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Week 13 (First Four Nights) Numbers; How the Sitcoms Did

Households: CBS: 8.4/13.5; NBC: 4.6/6.9; Fox: 3.5/5.6; ABC: 3.4/5.2; The CW: 1.1/1.7; MNT: 0.8/1.3.
Total Viewers: CBS: 13.45 million; NBC: 6.84 million; Fox: 5.59 million; ABC: 5.19 million; The CW: 1.6 million; MNT: 1.39 million.
Adults 18-49: CBS: 3.4/9.2; NBC: 2.6/7.1; Fox: 1.9/5.2; ABC: 1.7/4.6; The CW: 0.6/1.7; MNT: 0.4/1.2.

Analysis: Week 13 so far has seen CBS with a commanding lead through four days, but CBS has been new 3 of the 4 days for the entire night once again, as they were last week at this time. The other networks were primarily in repeats or aired holiday specials. Through the first four days, CBS has the lead in all categories, with NBC a distant second and Fox and ABC behind through the first four days. NBC, Fox and ABC are down a lot from this time last week, while CBS has gone up thanks to very strong Monday and Tuesdays killing the other networks who were airing repeats and holiday specials.
Last week, CBS won week 12 in HH, viewers, and even in 18-49. NBC was second thanks to a very strong Sunday Night NFL game lifting the network to second place in all categories and just .1 behind CBS in 18-49. ABC was third in HH/viewers, while Fox was third in 18-49.
Monday CBS was all-new and won the night with limited competition. CBS started with new episodes of their comedies then ended with CSI: Miami. The Big Bang Theory was all-new and did yet again a series high, this time at 11.22 million. This series is doing well, but the last two weeks it has gone way up because of no competition. This is fool's gold. A new episode of How I Met Your Mother followed with a season high of 11.37 million, and a SERIES high in 18-49 with a 4.6 rating. #1 sitcom Two and a Half Men followed with 17.92 million for an all-new showing and another season high for a CBS sitcom (and its best ever performance in the 9pm timeslot), while Worst Week didn't have to face a comedy and also did a series high of 12.04 million, but still losing a lot from its lead-in. At 10pm a new showing of CSI: Miami did 14.56 million, up from previous week...but not as much as good as the comedies this week. NBC was actually next, so you know this was a weak Monday, as its regular line-up had fall finales. Chuck did 7.66 million, up from previous week, followed by Heroes at just 7.87 million, up a bit from previous week, but how can this show almost lose to Chuck? The last episode of My Worst Own Enemy was next at just 3.92 million, up from series low the previous week. Fox was next with the very weak Sarah Connor at just 5.07 million, down a tad from previous week, and on its last legs Prison Break at 5.37 million, also down a tad week-to-week. Maybe it lost a few thousand because of the Monday Night Football game aired in Cleveland market on Fox. ABC started off the night decent with the holiday special I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown doing a solid 7.08 million, though not nearly as good as the classic 60s special the previous week which was nearly four million better. As with Fox, ABC was preempted in Philadelphia market for the Monday Night Football game, so ABC was more affected than Fox because Philly is the fourth largest market. ABC aired a special 20/20: Drama High - The Making of a High School Musical from 9-11pm and only did 2.91 million...ouch, but again ABC was preempted in the Philly area for the game. The CW was next with a repeat of Gossip Girl doing 1.61 million and a repeat of One Tree Hill did 1.15 million.
Tuesday CBS was all-new and again with not much competition, they thrived big. CBS's NCIS started the night off with 19.94 million for a series high, the second time this season it has reached a series high. Unbelievable! New drama The Mentalist followed with 19.31 million yet another series high. Who would have thought the combo of NCIS/Mentalist is the best 1-2 combo on any network? Honestly, I don't understand how. A new episode of Without a Trace did 14.48 million, as this show even reached a season high. Amazing how much CBS shows go up when there is no competition? NBC was next with the only competition of the night for CBS with the two-hour season finale of The Biggest Loser at 11.38 million, up two million from previous week, as but NBC faltered at 10pm without Law & Order: SVU as a special preview of the new reality series Momma's Boys only held on the half of its lead-in and did only 6.01 million...ah, so that is why Without a Trace went up so much. ABC was 3rd on night this, a second showing of the 60s holiday classic A Charlie Brown Christmas did 8.37 million, not bad for a special that had aired 8 days earlier as well. A new Christmas episode of According to Jim followed with 5.22 million, up a bit from previous week and a repeat episode followed with 4.52 million, down from previous week, but that was new, still it should be better. Jim lead into Eli Stone at 10pm at 5.15 million, but up some from previous week. Fox was next with a repeat of House at 6.44 million and a repeat of Fringe with 4.82 million, no more new episodes until Jan. 20 for this show. The CW aired a repeat of 90210 and only mustered 1.11 million, down a bit from previous week's repeat, and a repeat of Privileged only did 930,000 viewers, down from previous week's encore.
