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Week 28 Numbers (First Four Nights); How the Sitcoms Did

Week 28 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: Fox: 8.8/14.0; CBS: 7.3/11.9; ABC: 6.9/11.3; NBC: 5.0/8.2; The CW: 2.0/3.1; MNT: 0.7/1.1.
Total Viewers: Fox: 14.61 million; CBS: 11.25 million; ABC: 10.55 million; NBC: 7.56 million; The CW: 2.9 million; MNT: 0.97 million.
Adults 18-49: Fox: 5.8/15.8; ABC: 3.4/9.4; CBS: 3.3/9.0; NBC: 2.7/7.3; The CW: 1.3/3.5; MNT: 0.4/1.1.

Analysis: The 28th week saw the second week of ABC's Dancing with the Stars continue to do very well on Mondays and the first results show scored big. Fox did well like usual with American Idol, but Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, dipped to a series low for the third straight week. Through the first four nights, Fox has the lead, followed by CBS and ABC battling for second place in HH, viewers and 18-49. NBC will be 4th place in all categories. They sure miss Sunday Night Football. As usual, Friday and Saturday numbers are not above, since final numbers are not available yet. Tonight has ABC airing all-new episodes (but Housewives is a recap special), and CBS is all new. Fox's comedies are a mix of new and repeats and NBC's reality is a mix of old and new. Expect ABC to win because CBS is pre-empting Cold Case for a two-hour Amazing Race.
On Monday Dancing with the Stars continued to tale over Mondays for ABC. 20.42 million watched the two-hour season episode. CBS's CSI: Miami was a repeat but it did well at 10pm with 13.12 million at 10pm and NBC's Deal or No Deal was down against Stars, but still solid with 10.98 and 12.18 for a repeat and a new episode. Is NBC really treating this like Millionaire? They keep airing it and repeats now too. CBS's sitcoms were all repeats tonight. 8-9pm sitcoms were hurt the most for CBS, doing 5.61 and 5.66 million for repeat episodes. Two and a Half Men repeat rose from those numbers and did 10.37 million, with a repeat of Rules of Engagement following and not holding the lead-in's numbers like it has been doing, just 7.99 million. Fox was not that affected by Stars, but both Prison Break & 24 were down from usual numbers (and slightly from last week), they did 8.24 and 11.78 million. ABC and NBC did bad at 10pm, ABC did just 6.79 million for the season finale of What About Brian and NBC's Black Donnelleys continues to go down each week, with just 5.43 million. The CW's comedies are still under performing on this night as they still can't get 3 million. All four were close to each other though.
Tuesday was Fox's night. American Idol did 28.18 million at 8 and House returned with 20.8 million (down from what it does usually after Idol). ABC was on the map thanks to Dancing with the Stars: The Results doing 17.93 million at 9, with a special performance recap special doing 9.62 million. A special preview of The Great American Dream Vote bombed with just 5.88 million at 10. Boston Legal returns this Tuesday and will likely double that. NBC aired new episodes of both Law & Order spin-offs doing 8.85 and 12.86 million from 9-11pm, with Dateline kicking the night off with just 5.84 million. CBS was a rare fourth with repeats of NCIS, The Unit from 8-10 (10.84 and 7.34 million), and a repeat of Shark aired at 10 with 7.59 million. The CW aired a repeat of Gilmore Girls (1.91 million) and a new Pussycat Dolls (2.67 million).
Wednesday again Fox got the boost from its one show wonder American Idol, doing 26.89 million for its 9pm half-hour followed by the sitcom 'Til Death losing almost 1/2 that with 14.46 million. Bones opened the night off for Fox with a respectable 10.58 million. CBS was second for the night with Jericho doing just 8.52 million but repeats of Criminal Minds and CSI: NY followed and did good with 10.98 and 10.69 million. ABC's followed with Great American Dream Vote's first and last airing in its regular timeslot doing just4.54 million (down 1.5 million+ from normal programming in this slot), a new According to Jim & a new In Case of Emergency followed doing a below average 4.48 and 4.31 million and an all-new Lost, did also below average thanks to the terrible lead-ins, doing 11.52 million, but it won the hour in viewers and 18-49. NBC saw Friday Night Lights do just 5.68 million, Crossing Jordan followed with just 7.02 million, though up from last week. A new Medium followed with just 7.66 million. The CW was on the map thanks to America's Next Top Model doing a decent 5.32 million...not bad at all, followed by an encore of Tuesday's Pussycat Dolls doing 3.1 million.
On Thursday we saw CBS dominate, as ABC was in repeats from 8-10. CBS's Survivor: Fiji returned after a few weeks off on Thursdays with a below than normal 13.71 million. CSI and Shark followed with 22.71 and 14.49 million, first in both hours. ABC's Grey's Anatomy was a repeat at 9pm with 9.46. A repeat of Ugly Betty opened the night off with 7.41 million. Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? hit another series low but has probably leveled off with 10.59 million. ABC's third episode of the impressive October Road closed the night off with 8.24 million (down from its first two airings but that is because there was no new episode of Grey's Anatomy), much better than Men in Trees. Fox closed the night with repeats of Family Guy doing just 4.34 and 4.32 million. NBC aired encores of The Office and an all-new episode of Andy Barker, P.I. (doing a pathetic 4.16 million). And CW aired repeats of its Thursday dramas doing 2.81 and 2.24 million.
Friday (numbers not counted in our ratings), saw CBS win the night with its dramas. NBC was a distant second with the disappointing Identity and Raines. ABC had a more dismal than usual Friday with a repeat Grey's Anatomy doing below normal and the second episode return of Six Degrees did worse than last week but 20/20 built on that and did a bit better, but way off from last week. The CW did decent for its WWE coverage and Fox didn't do so well with Wedding Bells at 9 but a House repeat at 8 started off well. Overall a blah night that needs a makeover next fall.
Saturday ratings are not available yet. As for tonight, ABC will win with its normal line-up. ABC's is all-new (DH is a recap special though) and should win at least in 18-49 and maybe total viewers since CBS's Cold Case is not on. As for this week in general, look for Dancing with the Stars to continue to do well even opposite the NCAA Championship game!

