The ratings results are in for the first quarter of 2009, and they’re not pretty for CNN, which, after riding high for much of the election year, has fallen to third place in the primetime ratings for the first time. Fox News’ primetime is up 24% on the year, MSNBC up 22% and CNN is down 10%. (The one bright spot for the larger CNN …
TV Ratings
Ratings: BSG Does Not Frak Dollhouse Up
On Friday I lamented the overlap of Battlestar Galactica’s finale with the paradigm-shifting relaunch episode of Dollhouse. But it turns out that maybe a rising tide lifts all spaceships / human-personality-imprinting facilities. BSG did score a big sendoff, with its highest ratings in three years. But Dollhouse not only held fairly …
Ratings: Sheldon Was Right
Another detail that last night’s Big Bang Theory got right was the overlap in the Venn diagram of Guys Who Own TiVos and Guys Who Watch Sci-Fi. This appears to be borne out in a bit of good ratings news for both Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (on which should-have-been-Echo Summer Glau appears). Reports James …
Crash the Nielsens
In the current Lost thread, commenter archstanton68 goes off-topic to make an offer that deserves its own post (if only because I have little time to write posts myself today):
OT – I got a Nielsen diary in the mail the other day. anyone have any struggling shows for me to help out in the ratings?
Archstanton68 is only one diarist, but …
Ratings: A Stimulus for Fox News
During the election, with CNN and MSNBC surging on politics-news coverage (following a slump by Fox News over the preceding couple years), TV observers like Tuned In wondered how Fox News would do in a new Presidential era. The answer, for February anyway, is: pretty well. For the month (as defined by Nielsen) Fox was up 28%, CNN off by …
Ratings: Oscars Up-ish, Dollhouse Down-ish
Certain critics may have groused about last night’s Oscars, but preliminary ratings have the broadcast up about 6% from last year. The rise, however, comes off an all-time low last year, so the broadcast may still be among the three lowest rated ever. Still, the odds are that much higher for more show tunes next year.
Meanwhile, there …
Ratings Report: Obama Outdraws Idol?
According to preliminary Nielsen numbers, President Obama’s press conference drew a higher rating than the season premiere of American Idol, says the Hollywood Reporter. On the one hand, Idol only airs on one network. On the other hand, the preliminary press conference rating doesn’t includes the cable news networks, which will drive the …
Will the Last Person to Watch a Broadcast Network Please Turn Off the Set?
Why, you wonder, is NBC turning over a third of its weeknight programming to Jay Leno? There are specific reasons having to do with the in-the-toiletness of NBC at present, but there are also, as they say, systemic causes. Namely, no one is watching broadcast-network TV.
Well, not no one. But a new study has found viewership sharply …
Biz News: TV Thriving, Also Screwed
Two news items, both from the Hollywood Reporter:
* Despite widespread news of a decline in broadcast ratings, a Nielsen study finds people using their TVs more than ever. Using them for what? As attractive planters? Doorstops? No: they’re watching cable and—heed Tim Kring—using their DVRs more and more often.
* That said, the …
Nielsen, By the Numbers
For those Tuned Inlanders interested in the business-and-ratings side of TV, Nielsen has launched a new blog with regularly updated ratings and other stats on media and branding. Nielsen keeps a lot of their research proprietary, of course, but for media numbers junkies, it’s a nice all-on-one-page general resource.
The …
Mad Men Proves That Advertising Works
What do you get for $25 million? For AMC and Mad Men, about a million pairs of eyeballs. The season 2 premiere of the much-lauded-by-critics, not-as-much-watched-by-people drama drew about 1.9 million viewers. That’s not much by broadcast network standards—or even by TNT network standards—but it’s more than double the show’s average …