Lower Decks

Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 12 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, December 8th, 2008 – Sunday, December 14th, 2008

Broadcast Networks

As was the case last week, there was little of note on the broadcast networks during the second week of December.  NBC’s Knight Rider was once again preempted, as was CBS’s Ghost Whisperer.  FOX’s Fringe and The CW’s Smallville and Supernatural were repeats.

For the first time in ages, Heroes was the most-watched science fiction, fantasy or horror program for the week with 7.72 million viewers for the penultimate episode of Volume Three: Heroes.  That was down slightly from the previous week (7.99 million viewers) while holding steady in the adults 18-49 demographic (3.6/9 Nielsen rating).

31   Heroes                      7,720,000

A repeat of Fringe did well, all things considered, with almost seven million viewers while Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles lost almost 600,000 viewers from its previous episode (5.82 million on December 1st) and tumbled to a 1.9/5 A18-49 rating (down from a 2.2/6 the previous week).

42   Fringe (Repeat)             6,950,000
60   Terminator: TSCC            5,250,000

Repeats of Smallville and Supernatural performed at expected levels for The CW on Thursday, with Smallville hitting 2.5 million viewers.

87   Smallville (Repeat)         2,500,000
88   Supernatural (Repeat)       1,980,000

And on Sunday, a repeat of the third episode of Jericho on The CW could only muster 880,000 viewers.

98   Jericho (The CW Repeat)       880,000

That was down 250,000 viewers from the previous week and 340,000 from the pilot episode (on November 30th).  Still, that’s better than any of the four original installments of In Harm’s Way, which never broke 800,000 viewers.  However, if the ratings for these Jericho repeats continue to fall, there will come a point when The CW decides to try something else.

SCI FI Channel (Two-Week Delay, November 24th through November 30th)

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday it was an atypical week for SCI FI.  The cable channel’s usual #1 show, Ghost Hunters, was a repeat and its Friday originals, Stargate: Atlantis and Sanctuary were pre-empted for a Mork & Mindy marathon.  The top rated program was Steven King’s Desperation with a 1.6 coverage rating (meaning 1.6% of households with access to SCI FI) while the aforementioned Ghost Hunters ranked fourth with a 1.3.  ECW was fifth, also with a 1.3.  The rest of the Top Ten was filled with made-for-TV movies and feature films.

Syndication (Two-Week Delay, November 24th through November 30th)

Legend of the Seeker dropped below a 2.0 rating for the first time with its sixth episode (“Elixer,” originally broadcast the weekend of November 29th/30th, 2008) drawing a 1.9 rating.

Legend of the Seeker (First-Run Syndication, Saturday Airdates)
"Prophecy (1)"                   Nov.  1st, 2008   4.0
"Destiny (2)"                    Nov.  1st, 2008   4.0
"Bounty"                         Nov.  8th, 2008   2.9
"Brennidon"                      Nov. 15th, 2008   2.0
"Listener"                       Nov. 22nd, 2008   2.1
"Elixer"                         Nov. 29th, 2008   1.9

The latest Lost repeat drew a 1.1 rating, the best performance for the series since the week of October 13th.

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
"All the Best Cowboys Have ..."  Nov. 17th, 2008   1.0
"Whatever the Case May Be"       Nov. 24th, 2008   1.1

Conclusion

The winter repeat “season” is in full swing, with many shows already in repeats and most others soon to be.  It will be several months before new episodes, new shows and returning mid season shows begin rolling out.  NBC’s Heroes concluded this past Monday (December 8th) and won’t be back until February 2nd, 2009.  During the second half of Volume Three: Villains, the show finally bottomed out at around 7.7 million viewers and a 3.6/9 A18-49 rating.  Those aren’t good numbers by any means but for NBC they’ll do.  If the show continues to drop when Volume Four: Fugitives premieres, a full fourth season will become much less likely.

FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is in the same boat.  It moves to Fridays in February and needs to at the very least hold its current audience to have any chance of a third season.  Fringe, on the other hand, will probably benefit from its American Idol lead-in.  There is a new episode of Ghost Whisperer this Friday and then the series will be in repeats for four weeks.  It will be interesting to see how the show fares when it returns.  It dropped an alarming amount with its last new episode (broadcast December 5th) and a four week break isn’t going to help.

As for SCI FI Channel, Stargate: Atlantis wraps up in January along with the first season of Sanctuary, which has seemingly settled at an acceptable level.  The final ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica may or may not recapture some of the show’s earlier ratings glory but either way the show is ending.  SCI FI really needs to work on its scripted fare.  In syndication, the steady performance of Lost is hardly surprising given that the show’s hardcore fanbase will follow it anywhere.  The future of Legend of the Seeker is hardly set in stone.  Falling from a 4.0 to a 1.9 rating in only six episodes would not be acceptable in any other venue; in syndication, if enough individual stations see ratings gains there could be a chance for a second 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
Syndicated ratings from SCI FI Wire/Zap2it/Broadcasting & Cable

All Nielsen Ratings Copyright Nielsen Media Research