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Week 5 Numbers (First Four Nights); How the Sitcoms Did

Week 5 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: CBS: 9.1/14.1; ABC: 8.7/13.5; Fox: 7.4/11.6; NBC: 6.5/10.0; The CW: 2.4/3.6.
Total Viewers: CBS: 14.43 million; ABC: 13.31 million; Fox: 11.0 million; NBC: 10.1 million; The CW: 3.73 million.
Adults 18-49: ABC: 4.7/12.0; CBS: 4.5/11.5; NBC: 3.8/9.8; Fox: 3.5/9.3; The CW: 1.7/4.3.

Analysis: The fifth week again sees the same pattern again...CBS and ABC battling it out, but this time Fox was 3rd place thanks to baseball. After tonight (Sunday), CBS will likely win for the 5th straight week in viewers while ABC likely gets the demos for the 5th straight week! As usual, Friday and Saturday numbers are not above, since final numbers are not available yet. ABC and CBS lead a close race for the top spot so far with Fox a distant third and NBC close behind Fox. On Monday, CBS's CSI: Miami won the last hour with 18.12 million and helped them win the night in viewers, but 9pm's Heroes on NBC was again strong in the 18-49 demo. NBC's Deal or No Deal had a great night with 17.47 million. NBC's Studio 60 fell more again to 7.74 million. ABC's The Bachelor was at a season high of 8.66 million helping What About Brian to a 7.34 million, out doing its season premiere and almost beating NBC in the slot in viewers and winning in 18-49. CBS needs work with The Class at 8:30, as the newbie did just 8.45 million, but the number one sitcom Two and a Half Men did 16.25 million, nearly doubling its lead-in. Tuesday, it was ABC's turn of excellence as Dancing with the Stars did 21.25 million for 90 minutes and the sitcom Help Me Help You held half of that audience and did 10.32 million--slightly up from last week. Fox's regular line-up was pre-empted as Baseball playoffs did 11.12 million, but they still miss House. NBC did well with Law & Order: CI and Law & Order: SVU, but Friday Night Lights did 6.55 million, down from the premiere's 7.17 million but up from last week's 5.87 million. CBS had a nice night with NCIS and The Unit and a repeat of Criminal Minds. Wednesday saw CBS and ABC battle it out, with ABC edging CBS in viewers and ABC winning in the demo. ABC won the opening hour again with Dancing with the Stars: The Results doing 12.5/20 rating and 19.23 million. CBS's Jericho did 10.88 million, up from last week's 10.86 million, previous week was 10.83 million, week before was 11.45 million and the premiere was 11.66 million--can anyone say steady? NBC had a bad night as the NBC comedies did terrible. ABC's The Nine continues to disappoint. The premiere did 11.91 million two weeks ago, last week it did 8.25 million...this week it did 8.21 million, so looks like it will be steady around this now. CBS won from 9-11pm with Criminal Minds and CSI: NY both doing around 16 million (16.2 and 15.99 million). ABC's Lost won 9pm with 16.31 million, just edging CBS. Criminal Minds has sure grown well. The CW's America's Next Top Model did well again with 5.15 million nearly beating the anemic second week NBC comedies. On Thursday we saw Fox enter the race with CBS and ABC, as Game 7 of the Baseball NLCS did well. ABC's Grey's Anatomy had 22.05 million at 9pm and in the same slot CSI had 20.49 million (GA won in households too 14.4 to 12.7 and A18-49 9.6 to 6.9). At 8 p.m. ABC continues to do well with Ugly Betty, as the one-hour comedy did decent again with 13.17 million, slightly down from previous week; Survivor had 15.02 million, but the one-hour comedy tied the veteran reality show in HH at 8.9/14. At 10 p.m. the full season renewed Shark did 13.71 million. ER led the hour with 13.72 million. ABC's Six Degrees did just 8.36 million, down yet again--no episode this week as ABC will air a two-hour repeat of Grey's Anatomy. And game 7 of the NLCS between the Cardinals and Mets did well with 16.53 million, denting ER and CSI it seems.
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 new game show 1 vs. 100 won its hour in viewers at 9pm (CBS won in HH) and Law & Order at 10 came in second place. ABC saw bad numbers for the season premiere of Extreme Makeover and Men in Trees did OK. Fox saw even worse numbers with Trading Spouses, which was dead last behind the CW even. Next week 1 vs. 100 will be on its own as Deal or No Deal will not be airing. Saturday saw game one of what seems to be a low-rated World Series win the slow night. As for tonight, ABC will have no problem beating the World Series, 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. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a repeat for ABC, so we don't know what will happen, but I again expect ABC to win the week in the demo and CBS in total viewers. NBC should be fourth in everything because of Fox's baseball. What to look for this week is for the World Series to be probably one of the lowest rated ones ever.

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of Oct. 9-15)

• None
  

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 9.05 million this week, down from last week's 9.09 million. Should be doing a little better.
  
• The Class (CBS) - Down from last week's 9.34 million to 8.45 million this week. It needs to pick it up to get a full season pick-up.
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 16.25 million this week...for the first time this season the show went down. Last week it had 16.38 million.
• New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) - Up from last week's 12.88 million to 13.03 million.
• CW Monday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game all now have moved to Mondays. All new episodes Chris started it off with 3.00 million, down from last week's repeat at 3.03 million. Girlfriends was the highest one with 3.08 million. Not a bad block, but needs to do a bit better.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• Help Me Help You (ABC) - This week the show was up from previous week. 10.32 million, 6.9/11 HH, 3.1/8 A18-49 rating. Last week: 9.88 million, 6.7/10 HH rating, and a 3.0/8 A18-49 rating.
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• 30 Rock (NBC) - Down big from last week's 8.13 million viewers to 5.71 million, 5.4/9 HH rating was down to 3.9/6 and 2.9/8 A18-49 rating was down to a 2.3/7. Not good. Move this to Thursdays.
  
• 20 Good Years (NBC) - The premiere was bad, the second week was even worse! 5.09 million viewers, last week it was 7.05 million for its premiere. HH rating was just a 3.5/5, last week it was a 4.7/7 and A18-49 rating was a 2.0/5, down 1/2 a point from last week (2.5/7). Goodbye!
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• My Name is Earl (NBC) - Down from last week's 9.84 million to 8.56 million. Baseball hurt it.
  
• The Office (NBC) - 8.46 million tuned in. Not bad, but baseball seemed to make a slight dent.

Friday Sitcoms
None.

Saturday Sitcoms
None.

Airing tonight (Sunday) are no sitcoms. Fox is showing baseball.

Summing it up. Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, and The New Adventures of Old Christine were impressive for the week. Everything else was OK (such as My Name is Earl and Help Me Help You) or just plain old terrible (such as 30 Rock and 20 Good Years).