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Week 4 Numbers (First Four Nights); How the Sitcoms Did

Week 4 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: CBS: 9.5/14.8; ABC: 8.7/13.5; NBC: 6.8/10.7; Fox: 5.6/8.8; The CW: 2.4/3.7.
Total Viewers: CBS: 14.83 million; ABC: 13.09 million; NBC: 10.5 million; Fox: 8.01 million; The CW: 3.77 million.
Adults 18-49: CBS: 4.6/12.0; ABC: 4.5/11.8; NBC: 3.9/10.1; Fox: 2.5/6.9; The CW: 1.7/4.4.

Analysis: The fourth week again sees the same pattern again...CBS and ABC battling it out. After tonight (Sunday), CBS will win for the 4th straight week in viewers while ABC gets the demos for the fourth straight week! Imagine if The Nine or Six Degrees were holding at least 70% of their lead-in's numbers? ABC might be winning in viewers, too. 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 17.6 million and helped them win the night in viewers, but 9pm's Heroes on NBC went up in the demos from last week to a 5.9/14 rating in A18-49, just like its premiere...no wonder it was picked-up for the rest of the season. NBC's Studio 60 fell more again to 8.66 million. ABC's The Bachelor was up from the premiere last week to 7.93 million helping What About Brian with its season premiere of 7 million. CBS also saw better results in the 8pm hour for its comedies and the number one sitcom Two and a Half Men has gone up each week in viewers. Tuesday, it was ABC's turn of excellence as Dancing with the Stars did 20.01 million for 90 minutes and the third episode of new sitcom Help Me Help You held half of that audience and did 9.88 million--on par really from last week. Fox's regular line-up was pre-empted as Baseball playoffs did just 8.59 million..they missed House. NBC did well with Law & Order: CI and Law & Order: SVU, but Friday Night Lights dropped from last week's premiere of 7.17 million to just 5.87 million at 8. Cancelation clock is ticking. CBS had a nice night with NCIS and The Unit and a repeat of CSI did much better than the canceled Smith at 10pm. Wednesday saw CBS and ABC battle it out, with CBS actually edging ABC in viewers and ABC winning in the demo. ABC won the opening hour again with Dancing with the Stars: The Results doing 12.3/19 rating and 18.21 million. CBS's Jericho did 10.86 million, up from last week's 10.83 million, previous week was 11.45 million and the premiere was 11.66 million--it looks to be steady (and renewed for the full season). NBC had a better Wednesday than last week, as Kidnapped is gone. Dateline replaced it and did 8.41 million and the NBC comedies premiered OK, but 20 Good Years was concerning (see sitcom analysis). ABC's The Nine had a freefall effect. The premiere did 11.91 million, but the second week it only did 8.25 million...ABC needs to move this ASAP, I suggest Thursdays at 10 and Six Degrees moves to this slot...it won't do much, but I think the move will be better than what they are both doing in their current slots. CBS won from 9-11pm with Criminal Minds and CSI: NY both doing over 16 million (16.73 and 17.97 million). ABC's Lost won 9pm with 16.89 million, just edging CBS. Criminal Minds has sure grown well. 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 22.88 million at 9pm and in the same slot CSI had 21.85 million (GA won in households too 14.6 to 13.5 and A18-49 9.4 to 7.5). At 8 p.m. ABC continues to do well with Ugly Betty, as the one-hour comedy did decent again with 13.95 million, slightly down from previous week and the show joins Jericho and Heroes as being picked-up for 22 episodes this season; Survivor had 15.84 million, but the one-hour comedy tied the veteran reality show in HH at 9.4/15. At 10 p.m. Shark is beginning to be consistent, it did 14.15 million--but still this is no Trace. ER led the hour with 14.57 million. ABC's Six Degrees did just 8.69 million, down yet again--very concerning. Will a move or cancelation come soon? This hour is anyone's game right now, so ABC can really try one of their mid-season shows in this slot in January and do well hopefully.
Friday (numbers not counted in our ratings), saw CBS's dramas doing well again, and NBC saw game show success as Deal or No Deal won its hour again, the premiere of the new game show 1 vs. 100 won its hour at 9pm and Law & Order did OK at 10 coming in second place. ABC saw a slight rise from last week for Men in Trees, but A18-49 needs to be better. Next week 1 vs. 100 will be on its own as Deal or No Deal will not be airing. and ABC premieres the first of four Extreme Makeover specials. Who will come out on top? Or will CBS sneak in? Saturday ratings are not available yet, but CBS's drama repeats & 48 Hours won each hour and NBC's NASCAR coverage won in the demos. Baseball and College Football didn't do well for Fox and ABC. As for tonight, 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 and is consistent. Without a Trace looks like it will win at 10, but there might be another NFL runover for CBS meaning shows could start 30-40 minutes than usual in the east coast.
I again expect ABC to win the week in the demo and CBS in total viewers, as ABC didn't compete with regional coverage on Saturday's football...national games do better. NBC should be third in everything again. I was right about NBC's new sitcoms premiering OK, they did nothing big, and 30 Rock did much better than 20 Good Years.

