JEOPARDY remained champion. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons follow the […]

  Sports dominated the night, not just because of the OLYMPICS, but because the NFL preseason began, leading to many local preemptions that may shift numbers this afternoon. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men […]

  DOWNTON ABBEY returned to PBS in spectacular fashion last night, with an enormous 5.1 household rating.  That was almost double the rating for Season 2’s premiere (almost 50% higher than the Season 2 finale, which was itself up 25% from Season 1), and its 7.9M total audience outrated everything on network TV in the […]

Here is the final Summer Olympic ratings track for Rio 2016, with the official ratings for all 17 nights.  In terms of millions of viewers 2+, Rio finished above Sydney 2000, just above Athens 2004, but below Beijing 2008 and London 2012.  In terms of adult 18-49 rating (what an advertiser cares about), Rio was well below […]

  HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER will continue parsing out its precious nuggets of mother-related information for one more season.  CBS very badly wanted the show back, especially with 2 Broke Girls not proving to be the Monday blockbuster the network had hoped, and deals have been made with 20th Century Fox Television (which owns […]

A good night for those seeking true love and serial killings. FOX:  A big sigh of relief was breathed at FOX as THE FOLLOWING bounced back to 2.8, up 0.4 from last week (and the episode ended with a cliffhanger that should keep the show going into next week).  The result looked particularly good because […]

Just a dismal night, even for the winners. FOX:  A special 2-hour AMERICAN IDOL (live, except on the west coast) won the night with a 3.4, but according to CBS, during the 8PM hour it was actually at 3.3 (climbing in Hour 2), which meant that it was edged out by NCIS.  Idol was also […]

Note: ABC and FOX 8-11 pm numbers below are slightly understated because live viewing on the west coast from 5-8 pm PT is not included. NBC 8:30-10:00 pm numbers below are slightly overstated because they contain live viewing of the original SNL from 8:30-10:00 pm PT. Accurate Saturday program ratings will be available Tuesday morning. […]