DISQUS

Night Nymph, I agree 100% with you in terms of preferring more LOST, but, if I was a real TV BigShot at ABC, I'd definitely prefer to try and squeeze in an extra commercial pod during my most expensive show advertising wise. LOST is one of ABC's better performers, but Grey's draws a higher premium on advertising, I believe because of its concentration of 18-34 year old women.

When it comes to making the most money possible, I'd say they're doing the right thing when it comes to Grey's overrun.

No matter how big I make the:

UPDATE: Friday Night Lights is returning first on DirecTV in October, 2008 and later on NBC
at the top of the page -- people don't see it. i guess it needs to be...bigger.

Dave, fair point though I doubt that people flock to the bars for the Derby as they do for Football or NCAA games. Still, it's well documented that they don't count those viewers, however they ARE testing out of home viewing for live events. they did some tests during the NCAA BBall tourney and it added about 1 ratings point.

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.

Spechelle, unless the shows from BET place in the top 40, we don't see the individual shows and it isn't typically among the weekly top 30 cable networks we have access to:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/category/ratings/top-...

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).

Tom, I didn't get the sense that Rob was a LOST hater. He's right, it's not as popular as it was 2 years ago, but name a "hit" show that is!?

I'm Lost lover, btw. Loved the episode from a week ago more than last night's, but looking forward to all the remaining episodes!

Rob, I think with cumulative viewers by the time you add DVDs in,it's possible. But season 4 DVDs won't be out for a while, we can't track "legal" downloads let alone the more uh, questionable ones. We can't track web streaming or on-demand (LOST is available in HD via Comcast on-demand, it's how I typically watch, but it's not counted anywhere).

I think it's possible its reach could be that great, but not in any way it could be regularly counted and measured so it's purely in the realm of speculation.

Dave, great points.

I think for now you'll see it via press releases. It's not as meaningful because it doesn't track demographics or average viewers. A lot of people stream shows, less people stream the whole thing, etc. I think we're still a ways a way where all the tv nets report internet viewing regularly and in a similar fashion. I hope I'm wrong.

Tom, they are invisible in terms of being measured or counted.

Rob, your DVR estimates for Grey's are low..it will pick up more than half a million extra in the LIVE+7 viewing. That said, it still won't get them back to last year's levels. Ooops...I see you said 1.5 million, not .5. My bad. I think your estimate is probably good.

Tom/Polly -- clearly over the last 25 years the attrition of network viewers bailing to cable is well documented. As I understand the numbers the total number of people with their tvs turned on and watching last night (broadcast or cable) was lower versus last week. I'm not posting those numbers for a variety of factors including that I doubt I'll see them regularly.

I just report the numbers. I *watched* LOST live. And I think picking up Scrubs is a good move. Yep, so anti-mouse!

Daniel, fewer people were watching TV *period* actually if i read the hut/put #s right. I wonder if there was some Grand Theft Auto IV effect...

Polly, both Grey's and CSI picked up viewers in the second half hour. Sadly we won't see the full DVR effect for a while.

Larry, c'mon! Actually all April 30 says is that Hillary Clinton is the best thing ever to happen to Bill O'Reilly's ratings this year. Best #s of 2008 for BO!

Speaking of cut off...

P.S. Ive loved my naked head since I was 25. :D

Tom: as you can see, bitter and rude people can be found everywhere. I agree with you that the timeslot juggling has not proved a positive for ABC.

Truth: L&O;'s demo numbers are not as good as L&O;:SVU's, but that's neither here nor there. You're right about NBC taking the 3.0, no question. I'm not trying to point out the numbers for every show in the text. That's what the data table is for.

I gave BL more focus because it is on the bubble. L&O; and CSI: NY are not.

I posted the picture for two reasons:

1. no matter how bold I make the "Friday Night Lights was RENEWED" statement at the top of the FNL, Renew or Cancel post -- people still are chiming in to save a show that has been saved.

2. I kind of want to write the post on why CBS should renew Moonlight and should not have renewed Jericho -- I may get around to it anyway, in the meanwhile, stare into Sophia's eyes... :D

I was gonna, but since it is a story quoting Sophia M., it had to be her picture and I figured you had no interest in that ;)

I agree with Bill down the line -- and when the analysts were grilling CBS chief Les Moonves yesterday, what did he throw in their faces? CSI: Miami, 2.5 Men, King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond syndication!

the list rarely changes much. Even though SpongeBob dominates the weekly cable charts, at least there are a few new things to write about every week. Wheel of Fortune has been the number one show every week ALL year.

It's the nightly average for the week, Phil.

Bill, please add boilerplate to these posts explaining that it's the average of all weekly airings.

Tom, BL's finals for last Tuesday were: 9.932m and a 2.7/7 in the 18-49 demo. WMC won't come anywhere near that.

Joslyn, if I were king of the ratings world total eyeballs would be the most important statistic, but the game's point system is driven off of the Nielsen "household rating", and Nielsen itself still uses this as it's default ranking system. For most of the data on *our* site, we rank by total viewers, but the game ranks by HH ratings points.

While CSI had more viewers per household, Grey's had more households and so it ranked higher.

Peg, it wasn't listed among the top 40 shows we have access to and I didn't see any data anywhere else. If someone else knows, please chime in.