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May 26, 2012

Ratings update: actually, CBS won premiere week

by Bob Sassone, posted Oct 18th 2007 9:04AM

CBS logoUntil this week, it was assumed that ABC had won the ratings battle for the first week of the new fall season. But now that they've counted DVR playback, it looks like it was actually CBS that won that week.

But it was close after all the numbers were counted. CBS averaged 12.5 million viewers, while ABC averaged 12.4 million. NBC averaged 10.5 million, FOX averaged 7.3 million, and I think The CW had some shows on that week too.

But the most interesting news about this whole "live plus seven day" ratings measurement system (I'm not quite sure I get it either) is how much individual shows increased their viewership. For example, Grey's Anatomy had 2 million more viewers than originally thought, and Heroes had 1.9 million more. Oddly, when they counted the new numbers for Cavemen, the viewership was in negative numbers.*

(OK, OK, The CW averaged 2.9 million viewers that week.)

*Just kidding.

[via TV Tattle]

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Randall

Hey midnight penguin. 11 isn't late at all. Who goes to bed before midnight now anyway? News doesn't even start til 11.

October 20 2007 at 1:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Galley

Perhaps if they had started counting DVR viewership sooner, great shows like "Firefly" and "Futurama" might still be on the air.

October 19 2007 at 8:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan

Midnight Penguin, you get used to it. Or get really friendly with your VCR/DVR.

October 18 2007 at 5:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
The Midnight Penguin

I think every ratings post should have a link back to the discussion on Neilsen ratings...I TIVO 6 of the top 7 shows that added to their numbers from that article. I do so because I don't want to watch ads, not because I can't actually watch at that time. How does this help determine the ad prices if I don't ever watch them?

A note/question on the 10pm shows across the board, which would be the last hour if I'm not mistaken...I live in the midwest and to watch tv at 7, 8 and then 9 pm - which seems completely within my working schedule for bedtime. I recently traveled into the Eastern time zone...I want to know how in the world does anyone who works stay up until 11pm to watch that last show? It's not like those in the time zone get to go to work an hour later or anything. I've never traveled to the other coast, but it seems like the first hour of shows is right during dinnertime? It seems to me that this would have a large effect on viewers, with nothing that can be done about it without having the episodes streaming online/recaps posted before it shows on the West coast. At least television watching is one plus to living in the midwest...;-)

October 18 2007 at 3:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Frank

Segig,

I doubt they are able to actually "count" DVR recordings.
It's just as "fake" as the nielsen data, in that they take a statistically significant sample size to estimate overall viewership.

October 18 2007 at 11:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
segsig

I can't understand how real numbers (dvr) are being combined with fake numbers (nielsen). Statistically it is illogical, because the fake numbers are demographically sorted to be representative and the real numbers while they maybe actual viewers aren't representative of the public.

October 18 2007 at 10:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gill Garcia

That's pretty close, is no one going to demand a recount? There might be hanging chads somewhere in the mix.

October 18 2007 at 9:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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