Lower Decks

Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 6 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, October 27th, 2008 – Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Broadcast Networks

It was another atypical week for the broadcast networks, due to the World Series and Senator Obama’s political advertisement.  Both Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Knight Rider were pre-empted, while Fringe was a repeat.

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 5 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, October 14th, 2008 – Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Broadcast Network

After seemingly losing momentum last week, CBS drama Ghost Whisperer hit a season high and topped ten million viewers for the first time since Season Two (“The Cradle Will Rock,” 11.35 million viewers on Friday, February 16th, 2007).  On  FOX, however, Fringe fell to a series low of 8.91 million viewers.  In the adults 18-49 demographic, however, it drew a 3.9/10 Nielsen rating (down from a 4.0/10 the previous week), which is still far above what the series premiere performed (3.2/9 on Tuesday, September 9th).  If Fringe can hold steady at roughly nine million viewers and a 4.0 rating in the A18-49 demo, FOX will consider it a hit.

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 4 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, October 13th, 2008 – Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Broadcast Network

For the networks, the fourth week of the 2008-2009 season was a bleak one, with just about every genre series seeing a decline compared to the previous week. FOX’s Fringe ranked 25th with 9.16 million viewers, which would be good news if not for the fact that it was a hefty drop from the previous episode (9.9 million viewers on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008).  The episode drew a 4.0/10 Nielsen rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, also down from the previous episode (4.2/11).  The episode was the least-watched and lowest-rated since the premiere (9.1 million viewers, 3.2/9 A18-49 on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008).

25   Fringe                      9,160,000

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 3 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, October 6th, 2008 – Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Broadcast Network

The third week of the new season was, for the most part, a disappointing one for genre programming.  For Ghost Whisperer, however, it was a very good one.  The CBS drama drew 9.69 million viewers and a 2.7/10 Nielsen rating in the adults 18-49 demographic.  That was an increase of 780,000 viewers and 0.2 in the demo from the second episode of the show’s third season (8.91 million viewers/2.5/9 rating for “Don’t Try This at Home,” originally broadcast Friday, October 5th, 2007).  It easily won its 8-9PM timeslot.

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 2 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, September 29th, 2008 – Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Broadcast Network

For many shows, the second week of the 2008-2009 television season was a disappointing one.  Fringe, with 9.91 million viewers, grew slightly from the previous week (9.42 million viewers on Tuesday, September 23rd) but was still down considerably from the huge audience for its second episode (13.27 million on Tuesday, September 16th).  Its 4.2/11 Nielsen rating in the adult 18-49 demographic was also up from the previous week (4.2/11 vs. 4.1/10) but also down from the second episode (5.1/13).  If this is true audience growth for Fringe not connected with its lead-in, House, FOX may have a solid performer on its hands.

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 1 of the 2008-2009 Television Season
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 – Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Broadcast Network

Here it is, the start of the 2008-2009 television season, complete with brand new shows and lots of returning favorites.  Of course, some new and returning shows had their premieres earlier this month.  But this was the real “premiere week.”  Perhaps most anticipated was the third season premiere of NBC’s Heroes on Monday.  After an hour-long countdown special, two episodes were shown back-to-back from 9:00PM to 11:00PM.  Those two new episodes averaged a 5.9/9 Nielsen household rating, a 5.0/12 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, and a hair over ten million viewers:

24   Heroes                     10,0900,000

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 52 of the 2007-2008 Television Season
Monday, September 15th, 2008 – Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Broadcast Networks

During the final week of the 2007-2008 television season, with the networks already premiering many of their new and returning shows, the big news was the performance of FOX’s Fringe during its second outing.  Airing after the season premiere of House, the new J.J. Abrahms drama soared to a strong 5.1/13 Nielsen rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and drew 13.27 million viewers.  By comparison, that was nearly two full points above its premiere (a 3.2/9 in the A18-49 demo on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008) and growth of over four million viewers (9.1 million).

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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.

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 50 of the 2007-2008 Television Season
Monday, September 1st, 2008 – Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Broadcast Networks

The first week of September was an anomaly: there were absolutely no science fiction, fantasy or horror programs broadcast on the networks.  The usual CBS Ghost Whisperer repeat was preempted on Friday by the multinetwork special Stand Up To Cancer.  And on Thursday, The CW’s repeats of Smallville and Supernatural were preempted by a special rebroadcast of the two-hour 90210 premiere.

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Weekly Ratings Roundup
Week 49 of the 2007-2008 Television Season
Monday, August 25th, 2008 – Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Broadcast Networks

During the last week of August, as the 2008 summer repeat season began drawing to a close and with the start of the 2008-2009 season only weeks away, the most-watched science fiction, fantasy or horror program on broadcast television was a repeat of Ghost Whisperer on CBS, with a 3.0/7 household rating, a 1.1/5 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 4.43 million viewers.  It was beaten in its 8-9PM time slot by both a repeat of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? on FOX and WWE Smackdown! on The CW (only in the A18-49 demographic for the latter).

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