SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Week 33 Numbers (First Four Nights); How the Sitcoms Did

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Sunday blog for an important announcement! Stay tuned all this week for our annual upfront previews! We will take a look at each network all this week and what we think will happen this fall. First up will be NBC tomorrow, followed by ABC on Tuesday, CBS Wednesday, Fox Thursday and The CW Friday. The upfronts start a week from Monday on May 14 with NBC..let's see if we will be close to being right. We now return to the Weekly Ratings post right here on the SitcomsOnline.com News Blog!

Week 33 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: Fox: 8.9/14.1; ABC: 8.3/13.3; CBS: 7.9/12.8; NBC: 5.2/8.3; The CW: 2.1/3.3; MNT: 0.6/1.0.
Total Viewers: Fox: 14.83 million; ABC: 12.66 million; CBS: 12.4 million; NBC: 7.92 million; The CW: 3.29 million; MNT: 0.92 million.
Adults 18-49: Fox: 5.6/15.2; ABC: 4.9/12.2; CBS: 4.7/11.6; NBC: 3.4/8.4; The CW: 1.2/3.1; MNT: 0.4/0.9.

Analysis: The 33rd week saw Fox in front again with the usual leader American Idol. Through the first four nights, Fox has the lead, followed by ABC and CBS a close third in HH, viewers and 18-49. NBC still remains a distant 4th place in all categories. As usual, Friday and Saturday numbers are not above, since final numbers are not available yet. Tonight has ABC airing all-new episodes and CBS is also all new, the battle will be with them for viewers with ABC in command for 18-49 for sure. Fox's comedies are also all-new (except 7p & 8:30) and NBC has yet another Dateline & Deal or No Deal and a two-hour special SL: In the '90s. Expect ABC to win.
On Monday Dancing with the Stars continued to take over Mondays for ABC. 18.97 million, slightly up from the previous week. CBS's CSI: Miami was all-new at 10pm and did 17.24 million, up a bit from last week and NBC's Deal or No Deal was way down against Stars, with 12.09 million, but up from last week by over a million. CBS's sitcoms were all-new tonight. 8-9pm sitcoms were hurt the most for CBS, doing 7.24 and 7.32 million, up a bit from last week. Two and a Half Men rose from those numbers and did 13.71 million (up over 1.5 million from last week), followed by an all-new King of Queens doing 13.03 million, also up from last week. Fox aired a repeat of House doing 7.43 million (almost up 3 million from Drive last week), followed by 24 with 10.93 million, slightly up from last week. ABC aired The Bachelor from 9:45-11 and did a decent 9.8 million, up from last week, and NBC aired hit Heroes at 9 with 11.92 million (slightly down from the numbers from last week), followed by second episode of the new reality show The Real Wedding Crashers at just 5.61 million, down over a million from the premiere. The CW's comedies are still under performing on this night, with Chris down from last week's 3.01 million to just 2.42 million.
Tuesday was Fox's night. American Idol did 26.73 million at 8 (up slightly from last week) and House did 21.13 million, slightly up from last week. ABC was on the map thanks to Dancing with the Stars: The Results doing 16.26 million at 9 (slightly down from last week), with two George Lopez episodes preceding it with 4.45 and 4.61 million. Boston Legal at 10 was at its normal levels with 9.88 million. CBS was third with new episodes of NCIS, The Unit from 8-10 (13.83 and 9.7 million, both slightly down from last week), and an encore of CSI: NY aired at 10 with 7.73 million. NBC was fourth for for the night with both Law & Order spin-offs doing 7.36 and 11.41 million from 9-11pm, with another Dateline kicking the night off with 5.39 million. The CW aired a new Gilmore Girls (4.08 million) and the return of Veronica Mars (2.35 million).
Wednesday again Fox got the boost from that show called American Idol, doing 28.75 million at 9pm, up nearly 2 million from last week's two-hour edition. Bones returned with 10.56 million at 8. CBS was second for the night with Jericho doing 8.03 million (up from last week's low) followed by a new Criminal Minds and a new CSI: NY doing 13.28 and 13.0 million. ABC followed with According to Jim & Notes from the Underbelly doing OK to open up the night with 6.4 and 6.0 million (both up from last week), followed by a Lost encore from last week doing just 4.02 million (they listened to me, as the encores are gone this week, sitcoms are in!) and an all-new Lost closed the night off with a solid 12.33 million. NBC was again fourth for the night with a new Thank God You're Here doing 6.23 million, Crossing Jordan followed with just 5.95 million for a new episode, down from last week. A new Medium followed built on the lead-in with 7.7 million, up from last week. The CW was in the game at 8 with America's Next Top Model doing a solid 5.23 million, followed by the return of One Tree Hill doing just 3.25 million.
On Thursday we saw ABC dominate with the two hour Grey's Anatomy from 9-11pm with 21.23 million A new Ugly Betty opened the night off with 10.68 million, up from last week. CBS's Survivor: Fiji was first at 8 with 13.74 million, but slightly down from last week. A new CSI and an all-new Shark followed with 19.02 and 12.5 million, both down from last week, especially the latter. NBC was third in viewers with all-new episodes of its comedies and an all-new ER, which just did 7.78 million, a series low as it faced the ABC medical drama head to head. Fox was fourth with Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? with 9.02 million, a series low...and they closed the night with the final part of a two-week sweeps episode of Trading Spouses doing just 4.15 million. And CW aired new episodes of its Thursday dramas doing 3.59 and 3.11 million, both down from last week.
Friday (numbers not counted in our ratings), saw CBS win the night with its dramas, but not as much as they were doing in the fall and early winter. NBC did much better from 8-10 with Dateline and it looks like that helped Law & Order at 10 which did its best ratings in months and almost won the 10pm hour. ABC aired a repeat of Grey's Anatomy from Thursday and was third and 20/20 built on that and did well, but a better third place at 10pm. The CW did decent for its WWE coverage, but it is not doing as well as in the winter, though up from last week for fourth place. Fox aired encores of Nanny 911 & Bones and they were fifth.
Saturday ratings saw CBS (for viewers) and ABC (for 18-49) do decent, with Fox and NBC way behind. Meet the Fockers did well for ABC. As for tonight, ABC will win with its normal line-up. As for this week in general, it should be like last week as series continue to go up in anticipation of season finales!

