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Week 6 Numbers (First Four Nights); How the Sitcoms Did

Week 6 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: CBS: 8.4/13.0; ABC: 8.2/12.8; Fox: 7.4/11.7; NBC: 6.1/9.4; The CW: 2.5/3.8.
Total Viewers: CBS: 12.97 million; ABC: 12.39 million; Fox: 11.37 million; NBC: 9.34 million; The CW: 3.92 million.
Adults 18-49: ABC: 4.1/10.7; CBS: 4.0/10.4; Fox: 3.6/9.9; NBC: 3.5/9.0; The CW: 1.8/4.6.

Analysis: The sixth week saw the World Series do low numbers and some of the shows were in repeats like CSI and Grey's Anatomy...and Fox is still not leading the pack. Since the World Series was only 5 games (3 games for this week) and very low rated CBS will likely win for the 6th straight week in viewers (but ABC might pull a win since CBS had Tuesday and Thursday in repeat mode) while ABC likely gets the demos for the 6th straight week (no network has started a season that way in awhile)! 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 third and NBC fourth. On Monday, CBS's CSI: Miami won the last hour with 17.83 million and helped them win the night in viewers, but 9pm's Heroes on NBC was again strong in the 18-49 demo, with a series high 6.3/15 and a nice bump in total viewers with 14.45. NBC's Deal or No Deal lead the night off with a solid 15.83 million. NBC's Studio 60 fell more again to 7.72 million...I think we will see at most 13 episodes and that's all. ABC's The Bachelor did solid with 8.18 million, but What About Brian dropped to 5.98 million, after last week's solid 7.34 million. CBS needs work with The Class at 8:30, as the newbie did just 7.95 million, but the number one sitcom Two and a Half Men did 15.03 million, down a bit from previous week. Tuesday, it was ABC's turn of excellence as Dancing with the Stars did 20.69 million for 90 minutes and the sitcom Help Me Help You held half of that audience and did 10.59 million--slightly up from last week and is beginning to be stable. Fox's regular line-up was pre-empted as Baseball coverage (including pre-game) did 14.67 million, fans of House will have to wait until this Tuesday to see the show finally return. NBC did well with Law & Order: CI and Law & Order: SVU, but Friday Night Lights did 6.27 million, down from previous week. CBS had repeats all night long, but still were decent NCIS and The Unit, Criminal Minds averaged 10.23 million. 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 13.3/21 rating and 20.02 million. CBS's Jericho did 10.56 million, slightly down from last week. NBC had a bad night as the NBC comedies again did terrible (see analysis). ABC's The Nine continues to disappoint. The show did its lowest numbers yet with 7.77 million. They should switch Six Degrees and The Nine this week. I do commend ABC for being patient. CBS won from 9-11pm with Criminal Minds and CSI: NY both doing over 16 million (16.77 and 17.42 million). ABC's Lost won 9pm with 17.09 million, edging CBS's Criminal Minds. The CW's America's Next Top Model did well again with 5.45 million. Fox's World Series was rained out and they aired repeats of War at Home which averaged 5.49 million, better than a new episode of NBC's 20 Good Years, which probably can't have 20 good seconds in an episode. On Thursday we saw Fox enter the race with CBS and ABC in repeat mode mainly, as Game 4 of the World Series was down historically ABC's repeat of Grey's Anatomy had 12.18 million at 9pm and in the same slot a repeat of CSI had 16.83 million. At 8 p.m. ABC continues to do well with Ugly Betty, as the one-hour comedy did decent again with 13.14 million, slightly down from previous week; Survivor had 12.63 million (a clip show though). At 10 p.m. the full season renewed Shark was a repeat and did 10.46 million. ER was also a repeat and did 7.11 million. ABC's Six Degrees was not on this week, ABC aired another repeat of Grey's Anatomy and did 9.95 million, up from last week's Six Degrees which did 8.36 million. And game 4 of the World Series did well for Fox with 16.11 million, but not as good as previous World Series.
Friday (numbers not counted in our ratings), saw CBS's dramas doing well opposite the weak last game of the World Series, and NBC saw was down as Deal or No Deal is gone from Fridays and the new game show 1 vs. 100 started the night off slow. Law & Order at 10 came in second place holding 100% of the OK numbers for Las Vegas' season premiere. ABC saw decent numbers for the classic Charlie Brown special and Men in Trees did OK, up from last week...move this to Thursdays at 10. Fox will win the night with the World Series, but not enough for them to win in demos and viewers for the week--ashame since they had the World Series. Saturday ratings are not available yet. As for tonight, ABC will dominate, especially Desperate Housewives. Look for ABC to win the demo tonight and total viewers, as new series Brothers & Sisters is consistent. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is also solid for ABC and NBC might get high numbers for their football game, but not enough to win the night. I again expect ABC to win the week in the demo and CBS in total viewers..though it will be close if ABC does very well tonight. NBC should be fourth in everything because of Fox's baseball. What to look for this week is how House does against the last half hour of Dancing with the Stars Tuesday...it will be a fun watch.

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of Oct. 16-22)

• None
  

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 9.59 million this week, up from last week's 9.05 million. Should be doing a little better because King of Queens last season was more than 10 million.
  
• The Class (CBS) - Down from last week's 8.45 million to 7.95 million this week. I am sad to say that I don't think we will see a back-nine pick-up.
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 15.03 million tuned in, by far the best sitcom, but down for the second straight week after going up each week to start the season. Heroes is denting it I think the last few weeks.
• New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) - Down from last week's 12.88 million to 12.1 million.
• CW Monday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game. All new episodes Chris started it off with 3.19 million, the highest of the block. The rest did under 3 million, ranging 2.48 to 2.93 million. Needs to do a but better, UPN Monday was much better.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• Help Me Help You (ABC) - This week the show was up from previous week again. 10.59 million, 7.2/11 HH, 3.2/8 A18-49 rating. It is very consistent, and hopefully when Stars is over it can get these numbers still. If they do, we will see the show get the back-nine pick-up.
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• 30 Rock (NBC) - Up from last week's 5.71 million to 6.01 million, but down big still from the premiere. Last week I said to move this to Thursdays, and NBC announced this past week they will starting November 16.
  
• 20 Good Years (NBC) - Why even watch this now? NBC already has hinted it is gone after November 8 (if not earlier). Anyway, 5.36 million watched this week.
• The War at Home (Fox) Repeats - World Series was rained out, so Fox showed us 4 episodes that did OK for them and averaged 5.46 million, peaking at 9pm with 6.11 million.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• My Name is Earl (NBC) - A repeat did 7.36 million...not bad.
  
• The Office (NBC) - 6.36 million for a repeat. Will NBC's new four comedy block do well starting November 30?
  

Friday Sitcoms
None.

Saturday Sitcoms
None.

Airing tonight (Sunday) are repeats of Fox comedies.

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 The Class and Help Me Help You) or just plain old terrible (such as The Game and 20 Good Years).