Lower Decks

Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 9 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, November 17th, 2008 – Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

Broadcast Networks

Ghost Whisperer stumbled a negligible amount this week, dropping from 11.57 million viewers to 11.28 million viewers and from a 2.9/10 Nielsen rating in the adults 18-49 demographic to a 2.7/9 rating.  Through the first seven episodes of the season, Ghost Whisperer is averaging 10.2 million viewers and a 2.6/9 A18-49 rating, thanks to strong performances these past few weeks.  Last season, the series averaged 9.25 million viewers and a 2.5/9 A18-49 rating.  In other words, the show is doing quite well in its fourth year on the air.

23   Ghost Whisperer            11,280,000

FOX’s Fringe improved on its series low performance the previous week (8.6 million viewers, 3.8/9 A18-49) with 9.18 million viewers and a 4.1/10 A18-49 rating.  That’s the best showing for the series since September 30th (9.91 million viewers, 4.2/11 A18-49).  NBC’s Heroes, on the other hand, hit yet another series low, dropping for the fourth episode in a row.  It did manage to stay even in the A18-49 demo with a 3.6/8 rating.

35   Fringe                      9,180,000
46   Heroes                      7,650,000

Knight Rider seems to have bottomed out at just over 5 million viewers and a 1.5/4 A18-49 rating.  The series shed two million viewers between its fifth and sixth episodes (October 22nd and November 5th).  Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles also seems to have stabilized at around five million viewers and a 2.0/5 A18-49 rating.  But the performance of both shows is disappointing.

 69   Knight Rider               5,200,000
 72   Terminator: TCC            5,090,000

After being hit by pre-emptions last week (due to sports) last week, The CW’s Smallville and Supernatural rebounded nicely, with Smallville increasing from a 1.4/4 to a 1.7/5 A18-49 rating and Supernatural from a 1.2/3 to a 1.4/3 rating. A Saturday repeat of Knight Rider barely registered with a 0.6/2 A18-49 rating.

 78   Smallville                 4,180,000
 83   Supernatural               3,340,000
 88   Knight Rider (Repeat)      2,480,000

SCI FI Channel (Two-Week Delay, November 3rd through November 9th)

Yet again, Ghost Hunters topped the SCI FI Channel charts this week with a 2.0 rating (meaning 2.0% of households with access to SCI FI.  The cable channel’s latest Saturday movie, Yeti, ranked second with a 1.7 rating and Sanctuary came in third with a 1.5 rating, a slight improvement.

   Sanctuary Season One
   "Sanctuary for All"              2.2
   "Fata Morgana"                   1.6
   "Folding Man"                    1.6
   "Kush"                           1.4
   "Nubbins"                        1.5

Stargate: Atlantis was fifth with a 1.2 rating, holding steady, and ECW came in seventh with a 0.9 rating.

   Stargate: Atlantis Season Five
   "Search and Rescue (1)"          1.3
   "The Seed"                       1.1
   "Broken Ties"                    1.2
   "The Daedalus Variations"        1.3
   "Ghost in the Machine"           1.2
   "The Shrine"                     1.2
   "Whispers"                       1.1
   "The Queen"                      1.3
   "Tracker"                        1.2
   "First Contact (1)"              1.1
   "The Lost Tribe (2)"             1.5
   "Outsiders"                      1.2
   "Inquisition"                    1.2
   "The Prodigal"                   1.2

Syndication (Two-Week Delay, November 3rd through November 9th)

I’ve seen conflicting information about Legend of the Seeker.  Last week I linked to a Broadcasting & Cable article that said the two-hour premiered averaged a 2.9 household Nielsen rating and drew over 4.1 million viewers.  According to Marc Berman’s Programming Insider, the premiere had a 4.1 household rating and 5.8 million viewers.  This week, Broadcasting & Cable reported the following:

National ratings for the second week of Disney-ABC’s Legend of the Seeker were down 31% to a 2.0 following the highly anticipated two-hour premiere, with three million viewers tuning in. Week two of Seeker’s ratings was based on measuring the one-hour show in double runs as opposed to week one when the show’s entire two-hour premiere was measured. While the show was down overall, it was up in many big cities, including a 200% gain in Kansas City, 50% in Dallas and 37% in Orlando.

For now, I’m going to stick with B&C’s numbers but they may be a week behind.  At the moment, I’m just not sure.

Legend of the Seeker (First-Run Syndication, Saturday Airdates)
"Prophecy (1)"                   Nov.  1st, 2008   2.9
"Destiny (2)"                    Nov.  1st, 2008   2.9
"Bounty"                         Nov.  8th, 2008   2.0

In other syndicated news, the latest repeat of Lost stayed even with a 0.9 rating.

Lost (Off-Network Syndication, Week of Airdates)
"Pilot (1)"                      Sep.  8th, 2008   1.1
"Pilot (2"                       Sep. 15th, 2008   1.1
"Tabula Rasa"                    Sep. 22nd, 2008   1.1
"Walkabout"                      Sep. 29th, 2008   1.1
"White Rabbit"                   Oct.  6th, 2008   1.2
"House of the Rising Sun"        Oct. 13th, 2008   1.1
"The Moth"                       Oct. 20th, 2008   1.0
"Confidence Man"                 Oct. 27th, 2008   0.9
"Solitary"                       Nov.  3rd, 2008   0.9

Conclusion

I hate sounding like a broken record, but once again Ghost Whisperer on CBS is the standout performer on the broadcast networks, with The CW’s Smallville and Supernatural also doing well and FOX’s Fringe showing growth.  Heroes, Knight Rider and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles continue to underwhelm and, in the case of Heroes, disappoint.

On SCI FI Channel, Sanctuary may have stabilized at around a 1.5 rating, which would make it a solid performer for the network in the scripted department, although it continues to be handily beaten by unscripted Ghost Hunters.  And in syndication, the confusion surrounding Legend of the Seeker makes it hard to draw any conclusions, but I can say it appears to have dropped quite a bit after a strong premiere.  However, if enough individual stations see solid increases, it may stick around.

During the current week, Heroes, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Fringe all dropped to new series lows, with Heroes hitting a 3.5/8 A18-49 demographic, Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles falling to a 1.8/5 A18-49 rating and 4.6 million viewers, and Fringe dropping to 7.7 million viewers and a 3.4/9 A18-49 rating (as disappointing as that number is, it still tops the 3.2/9 rating for the premiere).  Bad news all around.

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
Syndicated ratings from SCI FI Wire/Zap2it/Broadcasting & Cable

All Nielsen Ratings Copyright Nielsen Media Research