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of April 6-22)

• King of the Hill (Fox) 2 episodes - 3.51 and 4.14 million for two new episodes.
  
• The Simpsons (Fox) 2 episodes - 7.57 million for a new episode followed by a repeat at 8.23 million
  
• Family Guy (Fox) - 8.13 million for a new episode, slightly down from lead-in, but up in other categories such as HH and 18-49.
  
• American Dad (Fox) - 6.71 million, is OK, but could be better.
  

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - A new episode did 7.24 million.
  
• Old Christine (CBS) - 7.32 million, best in a few weeks.
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 13.71 million...certainly better than the last few weeks.
• King of Queens (CBS) - 13.03 million for a show winding down to its final episodes.
  
• CW Monday Comedies: Chris, All of Us, Girfriends, The Game. All-new episode of Chris started it off with 2.42 million, followed by new episodes of All of Us at 2.18 million, Girlfriends did 2.48 million and The Game did 2.41 million, all down from last week but Girlfriends.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• George Lopez (ABC) - A repeat at 8 matched last week's new episode at 8 with 4.45 million and a new episode at 8:30 did 4.61 million, short from last week's 4.89 million.

Wednesday Sitcoms

• According to Jim (ABC) - New episode did 6.4 million, up from last week and its best showing after three weeks in the slot.
  
• Notes from the Underbelly (ABC) - 6.0 million, up well over a million from last week, but down still from two weeks ago's 6.26 million.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• My Name is Earl (NBC) - 7.57 million for an expanded episode thru 8:36, slightly up from last week and slowly going up.
  
• The Office (NBC) - 6.99 million and a 3.6 18-49 rating. Both down from last week, as this week it went into the 9pm hour against the big boys thru 9:19.
  
• Scrubs (NBC) - 4.95 million for an expanded episode that started at 9:19 thru 9:53, up slightly from last week.
  

Friday Sitcoms
None.

Saturday Sitcoms
None.

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

Summing it up. Two and a Half Men, My Name is Earl, and King of Queens were impressive for the week. Everything else was OK (such as The Office, According to Jim) or just plain old terrible (All of Us, Scrubs).

Remember to come join us for our upfront previews this week, in edition to our news!