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Ratings: NBC and FOX split Monday*
Fast National ratings for Monday, Sept. 8, 2008
NBC grabbed the most viewers among the broadcast networks Monday night, but FOX managed to score a victory in the demographic advertisers care about most.
(*Which is not to say that either one was necessarily the most-watched network on the night. That honor will probably go to ESPN, which debuted a new season of Monday Night Football and whose ratings weren't available as of this writing.)
NBC averaged a 4.9 rating/8 share in primetime, edging the 4.8/8 for second-place CBS. FOX took third overall with a 4.0/6. ABC, 3.5/6, came in fourth, and The CW trailed at 2.2/3.
FOX grabbed the top spot among adults 18-49 with a 2.5 rating. CBS took second in the demographic at 2.2, followed by NBC at 2.0. The CW, 1.6, narrowly beat ABC, 1.5, for fourth.
Deal or No Deal, 6.2/10, put NBC on top at 8 p.m. The season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles drew a 4.1/6 for FOX. Repeats of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother finished third for CBS. The finale of High School Musical: Get in the Picture, 2.8/4, on ABC beat out Gossip Girl, 2.2/3, on The CW.
CBS took the lead at 9 p.m. with Two and a Half Men, 6.1/9, and The New Adventures of Old Christine, 5.0/7. ABC finished second in households with the CMA Music Festival, 4.2/6, but it trailed in total viewers behind both FOX's Prison Break (4.0/6) and NBC's America's Toughest Jobs (also 4.0/6). One Tree Hill held steady for The CW.
A CSI: Miami rerun, 5.1/8, held the top spot for CBS at 10 p.m. Dateline posted a 4.3/7 for NBC, while the CMA Music Festival on ABC fell to 3.6/6.
Ratings information is taken from fast national data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change.
I really don't get this did Prison Break do bad?Because they say FOX won the night but Prison Break has pretty bad low ratings.I don't get it.
Amberlight | Sep 9, 2008 9:46:19 AM | #How lame was SCC? Wom, how much money is FOX putting into that show? This show is a joke right?
Sarah Connor Chronicles is terrible. | Sep 9, 2008 10:52:05 AM | #I've said it before, and I'll say it again: trying to explain the logic behind who actually "won" in the ratings is useless, because for the 99% of us who actually think logically (that would be those of us who post our comments, plus a good chunk of the bloggers on Zap2It), any explanation given by the networks and the botched brain transplant patients who run the Nielson ratings would be complex beyond belief. In that complexity, of course, would be no answer at all. They really have no idea who "won," nor do they care, with one exception: the ratings for the 18-25 set, who advertisers have decided are the only people in the world who matter. Forget the fact that most people of that age group that I know well haven't an extra dollar to spend on all the crap the ad people try to sell them, but they are the ones whom advertisers love. This is why absolutely insipid shows like The Bachelor have been on for years now, while really great shows (I'll let y'all decide what shows are "great," as opinions differ in that regard) rarely last beyond a few seasons. Until the ad people finally get it through their thick skulls who actually has the money in this country (and it ain't the 18-25-year-olds), the ratings will be nonsensical and essentially useless for determining who "won" any given hour in prime time TV. Until network execs wake up, catch up with the 21st century and change things...confusion will reign supreme.
Revenant | Sep 9, 2008 11:30:20 AM | #Are you kidding me with the Terminator comment?
Did you actually see the episode?
Terminator is one of TV's best and brightest shows nuff said.
"FOX grabbed the top spot among adults 18-49 with a 2.5 rating. CBS took second in the demographic at 2.2, followed by CBS at 2.0. The CW, 1.6, narrowly beat ABC, 1.5, for fourth."
well wat did NBC get....??
alejandro | Sep 9, 2008 11:46:54 AM | #Whoops. Thanks for catching the typo, alejandro. CBS was 2.2, and NBC 2.0. Story is fixed.
Rick | Sep 9, 2008 11:58:07 AM | #The person who hated TSSC obviously didn't watch it. Anyway, considering it was against a juggernaut, coming 2nd is pretty good, albeit against mostly repeats and the CW.
Alex | Sep 9, 2008 12:13:01 PM | #TSCC was real good , I love that show. Prison Break was good too. None of these shows can beat shows like AI or Deal or no Deal. Not to mention I had none of these shows on live last night anyway. I DVR everything , I had my dual tuner on overdrive last night. I DVR'd TSCC/Gossip Girl and then PB/One Tree Hill and then Weeds. Watching it all today. The Neilsens are useless and one day all these dumb advertisors will realize this that they are throwing millions of dollars into the gutter every week.
