| medialifemagazine.com Broadcast recap
Preseason games on Fox and NBC have drawn the networks’ best ratings in years, thanks to a number of unusually intriguing storylines, which promise to continue well into the regular season. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” preseason game between the Chicago Bears and the Denver Broncos averaged 10.4 million total viewers, the best showing for a preseason game on any network in three years, since the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles drew 10.6 million on NBC. That came a week and a half after Fox’s Philadelphia Eagles-Indianapolis Colts preseason game drew the network’s best preseason rating in two years among adults 18-49, averaging a 2.4 rating. Both games had big storylines to push viewership, storylines that will carry over into September and beyond to attract bigger audiences. The Eagles game came just days after the team signed Michael Vick, the controversial convicted dog fighter, and three-time Pro Bowl quarterback. Curiosity over how Vick copes with the protests against him and his absence from football during a jail stint will continue throughout the season. The Broncos game featured former QB Jay Cutler returning to Denver for the first time since a nasty split with his former team in the offseason. Other juicy off-field plots this season include former NFL MVP Tom Brady’s return to the field after a year away due to knee injury and future Hall of Famer Brett Favre’s recent unretirement to join the Minnesota Vikings, a bitter rival of his former team, the Green Bay Packers. The regular season kicks off on Sept. 9 on NBC when the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers host the Tennessee Titans. *** Meanwhile, in broadcast ratings for the week ended Aug. 30: Among adults 18-49, CBS and NBC tied for first with a 1.8 average rating and a 6 share, followed by Fox at 1.7/5, Univision at 1.3/4, ABC at 1.2/4, MyNetworkTV at 0.5/2, CW at 0.5/1, Telemundo and Telefutura at 0.4/1, Ion at 0.2/0 and Azteca at 0.1/0. Top five English-language Big Five shows (18-49s): 1. Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” 3.6; 2. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” 3.5; 3. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent – Tuesday” 3.1; 4. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent – Wednesday” 3.0; 5. CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” 2.9. Top five English-language Big Five shows (total viewers): 1. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent - Tuesday” 11.46 million; 2. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent - Wednesday” 11.19 million; 3. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” 10.38 million; 4. CBS’s “NCIS” 10.06 million; 5. CBS’s “60 Minutes” 9.71 million. Top five time-shifted English-language Big Five shows (18-49s, by Live+7 playback, week ended Aug. 9): 1. Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” 1.60 million (up 32 percent); 2. Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance - Thursday” 1.51 million (up 28 percent); 3. Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance - Wednesday” 1.43 million (up 34 percent); 4. CBS’s “Big Brother-Sunday” 1.26 million (up 36 percent); 5. CBS’s “Big Brother – Thursday” 1.22 million (up 36 percent). Show on the rise: “How I Met Your Mother,” CBS, Monday 8 p.m. The first of back-to-back repeats averaged a 1.9 rating among 18-49s, up 36 percent from the previous week’s 1.4. Show on the decline: “Dateline,” NBC, Monday 10 p.m. The Monday edition slipped 17 percent week-to-week among 18-49s, from a 1.8 rating to a 1.5.
WEEKLY PRIMETIME AVERAGES BY NETWORK
Network
Households
People 2+
Adults 18-49
Rtg%
(000)
Shr
Rtg%
(000)
Shr
Rtg%
(000)
Shr
CBS
4.3
4910
8
2.3
6600
6
1.8
2370
6
NBC
4.1
4720
7
2.2
6370
6
1.8
2420
6
FOX
2.9
3350
5
1.6
4780
5
1.7
2290
5
ABC
2.5
2860
4
1.3
3840
4
1.2
1590
4
UNI
1.7
1940
3
1.1
3180
3
1.3
1680
4
MNT
0.9
1080
2
0.5
1530
1
0.5
650
2
CW
0.9
1070
2
0.5
1340
1
0.5
620
1
ION
0.5
550
1
0.2
700
1
0.2
200
0
TEL
0.5
540
1
0.3
950
1
0.4
590
1
TF
0.5
540
1
0.3
930
1
0.4
580
1
AZA
0.1
120
0
0.1
160
0
0.1
100
0
*
Each rating point is equivalent to
1. 145
million homes
Source: Nielsen Media Research
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
