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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 10 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, November 24th, 2008 – Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Broadcast Networks
The broadcast rankings I usually use when compiling this roundup were not released for the past week, so I’ll just be listing shows in order of viewers with no rankings. The CW’s Smallville and Supernatural are currently on hiatus, with repeats airing until January. And due to the Thanksgiving holiday, CBS aired two repeats of Ghost Whisperer on Friday, November 28th. Knight Rider was pre-empted on Wednesday in favor of “Rosie Live.”
On FOX, last week’s episode of Fringe ran from 9:08PM to 10:07PM because of an extra long episode of House. The episode sank a series-low in total viewers, with 7.7 million tuning in. The previous low (“In Which We Meet Mr. Jones,” originally broadcast November 11th, 2008) was 8.61 million viewers. The episode also sank to the lowest Nielsen rating in the adults 18-49 demographic since the premiere (a 3.4/9 versus a 3.2/9).
NBC’s Heroes continued its slow decline, shedding another 550,000 viewers and dropping to a series-low 7.51 million viewers as well as a series-low 3.5/8 A18-49 rating.
Fringe 7,700,000 Heroes 7,510,000
A pair of Ghost Whisperer repeats did as well as can be expected for CBS.
Ghost Whisperer (8PM Repeat) 6,130,000 Ghost Whisperer (9PM Repeat) 5,890,000
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles lost half a million viewers and hit a new series-low (down from 5.1 million viewers on November 17th) and also fell to a new series-low in the A18-49 demographic, a 1.8/5 (down from a 1.9/5 on November 17th).
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles 4,570,000
On Thursday, repeats of Smallville and Supernatural came close, but couldn’t quite top two million viewers.
Smallville (Repeat) 1,810,000 Supernatural (Repeat) 1,710,000
And on Sunday, a repeat of the first episode of Jericho drew 1.22 million viewers for The CW. That may not sound like much, but it was an increase of half a million viewers from the previous week (when a repeat of the now-canceled In Harm’s Way was broadcast).
Jericho (The CW Repeat) 1,220,000
SCI FI Channel (Two-Week Delay, November 10th through November 16th)
It was business as normal for SCI FI Channel two weeks ago, with Ghost Hunters topping the cable channel’s weekly chart with a 1.7 rating (meaning 2.0% of households with access to SCI FI). Sanctuary came in second with a 1.5 rating (holding steady) and Stargate: Atlantis was third with a 1.3 rating (up slightly).
Sanctuary Season One
"Sanctuary for All" 2.2
"Fata Morgana" 1.6
"Folding Man" 1.6
"Kush" 1.4
"Nubbins" 1.5
"The Five" 1.5
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
"Remnants" 1.3
ECW ranked fifth with a 1.2 rating and new reality series Estate of Panic drew a 1.0, good enough for sixth place.
Syndication (Two-Week Delay, November 10th through November 16th)
I’m still not entirely sure what’s going on with the ratings for Legend of the Seeker, but once again I will defer to Broadcasting & Cable:
On the weekend, Disney-ABC’s Legend of the Seeker climbed 5% to a 2.1, pulling in just over three million viewers.
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
"Brennidon" Nov. 15th, 2008 2.1
Also, the latest repeat of Lost rose slightly to a 1.0 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
"Raised by Another" Nov. 10th, 2008 1.0
Conclusion
It was a bit of an unusual week due to the Thanksgiving holiday which meant usual ratings winner Ghost Whisperer was in repeats. Otherwise, the news was bleak. NBC’s Heroes and FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Fringe all fell to new series-lows in total viewers. And both Heroes and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles also fell to series-lows in the A18-49 demographic. With every passing week, the impending move to Fridays looks bleaker and bleaker for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
The news is better for SCI FI Channel, which may have launched another successful reality series (Estate of Panic), while also seeing continued stabilization for its latest scripted drama (Sanctuary). And in syndication, Legend of the Seeker rose slightly which is always good news.
In the current week, Heroes finally stopped its free-fall and drew its best numbers in total viewers since October 27th while also managing to increase slightly in the A18-49 demographic. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles had its best outing in terms of total viewers since September 22nd and its best A18-49 rating since October 6th. Fringe rebounded nicely from its series-low last week, but I am still worried that it seems to be consistently gaining or losing between half a million and a million viewers a week.
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
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