Anthony | Sep 9, 2008 12:25:24 PM | #Don't blame the Network AD Execs for this. Blame Neilsen. If they would just count directly from the box you can get accurate numbers. You think AD Execs like to guess who is watching what at a given time. The ratings are all based on statistics and are not accurate by any means. Which is stupid. Also the teens aren't the most desirable. They are desirable, but the ratings are all about ADULTS 18-49. That's the money.
B- | Sep 9, 2008 1:12:59 PM | #The problem, as I see it, is that the current model for advertising on broadcast tv just doesn't scale well.
Network can spend $3 mil to make an hour show (like deal or now deal) and pull in $4 mil from ads (especially if it will pull 4 million viewers). OR.. produce a mega million ($20-30 mill) show, and 'hope' to pull in about the same in ads. Not even to figure out if the show's a flop.
The return on investment just makes more sense to make a bunch of small programs, then to produce high cost / good quality shows. Even more so now that all these sets for game shows are built. Seriously, how much to produce an hour of a game show? Especially DoND, which doesn't even have trivia questions to research. Everything's built. Pay the host, the girls and the prize money.
Scott | Sep 9, 2008 1:13:24 PM | #is prison break getting any better. I watched when it first started and then fell away as time went on.
Aaron Shaw | Sep 9, 2008 1:46:13 PM | #Revenant, the reason the advertisers want the younger demo's whether or not they have expendable cash is because eventually they will and they hope to make them brand loyal by then.
As we get older and SMARTER advertising no longer effect us and they have decided we're already as brand loyal as we're going to get.
So basically, they want us when we're young, dump and completly impressionable.
LIES, BLOODY LIES . . .
The 'ratings' and polls are one of the biggest ongoing scams ever perpetuated. The samples are laughably miniscule. I enjoy the way they call it 'scientific.'
Every now and then the TV guys come up with a show that's so compelling that almost everyone's watching it (the most famous example: the original Star Trek series); but Neilsen keeps getting ten red jelly beans instead of a mix of red and blue so the poor TV guys have to try something else.
But the industry is addicted to polls because, like a junky, it needs them.
I think Nielsen is a horrible ratings system. It counts households, not people. Micheal Chiklis said it best that Nielsen doesn't count college dorms or military bases where people may gather in large groups to watch a TV show.
Chris | Sep 9, 2008 4:54:29 PM | #I watched TSCC last night for the first time because Shirley Manson was in it (she was...OK in her first acting role). I was hoping to like the show, but didn't: an overly complicated back-story with an overly simple episode (what can they do but run around LA and crash cars every episode?). There is also a terrible lack of humor. Sure things are bad in the future and there are robots trying to kill you, but take a break from your overly-long glaring and crack a joke every once in a while, OK? (And the urinal....uhm, joke at the end was just lame.)
droobee | Sep 9, 2008 5:25:06 PM | #I haven't watched SCC so i won;t comment on it other than it was a great show last season. Prison Break is much improved over last season, but probably won't top season 1. One Tree Hill is a joke, but i watch out of habit. 18-25 year olds are not the ones with the money as correctly stated by Revenant, but they spend more of their money on wants than needs. They USUALLY don't have mortages to pay children to feed, etc. They are most likely to spend money on wants. Keep in mind this is majority.
Jason | Sep 9, 2008 11:19:26 PM | #Thanks for explaining it #3 that's why I personally think there is no way FOX won Prison Break is so unwatchable it's horrid.I personally think the other networks really won in the demo-ratings something is very fishy here concerning FOX.
347 Arn | Sep 10, 2008 8:10:27 AM | #Drumkill, are you kidding??? You are accusing FOx of manipulating numbers? Thing is that the other show have not returned yet.
Besides, YOU think PB is unwatchable but I think it is a damn good show.
I'll bet the 2nd poster never even bothered to watch the TSCC episode. He or she is just trolling for attention.
The episode itself was amazing. I hope the show gets at least two more seasons after this one.
yeah right | Sep 10, 2008 2:04:56 PM | #tscc is awesome and the story line is very well played out hope the ratings continue to rise as i would hate to see a great show cancelled like many others just look at the online views its #6 overall on amazon
brandon | Sep 23, 2008 11:23:16 PM | #
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