Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Summer Realty TV Ratings (7/21-7/27)

I am a big reality TV fan and Summer is the time for the major US TV networks to air original non-fiction reality and game shows in place of re-runs of their Fall-Winter fictional series.

Below is a list of where the major original Summer reality series placed in last week's US prime time TV ratings. The first number is the placement out of the 97 programs that aired on the 5 major US TV networks last week. The column after the show name shows total viewers (2 years and older) and the column after that is the rating. For benchmarking purposes, the average program airing in US prime time last week drew 4.8 million viewers and the average rating was 1.7.


Analysis:

Although both America's Got Talent and Wipeout increased their viewership levels this week over one week ago, the latter narrowed the former's audience lead by 850,000 viewers

At the other end of the spectrum, ABC's Monday night all-reality slate continues to draw abysmal ratings as all of HSM: Get In The Picture, Wanna Bet and The Mole are bunched near the bottom of the ratings pack, along with the finale of ABC's Friday night reprise of the gameshow Duel (that we have likely seen the last of).


Greatest American Dog lost viewers again in its 3rd outing (which may explain why CBS has flipped it in favour of the weekly live elimination ceremony episode of Big Brother 10, which also scores better in the key demo, given Dog's older audience skew) . Likewise the audience for NBC's Baby Borrowers continues to erode from its higher debut levels


Original Summer Reality TV Ratings

FROM 07/21/08 THROUGH 07/27/08



1 AMERICA'S GOT TALENT 13240 4.6
2 WIPEOUT 9980 3.5
5 SO YOU THINK CAN DANCE-WED 8600 3.0
8 SO YOU THINK CAN DANCE-THU 8380 2.9
14 SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER 7420 2.6
16 CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD 7280 2.5
22 BIG BROTHER 10-WED 6220 2.2
25 BIG BROTHER 10-TUE 6070 2.1
GREATEST AMERICAN DOG 6070 2.1
27 NASHVILLE STAR 5850 2.0
28 BIG BROTHER 10-SUN 5840 2.0
31 I SURVIVED-JAPANESE GM SHOW 5550 1.9
36 AMERICAN GLADIATORS 5210 1.8
46 BABY BORROWERS 4730 1.7
53 LAST COMIC STANDING 6 4250 1.5
68 MOLE, THE 3350 1.2
73 HSM: GET IN THE PICTURE -MON 3130 1.1
74 DUEL 3120 1.1
WANNA BET 3120 1.1
76 HSM: GET IN THE PICTURE-SUN 3050 1.1

UPDATE:

Meanwhile for those readers who are wondering how Summer reality shows rate comparably in the Canadian market, consider the list below. Its Canada-wide for the week earlier (publication of Canadian ratings tends to lag the US market). Noticeably absent from tghe Canadian list is Americas Got Talent, whereas So You Can Think You Can Dance performs stronger than in the US. There are two Canadian produced series-- Canadian Idol and How Do you Solve a Problem Like Maria-- that also make the list.

The first number is the ordinal placement out of all shows (including fictional series) airing in the ratings week. The final number gives the audience levels in '000s

1 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE 4 (Wednesday) CTV 1410
2 CANADIAN IDOL 6 PERFORMANCE CTV 1308
3 SO YOU THINK.DANCE 4 (Tuesday) CTV 1263
8 BIG BROTHER 10 (Sunday) Global 976
9 CANADIAN IDOL 6 RESULTS CTV 957
13 BIG BROTHER 10 (Tuesday) Global 863
18 WIPEOUT Global 801
22 BIG BROTHER 10 (Wednesday) Global 753
27 MARIA PERFORMANCES CBC 655

1 comment:

steve mcg said...

Its interesting to contrast how the shows perform in total viewers (see original post) to how they perform in the key (adults 18-49) demo that most advertisers seek to reach. There is some consistency but some shows perform stronger / weaker. Below is the 18-49 rating and audience share figures. You will note that Wipeout actually outdraws Americas Got Talent in the key demo.

1 Wipeout (ABC) – Tuesday 8 p.m. 3.7/12
2 America’s Got Talent (NBC) – Tuesday 9 p.m. 3.4/10
4 So You Think You Can Dance (Fox) – Wednesday 8 p.m 3.0/ 9
5 So You Think You Can Dance (Fox) – Thursday 9 p.m. 2.8/ 9
10 Big Brother 10 (CBS) – Tuesday 9 p.m.A18-49: 2.2/ 6
12 Big Brother 10 (CBS) – Wednesday 8 p.m. 2.1/ 7
12 I Survived a Japanese Game Show (ABC) – Tuesday 9 p.m. 2.1/ 6
18 Big Brother 10 (CBS) – Sunday 8 p.m. 2.0/ 6
18 Baby Borrowers (NBC) – Wednesday 9 p.m. 2.0/ 6
21 American Gladiators (NBC) – Monday 8 p.m. 1.9/ 6
25 Celebrity Family Feud (NBC) – Tuesday 8 p.m. 1.8/ 8
27 Last Comic Standing (NBC) - Thursday 8 p.m. (two hours) 1.7/ 6
34 Greatest American Dog (CBS) – Thursday 8 p.m.1.6/ 6
34 Nashville Star (NBC) – Monday 9 p.m. 1.6/ 5
46 The Mole (ABC) – Monday 10 p.m.1.4/ 4
60 Wanna Bet (ABC) – Monday 9 p.m.1.1/ 3
67 High School Musical – Get in the Picture (ABC) – Sunday 8 p.m.1.0/ 3
74 High School Musical – Get in the Picture (ABC) – Monday 8 p.m. 0.9/ 3
77 Duel (ABC) - Friday 9 p.m. (series finale) 0.8/ 3