DISQUS

Andrea, ABC should be announcing its Fall 2008 schedule within the next few weeks.

NN, I asked the TVBigshot folks and here's the situation.

Both shows ran a bit past 10pm.

For the 9-10pm hour, CSI won with a 10.66 vs. Grey's 10.65.

However, for the 10-11 overrun Grey's had a 13.52 and CSI a 9.51. The overrun doesn't count for the timeslot points for TVBS though.

The overrun did boost Grey's overall to 10.74 HH rating while CSI had a 10.64, that's how it could make the top 5 without winning its timeslot.

NN, You are correct! I get the Top 5/Timeslot list directly from the TVBigshot folks and didn't even look at that one before I posted it. I'll make sure things get corrected.

Daniel, I do hear you, and honestly the politics of the situation is entirely moot to me. Back in August when we started, I was surprised at the heat behind the rivalry.

Let me play around a bit, what I may do starting next week is abandon the average viewer numbers in order to add the 25-54 numbers for all the 8pm shows. Because the fact is for 25-54 (which is what our industry friends universally say they care about) the race is noticeably tighter.

And maybe the long term charts just go away except for special updates.

tom, excellent point on the timing of ABC's upfronts and the other airings of Boston Legal.

In fact, it's not clear to me that whatever decision is made on Women's Murder Club or Moonlight has much to do with their post-strike results because of the timing of the announcements.

Daniel C, there's a lot I could add, but I think this chart's already a bit crowded, at least the long term one.

The aggregate cable news network chart does show all 5 networks average primetime ratings, and honestly it's much more crowded than I'd like it to be.

When we started the site, I did daily posts of cable news ratings with tons of detail. They were very pretty, but a ton of work, and they got very little traffic. As with many things, efficient trumped pretty.

David B., No you are not! ;)

Alhtough nobody at ABC called me, it feels like the Women's Murder Club stint on Tuesday is a "show me what you've got" test.

I think folks at ABC may wonder whether the lackluster Friday performance of the show was because of the day. However, as Robert wrote, it didn't do better in its first Tuesday appearance.

Yes, I will have the new nightly ratings and long term chart through last night posted today.

I will post tonights ratings with next week's chart.

Re: WKND, Anon beat me to it. I will edit in the full word going forward.

Phil, my guess is that the reason you don't see a lot written about them is that the TV writers don't find them that interesting. They're old shows and they're all about raking in the money, not creativity, etc.

That said, they are spectacular moneymakers. The holy grail for half hour sitcom producers is getting enough episodes in the can for syndication.

Also, look at Oprah, she produces her show and the Dr. Phil Show and she's one of the wealthiest women in the US.

Jim, Fox has 6 positions in the top 20 season to date 18-49 viewer ranking, two are Idol. That's the second most. ABC has 7, and three of those are Dancing With The Stars.

Ditto Robert's point about it not being entirely clear how much "sweeps" effect national advertising.

Sweeps periods are times when Nielsen diaries are used in all 210 US markets. Normally just the 56 people meter markets are measured. Those diaries help set local ad rates in the non-people meter markets.

dave, We do know that as of early April, the Office had the 2nd largest % of its season to date audience between 18-49 (for broadcast shows) with 66.8%.

I think a variety of factors drive DVR recording:

1. Age demo for a show.
2. Competitive schedule timeslot.
3. Night of the week.
4. And for the absolute DVR audience size, of course, total audience size.

Pretty much all DVR use can be explained by those factors.

viewe, I understand you may feel strongly about the subject, but please do not spam our comments with copy & paste.

Andrea, that would certainly make logical sense if it was true, but we've never seen any data that would allow us to make that conclusion.

dearme, I think that the audience will continue to fracture. Over the last 25 years that has mostly meant a shift from broadast to cable. I think that shift will continue as the quality difference between broadcast and cable continues to narrow [from both directions].
The next shifts will be both time and place. Where and when you choose to watch "video". Robert is at the absolute bleeding edge with the amount of TV he watches on his iPhone, but 10 years from now I think what he does will be pretty typical.

Connie, we get effectively all our data from Nielsen Media, both directly and indirectly.

They measure what folks watch on their televisions live and with their DVRs both by electronic people meters (used in the largest TV markets) and paper diaries (in smaller markets).

Rob, I agree with you. My earlier point was it would be a ratings disaster if the Laker were upset *before* the *conference* finals [i.e. in the second round].

Although I usually skip the players on 5 Good Minutes, I watched Nash and thought the same thing. He almost looked like he was on anti-depressants, he was so monotone/unenthusiastic.

I think the Suns being bounced in the first round is a negative for the TV ratings, but their potential for getting *past* the second round to the conference finals was very low, so at most the NBA loses out on 4-7 games with them in the mix.

The real ratings nightmare would be if the Lakers or the Celtics got upset before the conference finals. It seems very unlikely, but I bet a few TV folks are kept up at night by the prospect.

Mandi, I nominate "Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest" as the best pull quote of the week! ;)

Indeed, I had confused the CSI price/results and the CSI:NY schedule position, thanks once again!

Yamile, Private Practice will return in the Fall of 2008.

Mikey, Great info, thanks. And I am with you on th e fill-ins. If it's not K&W;, I'm likely to FF past most of it.