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of March 19-25)

• The War at Home (Fox) 2 episodes -2.78 million for a repeat and just 3.56 million for a new episode...but up slightly from previous week
  
• The Simpsons (Fox) - A new episode did 6.97 million, below normal and very low 3.3 18-49 for a new episode.
  
• King of the Hill (Fox) - Just 6.08 million.
  
• Family Guy (Fox) - 7.97 million and a better 4.2 18-49 rating.
• American Dad (Fox) - 6.64 million, not bad and a decent 3.4 18-49 rating.
  

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - A repeat did just 5.61 million.
  
• Old Christine (CBS) - 5.66 million for a repeat, it did build from lead-in a bit.
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 10.37 million for a repeat, slightly below the normal repeat numbers.
• Rules of Engagement (CBS) - 7.99 million for a repeat, not bad, but not too great out of the lead-in.
  
• CW Monday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game. New episode of Chris started it off with 2.68 million, up from last week but NOT the highest of the block, as All of Us also did 2.68 million, Girlfriends did 2.58 million and The Game did 2.37 million. Consistent, but needs to be doing 3 to 3.5 million at least...
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• None
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• George Lopez (ABC) - Will return this week with 2 new episodes! Guest stars Barbara Eden and Jerry Springer.
  
• According to Jim (ABC) - New episode did just 4.48 million, thanks to the terrible lead-in and again head to head with Idol.
  
• In Case of Emergency (ABC) - 4.31 million, below normal.
  
• 'Til Death (Fox) - 14.46 million from Idol's 26.89 million...is nothing to write home about, but at least it is consistent the last few weeks.

Thursday Sitcoms

• The Office (NBC) - A marathon of repeats from 8-11, except 9:30 did: 4.77, 5.04, 5.77, 4.34 and 4.24 million. Not great numbers but it was going up until 9:30 then NBC aired Barker then after that it went down.
  
• Andy Barker, P.I. (NBC) - 4.16 million for third week. It hasn't leveled off yet, which means it could go down even more this week. Last week it did 5.33 million.
  
• Family Guy (Fox) - 2 repeats did 4.34 and 4.32 million, which means 9:30 beat Barker on NBC!
  

Friday Sitcoms
None.

Saturday Sitcoms
None.

Airing tonight (Sunday) are new episodes of Fox comedies.

Summing it up. Two and a Half Men, 'Til Death, and Rules of Engagement were impressive for the week. Everything else was OK (such as Old Christine, The Office-thon) or just plain old terrible (such as In Case of Emergency and Andy Barker, P.I.).