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Week 3 Numbers (First Four Nights); How the Sitcoms Did

Week 3 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: CBS: 9.1/14.4; ABC: 8.8/13.8; NBC: 6.5/10.2; Fox: 5.2/8.2; The CW: 2.4/3.8.
Total Viewers: CBS: 14.3 million; ABC: 13.34 million; NBC: 9.95 million; Fox: 7.7 million; The CW: 3.78 million.
Adults 18-49: ABC: 4.6/12.3; CBS: 4.5/11.9; NBC: 3.7/9.9; Fox: 2.6/7.2; The CW: 1.6/4.3.

Analysis: The third week again has CBS and ABC battling it out. And it looks like it will come down to tonight (Sunday) on who will win the week...yet AGAIN! As usual, Friday and Saturday numbers are not above, since final numbers are not available yet. ABC and CBS lead the pack so far with NBC third...the same pattern from the first weeks of the season. On Monday, CBS's CSI: Miami won the last hour with 17.9 million and helped them win the night in viewers, but 9pm's Heroes on NBC held up well in week two with a 5.5/13 rating in A18-49, just slightly down from the premiere. NBC's Studio 60 fell more, and was in third place in its slot with 8.85 million--NBC might be calling on Medium soon. ABC premiered another installment of The Bachelor and did decent for them doing 7.53 million for its two-hour premiere. Will the season premiere of What About Brian beat Studio 60 tomorrow? We shall see. Tuesday, it was ABC's turn of excellence as Dancing with the Stars did 18.38 million for 90 minutes and the second episode of new sitcom Help Me Help You held some of that audience and did 10.08 million--should be better, though. Fox's regular line-up was pre-empted as Baseball playoffs did just 8.36 million..they missed House. NBC did well with Law & Order: CI and Law & Order: SVU, but Friday Night Lights premiered to just 7.17 million at 8. Meanwhile, CBS continues to falter Tuesdays at 10 (they do great 8-10pm though) as Smith was at fourth place for the hour with 8.38 million...and now the show is canceled, look for crime repeats to take over this week. Wednesday saw ABC win in viewers this week as Lost is back and did 18.82 million and a very good 11.1/17 HH rating! ABC also won the opening hour again with Dancing with the Stars: The Results doing 11.6/18 rating and 17.49 million (up almost 2 million from last week...Nick Lachey as a special guest helped). CBS's Jericho did 10.83 million, down from last week's 11.45 million and the premiere's 11.66 million--if it drops more, CBS should be concerned just a bit, but it looks to be steady. NBC had another Wednesday to forget as their night was just at 5.59 million, worse than previous week's 6.84 million, and premiere week's 7.31 million--Kidnapped will be gone this week after the dreadful performance of 5.15 million. ABC's The Nine premiered OK doing 11.91 million, hopefully it continues that and builds because this show is going to get much better than the already praised pilot. CBS competed well from 9-11pm with Criminal Minds and CSI: NY both doing over 15 million (15.19 and 15.73 million). The CW's America's Next Top Model did well again...so far the only bright spot for the new network. On Thursday we saw a two-network race between CBS and ABC. ABC's red-hot drama Grey's Anatomy had 22.8 million at 9pm and in the same slot CSI had 21.51 million (GA won in households too 14.9 to 13.5 and A18-49 9.4 to 7.3). At 8 p.m. it looks like ABC found a hit in the new series Ugly Betty, as the one-hour comedy did decent again with 14.26 million, slightly down from premiere's 16.32 million, Survivor had 15.83 million to last week's 16.84 million. The one-hour comedy beat the veteran reality show in HH again: 9.6/15 to 9.4/15. At 10 p.m. Shark was down from last week's 14.64 million to 13.75 million--this is no Trace. ER led the hour with 14.68 million. ABC's Six Degrees did 9.11 million, down from last week's 10.15 million and the premiere's 12.56 million--very concerning, but ABC will be patient as there might be a crossover very soon with the show that airs before it ;)
Friday (numbers not counted in our ratings), saw CBS's dramas do well again, and NBC saw Deal or No Deal win its hour and Law & Order did OK at 10. ABC saw a slight rise from last week (but still not in the mid 5's like it did before) for Men in Trees, but A18-49 was not good. Saturday ratings are not available yet, but expect ABC's College Football coverage or NBC's special two-hour Dateline to win the night. Last Sunday CBS was delayed by about 35 minutes on their shows, hurting them a bit. Can it do better this week? ABC will have no problem beating the NFL on NBC again, especially Desperate Housewives. Look for ABC to win the demo tonight and total viewers, as new series Brothers & Sisters is holding up pretty well. Without a Trace looks like it will win at 10, but the new ABC drama is competing more than people thought it would.
I again expect ABC to win the week in demos and maybe even in total viewers this week, CBS will battle though...should be close. NBC should be third in everything again. The Nine didn't break-out as well as I thought, but hopefully it builds...it is perfect after Lost. Look for NBC's new sitcoms to premiere OK this week, nothing big, but 30 Rock will do much better than 20 Good Years.

