Weekend overnights: ABC sweeps in adults 18-49
Movies and repeats were on the menu for the broadcast networks on the day after Thanksgiving, with ABC’s airing of “The Polar Express” leading the network to first place Friday night among adults 18-49 with a 1.9 average overnight rating and a 6 share.
Univision was second at 1.7/5, CBS third at 1.4/4, NBC fourth at 1.2/4, Fox fifth at 1.0/3 and CW sixth at 0.6/2.
At 8 p.m. Univision was first with a 2.0 for “Cuidado con el Angel,” with ABC second with a 1.7 for the first hour of “Polar Express.” CBS was third with a 1.3 for a repeat of “Ghost Whisperer,” NBC fourth with a 1.0 for the first hour of the movie “The Incredibles,” Fox fifth with a 0.9 for the first half of the movie “School of Rock” and CW sixth with a 0.7 for “Everybody Hates Chris” (0.7) and “The Game” (0.7).
ABC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 2.0 for “Polar,” followed by Univision with a 1.9 for “Fuego en la Sangre.” CBS was third with a 1.5 for another “Ghost” repeat, NBC fourth with a 1.2 for “Incredibles,” Fox fifth with a 1.1 for the end of “School” and CW sixth with a 0.6 for repeats of “Chris” and “Game.”
At 10 p.m. ABC led again with a 1.9 for “20/20,” while CBS finished second with a 1.5 for a repeat of “Numb3rs.” Univision was third with a 1.3 for “Rosa de Guadalupe” and NBC fourth with a 1.2 for the end of “Incredibles” and a repeat of “The Office.”
Among households, CBS was first for the night with a 4.1 average overnight rating and a 7 share. ABC was second at 3.8/7, Univision third at 2.2/4, Fox fourth at 2.1/4, NBC fifth at 1.8/3 and CW sixth at 1.1/2.
On Saturday night, college football led ABC to an easy first-place finish among 18-49s with a 2.8 average overnight rating and an 8 share. Fox was second at 1.7/5, CBS third at 1.4/4, NBC fourth at 1.3/4 and Univision fifth at 0.9/3.
At 8 p.m. ABC was first with a 2.5 for football, followed by Fox with a 1.8 for an hour of “Cops.” CBS was third with a 1.2 for a repeat of “Numb3rs,” NBC fourth with a 1.1 for the first hour of the movie “Along Came Polly” and Univision fifth with a 0.8 for its first hour of “Sabado Gigante.”
ABC was first again at 9 p.m. with a 2.9 for football, with Fox second with a 1.6 for “America’s Most Wanted.” NBC was third with a 1.5 for the second half of its movie, CBS fourth with a 1.3 for its first hour of “48 Hours Mystery” and Univision fifth with a 0.9 for more “Sabado.”
At 10 p.m. ABC led once more with a 3.0 for football, while CBS rose to second with a 1.9 for another hour of “48 Hours Mystery.” NBC was third with a 1.2 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and Univision fourth with a 1.0 for another hour of “Sabado.”
ABC was also first for the night among households with a 5.4 average overnight rating and a 10 share. CBS was second at 3.9/7, Fox third at 3.4/6, NBC fourth at 2.9/5 and Univision fifth at 1.4/2.
NRF: Black Friday weekend shoppers up 7 percent
Despite fears of big sales declines on Black Friday weekend, following months of gloom and doom over the U.S. economy, retailers actually got off to a solid start to the holiday spending season. Estimates released this morning by the National Retail Federation's 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that there were both more shoppers and more money spent this year than last. More than 172 million shoppers visited stores and web sites over the weekend, up from 147 million last year. These shoppers spent an average $372.57 apiece, 7 percent more than last year’s $347.55, and totaling some $41 billion. Stores offering special deals on Thanksgiving helped, with 16.2 million shoppers that day, up 48 percent from 10.9 million last year. Still, while the NRF continues to predict holiday sales will increase 2.2 percent this year, to $470.4 billion, stores did offer steep discounts over the weekend to lure shoppers in. More than half said they visited discount stores, and more shoppers report they’ve already finished their holiday shopping than last year.
British chef Jamie Oliver cooks up a new magazine
Britain maybe trapped in a recession, but no matter. British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is launching a new magazine anyway. The magazine, which officially debuts Wednesday, has an initial print run of 140,000 and is called Jamie Magazine. It is a bi-monthly title about the chef himself. “It’s all about Jamie’s world,” says Andy Harris, the editor. “It’s a natural progression from his books.” As such it will feature interviews with famous chefs or celebrities Oliver meets in his daily life. For instance, the first issue has an interview with Oliver’s friend Brad Pitt. It will also have travel stories, restaurant reviews and plenty of recipes – more than a 100 in the first issue. The first three issues are being sold exclusively through the British store WH Smith and via subscription. While the magazine will initially be sold only on British newsstands, Harris says they will look at rolling it out to the U.S. once it is established in Britain.
