Lower Decks

Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 51 of the 2007-2008 Television Season
Monday, September 8th, 2008 – Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Broadcast Networks

The second week of September — the penultimate week of the 2007-2008 television season — saw the premiere of Fringe (Tuesday, September 9th) and the return of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles FOX (Monday, September 8th).  Fringe, which ran for 95 minutes, was seen by 9.13 million viewers and drew a 3.2/9 Nielsen rating in the adults 18-49 demographic.  America’s Got Talent on NBC easily beat Fringe in viewers with 11.61 million tuning in but Fringe came out on top in the A18-49 demographic (America’s Got Talent had a 2.6/7).  Given the amount of promotion FOX put behind Fringe, I expected between 11 and 12 million viewers.  Just over 9 million was disappointing.

As for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the Season Two premiere averaged 6.33 million viewers, down considerably from the Season One finale (8.28 million viewers on March 3rd, 2008).  With a 4.0/6 household rating, it was the lowest-rated episode of the series, and the 2.4/7 rating in the A18-49 demographic was also the lowest of the series (the previous low, “The Demon Hand,” aired on February 25th and drew 7.12 million viewers and a 2.7/7 rating in the A18-49 demographic).

A special repeat of the Fringe premiere on Sunday was sandwiched between a pair of Ghost Whisperer repeats on Friday.  The 9:00PM repeat, aired outside the show’s usual timeslot, was seen by 6.01 million viewers. FOX cannot be happy that a repeat of a Friday CBS drama came close to equaling the premiere of one of its flashy, expensive dramas. The Ghost Whisperer repeat only drew a 1.6/5 rating in the A18-49 demographic, compared to the 2.4/7 for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Better news for FOX were the ratings for the Fringe repeat: 5.79 million viewers and a 2.4/6 A18-49 rating.

Near the bottom of the weekly chart were the usual Thursday repeats of Smallville and Supernatural on The CW.

12   Fringe                      9,130,000
35   Terminator: TSCC            6,330,000
43   Ghost Whisperer (9PM)       6,010,000
45   Fringe (Sun. Repeat)        5,790,000
61   Ghost Whisperer (8PM)       5,050,000
91   Smallville                  1,970,000
92   Supernatural                1,720,000

SCI FI Channel (Two-Week Delay, August 25th through August 31st)

A special broadcast of WWE Raw easily topped the charts for SCI FI Channel with a 2.8 coverage rating (meaning 2.8% of households with access to SCI FI).  Eureka came in second with a 2.0, which was up half a ratings point from the comparable episode during Season Two (“Duck Duck Goose”).  Third was ECW with a 1.3, followed by a repeat of Jurassic Park, which also drew a 1.3, and a repeat of Ghost Hunters, with a 1.1.  Star Trek: The Next Generation also drew a 1.1 rating and ranked 6th (whether that was an average for multiple episodes or a single episode is unknown).

Stargate: Atlantis had the week off.

Eureka Season Three
"Bad to the Drone"               2.1
"What About Bob?"                1.9
"Best in Faux"                   1.9
"I Do Over"                      1.8
"Show Me the Mummy"              2.0

Conclusion

Thankfully for FOX, the second episode of Fringe (aired Tuesday, September 16th) soared to 13.36 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings, thanks to the lead-in support from House.  Still, if it cannot stand alone, it may not see a second season.  On the plus side, the special repeat of the premiere was aptly sampled, introducing new viewers to the series who potentially would have returned on Tuesday regardless of House.  And it is far too early to make predictions, of course, so the next few weeks will be telling.

Things are a bit darker for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which will only face increased competition as the 2008-2009 season officially gets underway next week.  The second episode of the season (aired Monday, September 15th) fell to a preliminary 5.56 million viewers.  Ghost Whisperer has performed well in the repeats, so its fourth season should continue to do modest business for CBS on Friday (which is a low-rated evening across the board on all the networks).  The big question for me is how Smallville and Supernatural will do on Thursdays.

As for SCI FI Channel, the network has to be thrilled that Eureka is doing so well in its third season.

Sources

Program rankings from ABC Medianet
Household Nielsen ratings and adults 18-49 demographic from the Sitcoms Online message boards
SCI FI Channel ratings from SCI FI Wire

All Nielsen Ratings Copyright Nielsen Media Research