Wednesday, September 26 Ratings

• 8pm
• NBC: Animal Practice (5.188)
• CBS: Survivor (10.158)
• FOX: The X Factor (9.446)
• ABC: The Middle (8.973)
• 8:30pm
• NBC: Guys With Kids (4.782)
• 9pm
• NBC: Law & Order: SVU (7.097)
• CBS: Criminal Minds (11.588)
• ABC: Modern Family (14.208)
• 9:30pm
• ABC: The Neighbors (9.276)
• 10pm
• CBS: CSI (10.658)
• ABC: Revenge (recap episode) (5.385)

NBC: After overachieving on it's Monday and Tuesday nights, thanks to The Voice, NBC came crashing back to earth with it's usual ratings, which make it the last place network. Both "Animal Practice" and "Guys With Kids" flopped, averaging 5 million viewers, don't expect either of them to last beyond 13 episodes.

ABC: Both "The Middle" and "Modern Family" dropped from last year, which is to be expected for shows entering their fourth year. New sitcom "The Neighbors" debuted decently with 9 million viewers. I expected the show to flop given it's about aliens, but with these ratings it could last until the Spring.

CBS: The premier of "Criminal Minds" was down far from last year, when it debuted to a 18-49 ratings average of 4.1, while this year it was down a full point to 3.1. That doesn't bode well towards the show's future beyond this year, and Criminal Minds could be winding down. CSI premiered to a 2.5 ratings point, but it's always been a show that skews older, as over 66% of it's audience is over 50 years old.

FOX: "The X Factor" earned a 3.3 rating points, down from last week's 3.6, and considerably down from last year when it was still averaging 4.0 ratings points. "Factor" is still lagging behind NBC;s "The Voice" in viewership.

Monday, September 24 Ratings

Starting with this blog post, I will be recording and reporting the daily TV ratings as they come in.

The numbers in the parentheses are the amount of viewers in millions.

• 8pm
• NBC: The Voice (11.93)
• CBS: How I Met Your Mother (8.66)
• FOX: Bones (7.34)
• ABC: Dancing With The Stars (14.58)
• 8:30pm
• CBS: Partners (6.50)
• 9pm
• CBS: 2 Broke Girls (10.02)
• FOX: The Mob Doctor (3.96)
• 9:30pm
• CBS: Mike & Molly (9.31)
• 10pm
• NBC: Revolution (9.29)
• CBS: Hawaii Five-0 (7.97)
• ABC: 11.38 (11.38)

Only NBC improved on it's ratings from one year ago, thanks to returning hit "The Voice" and launch hit "Revolution". Both fell from their debuts last week, but held the most male viewers 18-49 years old, which is the most important demographic in television.

On CBS, all the sitcoms fell in viewership from last year's premier, due to the lack of powerhouse anchor "Two And A Half Men", which will be on Thursday nights this year. "Hawaii Five-0" at 10pm has had the biggest drop off so far of a returning show.

On FOX, "Bones" fell from it's premier last week, but was rated higher than it's follow up, "The Mob Doctor", which is the least watched new show of the season, and likely to be cancelled in the coming weeks.

On ABC, "Dancing With The Stars" received less viewers than last year's start, as well as cult favorite show "Castle". Their respective drop off's were .8 and .7 of an 18-49 point. One 18-49 point represents 1,159,000 viewers in the key demographic.

The TV Season Begins

After half a decade of being steamrolled over by the other networks, NBC is finally ready to rebound. After being the leading broadcast network in the 1990s, they fell to the bottom of the rankings in recent years, to the point where second tier netoworks like The CW and Univision have more viewers than NBC. However, NBC's luck seems to be turning around this season.

As I previously discussed, "The Voice", NBC's singing competition show, has been beating FOX's "The X Factor", a feat which was not expected among industry analysts. Even curiouser, last week NBC debuted "Revolution", a new drama from J.J. Abrams,  the man behind "Lost" and "Fringe". "Revoultion" became the most watched drama debut since "V" back in 2009, with over 11 million viewers. Additionally, NBC has found unexpected success with "Go On", a new sitcom with Matthew Perry, which has started stronger than "New Girl" did on FOX last year.

So what is responsible for NBC's startling early season success? The Summer Olympics, which were the most watched games since 1996, provided incredible exposure to NBC's new programing, as they had exclusive coverage of the Olympics this year. The extra exposure, as well as moving "The Voice" to the Fall, has allowed for the new programming to be a success.

If the new shows are faring well though, why are NBC's old programs flopping? For the past couple years, NBC's most successful night has been Thursday, where it's stable lineup of comedies including "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" have dominated. However, all their shows have fallen in their premiers. "Up All Night" lost 46% of viewers, "The Office" (entering it's final season now) lost 46% of viewers, and "Parks and Recreation" lost 19% of viewers. So while NBC is thriving unexpectedly early in the week, the night it once ruled is having the lowest viewer turnout. It will be interesting to see how NBC's flip floppy schedule turns out in the coming months.