Hispanic agencies to Arbitron: PPM remains flawed
The outcry over Arbitron’s portable people meter continues. The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies has sent a letter to the company complaining that the PPM sample is flat-out wrong and that Arbitron has been indifferent to the AHAA’s concerns about the potential effect of the PPM on Spanish-language radio. The letter is a follow-up to a Sept. 11 memo expressing similar concerns. A month later, Arbitron rolled out the device in eight markets, bringing the total cities using the PPM as currency to 10. Among the AHAA complaints detailed in the letter: young Hispanic listeners ages 12 and above are not reasonably included in samples; data omits metrics necessary for an accurate assessment of minority radio listenership; and PPM has a smaller sample size than the paper diary. “Allocating advertising dollars based on invalid information will negatively impact advertisers as they will be unable to reach audiences as expected,” the letter concludes, while asking Arbitron for a response to address the issues.
PTC ranks best and worst advertisers of the season
Santa may still be deciding who’s naughty or nice, but the Parents Television Council has its holiday list-making done. The watchdog group released its annual top 10 best and worst advertisers last week, based on who sponsored family-friendly fare and who supported shows that, in the PTC’s opinion, contained “graphic sexual content, excessive violence or profanity.” Coca-Cola rose to the top of the best list after ranking ninth last year, followed by Clorox and Century 21. Hewlett-Packard made the best list for the first time, clocking in at No. 10. Meanwhile, General Motors and Nissan went one-two on the “worst” list, with the PTC singling out their advertising on particularly adult episodes of “Family Guy” and the broadcast version of “Dexter.” The rankings are based on the 2007-’08 TV season, and advertisers must have purchased at least 25 primetime spots to qualify.
On Cyber Monday, 56 percent of workers will buy
There’s a good chance you or your co-worker in the next cubicle will be doing some online shopping today. This year 56 percent of workers with online access, or 72.8 million people, will shop for holiday gifts from work, finds a BIGresearch survey conducted for Shop.org. That’s compared with 45 percent of workers who said they shopped online at the office in 2005. Nearly 84 percent of online retailers are offering deals this Cyber Monday. The survey found that 60 percent of men are more likely to shop at work compared with 51 percent of women, and 70 percent of young adults 18-34 with internet access will shop online at work. The survey was conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch from Nov. 5-11 and polled 8,758 consumers.
Study: Etail spending up 1 percent on Black Friday
Not everyone got up early to fight the crowds to save a few dollars at the big-box stores on Black Friday. Online shoppers hitting their keyboards on Friday were up 11 percent, according to PriceGrabber.com, a comparison-shopping web site. The most sought-after item? The Nintendo Wii. Online nontravel retail sales were up 1 percent compared with the same day a year ago, from $531 million to $534 million, reports online measuring company comScore. But not all internet shoppers waited for Black Friday to pull out their wallets. On Thanksgiving Day online sales were up 6 percent from 2007 to $288 million, comScore found. That came just days after comScore reported the first-ever year-to-year online retail spending decline for the first four weeks of November.
Black and blue: Sears site battered by Friday traffic
Of course with all those shoppers come complications – it was blackout Friday rather than Black Friday for some U.S retailers online. Target, Amazon.com, Kohl's and Saks all experienced slowdowns, and Sears.com was completely inaccessible for a couple of hours during the biggest holiday shopping day of the year. That’s according to California-based online retail tracker Keynote Systems. Keynote found that Sears’ web site began to slow around 9:30 a.m. and that shoppers were blocked from accessing the site between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sears also experienced trouble with its web site last year during Black Friday. Other retailers, including Neiman Marcus, that experienced online troubles last year seemed to have gotten their bugs worked out, according to Keynote. Some e-tailers may yet experience hiccups today as workers hit the online stores, Keynote predicts.
Yoohoo, those new Microhoo rumors may be bogus
Microhoo rumors have reared up again, though the validity of this report came into question almost immediately. Yesterday London’s Sunday Times reported that Microsoft had entered talks to acquire Yahoo’s search business for some $20 billion, months after a potential Microsoft deal for the entire company fell through. According to the report, ex-AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller would be brought in to oversee Yahoo, along with former Fox Interactive president Ross Levinsohn. One problem: Levinsohn called the article “total fiction,” according to All Things Digital, and no one has confirmed the deal on the record. The future of Yahoo has been up in the air for months amid falling stock prices and an unclear future strategy for the huge web portal. Two weeks ago, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as chief executive officer, prompting yet more speculation on another deal with Microsoft.
