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Week 9 Numbers (First Four Nights); How the Sitcoms Did

Week 9 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: ABC: 9.6/14.8; CBS: 9.3/14.4; NBC: 6.5/10.1; Fox: 4.7/7.1; The CW: 2.3/3.5.
Total Viewers: CBS: 14.65 million; ABC: 14.54 million; NBC: 10.25 million; Fox: 7.45 million; The CW: 3.6 million.
Adults 18-49: ABC: 4.8/12.4; CBS: 4.6/11.9; NBC: 4.0/10.4; Fox: 3.0/7.6; The CW: 1.6/4.0.

Analysis: The ninth week saw the first second full week of sweeps and ABC and CBS are again neck and neck! Last week we saw CBS win for the 8th straight week in HH and total viewers, just edging ABC (which had a very slow Friday and Saturday) but that is in jeopardy this week as ABC, had a stronger Friday and Saturday, and will likely come very close to win it...photo finish. ABC will also likely get the 18-49 demo for the 9th straight week (week 7 NBC virtually tied ABC thanks to the Colts/Patriots game). 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 NBC a distant third and Fox well back in fourth. On Monday, CBS's CSI: Miami shined with 18.77 million, and NBC's Heroes at 9 p.m. was again strong in the 18-49 demo with a 6.5/16 and decent in total viewers with 15.08 million. NBC's Deal or No Deal lead the night off for NBC with a dominating first place finish and did 18.07million, almost up 4 million from last week! NBC's Studio 60 is still not doing good with just 7.58 million..a series low. CBS sitcoms rebounded just a bit last week after going up against the CMA's, as The Class at 8:30 was up from last week's 7.57 million to 8.44 million, and the number one sitcom Two and a Half Men rose from that and did 15.83 million. Fox did usual business for Prison Break but did better at 9 p.m. with a repeat of House instead of Justice. ABC saw a distant fourth for the night, compared to last week's #1. Tuesday, again it was ABC on top as Dancing with the Stars Final Dance did a stellar 26.8 million! The sitcom Help Me Help You was pre-empted as ABC aired a special 90-minute preview of the new game show Show Me the Money which did a solid 12.39 million, ABC will take that on Wednesdays at 8 come this week. Fox is doing bad with Standoff leading off but House came back strong and did 14.6 million, building almost 10 million from its lead-in. NBC was strong at 10 p.m. as Law & Order: SVU did a nice 14.76 million while Friday Night Lights continues to under-perform at just 5.48 million. Law & Order: CI was just 9.14 million, but up from last week. CBS did decent with NCIS and The Unit, but the 3LBS premiere did not perform well with just 9.86 million. Wednesday saw CBS and ABC battle it out, with ABC edging CBS in viewers this time and ABC winning in the demo again. ABC won the opening hour again with the season finale of Dancing with the Stars: The Results doing 17.7/27 rating and 27.52 million. CBS's Jericho did 9.34 million, a series low, of note the last three weeks the show has hit a series low...not good for a show going on hiatus. NBC had a better Wednesday than usual with The Biggest Loser 3 doing just 6.37 million but the two-hour season premiere of Medium was much better with 9.44 million. ABC's Day Break premiere didn't do as well as ABC expected, but did decent with 10.16 million from 9-11pm...watch the show this week, it is a solid new show and very fast paced and promises to answer every question by episode 13. CBS won from 9-11pm with Criminal Minds and CSI: NY both doing over 16 million (16.48 and 16.18 million). CBS's Criminal Minds. was lower than last week against Lost ... very strange, the ABC hit will return February 7. The CW's America's Next Top Model was down from last week's 5.37 million to 4.71 million as ABC for sure affected it. Fox did better with a Bones repeat at 9 following an all-new Bones, which did 7.83 million. On Thursday we saw CBS and ABC dominate. ABC's Grey's Anatomy had 20.92 million at 9pm (up from last week) and in the same slot CSI had 24.11 million, also up from last week...really up (CSI won in HH 14.8/22 to 13.6/20 but GA still wins in A18-49 8.7/21 to 8.0/19). NBC aired comedies at 9 p.m. and probably the Deal or No Deal older viewers fled to CSI. At 8 p.m. ABC continues to do well with Ugly Betty, as the one-hour comedy did decent again with 12.95 million, slightly up from previous week; Survivor was also up and did 15.35 million though.When Survivor finishes, look for the best new comedy to do even better. At 10 p.m. newbie Shark did 15.24 million. ER was down from last week's 14.56 million to just 12.52 million, thanks to low rated 30 Rock from 9:20-10pm. ABC saw second place at 10 p.m. with Barbara Walters 30 Mistakes in 30 Years Part 1 special doing a solid 12.91 million..but better than the usual in the slot. And Fox saw pathetic numbers with 'Til Death and another (save us!) episode of The O.C.
Friday (numbers not counted in our ratings), saw CBS's dramas doing well and NBC was a solid second Deal or No Deal special on Friday was #1 for the night), but Las Vegas is out of place on Fridays. ABC was a solid third this week rather than a distant third, thanks to a special 20/20 at 9 and Barbara Walters 30 Mistakes in 30 Years Part 2 tying Law & Order on NBC for 2nd place. And The CW beat Fox yet again on Friday. Saturday ratings saw ABC win the night with CBS, NBC and Fox doing usual business as the College Football game did good for ABC with USC beating Cal for the Pac-10 title...next week it is USC vs. Notre Dame, so it should be even better. As for tonight, ABC and NBC will dominate, especially Desperate Housewives. Look for ABC to win the demo tonight and total viewers, as new series Brothers & Sisters is consistent and steady. 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 yes, ABC in total viewers..though it will be close but unlike last week, ABC had a better Friday and Saturday. As you can see from our numbers above (Mon-Thurs), ABC has a decent lead in everything (with CBS edging in viewers). NBC should be third in everything. What to look for this week is how Thanksgiving night will do...will it be ABC's special 70-minute Grey's Anatomy followed by the Mel Gibson interview or CBS's CSI or the special two-hour NBC Deal or No Deal? Finally the networks are programming new material on the night! I think it will be the usual winners, ABC and CBS, with NBC coming in at closer third.