Wednesday was all CBS as its regular lineup was all-new. CBS started with sitcoms, as Old Christine did a decent 7.29 million, but down from previous week and Gary Unmarried did 7.38 million, also down from previous week. Criminal Minds followed with a nice 15.16 million, up some from previous week and at 10pm CSI: NY followed with 13.39 million, up a bit week-to-week and easily winning its hour. NBC opened the night with the new holiday special Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa doing 7.47 million, nearly three million more than the previous week's special, Life followed with only 5.22 million, down again from previous week...ouch. Law & Order followed at 10pm doing 7.02 million, down from previous week. ABC was next but it started off slow with Pushing Daisies only managing 4.67 million, down some from previous week...its last confirmed airing. Private Practice was next and did 6.61 million, down a bit week-to-week, as now the show officially is done with Wednesdays and will move to Thursdays starting Jan. 8. Dirty Sexy Money was next and did 5.13 million, down a bit from previous week...as this show also aired its last confirmed airing. Sad. This series deserves better. Fox was next with reality series Secret Millionaire and the series did decent doing 6.71 million at 8pm, down a bit week-to-week, followed by a Bones repeat at only 4.12 million, lower than the previous week. The CW had a special encore of this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show doing a solid 2.44 million, followed by an all-new Stylista doing 1.4 million, better than the previous week, but sad isn't it when a special encore does better than a regular series' new episode?
Thursday saw mainly repeats, but CBS repeats well than most and won the night. CBS opened with the return of Million Dollar Password on a special night and did 8.2 million, not too bad, a repeat of CSI did a solid 12.68 million, and a repeat of Eleventh Hour followed with 10.07 million, not bad. Fox was second for the night with a Thursday airing of Secret Millionaire at 5.82 million, up some from previous week, followed by a special Thursday airing of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? doing 6.3 million...up a lot from previous week, solid. ABC was next with all repeats...a repeat of Ugly Betty did 4.54 million, down some from previous week's encore, an encore of Grey's Anatomy was next and did 5.61 million, down from previous week, followed by a repeat of Private Practice doing 4.4 million at 10pm, but up a bit week-to-week. NBC was fourth with repeats of comedies. My Name is Earl repeat did 4.84 million, followed by a repeat of Kath & Kim at just 3.92 million, a repeat of The Office did5.02 million, followed by a 30 Rock repeat at 4.61 million. ER was preempted, so NBC went with more comedy repeats, as repeats of 30 Rock and The Office closed the night with 4.3 and 3.77 million, not too good. Smallville repeat on The CW did 2.13 million, lower than previous week, followed by a Supernatural repeat at 2.07 million, up slightly from previous week.
Now, as usual final numbers for Friday and Saturday are not available, but CBS won Friday and they actually had new episodes of Ghost Whisperer at 8 and a new NUMB3RS at 10pm.
Saturday was very slow, but Fox won the night, as holiday movies on ABC and CBS couldn't out throne police/crime reality on Fox.
Tonight CBS and NBC will win the night likely, but Fox also has an NFL overrun at 7pm, but their programming from 8-10pm are all repeats. CBS for some reason has an all-new line-up, 60 Minutes, I understand but why waste episodes of Million Dollar Password, Cold Case and The Unit so close to Christmas? NBC has a good Sunday Night Football game tonight between the Giants and Panthers, it won't be as much as last week's NBC SNF high, but still will do great. ABC's regular Sunday line-up of AFV, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters, is in repeats, with Home Edition repeats from 8-10 and Housewives repeat at 10pm, preempting Brothers & Sisters.
As for the week, CBS will easily win the week in HH, viewers and 18-49. Why wouldn't they? They had new stuff all week but Thursday, while the other networks were primarily in repeats or preemption mode. NBC will finish a distant second, helped by the NFL, while Fox and ABC battle it out for third in HH/viewers, since ABC will be a clear 4th in 18-49. What to look for this week...spend time with your family! Nothing really of importance this week unless you for some reason want to watch Momma's Boys tomorrow at 9 on NBC and ABC's specials on Tuesday?