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of Oct. 2-8)

• CW Sunday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game all did poorly again in its second and final airing on Sundays. 2.36 to 2.85 million was the range. Chris did the worst actually.
  

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Now leading off the night and CBS saw much better results at 8PM! 9.09 million tuned in, down from what it did last week at 8:30, but up from what The Class did at 8pm last week. Dougle digits (10 million) should come soon...hopefully.
  
• The Class (CBS) - 9.34 million tuned in to the new 8:30 slot. This is a much better showing. It built on the lead-in in everything. CBS should have started the season this way!
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 15.09 million, 15.28 million, 15.8 million so far. And now the fourth week went even more up to 16.38 million. This is very good. Can it go up again tomorrow?
• New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) - Last week's 13.59 million was a surprise, this week it went slightly down to 12.88 million.
• CW Monday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game all now have moved to Mondays. This week was repeats, though. Chris started it off with an improved 3.03 million, but the rest of the night went down each half hour. Tomorrow should be a better test when they are all-new.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• Help Me Help You (ABC) - This week the show was almost on par from previous week. 9.88 million, 6.7/10 HH rating, and a 3.0/8 A18-49 rating. Last week: 10.08 million, 6.8/10 HH rating, and a 3.0/8 A18-49 rating, compared to premiere week's 11.48 million, 7.7/12 HH rating and a 3.5/9 A18-49 rating. Weeks two and three were very stable. So, I think this is what we can expect every week now.
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• 30 Rock (NBC) - The premiere of this critically acclaimed comedy got off to a modest start with 8.13 million viewers, 5.4/9 HH rating but a concerning 2.9/8 A18-49 rating. This show was meant to do very well in that demo. Hopefully it is stable and doesn't drop off big this week.
  
• 20 Good Years (NBC) - NBC had this sitcom leading off the night originally...good thing they changed that. This generic sitcom did just 7.05 million for its premiere, down more than a million viewers from the lead-in. HH rating was just a 4.7/7 and A18-49 rating was a 2.5/7. Don't get used to this one.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• My Name is Earl (NBC) - Down slightly from last week's 9.89 million to 9.84 million. Not bad, but the show was doing way better last year on Tuesdays.
  
• The Office (NBC) - Like the lead-in, down slightly from last week's 8.89 million to this week's 8.83 million. Consistent.

Friday Sitcoms
None.

Saturday Sitcoms
None.

Airing tonight (Sunday) are no sitcoms. Fox is showing baseball and The CW have moved their comedies to Mondays.

Summing it up. Two and a Half Men, The Class, 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 30 Rock and Help Me Help You) or just plain old terrible (such as CW sitcoms on Sunday and 20 Good Years).