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of Nov. 6-12)

• The Simpsons (Fox) - With the NFL as its lead-in, an all-new episode did a solid 11.43 million.
  
• American Dad (Fox) - 8.48 million, better than last week's 7.71 million...but still down from lead-in. Move this back to 9:30 in January and have the return of King of the Hill here at 8:30.
• Family Guy (Fox) - Built back up from lead-in with 9.05 million...though Fox should be doing better with this show
  
• War at Home (Fox) - Fox was up from 8-9:30 from last week, so this show should be too right? WRONG! Down to 5.96 million.
  

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 8.22 million last week...up to 9.33 million this week...much better.
  
• The Class (CBS) - 7.57 million last week...up to 8.44 million this week. CBS ordered a few more episodes, but back nine is not likely.
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 15.83 million, up from last week...number one sitcom still.
• New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) - 11.87 million for an all-new episode, slightly up from last week, but should have been a little higher as its lead-in went up by a lot.
  
• CW Monday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game. All new episodes of Chris started it off with 3.22 million, the highest of the block. The rest ranged 2.43 to 3.1 million.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• None.
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• None.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• My Name is Earl (NBC) - A super-sized episode did 9.12 million, down a bit from last week's 9.13 million.
  
• The Office (NBC) - 8.43 million tuned in for a 40-minute episode, up from last week.
  
• 30 Rock (NBC) - 40 minutes of this show did just 5.19 million...not good news for NBC.
  
• 'Til Death (Fox) 2 episodes - 4.55 million tuned in at 8pm for a new episode, up from last week a bit. The repeat at 8:30pm held steady and did 4.54 million, but down from last week.
  

Friday Sitcoms
None.

Saturday Sitcoms
None.

Airing tonight (Sunday) are Fox comedies and Reba on The CW.

Summing it up. Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl 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 'Til Death and 30 Rock).