TV ratings: 'Vampire Diaries' has a bloody good premiere; NFL kickoff also strong
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Fast National ratings for Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009Vampire love shows no sign of abating anytime soon. The premiere of "The Vampire Diaries" on The CW Thursday drew the network's biggest-ever audience for a series premiere.
NBC easily won the night overall, thanks to the kickoff of the NFL season, with 17.8 million viewers and a 10.9 rating/18 share in households (numbers that will probably go up later when ratings are adjusted for the live telecast). CBS (7.7 million, 5.1/8) came in second. The CW took third with 4.1 million viewers and a 2.6/4, beating both ABC (4 million, 2.9/5) and FOX (3.9 million, 2.5/4) in total viewers.
In the adults 18-49 demographic, NBC's 7.0 rating was far and away the night's best. CBS scored a 1.9 to take second, while The CW was third at 1.7. FOX averaged 1.2 and ABC 1.1.
The hourly results:
8 p.m.
NBC: NFL kickoff special/Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers (15.9 million viewers, 9.7/16 households)
CBS: "Big Brother 11" (7.6 million, 4.8/8)
The CW: "The Vampire Diaries" series premiere (4.8 million, 3.1/5)
FOX: "Bones" rerun (4.3 million, 2.8/5)
ABC: "Grey's Anatomy" rerun (4 million, 2.9/5)
18-49 leader: NFL kickoff/Steelers-Titans (5.9)
9 p.m.
NBC: NFL - Steelers-Titans (20 million, 12.1/19)
CBS: "CSI" rerun (7.4 million, 5.0/8)
ABC: "Grey's Anatomy" rerun (4.5 million, 3.3/5)
FOX: "Fringe" rerun (3.5 million, 2.3/4)
The CW: "Supernatural" season premiere (3.4 million, 2.1/3)
18-49 leader: Steelers-Titans (7.8)
10 p.m.
NBC: NFL - Steelers-Titans (17.2 million, 10.7/18)
CBS: "The Mentalist" rerun (8 million, 5.4/9)
ABC: "Private Practice" rerun (3.5 million, 2.5/4)
18-49 leader: Steelers-Titans (7.3)
Ratings information includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change, especially in the case of live telecasts.
More ratings at Zap2it: Daily, weekly and cable
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Damn! Go Vampire Diaries wow who new the CW goes back to what put made it popular as the WB, good ole supernatural teen shows and look what happens, they spend all that money on Melrose Place and 90210 but its Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and even Smallville that get the viewers.
If Melrose Place had kept Sydney alive and utilitzed Laura Leighton's awesome talent..they would have had much better ratings too!
This just proves that people are not that into the superficial sh-t The CW keeps trying to shove down our throats.
The premiere of The Vampire Diaries was great. It felt so old school WB.
Isn't the story here how poorly Supernatural did off the lead-in provided by The Vampire Diaries?
TO keep things in perspective, while I'm sure CW is happy not to be down year-over-year again (thanks for Alan for digging up those year-old ratings) with yet another hideous premiere, 4.8 million is what you'd have expected from ALL their premieres as little as two years ago.
Let's remember too that 4.8 million viewers would get you canceled almost immediately on CBS.
Interesting so many people mention WBN, because it's the overeager celebration of mediocre ratings that got it forced to merge with UPN (or as I'd say essentially bankrupted).
Also, that's a number that was gotten with little to no competition and may or may not hold in the future (as this show like all CW shows seems to suffer from the "let's cast uninteresting actors who could be models" syndrome.
Supernatural was great and I'm sad it went down in ratings (maybe the males that watch the show was too busy watching sports so hopefully the DVR numbers are better). Vampire Diaries was ok and I'll give it a couple episodes to see if gets better. I liked True Blood, Moonlight, Buffy, and Angel better. Vampire Diaries was little too cheesy (kind of like Twilight which I can only take in small doses)
I'm not into this whole vampire fad, but after watching True Blood, I'm willing to give this show a whirl - see where it leads... Love the Elena character, though. And Ian Somerhalder - now he's HOT...!! Missed him in LOST, where he was offed too soon. So, am hoping to see him a lot in this show. Like I said - we'll wait and see how this show goes... and where...
LOL. I wouldn't call 4.8 million viewers against two repeats on ABC and Fox a smashing success. I highly expect ratings for this dud of a show to go down as well.
I'd like to echo several other people's disappointment in Supernatural's ratings. With a much hyped (good & bad) new lead-in, I was hoping it would do better. Sadly, you can't expect new viewers to tune in for a show's season premiere when they have already missed 4 whole seasons worth of back story.
Anyways, awesome episode, and advanced the storyline set forth by May 2009's finale. Also amusing to see a guest spot by Dani from Californication.
The CW is eventually going to meet the fate that the WB and UPN did because 4.8 million is hardly anything to celebrate. If the show was on Fox, ABC or NBC, it would be a failure.