Sources:
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/08/olympics-final-ratings-most-watched-summer-games-since-1996.html
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/09/21/tv-ratings-thursday-the-office-parks-recreation-up-all-night-all-down-double-digits-the-x-factor-rises-glee-falls/149558/
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/09/18/monday-final-ratings-the-voice-adjusted-up-cma-music-festival-adjusted-down/149000/

The Highs and Lows of NBC

After half a decade of being steamrolled over by the other networks, NBC is finally ready to rebound. After being the leading broadcast network in the 1990s, they fell to the bottom of the rankings in recent years, to the point where second tier netoworks like The CW and Univision have more viewers than NBC. However, NBC's luck seems to be turning around this season.

As I previously discussed, "The Voice", NBC's singing competition show, has been beating FOX's "The X Factor", a feat which was not expected among industry analysts. Even curiouser, last week NBC debuted "Revolution", a new drama from J.J. Abrams,  the man behind "Lost" and "Fringe". "Revoultion" became the most watched drama debut since "V" back in 2009, with over 11 million viewers. Additionally, NBC has found unexpected success with "Go On", a new sitcom with Matthew Perry, which has started stronger than "New Girl" did on FOX last year.

So what is responsible for NBC's startling early season success? The Summer Olympics, which were the most watched games since 1996, provided incredible exposure to NBC's new programing, as they had exclusive coverage of the Olympics this year. The extra exposure, as well as moving "The Voice" to the Fall, has allowed for the new programming to be a success.

If the new shows are faring well though, why are NBC's old programs flopping? For the past couple years, NBC's most successful night has been Thursday, where it's stable lineup of comedies including "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" have dominated. However, all their shows have fallen in their premiers. "Up All Night" lost 46% of viewers, "The Office" (entering it's final season now) lost 46% of viewers, and "Parks and Recreation" lost 19% of viewers. So while NBC is thriving unexpectedly early in the week, the night it once ruled is having the lowest viewer turnout. It will be interesting to see how NBC's flip floppy schedule turns out in the coming months.

Sources:
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/08/olympics-final-ratings-most-watched-summer-games-since-1996.html
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/09/21/tv-ratings-thursday-the-office-parks-recreation-up-all-night-all-down-double-digits-the-x-factor-rises-glee-falls/149558/
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/09/18/monday-final-ratings-the-voice-adjusted-up-cma-music-festival-adjusted-down/149000/

The Voice vs The X Factor

Since it's debut a few years ago, The Voice has become the second most watched singing talent show on television, and has been a huge success for the struggling NBC. For the first time though, The Voice is airing a cycle in the fall, and is against The X Factor, with Simon Cowell. So which show did the viewers flock to?

Many industry analysts expected The Voice to flop, given that it was just on TV a few months ago. They also expected The X Factor to improve over it's lukewarm debut last year, thanks to the inclusion of Britney Spears, who signed a $15 million dollar contract to be a judge on The X Factor.


The Voice aired three times last week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Monday, 12.3 million viewers tuned in, and 11.4 million watched on Tuesday. Both of these numbers were in line with industry expectations. They are great numbers for NBC, but below the American Idol average.

On Wednesday, The Voice aired directly against The X Factor. Analysts expected The X Factor to beat The Voice, given that Factor now had Britney Spears to boost ratings, and Voice would be having fatigue of being aired for the third night in a row. So how did the ratings pan out?

The Voice won the head to head battle. It received 10.7 million viewers, compared to The X Factor's 8.5 million viewers. Additionally, The X Factor's premier was down 25% from the previous year. It seems Britney Spears turned viewers away from, and not towards the Factor. Needless to say, Simon Cowell can not be happy being beaten by NBC and recieving 1/3 of the viewership he had from American Idol.

Round 1 goes to NBC.

Welcome To The Blog!

    The focus on this blog would be to report and analyze the daily primetime television ratings among the major broadcast networks in America. Ratings determine a shows fate, and are the best indicator of if a show will be cancelled or renewed. The Fall TV season will debut dozens of new shows and will run parallel to the Fall 2012 semester, giving great timing for this blog.


    This blog will cover television ratings to encompass all the networks, all days of the week. With new ratings being reported daily, I will be posting daily recaps and analysis, along with an end of the week recap, and any breaking news that has to do with show cancellations, including season extensions and cancellations. My predicted output is at least 6 blog posts a week.

 As for me, I am an avid television watcher, and follow all sorts of TV shows. Comedy, drama, sci-fi, if it's on TV, I'm following it. I've been tracking ratings for years, and want to convey their importance in a way that's directed at other TV watchers like myself, instead of businessmen and executives.