TV by the Numbers - Latest Comments in Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Rob R — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:56:42 -0000

From this website----as an example. Lost's Feb 28 episode was the #1 DVR'd program, where it's same day overnight audience of 12.8 million increased to 15.0 million (rounded)when DVR + 7 day viewers were included. So for some shows, like "Lost", the DVR adjustment is not "overrated." In fact, it is frankly impossible to appreciate the total audeince for a show so many PREFER to put on DVR so they can watch it more closely. "Lost" is one of those shows, so you really can't evaluate it solely based on the overnights.

1 LOST ABC 2/28/08 TOTAL DVR+7 14,998, an increase over same day of 11,020 by 3,978 (percentage increase: 36.1%)

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Rob R — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:55:28 -0000

From this website----as an example. Lost's Feb 27 episode was the #1 DVR'd program, where it's same day overnight audience of 12.8 million increased to 15.0 million (rounded)when DVR + 7 day viewers were included. So for some shows, like "Lost", the DVR adjustment is not "overrated." In fact, it is frankly impossible to appreciate the total audeince for a show so many PREFER to put on DVR so they can watch it more closely. "Lost" is one of those shows, so you really can't evaluate it solely based on the overnights.

1 LOST ABC TOTAL DVR+7 14,998
11,020 3,978 36.1% 12,893 47.1%

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Zach10 — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:18:35 -0000

Yeah, I know, I'm just saying it was nice seeing it that high.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Robert Seidman — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:09:50 -0000

Zach a couple of week's ago was the ideal situation -- it was up against repeats on ABC and CBS. The last 2 weeks both Grey's and CSI were back and new. I'm sure the Office will pick many of the dropped viewers back up via DVR viewing.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Zach10 — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:59:30 -0000

It's sad to see The Office back down in the 7 Millions, when a couple of weeks ago it almost broke 10... :( Oh well... still the highest rated Comedy show on NBC right now... they would never cancel it ;P

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Danielle — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:41:02 -0000

I dont know if I completely agree this has been the weakest season. I think we had a weak start but I think once the Christmas episode hit the show really hit their stride and turned out awesome episode after awesome episode.

I think the huge breaks, the lack of promotion, and the cult style of the show is what has dropped the ratings.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Andy — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:53:02 -0000

I liked Supernatural last night.

The numbers are surprising. If they don't bump up to 3 mil for the final 2 I'm going to assume that we lost viewers due to: the long ass hiatus and the quality of season 3 in general, since it's been the weakest season of the 3. Lack of actual scares this season, which is what made Supernatural 'Supernatural'.

I really wish more people knew about the show. Everyone's missing out, and the more viewers we get, there's a higher probability of a bigger budget, which is obviously a good thing.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

TONY — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:30:58 -0000

30 rocks sucks whens it going to go to the dumps where it belongs

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Doug — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:55:26 -0000

When the media backlash occurred last year, Lost lost quite a few viewers. It's trending similar to last season now, which makes it a winner considering how much other series are down over last year. If you want to compare to two years ago, take a look at the numbers for most of the top series (CSI, GA, DH, AI, etc). All have lost significant amounts of viewers. Lost only had one streak where it consistently drew more than 20 million, and that was the first half of season 2 fresh off its emmy win. It's typical ratings during seasons 1-3.5 were between 16 and 18 million. So it's lost about a third of that audience, but so have most other top rated series.

I think Lost's decline is also attributable to ABC's constant tinkering with the schedule. What other network would move around a big hit series like ABC has with Lost? Any other network would treat it like a treasure and build a night around it, but on ABC, it just doesn't seem to fit the relationship drama mold, so they really don't know what to do with it. Now they just seem to shove it on the schedule where there's space to fill.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Linda — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:44:42 -0000

Smallville picked up viewers the second half, because it was a great episode. It was like watching a movie event.

I work in the video industry, and I have alot of customers that do not watch tv shows when they are on anymore. They like watching all the episodes back-to-back on dvd without commericals. LOST is definitely one of those.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

tom — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:34:47 -0000

Cookson... i like your attitude.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Cookson — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:02:48 -0000

With LOST, obviously it's disappointing to see the numbers lower, but this entire season has been screwed up. So basically, everything is "even", meaning almost every show has lost viewers. Nobody should be scared about LOST anyway. It's guaranteed to have another 2 seasons, with 17 episodes each.

Plus I mean, the MAIN ratings for nielsen is the 18-49 age group....which LOST is always high on.

Every thing's good.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Danielle — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:22:29 -0000

Oh Supernatural you make me sad with these numbers.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Rachael — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:14:20 -0000

These Supernatural numbers really have me worried. I hope there's no chance that the CW would pull their renewal of it.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

hey — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:03:26 -0000

you see. everything on TV is down. meaning, idol is still doing amazing. please no more negative idol articles. and i wish everyone would leave poor paula alone.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Jon V — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:13:13 -0000

It looks like the 8:00-8:30 slot averaged about 39 million viewers, but then at 9:00 suddenly there were 50 mil/view.

This might be in line with some of the sports that was going on elsewhere early.

An increase of 11 mil/view prob has also Daylight and quality of programming as the cause as well.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Xnova45 — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:02:41 -0000

They already renewed supernatural for a 4th season
http://firefox.org/news/art...

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

dave — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:46:11 -0000

Thanks for the shout out in the main post.
I agree with Angie too, people may just not have known supernatural was back; I have a feeling a lot of supernatural viewers only watch the CW when supernatural is on, and missed any promotion of a new episode.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Nessa — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:25:53 -0000

Angie,

I agree with you. I think the CW pulling the show off the air in place of Reaper confused people who dodn't know about the show even returning, and many people I've talked to didn't even know it was coming back on because they thought JiB was the season finale...I didn't mind GF, but probably not the best episode to air after coming back from a 2 month long break...thank goodness the show has already been renewed for a 4th season...

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Polly — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:08:52 -0000

Robert - Thanks for mentioning the link, I had already read it. I want to thank both you and Bill for providing so many good links. There are quite a few I would have missed if not for your site. :)

Tom - thanks for clarifying and your snarky comment was funny! ;) (I really hope your right about viewers comming back in the fall.)

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

tom — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:58:34 -0000

i know polly... i just found the image funny of someone discovering cable. i agree with your assessment. i watch less. used to watch daily show and other stuff every night. got out of the habit. i think some will come back in the fall. sort of fresh start.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Eric — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:58:24 -0000

I've watched Scrubs for years, but I think NBC did the right thing and ABC won't get much benefit out of the move. The show is played out and just not as funny as it once was, and I think many of its fans recognize that. When it switches networks, it will naturally lose some viewers because it will be moving to a different night and different station, and will not be surrounded by other, more popular shows, such as The Office. And considering Scrubs was never that great at retaining the audience of hit shows it aired after--it didn't exactly become a smash hit when it aired after Friends--I can't see it helping to create a hit on ABC.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Robert Seidman — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:54:42 -0000

Angie/Polly -- there are stories floating around how scripted dramas have been hit hardest by the strike. Both Bill and I have linked to them but one one of the stories is at top of Bill's link list (under "Gorman Reading" on the right hand side).

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Polly — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:50:33 -0000

I should have added earlier that the viewing patterns I'm talking about also include other avenues of viewing not just cable i.e. the internet, etc.

Re: Nielsen Ratings for May 1: Where Are The TV Viewers Going?

Polly — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:46:04 -0000

Tom - I guess I should have made my point more clearly. I meant they discovered things that they enjoyed the same as or more on cable. Not that they discovered that they had cable. I just think the strike changed up viewing patterns and I don't think they are going to go back to what they were pre-strike.