by their programming, but...) If and when they get a pilot they think will do better than Community, Parks and Rec, either will be gone.

 

[the G-man]

T
CBS had huge hopes for Person of Interest (it tested through the roof across all demographics), so they've got to be very disappointed with the ratings so far.

Am I missing something? According to those ratings PoI beat every thing in its time slot, including the second half of X factor. Why do people keep acting like its a flop?

 

[Professor Zoom]

T
CBS had huge hopes for Person of Interest (it tested through the roof across all demographics), so they've got to be very disappointed with the ratings so far.

Am I missing something? According to those ratings PoI beat every thing in its time slot, including the second half of X factor. Why do people keep acting like its a flop?

Who's calling it a flop? I'm sure they are disappointed however, as CBS has a high bar for success. And while it's not a flop, it is off compared to their other drama shows.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Am I missing something? According to those ratings PoI beat every thing in its time slot, including the second half of X factor. Why do people keep acting like its a flop?

It's the demo rating that matters, not total viewers, and Person of Interest is coming fourth in its timeslot in the demo (third in its second half-hour) and has yet to stabilize.

 

[the G-man]

But CBS is almost never big with the 18-49 demo, especially for crime shows.

 

[the G-man]

T
CBS had huge hopes for Person of Interest (it tested through the roof across all demographics), so they've got to be very disappointed with the ratings so far.

Am I missing something? According to those ratings PoI beat every thing in its time slot, including the second half of X factor. Why do people keep acting like its a flop?

Who's calling it a flop?

I don't mean this thread, per se. I'm talking about general buzz that I keep hearing on the show's ratings.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

But CBS is almost never big with the 18-49 demo, especially for crime shows.

The way CBS does it, they get big audience figures to net out to a reasonable demo, which compensates their audience skewing old. Whatever works for them. I always visualize CBS as one of those trawling fishing boats, which catch everything in the sea just so they'll be guaranteed to haul in the few types of fish they actually want.

But PoI's problem is, is it going to work in the same way CBS shows work (big total audience numbers/old-skewing demo) or is it going to fall into a grey area that might not work (not-so-big numbers/still old-skewing demo)?

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

But CBS is almost never big with the 18-49 demo, especially for crime shows.

That's a misconception. CBS draws very good demo ratings with some of their crime shows. One of the problems for Person of Interest is that one of the key metrics the networks take into account is the season to season comparison for each timeslot, and PoI is doing significantly worse than CSI did in that timeslot last season.

 

[Starbreaker]

But CBS is almost never big with the 18-49 demo, especially for crime shows.

That's just not true. I don't know where you get this information. CBS's comedies, NCIS, NCIS:LA, Criminal Minds, and others are huge with the 18-49 demographic.

Link

 

[Temis the Vorta]

But CBS is almost never big with the 18-49 demo, especially for crime shows.

That's a misconception. CBS draws very good demo ratings with some of their crime shows.

He might be talking about in proportion to their audience in general. It's more of a philosophical issue than a real one. All that really matters is what the demo is, not how many fish you had to net to get it.

Anyway, comparing how many fish CBS needs to net to how many fish FOX would need to get the same catch is pretty immaterial, since networks compare their shows to other shows on the same network, because their bottom line question when deciding on cancellations is always "can we do better"? CBS has a track record of getting decent demos from big audience numbers, so it stands to reason they have confidence in their ability to continue to do this. NBC has no reason to have confidence in their ability to do anything right now and therefore will be more hesitant to cancel their own shows, even if they are getting a smaller demo audience than CBS shows that are in the cancellation zone.

Here's that article that talks about how all the broadcast networks are aging out of the advertisers' demo. It's from a couple years ago, but if anything, this trend will have gotten worse since what's fueling it (American population aging overall and younger viewers ditching TV in favor of alternate means of viewing) have certainly not abated.

"The median ages of the broadcast networks keep rising, as traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for the younger set," Sternberg wrote.

For the just-completed 2007-08 TV season, CBS was oldest in live viewing with a median age of 54. ABC clocked in at 50, followed by NBC (49), Fox (44), CW (34) and Univision (34).