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DTV blooper:
Charlie Gibson tumbles

Nielsen snafu sinks Friday's ABC newscast to third

By Kevin Downey
Jun 18, 2009

When it comes to the nightly news, all the bad news has been about CBS’s “Evening News with Katie Couric,” which has continued to struggle in third place as NBC and ABC swatted it out for No. 1.

But then late last week the attention turned to ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson,” with reports that the show’s ratings had quite suddenly sunk to all-time lows.

As it turns out, it just plain wasn't true.

Friday was DTV switchover day, when the nation completed the move from analog to digital transmission. And while it went smoothly for the most part, there was one notable glitch: Gibson's news show appeared to lose some 2.2 million viewers.

Initially, Nielsen reported an audience of 4.1 million viewers. When ABC balked, Nielsen rechecked its numbers and issued a corrected figure yesterday: 6.34 million viewers had actually watched the show.

What happened?

Seems a few ABC affiliates switched over to digital earlier than expected, and Nielsen didn’t include these stations in its initial ratings estimates.

“World News” actually did fairly well the week of June 8, ranking a solid No. 2 behind NBC’s “Nightly News.”

“Nightly News” averaged just under 8.3 million viewers. It had a 5.5 household rating and 12 share. And in the key news demographic adults 25-54 it had a 1.9 rating.

“World News” had just shy of 7 million viewers, a 4.8 household rating and 11 share and a 1.5 adult 25-54 rating.

“Evening News” trailed far behind with 5.4 million viewers, a 3.7/8 in households and a 1.2 rating in 25-54s.

***

Meanwhile, in other daypart ratings for the week ended June 7, ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” was the most-watched Sunday morning show with 3.11 million tuning in, followed by CBS’s “Face the Nation” with 2.49 million viewers and Fox “News Sunday” with 1.36 million. Among the 25-54 demographic, ABC averaged a 0.9 rating followed by CBS at 0.6 and Fox at 0.4. NBC’s “Meet the Press” was preempted due to the network’s French Open coverage.

In morning shows, NBC’s “Today” was first for the week with 5.4 million total viewers, followed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” with 4.1 million and CBS’s “Early Show” with 2.6 million. “Today” averaged a 4.1 household rating and a 15 share, followed by “Good Morning America” at 3.1/11 and “Early Show” at 2.0/7.

In late night, NBC’s “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” led the week with 6.1 million total viewers in its debut, followed by CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman” with 3.5 million and ABC’s “Nightline” with 3.2 million. In late late night, NBC’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” drew 2.4 million viewers, with CBS’s “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” bringing in 1.8 million, NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly” 1.4 million and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” 1.3 million. Among 18-49s, “Tonight Show” averaged a 2.3 rating, followed by “Nightline” and “Late Show” at 0.9. In late late night, “Late Night” averaged a 1.0 rating, with “Late Late Show” and “Last Call” at 0.6 (with a Monday rerun for “Last Call”) and “Kimmel” at 0.4 (including reruns on Monday and Friday).

The most recent week of daytime ratings were unavailable.

SUNDAY MORNING SHOW RATINGS Week ending June 7, 2009 Sunday averages
Program	Network	Households
Program	Network	Rtg%	Shr	Adults 25-54	Total viewers (millions)
This Week With George Stephanopoulos	ABC	2.2	6	0.9	3.110
Face the Nation	CBS	1.7	5	0.6	2.490
News Sunday	Fox	0.9	3	0.4	1.360
Meet the Press*	NBC	-	-	-	-
*Preempted due to French Open coverage Source: NTI

LATE-NIGHT RATINGS Week Ending June 7, 2009 Five-day averages
Program	Network	People 2+	Adults 18-49
Program	Network	Total viewers (millions)	Rtg%
Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien	NBC	6.1	2.3
Late Show with David Letterman	CBS	3.5	0.9
Nightline	ABC	3.2	0.9
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon	NBC	2.4	1.0
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson	CBS	1.8	0.6
Last Call with Carson Daly*	NBC	1.4	0.6
Jimmy Kimmel Live*	ABC	1.3	0.4
* Monday's "Last Call" and the Monday and Friday "Kimmel" telecasts were encores. Source: NTI

MORNING SHOW RATINGS Week Ending June 7, 2009 Five-day averages
Program	Network	Households		People 2+
Program	Network	Rtg%	Shr	Total viewers (millions)
Today	NBC	4.1	15	5.419
Good Morning America	ABC	3.1	11	4.115
Early Show	CBS	2.0	7	2.578
Source: NTI

DAYTIME RATINGS Week Ending May 24, 2009 Five-day averages
	Total viewers (millions)	Women 18-49
Network	(millions)	Rtg%
CBS	3.36	1.0
ABC	2.84	1.3
NBC	2.53	1.2
Source: NTI

EVENING NETWORK NEWS RATINGS Week Ending June 14, 2009 Five-day averages
Program	Network	25-54s	People 2+
Program	Network	Rtg%	Total viewers (millions)
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams	NBC	1.9	8.271
ABC World News with Charles Gibson	ABC	1.5	6.990
CBS Evening News with Katie Couric	CBS	1.2	5.402
Source: Nielsen Media Research

SYNDICATION Ranked on Households Week Ending June 7, 2009
#	PROGRAMS	Syndicator	Households
#	PROGRAMS	Syndicator	US Rtg%	(000)
1	WHEEL OF FORTUNE	CTD	5.9	6787
2	JEOPARDY	CTD	5.2	5930
3	TWO-HALF MEN-SYN (AT)	WB	4.1	4724
4	OPRAH WINFREY SHOW	CTD	4.0	4524
4	JUDGE JUDY (AT)	CTD	4.0	4578
6	ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT(AT)	CTD	3.8	4350
7	CSI NEW YORK-SYN(AT)	CTD	3.5	3952
8	FAMILY GUY-MF-SYN (AT)	2/T	3.4	3939
9	LAW & ORDER:SVU-SYN (AT)	NBU	3.3	3787
10	SEINFELD (AT)	SPT	3.1	3563
11	INSIDE EDITION (AT)	CTD	2.9	3301
12	EVRY LVS RAYMOND-SYN(AT)	CTD	2.8	3261
13	DR. PHIL SHOW (AT)	CTD	2.7	3115
13	GEORGE LOPEZ (AT)	WB	2.7	3099
13	KING OF THE HILL-SYN(AT)	2/T	2.7	3050
16	WHEEL OF FORTUNE WKND	CTD	2.6	2987
17	LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY	DAD	2.4	2796
17	CSI MIAMI-SYN (AT)	CTD	2.4	2713
19	SEINFELD-WKND (AT)	SPT	2.3	2595
19	MILLIONAIRE (AT)	DAD	2.3	2591
19	KING OF QUEENS-SYN (AT)	SPT	2.3	2626
19	HOUSE OF PAYNE MF-SYN(AT)	2/T	2.3	2632
23	TWO-HALF MEN WKND B (AT)	WB	2.2	2563
23	FRIENDS (AT)	WB	2.2	2462
25	TMZ (AT)	WB	2.1	2349
25	GEORGE LOPEZ WKND A (AT)	WB	2.1	2435
Source: Nielsen Media Research