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of Sept. 25-Oct. 1)

• The Simpsons (Fox) 2 episodes- Two encores at 7 and 8 did not do much, 7pm only had 3.08 million and a 1.9 HH rating; repeat at 8pm perked up a bit to 7.65 million and a 4.5 HH rating, with a 3.7 A18-39 rating.
  
• 'Til Death (Fox) 2 episodes - Two repeats at 7:30 and 8:30 did not do well, with the first only doing 3.67 million, but up from lead-in and 8:30 was down from the lead-in to 6.31 million.
  
• Family Guy (Fox) - A repeat did 6.97 million.
• The War at Home (Fox) -This out of place sitcom was all-new and only did 5.59 million.
• CW Sunday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game all stumbled out of the gate. Doing only 2.3 to 2.74 million. They will be moving to Monday starting tomorrow.
  

Monday Sitcoms

• The Class (CBS) - The sitcom's 3rd episode saw it go down even more. 7.88 million, 2.7/8 A18-49 rating and just a 5.4/9 HH rating. Last week: 8.48 million. 5.6/9 HH rating and 2.9/8 A18-49 rating. This sitcom will be moved to 8:30pm starting tomorrow.
  
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Up from last week's 9.14 million to 9.32 million, 3.4/9 A18-49 rating was up to 3.6/9, and a 5.8/9 HH rating was up to a 6.1/9. How well will it do tomorrow at 8pm? Can it help The Class?
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 15.09 million, 15.28 million for first episodes of the season, so for the third episode it continued the pattern with 15.8 million.
• New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) - This show is slowly getting better in the ratings. 12.01 million, 12.19 and for the third installment it had a big jump to 13.59 million. Clearly a winner this week.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• Help Me Help You (ABC) - This week the show did 10.08 million, 6.8/10 HH rating, and a 3.0/8 A18-49 rating, compared to last week's 11.48 million, 7.7/12 HH rating and a 3.5/9 A18-49 rating. The show needs to not drop again and stay steady around 11-12 million.
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

None.

Thursday Sitcoms

• My Name is Earl (NBC) - Fox didn't have a competing sitcom, so this week this sitcom did its best of the season doing 9.89 million...much better!
  
• The Office (NBC) - Up from last week and did 8.89 million.

Friday Sitcoms
None.

Saturday Sitcoms
None.

Airing tonight (Sunday) is the second (and final) week of the CW Sunday sitcom block from 7-9pm Everybody Hates Chris, All of Us, Girlfriends, & The Game. The Fox sitcom block this week is pre-empted due to Baseball. We will have the numbers for these next week.

Summing it up. Two and a Half Men, My Name is Earl, How I Met Your Mother, and The New Adventures of Old Christine were impressive for the week. Everything else was OK (such as The Office and The Class) or just plain old terrible (such as CW sitcom premieres).