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of Dec. 8-14)

• The Simpsons (Fox) - A repeat only did 5.57 million.
• King of the Hill (Fox) 3 repeats - 3 repeats tonight...7-8pm hour repeats did 2.41 and 3.88 millon only, while the regular slot did 4.54 million for a repeat.
• Family Guy (Fox) - A repeat did 5.96 million, lower than usual.
• American Dad (Fox) - A repeat only did 5.16 million, not good.
  

Monday Sitcoms

• The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 11.22 million for a new episode. A series high again! Though anyone could have said it would get a series high looking at the competition. Call it fool's gold.
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 11.37 million for a new episode...season high again! Again fool's gold though...but not denying it did very well.
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 17.92 million, a season high and best ever numbers at 9pm. It did better when it aired after Raymond years back at 9:30.
• Worst Week (CBS) - 12.04 million for new episode. Series high! It may sound a lot, but again it should be doing better. I said last week it should be at 12-13 million, considering the lead-in, but the lead-in went up 2 million, and so did this show. So it should have done 13-14 million this week...but at least it is consistent.

Tuesday Sitcoms

• According to Jim (ABC) 2 episodes - 5.22 million for a new episode and 4.52 million for a repeat.

• Old Christine (CBS) - 7.29 million for a new episode...solid, but should be better.
• Gary Unmarried (CBS) - 7.38 million for a new episode, also could be better.

Thursday Sitcoms

• My Name is Earl (NBC) - A repeat did 4.84 million....could be better or could be worse, though.
• Kath & Kim (NBC) - 3.92 million for a repeat...ouch.
• The Office (NBC) 2 episodes - 5.02 million for a repeat in its normal time and only 2.77 million for a repeat at 10:30pm. Why not air them together from 9-10pm? That's NBC for ya.
• 30 Rock (NBC) 2 episodes - A repeat in its normal 9:30 slot did 4.61 million and a special repeat at 10pm did 4.3 million.

Friday Sitcoms

• Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) 2 episodes - 1.52 prelim million for a repeat in its normal 8pm slot and 1.31 prelim million for a repeat at 9...why not air them 8-9pm?
• The Game (The CW) 2 episodes - 1.34 prelim million for a repeat in its normal 8:30pm slot and 1.25 prelim million for a repeat at 9...why not air them 9-10pm?

Saturday Sitcoms

• None.
  

Airing tonight (Sunday) are Fox's animated comedies from 7-10 but are repeats.

Summing it up. Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Worst Week were impressive for the week. Everything else was OK (such as Old Christine, Gary Unmarried) or just plain old terrible (such as repeat of Kath & Kim, According to Jim).

Posted by Pavan -- SitcomsOnline.com at 6:30 PM

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Labels: Weekly Ratings