Premiere week DVR numbers: Way huge

Broadcast may not be losing quite as many viewers as it first seemed.

Though ratings in the adults 18-49 demographic were down 15 percent during the first two weeks of the season, it seems many of those viewers weren’t eschewing broadcast.

They were simply tape-delaying it.

The Big Five networks averaged a 29.7 percent bump per show in 18-49 ratings when live-plus-seven-day viewership was compared with live-plus-same-day viewership, according to data released today by Nielsen.

That’s higher than last year, when broadcast averaged a bump of 23.4 percent for the first week of the season.

While that doesn’t wipe out all of the declines being seen by broadcast to start the season, it means that things are not quite as distressing as they first appeared.

Some shows are seeing a very sharp increase in ratings. New show “Revolution,” for instance, benefited from a huge 67.6 percent gain from DVR replay, up 2.3 rating points, tying ABC’s “Modern Family” as the top gainer in the demo.

Including L+7 playback, “Revolution” jumped from the week’s No. 15 to No. 6, to a 5.7 rating.

Two Fox shows, “New Girl” and “Glee,” also saw extremely large bumps, rising by 53.6 percent and 62.5 percent, respectively, and reflecting Fox’s younger, digitally savvy audience.

Last year “Girl” averaged a 46.9 percent bump and “Glee” averaged a 43.3 percent bump.

NBC’s “Grimm” saw the largest percentage gain, up 81.3 percent from a 1.6 to a 2.9. Last season it averaged a 73.3 percent gain.

Twenty-seven shows had a 1.0 gain or more the first week, compared to 20 last year. The average gain per show was 0.74 rating points, compared to 0.7 last year.

Other notable gainers include the new show “Elementary” on CBS, up 45.2 percent from a 3.1 to a 4.5, and “Fringe,” “Private Practice” and “Hawaii Five-0.”

All three of those programs had their lowest-rated premieres ever but gained at least 60 percent in seven-day playback.
 

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